AltNoise.Net

Last week, I wrote the article The Interconnections of Religion. It is about how our experiences seem to suggest that all religions are the same. My reflections about the issue showed this wasn’t true. Instead, they have interconnected truths from which we have similar experiences from different religions.

Yet, this still left us with two questions… Which is the right religion and how do we find these interconnected truths?

Errors in Searching For The Interconnected Truths

These questions are misleading.  They have an error because they don’t let us see the bigger picture. No religion is completely right and it’ll be pointless to search for all the right interconnected truths. We couldn’t live with all the time it would take to accomplish this daunting task.

Religions Have Misguided Beliefs

All religions may have some truth to it, but they still are man made. They still have biases and incorrect beliefs. Some religions have been twisted for personal gain and pride. Other religions shape a belief with good intentions, but later the belief is proved false. Most religions have included incorrect beliefs for both reasons: pride and ignorance.

Search For Truth Or Life?

There was a point in my life where I tried to find the all the connections between religions. I read the Tao and the teachings of Buddha. I had deep conversations with a follower of the LDS and a Muslim. The experience was interesting but lacking. All the time I spent searching for the truth took a huge chunk of time out of my days.

The search for truth came at the expense of the important relationships in my life. The people that brought me the most hope and joy became increasingly distant.

The search for truth inadvertently started to destroy the truth that I’ve found.

What should we do?

We are starting at the wrong place. us.

Truth Starts With God

Our search for truth should start with God. The benefit of religion is that it showed us the truth, but it was man made. There were errors in it. On the other hand, we are returning to the original source when we first seek God. He (sorry for the lack of pronoun to use for God) has the ability to guide us to the truth that we need. All we have to do is ask.

Forget The Labels. Ask The Original Source

I don’t know your philosophical beliefs about God’s existence nor do I know if you follow the same religious background as I, but it is not important. I am not asking you to pray to my understanding of God, but for you to cry out to the creator.

Move past your beliefs for a moment and just speak to the original source. Call it the creator. Call it the original source. Don’t call it Father, time, teacher, or any other label. If you need to visualize something, envision the emptiness before the world and call out to whoever is there.

ask it your question. Then wait.

Difference In Religion And Spirituality

This is the difference between spirituality and religion. They both rely on a faith in something bigger than us, but they have different starting points. Religion or any metaphysical philosophy starts with a set of beliefs and everything else is understood through them. Spirituality starts by asking God to help guide you and through the guidance you will be able to understand the truth when you experience it.

One isn’t necessarily right over the other. You can find truth by exploring all the different religions, but it will come at the price of your life and relationships. Spirituality helps you understand the truth as you live throughout your daily experiences. Therefore, the issue of spirituality and religion is twofold. The first is that having a spiritual faith over a religious faith is that you can still experience all the aspects of living. The second is Spirituality starts with the original source, whereas religion starts with man’s reflections on God.

Next Time On Altnoise

The next article I am working on will finish up this discussion of religion and spirituality. We will explore how we can see truth in daily life and different religions.

Until then, read this interesting article by Todd from We The Change entitled What Is Your Legacy

Popularity: 23% [?]