Re: transcendental
J J R (jrovira@juno.com)
Thu, 22 Oct 1998 20:48:58 -0400 (EDT)
God, Sean, it's nice to hear someone THINKING THINGS THROUGH :)
I'm only using God in the sense of "divine being." Religion is an
attempt to understand and approach God. This has attendant to it certain
experiences, emotions, etc, and people lately have substituted the
experience for the reality behind the experience.
Jim
On Wed, 21 Oct 1998 08:44:14 -0700 Sean Draine <seandr@microsoft.com>
writes:
>
>One trouble with these discussions of God/Religion is that,
>apparently,
>these terms can mean just about anything. In this discussion, "God"
>has been
>used in reference to a divine being, values, beauty, a glass of milk,
>concern for humanity, your favorite author, that stony feeling you get
>when
>you sit cross-legged in a meditation chamber for 6 hours, etc. And
>"religion" seems to encompass any pursuit that lends meaning or
>purpose to
>one's life. Given these loose definitions, it's really hard to get any
>traction.
>
>So, let me restate in hopefully less ambiguous terms. As an atheist, I
>don't
>believe in divine beings. I have values, I think some things are quite
>beautiful, I love milk, I'm concerned about people, I love JD
>Salinger's
>writing, and am sure that sufficient meditation can result in some
>fairly
>groovy experiences. It's just the divine being part I don't buy.
>
>As for religion, it's those religions that insist on the existence of
>divine
>beings that I'm not interested in. If you're talking about religion as
>any
>sort of passion, be it for writing, software development, or kinky
>sex, then
>sure, everyone's got to be passionate about something, or life's gets
>kind
>of boring. I guess we're all religious in this sense.
>
>-Sean
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Erin McLaughlin [mailto:erinseyes@hotmail.com]
>> Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 1998 4:42 PM
>> To: bananafish@lists.nyu.edu
>> Subject: Re: transcendental
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> "But I could not join a religion unless I truly believed,
>> and I can't believe in a religion. It just isn't in me."
>> -Liz Friedman
>>
>> Serving up my humility for the day, I just figured I'd write
>> to let you
>> know that believing in a religion isn't "in me" either. I'm in it. I
>
>> mean, it is me, it is outside of my, and it just is. It is
>> all kinds of
>> religion, from Christian to Writer. That's what Seymour says
>> to Buddy,
>> isn't it? That he was smiling because Buddy wrote down
>> "Writer" as his
>> "Occupation" when, as Seymour points out, it's more his RELIGION
>than
>> anything.
>>
>> Going by that definition, I hope to God you find religion in you
>> somewhere, or else what is there?
>>
>> Sorry, I was going to let the issue die peacefully, but it just
>never
>> will, I suppose.
>>
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>>
>>
>> "As if you could kill time without injuring eternity." --H.D.
>Thoreau
>>
>>
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