Does Identifying Yourself with a Religion Help you Spiritually?

[Sunstone]

Does Identifying Yourself with a Religion Help you Spiritually?

Why or why not?

I think how one answers that might depend to some large degree in how one defines "spiritually", "spiritual", and like words. To me, a person's spirituality is the extent and manner in which they deal with, or cope with, their psychological self. The more skilfully you deal with your psychological self, the more spiritual, or spiritually adept, you are.

Self-identifying with a religion -- any religion -- in my view amounts to aggrandizing and strengthening your psychological self. And when you aggrandize and strengthen the psychological self, you increase the difficulty and challenge of skillfully coping with it. That is, you self-identify with a religion: So now perhaps you take pride in that religion; you feel insulted or threatened when someone criticizes that religion for, now, your self is being threatened and insulted; you become defensive when someone challenges your religion; the cognitive biases come into play -- and all the rest of it. That is, all the rest of what tends to happen when you self-identify with anything, let alone with a religion.

To say, "I am a Christian", or "I am a Muslim", or "I am a Daoist", etc... may help you get along in the community; it may further your career, or allow you to marry the man or woman you want to marry -- but in my view at least, it doesn't do much for you spiritually.

It is, at the very least, almost certainly a trade-off, and I'm not sure it's a very good one. That is, there might be some spiritual benefits to self-identifying with a religion, but I think they are most likely outweighed by the negative consequences of doing so. But of course, these are just my views, and I might be very wrong.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

Does Identifying Yourself with a Religion Help you Spiritually?

Why or why not?

I think how one answers that might depend to some large degree in how one defines "spiritually", "spiritual", and like words. To me, a person's spirituality is the extent and manner in which they deal with, or cope with, their psychological self. The more skilfully you deal with your psychological self, the more spiritual, or spiritually adept, you are.

Self-identifying with a religion -- any religion -- in my view amounts to aggrandizing and strengthening your psychological self. And when you aggrandize and strengthen the psychological self, you increase the difficulty and challenge of skillfully coping with it. That is, you self-identify with a religion: So now perhaps you take pride in that religion; you feel insulted or threatened when someone criticizes that religion for, now, your self is being threatened and insulted; you become defensive when someone challenges your religion; the cognitive biases come into play -- and all the rest of it. That is, all the rest of what tends to happen when you self-identify with anything, let alone with a religion.

To say, "I am a Christian", or "I am a Muslim", or "I am a Daoist", etc... may help you get along in the community; it may further your career, or allow you to marry the man or woman you want to marry -- but in my view at least, it doesn't do much for you spiritually.

It is, at the very least, almost certainly a trade-off, and I'm not sure it's a very good one. That is, there might be some spiritual benefits to self-identifying with a religion, but I think they are most likely outweighed by the negative consequences of doing so. But of course, these are just my views, and I might be very wrong.

Identifying with a religion usually help when believing as a community. A solitary individual it may help to ground himself in his practices. For example, I hear a whole lot more Catholics proud to say they are Catholic and a quite a few non denominations saying "they have a relarionship with Christ."

I mean. I can say I am a pagan but that means nothing. I. Folk traditions, the traditions are by the last names of our head families. So, my tradition would be the tradition of my mothers last name (say the Smiths* and my fathers name the Jones*).
So, if I build my tradition up if I decide to that tradition would be by my family name.

As for the tradition name being a religion, it helps that person connect with their spirituality, their roots. I dont outside pagism how strong that is.

I would assume a christian would want to be called christian because that is who he is in christ.

Identifying with your religion helps ypur spirituality if that religion is healthy to your psychological health. I read people go a long time saying "they are not religious" but they believe in Christ just as christians and every other thing.

The name doesnt harm if it isnt associated with harm.

 

[Terese]

It sure is fun learning spiritually with a religion than without one, imho.

 

[MARCELLO]

Noway,it does not. Choosing ''the right path'' is much more harder than being identified with something.

 

[BSM1]

Wouldn't identifying with a certain religion, by definition, be restrictive spiritually?

 

[Thief]

I picture the pending situation this way.....

I die.....I stand in the spirit....
the angels will be there, as they have some.... interest... whatever stands from the flesh.

I might say the name of the Prophet that inspired me.
They will take me to Him.

He might turn about and question the angelic.....WHAT'S THIS?!!

He used your Name, as if it belonged to him.
We thought he was one of YOURS!

 

[Laika]

In so far as I identify with (what remains of my belief in) Communism, it is very important as an intellectual and historical guide to navigate the big questions. generally, its very good at asking the right questions- the answers however come with alot of unwelcome baggage and often conflict with my more liberal/individualistic temperament. Even so, as a sense of being "rooted" in a tradition of sorts, drawing on others collective experience, feeling connected and having a "place", yes it does help.

 

[Helvetios]

As an atheist who has experienced some of the pitfalls of being strongly religious, yet is still attracted to what her ancestors believed, this time around I'm trying to go about my spiritual life with a little more caution. I also love science and don't want to compromise my freedom to question and discover things. A few things I try to keep in mind when exploring the immaterial:

1. Being an atheist doesn't disqualify me from having a spirituality.

I think how one answers that might depend to some large degree in how one defines "spiritually", "spiritual", and like words. To me, a person's spirituality is the extent and manner in which they deal with, or cope with, their psychological self. The more skilfully you deal with your psychological self, the more spiritual, or spiritually adept, you are.

For me, that's part of it. I want to know how my 'self' works and understand the mechanisms behind what I think, how I feel, what I take for granted. I want to be able to identify areas I need to improve and actually take steps to solve that. If that's being spiritually healthy, then that's great. (still working on getting there)

When I look at my own definition for spirituality I would also include some sort of implications for a person's worldview, whether spirituality is taken literally, a useful metaphor, or viewed as a part of the natural world. In my case I feel a solid connection between myself and other living things, and I'm in awe of how beautifully they all interact together. (Yes, I'm not forgetting that parasitic wasps and flesh-eating bacteria and cancers exist. I'm more referring to the biological clockwork behind what made everything possible in the first place.) So you might say that the closest thing I have to religion is life, and the closest action to worship is study and experimentation.

The general attitude I've encountered from younger atheists in my area is that since spirituality and religion are not falsifiable like science is, they aren't worth taking seriously. I think with a proper approach this doesn't have to be true. Sure, belief systems that make patently false claims about reality must be challenged. Acknowledging this, whatever spiritual views I have are laid over a worldview that can be supported by scientific conclusions, and these views are subordinate to what this worldview says. Spirituality adds colour to my life and provides a way for me to empathize with and connect with my pagan ancestors. I can do this and support honest inquiry at the same time.

2. If I become defensive, that means I have to re-examine my motives for a particular belief.

So now perhaps you take pride in that religion; you feel insulted or threatened when someone criticizes that religion for, now, your self is being threatened and insulted; you become defensive when someone challenges your religion; the cognitive biases come into play -- and all the rest of it.

That's the danger with any belief. Paul Graham's essay Keep Your Identity Small is well-known. I happen to disagree with most of his statements, but he does highlight the importance of avoiding partisanship since that does not lead to fruitful discussion. (I would say it's more important to keep your identity fluid so you aren't destroying your identity if you are compelled to change your position on a topic.) Regarding compatible forms of spirituality, if I feel the need to convince other people of my preference and/or if I notice myself getting defensive when asked about it, I should seriously consider whether or not this belief is compatible with how reality works, and if it's worth having at all.

3. My beliefs must be a positive or neutral influence on my values.

I think what someone values is more important than the particulars of what they believe. If I don't care about people and try to live in a way that respects my environment and affirms others' humanity, then I don't have good values regardless of what my beliefs may be.

It is, at the very least, almost certainly a trade-off, and I'm not sure it's a very good one. That is, there might be some spiritual benefits to self-identifying with a religion, but I think they are most likely outweighed by the negative consequences of doing so.

You're right, there. Most of the time I think identifying with a religion has unsavoury consequences that make the whole endeavour not worth the effort. I honestly think theism is holding back the Christian church, for example, and predict a future shift from focusing on the theistic aspects to focusing on values. That's why I stuck to describing my beliefs as 'beliefs' and not 'religion'; I want to align myself with good values and take inspiration from good stories that my ancestors also thought were important, because they're part of me in a way. But my beliefs are also an individual, personal choice that cannot compromise my own integrity as a person who values compassion and generosity, and a hopeful scientist who values reason and curiosity. I don't think I can do that by identifying with a religion. Their track record isn't the greatest.

So no, I wouldn't say conventional religions have a positive influence on my spirituality as an atheist, but I would say that if spiritual beliefs fulfill a set of criteria then they may enrich my life by quite a bit. If that means finding my deities in my ancestors' paganism or the myths of Dungeons & Dragons, I'd say the results matter more than the particulars.