i agree with you that spirituality should not be institutionalized. and its religion that i have the biggest problem with, not so much someone's interpretation of god.
but when you are talking or debating with someone about god, you are debating their own personal interpretation of god, not necessarily the true nature of god himself (if there is a god). so in the end, we are talking about you, and not necessarily god himself.
no i havent spent much time on the bible, ive read a bit of it, but not much. i never saw much point, as far as my own spiritual growth is concerned. i dont believe i would find any more truth about god in the bible than i would any other book. id rather work out on my own what i think about god (or the lack there of).
personally i dont believe in a "god". i dont have a certain beliefe in anything, since there are an infinite number of possibilities. but for myself, the most plausible answer is that there would a higher consciousness. something that just is, didnt create us, dosent look over us, dosent worry about us, just is. whether it was created along with the universe, or is the universe itself, i wouldnt know of course. and as far as the "after-life" goes, i wouldnt know about that either, and im not really concered about it, since, in the end, ill be where ever i am, or i wont be anywhere. either way. but i also know that this theory may be way off as well.
Honest and refreshing. thanks for sharing.
In my own life, I had a similar path. I realized one day after reading Spinoza and a lot of other books that fall into the philosophy section of the library, that all these ideas I am reading about came from other people just like me. As such, they were open to being wrong, but helpful none the less.
I decided if all these men and women could write about life and God and other subjects why not me too? So of course I began writing and writing and writing.
For whatever reason one day I decided to look in the bible. I had been on this kick for years to find wisdom and truth, because it was very appealing to me. I suppose I was looking for answers, but was let down when I realized the answers I had been reading were just from other people like me. For whatever reason I hoped for something more.
So, I knew enough that the bible was suppose to be about God, but my dislike for religion and church made it very difficult to look into the bible. I did however, and almost 15 years later it ranks highest for me compared with any other book I have read.
The difference is for me is it claims to be the word of God. That is a pretty big claim, so I keep that in mind when I read it. Of course the Quran says the same thing, so I have tried to read it. Internally I have to be honest the words that come from the bible far surpass the words from the Quran in that they just feel different when I read them.
In the end that is all I can follow is my heart and what feels right.
One thing the bible teaches me is God can not be found by looking in the world we live in, but by looking in things that are not in this world.
To me that is fascinating, and worthy of contemplating.
By that idea, the bible is not part of this world, yet here it is before us. Could it be, that it is our link to God?
Anyway that's my cup of tea and it tastes just right for me!
Take care...
