Oh and the same can be said about being too scientific as well.
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What Does It Mean to be "Too Religious"?
- Thread starter Sunstone
- Start date
Should it? Do you think it is possible to see a religious life as legitimate and worthwhile and still find it somehow excessive?
YmirGF
Bodhisattva in Recovery
You know, in some ways, becoming a single-minded fanatic is perhaps the ideal in religion.
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Is there any set standard for what is considered being too religious?
A person who is more devout might differ in opinion from one who isn't.
A person who is more devout might differ in opinion from one who isn't.
YmirGF
Bodhisattva in Recovery
If you think about it, religion is, in theory, at least, designed to grow in a person's life. The idea seems to be that any rewards, for lack of a better term, are based on how much one puts into their relationship with a given religion. I'm just gumming around the edges of the idea so I am not sure what else to say. I guess I'm saying that virtually any amount of religion in some personality types could be "too much" given their psychological makeup.
whirlingmerc
Well-Known Member
I would reword it. I think it's possible to be wrongly religious and invest in a caricature of God or a God substitute
Is it possible to be too religious in heaven? no... but they are rightly religious there... here on earth... not so much but happily we can leap toward the light in our imperfect way by grace
I think degree of being religious is subjective and relative, e.g. too religious compared to what or whom? Is an old Italian grandmother who attends daily Mass at 5 am, says daily rosary, and has votive candles all over the place too religious? I think it becomes a problem if she becomes overbearing and preachy. Otherwise I don't think it's too much; I think it's just part of her way of life.
A Vestigial Mote
Well-Known Member
A religious person's meanderings into why I am an atheist, or why I don't believe actually never makes me feel guilty. I don't consider much of anything I do to be "sinful" or "wrong", nor do I believe that many other people would have anything to point to in my life in that light. I don't smoke, don't drink, love and respect my wife, love my children to no end, drink very seldom and not to excess, don't smoke, deal with things with extreme patience, don't put people down, don't gossip, if I am ever talking about someone in a "bad" light you can bet it was my conversation partner that brought it up - I literally do not care about other people's foibles unless it somehow affects me directly. I don't judge people by color, race - though I do have to admit that I tend to judge them by creed., and most certainly by their actions. I don't gamble, don't spend money to excess, stay out of debt, take on as much as I can of anything I want done myself, never mooch off of others, never directly request anyone's money or services without the promise to them and myself that it will be paid back. And even at the end of all of that, I do not consider those things to be the "right thing to do" - they are simply the things I want to do. The things I desire of myself. It's everyone else or "society" that has set the bar on those things being "right" or "wrong" - I honestly don't care one way or the other what people feel about my actions, unless it means having to deal with people believing they need to try and impose consequences on me.
Your comment on guilt was a very poor generalization, and is I believe, if I am being honest, a bit of wishful thinking on your part.
A Vestigial Mote
Well-Known Member
Yes, a person can be "too religious". I have seen this all too often.
The pastor of a church I attended at one point was completely blind to his own versions of "sin"- and he was extremely religious - very devoted and very much on-point with a lot of what he shared. Yet he spoke one day of his job at UPS, where he also worked while being a pastor.
He said he had been promoted to a job running small, specific orders/packages around town, and only did it part time. However there was a clerical error in the system since he had switched to that position that had him down for more hours, and they didn't have him clock in. Effectively he was taking advantage of the system error and cheating his company - where, of course, not just he was employed.
Anyway, I sort of let that slide and didn't really consider too much of it, but then came back to it one day when, as part of his sermon, he told of a dinner he and his wife (a woman with even more religious zeal than he has by far) had just gone out to for their anniversary. They each ordered a meal, and trying to save money they had ordered small/cheaper entrees... however, a series of waiters proceeded to bring them a host of appetizers and foods they had not ordered - and they said nothing. At this point in the sermon, he praised God for making their anniversary so much better. The issue here is three-fold. Not only was the restaurant now out the money for the food the couple were given and did not receive recompense for, the wait staff probably got scolded and possibly docked for the mistake, and the people who actually ordered the food now had to wait double the time for their food to arrive.
If God had a hand in that, He's an idiot. If the pastor is willing to believe that "God is good" and that He also involved Himself in that debacle, then the pastor is an idiot. I believe the pastor had let his religion blind him - that he is "too religious", and in his zeal maintains a sort of "above the law" view of himself - however small or relatively "harmless" his particular brand of "crime".
psychoslice
Veteran Member
Its the same to me, and its what I have observed.
Not religious enough, I would say.
OurCreed
There is no God but Allah
It's a subjective term, it doesn't mean anything.
People who never pray or don't believe in a deity will call a person religious whom goes to church once a week. But a person who goes to church everyday will not think that the "one-week person" is religious at all, they will think they are hardly religious and need to improve.
Yet again, a person who studies their scripture and lives their life according to it will think he's more religious than the person who simply goes to church every day of the week.
It's a subjective term. Nobody is "religious", there's no such thing as being "religious". All human beings hold and share beliefs about the world they live in, they act in certain ways and like/dislike certain things. You simply cannot measure the "religiousness" of a person. The only thing you can measure is their level of obedience and righteousness to their religious teachings.
People who never pray or don't believe in a deity will call a person religious whom goes to church once a week. But a person who goes to church everyday will not think that the "one-week person" is religious at all, they will think they are hardly religious and need to improve.
Yet again, a person who studies their scripture and lives their life according to it will think he's more religious than the person who simply goes to church every day of the week.
It's a subjective term. Nobody is "religious", there's no such thing as being "religious". All human beings hold and share beliefs about the world they live in, they act in certain ways and like/dislike certain things. You simply cannot measure the "religiousness" of a person. The only thing you can measure is their level of obedience and righteousness to their religious teachings.
Sonofason
Well-Known Member
I am not sure I would call that too religious. I think I would call that too arrogant. To me there is no such thing as being too religious. A religious person is not a person who continually talks about religious things. A religious person is not a person who even continually thinks of religious things. A religious person, for example a religious Christian, in order to be considered a completely religious Christian must execute every moment of his life, every thought, every word, and every action and intent of his life, upon those things which Christ has taught us and tells us to do, those things that are pleasing to God. There is no such thing as being overly pleasing to God. God is not pleased with overbearing people. He is not pleased with arrogant people.
In his book, "A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life" William Law provides examples of those things which Religious Christians should be doing. He tells it like this:
"Our blessed Saviour and His Apostles are wholly taken up in doctrines that relate to common life. They call us to renounce the world, and differ in every temper and way of life, from the spirit and the way of the world: to renounce all its goods, to fear none of its evils, to reject its joys, and have no value for its happiness: to be as newborn babes, that are born into a new state of things: to live as pilgrims in spiritual watching, in holy fear, and heavenly aspiring after another life: to take up our daily cross, to deny ourselves, to profess the blessedness of mourning, to seek the blessedness of poverty of spirit: to forsake the pride and vanity of riches, to take no thought for the morrow, to live in the profoundest state of humility, to rejoice in worldly sufferings: to reject the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life: to bear injuries, to forgive and bless our enemies, and to love mankind as God loveth them: to give up our whole hearts and affections to God, and strive to enter through the strait gate into a life of eternal glory."
How indeed can there be too much of this sort of living?
I think that the confusion comes in because we are not determining the source of the religion that we are speaking of here. Everyone in a sense is religiously living out their own lives. It seems everyone has their own religion. But a Christian cannot have his own religion if he is to consider himself a true religious Christian. It doesn't matter if we think we are devout Christians. What matters is if God thinks we are. a devout religious Christian must be doing those things in his life that God wants him to do. We see too much of people doing what they want to do apart from what God wants. They live out their own religions instead of that prescribed by God and Christ. And that I believe we can see too much of, arrogant self centered, self created religion ascribed to God.
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Sonofason
Well-Known Member
It seems to me that a truly and entirely devout and religious person is someone who lives their life in word and deed with the full intent to please God in each and every moment, so much as is possible. I do not believe that it would be pleasing to God if a father who has children were to neglect his children for the sake of feeding the poor. If it is a man's intent to please God, and if he truly is to please God, he must continually be doing those things which please God, and never neglecting to please God in every aspect of his life.
I don't think you can have too much of that sort of living. But then I am speaking of religion as it is prescribed by Christ and His apostles. As for the religions of men, I believe they ought not be a part of this discussion, as they contaminate the very idea of religion which I believe ought to be narrowly viewed as those things that we do because they actually do please God.
I certainly can't speak about other faiths, but within my own, people can be super religious yet not have any faith. They just go through the motions. They can quote scripture perfectly, yet have no idea what it actually means, for example, and they judge others by those standards. I think, in that way, people can be "too religious".
Tumah
Veteran Member
Excessive compared to what? The only proper standard would be itself. Without an understanding of the nature of the individual religion, its doctrines and philosophies, how could we determine whether its excessive?
Tumah
Veteran Member
You'll notice that I didn't say "atheist" but "less religious". I intended to exclude atheists.
Also, I guess since you never talk about people in a "bad light", the comment couldn't have been directed at you, because you would never call someone "too religious".
If I may assume that "too religious" implies some sort of severe imbalance in one's approach, then I would say that the individual is probably more likely to blame than the religion itself.
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