Why I Love Organised Religion

[Rival]

Organised religion provides a structure to one's faith.

I like that you can go see someone who you know will (or should) be knowledgeable in this religion and able to help you learn and progress on your journey, to walk you through the faith and be there for you.

I appreciate formal rituals for their own sake, for their familiarity and comfort, for how they bring the community together all partaking in the same thing and imbuing it with spiritual meaning.

I like that there are places for people who feel called to serve God as a lifestyle, taking themselves out of the saecular world. Becoming clergy, monks, etc. These are available options in many faiths.

I like how organised religion is able to provide charity in large amounts.

I appreciate hierarchies and how it makes things feel more formalised. It makes those rituals seem somehow more real when done or presided over by someone or some folks who has/have trained to do this.

I love how organised religion can be there when you need it - a physical building, a service, a shared ritual, shared prayer, shared activities, etc. These things are so beneficial for the human psyche.

I think organised religion is much more good than bad.

 

[SomeRandom]

Organised religion provides a structure to one's faith.

I like that you can go see someone who you know will (or should) be knowledgeable in this religion and able to help you learn and progress on your journey, to walk you through the faith and be there for you.

I appreciate formal rituals for their own sake, for their familiarity and comfort, for how they bring the community together all partaking in the same thing and imbuing it with spiritual meaning.

I like that there are places for people who feel called to serve God as a lifestyle, taking themselves out of the saecular world. Becoming clergy, monks, etc. These are available options in many faiths.

I like how organised religion is able to provide charity in large amounts.

I appreciate hierarchies and how it makes things feel more formalised. It makes those rituals seem somehow more real when done or presided over by someone or some folks who has/have trained to do this.

I love how organised religion can be there when you need it - a physical building, a service, a shared ritual, shared prayer, shared activities, etc. These things are so beneficial for the human psyche.

I think organised religion is much more good than bad.

Do you think your personality is a reason why you have this appreciation or was your personality shaped by organised religion?

By that I mean, clearly you value organisation. Order, structure etc. Were you born into a very strict religion and that shaped who you became?
Or are you just a person who just likes things to be in order?

If that sounds snarky, I apologise. I’m being sincere

 

[Rival]

Do you think your personality is a reason why you have this appreciation or was your personality shaped by organised religion?

Born this way. I wasn't raised with organised religion as such. It was just kind of 'there' as a cultural context but we were not church-goers or anything.

 

[SomeRandom]

Born this way. I wasn't raised with organised religion as such. It was just kind of 'there' as a cultural context but we were not church-goers or anything.

Cool.

In a sense organised religion is a cultural home for my family. Especially being immigrants. It gave my mother a community and a home away from home.

I can sympathise with the idea of organised religion being bad. I mean the history books are littered with examples, right?

But there are positive aspects as well. Keeping alive one’s cultural roots, a community, a sense of belonging.
There is something comforting about knowing that you can go to a specific person at any time and they can automatically assuage any concerns one might have. Maybe now more than ever in these uncertain times

 

[Rival]

Cool.

In a sense organised religion is a cultural home for my family. Especially being immigrants. It gave my mother a community and a home away from home.

I can sympathise with the idea of organised religion being bad. I mean the history books are littered with examples, right?

But there are positive aspects as well. Keeping alive one’s cultural roots, a community, a sense of belonging.
There is something comforting about knowing that you can go to a specific person at any time and they can automatically assuage any concerns one might have. Maybe now more than ever in these uncertain times

Really I'm just sick of the hatred of religion on Religious Forums.

 

[Rival]

Cool.

In a sense organised religion is a cultural home for my family. Especially being immigrants. It gave my mother a community and a home away from home.

I can sympathise with the idea of organised religion being bad. I mean the history books are littered with examples, right?

But there are positive aspects as well. Keeping alive one’s cultural roots, a community, a sense of belonging.
There is something comforting about knowing that you can go to a specific person at any time and they can automatically assuage any concerns one might have. Maybe now more than ever in these uncertain times

Being raised in England there's not much religion around, these days.

I'm glad your family found a connecting link.

 

[SomeRandom]

Really I'm just sick of the hatred of religion on Religious Forums.

That’s fair.
Hindus are pretty aloof by default lol
So I just tend to shrug it off. Life is too short, right?

I suppose also having grown up watching the so called “four horsemen” of the atheist movement and indeed watched their subsequent fall from Grace as more “lefty atheists” have taken over the mantle somewhat, (at least for me) I’ve sort of had to come to terms with some things.
Never idolise anyone, don’t encourage the debate bros and maybe it’s better to just be nice rather than get into fights about theology vs atheism

 

[SomeRandom]

Being raised in England there's not much religion around, these days.

I'm glad your family found a connecting link.

Aww thanks.
I feel like Hindus carry temples with them wherever they go lol
They seem to magically spring up in the vicinity of a random Indian lmao

 

[Rival]

That’s fair.
Hindus are pretty aloof by default lol
So I just tend to shrug it off. Life is too short, right?

I suppose also having grown up watching the so called “four horsemen” of the atheist movement and indeed watched their subsequent fall from Grace as more “lefty atheists” have taken over the mantle somewhat, (at least for me) I’ve sort of had to come to terms with some things.
Never idolise anyone, don’t encourage the debate bros and maybe it’s better to just be nice rather than get into fights about theology vs atheism

I avoid theism vs atheism debates like I avoid maraschino cherries.

 

[Secret Chief]

I avoid theism vs atheism debates like I avoid maraschino cherries.

They're as attractive as an aubergine smoothie.

 

[rocala]

A very nice post @Rival it is something that as I am aging I can relate to more and more. Especially the last part, which really made a connection.

A couple of years ago I stayed on the Isle of Iona. We were three Buddhists and a Sufi. Yet we all attended services at the wonderful medieval abbey and loved it.

Someone once said that religion is not all about beliefs and ideas. Sometimes you can just attend something and find an experience. I found that to be true on Iona.

 

[Rival]

A very nice post @Rival it is something that as I am aging I can relate to more and more. Especially the last part, which really made a connection.

A couple of years ago I stayed on the Isle of Iona. We were three Buddhists and a Sufi. Yet we all attended services at the wonderful medieval abbey and loved it.

Someone once said that religion is not all about beliefs and ideas. Sometimes you can just attend something and find an experience. I found that to be true on Iona.

Very nice!

 

[AlexanderG]

Really I'm just sick of the hatred of religion on Religious Forums.

I'm sorry if it comes off as hatred. I think there are a lot of people who have been significantly hurt by others who acted on religious beliefs, and people who feel that their values and way of life are threatened by religion mixing with politics. There is real harm there, and real grievances, and sometimes the righteous responses spill over onto people who don't deserve the criticism. And that's equally as unfair as the injustice that gave rise to the initial grievance.

I think organized religion can be good, and it is definitely a structured environment that a lot of people find helpful, fulfilling, comforting, and safe.

Non-believers are primarily upset when religious beliefs, which have no correspondence to reality that we can see or understand, are imposed on us to restrict our lives based on what other people believe is best for us, all according to what we consider mythological superstitions. If that's not you, then please carry on and let the criticism roll off your back, because it's not aimed at you. I think there is a necessary place for reliable data and a necessary need for human spirituality.

Granted, I do think that when spirituality conflicts with data, then data should always win. I'm not sure if organized religion is more bad than good, but I suspect overall it might be. Again, that doesn't mean plenty of individuals can't have a completely positive experience.

 

[lukethethird]

I avoid theism vs atheism debates like I avoid maraschino cherries.

I like maraschino cherries.

 

[Rival]

I like maraschino cherries.

Heretic.

 

[amorphous_constellation]

Really I'm just sick of the hatred of religion on Religious Forums.

Tonight I randomly listened to this hour podcast conversation, on 'pre-Islamic Arabia' with Robert G. Hoyland. I may have to pick up a book from him

In any case, later in that conversation a distinction seems to be made on the 'tolerance levels' of religion, depending on if they are organized to be 'local,' (read polytheist, pagan) or universal (generally monotheist). Now although I'm not sure if I agree, it sets up some arithmetic in my mind about this

And that is, that in correlation to a religion becoming more organized, it becomes more universal: and in correlation to both of those things, does it then risk a greater level of the 'othering' of the outside others? For balance, you could also enter organized blocks of atheist systems into the equation

So then, for optimizing tolerance, where does individuality enter these equations, and does or does that not promote tolerance? And is that a byproduct, or natural binder with local theism or individualistic forms of atheism? Or, is all of this actually wrong, and is there actually a way where a more a universalist system, (universalist being almost synonymous with organized) will solve for questioning whole other systems

 

[Revoltingest]

Really I'm just sick of the hatred of religion on Religious Forums.

I hate religion, especially the more organized it is.
They've long tried to impose it upon me, eg, required
prayer in public schools, religious oath when testifying,
their taxpayer subsidies, their need to curb liberties of
others.
That said, some believers don't buy into the worst of
religion. So I'm selective in my hatred....lazy too.
We should hate in a civil & even friendly fashion.

 

[2ndpillar]

Organised religion provides a structure to one's faith.

I like that you can go see someone who you know will (or should) be knowledgeable in this religion and able to help you learn and progress on your journey, to walk you through the faith and be there for you.

I appreciate formal rituals for their own sake, for their familiarity and comfort, for how they bring the community together all partaking in the same thing and imbuing it with spiritual meaning.

I like that there are places for people who feel called to serve God as a lifestyle, taking themselves out of the saecular world. Becoming clergy, monks, etc. These are available options in many faiths.

I like how organised religion is able to provide charity in large amounts.

I appreciate hierarchies and how it makes things feel more formalised. It makes those rituals seem somehow more real when done or presided over by someone or some folks who has/have trained to do this.

I love how organised religion can be there when you need it - a physical building, a service, a shared ritual, shared prayer, shared activities, etc. These things are so beneficial for the human psyche.

I think organised religion is much more good than bad.

Thats how the Muslims felt as they chopped off the heads of the unbelievers/kuffars and heretics. That is how the Catholics thought as they burned the heretics such as Joan of Arc. I don't know, I think herd think is the wide path to "destruction" (Matthew 7:13). Life is for the "few", not the "many" (Matthew 7:14).

 

[Kelly of the Phoenix]

Organized religion just doesn’t do it for me. I understand that people need ritual to certain extents, but divine reality strikes me as ecological, an evolving web.

 

[mikkel_the_dane]

Born this way. I wasn't raised with organised religion as such. It was just kind of 'there' as a cultural context but we were not church-goers or anything.

I was properly born differently. And I don't hate religion. I just don't accept certain claims to authority and that has nothing to do with religion, as certain non-religious belief systems also make claims to authority, which I don't accept.