Comments on: Ask Erin: What religion do you follow?

By: The Will of god?

The Will of god? — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 20:05:25 +0000

[...] ignorant religious people constantly try to ruin my country and lifestyle in the name of their imaginary Gods? __________________ Best, Dan [...]

By: WhirlingDervish

WhirlingDervish — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 08:20:26 +0000

Come, come, whoever you are.
Wonderer, worshipper, lover of leaving.
It doesn’t matter.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow
a thousand times
Come, yet again, come, come.

–Jalaluddin Rumi

By: Punstress

Punstress — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 05:16:03 +0000

I recently learned about Spiritualism. After years of not knowing what I believed — I thought I was an atheist but that didn’t jibe with hearing the voice of my guardian angel — I found something that completely aligned with my beliefs and experience.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritualism and http://www.nsac.org for more information.

By: Bella

Bella — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 04:09:56 +0000

I was adopted at age 2 and raised in a catholic/southern baptist household and barely survived with ANY spirituality intact!
After studying various religions on my own for several years, I found my path to be wiccan.

I feel connected to the earth and nature and my path is not that of my upbringing, but I am respectful of others.

By: Marcos Jerouchalmi

Marcos Jerouchalmi — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 00:13:01 +0000

Erin:
If you are jewess, you must know where you came from.
http://www.askmoses.com/qa_detail.html?h=548&o=46167

By: Erin Pavlina’s Blog » Blog Archive » Invoking Jesus and God During Astral Experiences

Mon, 13 Mar 2006 00:34:27 +0000

[...] Now if you’d read my previous entry about religion, you may wonder why I use the name of Jesus Christ when I am not remotely religious. So I want to clarify. [...]

By: Erin Pavlina

Erin Pavlina — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 19:35:21 +0000

@Peter: Very interesting insights. Good use of the Bear/Eagle analogy.

@Mithun: True. I should say that blindly following a religion without ever consciously deciding for yourself if its tenets resonate with you is what I recommend avoiding. I have nothing against religion if that’s how people consciously choose to practice their spirituality. Good point!

By: Taylor

Taylor — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 18:37:46 +0000

Peter, I just read the same Tolstoy book not 2 weeks ago. I don’t know if you’ve read any Kierkegaard, but he has a lot of similar views. Check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_anarchism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_existentialism

I too am a bit disillusioned with the church establishment with its desire for status quo and control. True religion or ‘spirituality’ is seeking to serve God and to surrender to Him at every turn. Paradoxically surrender to God brings greater freedom than serving the ‘self’.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 07:12:17 +0000

So after your quote “When we decide what is, we close our minds to possibilities of what could be.” — you decide what religion is. OK, you can’t really feel the power of religion until you have fully committed yourself to it, right? — that’s with anything in life — and you haven’t committed yourself to a religion, how can you tell what it is and what it isn’t, and if it is limiting or not? [And we all limit ourselves in many, many ways -- that is part of being human.] So keep your mind open and allow for the possibility that religion can not only reach the stage of evolution that you are currently in right now, but can help you to reach all the way to the Source ;-{()

Not all souls follow the same path. Not all souls are in the same stage of evolution. So let’s not get rid of the religions — they serve a purpose. (And I don’t mean that those at the lower end of the evolution scale need religion and those on the higher end, don’t need it!)

And please don’t do this:
> There are aspects of every religion that I find appealing, which is why I > adopt the aspects that ring true for me and throw out the rest.

The parts that you find unappealing — they’ll probably help you grow the most. See what in you is causing resistance — simply be aware of it to start with.

-st

PS. Great blog, love your site — please keep it up

By: Mithun Bhat

Mithun Bhat — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 05:18:21 +0000

i’m a hindu. I was born into a hindu brahmin family (the class of preists) but my family practices only bhakti-yoga (worship by prayer). i only found this out, and even the name for it when i had a spiritual awakening and researched my religion thoroughly. however, i had neither a bear nor an eagle teaching me – just myself. i took the lord (even though we believe in thousands of gods, there are various parts of hinduism that pray to only one of those gods) to be my guide. however i did not get all the answers i wanted satisfactorily. After a long time (about 2 years) of soul searching passively and actively – i started conciously turning to self-development. it is through self development that i finally understood more about religion itself and it’s purpose, not to mention answers to almost all the questions i’d been seeking.

religion does not suggest that one is right and the other is wrong. religions were rarely created with reference to other religions. it is only the “bears” of a religion who misinterpret the teachings of thier faith to answer questions regarding how they should interact with other faiths.

the positive part of religion is that it provides you with a time-tested beleif system that works – it connects you to the supreme, it ensures you live a emotionally and spirityally healthy life, and even provides answers to happiness in your life. however the way most people go about submitting to religion is by just that – submission. surrendering yourself completely to a higher power can be very releasing and beneficial… but it might deprives you sometimes, of your freedom of thought as well.

my two cents – do not turn to religion by submission… do so by choice.
Choose to believe that which empowers you. And religion can definately also be an empowering beleif system.