realitybugll
Jedi Council Member
So I kind of want to share what I learned today at school, It may clear up some things for any guests or members--or perhaps I was just really confused, and most people already 'get' this.
Well, so I'm taking a middle eastern history class and a kid today in my class today argued that Religion is a guise--is used as a guise--by empires to attain their primary goal: resources. I don't know if I am totally representing the idea correctly, but anyways then my teacher basically (after a while) said he agreed (to an extent) and he said he would argue the same thing.
He went off talking about how religions are 'organized' like governments are in a hierarchy, and he said they impose a certain set of practices and beliefs to unite people--which helps the empire to fulfill its other goals.
Well I started thinking about the FOTCM church (which i hope is not political in any nature!) and so I clarified saying I thought what my teacher was saying was only true for major--political religions.
He said he could not really think of any religions that only have a spiritual aspect to them at first... but then he went on to lecture for about 10 minutes about how all major religions have a certain spiritual sect which is not propagated by the government because it does not serve their purposes.
For instance the spiritual thread of christianity is through gnosticism; of Islam it is the Sufism sect etcetera. These sub religions he said focus on personal learning, and meditation and they don't force 'practices down anyones throats so basically they are useless to the government.
I really never realized this, the fact that the major religions are all I guess connected by the same spiritual thread and that it can be identified not within the broad range of Islam for instance, but that it has a certain name "sufism".
I have heard Laura talk about gnosticism, sufism but they were just ambiguous terms for me, now I see how it 'connects' sort of.
Anyways thats all, I'm pretty happy about what I realized. also I was really surprised my teacher knew so much about the subject of "spirituality"--I that guess is the right term.
:)
Well, so I'm taking a middle eastern history class and a kid today in my class today argued that Religion is a guise--is used as a guise--by empires to attain their primary goal: resources. I don't know if I am totally representing the idea correctly, but anyways then my teacher basically (after a while) said he agreed (to an extent) and he said he would argue the same thing.
He went off talking about how religions are 'organized' like governments are in a hierarchy, and he said they impose a certain set of practices and beliefs to unite people--which helps the empire to fulfill its other goals.
Well I started thinking about the FOTCM church (which i hope is not political in any nature!) and so I clarified saying I thought what my teacher was saying was only true for major--political religions.
He said he could not really think of any religions that only have a spiritual aspect to them at first... but then he went on to lecture for about 10 minutes about how all major religions have a certain spiritual sect which is not propagated by the government because it does not serve their purposes.
For instance the spiritual thread of christianity is through gnosticism; of Islam it is the Sufism sect etcetera. These sub religions he said focus on personal learning, and meditation and they don't force 'practices down anyones throats so basically they are useless to the government.
I really never realized this, the fact that the major religions are all I guess connected by the same spiritual thread and that it can be identified not within the broad range of Islam for instance, but that it has a certain name "sufism".
I have heard Laura talk about gnosticism, sufism but they were just ambiguous terms for me, now I see how it 'connects' sort of.
Anyways thats all, I'm pretty happy about what I realized. also I was really surprised my teacher knew so much about the subject of "spirituality"--I that guess is the right term.
:)
