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pegasus
I have heard from exmembers of my group, but they still believe it is essential to have a spiritual path (now they follow Buddhism) and I feel extra bad because they think I am wrong not to have a new path. They say that being spiritual and following a path is essential.
pegasus
Pegasus, people have said all kinds of things about spirituality, both now and in the past. Examples:
--Roman Catholicism is the one true faith.
--The Mormon Church is the one true faith.
--Islam is the one true faith.
--You cannot attain enlightenment unless you accept Daisaku Ikeda as your personal mentor.
--Witches exist and God wants us to kill them.
--A tribe must sacrifice a virgin in order to have a good harvest.
--Zeus lives on top of Mount Olympus and throws lightning bolts at Earth.
--If an unmarried woman is not a virgin, she should be stoned to death.
--If a woman is raped, she should be stoned to death.
--God wants us to kill nonbelievers.
--It's okay to take other people as slaves because there are slaves in the Bible.
--God, or the Gods, want us to kill animals as sacrifices to Him/Them.
--God, or the Gods, want people to fly airplanes into ships and buildings, and to be suicide bombers.
--A woman who offends a god or goddess can be turned into a pillar of salt. (Old Testament.) Or a spider (Greek mythology.)
--It's okay to form social groups (castes), and segregate and exclude people on that basis.
--Gods can have sex with humans.
--God may send you to hell for eating fish on Friday.
--God loves people with light skin better. However, if you are a virtuous dark-skinned person, God will reward you by lightening your skin.
--God is the wisest, and most loving Father ever, and yet he can easily torture you in Hell for all eternity, simply because you chose, and practiced the wrong religion.
And I'm sure that other readers can think of many more examples. CAN all of these things be true? No way! ALL religions say that they are the one true faith....and yet they CAN'T possibly all be the one true faith. If one is, the others are not. Many of these statements also defy all logic, common sense, and just common decency and compassion. My point? People say a lot of ridiculous things about spirituality -- and deeply believe the meanest and most illogical things. Anything that someone says about spirituality -- you really need to question it, pick it apart, see if it passes the logic and common sense test. It's not only okay to question and reject what others say -- it's necessary.