My interesting philosophy...

[Tali]

Re: My interesting philosophy...

do you study the scriptures and the sermons?

[jgk3]

Re: My interesting philosophy...

Christianity as it was preached in church for me made much more sense after I realized that everything they say about God, Love and being good to one another, boils down to membership and support for the church. I have faith in things once I understand them properly for what they are, what they truly represent, and I understand Armenian Christianity to be faith in the Armenian nation and it's continual struggles, as it is brought together by our church leadership. Whether the priest's sermon relates to our individual personal troubles of loss, guilt and fear, or to the evils awaiting us outside the church's doorstep, the goal is to engage us in the community.

One's own relationship with God in my opinion is very personal, it is not subject to the dictates of religious authorities. Whatever you take from scripture, sermon and your own life experience is what counts.

[Tali]

So, primarily, a little background:

My family raised me in Roman Catholicism, and eventually I became even a teacher, leader, and a bunch of other roles about it. However, after I hit 4th grade (so roughly 9 to 10 years old, I believe), it made no sense to me whatsoever. I was preaching without believing. By the time I hit high school, I learned about a variety of religions and almost even converted to Sikhism. In the end, I developed this interesting philosophy about religions and how they work together. *Please note: I use the word "philosophy," because it's not really a religion, as you'll soon see.

As I learned about these various religions, and as Mos pointed out on my welcome thread, there are a lot of varieties and similarities, even between the same religion across different cultures (Mos specifically stated Armenian Christianity vs. Mexican Christianity, thank you!). What could the explanation be?

I came up with this idea that every religion is like a realm (not your realms like you have in Lord of the Rings...). They are all situated like a Venn Diagram (if you don't remember, it was a compare and contrast exercise in which you had two circles that would overlap in the middle. You were to write their differences in their respective circles, and their similarities in the gap of overlap). This way, they are all distinct, yet it is the overlap that causes similarities. Further, the realms are opaque (or clear; like windows) so you can see into other religions and learn about them. The catch is, you have to have faith for that religion in order to enter its "realm."

Bearing this in mind, this led me to believe that every religion is true (thus I became a very tolerant listener of disciples of various religions...), however, because I lacked faith I was not able to join that religion.

How do you obtain this faith? It comes from within. I believe everyone has a soul. It is in that soul that holds the key to what faith you have, and it can be nurtured.

What do you think about my philosophy? Does it make sense to you? If it doesn't, why? Can I clarify? Do you disagree?