Random thoughts on religion.
Hmmm. I haven't posted here, or anywhere else for that matter, in a frightfully long while. And I'm not even sure what I want to say now, so this may come out a little bit disjointedly. Anyway, I started reading the Quran(sp?) - something I've been meaning to do for years. And some one made it available in audio-book (in English), so I figured I'd finally do it. Interestingly enough, so far I'm finding it easier to read than the Christian Bible - partly because it's much shorter, and partly because the style is more poetic - more like the style of the prophetic writings of the Psalms, books of the prophets and Book of Revelations than like that of the more quasi-narrative books.
I've always been fascinated with Islam, and I'm beginning to suspect that I was probably from a Muslim culture in a former life - Perhaps Arabic or Persian because of the way I'm drawn to the languages and styles of dress.
Uh-oh, warning. This could get long-winded.
Anyway, what fascinates me about Islam, ironically, is the discipline - the proscribed prayers, the proscribed dress-code and diet, etc,. And for those who know me, that's ironic as hell because I generally chafe at discipline, finding it overbearing and restrictive. Mom would find that especially ironic! She's been trying to convince me of the value of discipline, especially discipline related to house-keeping and personal organization, for aproximately two decades now, maybe two and a half, and I always chafe at the very idea of having to submit myself to an external schedule or set of criteria. And yet I'm drawn to the disciplines of Islam, much as I'm drawn to those of Catholic and Orthodox Christianity and Orthodox Judaism. Hmmm. I think I'm sensing a theme here?
I also think I'm drawn to the certainty, just as I've been drawn to the certainties offered by Christianity - the certainty of knowing that I'm doing the right things and living riteously. My own Pagan and science-informed beliefs don't offer anything like that kind of surety. And while I think that's right and a true representation of reality, it can be a little unsettling! You have to choose what you believe to be right action without any guarantees, because you don't, and can't possibly, know all the factors in play in any given situation. And in addition, there is often no way to externally verify your experience of divinity. So you have to, simultaneously, trust your instincts and intuitions and yet know that they're limited and may be wrong. So you can see why certainty might sometimes seem appealing!
Yet I'm simultaneously repelled by Islam, and for the same reasons why I'm repelled by hard-core Christianity - the certainty it offers comes at the expense of the willingness to accept multiple ways. Like Christianity, it claims to be the only valid way, and preeches hell-fire and damnation against those who do not accept it as such, lumping them in with those who commit war and other forms of injustice as though their unbelief were the cause of the latter. It suggests that those who question or dispute its revelations do so out of pride or wickedness rather than genuine difference of experience, as, since there is only one God, there can be no legitimate difference of experience. That one God can reveal to whomever he pleases, and to dispute that revelation is to challenge him and his power. One God, one way, absolutes of good and evil and of right and wrong - obedience or disobedience.
Yet I am drawn to many of the concerns of Islam - with right living, with justice, with believing that those who commit injustice will get what they deserve - with cosmic or spiritual justice. I just don't appreciate those concerns being linked with a particular revelation that everyone in the world is supposed to flock to or be condemned as evil. And I have trouble believing that God, if there is really a single ultimate creator, which I'm not sure of since hearing an Aboriginal perspective on the issue, would be so uncompassionate as to condemn people to eternal hell simply for not accepting a revelation if they reject it out of genuine lack of conviction or misgiving.
Anyway, I'll keep reading and studying, and tell you all what I think as I do.
I've always been fascinated with Islam, and I'm beginning to suspect that I was probably from a Muslim culture in a former life - Perhaps Arabic or Persian because of the way I'm drawn to the languages and styles of dress.
Uh-oh, warning. This could get long-winded.
Anyway, what fascinates me about Islam, ironically, is the discipline - the proscribed prayers, the proscribed dress-code and diet, etc,. And for those who know me, that's ironic as hell because I generally chafe at discipline, finding it overbearing and restrictive. Mom would find that especially ironic! She's been trying to convince me of the value of discipline, especially discipline related to house-keeping and personal organization, for aproximately two decades now, maybe two and a half, and I always chafe at the very idea of having to submit myself to an external schedule or set of criteria. And yet I'm drawn to the disciplines of Islam, much as I'm drawn to those of Catholic and Orthodox Christianity and Orthodox Judaism. Hmmm. I think I'm sensing a theme here?
I also think I'm drawn to the certainty, just as I've been drawn to the certainties offered by Christianity - the certainty of knowing that I'm doing the right things and living riteously. My own Pagan and science-informed beliefs don't offer anything like that kind of surety. And while I think that's right and a true representation of reality, it can be a little unsettling! You have to choose what you believe to be right action without any guarantees, because you don't, and can't possibly, know all the factors in play in any given situation. And in addition, there is often no way to externally verify your experience of divinity. So you have to, simultaneously, trust your instincts and intuitions and yet know that they're limited and may be wrong. So you can see why certainty might sometimes seem appealing!
Yet I'm simultaneously repelled by Islam, and for the same reasons why I'm repelled by hard-core Christianity - the certainty it offers comes at the expense of the willingness to accept multiple ways. Like Christianity, it claims to be the only valid way, and preeches hell-fire and damnation against those who do not accept it as such, lumping them in with those who commit war and other forms of injustice as though their unbelief were the cause of the latter. It suggests that those who question or dispute its revelations do so out of pride or wickedness rather than genuine difference of experience, as, since there is only one God, there can be no legitimate difference of experience. That one God can reveal to whomever he pleases, and to dispute that revelation is to challenge him and his power. One God, one way, absolutes of good and evil and of right and wrong - obedience or disobedience.
Yet I am drawn to many of the concerns of Islam - with right living, with justice, with believing that those who commit injustice will get what they deserve - with cosmic or spiritual justice. I just don't appreciate those concerns being linked with a particular revelation that everyone in the world is supposed to flock to or be condemned as evil. And I have trouble believing that God, if there is really a single ultimate creator, which I'm not sure of since hearing an Aboriginal perspective on the issue, would be so uncompassionate as to condemn people to eternal hell simply for not accepting a revelation if they reject it out of genuine lack of conviction or misgiving.
Anyway, I'll keep reading and studying, and tell you all what I think as I do.