# Religion URL: /spirituality/religion --- Posts on Religion, newest first. - [The Friar and the Muslim](/blog/thoughts/the-friar-and-the-muslim.md) (2010-06-14) - Watching Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (yes, I know, old movie) I couldn’t help but think about the encounter between his Muslim friend and the Friar. When the Friar realizes the error in his prejudice toward the “barbarian”, he makes amends. He offers a drink to the Muslim, who cannot accept. He exuberantly explains that he will drink and his new barbarian friend can talk. It must have been such an amazing conversation. The wisdom that the Muslim carried around from his knowledge of the Qu’ran, and the revelations the Friar would have at the similarity of their religions (Islam… - [The Devil – A Concept Based on Human Judgement](/spirituality/religion/the-devil-a-concept-based-on-human-judgement.md) (2009-11-13) - In most Religions there are antagonist deities or demigods that harass and tempt man to do what he is not naturally supposed to do. The key word here is naturally. Man has created many unnatural concepts that reflect as unnatural behavior. Man has even gone so far as to personify this concept and use it as a method of explaining away the “evils” of the world. This Devil, Fallen Angel, Lucifer, etc. is quoted by many fundamentalists as the source of all human misery. But what are they really saying when they state this? Isn’t to blame the Devil for… - [Worship – Imposing Vanity on the Supreme Being](/spirituality/religion/worship-imposing-vanity-on-the-supreme-being.md) (2009-09-26) - Why does man feel such a need to worship? When I say worship I speak mainly of religious worship even though man does indeed worship many things. The worship I am speaking of however is the formal kind of traditional religious worship. It can be said that man worships money, power or God, however none are worshipped as formally as God. Elaborate rituals, social taboos and powerful symbols shroud this figure in mystery as animal, incense and devotion is offered on the altar. Why do we as human beings have this driving desire to offer all of ourselves and personal… - [“Good” as a Principle](/spirituality/religion/good-as-a-principle.md) (2009-09-21) - A beautiful quote from a book I picked up out of my library and started reading. I found this book in San Diego at an antique book shop near the convention center while attending the American Academy of Religion. “We call good a principle, when it is only our way of estimating the phenomena of life. Think you there is any good where there is no sense to feel? So good and evil, being only our estimate, of that which we sense – it is our product and must belong to us-and we are the principle after all.” – F.B Dowd, The Temple of the Rosy Cross –… - [Wealth, God and Happiness](/blog/thoughts/wealth-god-and-happiness.md) (2009-06-17) - The following was a reply to a discussion about whether Christians Should be Wealthy or not on myLot Discussions: What do you need wealth for but to maintain your level of living? What are you going to save for? What are you going to spend on? What is the point of hoarding wealth instead of spreading it to others or into the economy (through purchasing, creating jobs, investing, etc.) Wealth does nothing. It is an insubstantial number in an insubstantial account somewhere…which surprisingly can be used to purchase substantial things. Until it is used it is just potential. Those who are… - [Man as God, Man as Nature](/spirituality/religion/man-as-god-man-as-nature.md) (2009-06-02) - Man as God One of the most common mystical realizations in any religious tradition is the unity between Man and God. One does not, and cannot exist without the other. This is not a relationship of dependence, but of unity. Man cannot be separate from the whole of God, as the whole of God is everything. God cannot separate man from itself because this would imply that there would be something other than God, and a space in which Man could exist that is other than God. This is one of the reasons man tends to anthropomorphize God. Man describes… --- [Back to Index](/llms.md)