How can I explain to people that they aren't helping me with their advice to accept good and evil and a creator? I think there is a growing mass of people (especially in Canada) who don't attend any church (or are even against the church) and instead subscribe to this blanket spirituality (without religious affiliation, or with a dabbling of multiple ones), that they believe envelopes everybody unless they try to refuse it?
In religiously diverse areas this is most common. I recall my fairly mainstream mother becoming disillusioned with the church because her friends of other denominations and religions would have to go to hell in the pastor's eyes, unless they specifically believed Jesus was the savior and repented. Slowly, the religious framework around my family and who they associated with crumbled. A talk show would bring Madonna on to talk about Kabbalah, and its audience would look at it as "neat" and even merge what they liked about Christianity with Kabbalah and whatever else together.
I'd rather converse with religious people on these topics. They don't sound so insane. They believe in their god, I don't. It's understood at least to this degree.
And while I believe everybody at church has their own idea of what god is and what they morally should/shouldn't do, the independent spiritualists bash the organized churches for what they perceive as rigid thinking and conformism - while they can form their own laws, idea of morality or whatever have you to suit their own specific needs. It does things like take guilt away. We buy products supposed to cater to us as individuals and this same mentality has been brought to the belief in god.
Bargain spirituality - its proponents take just a little bit of what they like without having to pay for things they may not want to do, like have their kid circumsized.
In religiously diverse areas this is most common. I recall my fairly mainstream mother becoming disillusioned with the church because her friends of other denominations and religions would have to go to hell in the pastor's eyes, unless they specifically believed Jesus was the savior and repented. Slowly, the religious framework around my family and who they associated with crumbled. A talk show would bring Madonna on to talk about Kabbalah, and its audience would look at it as "neat" and even merge what they liked about Christianity with Kabbalah and whatever else together.
I'd rather converse with religious people on these topics. They don't sound so insane. They believe in their god, I don't. It's understood at least to this degree.
And while I believe everybody at church has their own idea of what god is and what they morally should/shouldn't do, the independent spiritualists bash the organized churches for what they perceive as rigid thinking and conformism - while they can form their own laws, idea of morality or whatever have you to suit their own specific needs. It does things like take guilt away. We buy products supposed to cater to us as individuals and this same mentality has been brought to the belief in god.
Bargain spirituality - its proponents take just a little bit of what they like without having to pay for things they may not want to do, like have their kid circumsized.
