I Am Curious

I'm curious about religion and spirituality...

Post to follow from me....But,

I'm curious about how people come to their beliefs.

Been reading some Jung and Chopra (yeah, I know, neither of them wrote the Bible, Sutras, Vedas, or Koran) and I've been developing some theories about why I persist on calling myself a Christian when I see that there are various myths that all tell the same story.

So, seems like a good way to start these adventures..."Spirituality" my suggestion for first subject!

Anyone daring and open enough to go on this adventure with me?

Ground rules: No preaching...I believe in many paths to 'God' and respect everyone's right to believe as they choose. But I do not believe that anyone has any right to tell anyone else that their beliefs are wrong!

Well, I can't think of any other ground rules for now. Except post politely when, and if, you have something to add!

I was brought up in the Roman Catholic church, my father's faith. My mother was the daughter of a Baptist minister. I attended Catholic elementary and high schools and up until I was about 15 I wanted to become a Catholic priest.

Sex disabused me of that notion, for better or worse (But that's an entirely different thing to be curious about, no?)

Like many of my generation I disavowed organized religion and over the years learned about different religious practices...and rejected them all in terms of seeing how I could never call myself 'Methodist', 'Buddhist', 'animist', etc.

One thing I did pick up was the understanding that we humans have a need to envelop the ultimate mysteries of this existence, to both individually and collectively find something that gives us a sense of who we are in the cosmic order of things.

And hasn't it always been so?

Starting today I'm planning on retracing some of those journeys I'd taken (no, nothing like some sort of comparative religions study, just a look at what it is I do find attractive or 'necessary' for my own spiritual disquiet). I'm curious about your journey.

Now what I suggest is that you say more than "I'm a Christian", or "I'm a Muslim". I'd like you to get into how you stepped into the identity you proclaim as your spiritual persona.

As for me I believe in many paths to what people call God. The shortest way to describe how I got here is to say that the historian John Hendrik Clark once said, "Man contemplating god is like the clay on the wheel trying to contemplate the potter."

I have met many people of such wide varieties of faith that I cannot believe that one particular dogma is the sole "Word of God"

I firmly believe that the experience of god is worth much more than anyone's interpretation of their version of the word of god.

Those stories, with all due respect, are myths. Don't get me wrong, I feel myths are important, necessary even. Stories and myths (yes, I equate the two) are how we get from point A to point B to point C...they contain far greater truths than facts. They encompass the spirit and imagination of humankind. Where would humankind be without, for example the Myth of the Hero?.

Anyway, here's the start of the adventure into spirituality, religion, and the stories that hopefully will allow us plenty of room to talk about how our personal curiosity about life, death, and what it all possibly means. At least for me...

I'l curious about what it means to you...