driven by spritituality..dosnt go far towards explaining spirit...what is spirituality?...is it rightiousness...well jesus had a bit to say about those thinking themselves more rightious

its just the word driven[seems a poor choice...we hear of the insane driven to suicide[for egsaple]..or the drive to success..or the drive to succeed..or parents complain their children are driving them up the wall...we have as clean as driven snow..[whatever that means]..see that driving is what demons do to the lowest of lost souls in hell..

jesus asked us to have passion...[not to be driven]..he asked what is salt that has lost its flavour...its nothing..except..i regard words as sacred..but the spirit as holy...

i agreed with most of what you say...you confided a strong story..[you gfifted to your own children]...a very good story/teaching

you were inspired..to expand the teaching of the three pigs seeking to ingrane another vital lesson/teaching fot those your driven to love...[or did you have a choice to love or not...driven seems so firm...but its your word and its all good stuff...

ok..maybe the church is full of driven people..and i see that drive is not suited to serving others...but clearly you and everyone else..thinks its ok...its your word and your story..i think if that is what you think thats fine..[ok too]

its not a big issue...anyone else would maybe disagree..and say the good outweighs the one minor not good...its only one word after all..i was simply driven..to point it out...just as you were driven to use driven ...

you say tom-ate-o...i say tom-art-oh...its the same fruit...

were just using our different/understanding..of the meanings of the words..were chosing to use..[that best explain the feelings were trying to convey..differently]..[.like god intended]...my illiteracy isnt helping...but this too was gods will

Dear Foxy,

You seem to have one of the most generous spirits of any poster so I hope you will forgive me for my disagreement with you.

You and others have referred to true religion. I don't think there is any 'true religion'. I think when people use the expression they might mean that true religion is the kind of religion they approve of. Often we use the word religion to mean the religion we are familiar with and assume that other religions share some of the same outlooks. That may or may not be true.

Manichaeism was a religion that lasted from the third to the eighteenth century. It is now a curiosity for antiquarians and historians.

Manichaeism regarded sex for bonding and pleasure as good and sex for reproduction as evil. The religion saw the good as scattered in sparks contained in the bodies of human beings. To defeat evil it was necessary to gather these sparks together. Creating more human beings scattered the sparks and was therefore evil.

Possibly no other religion has or has had a similar idea.

Ludwig said,"Mind you Philo, there is not a particularly strong relationship between atheism and commonsensical thinking. Few atheists are commonsense or sustainability-progressive people, while many people of various faiths are. A strong faith doesn’t necessarily have to prevent people from seeing what needs to be done and acting on it".

Ah Ludwig, you are beginning to talk some sense and admitting lack of belief in God does not determine commonsense living. In my community I as well as other believers have been leading the fight for the cause of sustainability and retaining ecological environment. This fact is the first commission given in Genesis to man in the Bible - replentish the earth and make it fruitful. The warning is given in Revelation the God will destroy those that destroy the Earth. Neglect or abuse has its own punishments found in fruitless rewards.

Very good Philo. Religion could be utilised so effectively to galvanise people into undertaking the right sorts of actions.

I would have thought that most religions would be intimately linked to the enormous problems that confront us and embrace them and implore their followers to take up the causes in a united and effective manner.

It is good to see that you are involved with this sort of thing. But as far as I can tell, there is scant little of it happening in religious circles.

Dear David f,

My apologies - I did not express it very well.
I did not mean to infer 'true religion,' as being
only the one I believed in - because as I explained
in another post - religious institutions do not
own the Truth, for Truth cannot be owned.
As I tried to explain - religious institutions are
consultants and frameworks but they are not God Himself.
We shouldn't confuse the path with the destination.

I tried to explain that spirituality is an inner fire, a
mystical sustenance that feeds our souls. The mystical
journey drives us into ourselves, to a sacred flame at our
center. The purpose of the religious experience is to
develop the eyes by which we see this inner flame,
and our capacity to live in its mystery.

David, Thank You for your kind words - They meant a great
deal to me because it is the spirit of the human being
which can fill me with more joy than anything in the
world. And that's what I've learned on my life's journey,
that my spirit is uplifted by these encounters. Yes, I've
met some bad people along the way. But I have also met
some amazing souls - such as yourself - and their/your
light fills me.

oug,
OK, if you do not like "driven" you can replace it with stimulated, motivated, and "spirituality" with faith, since I concede that spirituality - as understood e.g. by Foxy in the above post - usually refers to the "pre-rational" or mystical feature, component of faith. At least this is how Christians see it, although for some - e.g. Buddhists - it can be a level of awareness on its own, not necessarily related to faith in the Western meaning of the word.

So I would not try to "explain spirit" here, even if I had more than 350 words at my disposal. It is not an easy concept, and your definition or explanation will depend on the cultural and world-view context you approach it from. And, of course, for some spirit, spirituality, spiritual experience, might be just meaningless concepts or a state of mind reducible to explanations from within (evolutionary) psychology.