I am feeling affection for the traditions
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In each tradition, God seems to inspire people to come to an understanding similar to the core concepts of Islam - Worship God alone and serve one's fellow man. In the Russian Orthodox Tradition, Tolstoy is a giant. His book, "The Kingdom of God is within, is available online free - just google Tolstoy and Kingdom of God within. Tolstoy was excommunicated from the Russian Orthodox Church and his books banned. Isn't that the way for most people who recognise the power and control of religion and break away to 'God alone".
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If you want traditions, join my circle. Raised in Polish National Catholic Church. HEAVY Christian trads at Christmas season and Easter, even more so than the RCC. And I left it all. But miss it at times, but I held firm.
Peace,
Respect.Glory be to our God.
Keep up the firmness, may God give you even more Strength, God willing.
Keep up.Peace.
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Salam all
Just going to correct what may have been taken wrongly.
Although I have always thought of Christmas as Jesus' birthday its not that part that I miss, not the religious part, its the feeling of the people which must be the same feeling the people here are feeling during Ramadan that I dont feel during Ramadan, I wish I could. I suppose its all to do with how and where I was raised.
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Salam to Katya and all.
Maybe we can share this website below (just for further reading - some related to anything in Mecca, rituals etc.).
- http//www.aididsafar.com
- http//www.aididsafar.com/shaivite.html
- http//religionresearchinstitute.org/mecca/construction.htm
- http//www.aididsafar.com/shegod.html
- Can download the book "Mental Bondage in the name of Islam".
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Thank you Message114 for sharing the website above. I have downloaded the books and will read them shortly. Just the superficial reading of the website confirms my own intuition that religious organisations serve their best purpose when they allow for heretics to be produced. The heretics help us seek truth even though, the search for truth is a never ending project and so someone else will inevitably come along and disprove some aspects of those messages too. But that is good news for seekers of truth. It stops us getting to the stage where we think we know it all, and there is nothing more to learn. What often happens is that some people come to a new understanding (paradigm) and it makes sense, so then the adherents codify and add rules and regulations to protect it, and then we have an oppressive organisation all over again. New heretics have to be created to break out of the mould that has become old and codified.
I hope others will also read the books on the website and will discuss some of the concepts. But, let's be thankful that organisations exist, otherwise how could heretics be produced. If you have nothing to challenge, there is no chance for intellectual growth. That's the problem with relativism - no truth therefore no heretics and all we get is stagnation and apathy. But, organisations that claim absolute truth also exact a high price - persecution, martyrdom etc. Yet, they also promote truth through their heretics. So it seems there is no easy road to truth and those who are willing to stand against the crowd have to be prepared for ostracism and even more severe penalties.
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Peace be with you as well,
maybe you're experiencing the "herd sheep mentality" "following the steps of parents etc"
This would be apparent in the Quran, as people following the footsteps of their parents.
Pray to God Almighty for help and guidance -
Peace all,
It is natural to feel like you are turning your back on your old religion because you have been raised like that since you were a child. I felt the same way when I came from Sunni Islam. It is a very strong feeling, but it will go away after a while, God willing.
I pray that God makes it easy for Katya.
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Peace to you as well
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I feel that all these saints, traditions and rituals - is part of our history and culture..
For example, the icons for me is the age-old art,
Old Church Slavonic language which they use in the church,
most of the saints - are national heroes)
Orthodox Christian spirit!
it is hard to describe, but in my country, all drenched in religion ...Join a unitarian church like the one reverand John Bostock who used to post here belongs to.
http//www.islandminister.com/
He is also part of this unitarian association
http//www.christianuniversalist.org/community.html
Its really the same religion but a different community. As Koranist we do not have yet a religious community outside of the internet. But you can always frequent here and keep us posted as how things are progressing.