Posted: October 18, 1999 at 01:38:04: by Galadriel
: This "one" became an atheist (mostly) thru reading good books (Definition of good books- books which makes you think. Or imagine. Same thing , actually).: A bit of background, so you'll know what's my "point of view":
: I'm a Jew, and not a religious one. Furthermore- I'm from Israel. I don't know how much any of you know about our political/social situation, but you should know that when I refer to religion it's the real pagan-hardcore staff, the "stone - those - who - not - believe - exactly - what -we - do" type of religion, whereas you seem to refer to a more philosophical/moral type of religion the "it's more important to be a moral person then to believe in God" religion I tend to think of "religion" in terms of a person's "pivitol axis" in life, which I suppose I picked up somewhere along the way at the University. But then, there were many ideas: this is simply the one which made most sense to me. Whatever your life revolves around is your god, your religion, your idol. You can, IMHO be an atheist but if your life revolves around communism and spreading it's ideals, then you are in fact a highly religious person. Money can be a religion, sex, power, self, to name the most common religions of the world. After that would probably come various ideologies, both "religious" ones in the classic sense, but secular ideologies as well. In my Religion in Literature course at CSULB, one of the books we read was "Ordinary People." We discussed how the entire family revolved around the oldest son, the HE was essentially their religion, and thus the disorientation when he died. The shrink played the part of the priest in the story, etc, etc... I hope you can see what I'm saying. I think there is also much to be said with the difference between a "sacred" orientation to the world as opposed to a "secular" orientation. It actually still has little to do with organized religion however, and more to do with infusing meaning into existence, a rich, romantic view of life. The two best books I can think of on this topic are Eliade's "The Sacred and the Profane" and Mander's "In the Absense of the Sacred." : (a side question to Christians out there- does it matter if Jesus was the son of god? think about it before answering). You do realize that if you put 10 Christians into a room and ask this question, that you will receive a dozen different answers? :-) Blessings, Lady G.
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