My new take on Spirituality
3
FinalBoss
#levelupyourgrind
I personally never had an actual spiritual event, or any exposure to miracles. However, I am around friends who have a highly sensitive sixth sense, and I give their stories the benefit of the doubt, no matter how farfetched they are. I sometimes wonder why God doesn't give me that type of insight or awareness as my friends, but then I keep in mind how paranoid and easy to scare I am when I encounter things I don't have a clear understanding of. So, I concluded that I don't have a strong sixth sense because I don't have the mental fortitude to use it to the best of my abilities. I believe God doesn't give us anything we can't handle.
I ended up devising for myself a simple breakdown of spirituality and how it applies to each and every individual. My new take on spirituality is this: Everyone has spirituality regardless of how they view God and to what extent he plays a role in your life.
Eventually, I broke Spirituality down into 6 separate categories:
Positive-Personal Spirituality: Usually falls under the title of Monotheistic Principles. This type of spirituality involves placing God as the top priority in your life. Everything you do in life revolves around what you feel God has planned for you. Normally, you'd live to form an active personal relationship with God in the sense of worship, seeking spiritual guidance, and the pursuit of emotional security.
Positive-Impersonal Spiritualty: Basically, this means that one believes in a higher power, but in the sense that there is more than one who holds power and authority over mortals. Due to this type of thinking, the idea of prayer is split among different types of Gods based on context and what they are capable of. More often than not, this eliminates the notion of forming a personal bond with that of a higher power. This principle is usually called Polytheism.
Neutral-Personal Spirituality: An individual is aware of God's existence, but only from a naturalistic point of view. The supernatural aspect of God is stripped away which also eliminates a need to label God's nature as either good or bad, or they feel that God doesn't hold sentient beings by a certain moral standard and treats them without bias to anything else that makes up existence. Pantheism comes to mind when thinking about this category.
Neutral-Impersonal Spirituality: This particular concept revolves around individuals who refuse to take a decisive stance as to whether God exists or not, or they lean more towards one possibility, but doesn't commit to following the lifestyle that goes with that particular stance. Agnostic is a label that most closely matches with this type of spirituality.
Negative-Personal Spirituality: A person who falls under this type of spirituality acknowledges that God exists, but believes that the entity operates with bad intentions towards mortals and the existence that the entity may or may not have created. I heard some wild theories in this category, but ultimately the most used label to describe this type of spirituality is Anti-theist.
Negative-Impersonal Spirituality: Usually, there isn't a clear distinction between an Anti-theist and an Atheist. However, the two labels are different from each other in the sense of whether or not they believe in the existence of God. For Atheists, they simply don't believe in God or the supernatural, and they live based on separating themselves from anything that may have to do with God. That isn't to say they don't practice good ethics, or aren't good people. They just don't tie God into their decision making. My dad is an atheist, but he is the greatest example of a model citizen and moral person to follow. He just doesn't believe that God is real or has any actual impact towards existence.
To start off this conversation, I'd like for readers to participate in a copy-pasta questionnaire:
-----------------------------Copy and Paste------------------------------------------
1) Do you believe in God?
a) Polytheism, Monotheism or Pantheism? (google is your friend here...)
b) What role does God play in regards to your relationship with him? [Atheist ('Negative-Impersonal relationship'), Antitheist ('Negative-Personal relationship), Agnostic (Neutral-Impersonal relationship), Monotheism ('Positive-Personal relationship'), Polytheism ('Positive-Impersonal relationship'), Pantheism ('Neutral-Personal relationship')
c) What name does God go by according to your level of faith or religious affiliation (Past or Present)?
d) Does God have a beginning and end?
If Yes) Can God reincarnate?
e) Is God perfect (All knowing, All loving, All powerful)?
f) Does God have emotions?
g) Does God follow his own rules? Is it justifiable?
2) Do you believe everything has a purpose and reason?
3) Do you believe you have free will?
4) Do you believe in Karma?
5) Do you believe in the Trinity?
6) Do you believe in reincarnation?
7) Do you believe in spirits?
8)Do you believe in demons?
9) Do you believe life is a test?
10) Do you believe in Heaven? Hell? Purgatory?
11) Do you believe Jesus is the son of God?
12) Do you believe in Sin?
13) Do you believe there is an answer to any mystery?
14) Do you believe in miracles?
15) Do you believe in the second coming of Christ?
16) Do you believe in the anti-Christ?
17) Do you look for answers to questions revolving around faith, or leave everything up to God?
18) Have you ever converted anyone to your spirituality or religious affiliation?
19) Have you been converted by anyone, anything, or event to a different form of spirituality or religious affiliation?
20) How would you feel if there was empirical evidence for or against your beliefs?
I ended up devising for myself a simple breakdown of spirituality and how it applies to each and every individual. My new take on spirituality is this: Everyone has spirituality regardless of how they view God and to what extent he plays a role in your life.
Eventually, I broke Spirituality down into 6 separate categories:
Positive-Personal Spirituality: Usually falls under the title of Monotheistic Principles. This type of spirituality involves placing God as the top priority in your life. Everything you do in life revolves around what you feel God has planned for you. Normally, you'd live to form an active personal relationship with God in the sense of worship, seeking spiritual guidance, and the pursuit of emotional security.
Positive-Impersonal Spiritualty: Basically, this means that one believes in a higher power, but in the sense that there is more than one who holds power and authority over mortals. Due to this type of thinking, the idea of prayer is split among different types of Gods based on context and what they are capable of. More often than not, this eliminates the notion of forming a personal bond with that of a higher power. This principle is usually called Polytheism.
Neutral-Personal Spirituality: An individual is aware of God's existence, but only from a naturalistic point of view. The supernatural aspect of God is stripped away which also eliminates a need to label God's nature as either good or bad, or they feel that God doesn't hold sentient beings by a certain moral standard and treats them without bias to anything else that makes up existence. Pantheism comes to mind when thinking about this category.
Neutral-Impersonal Spirituality: This particular concept revolves around individuals who refuse to take a decisive stance as to whether God exists or not, or they lean more towards one possibility, but doesn't commit to following the lifestyle that goes with that particular stance. Agnostic is a label that most closely matches with this type of spirituality.
Negative-Personal Spirituality: A person who falls under this type of spirituality acknowledges that God exists, but believes that the entity operates with bad intentions towards mortals and the existence that the entity may or may not have created. I heard some wild theories in this category, but ultimately the most used label to describe this type of spirituality is Anti-theist.
Negative-Impersonal Spirituality: Usually, there isn't a clear distinction between an Anti-theist and an Atheist. However, the two labels are different from each other in the sense of whether or not they believe in the existence of God. For Atheists, they simply don't believe in God or the supernatural, and they live based on separating themselves from anything that may have to do with God. That isn't to say they don't practice good ethics, or aren't good people. They just don't tie God into their decision making. My dad is an atheist, but he is the greatest example of a model citizen and moral person to follow. He just doesn't believe that God is real or has any actual impact towards existence.
To start off this conversation, I'd like for readers to participate in a copy-pasta questionnaire:
-----------------------------Copy and Paste------------------------------------------
1) Do you believe in God?
a) Polytheism, Monotheism or Pantheism? (google is your friend here...)
b) What role does God play in regards to your relationship with him? [Atheist ('Negative-Impersonal relationship'), Antitheist ('Negative-Personal relationship), Agnostic (Neutral-Impersonal relationship), Monotheism ('Positive-Personal relationship'), Polytheism ('Positive-Impersonal relationship'), Pantheism ('Neutral-Personal relationship')
c) What name does God go by according to your level of faith or religious affiliation (Past or Present)?
d) Does God have a beginning and end?
If Yes) Can God reincarnate?
e) Is God perfect (All knowing, All loving, All powerful)?
f) Does God have emotions?
g) Does God follow his own rules? Is it justifiable?
2) Do you believe everything has a purpose and reason?
3) Do you believe you have free will?
4) Do you believe in Karma?
5) Do you believe in the Trinity?
6) Do you believe in reincarnation?
7) Do you believe in spirits?
8)Do you believe in demons?
9) Do you believe life is a test?
10) Do you believe in Heaven? Hell? Purgatory?
11) Do you believe Jesus is the son of God?
12) Do you believe in Sin?
13) Do you believe there is an answer to any mystery?
14) Do you believe in miracles?
15) Do you believe in the second coming of Christ?
16) Do you believe in the anti-Christ?
17) Do you look for answers to questions revolving around faith, or leave everything up to God?
18) Have you ever converted anyone to your spirituality or religious affiliation?
19) Have you been converted by anyone, anything, or event to a different form of spirituality or religious affiliation?
20) How would you feel if there was empirical evidence for or against your beliefs?
