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[kawika]

Some friends and I were discussing religion, spirituality, and such one day. We were talking about different faiths and the new wave of spirituality, and someone said, "Religion is not a smorgasbord." I took this as a slight shot at people who dabble and pick and choose what they like in terms of their faith. My reply, "Maybe, but if the food isn't

Comments

[blithescribe]

Interesting! I would argue that religion kind of has to be a smorgasbord. Despite what some people may preach, it's not like any one of us has a direct line to God (by whatever name or names your belief system entails). So we're all picking and choosing and interpreting as best we can on our way to understanding our beliefs. Our spiritual leaders are no different. People who find their beliefs align so closely with a particular spiritual leader or religious text aren't avoiding the smorgasboard, so to speak, they have found that the way that leader or work nagivated smorgasboard appeals to them and proceed to navigate the smorgasboard in the exactly same way. Some of us find that our beliefs lead us to pick and choose more broadly from the teachings of several spiritual leaders and works of religion and spiritualiy and choose to navigate the smorgasboard more directly in our own way. But wheather you navigate directly or use someone else as your guide and navigate it indirectly, it's still a smorgasboard

[kawika]

I think their main point was that if you choose a faith, you should have to take the bad with the good. If you choose to be with Opus Dei, for instance, self-flagellation would have to be part of your activity and you could not choose otherwise and still consider yourself part of that sect. Of course, I have no idea if Opus Dei does that sort of thing...I just remember The Da Vinci Code. Regardless, it would be the same with any faith. If you choose a Christian sect that believes in fasting, you can't, in good faith, claim to be part of that sect and just choose to ignore that part.

I also think there's a bias in terms of established religion within the statement. An assumption of the desirability of belonging to an established faith vs. picking and choosing what spiritual path feels best to you.