My Favorite Interpretation of Religion

I found this on wikipedia, under the psychology of religion. And after reading many views on religion from the world's greatest psychoanalysts, I came across the one I most agree with. Here's the article, talking about the views on relgion by American psychologist, Gordon Allport.

In his classic book The Individual and His Religion (1950), Gordon Allport (1897–1967) illustrates how people may use religion in different ways. He makes a distinction between Mature religion and Immature religion. Mature religious sentiment is how Allport characterised the person whose approach to religion is dynamic, open-minded, and able to maintain links between inconsistencies. In contrast, immature religion is self-serving and generally represents the negative stereotypes that people have about religion. More recently, this distinction has been encapsulated in the terms "intrinsic religion", referring to a genuine, heartfelt devout faith, and "extrinsic religion", referring to a more utilitarian use of religion as a means to an end, such as church attendance to gain social status. These dimensions of religion were measured on the Religious Orientation Scale of Allport and Ross (1967). A third form of religious orientation, has been described by Daniel Batson. This refers to treatment of religion as an open-ended search(Batson, Schoenrade & Ventis, 1993). More specifically, it has been seen by Batson as comprising a willingness to view religious doubts in a positive manner, acceptance that religious orientation can change and existential complexity, the belief that one's religious beliefs should be shaped from personal crises that one has experienced in one's life. Batson refers to extrinsic, intrinsic and quest respectively as Religion-as-means, religion-as-end and religion-as-quest, and measures these constructs on the Religious Life Inventory (Batson, Schoenrade & Ventis, 1993).

Currently Reading Freud and Beyond: A History of Modern Psychoanalytic Thought By Stephen A. Mitchell, Margaret J. Black see related

Economics

Yes! Guess who was accepted into a week-long economics and leadership seminar. I was! From July 9-July 16 I get to stay overnight at Miliken University in Decateur, IL with 31 other kids from around the country. There we spend the mornings taking courses on economics and participate in leadership exercises in the afternoons. I'm really excited and I know it's going to be an amzing time, plus it will look good on a college application.  Wow, now that I think about it, I'm already losng a big chunk of summer. June 6-16 is my trip to France and Spain with some other French students, and now this. Oh well, they are both going to be great experiences.

Boring political updates-

Unemployment is down to 4.7 %, about a four or five year low. That sounds awfully good compared to the 10%+ over in Europe.

More riots in France and the police are taking the brunt of it. I think it might be time for some reform over there.

Immigration bill fell through today, and now Congress is going on a 2 week spring break. God can't they get anything done over there without taking a break.

Interesting side note- right now I am becoming very interested in the views of famour psychiatrists such as Freud and Jung on topics such as religion, intelligence, and a lot of other things. It's incredibly fascinating.

Happiness

A very smart person once asked me, am I happy with my life?

The straight answer: yes.

The complicated one: If you mean to say, am I positive, upbeat, smiling and joyous each and everyday about everything? Then no, only psychopaths are like that.  Just like every other normal person in this world, I get angry, I get upset, I get sad, I get depressed, I get excited, I get disappointed. I laugh, I scream, I smile, I cry. It's all part of being a person. But the truth is, when you really get down to it all, I love every single minute of it. I love being alive! What makes life so great you ask? A lot of things.

I love the people around me. I love talking to them, being with them, and having relationships with them. I love the things around me, I love learning and I love discovering. Theres so much more.

Basically, if you don't want to read all that corny dribble I just pulled out of no where, it comes down to this. What makes life so great to me, is that I relaize how wonderful it is and what a gift it is. I realize that its so short, so minute, that I need to treasure as much of it as possible and to do as much as I can with it. That's why I'm so motivated, that's why I feel so strongly, and that's why, in my life, I'm always incredibly thankful.

My Life

I have many sayings, quotes, stories, and morals that help me in life. I heard one the other day that goes along with one of my themes of life, God helps those that help themselves.

There was a man that lived in a house by the river. He heard a radio anouncement saying that the river was rising and that the town would flood. He said, I am a religious man, God loves me and he will save me. And he did nothing. Then the waters rose up, and another person from the town came by in a row boat saying, hey you down there, the town is flooding get into my boat and I will take you to safety. But the man responded, I am a religious man, God loves me and He is going to bring me to safety. Later on, a helicopter came by, and a man with a megaphone yelled down to the religiois man. Hey, what are you still doing down there, the town in flooding, Here, I'll throw this ladder down, you can climb in and I'll take you to safety. Once again the man said, I am a religious man, I love God and He loves me, He will save me and bring me to safety. The religious man drowned, and when he arrived in heavan, he demanded to see God. When he did, he asked Him why God did not come and save him from the flood, the man was religious. God responded, I sent you a radio address, I sent you a man in a row boat, and I sent you a helicopter, what more do you want from Me?

It's a long story, but it makes a clear point. You don't have to look for divine miracles to see God on earth, he is in the everyday things all around us.

Finally, Something We Can Talk About

I'm glad I finally got some interesting comments about this, and I can understand everyone's opinions. Basically I am going to try and sum up a response to all of them, as well as expand on them some.

I am a firm believer in God, and if I tried to type down all the reasons why it would be incoherent dribble that sounds like retarded rambling. And here's a sample and why. For me, life is just a series of questions and searching for the answers. It is a journey, a quest, an ongoing struggle for knowledge. Life is not meant to make sense. We are not meant to understand everything. And this is where God becomes a part of my life.

My personal God- God is perfection. Just by my ability to recognize a perfect being, it exists. And so, this perfect being, he helps me. He helps me aspire to be better, he motivates me to help others, to learn, to improve. He is someone I ask for guidance, He is someone I thank, He is the one who helps me. And because he is real to me, because He is a part of me, it doesn't matter what other's think, it doesn't matter if He is part of their lives. Obviously I would like to share Him with others, but I am secure enough in MY beliefs, that is truly does not matter.

The World's God- Modern ideas of God are a magical man who lives in the sky, who performs miracles, who opens the golden gates when we die to let us into cloud city. These are just our own ideas. We truly no nothing of God, because we cannot comprehend. In a time sense, He is the beginning and end. Mathematically, He is infinity, absolute. Scientifically, he is the first reason for the way things came. You can define Him any way you want, but He is there, and you can choose to recognize it or not.

So, after my long boring talk, which actually has nothing to do with my previous post, here are some points.

1. God is there, whether you recoginize Him or not, and how you choose to react to Him, as a fictional character or your own personal savior, is your decision.

2. Science is one of the most religious things I can think of, seeking more answers to learn about the world around you, what could be a more religious journey.

3. The religious should no feel superior to the atheist and vice versa. We are all equal, no matter how we behave or whawe believe, we should use this throughout our lives.

Sorry to bore you, but this is important to me.