Writing Prompt 1 - Religion

[qos]

jillwheezul presented the following assignment:

So I am at the point of writing the first assignment which is somewhat
open ended. Since I am a visual-spatial learner, I am struggling with
understanding the whole before I can write about my assignment. I have so
much to say about religion but yet don't know what my audience wants to
hear, which is unsettling. He says in his writings "...a truly open mind
appears to demand a kind of naivete which borders on outright credulity",
which I really do believe. There is no emphasis on which style to write,
what manner of citations to use, or even how personal the writing can be.
I perceive that he would like to talk on a higher level, but how to know?

What do you think you would do? How do you start writing about religion
and spiritual matters? How would you define both religion and magic?



For the specifics of the assignment, I would definitely go back to the prof and ask for clarification about what he’s looking for.


My personal definition of religion is “the way a person approaches and answers the fundamental questions of human existence.” That’s one reason why I am endlessly fascinated by talking to people about their beliefs: it touches every other aspect of their lives, shapes everything about how they live – even if how they live is in conflict with their stated beliefs.

Religion doesn’t just involve beliefs about deity, ethics, and the afterlife. It’s the foundation of someone’s paradigm of how they understand the world and material existence, including things like whether time is cyclical or linear. (Paden’s “Religious Worlds” is where I first encountered this idea.) Religion is a huge contributor to what is and is not “unthinkable” or “inconceivable” to an individual, what is or is not considered “natural.”

This is where the “open mindedness to the point of naiveté or credulity” comes in. In order to truly be open minded toward someone else’s beliefs, we have to be willing to at least temporarily suspend some or all of our own beliefs about the fundamental nature of life as we know it (or believe it should be).

This is especially true in the case of engaging with polytheistic religions and/or magical beliefs, which tend to conflict with the dominant paradigms of monotheistic religion and scientific materialism. To even consider that various forms of Paganism and/or Magic are legitimate requires the suspension of what is culturally considered rational thought.

This is also why genuine religious pluralism can be such a challenge, especially to monotheists. If our religious beliefs are what we base everything else on, suggesting that there may be another way to define or answer those fundamental questions threatens the stability of our entire lives. It can be terrifying, even when people aren’t entirely aware of why they feel threatened.

I haven't tried to define Magic in quite some time, and I don't think I'm going to venture to do so at this moment. While I may do ritual from time to time, and inner journeys are part of my spiritual life, I don't consider myself someone who "does" magic.


Thanks, Jill. It's been a long time since I've written about religion in a more theoretical way, rather than just my subjective personal experience.

Comments

[jillwheezul.livejournal.com]

THank you QOS.

My thinking on magic is that it is the use of power from the spiritual dimension, both in individual practice or in religious services. It is where the body becomes the vessel for the divine or spiritual to give direction to physical or spiritual plane. While I may believe in the "power of prayer" that is part of my religion, the practice of using this power, in my mind, is a kind of magic.

[qos.livejournal.com]

I really like your definition.

Let me know how the paper goes, okay?