{"id":9923,"date":"2022-01-01T13:52:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-01T13:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/?p=9923"},"modified":"2022-10-06T06:50:31","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T06:50:31","slug":"religious-belief-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/open-religion\/religious-belief-revisited","title":{"rendered":"Religious Belief Revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3>This is about any religious belief, credence, or denomination from any time and place. What does the girl in the image (Muslim or Catholic) think of this text\u2019s title?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nothing religious without depth<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anything purely conceptual \u2013 clear characteristics, crisp boundaries from other concepts \u2013 can be crystal clear but cannot have <a href=\"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog?p=3709\">human depth<\/a> since the latter precisely needs distribution over many other concepts in different respects. Depth is fuzzy, sometimes at the brink of chaos in meaningful ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One may believe it will rain tomorrow, but that is no religious belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One may believe that \u2018God exists\u2019 without being religious by far \u2015 no depth, no religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>I wonder how much religious belief truly exists this way.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It cannot be investigated straightforwardly. The question \u2018Do you believe?\u2019 can in principle be answered very differently in view of the above dichotomy, even while the believer sincerely deems himself religious. How is he to know that the experience may be pretty different for others?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes, how am I to know \u2015 or you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Human depth is related to deep motivation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Please see <a href=\"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog?p=3679\">Deep Motivation<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Does your belief motivate your decisions? <strong>If nobody would coerce you<\/strong> to do something, could your belief by itself be sufficient to go for it, even to sacrifice something important purely for its sake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You may think a while about this, now or after reading this text. If you answer positively from time to time \u2013 also when it\u2019s about crucial issues \u2013 then your belief goes deep, and it may be called religious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dearest girl from the image, what are you thinking right now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dear pope from any time, what are\/were you thinking about this?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don\u2019t know, but I have no illusions. Popes are human beings of special kinds. They sacrifice a lot and lead holy lives. Also, they think a lot and feel huge responsibility for the flock. For sure, they must believe, somehow, but this still doesn\u2019t mean it is a religious belief. The pope&#8217;s responsibility might be felt as coercion, hence his attitudes and deeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, if the Pope is suspect, everybody is a suspect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In my view, many priests do things that are incompatible with religious belief. Not only is this problematic or even loathsome, but each of them should also revisit his \u2018religious\u2019 belief \u2013 for instance, doing for himself the motivation test from above. If his belief is religious, then the incompatibility may stem from the organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Message to every religious person<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Please, take this seriously concerning yourself. It is not my intention to make you doubt your genuine belief, but to point towards its possibly endless depth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I believe in the depth of honest religious belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I also believe that, in-depth, everybody can feel that superficial ways to concretely realize any belief \u2013 crucial as they can be as symbols \u2013 are far less important than the depth in which any religious believer on earth can recognize any other as a truly religious brother or sister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even, eventually, without any conceptual need for some holy figure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An atheist can be pretty religious.<\/p>\n<div data-object_id=\"9923\" class=\"cbxwpbkmarkwrap cbxwpbkmarkwrap_no_cat cbxwpbkmarkwrap-post \"><a  data-redirect-url=\"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9923\"  data-display-label=\"0\" data-show-count=\"0\" data-bookmark-label=\" \"  data-bookmarked-label=\" \"  data-loggedin=\"0\" data-type=\"post\" data-object_id=\"9923\" class=\"cbxwpbkmarktrig  cbxwpbkmarktrig-button-addto\" title=\"Bookmark This\" href=\"#\"><span class=\"cbxwpbkmarktrig-label\"  style=\"display:none;\" > <\/span><\/a> <div  data-type=\"post\" data-object_id=\"9923\" class=\"cbxwpbkmarkguestwrap\" id=\"cbxwpbkmarkguestwrap-9923\"><div class=\"cbxwpbkmarkguest-message\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"cbxwpbkmarkguesttrig_close\"><\/a><h3 class=\"cbxwpbookmark-title cbxwpbookmark-title-login\">Please login to bookmark<\/h3>\n\t\t<form name=\"loginform\" id=\"loginform\" action=\"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-login.php\" method=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"login-username\">\n\t\t\t\t<label for=\"user_login\">Username or Email Address<\/label>\n\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" class=\"input\" value=\"\" size=\"20\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"login-password\">\n\t\t\t\t<label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label>\n\t\t\t\t<input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" class=\"input\" value=\"\" size=\"20\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"login-remember\"><label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" \/> Remember Me<\/label><\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"login-submit\">\n\t\t\t\t<input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button button-primary\" value=\"Log In\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9923\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/form><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is about any religious belief, credence, or denomination from any time and place. What does the girl in the image (Muslim or Catholic) think of this text\u2019s title? Nothing religious without depth Anything purely conceptual \u2013 clear characteristics, crisp boundaries from other concepts \u2013 can be crystal clear but cannot have human depth since <a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/open-religion\/religious-belief-revisited\">Read the full article&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<div data-object_id=\"9923\" class=\"cbxwpbkmarkwrap cbxwpbkmarkwrap_no_cat cbxwpbkmarkwrap-post \"><a  data-redirect-url=\"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9923\"  data-display-label=\"0\" data-show-count=\"0\" data-bookmark-label=\" \"  data-bookmarked-label=\" \"  data-loggedin=\"0\" data-type=\"post\" data-object_id=\"9923\" class=\"cbxwpbkmarktrig  cbxwpbkmarktrig-button-addto\" title=\"Bookmark This\" href=\"#\"><span class=\"cbxwpbkmarktrig-label\"  style=\"display:none;\" > <\/span><\/a> <div  data-type=\"post\" data-object_id=\"9923\" class=\"cbxwpbkmarkguestwrap\" id=\"cbxwpbkmarkguestwrap-9923\"><div class=\"cbxwpbkmarkguest-message\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"cbxwpbkmarkguesttrig_close\"><\/a><h3 class=\"cbxwpbookmark-title cbxwpbookmark-title-login\">Please login to bookmark<\/h3>\n\t\t<form name=\"loginform\" id=\"loginform\" action=\"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-login.php\" method=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"login-username\">\n\t\t\t\t<label for=\"user_login\">Username or Email Address<\/label>\n\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" class=\"input\" value=\"\" size=\"20\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"login-password\">\n\t\t\t\t<label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label>\n\t\t\t\t<input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" class=\"input\" value=\"\" size=\"20\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"login-remember\"><label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" \/> Remember Me<\/label><\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"login-submit\">\n\t\t\t\t<input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button button-primary\" value=\"Log In\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9923\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/form><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/1762-2.jpg?fit=960%2C560&ssl=1","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Fdiq-2A3","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9923"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9923"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9962,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9923\/revisions\/9962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}