2006-08-20 12:22:20 · 26 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Pure fiction doesnt chop off heads for Allah.
2006-08-20 12:40:41 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Religious belief differs in two ways: 1. if it's manufactured fiction from a person's mind, it is projected outward, attributed to a deity, and then along the way this projection mechanism is forgotten and the deity is worshipped as if those projected attributes were real; fictional stories don't involve the use of this mechanism (everyone knows the story is fictional and they don't try to make it something it isn't); 2. If the 'belief' is treated as a symbolic set of concepts that are used as tools to try and reduce one's ego and potentially get a direct experience (enlightenment), then the person is using the fictional concepts of the belief system in the right way - as a spiritual path. This of course differs from the intent of a fictionaly story.
2006-08-20 19:35:58 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
History
2006-08-20 19:34:40 · answer #3 · answered by Shinigami 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes. Religious belief is a fiction that is incorporated as an internalized filter... a part of one's self-description.
There are 2 forms of reality:
Objective (fundamental) (absolute) reality... what IS
Subjective (personal) reality... what we THINK is, or PERCEIVE to be.
Our senses can perceive only a tiny fraction of a billionth of a billionth of the stimuli that is provided by the universe. Most of what we DO perceive (see, feel, hear, smell, touch) gets filtered out by the subconscious, beneath our level of awareness. The little bit that DOES make it past the subconscious gets processed through the internal filters that make up our 'self-description':
* Misconceptions
* Prejudices
* Beliefs
* Experiential reference
* Knowledge base
It is from THAT process that 'subjective reality' emerges... our own personal view of the world... an interpretation of the universe, shaped by our self-description.
There is only ONE 'objective reality'. There are as many 'subjective realities' as there are sentient minds.
The only path to personal and spiritual evolution involves ELIMINATING those first three filters, and then cleaning up the last two filters, absent the influence of the first three.
So... when someone adopts a 'belief', such as "God created the universe, as described in Genesis," it gets internalized as a component filter... as a part of one's 'self description'. This 'belief' is the CERTAINTY that one knows the 'TRUTH' of some fundamental aspect of existence and reality. Ideas that have something to do with those beliefs get interpreted IN THE CONTEXT of those beliefs. Since it is based on 'faith' (wishful, magical thinking), these 'beliefs' have no validity whatsoever... they are mere delusions.
Religious, faith-based 'belief' is an insidious mind-killer... it cuts off the mind from consideration of alternative possibilities.
Fiction does not do that.
2006-08-20 20:10:12 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
The Quran has presented to us many scientific secrets that many are still searching answers for or still haven't discovered. This includes biology, geology, astronomy and many others. So i have evidence. Some atheists have recently discovered some scientific facts that Muslims had already known about hundreds of years ago. So that's what distinguishes my faith - Islam - to fiction.
2006-08-20 19:33:33 · answer #5 · answered by Confused 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Religious belief and pure fiction are both real.
However, religious belief relies entirely upon fiction for its existence, whereas that self-same fiction exists independently of religious belief.
2006-08-20 19:32:34 · answer #6 · answered by the last ninja 6 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Religion can convince people to go to war? I've never seen anyone go to war over Asimov's 4 Laws of Robotics (4, because I include the Zero'th Law in with the traditional 3).
2006-08-20 19:28:22 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Choice...., when you choose to belief in something, God, spirit etc. it links you to an existence, soul, God, spirit etc. that existed before you came on the scene. Fiction is you imagination at work
without spirit. Both are storytelling with imagination, one links you to you, your past, present and future, the real life, fiction knows it is fiction and lifeless. ( you can bring fiction to life in movies)Religious belief knows that man is a real feeling, thinking, sensing and living being, and it asks questions about the past, present and future. In both cases man is the writer, of memory, in the story telling etc. Religion is as old as man, wired into us. Is fiction telling wired into us?
2006-08-20 19:53:23 · answer #8 · answered by curious 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Religion includes "tools" to help us improve our lives. For example, praying for other people gets us thinking about others besides ourselves. Reading the Scriptures (I'm not talking about the Bible in particular) can help us see how some saints lived good lives despite travails, and they can inspire us (whether fiction or not). Religion is more than these tales though. It is something you do. Not just something you believe.
2006-08-20 19:31:38 · answer #9 · answered by Heron By The Sea 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
People are rarely tortured and murdered in the name of fiction.
2006-08-20 19:28:33 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋