Quote:
Originally Posted by spence
Most people are spiritual to some degree,
Ah, Spence's spectrum--even spirituality exists in degrees. No doubt with degrees from extreme spiritualism to total materialism. And the centrist, mainstream, spirituality would be comfortably in the middle of that. Sort of a well balanced spiritual view . . .used when needed to assuage vexations from the unknown and to call upon higher powers when, say, right wingers threaten to overwhelm you. And, then, a healthy taste for skeptic carpe diem when you're riding high.
that being said I'd assume this means a belief in spirits.
Yes, but not an extreme belief. That would be intolerant. More like a belief in the clean spirits. Well, not just a belief (that implies that dirty ones also exist and must be believed in) but more of an affinity for and a dependence on. The dirty spirits would be driving the forces that are against you, say, like evil right wingers and insane, intolerant, extreme Palinites and Tea Baggers.
This is a far cry from claiming first person direction from God, literal interpretations of the Bible or otherwise absurdly intolerant beliefs that conflict with mainstream positions.
-spence
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Yes, one must never assume that a spirit, or God, would personally direct an individual. Spirits can only be called upon by groups. Especially groups that don't take their belief in the spirits to extreme directions. And any word or direction that God or spirits give to groups must not be interpreted literally. These words are living, breathing entities that take on different meanings as groups morph along the spectrum and the mainstream evolves. Yesterdays mainstream was right for its time. Todays mainstream perceives the intolerant beliefs of yesterdays. And the future mainstreams . . . all will be well if we just stay in the middle of that spiritual spectrum and stick with the clean spirits.