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trp-72d   

A Reasonables' New-Vision Project

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Religion Versus Spirituality

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Religion Versus Spirituality:   

When we think of religion, we commonly confuse a religion's original, and basic philosophy with the social hierarchy (the men) that now control the religion's social structure.   Today (2006)  the most obvious examples of this can be found in radical Islam and in ultra-conservative, fundamentalist Christianity.  ** See the Note below   

Doing the Impossible:  

Whatever it is we call "God" is unknown and unknowable.   The nature of God is often referred to as the world's greatest mystery.°   Even the Christian bible tells us we don't know how god functions  (See Ecclesiastes 11:5, Ecclesiastes 3:11,  & 1Corinthians 2:14°),  and yet, those who run religion's social structures purport to be able to do the impossible -- to tell people "the truth" about that unknown and unknowable "God."   

How does one function in circumstances where no one can be certain what the truth actually is?   The rational answer is to look at what the available evidence tells us is most probably the truth and then function as if that theory were the truth, and at the same time, test the theory and seek further evidence.

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Assuming that Beliefs are Facts:   

Some of the original seers out of whom the  major religions have grown, may have actually touched the truth about God, but many of the social structures that have evolved from those master teachers have seriously distorted  the original teachings, and many of the present-day activities are anything but Godly.   With no evidence to support their claims they have made up stories (beliefs) and simply declared their stories to be factual truths.

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The men in control of these religious factions have set aside the basic truths of their respective religions in favor of a social structure that keeps themselves in power.   Under such circumstances, one must, of necessity, bring the mind into play and ask: "What is the truest truth,°  (what is "the real truth")  underlying the religion I practice?"  

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Humans Are, by Nature, Spiritual Beings:   

All religions and all social structures tend to reflect a common, spiritual foundation.   The list of distinctions below, speaks specifically of the conservative, fundamentalist Christians and compares them to a very general category of people whose spiritual awareness gives them a broader view° than that which can be found in any single religion.

Church and State --  How do they relate?   

Because humans are, by nature, spiritual beings, we cannot separate god from our daily lives or from the social and political structures humans create.   Thus the church/state separation controversy is mis-focused.   The correct issue is how do we honor everybody's religious rights.°  

 Thirty Distinctions        ...

The Many Distinctions:  

Knowing the  differences between external, religion-based beliefs   and   internally focused, spiritual awareness   gives those aware of these distinctions an evidence based foundation upon which to live their lives.   An extensive list of distinctions is included below. 

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External, Religion-based Beliefs      Internally Focused, Spiritual Awareness

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Religion 
as the fundamentalist 
Christians are expressing it:

Spiritual consciousness 
found quite readily among
 The Reasonables:

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Religion teaches its followers what to think.

Spirituality encourages people to learn how to think.

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Religion asks people to trust someone else.   

Spirituality invites everyone to trust themselves.

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Religions are led by other peoples ideas.  

Spirituality  is led on guidance from within.  

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Religion teaches believers never to question authority.

Spirituality teaches people to question everything.

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Religion conforms to the letter of established law.

Spirituality is guided by the spirit of the human heart.

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Religion is mindless.  It teaches people to  follow the rules and rituals and never ask why.

Spirituality combines head and heart to form a conscious connection to The Source of All That Is.

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Religions teach their followers that they can connect to God only by joining the church and by following the church's rules — rules defined and laid down by the church elders.

Spirituality acknowledges that every human being has his or her own direct connection to God by way of the God-Self within.  (See Matthew 6:5-6   and  Luke 17:21)

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Religion teaches its followers that personal behavior is dictated by church rules.  

Religion  offers a place onto which one can project responsibility, and thus, disown personal responsibility for one’s actions because they were group sanctioned actions.   It offers a mindless connection to God where troubling questions can simply be ignored.

Spirituality teaches that personal behavior is a function of knowing in one's own heart what’s right and wrong and then following that inner guidance.   

Spirituality teaches that the mind must be brought into play --  that there is no one else to blame for whatever is dysfunctional in the outside world or in one's own personal life.

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Religion is afraid of challenges --  challenges threaten its existence. 

Spirituality welcomes challenges -- Challenges are food for  growth and to tools with which to become stronger.

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Religion teaches that heaven is a place somewhere above the clouds.

Spirituality teaches that heaven is a state of being.

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Religion follows the beliefs of long-dead ancestors.

Spirituality is reborn moment-by-moment right-here right-now.   It is born out of one's own knowing that every person is a divine being having a human experience.

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Religious leaders  teach that their particular brand of religion is the only true religion — that their religion is the one and only pathway to God —that all other religions are myths.

Spirituality is all inclusive and teaches that every religion is its own pathway to God.    Spirituality acknowledges that trying to stick God into a single religion is like trying to fit the universe into a shoe box.  

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The Western Christian religions teach that humans are their physical bodies.

Spirituality teaches that humans are divine beings experiencing an earth-life in a human body.

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Religion  has all too often carries a gun.

Spirituality  has only one weapon,  the truth.

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Religions have doctrine and dogma. 

Spirituality  has rainbows and butterflies.

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Only the first fifteen of about fifty distinctions are listed here.  For the additional distinctions please go to:   The Distinction List - Page 2.

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Bringing Religion into the 21st Century

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Traditional fundamentalist religions  create communities based upon dozens of unprovable beliefs such as:  humans are inherently evil -- humans are separate from each other, separate from nature, and separate from God.   Traditional religions  create  communities based  upon  fixed, ancient, immutable doctrines  --  upon claims of exclusive access to God  -- upon their side being being right and good -- upon all others being wrong and bad --  upon reward and punishment -- upon a black-or-white-only perspective on reality.   

Traditional religions  create  communities that deny reason, deny logic, deny reality, deny common sense, deny the physical evidence, and deny the mind's role in relating to God.   Traditional religions  create  communities that consider questions about their beliefs to be the work of the devil.   Traditional religions  create  communities that are run by people who claim to already know all their is to know about what God is and how God functions, about how the universe was created, about what life is, about when it begins and ends, and why humans are here on Earth.   

It's Wakeup Time:   Obviously some people have woken up to the absurdity of blindly following antiquated, Medieval, beliefs and unprovable claims about God.   Many newly-created or newly-revised groups, broadly categorized under the label "Spirituality,"  have added logic, reason, the evidence, and commons sense to their Christian roots and are becoming more and more popular.   Here's an overview of the possible alternatives to traditional fundamentalist Christianity:

As an alternative:   What if we kept the kind, loving, generous, and open-hearted  aspects of the followers of traditional religions and created spiritually oriented communities based on mutual support -- upon tolerance  and allowing --  upon the unity of everything and everyone including God, nature, and each other -- and upon seeking the truth no matter where that truth leads.  What if we created spiritually oriented communities that honor the mind's role in relating to God -- that bring  reason,  logic,  reality, common sense, and  the physical evidence into one's spiritual life.  

What If . . .    What if everybody's truth is correct, but only within it's own context.   What if all truths are only part truths?    What if  some of the additional and previously-missing pieces of information were to be added to each truth?   How would that change the meaning of present-day religious beliefs?  

What if whatever it is that we call "God" is the ultimate mystery of life?  What if we really don't know what God is, or how He/She/It  functions.   What if life doesn't begin and conception, at birth or at any other place?   What if life simply changes form and moves into a different dimension of reality?   What if there are dimensions where time and space, as we know them, don't exist?  What if the universe is filled with mysteries about which we are profoundly ignorant?   What if the origin of life and the consciousness behind that origin are unknown and unknowable?    

What if there really is  a difference between reality and what we believe about reality?  What if we really don't know all those things we claim to know?   

What if 
life is not 
what you've been 
led to believe it is by 
those who claim to know?  

Then you've been making critical, irreversible, life altering 
decisions based upon false, incomplete, and/or intentionally
deceptive information!

Think about that for a moment.   How does that make you feel?   

How are you going to be about this?  Note the distinction between doing and being.   Doing, by itself, accomplishes little or nothing.   It's usually a form of symptom-treating or futile gesturing.   

Doing, in  the context of being, produces phenomenal transformations.   Who are you?  What are you?   How do you choose to be in your present Earthly circumstances?   What will that lead you to do?   

If you are ready for a change, click on either of the two links below.

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Religion and Reality - Home Page: 

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In case you hadn't noticed: 

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The Reasonables' New-Vision Project

Continues on 

Page 3  ---  The Foundations of Religion°   

and on

Page 9a  ---  The Critical Decision° 

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Take Me Back to the Project Site Map

A New Vision for Your Life°     

Safe, Dependable, Tangible-asset, Retirement Funds°      

Save the Redwoods Environmental  Preservation Trust°     

Supporting Evidence°     

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Coaching Clients       Coaching Clients       ...

End of 
 Religion Versus Spirituality

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OK, Now What?  When you become one of our coaching clients, we'll take the life coaching exercises and the concepts described on our websites to their next level.   We'll help you to determine which of them are for you, and then we'll show you how, when, and where to make the best use of them.   We'll also expand each of the chosen topics and concepts to their logical conclusions. 

Free Session:  We have found that the best way for you to get a clear sense of what we have to offer is for you to experience a coaching session.   Then, by personal experience, you'll know what we can do for you and what you can expect to gain from coaching.   The introductory consultation is a free, personal, private, one-on-one session.

Your Choice:  In addition to the examples included on our website, there are literally dozens of additional ways we can assist you.   You tell us about your specific goals, needs, and desires, and then, based on your own heart and on our advice, you can decide what is the next best step for you.

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The N.V.P.  Team's Invitation:     

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Do you feel that you are one of:   The Kicked-out  --  The Left-out --   The Walked-out  --  The Walked on -- or The Disenfranchised?   Have you been successful at your career, but still feel something still missing in your life?   Are you a person who could be thought of as "one of  the less fortunate of our brothers and sisters?"   Do you have a dream or a vision for yourself that you've never manifested?

If any of these descriptions fit you, you are invited to join with us in re-building a structure that honors: 1) the latest scientific evidence about the nature of reality and human life,  2)  the commonly accepted theories about life offered over the centuries by the world's most renowned philosophers, and 3)  the previously ignored teachings of Jesus and the Christian Bible.  (i.e.  Christianity without the dogma and the fairytales.)

The Reasonables Project will show you how, without asking permission from anybody and from the ground up, the project's participants are re-creating their own lives and filling their lives with joy, abundance, cooperation, love, and freedom.   You are invited into the project, and when you accept this invitation, The N.V.P. Team members will show you and assist you in doing the same for yourself.    (Please note that the N.V.P. Team does not have any magic bullets or instant cures, and the team won't play the game of life for you.) 

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You're invited to join the N.V.P. Team 
       on an adventure into consciousness. 

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            As part of your adventure
                   you'll see your own life 
                        from a perspective  we guarantee 
                             you've never seen before.

818/727-0727

Ask for Robin

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Life Coaching   *   Success Coaching

                   at  Life Coach 4 VIP .com 

Copyright © 2005 --  Revisions Copyright 2006    Robert E. Coté

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**a   .

Confusing a Religion's Original 
with its Present-day Social  Structure.   

**a   This same confusion is presently expressing itself in the lack of distinction between the Republic of the United States of America as set up by our Founding Fathers and the so-called democracy which presently, by illusion, deception, and violence, is enslaving the residents of the fifty American states in a quasi-fascist, federally controlled, semi-police state.   But please don't believe me.   Examine the evidence.   As one example, readers are invited to examine the seven main principles of the Communist manifesto and see how many of them you are presently living under.

Central control of the monetary system  --  Control and limit access to the media  -- Control of public travel  --  Excessive taxation, --  Disarm the citizens -- Secrecy in government via deceptions, illusions, spins of the truth, lies of omission, etc.     

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Some "holy truths" are sacred; others are full of holes? 

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The Reasonables' New-Vision Project

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