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Gerrard 1 year, 1 month ago.
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Would you say that insanity leads to enlightenment to some degree? Do we have to become so disillusioned, hurt and burnt out on old ways of living and ways of thinking that we have no choice but to reach for a new way of seeing and living? It seems for me that the times when I was at the end of my rope and I didn’t feel I could even go on anymore, that’s when my understanding has grown the most. What is your experience?
Perhaps it’s that we become disillusioned, hurt and burnt out on the insanity and start to reach out for sanity. And that’s why the growth starts to happen.
We are all different. I never suffered burn out within a church environment. Apart from being church treasurer for 8 years I never had a leadership role. I just became disillusioned with a lack of ‘radical’ Christianity and walked away. Later I spent some 20 years as a member of a Christian church that has in the past been referred to, not unreasonably, as either a cult or a sect. Only when that church announced that much of its theology was misguided was I forced to reconsider just about everything I had been taught. Even then it was about another ten years before I realised that my beliefs had been based almost entirely on ‘head knowledge’ and not on ‘heart awareness’. It was only after that that my faith began to come alive.
I think it’s the other way around….to fully delve into Fundamentalism I think you give up the ability to be rational and think critically. Not that Fundamentalists don’t have the capability, they just choose not to use it. To take everything literally from Adam and Eve to the rapture and deal with the contradictions in the Bible, I think you have to give those up, at least in regards to religion. the disillusionment, hurt and burn out bring people back to reality.
I am reminded of one popular definition of “insanity”: attempting the same unsuccessful task repeatedly in the hope the outcome will change. :-/
Looking at it that way, I feel like the way the church teaching goes ’round-and-’round-and-’round without seeming to really get anywhere feels like a type of insanity. It was just earlier this year I got sick of trying to find something new in that cycle and broke myself out of it. I discovered even more recently that I’d found out how to be unafraid to try something new and different – and abandoning this insanity was one of the effects of that.
However, there’s a lot to do with your point-of-view. In discussions with a few friends, I am unavoidably reminded of the primacy they place in the Bible and its capacity to speak God’s word. But also the implicit reminder they do not believe in the existence of other spiritual paths. I don’t hold quite those views anymore – and so my path could be seen as a type of “insanity”. Especially as I’ve been in that position for many years!
Wade.
I am reminded of one popular definition of “insanity”: attempting the same unsuccessful task repeatedly in the hope the outcome will change. :-/
Looking at it that way, I feel like the way the church teaching goes ’round-and-’round-and-’round without seeming to really get anywhere feels like a type of insanity. It was just earlier this year I got sick of trying to find something new in that cycle and broke myself out of it. I discovered even more recently that I’d found out how to be unafraid to try something new and different – and abandoning this insanity was one of the effects of that.
However, there’s a lot to do with your point-of-view. In discussions with a few friends, I am unavoidably reminded of the primacy they place in the Bible and its capacity to speak God’s word. But also the implicit reminder they do not believe in the existence of other spiritual paths. I don’t hold quite those views anymore – and so my path could be seen as a type of “insanity”. Especially as I’ve been in that position for many years!
Wade.
After going to church for 42 years and even while trying different churches yielded no different results in me. The thing I had to change was church attendance itself. Outside of that institution, I feel closer to God without going through the motions. The exploration of my faith outside stained glass has been so rewarding and it is, indeed, producing a different result in me.
AnonymousPerhaps enlightenment leads to insanity – ha! I don’t really mean that, but it does hold true in this sense: after you have left the church and no longer believe a lot of that theological/Biblical crap, nothing can make you feel more insane than trying to have a rational discussion with a fundamentalist!
Good point, Jo! Maybe that is where the insanity comes in for the enlightened person.
With a world that is quote unquote <i>insane</i> the waking up process of becoming enlightened to your world view that best fits your perception of the events of your life and the events of others- enlightenment <strong>is</strong> insanity.
To be enlightened is to see things differently than the masses who are marching on towards a blind dogmatic following. To be enlightened is to wake up from all the lies and deception that have been shoved down your throat.
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