Oh my, ai

[wil]

Oops I did it again!

Here's a comparison of the benefits of adhering to one religion versus interspersing interfaith beliefs and practices:

Benefits of dhering to one religion?

Stronger Community & Social Support: Provides a sense of belonging and connection within a community sharing similar beliefs and values.

Deep Spiritual Exploration: Allows for focused exploration of a specific tradition's doctrines, practices, and spiritual paths, fostering a deeper understanding and connection with its teachings.

Clear Ethical Guidelines: Offers a defined moral framework and a set of principles to live by, guiding daily conduct and decision-making.

Sense of Purpose and Meaning: Provides a framework for understanding life's big questions, offering meaning, purpose, and a sense of place within the universe.

Established Rituals and Practices: Offers structured rituals, prayers, and practices that can provide solace, comfort, and a pathway to spiritual growth.

Benefits Interfaith Practice, Picking and Choosing traditions and texts to follow:

Broader Spiritual Perspective: Exposure to a variety of spiritual traditions can broaden one's understanding of faith and enhance personal spiritual development.

Greater Tolerance and Open-mindedness: Fosters a deeper appreciation for diverse religious beliefs and practices, promoting empathy, understanding, and tolerance towards others.

Personalized Spiritual Path: Allows individuals to select aspects of different traditions that resonate with them, creating a unique and meaningful spiritual path.

Combating Dogmatism and Fundamentalism: Encourages critical thinking about religious teachings and helps avoid rigid adherence to any single dogma.

Promoting Unity and Harmony: Can contribute to greater interfaith harmony and understanding, fostering peaceful coexistence and collaboration.


Drawbacks:
Potential for Spiritual Incoherence: Without a cohesive understanding of the interconnectedness of different spiritual teachings, a personalized path might lack depth or consistency, potentially leading to confusion.

Risk of Superficial Understanding: Sampling from various traditions without in-depth study could result in a superficial understanding of individual faiths and their core values.

Difficulty in Community Integration: Finding a supportive community might be challenging for those following a highly personalized spiritual path.

Possibility of Cultural Appropriation: Picking and choosing practices from various cultures without understanding their context could lead to cultural appropriation, which can be disrespectful and hurtful to the communities from which these practices originate.

Potential for Conflict with Orthodox Beliefs: Individuals engaging with interfaith practices might face challenges from more traditional religious communities.

Important Note: It's crucial to approach interfaith practices with respect, humility, and a genuine desire for understanding. Cultural appropriation should be avoided, and practices should be adopted responsibly, with careful consideration of their context and significance within their original traditions.

 

[TheLightWithin]

I was trying to find the dividing lines - The intro lines could be in bold to distinguish where each concept begine.

It looks like you put the benefits for the single tradition, but both benefits and drawbacks for the interfaith path.
What are the drawbacks of the single tradition path? Or is it there but I lost it somehow...

 

[wil]

I was trying to find the dividing lines - The intro lines could be in bold to distinguish where each concept

Yes, my c&p from my phone eliminated bith spaces and bold, i put line spaces back in but not bolds

What are the drawbacks of the single tradition path? Or is it there but I lost it somehow...

And yes, ai left that out

 

[TheLightWithin]

Yes, my c&p from my phone eliminated bith spaces and bold, i put line spaces back in but not bolds

And yes, ai left that out

Uh huh! Sneaky!

 

[talib-al-kalim]

Possibility of Cultural Appropriation: Picking and choosing practices from various cultures without understanding their context could lead to cultural appropriation, which can be disrespectful and hurtful to the communities from which these practices originate.

In my opinion, labelling "Cultural Appropriation" negatively is a fundamental error in the Woke movement. People learn from each other. Why shouldn't a European like and perform Reggae music and wear dreadlocks? It's a feeling of sympathy for an aspect of the culture of Jamaica, and the music has been inspired by other styles with African, Afro-American and "white" American roots. Chinese musicians perform European classical music and wear traditional European clothes made in Bangladesh; Kenyan music has been inspired by American Country music and is still different.
The same, learning from other religions is an expression of sympathy and respect for it, even if you put it into your own context.

Potential for Conflict with Orthodox Beliefs: Individuals engaging with interfaith practices might face challenges from more traditional religious communities.

I already hear the Salafists cry "imitation of disbelievers". I chose a way in between: keep to one religion in openness, learn to understand and use it for approfundation of the spiritual practice.

 

[TheLightWithin]

Possibility of Cultural Appropriation: Picking and choosing practices from various cultures without understanding their context could lead to cultural appropriation, which can be disrespectful and hurtful to the communities from which these practices originate.

If a religion evangelizes -- Buddhism, Baha'i, Islam, Christianity, (have I left any proselytizing religions out?) have all evangelized and spread - I guess the proactive and even aggressive proselytization absolves the converts of cultural appropriation - or I suppose so.

However, the thought about "not understanding the cultural context" still seems meaningful. Is it not plausible to think Buddhists, Baha'i, Muslims and Christians worldwide have profoundly different ideas than those of their founders?

 

[Thomas]

In my opinion, labelling "Cultural Appropriation" negatively is a fundamental error in the Woke movement. People learn from each other.

I think generally 'cultural appropriation' highlights the negative aspects whereas 'cultural appreciation' is the more positive?

For example, the British Museum is a repository of the arts looted from those lands that Great Britain traded with and plundered in her colonial heyday. It wasn't a case of learning from those cultures, as simply taking what caught they eye to decorate one's own home, with no regard at all for their value and context within their home setting.

The same, learning from other religions is an expression of sympathy and respect for it, even if you put it into your own context.

In which case it's not what is understood by the term 'cultural appropriation'.

 

[wil]

In my opinion, labelling "Cultural Appropriation" negatively is a fundamental error in the Woke movement.

I guess it is likely that your bias against woke folk (you know, folks that respond like Jesus of the bible) may have caused you.to miss a few words in the statement

"Possibility of Cultural Appropriation: Picking and choosing practices from various cultures without understanding their context could lead to cultural appropriation, which can be disrespectful and hurtful to the communities from which these practices originate."

Seems.to me ai got than one 100%.correct and covered its bases to do so...now if it had left all those out...younmight have a point.

 

[TheLightWithin]

In my opinion, labelling "Cultural Appropriation" negatively is a fundamental error in the Woke movement.

The same, learning from other religions is an expression of sympathy and respect for it, even if you put it into your own context.

I think what has happened is that Westerners have often taken things from other cultures rather unsympathetically or even mockingly, or at the very least having no appreciation of the context, such as portraying something from another culture disrespectfully or insensitively, or evoking stereotypes, especially if it is something meaningful from that culture played off as a joke or something.
This is just a Wikipedia entry, but it does go into several examples and context for this around the world and across time
(including examples within a culture where the wealthy adopt lower class clothing as sporting clothing, such as an example from the British Isles)

Cultural appropriation - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

By the way, what is your definition or at least understanding of what "woke" means? People often are dismissive or disapproving of "wokeness" but nobody ever seems to have a definition.

To me, "woke" just means "not asleep"