0.5 Are religious and political ideas delusional manifestations of  (Page 2/8)

Perhaps someone can be just spiritual and reach their own conclusions of how they should act and interact and the values they hold instead of being taught by a religion. That could be classified as personal values with spirituality and religious values if they follow the values of their religion.

What religious ideas mean

Religious ideas such as immortality and a spirit can actually be translated into more common or practical words or terms. I already mentioned how religious ideas were just a different way of thinking of things. Being in touch with your spirit or with reality could be described in a different way that is more understandable to people - such as how in scientology people can repeat painful experiences on purpose people who are Hindu could get in touch with the 'ultimate reality' through suffering and sacrifice.

Pain and the unconscious

Pain is an important part of the unconscious mind. If you think about it, since emotion is unconscious then pain is extremely unconscious because pain is both physical (instead of intellectual) and emotional.

Many religions involve dealing with pain and pleasure and the influence of those feelings on people's lives.

What exactly is a religious idea, a value, or a political policy?

Religious ideas can be political policies. But the important question really is - what kind of ideas are religious ideas? Are they psychological ideas or morals that guide someones life? Not all religious ideas can be described exactly as values. I am not just suggesting a debate about the definitions of the words 'political policy or theory' 'value' 'moral' and 'religious idea' but I am also suggesting that entire doctrines can be described in that fashion.

Are religious values psychological constructs?

In order to start this section first I need to ask the question - what is a mental construct? The unconscious mind can construct or manifest many ideas that the conscious mind holds. A humans imagination is largely unconscious because it is too difficult to think clearly about such things. Dreaming is unconscious and uses a significant amount of imagination, but I am not suggesting that the conscious minds ideas that come from an unconscious imagination are false or not accurate.

An example of an unconscious motivation generating a mental construct is a religious value - a religious value can mean different things to different people and be interpreted in different ways because it is an abstract concept. There are many ideas and concepts that people think about every day that are abstract; however some are very powerful concepts and have a long term hold over a persons mind. A single value can tilt or modify how more regular emotions are felt throughout a day. An example of such a value could be depriving oneself of excessive amounts of pleasure - there is the real emotional effect (the reality) - and there is how that person thinks about that experience, both could both help determine the feelings involved.

So there are different religious values. Different religions value different things, ideas and values. They also have different ways of worship. Ideas about how much pleasure someone is supposed to experience in life is one of the major concepts. What is a spirit? What is reality? Who is god? These are some of the important religious questions that different religions ask.