StevePavlina.com Podcast #013 – Beyond Religion
April 3rd, 2006 by Steve Pavlina
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StevePavlina.com Personal Development for Smart People podcast #13: Beyond Religion
Many readers/listeners have asked me privately about my particular religious and spiritual beliefs. Sometimes people also email me after making certain assumptions about what belief system I must follow, based on reading a subset of my articles. If you’ve actually read all of my articles and tried to guess what my spiritual beliefs are, you’d probably find it very difficult. Sometimes I write like an atheist, other times like a Buddhist, and still other times like some new agey person.
But the real truth is that I don’t identify with any particular belief system. Rather, I tend to shift between belief systems like you might switch between different programs on your computer, based on which piece of software is the most appropriate tool for the current situation. If you discuss time management with me, you might think I’m an atheist. If you discuss meditation with me, you might assume I’m a Buddhist. And if you discuss consciousness with me, you might think I follow some sort of new age philosophy. But none of these scenarios would give you an accurate picture.
I want to challenge the idea that you must make your religious and spiritual beliefs a part of your identity (ex. “I am a Catholic” or “I am an atheist”). I think that when you weave any philosophical, religious, or spiritual framework into your identity, you severely limit yourself, becoming like a computer that runs only one piece of software. In this podcast I present an alternative way to think about your most sacred beliefs, such that you gain their strengths without suffering their limitations. Think of this as Spirituality 2.0.
Enjoy the podcast…
Pavlina-013-Beyond-Religion.mp3
(Time = 23:29, Size = 10.7MB)
Visit the audio section to play this podcast directly through your web browser and to view the entire podcast collection.
May 8th, 2006 at 7:16 am
Carnival of the Podcasts (Finally)
Ok, finally getting back to the Carnival of Podcasts (I deserve 30 lashes for the lapse in posting it), here are this week’s entries. Actually, some of these entries are 1-2 weeks in waiting, so again…shame on me and I appologize. For those of you n…
July 7th, 2006 at 4:23 am
[...] During the drive into work this morning, I listened to a Podcast by Steve Pavlina titled, Beyond Religion. He made some very interesting points regarding the idea of embracing conflicting ideas: I want to challenge the idea that you must make your religious and spiritual beliefs a part of your identity (ex. “I am a Catholic” or “I am an atheist”). I think that when you weave any philosophical, religious, or spiritual framework into your identity, you severely limit yourself, becoming like a computer that runs only one piece of software. [...]
July 10th, 2006 at 6:11 am
[...] I don’t identify myself with any particular belief system, philosophy, or religion, so this question doesn’t have any meaning for me. Just as your computer wouldn’t identify itself as the software it runs, I don’t identify myself as the beliefs I hold in my consciousness. I strive to install and understand lots of different beliefs, even seemingly conflicting ones. I’m neither a Christian nor a Buddhist nor an agnostic, just as my PC is neither MS-Word nor Photoshop nor iTunes. I explained this in detail in Podcast #013 – Beyond Religion. [...]
January 29th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
[...] Steve and Erin also does podcasts (and got wonderful podcast voices). Some of my favourites are How to make money without a job, Beyond religion and The true nature of reality. [...]
April 25th, 2007 at 6:51 am
[...] While I’ve placed more emphasis on some belief lenses than others in my writing (usually with the intention of counter-balancing the already socially dominant ones), I value the total collection above and beyond any single piece. Consequently, you may read one of my articles and conclude I’m an atheist, another will suggest I’m very new agey, and still others will convince you I’m neither (or just plain neurotic). The truth is that I value all of these lenses, but I don’t equate myself with any of them. As I explained in Podcast #13: Beyond Religion, belief systems are like software running on a PC. A PC can run many different types of software without having an identity crisis. Imagine if your PC happily ran Microsoft Word but refused to let you install QuickBooks, shouting, “Dammit, Jim. I’m a writer, not an accountant.” (Of course, some QuickBooks users would say your PC is doing you a favor.) Yet this is precisely what human beings do when they say, “I’m an atheist. End of story.” Some people will even die to defend their identity, an act which, although some may perceive as noble or honorable, is often performed by those suffering from spiritual sensory deprivation. [...]