Modernisation and the spread of deism

With modernisation those in the West experienced a move away from theism, which was at least open to experiencing Godde, toward deism, which believes that Godde is no longer present and hence suspicious of any claims to such effect. A number of years back the trend was to leave the religions of the West, which were devoid of personal experience, to find a religion, usually Eastern or later New Age, which offered personal experience as support for alternative beliefs. The rest of the world has by now either modernised or is in the process of modernising. With it there comes the displacement of religion and the spread of deism into non-Western religions. Now we can readily find religious beliefs disconnected from personal experience in every part of the world. Were we used to find Christians looking for a real experience of Godde, whatever that may be, we now find Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Primal Religions, such as African Traditional Religion, following the same course.

beyond enriched poverty

The relationship between religion and experience is a complicated one to get our head around and I make a sincere bow of respect to anyone who has attempted doing so … *bow * … Some would say that there is no relationship between religion and personal experience, i.e. that religious people believe in dogmas but don’t experience what they talk about. This is true when you see or hear people pointing back to the experience(s) of others, contained in sacred texts and sacred stories, but aren’t able to tell any such stories themselves. If we only remember the experience(s) but aren’t able to have such experience ourselves then surely we’re spiritually impoverished? For many there is a rich and vibrant relationship between their belief(s) and their experience(s).

When it comes to religion, spirituality and experience there is often a strong relationship between “revelation” and “commitment,” at least close to the point in time when someone personally commits themselves to one faith group or another. Here the idea of “revelation” and “personal revelation” come into the picture. And so I’d like to briefly comment on “revelation” and “mysticism”.