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I'd like to start off by quoting what Robban wrote as a memory point. I've highlighted in bold what I'm responding to as it relates to your post.
That is what existential faith actually is. It is a blind leap of faith without any substance to base the faith on except a personal belief that something is true.
I think that your faith has more substance than that of an atheist because you believe the Law and the Prophets as contained in the Torah.
Yes, I can see how seeing God in this Creation can seem like another language. In a way it is because it's certainly a different reality than this material one most of us are in. And coming from a different reality means a different language to draw upon. And talking about Panenthesim as the Divine being Immanent is an example.Those words look like speaking in tongues to me. My doctor once made a diagnosis of a condition I had and he expressed it in medical language. I told him that he was speaking in tongues and I would try those words in church next Sunday!!He has a sense of humour and we had a chuckle about it.
That's actually pretty intresting, I think a lot of ideas in spirituality overlap and are compatible. More so then we usually give them credit for. Maybe this is because of simple human psychology or because spirituality is more diverse then most think. Probably a bit of both.It's a bit tricky, since Hinduism has a handful of different traditions within it (most of which I know nothing about, since I'm only really interested in Vedanta). The avatar doctrine is specifically associated with Vaishnavism, which is the branch of Hinduism that considers Vishnu as the Supreme God. The idea is that Vishnu has descended to earth a number of times--whenever the cosmos is out of balance, an avatar appears to reestablish what is correct. Rama and Krishna are two of the major incarnations of Vishnu, and sometimes the Buddha will get wrapped into the system as yet another incarnation.
Of course, we have to keep in mind that in Hinduism, even a god like Vishnu is really more of a manifestation of Ultimate Reality than being that Ultimate Reality itself. Which is where things get really fun, since if Vishnu is a culturally informed way of relating to God and can have incarnate avatars, then Christianity is actually very easily fit into the Hindu system--Jesus is the avatar of the Hebrew aspect of God, and not exactly unique. Have fun, apologists.
I go with the spirituality is more diverse than most think. We tend to get struck into tribes thinking that our tribes spirituality is the only true way.
I tend to think it's more human psychology but you have a point, people strive to belong. I had a person try to convert me to christianity recently who has never read the bible. She converted just from watching passion of the christ" but she tries so hard to belong. On a unrelated note happy new years dlamberth.
