this comes from "Finding Your Religion" by Rev. Scotty McLennan (he has been parodied in Doonesbury's Scot Sloan - he and Garry Trudeau were college roommates). I LOVE this book.

Anyway, he has a religious development stage that I find interesting. So, I'll write verbatim and I'd be interested in your thoughts:

"Stage One (magic)
1. Is your world full of spirits and demons?
2. Are fairy tales your favorite kind of literature?
3. Do you think God makes everything happen, for good and bad?

Stage Two (Reality)
1. Do you spend a lot of time trying to determine what's real and what's not?
2. Are scriptures true in a concrete and literal sense, rather than being stories and maxims that may or may not be real?
3. Do you feel you can influence God's actions by being good?

Stage Three (Dependence)
1. Do you have a very important peer group or leader who is primarily responsible for shaping your faith?
2. Is it important to you to understand and follow religious doctrine and moral rules?
3. Is your main image of God that of a perfect parent?

Stage Four (Independence)
1. Is your spiritual life unique and personal?
2. Do you often find yourself wanting to demystify scripture?
3. Do you think of God or Ultimate Reality primarily as an impersonal force or spirit (or as nonexistent)?

Stage Five (Interdependence)
1. Do you find a spiritual community important to you at the same time that you maintain your own distinctive faith?
2. Do you experience spiritual power in religious symbols and myths that you can also analyze objectively?
3. Do you conceive of God or Ultimate Reality both as a person and as an impersonal force?

Stage Six (Unity)
1. Do you sense yourself in community with religiously committed people of any and all traditions?
2. Is your consciousness ego-free and beyond paradox and ambiguity?
3. Do you often feel that God or divine spirit is in everything and that everything exists in God or divine spirit?"

discuss?

I think I can relate to one or two of each, except for stage six. I qualify for all 3, but I don't feel community with al traditions. I guess some wouldn't be comfortable with mine, and that would make me uncomfortable.

Hard to say..but stage 5 I think mostly.

I'm definitely in stage 4. Trying to work and to grow. It took a backseat recently and I need to get back on the wagon.

I wanted to add that #6, second part is something I struggle with - it is up and down.

I wanted to add that #6, second part is something I struggle with - it is up and down.

you know, just me, but I'd be really surprised if many people in this world didn't have struggles with #2. That is a very tall order - I hope to get there one day, but, wow, that's a tough one.

stage five I think

What exactly is paradox? Sorry ~I have heard the word adn think I know, but I am not sure I really do.

#6 except for the second statement. With that one I struggle.

Tara

I'd say stage 5 for the most part.

I'd say Stage 6 -- though, like many have mentioned, #2 is something I strive for, not something I've achieved. Not even close.

ETA: Re. Stage 6, #3, I know that God is in all things, but have to remind myself of this often since it is so easy to forget and/or lose that feeling.

Discussion...The list looks pretty new-agey to me. (which to me is a bad thing basically because new age is nothing new...it's the stuff the devil has been promising forever...just look in the book of Genesis inthe Bible) I guess I am in "Stage 3".
I don't think one can base their religion on themselves and their own ideas and ever be "ego free" and to me that's QUITE a paradox.
JMO

Discussion...The list looks pretty new-agey to me.

Ya. That's my feeling too. I think it's similar to ideas presented in Soul Stories by Gary Zukov (I haven't read his other books yet). The list implicates that very definite religions are "only" in stage 3 (most organized religions!), but that new age beliefs are stage 6. When really, if this is truly about FAITH, I would say that stage 3 is much more full of faith than stage 6. and it just doesn't make sense to me. I see #3 in stage six as being entirely more infantile than almost anything else on the list.

I would fit no where at all on the list. I currently think of myself as an atheist. I do not have faith in the divine, I have faith in myself (well, sometimes anyway!) and in human nature.

As a last point, I was trying to figure out where I would've been when I was still heavily religious and full of faith. But really no category fits completely. I'd say a mixture of stage 3 and stage 5, but not much of stage 4.

Oh wait.... it does list in stage 4 that you can not believe in a HP. I dunno... that still doesn't fit me though. I like demystifying scripture at times, but only b/c it is fun. Not to make it on my level or anything, since I really don't believe in it as divine inspiration. And I wouldn't say I even have a spiritual life at all right now. I'd like to, but I'm still dealing w/shell shock at how drastically my beliefs have changed.

Great topic Rebecca! Keep 'em coming!

I think I'm mostly Stage 5, with some Stage 6 thrown in. I actually think paradox is something to embrace, not shun. Which usually throws me out of the New Agey groups. LOL I don't understand why New Age = devil's promises. But, then, I don't believe in the devil. *shrug*

paradox:
1. a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.
2. a self-contradictory and false proposition.
3. any person, thing, or situation exhibiting an apparently contradictory nature.
4. an opinion or statement contrary to commonly accepted opinion.

I don't understand why people believe new age is devil promises. :confused: If people are doing good then why is this a bad thing? By doing good I mean volunteering or donating to help those less fortunate, loving their neighbor and onesself, walking gently on the earth, being honest, being kind, being respectful, etc.
I have a problem with people who claim to be religious who are nasty, deceitful, mean, dishonest, etc.