Symbolic
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Religion concerns that condition of human physical reality,
as what is the unknown. Religion is divided here into two categories termed Religion and Spirituality. Religion is defined as the belief that the material world is devoid of transcendental properties in and of itself, and that the source of the
Transcendent, is outside the known physical world and the ability of human perception. Because of this non-physical existence, religion is created in the mind as the creative aspects of imagination. Religion is based on what cannot be known and the substitution of 'state of mind ideal', such as heaven and hell, gods and spirits, demons and angels.
Spirituality is defined as a belief that the transcendental is an integral aspect of the physical world and that this world contains the consequence of the Transcendent in and of itself. Because the physical world is considered to contain or be a transcendental or spiritual realm, it is considered to be capable of manifesting transcendental or spiritual communication termed
Semiotic Language. Thus belief in the Transcendent is not a whole cloth creation of the mind but instead takes the form of interpretation of real world events. Spirituality is based partly on the creation of symbols representing spiritual qualities and conditions and partly on the interpretation of physical events in the empirical world of sensory perception.
From this distinction between Religion and Spirituality is derived a conundrum termed The Concept of
Religious Paradox. This paradox is that Religion based on the abstract, non-physical, state of mind, is materialist, and Spirituality based on physical empirical reality is non-materialist.
In terms of Religion, the Transcendent is non-physical,
abstract, extra-dimensional and separate from the experienced sensory world. For the Transcendent to have any apparent existence at all, it must be represented in some material form and representation, as thought and word depiction, and the creation of physical icons such as churches, religious texts, icons and symbols of various forms. Because the Transcendent is an abstraction as mental reality only, the religious individual lives in a material world solely. Life lived in a material world can only be a material life.
RELIGIOUS PARADOX (2 of 3)
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