The word appears one time.

Col 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

I thought it would be interesting to view how others view religion and philosophy from being different.

why is this up for, to be deleted??????????
why? why? why?????????????????and why?????????

because its sooooooooooooooooooo good

that basically means anything that is not of Christ. false religion, false doctrine, i think u could throw these televangelists in there. ppl who wont preach out of the Bible. ppl who wont preach the important things, like Acts 2:38, John 3:5, the Oneness of God, stuff like that. ppl who preach that all u have to do is say some little prayer that's repeated and u can do whatever u want to do afterwards, and still get to heaven. that's philosphy, and vain deceit, the ruidments of men, and not Christ.

the whole idea of repeating a prayer and doing whatever u want after will get u into heaven isnt even in the Bible. you wanna know how to be saved, and make it to heaven? read Acts thru Revelation. that'll teach ya how. Acts is how to get saved, mainly Acts 2:38, and the rest is to teach u how to STAY saved. alot of ppl get that confused. they think the epistles dont teach baptism, and that the epistles are how to obtain salvation. notice tho, when u read them, how each epistle is to a church in different parts of the world. that means that those ppl were already saved, and that those words were things on how to stay saved.

there's something to be said about the carnal mind

In religions, you will find ceremonies for important life events (birth, death, marriage, etc.) and for important times of the year (days commemorating spring, harvest, etc.).
Philosophies do not include any rituals.
Philosophy tends to emphasize just the use of reason and critical thinking, whilst religions may make use of reason, but also rely on faith, or even use faith to the exclusion of reason.

An NIV study bible explains Colossians 2.8 as follows:
– Basic principles of this world:
This term which also appears in Gal 4:3,9) means false, worldly teachings. Paul was counteracting the Colossian heresy, which in part taught that for salvation one needed to combine faith in Christ with secret knowledge and man-made regulations concerning such physical and external practices such as circumcision, eating and drinking and observance of religious festivals.
- Basically the people here are using their reasoning and worldly knowledge to determine their own way of salvation, instead of God’s way.

Roy wrote:
“I thought it would be interesting to view how others view religion and philosophy from being different.”

That’s a really complex question Roy, partly because it’s not really clear what is mean by “religion”.

If by “religion” you mean the standardized philosophies of man concerning the possible existence and nature of a supreme being, then there is no difference between religion and philosophy.

However, if a person believes that a certain doctrine is the word of god, then that differs from philosophy in that philosophy is the ponderings of men, and the religious doctrine represents the word of the actual supreme being.

You had quoted from a specific doctrine:
“Col 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”

This doctrine claims to be the word of God and is warning against believing anything that isn’t contained within it.

However, if you view this doctrine as having been written by man, then it’s clear that it’s just a brainwashing scheme to prevent people from turning away form the doctrine. This particular doctrine is full of such warnings. They can be taken as the word of the god the doctrine is believe to have been inspired by, or they can be taken as a trap written by men who were attempting to keep the masses under the control of the church. I personally view this particular doctrine to be the latter, (written by men to keep the masses under their thumb).

The best way to brainwash people is to convince them that to question it, or even think about abandoning your doctrine would be an unforgivable sin. Don’t even THINK about it!

What better way to keep people from questioning the doctrine and preventing them from even thinking about other considering possibilities?

Gods' word is not a question, but a period.....

Jennee,

All initial posts are moderated. It doesn't mean they will be deleted - they're just put there initially. Once a thread gets going - it won't be deleted.

dcrdnk
“Gods' word is not a question, but a period..... ”

Perfect example of religion versus philosophy.

James, I had similiar thoughts when I was writing my poem, "The Blessed Contradictions." I know shameless plug.

The Blessed Contradictions

Blessed be the difference
between women and men.
Blessed be friendships
that pass the test of time.

Blessed be friends who
can show anger
and still be accepted
by their friends.

Blessed be all the contradictions
that try our patience
through our ignorance
and through our pain.

Blessed be the first day
I met you when I was new.
Blessed be the frustrations
of communication and misunderstanding.

Blessed be mind-storms
and heartbreaks.
Blessed be trials
and tribulations.

Blessed be all that brought us
to this new day.
Blessed be all the time
we spent together and apart, too.

Blessed be the space
we give each other
to grow in our
separate ways.

Blessed be good times
and bad times.
Blessed be the hope
of a new day.

Blessed be the things
that brought us together
and things that
tear us apart.

Blessed be all of
our struggles
and insights
that we learn.

Blessed be children
who we watched
grow up
and been a part of our life.

Blessed be our past
with our faults
and mistakes
that we made.

Blessed be sharing
and caring.
Blessed be life
with all its ups and downs.

Philosophy - who am I, what am I, why am I here, what's my purpose, what holds value, what's out -there-?

Religion, "I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other before me." "I am the way and the light, through me ..."

But where in all that religion, are the answeres to the philisophical questions that ones that knock so persistantly on the door of your mind that we think them, even before we can read.

Without restraint,guilt or fear, I wonder, I think, I ponder, I theorize, I create, I question and in those moments, I'm free, and from the desire to 'know' I'm pushed to continue to understand even more. This is the gift I've claimed from living this life. In that gift is the miricle we were all born to receive.

I've always wondered, just how much of mans/humans limitations are self imposed? And before too long, I'm thinking - someday, I'm going go sky-diving, just to know what flight must feel like. What a gift my freedom of thought is.

Very nice poem Roy.

They need a thumbs up icon.

Dianna wrote:
Religion, "I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other before me." "I am the way and the light, through me ..."

Unfortunately that is the limited western view of most people in the western world. They think of one religion only.

Actually what about Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc, etc, etc. The eastern mysticism are very valid religions. As was the religions of many native Americans before the Christians came and murdered them all.

I know. I’ll catch hell for that comment. But who cares.

Philosophy of religion has classically been regarded as a part of metaphysics. In Aristotle's, Metaphysics, he described first causes as one of the subjects of his investigation. For Aristotle, the first cause was the unmoved mover, which has been read as God, particularly when Aristotle's work became prevalent again in the Medieval West. This first cause argument later came to be called natural theology by rationalist philosophers of the 17th and 18th centuries. In Aristotle's Metaphysics he also states that the word that comes closest to describing the meaning of the word God is "Understanding." Today, philosophers have adopted the term philosophy of religion for the subject, and typically it is regarded as a separate field of specialization, though it is also still treated by some, particularly Catholic philosophers, as a part of metaphysics.

It should be clear why considerations of the divine have been regarded as metaphysical. God is usually conceived to be in a distinct category of being; a being different from those of the rest of the universe. For example, God in some traditions is conceived as not having a body. Metaphysics, and in particular ontology, is concerned with the most basic categories of existence, those things that cannot be explained with reference to any other type of existence. Thus one might argue that the very notion of God (or gods, or the divine) cannot be reduced to human concepts of mind or body; God is a sui generis entity.

Unmoved mover. So that is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. I have been studying that for a while now.

this is all very interesting, and very confusing to me, I just thought philosophy was man-made and religion was god made. I don't know much about the bible itself, but can you guys please simplify the answer, as I obviously don't get it, as beautiful as all the answer are.

2much4u,

The first mistake that people make is to assume that "Philosophy" in the Bible was the same definition 2,000 years ago as it is today. According to Strong's, "philosophia" (Greek for Philosophy) means:

==============================================================
"used either of zeal for or skill in any art or science, any branch of knowledge. Used once in the NT of the theology, or rather theosophy, of certain Jewish Christian ascetics, which busied itself with refined and speculative enquiries into the nature and classes of angels, into the ritual of the Mosaic law and the regulations of Jewish tradition respecting practical life"
==============================================================

So it boils down to this: You are right, philosophy is man made and that verse in question is telling the believers to stick with the Bible and don't buy into anothers imaginations or speculations about the spiritual.

2much4u,
In answer to your question at my spiritual meetings I attend we get what we call 'religious intolerance of spiritual principles' sometimes so the question you ask is valid. I never seen such an example of such as the other night. A fellow member who claims he is a preacher of the Hawaiian Cannibis Church said that he used to praise marijuana but put down other drugs. Most of the members laughed because most of us praised weed before going through rehabilitation.

Looks like 2much4u wasn’t enough, as her account appears to have been deactivated.

I was going to comment on how words aren’t absolutes. Most people give words a wide birth of abstraction and this is emphasized be thesauruses that will offer many replacement words for any given work.

For example, my thesaurus gives the following substitutes for “Philosophy”

Idea
Values
Beliefs
Attitude
Thinking
Viewpoint
Way of life

For the word “Religion” it gives the following:

Faith
Belief
Creed
Devotion
Dedication
Commitment

I’m sure other thesauruses will offer even more potential substitutions. I think it’s odd that whoever programmed my thesaurus chose to offer “Way of Life” as a substitute for philosophy, but not for religion.

I think there are a lot of overlap between the terms. My personal take is that when I hear the word “religion” I usually take that to mean that there is a deity involved (although not necessarily), but usually if there’s no deity involved people will use a word like “spirituality” instead.

When I hear the word “philosophy” I take that to mean any possible set of ideas, beliefs, or way of thinking. In other words, from my point of view, all religions are philosophies, but not all philosophies are religions.

Good points and I sorry to hear that she left. I was going to put in John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

That is why I am spiritual instead of religious. For others I guess God is a religion and that is why they worship him religiously.

I guess the wording and how the words are taken does make a difference.