Does Religion Equal Spirituality?

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="633"] Can we find a sense of spirituality from our own experiences or do we need to rely on the words of others?[/caption]

 

Does Religion Equal Spirituality?

I want to ask what it means to be spiritual in today's world. Are being religious and being spiritual the same thing? Is spirituality something that can only be found and practiced within man-made walls? If it is, then what is there for those who don’t tend to follow these traditional routes to spirituality? Religions like Christianity and Islam have been around for thousands of years. They have influenced the world and their followers greatly. However, is there only a choice between finding spirituality in religion and having none at all?

I, for one, don’t think that the choice is necessarily this black and white. It shouldn't be. I believe that it is indeed possible to feel a sense of spirituality without being part of a formal institution. As someone who participated in one of these establishments every week for nearly 20 years, I can say that I never felt close to feeling spiritual when sat between those walls. Perhaps I just need to explore another religion as is becoming the trend nowadays.

According to a survey conducted by Pew Research in 2007, "More than one-quarter of American adults (28%) have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion - or no religion at all." What motivations are standing behind such a statistic? Of course those major organizations can give wonderful guidelines for communities to live by, but they also provide numerous rules to abide by. These rules often restrict the soul, not set it free.

 

Spirituality in the Twenty-First Century

Shakespeare's Hamlet has been famously credited for coining the phrase “nothing is neither good nor bad, but thinking makes it so.” For a lot of people, being part of a structured, organized religion is the key to spirituality. However, look at the world and how much it has changed – the way we eat, drink, learn, play, party, travel, and communicate – the list is endless of what has been altered over time. So why do we continue to follow methods that were created so long ago? Young people nowadays are leaving traditional religions and are searching for new means to develop their inner selves. Besides, there is no clear definition of spirituality. No one can say one way is either correct or incorrect. For some it may sound oxymoronic to say ‘Yeah, I'm spiritual, but I'm not religious.” People should be entitled to feel how they want, and I’d even encourage people to find some sense of spirituality within themselves, no matter how small it may seem to be. Too many people these days are trapped behind desks, phone screens and computers and need to get out and experience the world to find that unique sense of being.

 

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="329"] Do we need to pray to unearthly gods or do 'the answers' lie elsewhere?[/caption]

What Is Being Spiritual?

Why do we even need spirituality? Is the world just blood, bone, rock, plant and physical matter? No one can say for sure, not yet anyway. Nobody probably ever will. I’d like to think that there is something else, something mystical, incorporeal on our universe. It is that ‘x-factor’ that makes our lives more enjoyable and worthwhile. It can’t be just about money and material goods, can it? This is where the word ‘spirit’ comes to mind. It is where we learn if there is a deeper meaning to life. Everyone has a spirit. Perhaps they don’t call it a spirit, but rather ‘soul’ or ‘energy’ or ‘character.’

Since arriving in Korea, I was initially surprised to learn how Christian the society here is, especially as I don't tend to associate Asia with Christianity. I've worked closely with many clever and kind people who get up every day to attend early services and spend their weekends dedicating all their free time to cooking, cleaning and decorating churches. Perhaps these people are in touch with their spirits but on the face of things, they were also constantly exhausted and often fell ill due to a lack of a healthy diet (fasting) and  a lack of sleep. Surely a healthy body is part of having a healthy mind and maybe even a healthy soul.

 

Where Can We Find Spirituality?

If spirituality isn’t relegated to churches, temples and mosques, then where is it hiding? Of course, for some, it remains in these places. But a concrete answer to spirituality will never really be found: One man's trash is another man's treasure.

For me, our spirit is harnessed through our experiences – the places we go, the people we meet, the cultures we encounter, our interaction with nature, even the books and music we consume can shape our personalities, our way of thinking and ultimately, our souls. This variety of factors opens our senses, broadens our thinking and can make us better people, if we are willing to learn from them. On a personal note, though it may sound ‘hippyish’, I think I have gained an immeasurable amount from travelling. Of course, travelling is not a religion, but its impact on an individual cannot be underestimated. I don’t envy those who have travelled so much more than me but instead wish to follow their lead. There is so much to be learned from meeting others and seeing what makes them tick in life.

I’d like to encourage those who lack a sense of spirit to get out and search for it. Though I can’t say what it looks like or where it will be, the truth is out there.

(Featured image credits.)

If I Were an Outsider, What Would I Say About Mass Media?

[caption id="attachment_3207" align="aligncenter" width="450"] What's so much better about the flat black dog than me?[/caption]

If I were an outsider to our "modern" and "connected" society---perhaps someone hailing from a community where mass media and the quick distribution of information never existed---what would I think about our increasing submersion in online virtual realities? I’m sure I wouldn't be worried about the world’s richest R&B couple, that enormous pet rabbit over in Scotland, or even the latest mid-term elections in North America. Without mass media in my life, I wouldn't be constantly surrounded by flashy images in digital or print which tend to provide false ideas of how a person should be living. I can only imagine that if I were indeed a person who lived in a community where the use of mass media and easy information dissemination never existed, I would think more often of the others around me; I would work more on myself and my faith; I imagine that I would feel a lot more at peace.

If I were to be alive one thousand years from now, what would I contemplate about mass media and its long term effects? I’m sure I wouldn't care about the countless millions of "Selfies" taken daily; I’d hardly be able to read through the billions of blogs and websites to find an exact answer to a question. Despite my hypothetically cynical and senile sour take on it, could the exploration and distribution of mass media someday become a custom and folk tradition during those years from 2014 to 3014? Or would I be stuck naively believing, “Hundreds of years ago, everyone and her Mom would, after suppertime, forgo conversation and community to go into separate bedrooms to hunch over computers and watch videos of others and even themselves.”? I fear that a thousand years from now, if I were to be alive, I’d be looking back on all of the isolation that humans endured while putting mass media first.

The reasons I might feel bitter: There are times I find the information age distracting, annoying, and even at times downright exhausting. It seems at times that everyone who advertises online, through print, and on billboard, is in constant competition, all attempting to become famous in one way or another. I also wonder why everyone has become self-involved to the point of missing out on real-life human connections. People spend significant time sharing their personal stories and opinions about their family, their pets, their friends, and their ideas by using their photos, their blogs, their voices. It seems tiresome and tremendously difficult to live up not only to the ideal physical, emotional, and mental but now even digital way of living in a modern pop-culture world. For one to become not just a great family man/woman, boss, and weekend gardener but now also e-mailer, media blogger, political idea-generator, and assiduous liker of friends' gym photos all at the same time seems much too exhausting. Wouldn't life be more simplistic and meaningful if we had only each other?

[caption id="attachment_3205" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Maybe Keanu has a point.[/caption]

That is all, of course, if I were an outsider or living a thousand years from now. But I’m not an outsider to mass media in the least, and I definitely don’t know what life looks like in 3014. Alongside everyone I personally know, we are all a living, breathing culprit of the world's mass media crime. I read articles and view videos online. I post articles and videos online. I distribute teachings and facts that I've learned. I distribute personal feelings and ideas. I distribute some things to the outside world, hoping that in some way it can reach another person in an academic way. I can’t waste time hating mass media; I choose to embrace it in a balanced manner.

So, I ask myself again: What if I was an outsider or future historian---but one who could find a beautiful thing or two about mass media and its effects on pop-culture? What if I found that while it distributes many forms of information to regions all over the world, it continues to create space and inspirations for new ideas, opinions, attitudes, beliefs, and even a few psychological needs? Mass media is provided electronically and digitally, through print and big, crafted signs. It may even be provided vocally with the art of public speaking. In the modern worlds that thrive on pop culture, all forms of information are accepted and discussed. The people working within mass media provide wonderful sources of information by either addressing problematic issues or brainstorming multiple solutions. There is an ever-growing platform for creative expression. Mass media may cause isolation for some, but it also brings people from all over the world together---a sense of "interconnectedness." Maybe mass media isn't so bad after all.

Some communities that choose to stray from mass media are happy in their own version of what life should look like. In fact, many individuals who have been surrounded by mass media all of their lives take to the mountains with rucksacks, creating a new version of what life should be. Mass media and the ever growing distribution of information are not for everyone. But I have to be grateful for all that it has done for me, and everyone I know. Perhaps I won’t win a YouTube nomination for Best Music Video, and perhaps in the end, we will all become egotistical, isolated, human beings---but what an interesting change in sociology we've made so far.

Net Neutrality: Which Side Are You On?

 

Net Neutrality – the who, the what and the where

Net Neutrality is a modern phenomenon that has been under the public microscope since the term was first coined by Tim Wu, a law professor in Virginia, U.S.A, in 2003, more than a decade ago. He was aware of the growing conflict between the public and the Internet providers, each with their own motivations and intended uses for this growing technology. In a nutshell, Net Neutrality is letting the Internet remain as is---a free field of communication. However, I.S.P.s (Internet service providers) and broadband companies like Internet giants Verizon in the U.S. are trying to reduce this freedom. They want to create an uneven field in which certain, more popular websites and channels could be accessed more quickly than ones in less demand. This means that the broadband providers will fast track these routes whilst slowing down others. The users---the consumers---will have to pay for this quicker access. With this in mind, I.S.P.s could slow down or even block sites and channels according to their whims. Now (excluding money-hungry broadband providers) who on Earth wants that to happen?

What’s all the fuss about?

So what is all the fuss concerning the Net? What is there to debate? It seems most people are somewhat unaware of the conflict. Yet. I think most people just want the Internet to simply remain as it is in its current form. Humans tend to hate stuff that disrupts our lives. If Net Neutrality hadn’t been present from the start, then perhaps we wouldn’t be having this debate at all; it is because of its potential introduction that we are worried. Imagine visiting your favorite park for ten years and then being told one day that you would either have to pay to enter or else you would have to use the back entrance a few miles away. You’d be certainly annoyed, wouldn’t you? But if you knew the situation from the start, it wouldn’t be so bothering, right?

Take another example. In Ireland this year, household water charges were introduced. This means that the Irish public will have to relinquish their right to free water use at home and will now have to pay an annual cost, depending on usage. Most countries have water charges already in place, but it is the introduction that has led the people of Ireland into protest and disgust at the government.

If alcohol was invented today, would it be legal and sold in stores worldwide? Cigarettes? Of course not, but because they have been around for so long, they are enjoyed legally by potential addicts and cancer patients the world over. It’s the unwanted, ‘unprecedentedness’ of Net Neutrality that would cause debate among nations, governments and mostly their publics. When we get used to having something so good on tap, we don’t want anything to change too greatly, be it water, beer or in this case, the Internet.

Why is the debate growing?

After more than ten years passed since the topic first arose, we have seen the availability and uses of the Irocket. ‘Convergence’ in technology is a key aspect. This has lead to the consumer being able to use Internet not just on a PC at home, but also on her phone, laptop, in the car, in the bathroom and even on a plane. The suits need to check their email constantly. Young adults are watching Netflix and addicted to Facebook. Teens are watching porn, playing games and following celebrities. We all need the Internet.

The whole debate on Net Neutrality brings the entire role of the Internet in our lives into question. Is the it just another product akin to TV and cable? Most households in the developed world are willing to add an extra fee to their monthly cable bill in order to watch more sports and movies. Premium football games and the latest movie releases. So why are YouTube, Facebook, Skype and other mega Internet pillars any different? These sites have cost millions of dollars to develop and a vast amount of ingenious brain power to engineer. Why should we be allowed to consume these things for free? Look at Skype and Facebook: They have connected us to our families and friends at next to no cost. Should we hate Internet providers for charging us a few dollars extra for such an incredible facility?

On the other hand, is the Internet more than just a service nowadays? Is it something we could choose to live without or has it become so integral, that to disrupt it in some way, would genuinely harm people’s daily welfare? The Internet itself is arguably humankind’s greatest invention.

Although I can understand business minds want more return on such a wonderful product, personally I think it should remain as it is. The Internet has changed the world immensely. Each website should be given a fair chance of being discovered and becoming the next sensation to captures the public’s eye (case in point: idigculture.com).

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="429"] Favorite website seem a little slower? Seems we need net Neutrality![/caption]