Do you think Curses enhance spirituality

Post Reply New Topic

I am not talking about witchcraft. It isn't interesting because I don't believe in it. I am talking exclusively about Curses that are pronounced by Christians/ Jews during excommunication ceremony. Like for instance when Spinoza was excommunicated from Jewish community, they asked him to come to synagoge where they put a Curse on him: "Cursed you be by day, Cursed you be by night, Cursed you be when you are going out, Cursed you be when you are comming in" etc. etc. etc. through the long formula. Once they finished reading the Curse they put off candles as to declare his soul to be dead. Thats the purpose of those Curses they are LETHAL to your soul, if you listen to them your soul will die.

But what I am thinking is that, ironically, while the purpose of Curses is to put the soul to death, its "side effect" can be just the opposite -- that is, enhanced spirituality. After all, imagine a very poetic atmosphere with candles and all, and a deep spiritual voice slowly reads "Cursed you be by day, cursed you be by night..." don't you think there is alluring mystecism here?

Sometimes I also feel that the way Curses work is PRECISELY by being so spiritual. After all, Buddhism is also full of spirituallity yet Buddhism is bad for you because it is false religion. So perhaps one of the ways Curses work is that they lure a person into paganism by making him enjoy a mystecism. Perhaps ANY kind of mystecism even without the word "Cursed" will be good for excommunication ceremony.

Or here is another thought. When a prisoner on a death row is given a lethal injectoin, you can always argue that the poison still have colories, why not? Likewise Sacrates when he ate poisonous mashrum, didn't that mushroom have colories too? So perhaps the spiritual poison also have colories. It is simply that it kills the person's soul so fast that it won't live to enjoy it. Anyway tell me what you think.

собака

Last edited by Roman on 08 Nov 2005, 12:22 am, edited 1 time in total.

I don't agree with this. Buddhism is not a religion, so how can it be a false one?

And hemlock is not a mushroom.

Okay may be I got details wrong but I did get the point across. Even though Buddhism is not considered religion, it is still spirituality and it involves interactoin with evil spirits that deceive you into believing they are good ones. And as far as Sacrates it might not be a mushroom, but it is still a poison and it still has colories in it.

I didn't discuss on the rest because I agree with your point of view and I had nothing to add.

But you made me think about something else. My question is: how do you kill a soul then?

Rap music.

By electing someone to public office?

I find good diet and exercise is the best way to get rid of colories.

Actually, I meant colories as something POSITIVE. Colories give you MORE energy, while poison kills you.

Okay may be colories isn't the best example. Lets say there are VITAMINS in the plant that they poisoned Socrates with. So Socrates got plenty of VITAMINS from that plant, but he didn't enjoy their benefit because the poison killed him.

So now Curses have spiritual VITAMINS just like that posionous plant had physical ones.

Curses, regardless of whether or not they have any supernatural power to them, are not something for man to play with. Only God alone has any buisness declaring a curse because only God alone can control if and how long it will be binding.

I'm not exactly getting your metaphor here of Socrates and the hemlock.

But, being atheist, myself, I don't think a curse has any more effect on an individual than they give to it themselves. That's why curses can work. Because the individual believes they can and hence, is more likely to bring it about.

1. the mind believes the curse

2. the mind effects the actions and has a better chance of bringing about just such a situation

Now, I don't really care about evil spirits or good spirits or spirits in any manner. But in general, I have noticed that Buddhists and those who subscribe to various Pagan religions/beliefs tend to be much healthier and less psychologically conflicted and defensive individuals. And if I had just cause in my mind to believe in a spiritual side to human life or the universe, I would doubtless choose one of these practices, myself.

But as it is, I don't ascribe values of good or bad no matter HOW obvious it may seem to me. Since I am aware that it is only my perception, and that someone somewhere in the world or universe sees things differently, and either one of us could be wrong, and just because I feel it "right" doesn't make it so. So, I try to subscribe to my own general mental and physical health and live and let live and enjoy the time in life I have, accepting the bad with the good, vice versa, and so on. Badaboom.

Let me explain it. The homlock killed Socrates. YET, just like any other plant, hemlock has vitamins in it. Vitamins, in themseslves, are good. But the fact that it happends to be poison happened to override everything.

Now, with Curses I can say the same thing. Sure, Curses have spirituality to them, since ANY OTHER prayer would have spirituality too. Curses are special case of prayer just like a hemlock is special case of plant. BUT in case of Curses their poisonous action becomes more important than its spiritual component. Just like in case of hemlock its poison is more important than its vitamins.

why not?




neither do i, and i'm a witch. but then i don't believe in the postperson, or trees, or coffee, or buses, either...

There are few reasons why I don't want to talk about pagan curses.

1)There is plenty of info on google.com about pagan Curses yet no one really wants to talk about Christian/Jewish Curses as much.

2)As I said I don't really believe in pagan Curses.

3)The theory I want to advance in this thread is that Christian/Jews when they are putting Curses they are making them spiritual in order to lure a person into paganism and thus their main weapon is not the word "cursed" but rhather all the spirituality. Now, PAGANS are NOT going to say they are killing the soul by SIMPLY being pagan. So in order for my theory to work, it has to be pagan-hating Christians/Jews who would FORCE their victim to be pagan since they view paganism as lethal. Thats why I made an analogy w/Buddhism being bad for your soul.

I don't believe curses do anything to your soul or hold any mystical power.

Roman, do you actually know anything about Buddhism? If you did, I think it is absurd that you claim it is harmful to a person's soul. Buddhism teaches a person to do wholesome things and avoid doing harmful things. It also teaches moderation and to purify the mind. Buddhists believe that the world contains suffering and that the cause of that suffering is desire. They believe in Nirvana (the end of suffering) and that the end of suffering is brought about by meditation and following certain precepts.

The most relevant point is that Buddhism doesn't require a person to believe in any supernatural beings. So if they don't have a belief in supernatural beings, how could it be harmful?