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Historically, the words religious and spiritual have been used synonymously to describe all the various aspects of the concept of religion. [1] However, religion is a highly contested term with scholars such as Russell McCutcheon arguing that the term "religion" is used as a way to name a "seemingly distinct domain of diverse items of human activity and production". [6]
The "I AM" Activity was founded by Guy Ballard (pseudonym Godfré Ray King) in the early 1930s. Ballard was well-read in theosophy and its offshoots, and he claimed to have met and been instructed by a man who introduced himself as "Saint Germain" while hiking on Mount Shasta looking for a rumored branch of the Great White Brotherhood known as "The Brotherhood of Mount Shasta". [14]
The meaning of spirituality has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. [1] [2] [3] [note 1] Traditionally, spirituality is referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape of man", [note 2] oriented at "the image of God" [4] [5] as exemplified by the founders and sacred texts of the religions of the world.
New Religions: A Guide: New Religious Movements, Sects and Alternative Spiritualities Oxford University Press, US 2004. Describes the Theosophical Society, The I AM Activity, The Bridge to Freedom and The Summit Lighthouse. ISBN 0-19-522042-0; Saint Germain Foundation. The History of the "I AM" Activity and Saint Germain Foundation.
A UFO religion can be formed before or after an individual claims to have experienced an alien abduction and been taken aboard a spacecraft. [4] Christopher Hugh Partridge writes in UFO Religions that J. Gordon Melton identifies the first UFO religion as the group "I AM" Activity, founded by Guy Ballard. [1]
One modern academic theory of religion, social constructionism, says that religion is a modern concept that suggests all spiritual practice and worship follows a model similar to the Abrahamic religions as an orientation system that helps to interpret reality and define human beings, [6] and thus believes that religion, as a concept, has been ...
Irreligion is the absence or rejection of religious beliefs or practices.It encompasses a wide range of viewpoints drawn from various philosophical and intellectual perspectives, including atheism, agnosticism, religious skepticism, rationalism, secularism, and non-religious spirituality.
Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. [1] [2] [3] It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to personal limitations rather than a worldview.