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Share your spiritual beliefs

Usehername

On a mission
Joined
May 30, 2007
Messages
3,794
That's precisely the point. The religion needs to fit the culture, not the other way around. The culture shouldn't be force-fitted to the religion.

The culture we now live in makes far more sense from the postmodern perspective than the Christian one. If I lived in medieval times or later Roman times, I would have been a Christian, because that world would have made more sense from a Christian perspective. If I lived in Greek times, I probably would have worshipped their gods.

I choose the perspective that makes the most sense of what's going on.

I hear you saying that your choice is purely rational.

Where the rationality in restricting your choice to only that which is rational? What about all the other ways of negotiating ideas? Where is your rational explanation for devaluing them?
 

Hexis

New member
Joined
May 14, 2007
Messages
1,442
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
6w7
Agnostic LaVey Satanist, I don't necessarily believe or disbelieve in the existence of god or higher powers I just choose to think their not important. I am a realist, I require proof, simple as that. If god where to show himself and make it clear to me he deserved of my respect and worship I would then consider it. Till then all I know is the material world, in this world I am my god. My friends are those who have proven to me they are deserved of my respect and our enemies my wrath. My needs I take. My wants and pleasures I fully follow as long as they do not hinder or harm innocence and pursue them responsibly. This is all I require.

I do not need god, there for unimportant and a waste of my time.
 

JAVO

.
Joined
Apr 24, 2007
Messages
9,178
MBTI Type
eNTP
Philosophy shows us that many perspective about God, including his nonexistence, are rational. Belief or nonbelief is a subjective decision which is strongly influenced by our sum of knowledge and experiences plus our evaluation of them. The external debate about God's existence is irrelevant. It is the internal debate which is important. The question is not "Does God exist?", but rather, "Am I being honest and objective with myself in my perceptions and decisions regarding the existence of God?" We can then use MBTI theory to determine what aspects we're likely to have overlooked based on our type.

Personally, I believe in a God who has been ridiculously portrayed by those who claim to know and represent him.
 

Grayscale

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 20, 2007
Messages
1,965
MBTI Type
ISTP
Upon many years of consideration, I have come to see that what most accept as obvious are of little relevance to spiritual truth. In fact, many of these things are exactly the opposite as they seem because the perversion of truth is so commonplace that we no longer believe it exists, instead there is only your truth, or my truth. We live in our tiny fenced-in way of thinking where things fall to the ground because we know what gravity is.

I know God exists because He does. It sounds narrow minded but the truth is. I reached this conclusion by remaining stalwartly open-minded about human nature and existence and at a certain point I had to stop making excuses for myself and could simply no longer deny it. Despite thinking that my life would somehow suffer or become harder if I were to ever accept this, it has been the greenest grass on my side of the fence I never thought to taste.

I know what you might be thinking! :newwink: I can't convince you, but I see nothing to be proved.
 

Polaris

AKA Nunki
Joined
Apr 7, 2009
Messages
2,529
MBTI Type
INFJ
Enneagram
451
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
I reject the existence of God for a few different reasons. First of all, the concept of God is metaphysical, which means it consists of word games based on what I consider muddled thinking. An example of this kind of thinking would be to speak of infinity (a concept central to "God") as an infinite quantity. When someone speaks of infinity, what they really mean is one thing: the fact that language is open-ended, which means you can string together any number of concepts within the linguistic framework.

A person will hear the word and visualize themselves traveling across a vast expanse; they'll call this infinity. But it isn't; it's just a small thought in a small head. To speak of this image as an infinite quantity is to say something which, if taken in the literal sense, means nothing. The only way you can entertain the idea of an infinite quantity is to redefine those words in such a way that they make sense. When people do this, as they must do when they meet with incoherent words, they often imagine that since these words made grammatical sense, they also made literal sense. They didn't, though; they made sense only after you redefined them.

Some people would argue that since you can never count to a final number, there must exist an infinite number of numbers somewhere outside your mind. But this is only more muddled thinking; the words "outside your mind" create nothing more than an image inside your head. Grammatically, this image exists outside your head; literally, it doesn't and never can.

The other reason I lack belief is simply because the idea of God lacks personal appeal. That's generally the only reason I need to reject something.

Also, this kind of thread is bound to lead to a debate. ^_^
 

Alwar

The Architect
Joined
Jun 19, 2009
Messages
922
MBTI Type
INTP
Religious experiences

"The Brain" magazine had a recent piece about how they can invoke religious experience by stimulating certain regions of the brain that you might be interested in reading. It's nothing new though, I think several years ago Michael Shermer volunteered to use some electromagnetic helmet at a research facility in Canada that would cause the subject to feel a presence or experience some supernatural phenomena.

In before jokes about peyote and LSD.
 

Trepidation

New member
Joined
Oct 11, 2009
Messages
108
MBTI Type
ISTP
Enneagram
5w6
What difference would it make? What would it explain? How would it make anything better?

I've never encountered any convincing answers to these questions.
 

Amargith

Hotel California
Joined
Nov 5, 2008
Messages
14,717
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
4dw
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
I believe..mmm, how to explain. I believe the universe is, for lack of a better word, conscious. Something I refer to as 'Nature'. In essence, that it is connected to each other, an organism, as we are ourselves. I believe we're the universe trying to make sense of itself. And I also believe, that I can be wrong, very much so. The point is..we don't know. There's no way of knowing.

And that's alright. I believe that for the sake of personal growth, it does not matter whether or not what we believe is true. What matters is the strength that we gain from it, and the lessons we learn along the way, the inspiration it bestows upon us to do the right thing, to make something of ourselves, to give our lives meaning. To enjoy our short stay here, and grow as a person. That's what matters to me.

To that end, you could call me a Pagan. To be more specific, you could call me a four-trad hedge witch. I work with the four traditions that I feel connected to. Celtic/Gallo-Roman, Germanic, Slavic and Indian. I look to a patron goddess from each of those traditions to guide me, to inspire me, perhaps as the archetype they represent, the rolemodel they provide, or who knows, the powerful goddesses they are. I look to Freyja (Germanic), Mati Syra Zemlya (Slavic), Epona (Celtic/Gallo-Roman) and recently, Kali-ma (Hindu). I believe in the natural world being alive, filled with spirits, who just like us, inhabit this world. Our mythology and folklore speaks of them regularly...brownies, leprecauns, fey.. They make this world feel alive to me, much as we humans do. They inspire me to learn as much as I can, but also take a moment to actually acknowledge and admire that world. The colours of the trees in the fall, the structure of a snowflake, the beautiful design that is a human body, the perfect mechanics that make it work... It never fails to mesmerize me, to cause such bewilderment in me and all I have to do is take a moment and just look around to find myself in awe.

Yes, I believe.
 

Shimmy

New member
Joined
Jun 9, 2009
Messages
1,867
MBTI Type
SEXY
Atheist. I used to be agnostic, but after a while I figured that something as improbable as the existence of (a) god(s) is just not worth holding the possibility open for. Adding to that is the fact that most truly religious people (I'm talking about the die hard core of every world religion here, so don't feel offended if you just happened to be a religious person, but please, do feel offended if you think you're religion is 'right', or in any way superior to other religions or ideas) are nuts. And I'm talking 'One flew over the cuckoo's nest' nuts. Completely brainwashed.
And then there are Las Vegas and Amsterdam (read Soddom & Gommora). They are still standing, I'm noticing inconsistencies in 'God's' behaviour.

I know God exists because He does. It sounds narrow minded but the truth is. I reached this conclusion by remaining stalwartly open-minded about human nature and existence and at a certain point I had to stop making excuses for myself and could simply no longer deny it. Despite thinking that my life would somehow suffer or become harder if I were to ever accept this, it has been the greenest grass on my side of the fence I never thought to taste.

You had to make up 'excuses' to deny faith? If that's the case you never really believed that there could be no god, right?
 

Totenkindly

@.~*virinaĉo*~.@
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Messages
50,187
MBTI Type
BELF
Enneagram
594
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
Got saved when I was five, raised within the Protestant traditions of Christianity, experienced various denominations (attended just about every main type in the fold except for Episcopalean, it was mostly just an oversight and lack of time), was most heavily involved with the precursor of what today is known widely as evangelicalism and this had the most profound social influence on me throughout my childhood/teen years, through my involvement with a "born again" style Christian camp that I eventually worked for as a teen counselor.

I always read voraciously, and so naturally had lots of questions start to pop up as a teen and never quite felt like I fit in. Was heavily into apologetics as a teen and adult through my 20's, heavily involved in worship ministry; I felt pretty alone, though, in that I did not agree with the atheists but also did not align with a lot of the conservatism I found around me... there were just too many questions that the 'pat answers' did not really address.

Became involved in spiritual direction-style approaches to faith, and throughout my life the pattern seems to have been to shift away from intellectualizing my faith (and demanding clear rational answers) to a more Kierkegaardian-style approach to God. I finally had to embrace that, for me, acceptance of my doubts and embrace of mystery was a natural part of my growth as a person.

I currently label myself as Christian agnostic. I'm not happy in traditions other than Christianity despite exploring them and it is as easy as breathing for me to see the world with an overlay of the conceptual framework of Christianity... but intellectually I have a parallel map that declares that nothing can be known, and I can also deconstruct my experiences and observations that way. Some people would view this as paradoxical, and maybe it is to a western mindset (and for me, for many years, it was, and I struggled painfully with it), but it no longer is to me.... and honestly I am far more content, and inclined to pray, and feel closer to whatever spiritual truth exists in this world than I did all those years I tried to hard to make everything fit within a particular and single box. The validation for me has been that I am far more capable of giving, loving, enjoying life, and sacrificing for others without resentment than I've been at those earlier stages where I was struggling so hard to make everything fit someone else's framework, so I'm content.
 

AOA

♣️♦️♠️♥️
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
4,821
MBTI Type
ENTJ
Enneagram
8
Instinctual Variant
sx
I believe in God. And Pre-destiny.
 
P

Phantonym

Guest
As I believe there is no conclusive evidence to support either the existence or nonexistence of a God, Superior Being, The Thing or whatever, I remain undecided. I wasn't raised in a religious or spiritual environment and I haven't gone through extensive research on the subject, I just feel that way. Simple as that. I consider myself as an Agnostic but it has no effect on my life either way.

But maybe I'm missing all the signs. I have no way of knowing that as much as I would like to know. I hope to find it out...someday.
 

Usehername

On a mission
Joined
May 30, 2007
Messages
3,794
"The Brain" magazine had a recent piece about how they can invoke religious experience by stimulating certain regions of the brain that you might be interested in reading. It's nothing new though, I think several years ago Michael Shermer volunteered to use some electromagnetic helmet at a research facility in Canada that would cause the subject to feel a presence or experience some supernatural phenomena.

In before jokes about peyote and LSD.

I would be interested in that. Dr. Ramachandran (how do you spell that!), a famous neurosomethingologist, had a patient who was a temporal lobe epileptic; when the patient seized he would wake up crying and feeling like he understood god/etc. I think this video is available in the NOVA or PBS videos somewhere online?

As JAVO repped me (hope he doesn't mind me mentioning it), it's important to note that brain imaging of religious experiences is quite irrelevant to knowing if God exists. It doesn't prove or disprove anything.
 

Skyward

Badoom~
Joined
Jul 3, 2008
Messages
1,084
MBTI Type
infj
Enneagram
9w1
I believe that the best way to describe how God created everything is with a thought. The universe and humanity and everything we know is only a small measure of his thought. How do we know what a 'thought' is made out of? We see parts of the brain light up in scans, but we still can't truly read minds directly. The existence of thought is only believed by the fact that practically everyone has experienced it. Just like the experience of gravity.

I'm a born again christian. Not catholic, but baptist.
I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and came to earth to die for our sins.
In that, I also believe that you cannot get to heaven through works, but by Jesus alone. He judges our hearts, not our actions. Thats pretty much the base of what I believe.

I believe in the same, but I grew up Pentecostal, which is similar. I have always felt like I am not up to God's expectations, but then I think: 'Who am I to judge what his expectations are?'

Much of how I 'practice' my religion is manly deep inside myself. The only true values I have in life are Balance, and my God. It would take a lot of effort for me to remove them, I think, since I can't not believe in them. They have become part of my psychology, even though I am sure most people don't even realize I have those values until I say something about them.
 

mockingbird

New member
Joined
Aug 31, 2009
Messages
249
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
9w1
I believe in God and have believed for as long as I can remember. I was raised in a Christian home, and my family attended church, so the concept of God was always before me.

What's more, I always felt like God was with me, guiding my path. I would get these knowings when I needed them most and I knew this knowledge was from God. There were times that I would feel His presence even as a small child and I knew He was God just as I knew my parents were my parents.This experience of God's presence would increase the more that I read the Bible and prayed.

I would even get this strong sense about what parts of the Bible I was supposed to read for the day. I would then be suprised on Sunday morning when the preacher, who only preached on random thing as he felt led to, would preach on exactly what I had been studying. This happened about 80% of the time, actually. I had this unexplainable knowledge and wisdom about other things as well and it all came about as a direct result of my relationship with God.

So, for me, I have always been trying to find a philosophy and theology that helps me understand intellectually what I already know experientially and instinctually. As a result, I have rejected some of the doctrines that I was taught as a child that were unhelpful to this end, kept some of them that were helpful, found other doctrines that make more sense to me and I am still in the process of coming up with a coherent theology. Throughout this whole process, I have come to love the mysteries of God as well as the wisdom of God. I can at least say with all confidence that I am a Christian.

I have yet to find any Christian theology, though, that can fully explain and express the unfathomable love of God. I think this would be impossible to do anyway, but I at least want to reject any doctrine that detracts from my knowledge of his love. If believing a certain doctrine causes me to be unloving, then it is false, no matter how true it sounds. I believe that his love will continue to guide me in my quest for truth. His love is my northern star.
 
R

Riva

Guest
Look what that did to the Jews.Don't you people ever read the bible, the Quran or watch History channel???

Please reread the OP and try again.

oooops. ok here I go!

I do believe in God or Gods. But I don't believe they control our destiny nor can they control our destiny nor would they control it even if they could.

The universe is a HUGE place. I am certain that there are other beings just like us (humans) in it. That is logical isn't it.

And there could be in this Huge universe of ours beings who are so different and powerful that the only words we could use to describe them as is GODS.
 
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