Religious\Spiritual Beliefs

[Mole]

I like my mythology better than yours.

Naturally, as your mythology is taught to school children.

A white bread mythology devoid of critical thinking and cognitive dissonance, a mythology that fills but doesn't nourish, a mythology that conceals more than it reveals, a bourgeois mythology of money, God and guns.

 

[Qlip]

Naturally, as your mythology is taught to school children.

A white bread mythology devoid of critical thinking and cognitive dissonance, a mythology that fills but doesn't nourish, a mythology that conceals more than it reveals, a bourgeois mythology of money, God and guns.

Mythology with facts and critical thinking studded onto it is not more valuable, it's just... vajazzled. Myth is always fiction. Facts and critical thinking without mythology tells me that everybody is pretty much over that whole American Revolution thing, except for Mole. Facts and critical thinking tells me that American Civil War conflict reverberated throughout the world in a positive manner. The terminus of a slave nation was a poison potent enough in the U.S. that it made us vomit it where many others took it in much smaller, and less deadly manageable doses.

It tells me other things, but I don't feel that you're sophisticated enough for me to waste the effort to type them.

 

[Mole]

Mythology with facts and critical thinking studded onto it is not more valuable, it's just... vajazzled. Myth is always fiction. Facts and critical thinking without mythology tells me that everybody is pretty much over that whole American Revolution thing, except for Mole. Facts and critical thinking tells me that American Civil War conflict reverberated throughout the world in a positive manner. The terminus of a slave nation was a poison potent enough in the U.S. that it made us vomit it where many others took it in much smaller, and less deadly manageable doses.

It tells me other things, but I don't feel that you're sophisticated enough for me to waste the effort to type them.

Naturally you identify with the mythology of your childhood. In fact your childhood mythology has formed your very identity. So any questioning of your childhood ideology is experienced as an existential attack on who you are.

 

[Mole]

Facts and critical thinking tells me that American Civil War conflict reverberated throughout the world in a positive manner.

The USA has not only created God in their own image, but they try to create us in their own image.

The USA has been exporting civil war round the world for quite a while, from Central and South America, the Philippines, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Libya, Afganistan. They even tried it here by dismissing a democratically elected Prime Minister in the hope this would spark a violent civil war, just like their own.

Fortunate we have had three hundred years of peaceful democracy to fall back on, so rather than resorting to guns and violence, we had a democratic election.

We know the USA forments civil war to divide and conquer, all for the highest moral ideals.

 

[yeghor]

What the fuck is going on here...?

Let's just say "To each his own"... And...

 

[Qlip]

Naturally you identify with the mythology of your childhood. In fact your childhood mythology has formed your very identity. So any questioning of your childhood ideology is experienced as an existential attack on who you are.

Hah, so wide of mark on this one, even though we've had this conversation many a time. You know I'm an American like you think I'm supposed to know you ride kangaroos. So tiring.

Edit: Oh, it looks like you changed the content of your entire post after I responded to it...

The USA has not only created God in their own image, but they try to create us in their own image.

The USA has been exporting civil war round the world for quite a while, from Central and South America, the Philippines, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Libya, Afganistan. They even tried it here by dismissing a democratically elected Prime Minister in the hope this would spark a violent civil war, just like their own.

Fortunate we have had three hundred years of peaceful democracy to fall back on, so rather than resorting to guns and violence, we had a democratic election.

We know the USA forments civil war to divide and conquer, all for the highest moral ideals.

There's a truth in all of this. But, the whole truth is: people are dicks, people with power will prove this point. This would include Australians, if they had power. So consider yourself lucky enough to be ineffectual, and that's the extent of what you should be proud of, compared to the U.S. I'm not being totally sarcastic, being ineffectual is a kind of bliss.

 

[yeghor]

 

[Mole]

Let's just say "To each his own"... And...

Critically thinking and cognitive dissonance are just too lively, so let us abandon the agora and tend our own cabbages.

 

[yeghor]

Critically thinking and cognitive dissonance are just too lively, so let us abandon the agora and tend our own cabbages.

I was looking for an excuse to use this...guilty pleasure...

 

[Noll]

I believe in God, but I also believe in science, peace and tolerance. Spiritual but not religious.

 

[Mole]

As we watch a movie we suspend our disbelief, and if it is a well made movie, we believe in the movie for its duration. But once we leave the theatre, we no longer suspend our disbelief, otherwise we would be psychotic.

However when we go to church, or mosque, synagogue, or temple, we suspend our disbelief as long as we are there. But when we leave, we continue to suspend our disbelief, and so we are psychotic. But all the other members of the congregation share our psychosis, so we just take it for granted as nothing out of the ordinary.

 

[yeghor]

As we watch a movie we suspend our disbelief, and if it is a well made movie, we believe in the movie for its duration. But once we leave the theatre, we no longer suspend our disbelief, otherwise we would be psychotic.

However when we go to church, or mosque, synagogue, or temple, we suspend our disbelief as long as we are there. But when we leave, we continue to suspend our disbelief, and so we are psychotic. But all the other members of the congregation share our psychosis, so we just take it for granted as nothing out of the ordinary.

Some form of mass suggestion...?

 

[Fun in the Sun]

I am a spiritual person, which means religious people and atheists hate me :/ I have found there to be deep spirituality in Christianity, and I love the aesthetics of Catholicism, Anglicanism, and Eastern Orthodox, but ultimately I just don't like being told that what I do is sinful and that I, and loved ones, will burn in hell for eternity if we don't follow these rules. In fact, if there is a hell, I think that anyone that would say something like that to someone will probably end up there themselves. After all, we should not judge others. We really shouldn't. Nothing good ever comes out of it. Life is too short to bicker amongst ourselves, especially about things we cannot see or prove.

I am a member of the UUA, and I like that because I develop my own spiritual path and meet with a fellowship of people who are doing the same. I attend it with atheists, agnostics, Christians, Pagans. I wish there was a deeper spirituality at the meetings though and may be exploring my local Episcopal church to gain that. I like deep spirituality that borders on mysticism. I honestly don't care where it comes from as long as I feed that. The important thing to realize is that all religions speak to that deep spirituality that permeates the world around us, and it's a sad world when people take their religion too literally and lose sight of what all the religions have in common. Anyways, I think if I stay UUA, go to a Church, and spend a lot of time in nature, It will strength my spirituality and lead a more fulfilling life.

 

[johnnyyukon]

I'm VERY religious, just not spiritual.

 

[Mole]

Some form of mass suggestion...?

The suspension of disbelief puts us into a trance. And in a trance we are suggestible.

Most worship is a trance induction. And in the trance we are introduced to the mysteries of religion.

For instance, the Mass is an exquisite trance induction, honed over many centuries, and utilizing the finest of music, ritual and architecture.

And the Mass is a mass trance induction of the whole congregation.

And there is a sacrament to join the religion but no sacrament to leave the religion. So it is a trance without an exit. So it is a psychological trap.

 

[annexfriesia]

I'm an atheist, I don't see why belief in God is "required" to be balanced/content.

 

[gromit]

Christian.

Simultaneously very serious and very wishy-washy about it.



Sincere in my heart and daily interactions, but wishy-washy about a lot of the other stuff.

 

[gromit]

I apparently grew up in an area with a higher Jewish population than average so I'm always surprised when there aren't more Jews (eg poll results, where I live now)...

 

[/DG/]

I apologize for quoting such an old post, but I seem to have somehow missed that you quoted me. I just wanted to add one thing about this quote.

I find doing what you want is fun for a while (and definitely necessary sometimes), but it is responsibility that makes life meaningful. I often wonder what I SHOULD do, and WHY should I do it? So to believe that there IS meaning in the world (maybe not a traditionally religious meaning), and that I have some sort of objective reason to lead a meaningful life is motivating. Maybe it's not true, but that's what I find appealing about the idea that it is. I don't know if I explained that properly, but there you have it.

Yeah, I didn't mean to say that life can never have meaning. Rather, there is just not one meaning for everyone. Finding your own may be difficult, of course, but it's up to us to individually find our own cause. Some never find their cause and never need one...that's fine too.

I don't know if anyone can help you find the meaning you search for, but I hope you do find it.

 

[Little_Sticks]

In terms of beliefs, I'm the opposite of agnostic (but not Gnostic); I both believe and disbelieve all the religions, rather than believe one can't know if the claims they make are true or not. I...understand how they are both true and false at the same time. Basically, I'd say that probably makes me a relativist. I've built my way of understanding the nature of reality through a relativistic approach that brings opposites together, rather than choose the easy way out and believe absolutes that ignore all the exceptions or believe that the exceptions aren't worth consideration.

Based on the above, in terms of how I prefer to live (or get a kind of fulfillment out of life), I'm probably a satanic shaman with some buddhism sprinkled in.