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What's your religion?

SolitaryWalker

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More like the cure than the disease. :D

Existentialism insists that meaning in the universe does not exist, we have to somehow come up with our own. This is a rejection of objective meaning which is indeed nihilism. What this means is that there is no meaning in the universe, but we somehow have to befool ourselves into believing that there is.
 

meshou

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I suppose. I don't reject meaning, though. I am very interested in what meaning people have personally created in their lives. I find value in it.

I think there's something beautiful about people who have created meaning to their existence, claimed their own lives as a result of self exploration and reflection, become more aware of themselves and their surroundings.

I don't think that's classically nihilist. nihilists are often a great deal more defeatist.

I also don't reeject all morality, nor do I think something being arbitrary makes it without merit. Everything's arbitrary, it can still be useful or valuable.
 

SolitaryWalker

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I suppose. I don't reject meaning, though. I am very interested in what meaning people have personally created in their lives. I find value in it.

I think there's something beautiful about people who have created meaning to their existence, claimed their own lives as a result of self exploration and reflection, become more aware of themselves and their surroundings.
.

If the meaning in their life is legitimate, than they did not create it, but find it.
 

meshou

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Since I don't believe it's "out there" to find, I'll have to disagree. :)
 

meshou

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I don't agree with all of its conclusions, some of which I consider pretty essential to the philosophy.
 

Totenkindly

@.~*virinaĉo*~.@
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So raised in Christian mythology that preaches that Gods existence is absolute and provable and now you're still in faith, yet epistemically agnostic?

uh... yeah... (?)

To be a little more descriptive:

1. I believed at an early age and was raised in the church. My mom was Christian but unable to contribute intellectually to my faith; my dad did not want to interfere for good or ill.

2. I tried hard to understand everything I could and could easily find what patterns existed in the theology.

3. I was also involved in a variety of churches and had some spiritual experiences along the way, but struggled hard with knowing "what I should do" and "not being able to do it" consistently. And, amid what hypocrites or pedantic sorts I knew, there remained a very small handful of genuine loving / deeply engaging believers who cared about me as a person. If anything is an anchor to me, it's my memory of them.

4. I spent much of my teens and early 20's into apologetics-style material, since belief was very "intellectual" for me. There were things I did not understand, but I fought hard to somehow put together a "consistent picture" that incorporated the doctrine I had learned (which basically incorporates an inerrantist view of Scripture and a view of the Bible more as a cohesive guidebook).

5. Since my mid-20's, I've had to learn a lot of relational truth (as opposed to intellectual truth), and I've also (with more study of various viewpoints and historical things) changed my view on what the Bible is and how it was put together. I've also gone through a lot of crap that challenged my faith and in many ways helped me grow, yet inevitably also eventually left me here, where I am now -- feeling very agnostic in terms of having no real proof that anything I had believed was true, yet seeing value in the faith and also having learned a lot of "life truth" that meshes up with what I learned in rubber-meets-the-road Christianity. So any faith I continue to have will be a choice on my part, not a derivation from "evidence."

--

Hmmm. Not sure why you guys are arguing over whether Meshou is a nihilist. She certainly doesn't seem to fit up with the negative stereotypes of nihilism, and it's clear that her main gist (at least the part you have been discussing) is pretty typical existentialism, where people construct meaning in a world where no meaning inherently exists. So why not leave it at that?
 

disregard

mrs
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i'm atheist. i never said my religion is atheism

and i'm definitely not part of an antheist religion.
 

PuddleRiver

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Non-denominational Christian. Hubby and I stopped going to Church because of pretty extreme Evangelicals. We're pretty much considered unsaved by them. I couldn't stand it anymore. bleh.
 

macjoven

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origional by Eileen:

HOLLA!

I've done time with the Methodist set too. I've got fondness for those confused/misplaced Anglicans...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ivy
We need to rap.

Can somebody say PRAISE BAND????

Indeed I can as I was in one playing violin in College. Though admitedly most "praise music" still drives me nuts, I have gotten pretty used to it.

I noticed there were a couple of episcopalians on the thread already which is pretty cool for so few people on the thread total. It is interesting how many NFs are in church. Almost all the people in our college group are NFs: 2 INFJs, 2 INFPs, and a1 ENFP, I know for sure and two other people I think are a INFP and a ENFJ... also there some occasional members that I have no idea of their type.
 

niffer

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Buddhist/Confuscianism.
 

Ivy

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Indeed I can as I was in one playing violin in College. Though admitedly most "praise music" still drives me nuts, I have gotten pretty used to it.

I dislike most of it. We don't do "contemporary" praise music at my church much; it's a nice eclectic mix of the good old hymns and some newer ones, but none of that cheesy stuff. Very Sufjan in flavor. :) We had a "bluegrass mass" once that I was dreading (I tend to be fairly old-school when it comes to church music) but it was actually very nice.

I noticed there were a couple of episcopalians on the thread already which is pretty cool for so few people on the thread total. It is interesting how many NFs are in church. Almost all the people in our college group are NFs: 2 INFJs, 2 INFPs, and a1 ENFP, I know for sure and two other people I think are a INFP and a ENFJ... also there some occasional members that I have no idea of their type.

Our church is full of NFs and a generous sprinkling of NTs.
 

Totenkindly

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I noticed there were a couple of episcopalians on the thread already which is pretty cool for so few people on the thread total. It is interesting how many NFs are in church. Almost all the people in our college group are NFs: 2 INFJs, 2 INFPs, and a1 ENFP, I know for sure and two other people I think are a INFP and a ENFJ... also there some occasional members that I have no idea of their type.

Our church is more of an "S-centered" one... lots of good ol' country folk who like to roll up their sleeves and do something. (Very good with 'acts of service' and all that.) But all three pastors and me are N's... the one who leads worship now is ENFP.

Most of the popular worship leaders around right now (focusing more on the abst
ract and mystical interactions with God) are N's and lean towards the NF crowd, although you'll find some NTs in there.

sorry, tangent. Hope that wasn't too personal for you-known-who.

Theist solipsist.

That's an interesting combination -- can you explain it a little more?
 

Rhu

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I'm a Rhuist. We're a new and exciting cult who really stand to go places in this world. If you're interested, please contact me privately for further information.
 

C.J.Woolf

respect the brick
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I'm a Rhuist. We're a new and exciting cult who really stand to go places in this world. If you're interested, please contact me privately for further information.
Sounds like a ground-floor opportunity to join the upper ranks of the hierarchy in the Rhuist pyramid scheme cult.

Can I be the Archangel? Then I can brag that there's a port in Russia named after me.
 

Totenkindly

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Sounds like a ground-floor opportunity to join the upper ranks of the hierarchy in the Rhuist pyramid scheme cult.

"Hi, I'm Rhu Barb selling Rhamway products. This is Rhu diMentary -- he just joined and came along to be educated."

Wait... I bet we've stumbled upon a secret branch of the Illrhuminati! And I bet Rhupert Murdock is a member.
 

Eileen

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Indeed I can as I was in one playing violin in College. Though admitedly most "praise music" still drives me nuts, I have gotten pretty used to it.


lol, I hate praise music except for the purpose of ironic religious expression. :)
 
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