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Share your spiritual beliefs

Night

Boring old fossil
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Do you?

Tell me why you believe. Or, conversely, why you choose to disbelieve.

I'm not starting this thread to fertilize a battleground. Spirituality is an intimate experience. It is not concerned with empirical logic beyond what works for the individual. To that end, I'm not looking to debate.

Only to share.

So, tell me: What do you believe?


Edit: Just to be clear, the intent of this thread is to allow folks to weigh in on their personal spiritual ideology; it's not an opportunity for religious debate. There are countless other threads available in which that is a possibility.
 
Last edited:

Night

Boring old fossil
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I'm not sure how I would classify myself.

Raised Catholic. Rejected Catholicism in college, when it became clear to me the ease at which a critical mind could poke holes in traditional doctrine -- on many levels, but primarily in terms of exclusivity in spiritual 'salvation' and for its painful mediocrity in response to relevant contemporary social issues. Seemed counter-intuitive that a religious premise cornerstoned on the teachings of 'Christ' could summarily reject and condemn on the basis of non-adherence to (what I considered) self-important/outdated bureaucratic code.

So, over time, Catholicism withered. Became dinosauric; something to transcend, rather than as a means to offer transcendence.

Which brings me here. Now. I've since come to realize the contradictory nature of my judgment. Doesn't seem fair to ignore the value of an entire philosophy because a few people got it wrong in practice. Or to exercise the same judgment in character that distanced me from Catholicism in the first place.

So, I continue to struggle. My faith in the likelihood of a creator deity/overpower notwithstanding, I wrestle daily with my personal investment in Catholicism, as an ideal unto itself.
 

WoodsWoman

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Dec 24, 2007
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778
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Protestant, practicing. ---And a huge respect for Flannery O'Connor (Catholic) - I would recommend "The Habit of Being" a collection of her correspondence published after she died. One of my favorite books.
 

Quinlan

Intriguing....
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I believe that if I put the first fish back in the water it will bode well for the rest of that days fishing.
 

Blank

.
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I choose to neither believe nor disbelieve. Unfortunately, there isn't a term in English that can describe that kind of philosophy accurately.

If I get a sign, I get a sign, if I don't, I don't.

The bottom line is: I think we're all ignorant and should stop pretending we aren't. :)
 

wank

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free
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nope
Born again christian.

Began believing in a spiritual style from a mostly atheistic background(used to be well read on arguing against christians) due to knowing it would make me a better person(humble self, less inflated ego, etc...)
Moved into christian belief with enough presentation of pleasant arguments against evolution, apologetics untowards a young earth, and enough info presented of Jesus Christ.
Current issue I'm dealing with: Emphasis on rules and such, and giving my life to christ.
 

Factotum

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Agnostic atheist. Science, specifically quantum physics and the relativity theory, can explain how the world works down to pretty fundamental levels, hence no god is necessary for explaining anything.

Of course, anything could in theory be the cause beyond this. The apparent randomness in quantum physics could in fact be the leeway of a thinking, self-concious entity... but that idea is cut in pieces by Occam's Razor.
 

Winds of Thor

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Do you?

Tell me why you believe. Or, conversely, why you choose to disbelieve.

I'm not starting this thread to fertilize a battleground. Spirituality is an intimate experience. It is not concerned with empirical logic beyond what works for the individual. To that end, I'm not looking to debate.

Only to share.

So, tell me: What do you believe?

Need I say more with all the life around
 

Feops

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829
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INTx
I do not.

I was raised in a christian environment, and baptized. Since I could read, my favorite question as a child was "why?" Books could explain why, they would tell me why the sky is blue, why the moon doesn't fall on us, why animals eat one another. When they did not know, they were honest, and provided best estimations.

Sunday school was another place entirely. "Why?" was not permitted. Everything was known, but nothing was explained, or questioned. But nothing quite fit, instructors would contradict themselves, or accept the impossible, as if it were normal. It lacked clarity and felt somewhat surreal, that everyone saw and accepted such a view of the world. Growing up I explored more, but the fundamental flaw (as I saw it) remained. All asserted things which could not be seen or proven, yet were to be accepted.

Currently I only have faith in understanding. There may be a great divine presence of some sort, but it certainly does not exist in any form we as humans worship today, filtered through so much time, language, and interpretation. The world I've been given and the senses to explore it would be such a waste if I did not use them to their fullest.
 

Haphazard

Don't Judge Me!
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Apr 14, 2008
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Agnostic Jew.

If anything's out there, I don't have enough evidence to make assertions.
 

Moiety

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Ignostic agnostic.


I believe in myself and in my power to change things, provided I'm not feeling like procrastinating.
 

Athenian200

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I thought you were better than that, Night. I want you to know that I'm disappointed in you. I can't believe you went back to that religion. You really don't care how unreasonable those people are. :dont:

Anyway, the reason I don't believe in "God," is because I find it too limiting a concept for my idea of a supreme being. I'm agnostic, and what I essentially believe is that many religions are based on people who saw this Supreme Being, and it tried to communicate with them, but had to wear different masks and manifest in slightly different ways in order to communicate with all of them. Also, the message has likely been distorted over time with language, creating further drift and people translating it based on assumptions that fit with their present norms. If you look carefully at any religion, you'll notice that there's a distinct parellel between that religion, and the cultures it came from and passed through during its evolution.

So, what I essentially believe is that the common threads you see in religions are far more important than the details people quibble over. They all seem to agree that there's a force that created the universe, and rewards altruistic and good behavior, and that there's an afterlife. There also seems to be idea that asceticism and self-discipline is a higher road than materialism and self-indulgence (though there's disagreement on whether materialism and self-indulgence are actually evil or wrong). These threads appear in several religions, and I doubt it it's a coincidence.

My attitude is essentially this... if you can only see the truth in one perspective on something that is supposedly infinite, you have a very small mind.
 

Drezoryx

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Do you?

Tell me why you believe. Or, conversely, why you choose to disbelieve.

tell me: What do you believe?

Brought up on Eastern philosophy, started exploring other faiths and atheism, then went back to it. currently exploring different schools within eastern philosophy.

I feel the basic reason of adopting atheism for me was awe of complexity of everything, it couldn't be explained as easily with religion or even science. Eventually i figured you don't need to know everything to formulate a comforting life philosophy, non dogmatic one at that, amenable to change, a little dynamic but with a fair foundation.

Non believing for me was like a void which needed to be fed from my own energy, it saps you. a philosophy which comforts you even if its your own and provides you with energy and doesn't let you fall down is pretty good and very necessary too for a successful 'material' life

why eastern? eastern philosophy is head to head with latest in science and at places science is still catching up. this ensures minimum conflict in beliefs. it is comprehensive and well developed, a complete lifestyle.

also it's better to believe in *some* philosophy otherwise its like amputating a good limb. Its free hapiness who doesnt like a paycheck without work or insurance without premiums.
 

ayoitsStepho

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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.
 

Athenian200

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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.

That explains a lot.

Sorry I got so mad at you earlier. If I'd known you were one of those, I wouldn't have blamed you for your perspective.
 

Usehername

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Religious experiences can be fMRIed and witnessed electronically. Faith by definition is unfalsifiable. One has a difficult time taking the Bible literally and negotiating reality with our present day epistemology.

I've come to believe that none of these are grounds for rejecting the meaning-making box of religion. I've also come to terms with a major issue reagarding the "is there a God?" question: my premise is my conclusion. I begin with the end in mind. This is the way of being for a religious person. Though my brain has issues with these things, my entire being does not have any problem holding things in tension. It's a part of Life by the way that I understand it, and that's actually cool.

I'm developing into this way of life more and more each day (with both successes and failures--development need not always be positive).

I also recognize the need to make sure I invest in my spiritual and emotional and soulful and physical self as much as I do my intellectual self; otherwise I run into problems.

I rely on my acoustic guitar and some alone time with God to keep my faith. :)
 

ayoitsStepho

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That explains a lot.

Sorry I got so mad at you earlier. If I'd known you were one of those, I wouldn't have blamed you for your perspective.

Well its ok, I didnt take it personally. I just prefer to keep my faith and such out of certain discussions because not everyone believes that way and it adds more mess. But I have no hard feelings :)
 

Usehername

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I thought you were better than that, Night. I want you to know that I'm disappointed in you. I can't believe you went back to that religion. You really don't care how unreasonable those people are. :dont:

Anyway, the reason I don't believe in "God," is because I find it too limiting a concept for my idea of a supreme being. I'm agnostic, and what I essentially believe is that many religions are based on people who saw this Supreme Being, and it tried to communicate with them, but had to wear different masks and manifest in slightly different ways in order to communicate with all of them. Also, the message has likely been distorted over time with language, creating further drift and people translating it based on assumptions that fit with their present norms. If you look carefully at any religion, you'll notice that there's a distinct parellel between that religion, and the cultures it came from and passed through during its evolution.

So, what I essentially believe is that the common threads you see in religions are far more important than the details people quibble over. They all seem to agree that there's a force that created the universe, and rewards altruistic and good behavior, and that there's an afterlife. There also seems to be idea that asceticism and self-discipline is a higher road than materialism and self-indulgence (though there's disagreement on whether materialism and self-indulgence are actually evil or wrong). These threads appear in several religions, and I doubt it it's a coincidence.

My attitude is essentially this... if you can only see the truth in one perspective on something that is supposedly infinite, you have a very small mind.

Weren't you making hugely erroneous claims about what Christianity actually was just a few months ago? Don't you believe you lack sufficient understanding of what it is you're judging?

Also, regarding your last point: if you can't allow for the possibility of God then you have a very small mind (to use your claims :)). No Christian knows they're right; Night and myself and others all know we're taking a leap of faith. We looked up the definition of faith in the dictionary and we read it in our Bibles. We also engage our critical thinking skills and we also can see from countless perspectives.

Why do you only believe in the postmodern perspective of multiple perspectives and no absolute truth? That's awfully limiting, hey? What about all of the other possible epistemologies out there? Seems to me like you're a slave to the episteme of your times in the same way we're slaves to the religion of times past.

The worldviews themselves are not invalid; there's valid or invalid reasons for the worldviews.
 

Drezoryx

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^usehername well said, i would have said pretty much the same to the quoted poster and more but this thread would quickly degenerate in cross accusations and counter arguments.

In general, believers and non believers can be equally neurotic/fanatic/egoistic, its not only about reasons you believe in something or disbelieve but also the level of accommodation of the other viewpoints and flexibility in your own ideas. Thats maturity.
 

Athenian200

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Why do you only believe in the postmodern perspective of multiple perspectives and no absolute truth? That's awfully limiting, hey? What about all of the other possible epistemologies out there? Seems to me like you're a slave to the episteme of your times in the same way we're slaves to the religion of times past.

That's precisely the point. The religion needs to fit the culture and evolve with people and the times, not the other way around. The cultural development shouldn't be force-fitted to remain bound 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.
 
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