What do you believe?

[Frosty]

What religion do you follow, if any? Do you believe in God? Do you believe something else?

Did you have any experiences in your life that have shaped your beliefs?

Feel free to discuss whatever you are comfortable with. I am just very curious about all of this.

 

[Spectre]

What religion do you follow, if any? Do you believe in God? Do you believe something else?

Did you have any experiences in your life that have shaped your beliefs?

Feel free to discuss whatever you are comfortable with. I am just very curious about all of this.

I am not religious, but I look forward for the posts in this thread. It could be really interesting.

 

[á´…eparted]

My beliefs very well summed up:

 

[Lord Lavender]

If I had to sum up my beliefs its very complicated but basically I think all spiritual and religious things have equal existence like Abrahamic God and Zeus and Loki are all to me valid entities that exist but I think they kind of feed from belief and worship so Abharmic God with a few billion worshippers (I count Christians,Muslims and Jews as all worshipping the same God just doing it differently a bit like cooking as you can steam,grill,fry,bake e.t.c but the general principle remains the same) is the most powerful in essence. As for me personally I dont practice any religion but I do pray to God and try my best to follow basic Christian ideals that just happen to crisis cross with my outlook on life.

 

[Justin of Flavia Neapolis]

I believe in one God, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages;

Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten, not created, of one essence with the Father through Whom all things were made.

Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man.

He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried;

And He rose on the third day, according to the Scriptures.

He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father;

And He will come again with glory to judge the living and dead. His kingdom shall have no end.

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Creator of life, Who proceeds from the Father, Who together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified, Who spoke through the prophets.

In one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.

I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the age to come.
Amen.

 

[Hiraeth]

I was raised an unbaptized and non-practicing "Christian" who had ever only went to church a couple of times before with other relatives. I remember my parents telling me that as long as I'm a good person, everything would be fine. Besides that, I was still told to pray everyday and I used to enjoy reading my children's Bible for fun. Then I became a teenager and started questioning everything I ever once believed in, and through that became an agnostic and eventually an agnostic atheist.

I was an agnostic atheist, weak to strong, for a quite a while, but consider myself more along the lines of just an agnostic now. I now see God as a metaphor for seeking ultimate meaning, reaching enlightenment perhaps, and also depicted in a way to describe the universe itself, but not as an objective truth. Mainly to find yourself in this world by reaching some form of enlightenment, and through that you'd find the great divine yourself. I view every religion as innerconnected and similar at their core, all reaching the same end goal of worshipping a higher power of some sort and being their own version of enlightened, but believe religion itself to be a man-made fabrication. I suppose I consider it a deep spiritual connection of divinity, of reaching a greater understanding of oneself and humanity. I'm not sure what to even call this, but the label doesn't really matter much to me.

Regardless, I find religion interesting and enjoy reading and learning about its many various forms. I find myself these days enjoying Pagan beliefs and the idea of working with magic and the astral plane. I am also fond of Taoism and carry the Tao Te Ching in my purse to read whenever I get antsy, hah, but I don't consider myself a follower of anything, really. Well, except yoga and veganism, since some consider those a form of religion, although I consider them philosophies. In my case I suppose they can be since I'm an avid practitioner of both, but I don't follow anything else in particular. However, I'd still like to continue developing my own spiritual practice and get to a place where I am more than satisfied with it.

 

[citizen cane]

I believe in miracles.

 

[magpie]

I believe in miracles.

This is the song I sing to Nutter.

 

[citizen cane]

In all seriousness, I was raised Protestant and still actively attend services. Theologically, however, my beliefs lean more toward humanist and/ or Unitarian. I try to follow the golden rule and not be a dick if I can summon the willpower.

 

[Polaris]

About God: If there is a God, I think that the odds of him being me are very high.

About the afterlife: I believe that I will exist forever. If I die, it will be like going to sleep and then waking up. I doubt that there is a reward or punishment waiting for the dead based on how they lived their life. There isn't such a reward or punishment here in ordinary life, and I don't see why that would suddenly change when someone becomes a corpse.

About morality: I reject ethical codes, including those supposedly handed down from a higher being, almost on principal. I just follow my conscience, which I think is my best shot at peace of mind.

About the soul: The peculiar thing about the soul is that it is, for its owner, totally invisible. I can not see or touch or even accurately picture mine. So does it really exist? That's the question each person faces.

 

[Amargith]

She explains it better than I could. I believe we're connected - all of us, for this very reason.

 

[Mole]

We love to be entranced. And when we are entranced our critical minds go to sleep and our imaginative minds wake up. Different trances have different purposes, from the trance of driving a car to the trance of making love. And a common group trance is the religious trance, which has the purpose of teaching the dogma of the church to encouraging us to follow the moral teachings of the church.

 

[Frosty]

Personally. I dont know whst I believe. Im spiritual I believe, I want to believe in a God... but Im not sure.

The only thing I dont really... like about religion... is that I believe that people should want to be decent and good to other people because its the right thing to do- and not because they fear they will go to hell. I dont like the idea of ‘maybe if I werent religious then I wouldnt do this for you’ because I dont know... I am kind of afraid it cheapens what good the person is doing.

But. Besides that all... I dont know. I more believe than I dont. But its... complicated

 

[Coriolis]

I have described my spirituality in a number of other threads, so I will just summarize. I believe there is more to us than our physical bodies, and more to the world than the material world. I cannot prove this, however, which is why I call it a belief. I like to think that some part of us continues after death, but that is as much wishful thinking as anything else. I consider myself more spiritual than religious in that I don't confine myself to one denomination or set of religious practice. I seek God where he may be found, and he is found in all of them, and outside of them. I was raised Catholic, but left that behind by the time I finished college. This was followed by a rather frustrating "dry spell" after which I found my way again on a new path. My primary affiliation is Pagan, but I also regularly participate in Christian worship, and occasionally in devotions and activities of my local Bahai and Unitarian communities.

 

[ceecee]

In all seriousness, I was raised Protestant and still actively attend services. Theologically, however, my beliefs lean more toward humanist and/ or Unitarian. I try to follow the golden rule and not be a dick if I can summon the willpower.

*nods*

 

[tinker683]

I currently attend church services at an Episcopal church and find the ritual, the liturgy, and the general attitude of the denomination to be quite agreeable. I considered myself something a secular Taoist for a long time but have found the Anglican Communion to be a like-minded and welcoming community for which to be a part of.

I am hesitant to call myself a Christian though because a lot of the theology I either don't understand or I find it convoluted and goofy. I'm not entirely sold on the Salvation mythology and as such I view Jesus as a "finger pointing at the moon" as it were, not some literal blood sacrifice. I am uncertain as to the existence of "God", whatever that may be, but choose to believe anyhow on the proposition that doing so will lead me.....somewhere....that will make be a better, more complete person. That proposition is open to change, however.

 

[biohazard]

I'm an anti-theist. I would say I'm a full on skeptic because I go between atheism and agnosticism. I believe that any individual can be moral without the influence of religion. I'm also an individualist so I view religions on how they control the individual's free will.

This is a good description of my views.:

"I am not even an atheist so much as an antitheist; I not only maintain that all religions are versions of the same untruth, but I hold that the influence of churches and the effect of religious belief, is positively harmful. Reviewing the false claims of religion I do not wish, as some sentimental materialists affect to wish, that they were true. I do not envy believers their faith. I am relieved to think that the whole story is a sinister fairy tale; life would be miserable if what the faithful affirmed was actually true.... There may be people who wish to live their lives under cradle-to-grave divine supervision, a permanent surveillance and monitoring. But I cannot imagine anything more horrible or grotesque."
--- Christopher Hitchens

 

[Atomic Fiend]

 

[Lark]

Interesting thread.

 

[Lark]

*nods*

Do you not find that people dismissing isms are among the greatest unconscious or unawares advocates of some ism after all?

I tend to find that anyway, do you think that Ferris' speech is a Generation Xer speech BTW?