Brave enough to share your beliefs? (Religious)

[rikaaim]

I am fascinated by what people think. I don't think that they are right or wrong, but simply believe in something. If people wanna be brave and just share what they believe, I would love to listen. If you are going to participate though, just share. This is not a judging, bashing, or rebutle thread. Just observe and take note or state what you feel. Questions I think might be good to see why someone feels the way they do. I'll be brave and start.

I would call myself and Exsitentail Christian. I believe in many parts of the Bible. I believe that Jesus Christ is my savior and that God is taking care of me. I very much believe in that. I don't go to church. I don't read the Bible much any more. My inner peace comes from a serene belief that God is with me always and that my future is secure in Him. I feel that when I die I will go to Heaven because Jesus is my savior.

Some of the things that I can't go full force into with religion are some questions that I have. Many of them sexual in nature and relating to interactions with people. I feel that sometimes the Bible can contradict itself too much for me to really believe. If I fully believed that Bible wholly, why not kill myself and just go to Heaven because I've accepted Christ? What is my life then? Is it just sitting back being a prude not enjoying anything because it's a sin and then die to be in Heaven where I get all of my rewards? I can't live like that. I feel that I have to make a point of my life. I have to give my life reason. I also feel that sometimes the Hellfire and Brimstone preachers are too ferocious. Would God be so angry if I simply ask Him a question? They would make it seem so. So, I feel it is okay to question to find the truth. I strive to find the truth in all matters.

I also see how some people are treated and feel sometimes people have to stand up to make a difference. People are ultimately living in this world. It's ultimately up to people to make it better. That's how I feel. Anyone else wanna share?

I heartily encourage questions of a postive nature of understanding. If something someone says interests you, and you don't fully get their point, try to be respectful in asking. I don't judge what people believe and don't think anyone is wrong in their beliefs. Everyone is different. It's just that simple. I want to explore, share, and celebrate the differences that make us all unique.

 

[neonlyte]

I'm entirely open minded rikaaim. I visit churches regularly, even offer a few words of prayer, I did so just three hours ago. I never look at the church I enter to see its denomination, I vary rarely attend a religious service. In the last twelve months I've prayed in six different countries and on one day last year managed to pray in a Russian Orthodox, a Synagogue, a Roman Catholic and Lutheran Church. In a sense I'm a tourist and part of the reason for visiting is simply to see. But I'm also interested by the spiritual 'vibration' of a church, a feel when you enter through the door and move into the body of the church, it is different, in my perception, by faith.

I do make it a point of principle to pray, I'm just not sure who or what I'm praying to, I have a fairly clear idea what I'm praying for.

 

[Recidiva]

I'm not religious, but I am spiritual.

Christianity - I try to practice the tenets of the golden rule. Do unto others as you would have done unto yourself. Since I would like to be treated with respect and honesty, I choose these values as the core of my practice.

Buddhism - I like to think of the permutations of karma. Literally and metaphorically, it's an excellent model of balance and imbalance, and how patterns rise from ignorance and repeat until wisdom about the pattern is gained.

Wiccan - I believe deeply in "An it harm none, do as ye will" Since I realize I never know if or when I'm going to do harm, I'm extremely careful about never overriding anybody else's will.

Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle - There is so much chaos about that we can never be sure of the effects of what we're going to do, so take extra care not to be arrogant about your starting points, because distortion over time is a constant.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics - "The entropy of any totally isolated system not at thermal equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value." We are all subject to this law and we need to forgive and expect decay and disintigration, while doing the best we can to rebuild and maintain what we have constantly and tend to it with this effect in mind.

 

[Liar]

I took an online test once that sad I was a Quaker. Which is probably not far from my ethical base from what I know of them, but I'm not a believer as per se. I'm a content agnostic.

The only deity that I can accept would be one that didn't demand that I take him on faith alone, and who thinks it's enough that I live a good life and hurt nobody.

Which is my intention to do anyway, so disco.

 

[FallingToFly]

My usual reply to this is "recovering Christian."

In fact, I'm a practical witch who firmly believes the Hindu proverb of "There is only one God, but a wise man knows they have many faces and many names."

I'm not what would be classified as Wiccan, so it's easiest to explain on the terms of: practicing and practical witch. Beyond that is too complicated to get into.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

I'm entirely open minded rikaaim. I visit churches regularly, even offer a few words of prayer, I did so just three hours ago. I never look at the church I enter to see its denomination, I vary rarely attend a religious service. In the last twelve months I've prayed in six different countries and on one day last year managed to pray in a Russian Orthodox, a Synagogue, a Roman Catholic and Lutheran Church. In a sense I'm a tourist and part of the reason for visiting is simply to see. But I'm also interested by the spiritual 'vibration' of a church, a feel when you enter through the door and move into the body of the church, it is different, in my perception, by faith.

I do make it a point of principle to pray, I'm just not sure who or what I'm praying to, I have a fairly clear idea what I'm praying for.

I want to write a story about you, Neo... you're so damned interesting


What I "believe".... for a long time, I believed nothing. I wasn't athiest, I was just agnostic... "there could be something out there, but I don' t know what it is." It was a backlash against my sisters being very fundamental baptists who kept tring to "save" my soul from the fires of hell and all that...


what I believe now...


that "god" -- or the divine, or whatever you want to call it -- is around us all the time. I think that which we call "god" is really the same thing, regardless of the religion... the Christian god is the same as Buddha... Spirit is one. And we are one with Spirit. Physical manifestations of that one.

I believe that heaven is really here on earth. That "sin" is a moral construct and doesn't really mean anything in terms of the divine. That things happen for a reason, even the "bad" things... that there is meaning in it all... even if we don't understand it...

I believe we are all here for a purpose, that we have something to "do" here... and it's probably not what we think it is.

I love the Bible and the stories therein... but I see it as symbolism, not as any moral code book. I can see the stories there reflected in stories in cultures everywhere. The story of Jesus is beautiful to me... and I can feel metaphorically reborn, too, every spring... I also love the Bhagadavita and the Torah... and am fascinated by all religions, especially orthodox ones, the Amish, the Quakers, Hasidic Jews...

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

I'm a very tolerant and open-minded pagan who considers my religion to simply be another form or metaphor for the pantheistic Deity that includes everything. To me, the Gods are symbols of the forces of Nature. We are all energy and matter. As for morality, that is a subjective thing based mostly on one's personal logic. Like all personal logic, it is only as good as its premise.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

The Belief O'Matic

Kind of fun, if you don't know what you believe.

 

[neonlyte]

I want to write a story about you, Neo... you're so damned interesting

The Performance Art thread I've just posted may make you change your mind.

 

[rikaaim]

I'm very interested in this topic and thank those who have posted so far. I have many questions, but little time. I'll get back to individuals later and maybe try to start some conversations via PM if people don't mind. Gotta run off to work now. Laterz.

 

[zeb1094]

The Belief O'Matic

Kind of fun, if you don't know what you believe.

Ok, according to the little Q&A I did...I'm one of these.

1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (96%)
3. Secular Humanism (90%)

And after reading about each I would have to pick #3, Secular Humanism.

Although I consider myself an agnostic, I can live with Secular Humanism.

 

[Guest]

My first impulse, and my second, was to pass this thread by, but you phrased your question in such a way that I felt compelled to participate.

It is not fear that keeps me silent about my spiritual beliefs, but politeness. In general, people are not prepared to quietly listen to the beliefs of others, especially if they differ markedly. Some people cannot accept that others believe differently because it creates doubt for them and weakens what they call faith. Some people are exhorted by their beliefs to proslytize and convert. I've come to think that distasteful because it amounts to saying "I'm right, and you are so very wrong that I must save you from yourself." That's downright insulting to any thinking person and certainly not the best approach to persuade someone to change. Faith, after all, is not a thing to be easily shaken, nor should it be. Faith withstands, alone and unsupported. Faith is a leap into the unknown.

However, since you ask so politely I shall attempt an explanation. I have a deep and strong faith that does not fall into easy catagories or under convenient labels. I can say, using those labels, that I do not share in much of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic structures, nor strictly follow Wicca, Hindi believes, Zen Buddhism, nor hundreds of other practices and belief structures, although I have striven to develop what I believe from what I've learned of them.

My own beliefs are particular to me, although I have met those who share similar ideas. They involve my relationship to the Divine and to the other beings with which I share the gift of life, and controls pretty strictly my behavior and attitudes toward them. One essential part of my beliefs is that humans seek reunification with Divine perfection, the finite wanting to become the Infinite, and to do this requires endless cycles of learning. As to when it ends or where it culminates, being finite in myself I cannot say nor comprehend. That's where my faith comes in.

I do not believe in a single omnipotent, omniscient Divine Being, but in a continuum of Divinity, with some knowing more and some knowing less, moving forwards or looping back as lessons are learned or denied. I believe people cross my path and I cross the paths of others as part of this learning, and that every event in my life contains a lesson, some of which I may not learn until I have contemplated it for many years and learned yet other lessons. My beliefs require that I think about what I do, why I do it, how it is done, and what effects it has on me and others. This leads me to always question why other do what they do, so that I learn more.

I try hard not to judge, or put myself ahead or behind others (which is difficult, and is obviously a lesson I've got this time around). Sometimes I cannot get around my own ego, or the impulse to share knowledge or observations, or even "wisdom" (if I can be said to have any), although as I grow older, this gets easier. I do much better at shutting my mouth these days.

I have fears and worries, like most, but I do have a faith that all goes as it must in the constant movement toward this unification (here's where things get all mystical and shit ). I handle what I've got with the tools I have with me, even if some of those cause others to scoff or look askance. I pick and chose what resonates with me, and leave what doesn't. I try to withhold judgement, or at least make them with the knowledge they apply only to me and originate from me. Even to things and people I dislike or even hate, I give acknowledgement that I cannot understand their lessons and points of view, and may well have caused whatever situation is to hand by my own actions. I also acknowledge that they may have lessons for me to learn, although I might not be willing or prepared to learn them.

And I believe in the Do-Over. You do it until you milk everything out of the lesson, then you do it a few more times, until it is not a thing you learned but a thing you are, and then you can move on.

I could get a lot more weird and wild with this, but that's the essence. I hope I answered your question. I certainly think I typed enough!

P.S. I also believe it is hard as hell to proofread your own writing! I'm STILL finding typos! My typo fu is weak...

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

Hmm, answering this is going to sound like a cop-out. Here goes.

I believe that religion is personal and private. Close to the central tenet of my religion is that I don't mention it, don't discuss it, and remain at the ultimate edge in avoiding being evangelical about it. One might say it is the opposite of an evangelical religion. I can state what ideas I believe in (eternal justice, existance of an afterlife, the possibility of good in everyone), but not the actual religious bits that connect to it. This is something I believe exceedingly strong in and have actually gotten into fights on this forum about due to people mistakenly believing I was being coy or must not have beliefs. Religion is personal and I want everyone to find what they believe on their own without messing around with what I believe.

Because of that and because I had a lot of friends of radically different faiths when I was growing up, I tend to be heavily supportive and even defensive of other's religions and usually when prompted into religious conversation, engage in it from the faith of the person I'm conversing. I will also defend the religions of my friends when they are under undue or inaccurate attack. Thus my outward appearance is of a prismatic religion.

And to respond to mal, I believe her to be right about faith. I've always been surrounded by people with very grounded faiths that they earnestly believe. They are thus able to converse and listen to other faiths because they know in their hearts what they believe and what someone else says cannot shake that. They are also able to joke about religion. I have also known people who are seeking faith and they will listen because they are searching for what they believe and thus see no reason to attack those who seem to have found their faith. Indeed those who I have met who have been the most boisterous and intolerant of other faiths and felt that the mere mention was horrible and to be fought were those who had mysterious lacks of knowledge and confidence in their faith and who overall seemed to be weak in their faith or who lacked faith but were using it as an unsure shield or insurance agent. True faith is not a thing to be easily shaken as she said.

Note: this is not a denigration. It's not about having or lacking faith. It's about being honest to oneself about what one believes and not fearing that. If I was going to be evangelical about something, I'd be evangelical about that.

Be true to what you believe even if what you believe is Cthulhu.

EDITED to prevent mal from being transgendered against her will.

 

[BlackSnake]

I was raise Catholic, but now I don't practice any religion. I believe certain things that I can live with.

 

[cloudy]

I believe that religion is personal and private. Close to the central tenet of my religion is that I don't mention it, don't discuss it, and remain at the ultimate edge in avoiding being evangelical about it. One might say it is the opposite of an evangelical religion. I can state what ideas I believe in (eternal justice, existance of an afterlife, the possibility of good in everyone), but not the actual religious bits that connect to it. This is something I believe exceedingly strong in and have actually gotten into fights on this forum about due to people mistakenly believing I was being coy or must not have beliefs. Religion is personal and I want everyone to find what they believe on their own without messing around with what I believe.

What Luc said, in fact, he and I have discussed this before.

Religion, to me, is extremely personal. Most of my experiences with people who want to "discuss" religion with me aren't positive. They don't want to discuss, they want to convert. Not saying this is what you're doing, Rika, just explaining why I don't discuss what I believe - ever.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

Wicca is as close as I come to being religious.


























I don't come particularly close to being religious.

Q_C

 

[Guest]

Does anyone else think there is a distinct difference between "religious" and "spiritual"? I claim to be spiritual (as I personally define it) but I don't claim the word "religious" no matter how it is defined.

 

[angelicminx]

I am a non-religious believer. I have faith that things will happen as they are suppose to happen, not as we would want them to happen. I always receive the answer to a question or a problem, even if that answer is not the one I expected to get.

There have been times when things have seemed to be more than I could handle, but when I relinquished "control" they resolved themselves, albeit unexpectedly.

Faith.

 

[angelicminx]

Does anyone else think there is a distinct difference between "religious" and "spiritual"? I claim to be spiritual (as I personally define it) but I don't claim the word "religious" no matter how it is defined.

I reckon that would be me, lol.

 

[neonlyte]

What Luc said, in fact, he and I have discussed this before.

Religion, to me, is extremely personal. Most of my experiences with people who want to "discuss" religion with me aren't positive. They don't want to discuss, they want to convert. Not saying this is what you're doing, Rika, just explaining why I don't discuss what I believe - ever.

I think I pretty much share this sentiment, though I don't mind telling where I stand. I'm not prepared to justify where I stand, that is really for me to decide and no one else. each of us holds certain philosophies by which we live our lives, they become imprinted to a degree and define us as an individual. I'm prepared to argue we are better off being 'green' or the merits of political systems, there is an element of tangibility about those ideals, do x you get y, but belief is by its very nature untangible, a set of values, perceptions and priciples personal to you and your relationship with everything around you, if you like, it is the reason I go to church but don't go to church services.

 

[Guest]

I believe God created the world and founded one great set of underlying natural laws of which the Theory of Evolution is our first steps at understanding.

I don't believe he did this in 4004 BC and then carefully hid all over the planet, where we'd be likely to find them, fake ancient ruins, faked fossils of creatures that never existed, man's DNA similarity to Apes, and other so called evidence of life and the earth being more the 6000 years old to test our faith and as a great practical joke.

 

[entitled]

i believe that religion is a crock of shit. Really.

i also believe that spirituality is a damned good thing, and that if we were all to forget about all the religions (organized or not) in this world and simply had personal relationships with whatever you choose to call or not call the divine, the would would be a muchbetter place.

i believe that some people are too involved with their own personal relationships with the divine to be able to discuss it in an intelligent way. Others are just following what they've been told their whole lives without thinking about it, so cannot believe anything else is even a remote possibility because such an idea hasn't been planted in their heads.

i believe that in some small way every teaching is correct and should be taken into consideration.

What i personally do and how i interact with the divine changes from moment to moment. It's a relationship. They grow and change with each passing second. It's an absolute impossibility to nail down what happens.

 

[Nirvanadragones]

Does anyone else think there is a distinct difference between "religious" and "spiritual"? I claim to be spiritual (as I personally define it) but I don't claim the word "religious" no matter how it is defined.

I am absolutely there...

I have been practicing the Craft for over 15 year... So yes, there is my first open confession on Lit - i am a witch I would not like anyone to get the wrong impression - it is not a secret or something that I keep to myself. It's just that my beliefs, just like my sexual orientation and other aspects of my being does not define me. It is important to me, but it is not solely who I am.

As a family we celebrate all Jewish and Christian holidays from a traditional perspective, including some Muslem customs.

I take what works for me and leave the rest.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

It's just that my beliefs, just like my sexual orientation and other aspects of my being does not define me. It is important to me, but it is not solely who I am.

VERY true. Sounds like you have a healthy attitude about it.

I take what works for me and leave the rest.

Again a wise choice. Religion is there for the benefit of man, so that he can make some connection to the Universe. That's up to him or her to figure out the specifics. Same with spirituality.

 

[SophiaY]

Daoist.

Which cannot be expressed...