What's your religion?

[kazmen17]

Theist? Processed Deist? Gnostic? Unorthodox Christian? Panentheist? I don't entirely ascribe to a label other than I believe in a God who has influenced my life in unorthodox ways. Perhaps he is neither good nor evil; perhaps he is simply the encompassing of all existence; or perhaps he is thoughtform that has coalesced from our existence. All I know is that he knows me more than I know myself and has provided for me when I am in need. Some sects and religions describe a dualistic all-encompassing force that pervades the universe that is equally good and evil. I have liked how Hindus have explained certain concepts such as the illusion of reality (maya), the cyclical nature of time rather than the flow or current that many Western views hold, and the existence of everything in general. Buddhism and Daoism have some interesting concepts too. Anyway, I believe through my own anecdotal experience and observations that there is a God.

 

[Joshua the Writer]

I used to be Christian, and now I am finding the right time to go to Paganism (Hellenism) fully. I am quite interested in Hecate and Apollo.

 

[AprilR]

Muslim- leaning theist.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

Agnostic, did not give it much thought until I had a stroke and what seemed like an out of body experience. just prior to waking up I heard "the answer you seek is information ". and then a year later in the middle of a dream a second statement "you are the messenger", no context just this. bothered me ever since.

 

[Southern_Gentleman]

I have placed my faith in the saving work of Jesus that allows me to have fellowship with God. Through the Bible, which I believe is His word to us, I find guidance for faith and practice. The Word states that we should fellowship with one another, so I practice my faith with others in a Baptist church.

 

[Butterfly88]

Previously I considered myself a Progressive Christian but am an EpiscopalIan now.

 

[Harmonie]

I was raised Christian, but I never found a reason to believe any of it for myself. I am an atheist and am no longer religious.

 

[Levitat0r]

Jesus is my escape pod pilot.

 

[Neri]

I'm a "free thinker". To me, religion is personal. It's about one's relationship with "The Universe" "All That Is" "God" whatever language you want to apply to that which includes us and yet is really, beyond our ability to adequately comprehend. Many have experiences that shed light on this "More" and the more we learn the more we realise that we know and comprehend so very little of what is. But it sure is fun trying!

 

[Levitat0r]

I'm a "free thinker". To me, religion is personal. It's about one's relationship with "The Universe" "All That Is" "God" whatever language you want to apply to that which includes us and yet is really, beyond our ability to adequately comprehend. Many have experiences that shed light on this "More" and the more we learn the more we realise that we know and comprehend so very little of what is. But it sure is fun trying!

Personally, I think God is more than the universe. I think the idea that the universe is alive and is itself God is kind of a Buddhist thing, and maybe some others. I see a lot of Christian correspondence to Buddhism as well, like karma (reap as you sow), and the concepts of rebirth. I think most of the faiths have good in them, and to the extent that they are based in love and goodness, they are united.

 

[Neri]

Personally, I think God is more than the universe. I think the idea that the universe is alive and is itself God is kind of a Buddhist thing, and maybe some others. I see a lot of Christian correspondence to Buddhism as well, like karma (reap as you sow), and the concepts of rebirth. I think most of the faiths have good in them, and to the extent that they are based in love and goodness, they are united.

I think God is more than the universe too. Although it depends on your understanding of what the Universe is. It does correspond to the idea that nothing is outside of "God" or as my sources instructed me, and I quote "Nothing is outside of God's Loving Light". God being the I AM THAT I AM. The ALL. Both the One Verse and the Many Verses. The "Universe" and the "Multiverses". Multidimensionality and the All Encompassing.

 

[Dagan]

The more and more I think about it, I'm just a realist who is open minded to paranormal (beyond the usual). Every religious text I've read is pretty much the same. It focuses on what it swears happened in history and hard, tough, even violent lessons learned...but it has these paranormal occurrences here and there that people also swear happened. As a being that can continue to learn, experience and share even more lessons, I just can't tie myself down with only living according to whichever "version" of supposed truths from long, long ago.

Further thinking, about the only thing that ever bothers me (though, I honestly laugh at it more than let it bother me) is how many folks from all different religions want to put this hard barrier between science and their religious beliefs. I think it's a humorous contradiction to accept only religious faith and never science. Why? Well, every religious text claims their deity is who / how / why everything in the universe exists and functions in every way, only and exactly. Okay. Science is simply the detailed study and breakdown / explanations / best understandings of said existence and functions. Denying science is therefore basically blasphemous..?

 

[Levitat0r]

Science and faith are different things. If you believe God is omnipotent, then you don't doubt that he could reshape the whole of creation, including science, in an eyeblink, and it would appear consistent to you even though it's not. Maybe when you gain faith, God begins to leave you out of his global updates, so that now you are the inconsistent one, and you can look outwards and realize that God overthrows creation all the time.

You're told not to judge a book by its cover. You are a character in God's novel, and you can't study the book binding from that position.

 

[Dagan]

Well, I didn't say science and faith are the same thing - I said there shouldn't be a hard barrier between them. I didn't mention omnipotence, either. If I did mention omnipotence, you'd have seen a list of paradoxes that followed. Omnipotence shouldn't have want or need or desire to create, design or experiment to figure out "what if..?".....at all....ever. It would already know, so any actions to still prove itself correct are an occurrence that would prove it doesn't truly know for sure....and it chose to make sure it wasn't wrong. And you mention it could decide to reshape everything just because, for whatever reasoning. That'd be even more of a contradiction in and of its existence. Omnipotence does not allow for doubts. You have a paradox here.

Per religion, no one is told (or rather preached at) not to judge a book by its cover - at least they shouldn't be - as that's not in any religious text. It's a phrase made popular in the 50's, if I remember correctly. Now, if I ever did judge a book by its cover, an educated and wise judgement could certainly be made on any of the various religious texts that have the word "version" on the cover, back cover and/or just inside the cover on the title page. To me, accepting anything inside of such a book as absolute, undeniable truths wouldn't be the smartest move.....therefore, yeah, there's my judgement based on such a cover alone. Maybe a hard reality is to not ignore a book's cover, if you will because you could later be kicking yourself over what was obviously right in front of you. Perhaps the even better phrasing is to not entirely judge by outward appearances alone. I mean, look at my picture over there on the left. I look like just some goofball and possibly a full on idiot. Turns out that I'm quite educated and well read. Oops. Haha! Fooled the lot of you!

Per that whole being a character in god's novel......there goes that paradox stuff again. We are told we have free will...but wait, there's a plan for everyone already in place, and there's nothing you can do about it...but if you choose to deny him, well, you do get left to your own council...whatever evils befall you are entirely your fault....despite everything being a set path determined for you and all of mankind already that you absolutely will do because he knows about it and how it's going to go......but, yeah, you get to choose not to take said path.... LOL / JK / not really. At the very least, I can critique this novel as having an unreliable narrator, and it wasn't as interesting or well done in that styling as Fight Club was.

 

[Levitat0r]

Well, I didn't say science and faith are the same thing - I said there shouldn't be a hard barrier between them. I didn't mention omnipotence, either. If I did mention omnipotence, you'd have seen a list of paradoxes that followed. Omnipotence shouldn't have want or need or desire to create, design or experiment to figure out "what if..?".....at all....ever. It would already know, so any actions to still prove itself correct are an occurrence that would prove it doesn't truly know for sure....and it chose to make sure it wasn't wrong. And you mention it could decide to reshape everything just because, for whatever reasoning. That'd be even more of a contradiction in and of its existence. Omnipotence does not allow for doubts. You have a paradox here.

Per religion, no one is told (or rather preached at) not to judge a book by its cover - at least they shouldn't be - as that's not in any religious text. It's a phrase made popular in the 50's, if I remember correctly. Now, if I ever did judge a book by its cover, an educated and wise judgement could certainly be made on any of the various religious texts that have the word "version" on the cover, back cover and/or just inside the cover on the title page. To me, accepting anything inside of such a book as absolute, undeniable truths wouldn't be the smartest move.....therefore, yeah, there's my judgement based on such a cover alone. Maybe a hard reality is to not ignore a book's cover, if you will because you could later be kicking yourself over what was obviously right in front of you. Perhaps the even better phrasing is to not entirely judge by outward appearances alone. I mean, look at my picture over there on the left. I look like just some goofball and possibly a full on idiot. Turns out that I'm quite educated and well read. Oops. Haha! Fooled the lot of you!

Per that whole being a character in god's novel......there goes that paradox stuff again. We are told we have free will...but wait, there's a plan for everyone already in place, and there's nothing you can do about it...but if you choose to deny him, well, you do get left to your own council...whatever evils befall you are entirely your fault....despite everything being a set path determined for you and all of mankind already that you absolutely will do because he knows about it and how it's going to go......but, yeah, you get to choose not to take said path.... LOL / JK / not really. At the very least, I can critique this novel as having an unreliable narrator, and it wasn't as interesting or well done in that styling as Fight Club was.

Jesus Christ was a carpenter, and your choices (and character) provide the building materials. So it's a combination of both free will and destiny. You choose to be good enough, and then God chooses a destiny that fits who you are. Christ is called a "waymaker". He takes into account who you are, and he makes the way.

 

[Dagan]

Actually...Joseph's family trade was best considered that of masonry, as historical record proves that not many trees existed in that area, much like is still the case today. Study the architecture in the region, still, and it just backs this up more so. Same analogy can be made, of course....just that...

There can't be a combination of free will and destiny as you promote with omnipotence at the helm, though. The destiny you imply is "predestination" in that you will meet a specific fate no matter what choices you make, ever, so you aren't truly free. Free will implies that you can create your own path from beginning to end...every choice yours....every consequence, outcome and ending yours alone...your destiny being of your own choosing, not some omnipotent being at all. You present another paradox.

 

[Levitat0r]

Actually...Joseph's family trade was best considered that of masonry, as historical record proves that not many trees existed in that area, much like is still the case today. Study the architecture in the region, still, and it just backs this up more so. Same analogy can be made, of course....just that...

There can't be a combination of free will and destiny as you promote with omnipotence at the helm, though. The destiny you imply is "predestination" in that you will meet a specific fate no matter what choices you make, ever, so you aren't truly free. Free will implies that you can create your own path from beginning to end...every choice yours....every consequence, outcome and ending yours alone...your destiny being of your own choosing, not some omnipotent being at all. You present another paradox.

For every celestial eyeball God, there's a cheap imitator and an eye of Mordor.

 

[Dagan]

You present more paradox. Your own words promote that there can be the allowance for imitators (cheap or not, imitation is allowed, so you say). Imitation implies opposition. No opposition should ever be allowed, wanted, needed or desired, though because "omnipotence." Let's go with the thinking this ever would be allowed, though:

Your god essentially likes to play games. Games have prizes / winnings. That makes us the prize. That's childish desire of a father figure god, but okay, whatever, let's still run with it. If we can be won, then we can equally be lost...but only through opposition...and this opposition has to not only be allowed but also created by this one supreme, omnipotent being in the first place because as claimed, it was only ever them from the very start. So, not only is your god NOT omnipotent or perfect because of how much it craves and desires......its always bored and needs to constantly create and test and compete with something to prove its self. It has to allow for free will to make anything interesting, and that's a complete contradiction to claims of already knowing what the end result of anything ever is going to be. This kind of analogy is best explained in the book of Job, actually, and that's one that I particularly wasn't happy with. It's all just more paradox. I guess, this would equate to a novel for you....a "find-your-fate" novel, so choose wisely.

 

[Levitat0r]

You present more paradox. Your own words promote that there can be the allowance for imitators (cheap or not, imitation is allowed, so you say). Imitation implies opposition. No opposition should ever be allowed, wanted, needed or desired, though because "omnipotence." Let's go with the thinking this ever would be allowed, though:

Your god essentially likes to play games. Games have prizes / winnings. That makes us the prize. That's childish desire of a father figure god, but okay, whatever, let's still run with it. If we can be won, then we can equally be lost...but only through opposition...and this opposition has to not only be allowed but also created by this one supreme, omnipotent being in the first place because as claimed, it was only ever them from the very start. So, not only is your god NOT omnipotent or perfect because of how much it craves and desires......its always bored and needs to constantly create and test and compete with something to prove its self. It has to allow for free will to make anything interesting, and that's a complete contradiction to claims of already knowing what the end result of anything ever is going to be. This kind of analogy is best explained in the book of Job, actually, and that's one that I particularly wasn't happy with. It's all just more paradox. I guess, this would equate to a novel for you....a "find-your-fate" novel, so choose wisely.

The competition is not between God and others, the competition is inside you between your better tendencies and your lesser ones.

 

[Dagan]

If the competition is only inside of me, then I've won. I don't kill, don't rape, don't start wars, don't steal, don't destroy things like a heathen, etc. etc. Game over. I did it on my own. I have long done so with ease, too. I required no fearmongering or harsh discipline and still don't. I also don't require your praise, worship, money, sacrifice or love. I require no reward at all, and I'm smart enough to know that due to free will, if I did ask for it....you'd decline.