What do you believe, and why?
I'm not religious, but was raised as a Catholic. I'm curious as to what religion or beliefs you adhere to, and why.
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"As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds...so by generation I believe it has been with the great Tree of Life, which fills with its dead and broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever branching and beautiful ramifications." - Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species
I'm agnostic and was raised presbyterian. My family was never terribly religious so I didn't feel as strong of a need to pull away from christianity as some. I concluded early in high school that the sense were flawed and could be fooled, so it was impossible to know anything for certain, so I became agnostic/functionally atheist.
These days I've been considering getting back into religion somehow but I'm not sure how best to go about it so right now I'm just some sort of not-quite-theist-not-quite-atheist agnostic.
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Diagnoses: AS, Depression, General & Social Anxiety
I guess I just wasn't made for these times.
- Brian Wilson
Δυνατὰ δὲ οἱ προύχοντες πράσσουσι καὶ οἱ ἀσθενεῖς ξυγχωροῦσιν.
Those with power do what their power permits, and the weak can only acquiesce.
- Thucydides
Conservatism discourages thought, discussion, consensus, empathy, and hope.
I'm an atheist with an optimistic-nihilist stance on life.
Parents are both atheist, however I was raised in a religious school. I was a Christian until age twelve. Although I was always a little uncertain (especially with the conflicting information I was getting from my parents), but I was taught that made me a bad person if I ever questioned it and I didn't want to be a bad person (particularly with my self-hatred and self-esteem issues). Then I hit twelve and I thought "stuff what everyone else thinks I should be, what do I actually think?"
So I looked into it, considering various sides and reading different sources. Then I decided that I don't think there's a God or Gods. Really it's bizarre to me to think what I used to be like, child me doesn't even seem like me. Completely different stances on life on a variety of topics. She'd be horrified how I'm living my life now. However, I am happier than I was back then.
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Support human artists!
Near the spectrum but not on it.
Raised Catholic.
Innately agnostic theist at best or agnostic atheist at worst.
Why?
For being innately literal to disprove at first glance and for being abstract enough to catch certain things beyond that.
Now??
There is no belief or unbelief.
The theists and the atheists from my point of view are both right AND wrong.
Why? There is and isn't.
What is? It's personal beyond what I've ever known and words epically fail.
What isn't? From a certain point of view, it's logical and it's also illogical. ![]()
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Lose more time here - Updates at least once a week.
Parents Catholic, went to a Protestant school. I considered myself "religious but not spiritual" because I liked rituals but was too emotionally detached to be able to feel the Holy Spirit or to connect with my brothers and sisters in Christ or whatever.
Sometime in my early 20s, I decided the Abrahamic God probably didn't exist and stopped going to church completely. Don't really think about religions much these days. People can argue that I'm an atheist or agnostic until they foam in the mouth, but I refuse to identify myself in terms of something I consider unimportant. Unless... areligious?
techstepgenr8tion
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I'm in a space that's a bit difficult to describe but if I had to describe it in short order - theistically/deistically agnostic, non-materialist in the sense that I have a panpsychism-adjacent view of consciousness in the universe, a bit like an animism model that operates by a set of basic rules that seems to play along well with what one would call 'functionalism with multiple realizability', I could give examples of what I mean but Donald Hoffman's way of looking at the combination problem seems to be the closest mock-up that I've heard so far as to how this might work.
Outside of that if I were to take seriously the notion of a deity it would likely be a panentheism with Spinozan flavor, and there seems to be a lot of circumstantial evidence that we're living inside something akin to a vast superorganism, the question is - are we the only lights that are actually on in the structure to a self-conscious degree in a vast unconscious and largely chaotic structure or does it have a vast self-conscious structure that can beam back at us seductively when it cares to - enough people would claim they've experienced the later, I've experienced something 'close' but admittedly I don't trust my ability to identify the source of that for certain (ie. subconscious, McGilchrist's 'Master and Emissary', the particular goddess whose form that presence took, a 'Holy Guardian Angel' in the western Hermetic sense - way too little to go on).
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The loneliest part of life: it's not just that no one is on your cloud, few can even see your cloud.
I was raised in an Evangelical Lutheran family, not very religious one mind you, but am an atheist now. Lots of things in the bible don't make sense to me and/or are against my morals, so that naturally affects it, but the main reason is that I was taught that god is a forgiving, good hearted being that can do anything, yet there's still so much bad in the world. So, that led me to the conclusion that either A: God's powers are limited and it actually isn't ruling everything or B: they're not limited, but the god doesn't care enough to protect people and therefore isn't a good hearted being like I was taught.
Kraichgauer
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Location: Spokane area, Washington state.
I was raised in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod back when that church body was still a right of center mainline Protestant denomination, before the lunatics came to run the psychiatric hospital. I still think of myself as a Lutheran, and when I attend church it's the Missouri Synod congregation I grew up in. That said, I have voiced my difference of opinion with the Synod when it comes to LGBT rights, evolution, the growing power of the clergy as the doctrine of the Priesthood of All Believers seems to be going to the wayside, etc. While I have considered attending a more liberal Lutheran body, it's still hard to leave home, especially since I'm hardly the only person in my church with similar ideas.
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-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer
AnonymousAnonymous
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My NT sister and I both had Catholic upbringings but thankfully never were enrolled in Catholic schools.
We both believe we would not have fit in very well had this actually happened.
Like our Catholic mom, my NT sister and I still practice Catholic teachings to this day.
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Silly NTs, I have Aspergers, and having Aspergers is gr-r-reat!
I was raised, baptized and confirmed as an Episcopalian. I was touched by the light and took my belief very seriously. I also had a lot of questions which others discouraged.
In my teens I decided there was no God for a variety of good reasons.
I’ve found my home with Quakers, who welcome questions, are seekers, and are not afraid to ask the tough questions. There is no dogma, but the testimonies are Peace, Truth, Equality, Community. Quakers were originally Christians and are still but are inclusive now of a wide range of beliefs from animism to atheists.
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The river is the melody
And sky is the refrain - Gordon Lightfoot
Greatshield17
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Location: Columbia-Kootenay Region, British Columbia
Latin-rite Traditional Catholic with a strong devotion to Our Lady, my spirituality is mostly based off of St. Therese of Lisieux's Little Way.
I was introduced to the Faith by my dad, who is an immigrant from Chile, now he is sadly a nominal Catholic at best, my mother was raised Anglican but was more or less a None by the time she had me. I never knew much of the Faith beyond basics and by my late teenage years, I apostatized and became a Deist. Due to my lack of education, my belief in God as a Deist was based mostly off of wishful thinking, as opposed to reason. I had received a lot of poor treatment as kid and thus, if God didn't exist, there was no way of condemning the poor treatment I had received. Now though, I cannot even comprehend reality being reality without God's existence. Quite frankly if someone where to prove to me undeniably beyond the shadow of a doubt, that God does not exist, my reaction would be akin to the titular character in Nietzsche's Parable of The Madman, because reality would cease to make sense to me.
On a natural level, my reversion to the Catholic Faith was based off of my interest in history and stumbling across the Early Church Fathers, which started my interest in the Faith again. I was also struggling with unwanted sexual behaviour and thus in my effort to cope with it, I kept stumbling across various Christian material in my online searches. After reverting, I found myself making changes that I thought would take a very long time to make; on top of that, not long after my confirmation I received two statues of Our Lady of Grace; these two experiences led me to believe that supernatural grace is real and plays an essential role in one's life.
In short, I believe in the Holy Catholic Faith because it makes total sense of reality, and also because after my reversion, I had received a subtle, non-extraordinary experiences of supernatural grace.
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Don't bother with me, I'm just a narrow-minded bigot who does nothing but "proselytize" not because I actually love the Faith, because no one loves the Faith, we're just "using it to justify our bigotry." If you see any thread by me on here that isn't "proselytizing," I can't explain that because that's obviously impossible; because again, all I've ever done on here is "proselytize."
WP is the 2nd worst forum site I have ever been on.
Last edited by Greatshield17 on 11 Jun 2020, 10:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I was raised Anglican. My family is Church of England for generations.
I believe in the Golden Rule of treating others with respect and dignity. I don't get wrapped up in the other details, to be honest. My church is very progressive, performing gay marriages, accepting the trans community, and rejecting any form of bigotry, sexism, or discrimination. The priest and the bishop are both women.
In terms of spirituality I believe in everything, even opposite or contradictory ideology. I think everything is possible. I don't know enough to judge the universe in any other way. I find many religions interesting, especially Judaism and Hinduism.
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I never give you my number, I only give you my situation.
Beatles
I believe in the Golden Rule of treating others with respect and dignity. I don't get wrapped up in the other details, to be honest. My church is very progressive, performing gay marriages, accepting the trans community, and rejecting any form of bigotry, sexism, or discrimination. The priest and the bishop are both women.
In terms of spirituality I believe in everything, even opposite or contradictory ideology. I think everything is possible. I don't know enough to judge the universe in any other way. I find many religions interesting, especially Judaism and Hinduism.
*I* do.
Agnostic but raised Lutheran, I never baptized my kids but did encourage them to take Religions in high school. Overall I think religion is a good thing as long as it's not taken to extremes - but me, I need to see it to believe it. My son is with a muslim girl and I'm ok with probably having muslim grandchildren. I was very sick several years ago and I never thought about god once.
