AS people who are religious....

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I'm curious.

I was raised into a religious family, but decided on Lutheranism in May 2002. My family was always some sort of Pentecostal denomination. My parents currently go to an Assemblies of God church.

I was born into a Catholic family and staying as a Roman Catholic.

We were all churchgoers. Every Sunday sent to church whilst mother or auntie cooked a wonderful lunch or made a picnic in the summer.

I brought my children up going to church when they were young too and then went to church daily after dropping them off at school.

Its not like that now, I explored a few other religions and a few Pagan paths and systems and I suppose that whether you choose High Church or Satanism, you develop spiritually in some way and I believe all roads lead to the same point eventually.

What I mean by that is you come across angels and demons in any and all religions and paths and conquer them or not.

Last edited by Kaleido on 21 Apr 2008, 2:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Okay, mine's both the first and second option, so which one do I choose?
For clarification:
I was born into a religious family, and shortly thereafter decided to believe in God, and I knew He was there.
I believed in Him during my entire childhood, and my faith grew slowly.
But then, for about 2 years during my teens, I all but forgot about God.
But at around 16 years old, He re-affirmed His existance in powerful, spiritual ways, directly to me,
which is to say: independent of anyone else.
I didn't sense that He was upset that I had all but forgotten about Him.
Rather, I just sensed loving acceptance from Him, and a desire to be a crucial part of my life again.

Choose a religion that does not pay on fear, green, or intellectual ignorance. I got that quote from my trip to the Buddhist Centre in Croydon. There is a bit of me that is NT and likes going there. It is possible to be an atheist and Buddhist at same time.

Budhaism is more a ideology then a belief in a god. Going to Buddhist classes you will get to meet likeminded spiritual people. But you would be surprised how difficult it is to invite them for a drink in a pub even on new years.

Last edited by Aspie_Chav on 21 Apr 2008, 3:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I haven't done Buddhism yet so maybe thats something new to try indeed

On my own

How the evolution of fluid intelligence might have created a sort of "space" , like stairs make spaces under them, which in many people does cry out for belief in god, the ultimate first cause, the vastest pattern ( maker), etc etc. And i realised that i could maybe do with that, because otherwise i keep looking and looking and trying to work stuff out even when i've run out of info/data. It was a huge relief.

Believing that the world that i know is being created helps me to get it into perspective, that it has edges, that there is something outside of it, outside the words, and i feel the life moving back there again.

Need

Last edited by ouinon on 22 Apr 2008, 1:50 am, edited 1 time in total.

Yes buddahism sounds really intriguing especially the tibetian book of the dead its way better then the new radical christians that preach ignorance and that therocracy is good.

I grew up in a nominally religious home but my mother has always been very spiritual. I was sent to hebrew school and went to shul regularly. When I was 12 or so I became much more focused on religion than the other members of my family, both as an interest and as a way of life. However, in terms of beliefs, I am less of a believer than most of my family based on most people's definitions of G!d. I'm an agnostic and tend to focus more on the psychospiritual than the metaphysical.

I differentiate religion with established religions. To me, if you believe, you're religious despite not adhering to a particular belief.

I am very hard on myself. I don't drink, smoke, go out to places where people get drunk or act stupid. I take it somewhat seriously, and why not? If I didn't, then I'd be no better than an atheist. I try not to look down on people, but it's somewhat difficult as those who've I've met that consider themselves religious do things that I consider very irreligious. Their beliefs are also not indicative of a person with religion. But that is life, and I shouldn't worry too much about others.

You should go with your beliefs instead of going through different religions like a pair of shoes.

Its hard to explain but my belief can encompass aspects of all paths and all religions. I believe we all get to the same 'place' whatever we choose to follow, that is, we develop and come to self understanding whatever way we choose to walk and I also believe that joining in with different faiths and paths stops us becoming too entrenched into one way of thinking and believing that only our way is THE way.

I consider myself a mystic (think sufi, advaita, etc). Frankly, I consider most of the world religions to be true in their own interpretations, but wrong in my opinon. There is nothing wrong with stating that a person's belief is incorrect. Your way should be the only way. This doesn't mean to be arrogant, but to have full FAITH in your beliefs, with no doubts. You should not cede your beliefs just to "make friends."

To add: I am against converting. I see no point in converting as the Being that you worshiped before has not changed. Anyone that forces you to convert is ignorant and has no understanding of religion.

Never have.


Ah, then there is our difference. I don't believe in worshipping one being. I see it as self-development mainly these days. I am not sure that I truly worshipped a Being before, I think I was under some illusions and now I am just open to experiencing my life and being open about what, if anything is after the physical life.

Don't misunderstand me, I have had deep religious experiences that others would describe as experiencing God, however, I have no proof that they are anything more than something in my brain even though years ago, I would have said I KNOW I experienced Him. Dark Night? False belief being wiped away? I don't know, but I feel content that it will all work out somehow.

There are things about religion that give some concrete substance to social relationships and quite a few that seem to me to be to be psychotic but what disturbs me more than anything else is the underlying assumption of several major religions that there is not an inherent goodness in most(not all) people which is a natural expression of human nature. The assumption that humanity is basically bad and requires a formal set of strictures to keep it in order is offensive. My experience of quite a few nationalities is that people are inherently decent and those that behave badly do so whether or not they are adherents of a particular faith. Needless to say, I am not religious.

I constantly ask my religious friends to give me an honest and intelligent reason why you should pick a religion, or why theirs is true. The best i got was "Things that have happened to me that i can't explain in any other way" ...so i ask "like what" and i've only ever got 1 of 2 answers. "i don't know...i can't think of anything right now" or "Like one time i was in church and i just started to feel really happy and i wanted to dance around for no apparent reason".
my reply to the last one is "I feel like that sometimes too, when walking through shops or just sitting alone at home. Its something called a 'chemical reaction in the brain' which can happen for no apparent reason."

Religion causes wars. Religion says war is ok. Religion used to condemn people of different skin tone and cause racial bashings. Religion condemns homosexual people and causes gay bashings. Religion makes you cough up money (through collection plates, selling of merchandise like bibles, games, movies and books, or through their requirements of being a part of that religion such as scientology where you have to give up 50% of your pay check or mormonism where you have to give them 20% of EVERYTHING you own).


Please, if anyone can, give me a genuine and INTELLIGENT reason why any religion is true or why you should pick one.