Does anyone have religious beliefs viewed as odd by others?

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casement
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03 Dec 2011, 2:37 pm

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Having read most of the posts on this topic, I feel that I can relate to most of what you people are saying as I felt similar when I was a teenager, which is what made me wonder if I may have had Asperger's Syndrome and I would tend to agree with the founder of this website that it is a condition, not an illness.

When I was younger, anyone who acted a bit oddly could be considered to be mentally ill so I wouldn't want to see people falling into the same trap nowadays.

I would like to describe my experiences as a teenager and would be interested to know if anyone has had a similar experience.

As a child in Scotland in the 1960s, I went through puberty at an early age and was considered to have grown up too quickly, having had a brief sexual encounter with a girl in the playground at the age of 8, which strangely enough I forgot about later and only remembered again about 10 years ago, having repressed the memory for over 35 years.

I was always clever at school, particularly at Maths., and music made a vivid impression on me from a very young age, but I was no good at football (or at any other sport) and was ostracised by the other boys at school because of that.

By the time I was 11 or 12 years old, I was about 6 feet tall and had very strong sexual feelings and a vivid imagination.

Through my older brother, I became interested in the way-out music that came out in the early 60s (e.g. early PInk Floyd, Jimi Hendrix and some American bands of the time), which fired my imagination.

At nights, when the other local boys in my street went out to play in a field across the road from where we lived, I would prefer to sit in my room in the dark with a coloured light on, listening to music such as the early Pink Floyd and feeling that I was in some sort of ecstasy as if I was floating through space (for anyone unfamiliar with their early music, it was, in my opinion, very imaginative, full of experimentation with electronic sound, a little bit similar to the soundtrack of a Sci-Fi film).

I was perfectly happy like this but, unfortunately, this, along with my fascination with astronomy at that time, led my mother to worry that something might be wrong with me which, along with my conflicts with my arrogant father, led to me being hospitalised for two and a half years.

This made me very angry as I felt that I was being taken away from my main interests and I became more and more depresssed the longer I was in hospital. When I tried to explain to the psychiatrist that I thought that, if someone was happy and not harming anyone else, they should be left alone, I wasn't listened to and I was told that I would be kept there longer if I kept saying that I thought that there was nothing wrong with me.

I later wrote at the age of 17 about my experiences in the hospital in my novel "The Madhouse of Love" (Chipmunkapublishing 2010), which I think some of you might be interested in reading, as all the memories of what happened kept flooding back into my mind and I felt that I had to write it all down.

Other ecstatic experiences which I went through at about the age of 12 included a strong feeling of love for my own body (I was very good-looking at the time and I would love to walk around naked in the room and look in the mirror - I also wanted women or girls of my own age to look at me and later went to naturist places for that reason when I was 16 after I had run away from home), looking up at a starry sky at night and taking long walks in the country and appreciating nature, particularly trees at night, for instance - and I would sometimes feel as if I was at one with the whole universe.

I felt, and still believe, that I was going through some profound spiritual experiences at the time and feel very strongly that I should have been left alone to continue my spiritual development - and, another point is that the fact that I was able to achieve such ecstasy and spiritual enlightenment without the use of drugs or alcohol, about which I knew next to nothing at the time, should have been encouraged.

I would be very interested to hear if anyone has gone through similar experiences.


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04 Dec 2011, 11:26 pm

humor aside im actually atheist though contrary to popular belief i am spiritual and my spirituality is deeply rooted in nature and science, i guess Pantheism(what Richard Dawkins describes as sexed up atheism) describes it well. i believe in the Gaia Theory that the Earth, Universe, and all living things are connected and i believe in a LifeStream(FFVII reference) as well. The Law of Conservation of Energy states that Energy can neither be created or destroyed only transformed, all living things are powered by electricity and in animals(i.e humans) the electricity is sent from the brain to power our bodies, thats why if your quick enough you can resuscitate the dead by using a defibrillator to restart the heart with a jolt of electricity, anyway when we die our bodies decompose and the Energy returns to the planet through the transformation of Energy and in turn it goes on and flows through the Earth to power new life, and voila the LifeStream. the chaos of nature controls itself in perfect harmony. again i am atheist and do not believe in a God, i believe in natures laws and if anyone ever studied nature they would see how perfectly chaotic it truly is, such as space; whenever a sun violently goes supernova destroying the particular solar system eventually a new solar system is created from the remaining matter and particles and life always goes on, now im no hippie but i firmly believe humanity is too destructive and self destructive for its own good, it isn't our place to interfere with nature we are simply a byproduct of life, not the goal of life, its human arrogance to believe that in a Universe so unconvievably large that we are of any importance or even that we are some "God's(s)" chosen people in the end we are nothing but a compost heap, all made of the same decomposing matter.


im also an existential nihilist, moral nihilist, and an absurdist


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casement
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05 Dec 2011, 12:18 pm

It depends what you mean by God.

God may be the spirit of the whole universe or he may be some being from another planet in another solar system.

We don't really know, but it would seem to me that we may destroy this world fairly soon and perhaps those who are closest to God (in some sort of Pantheist sense) will be saved as the fittest to be transported (either spiritually or in some physical way that we don't know about) to somewhere up there which is better.

In this way, I don't think that science and spiritual beliefs are at loggerheads as the Bible speaks of a new Heaven and a new Earth (see The Book of Revelations) and Jesus said, "In my father's house are many mansions" (i.e. there are billions of galaxies each containing billions of stars).

However, I am not hooked on any narrow-minded form of Chrisitianity as I believe that they are basing certain things on mistranslations of ancient Greek words and certain rules of behaviour that may have made sense 2,000 years ago don't always make sense now.

I also believe that there is some truth in all religions as some of the ancient Buddhist manuscripts are saying something similar.


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05 Dec 2011, 1:22 pm

casement wrote:
It depends what you mean by God.

God may be the spirit of the whole universe or he may be some being from another planet in another solar system.

We don't really know, but it would seem to me that we may destroy this world fairly soon and perhaps those who are closest to God (in some sort of Pantheist sense) will be saved as the fittest to be transported (either spiritually or in some physical way that we don't know about) to somewhere up there which is better.

In this way, I don't think that science and spiritual beliefs are at loggerheads as the Bible speaks of a new Heaven and a new Earth (see The Book of Revelations) and Jesus said, "In my father's house are many mansions" (i.e. there are billions of galaxies each containing billions of stars).

However, I am not hooked on any narrow-minded form of Chrisitianity as I believe that they are basing certain things on mistranslations of ancient Greek words and certain rules of behaviour that may have made sense 2,000 years ago don't always make sense now.

I also believe that there is some truth in all religions as some of the ancient Buddhist manuscripts are saying something similar.



i mean God in the traditional sense of the word

i sometimes us the term God as a poetic metaphor for the Universe as a whole

if you mean some truths as in common values and themes then yes i would agree


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DuneyBlues
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07 Dec 2011, 9:24 am

I have a rare philosophy of religion , Anti-humanism.


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07 Dec 2011, 1:23 pm

DuneyBlues wrote:
I have a rare philosophy of religion , Anti-humanism.


if you read my beliefs, in many ways they can relate to anti-humanism also because i view humans as destructive and wasteful and that we are a very arrogant species that is not as important as we try to pretend and convince ourselves we are, and im also an outspoken Existential Nihilist

thats my biggest problem with religion is how arrogant they are to think that even IF a God exists that they somehow believe that they are His CHOSEN people as if oh sure they are important enough for that, the whole human race could go extinct tomorrow and the Universe would be indifferent and life would go on, well not for us maybe but for the rest of the Universe.


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07 Dec 2011, 5:36 pm

Antihumanism is not, actually, a term for generalized misanthropy; it refers to the philosophical perspective which rejects humanism's elevation of human beings to a special metaphysical level of existence compared to the rest of reality. Antihumanism opposes abstract concepts of "man", "humanity" and "human nature" and posits that humans are not rationally autonomous subjects.

For Althusser, Marx viewed the human individual as a product of society. His or her beliefs, desires, preferences, judgements are inculcated in him/her by society and its ideological, political and economic practices. A person's view of him-/herself as a subject whose actions can be explained by his or her beliefs and thought is not innate; rather the role of a subject is imposed upon him or her by society and its ideologies.

---

I am glad though you share similar views as me..


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07 Dec 2011, 8:21 pm

DuneyBlues wrote:
Antihumanism is not, actually, a term for generalized misanthropy; it refers to the philosophical perspective which rejects humanism's elevation of human beings to a special metaphysical level of existence compared to the rest of reality. Antihumanism opposes abstract concepts of "man", "humanity" and "human nature" and posits that humans are not rationally autonomous subjects.

For Althusser, Marx viewed the human individual as a product of society. His or her beliefs, desires, preferences, judgements are inculcated in him/her by society and its ideological, political and economic practices. A person's view of him-/herself as a subject whose actions can be explained by his or her beliefs and thought is not innate; rather the role of a subject is imposed upon him or her by society and its ideologies.

---

I am glad though you share similar views as me..


i know i read Marx's Theory on Human Nature when i was a communist in elementary school, i wanted to be just like Stalin but worse just to make the world pay to get back at society for bullying me, since Stalin was bullied as a kid for having a deformed arm due to smallpox i felt we were both outcasts and therefore i considered us kin and i idolized him


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08 Dec 2011, 8:40 am

Fair enough , eye for an eye..


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08 Dec 2011, 9:47 am

DuneyBlues wrote:
Fair enough , eye for an eye..


God i had it all planned out i would move to China and join the military, become a General and instill in my troops a Cult of Personality around myself, take out the Chinese government swiftly in 1 night while they were all assembled in Beijing, from there QUICKLY consolidate my power while having a series of blitzkriegs on my neighbors to overpower them and install a faux regime loyal to me and within a few months have nearly half the world and nearly 3 billion people under my control i would then proceed to have nearly 1 billion people executed to subdue my territory and that's as far as i got in planning didn't get far enough to figure out how to take over America lol

back in elementary school i was ambitious and i hated the world not a good combination, but then i got my degenerative eye disease and went blind and had to get cornea transplants and that shot down any chance i had of joining the military, then i started smoking pot not long after and i became an atheist a Strict Consitutionist and a pacifist because i no longer hated the world


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08 Dec 2011, 11:05 am

Pot makes life easier.. life is already hard enough with what we've got.


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08 Dec 2011, 1:02 pm

DuneyBlues wrote:
Pot makes life easier.. life is already hard enough with what we've got.


i agree, i dont understand the people talking bad about it, seeing as they havent tried it not to mention it really does help autistic people especially socially and as an anti depressent that wont cause you to get more depressed and think of suicide more like EVERY other anti depressent does especially to adolescents

they think drugs are a bad thing but we are a nation of drug addicts i would like to see one person say they dont use ANY drugs, i mean pharemaceuticals, which in most cases is worse than the illegal drugs like heroin addicts they use methadone to get off of it yet methadone not only has worse side effects it also has a LONGER and worse withdrawl period, but anyway EVERYONE uses advil, tylenol, cough syrup, etc, etc we are a nation of drug addicts and marijuana is one of the MOST harmless drugs out there of course i dont consider it a drug unless it is sent to some University in Germany to be turned into a white powder then crushed into a pill thats when its a drug, marijuana is natural and proven to be medicine for around 28,000 different ailments i would like for someone to name even one other drug that has as many uses

i like the dutch, they use heroin to get people off of heroin but in decreasing doses until they are clean its a lot more effective.


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Skeith
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12 Dec 2011, 11:34 pm

im a athiest in a cathlic and lutherian based family. so most of my family thinks my veiws are weird and extreme. XD im not even allowed to tell my youngest sibling that i am one.



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13 Dec 2011, 12:29 pm

Skeith wrote:
im a athiest in a cathlic and lutherian based family. so most of my family thinks my veiws are weird and extreme. XD im not even allowed to tell my youngest sibling that i am one.


i was born in a Catholic family but my mom is understanding and she supports me in my beliefs because its what i decided to believe in, hell my mom bought me the books The Quotable Atheist, and The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, my grandma however claims most of my family is going to hell


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13 Dec 2011, 10:16 pm

TheKing wrote:
Skeith wrote:
im a athiest in a cathlic and lutherian based family. so most of my family thinks my veiws are weird and extreme. XD im not even allowed to tell my youngest sibling that i am one.


i was born in a Catholic family but my mom is understanding and she supports me in my beliefs because its what i decided to believe in, hell my mom bought me the books The Quotable Atheist, and The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, my grandma however claims most of my family is going to hell

my step mom told me that my beliefs were wrong, tried to force me though a communion i didn't even know what i was till i got into 6th grade public shool and asked my teacher what a person who doesn't believe in god was called. before then i went to a private lutherian school where admittingly i was kinda afraid to ask what it was for some reason. amazing what some people will do for religion.



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14 Dec 2011, 12:58 pm

Skeith wrote:
TheKing wrote:
Skeith wrote:
im a athiest in a cathlic and lutherian based family. so most of my family thinks my veiws are weird and extreme. XD im not even allowed to tell my youngest sibling that i am one.


i was born in a Catholic family but my mom is understanding and she supports me in my beliefs because its what i decided to believe in, hell my mom bought me the books The Quotable Atheist, and The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, my grandma however claims most of my family is going to hell

my step mom told me that my beliefs were wrong, tried to force me though a communion i didn't even know what i was till i got into 6th grade public shool and asked my teacher what a person who doesn't believe in god was called. before then i went to a private lutherian school where admittingly i was kinda afraid to ask what it was for some reason. amazing what some people will do for religion.


yeah my immediate family thinks its wrong to force your beliefs on someone else, let them come to their own conclusions on life and love them all the same i became atheist after my grandma convinced me to read the bible and after i read it i realized it was BS and it didnt make sense how it can fool so many people so my thoughts are that most religious people have never read the bible, because if you take your morals and ethics from the bible you need to re-evaluate your morals and ethics, i take mine from the secular beliefs of equality, and from science, human nature, and animal nature.


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