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What do you Believe??? (Religion)


Renegade7

What is your religious affiliation???  

109 members have voted

  1. 1. What does your belief system fall under???

    • Monotheistic
      36
    • Non-Monotheistic
      2
    • Agnostic
      26
    • Athiest
      33
    • I don't know right now
      5
    • I don't care right now
      7


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Believe in a creator and that I’m saved through my faith in Jesus Christ.  
 

Have strayed from my faith from time to time in my past unfortunately.  But as I get older I find I’m happier and more content in my life the closer my walk with God is.  I’m a sinner however so it’s a struggle.  
 

understand I’m in the minority (especially on this forum) in my beliefs.  

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It don't want to say religion or belief in God is required for morality, expectations were made before the Bible was actually printed, then there's different ideas on philosophy of human ethics (do we need it Religion because of our baseline nature?).

 

As I've said before, there's plenty in the Bible that help with this dilemma that don't require faith in God for it to be right. Words of wisdom and ideas in how to treat people that make sense as inalienable rights even if folks don't believe they were God given.

 

There's a lot of stuff I see in the Bible that I would hope more people would read it and decide what to take from it.  It's really hard to do that with level of hypocrisy in organized religion, as the world becomes more secular and church loses more power, I wonder if more unfilterd versions of it's content become more approachable to folks.

 

Maybe one day even if the world is all atheist or agnostic that folks still read it like any scientist would for useful information. The idea that following a couple consistent rules from a human values standpoint help situations take care of themselves as you go through them makes sense, with or without Christianity.

 

I'm speaking as someone that believes in God but knows that we careening towards a world that doesn't, and there's not much I can do about it in large part because of folks lack of feeling for need for compromise between faith and science.  Ones either going to be wiped out anyway or with enough power the other can be ignored.

 

That's not how it should be, but until it changes, that's how it is.  Maybe future generations will look back on us and not get the hostility between the two, just take what you need from either one and move on with your life. Contraditions in books shouldn't cause wars, and if we really care about each we wouldnt use either one to control or take rights from each other.

Edited by Renegade7
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It's crazy to me that people haven't yet made the deeply fundamental connection between integrity and health. Health both in the individual sense, and in the collective or societal sense. Not only is integrity a continued requirement for the healthy functioning of an individual and society, but in order to advance or further civilize a society, even higher standards of integrity are required.

 

I personally worry more about mental/emotional/physical/spiritual health than whether people believe in God or give a name to what we are all connected to, because it's ****ing obvious how things are supposed to work, the healthier you get and the more your holistic palate harmonizes with the interconnections of reality. And these interconnections were here and working based on these requirements before language, the bible, or humans even existed and they will still hold true in the future if life takes on different forms in different locations of the universe.

 

When I talk about integrity, I am talking about something beyond morality that is so fundamental to the structure of the universe and the structure within us, that it is a requirement of movement and communication in every level of life from the quantum to the quaint.

Edited by Fresh8686
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  • 9 months later...

43% of millennials 'don’t know, don’t care, don’t believe' God exists: study

 

Just 26% of Gen X and 16% of millennials believe that when they die, they will go to Heaven only because they confessed their sins and accepted Jesus as their savior, compared to nearly half of the generation before them, a new study has found.

 

The American Worldview Inventory 2021, a survey of the philosophy of life on American adults from Arizona Christian University, assessed the worldviews of four generations: millennials (born 1984-2002), Gen X (1965-1983), baby boomers (1946-1964) and builders (1927-1945).

 

Researchers found that among other recent generations, millennials have gone farther in cutting ties with traditional Christian views and normative biblical teaching.

 

For example, nearly half of all boomers believe that when they die, they will go to Heaven only because they confessed their sins and accepted Jesus as their Savior, compared to only 26% of Gen X and 16% of millennials.

 

Additionally, 43% of millennials stated they either don’t know, don’t care or don’t believe God exists compared to 28% of boomers, and 44% of millennials believe Satan is a real and influential, compared to 64% of boomers. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

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The whole idea that many Xtians have about the religious requirement for morality always cracks me up. According to the old testament God is a genocidal maniac and in both the old and the new testaments, he's down with slavery, among other flaws so he's got zero moral standing or credibility to be telling anyone how to live their lives.

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There are 10,000 religions in the world today. Even if you’re super religious, you still think that 9,999 of them are phony. I just think there’s one more.

 

If we could visit another planet with advanced life that has existed approximately as long as ours, they would have 10,000 completely different religions. The science books would be pretty similar though.

Edited by Sacks 'n' Stuff
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  • 4 months later...

So I’m not sure if this has been discussed in an honest (less insulting and mocking) way before here.  It is possible it has.  It is possible I was even involved in the discussion.  My memory is such dog ****.  But I’m interested in the opinions or interpretations of our more religiously-inclined here.

 

Why do, in general, religious people seem so scared to die (speaking mainly of Christians)?  If what they believe is true, and they haven’t been generally a piece of **** their whole life, shouldn’t they welcome death?  They will go to some version of heaven and enjoy all the glory that goes with it.  The atheist and asshole part of me says that this is because they deep down know that what they claim to believe in has at least a decent chance of being total crap but I realize there may actually be a better explanation.  

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1 hour ago, TheGreatBuzz said:

So I’m not sure if this has been discussed in an honest (less insulting and mocking) way before here.  It is possible it has.  It is possible I was even involved in the discussion.  My memory is such dog ****.  But I’m interested in the opinions or interpretations of our more religiously-inclined here.

 

Why do, in general, religious people seem so scared to die (speaking mainly of Christians)?  If what they believe is true, and they haven’t been generally a piece of **** their whole life, shouldn’t they welcome death?  They will go to some version of heaven and enjoy all the glory that goes with it.  The atheist and asshole part of me says that this is because they deep down know that what they claim to believe in has at least a decent chance of being total crap but I realize there may actually be a better explanation.  

I doubt you're going to get many Christians to admit they're scared to die, even if it's the truth.

 

Also not sure why you have the impression they are scared to die. I think it's the opposite. Their desire for the rapture is the main reason they don't give a hoot about the only planet we have to live on. They figure that the end is near so who cares? Many of them are actively hoping it happens on their watch. 

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29 minutes ago, michiskin said:

Also not sure why you have the impression they are scared to die. I think it's the opposite. Their desire for the rapture is the main reason they don't give a hoot about the only planet we have to live on. They figure that the end is near so who cares? Many of them are actively hoping it happens on their watch. 

 

That is my impression from being right there when so many have taken their last breath.  And also lately from news articles covering people’s statements on their COVID-caused death beds.  Maybe in a broad sense they claim to want the rapture but on an individual basis, they seem to not welcome it.

 

But hopefully some of the knowledgeable people here care share their insights and experiences.

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I guess I am agnostic, but learn towards atheist.  The older I get though I will say that the more I wish I had compelling evidence to the contrary.  I think becoming a parent, and now experiencing both my mother & father in law passing (father in law this past Friday) it does kind of jumpstart thoughts on mortality, purpose, etc etc....now it doesn't mean I have changed my mind because like I said, with all the limited things I have seen, read, heard, "studied" etc etc....religious/biblical/theological explanations just don't add up for me, however I can see how hardline atheism could lead to depression the older you get.   The finite reality of atheism is what terrifies me more than anything, not death itself.  If I honestly believed in an afterlife I think I would be much more at ease at how everything turns out during my life and be more content with a "you gave it your best shot" attitude, however all the daily suffering that goes on by a large amount of people on earth from birth to death, it is pretty sad to think that is the entirety of their existence.  Also the fact that 99.9% of all mankind will be forgotten about so quick it will be as if they never existed in the first place.  I guess the science end of things says life's only purpose is to create more life.  Humans as a species are merely here to create more humans as a organism, yes we all have individual lives and experiences, but at the end of the day we still all act as one moving, shifting, evolving organism.  We carry on the tracks laid by generations going back thousands of years and thousands of years from now (if the species survives that long) those humans will carry on through some of the experiences we laid the tracks for. 

 

Sorry if I brought things....dooooown. 

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18 hours ago, NoCalMike said:

I guess I am agnostic, but learn towards atheist.  The older I get though I will say that the more I wish I had compelling evidence to the contrary.  I think becoming a parent, and now experiencing both my mother & father in law passing (father in law this past Friday) it does kind of jumpstart thoughts on mortality, purpose, etc etc....now it doesn't mean I have changed my mind because like I said, with all the limited things I have seen, read, heard, "studied" etc etc....religious/biblical/theological explanations just don't add up for me, however I can see how hardline atheism could lead to depression the older you get.   The finite reality of atheism is what terrifies me more than anything, not death itself.  If I honestly believed in an afterlife I think I would be much more at ease at how everything turns out during my life and be more content with a "you gave it your best shot" attitude, however all the daily suffering that goes on by a large amount of people on earth from birth to death, it is pretty sad to think that is the entirety of their existence.  Also the fact that 99.9% of all mankind will be forgotten about so quick it will be as if they never existed in the first place.  I guess the science end of things says life's only purpose is to create more life.  Humans as a species are merely here to create more humans as a organism, yes we all have individual lives and experiences, but at the end of the day we still all act as one moving, shifting, evolving organism.  We carry on the tracks laid by generations going back thousands of years and thousands of years from now (if the species survives that long) those humans will carry on through some of the experiences we laid the tracks for. 

 

Sorry if I brought things....dooooown. 

If you want to be awe inspired, seek ye Christopher Hitchens videos. There are plenty out there. 

 

In a nutshell, the natural world is FAR move deserving of your wonder and admiration than anything found in the Bible.  Worship the telescope and the microscope if you must worship anything!  Peace

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As an agnostic, I share your wish to know there is a heaven awaiting me.  What's more, I want to believe there is a heaven of which I want to be a part (not just spending eternity with the spiteful God of the old testament).  Personally, I console myself that even if my death is the end for me, maybe I have made the world a better place for my time upon it. 

 

I think of human progress as a river, and the luckiest of us is able to move the course ever so slightly for the water around us.  Most of us are but pebbles a huge river, but sometimes a pebble can lodge itself such that other pebbles catch us and subtly change the course of the river over time.  The hope is we as a species will move the course of the river to a better place.  Maybe that is a goal worth living whether there is a heaven or not, good for the sake of good. 

 

I'm not saying I won't prefer it if I die and find myself able to meet up with all those whom I have cared for who went before me while we wait for the rest of my crew to join us. Still, as the country song says, "Everybody wants to go to heaven.  Nobody wants to go right now."

 

 

 

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I’ve experienced so many different religions. From Christianity to Islam to even Egyptian polytheism. I’ve meditated and studied Eastern philosophies along with connective tension to the point where I can track and map many of the different movement elements of my consciousness and feel what’s at the core or soul of myself and look in between the cracks of my mind. 

All that work has given me experiences that make religion obsolete and primitive. However it also makes atheism obsolete where it comes across as more of a spiritual depression or symptom of disconnection, along with attaching to faulty paradigms. 
 

The more I understand how the universe and energy are designed and how there are a staggeringly uncountable amount of different things all counterbalancing each other and constantly shifting and changing is incredible. Self centric human religions are paltry attempts at translating and expressing that design and are filled with ego-protective projections of self-limitation on the way the universe works. I think many people feel this way about religion and reject it, but then don’t have a better alternative to connect with and default to atheistic malaise to one degree or another. 
 

Instead of religion I’ve been studying how love moves and what energies synergize with love to create a family and a Goldilocks zone much like our planet requires a Goldilocks zone to function in harmony and support life. To me that is better than any religion, it’s universal, dynamic, and it’s movement/chemistry based so it’s grounded in reality and internally consistent. 
 

The more I internalize and manifest that family of love the happier I am and the more amazing and magical things occur in my life. It’s incredible and brings me so much ****ing joy. Religion, atheism, and vague spirituality ain’t **** compared to Trusting Love’s Harmony. 

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On 9/20/2021 at 10:33 PM, michiskin said:

I doubt you're going to get many Christians to admit they're scared to die, even if it's the truth.

 

Also not sure why you have the impression they are scared to die. I think it's the opposite. Their desire for the rapture is the main reason they don't give a hoot about the only planet we have to live on. They figure that the end is near so who cares? Many of them are actively hoping it happens on their watch. 

My M-I-L is a JDub. She has dementia but we still log her into her weekly meetings on the off chance she gets something out of it. A couple of months ago, I overheard the guy teaching that Sunday’s lesson say pretty much exactly that. To paraphrase, they believe the earth will be made new again along with the resurrection of the dead so who cares? I don’t often have a problem with whatever beliefs people have, but that one really made me angry. The problem is, you can’t make religious people understand or at least admit to the fact that there’s a possibility their beliefs might not actually be true in which case they’re making other people’s lives much worse.

 

Generally speaking, I tended to think highly of the JDubs as individuals because without exception, they’re the nicest, kindest people I’ve ever met. However, knowing that all their lessons come from the central office, hearing someone teach something so selfish and self-centered would have made me walk out and never come back. That none of them even asked a question about it, never mind walking out made me think less of them. OTOH, I wouldn’t have been there at that point because I found out a few years ago about them protecting child molesters so I would have been gone then.

 

Finally, the religious people being scared to die thing is a bit of a myth. I’ve known plenty of believers, Xtian, Muslims and others that never expressed or showed any fear about their impending death. However, the biggest refutation of this myth is the millions upon millions of people throughout history that have willingly gone to their deaths because of or to (in their minds) further their religions. I suspect the typical religious person isn’t any more or less afraid of death than anyone else. I’ll admit I could be wrong about that though. I haven’t cared enough to research it to find out.

 

On 9/21/2021 at 12:03 AM, NoCalMike said:

I guess I am agnostic, but learn towards atheist.  The older I get though I will say that the more I wish I had compelling evidence to the contrary.  I think becoming a parent, and now experiencing both my mother & father in law passing (father in law this past Friday) it does kind of jumpstart thoughts on mortality, purpose, etc etc....now it doesn't mean I have changed my mind because like I said, with all the limited things I have seen, read, heard, "studied" etc etc....religious/biblical/theological explanations just don't add up for me, however I can see how hardline atheism could lead to depression the older you get.   The finite reality of atheism is what terrifies me more than anything, not death itself.  If I honestly believed in an afterlife I think I would be much more at ease at how everything turns out during my life and be more content with a "you gave it your best shot" attitude, however all the daily suffering that goes on by a large amount of people on earth from birth to death, it is pretty sad to think that is the entirety of their existence.  Also the fact that 99.9% of all mankind will be forgotten about so quick it will be as if they never existed in the first place.  I guess the science end of things says life's only purpose is to create more life.  Humans as a species are merely here to create more humans as a organism, yes we all have individual lives and experiences, but at the end of the day we still all act as one moving, shifting, evolving organism.  We carry on the tracks laid by generations going back thousands of years and thousands of years from now (if the species survives that long) those humans will carry on through some of the experiences we laid the tracks for. 

 

Sorry if I brought things....dooooown. 

On the surface, it might seem like a nice thing if there were some sort of afterlife. But then give it a little thought and it starts to not be so great. If the heaven of the Abrahamic religions exists, it would be the best thing ever....for about 10 - 15 minutes. After that, spending every moment of eternity praising a god with the moral shortcomings I mentioned earlier, listening to angelic hymns, etc. would be incredibly boring. Worse, if all the human pleasures they describe people having were true, they would be made worthless by having them all the time over the course of eternity. True existence is about yin and yang. Neither is much without the other and the typical human concept of paradise after death is actually a hell. In fairness, it beats the hell out of their descriptions of a hell, but death and nothingness is infinitely better than either of these alleged options.

What I have come to come to understand is that the finite nature of life isn’t a downer much more than having a carnival ride end or eating the last bite of your favorite food. It’s the finite nature of life and the rarity of it, as far as we know, in an incomprehensibly large universe that gives life value. 

Edited by The Sisko
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49 minutes ago, The Sisko said:

the religious people being scared to die thing is a bit of a myth.

 

I get that my experience in anecdotal but based on it, it certainly isn't a myth.  Now I'm not saying it is all religious people or even a majority of them.  But it definitely exists in a large portion.

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I’m scared to die. 
 

I don’t know how old my children have to be, but I imagine at some point they’ll be old enough I won’t be scared anymore. 
 

im terrified of never getting to see the type of people my children turn into. Or not being there to help along the way. 
 

i used to be scared in general but as I have grown older ive realized (to quote our former poster now you tuber): existence is a nightmare. 
 

I couldn’t care less for it anymore. I’ve had a great life, I’ve had so much fun, I’ve done ir experienced so many cool things. I look around now and just shake my head. 
 

 But I’m not ready to leave my children yet. 
 

(ps- If there is a god, and god is what I believe god is supposed to be, he’d consider what we’ve currently made of his gift to be pathetic. So much wasted potential. So much wasted life and death. And for what? Even today it all boils down to tribalistic bull****.)

Edited by tshile
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One thing I think about for perspective and humility is how long and how much energy it took for earth to form and generate atmosphere and life in growing thresholds of complexity. 
 

“Around 4.53 Billion years ago and around 40 million years after the solar system formed, a large body collided with the proto-Earth, causing the formation of the Moon and vaporizing magma on both bodies. After the collision, Earth cooled rapidly. Two million years later, it had an atmosphere of rock vapor and water vapor. Forty million to 600 million years after the solar system formed, Earth had water and a crust, and was ready for life. We know this because geologists have found rocks that are 4.3 billion years old and include minerals that required abundant water to form.”

 

Life is patient as **** and way more hard working than humans can fathom. For all the collective ****iness we currently show, if we fail as a species our physical elements will reconstitute over untold years and try again. 
 

Our elements are billions of years old and have taken on so many shapes. Once you can feel your core that goes beyond identity and story and is just pure life there is a small bit of solace in the prospect of bridging the unknown divide and forming enough of a threshold in life complexity to once again experience a similar level of consciousness. 
 

Ive faced death quite a few times from guns in my face to car wrecks to drugs to prison and I’ve been crippled and wished for death many times because of torturous pain. I don’t plan on dying any time soon and I still have a physical fear of the actual moment, but I feel good as hell about everything after because of all the spiritual experiences I’ve had and keep having.  After going through my fears of the abyss and finding an unending love on the other side that actually accepts me all the way down to my soul, I feel so deeply at peace with my devotion to infinitely pushing life and love forward across an ever changing landscape of consciousness. 

 

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On 9/22/2021 at 3:54 PM, TheGreatBuzz said:

 

I get that my experience in anecdotal but based on it, it certainly isn't a myth.  Now I'm not saying it is all religious people or even a majority of them.  But it definitely exists in a large portion.

Yeah, poor word choice on my part. 

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