religion

[Raspberry82]

I dont consider myself religious. I was not raised with any religion what-so-ever, both of my parents were hippies, so.. lol.. they believed in letting my brother and myself pick our own way. That said.. my mother has participated in almost every kind of religion or alternative spiritual faith at some point in her life and that was a learning experience for me. I begged my parents to let me go to church when I was a little kid (what kid does that? Lol) it called to me, but it was short lived. Still I've never joined a particular religion and have never been baptised because I do not agree with most organized religions and their doctrines of guilt, obedience, accept people like you but shun people that your religion doesn't accept. That is NOT what God and Jesus taught what-so-ever.

That said, I have a very strong faith. I always have and I always will. I have participated in different religions and spiritual beliefs and studied a few too including Native American beliefs. And in the end, most are the same thing to me at their core.. whether you say you believe in the forces of nature, God, Jesus, the catholic saints, or spirit guides and angels or reincarnation, it is really all the same thing- That force that connects to you and guides you to be a truly good person in your life and connects you with every person and creature on a more soulful level.

When you fall truly in love, how do you prove it to someone that doesn't feel it? You cannot prove it, it is a feeling that only you know is true or not true for you- you know without any doubt when it is real. It grabs your heart and doesn't let go and fills your life with soul struggles and blessings and wisdom. Well, that's what my faith is like. It is real, but cannot be proven. And I couldn't imagine being without it.

My Mother used to always say, when you meet a person that truly walks in God's footsteps, you can feel it just by being near them. They have this energy of pure love around them that is addictive because it feels like it warms your very soul. Buddist monks have it, Ghandi had it, Martin Luther King, Jr. had it, Mother Teresa had it.

I think there are many people who are religious and are dedicated to their religion, but to me that's completely different than having a strong faith and being dedicated to your own faith, aka your own connection. To me faith is a life work.. living your faith in each moment and taking a stance of love and forgiveness in a modern world while also being true to yourself isn't always so easy.

I do believe in God, although I don't see it as the typical religious depiction of God. I don't believe in heaven or hell after life, I believe heaven or hell exists right here in this life, it all depends on the reality you create.

Jesus to me was a great and holy man who is an important teacher to learn from, imo.

But just because I have a strong faith doesn't mean I know what happens after life .

 

[Raspberry82]

pinksalamander wrote:

BethM wrote:

Well.
My family is Catholic. My mom (and my aunt and uncle) went to Catholic school growing up, but no longer go to mass. My mom didn't have me baptised or anything. She told me she didn't agree with *all* the teachings of the Catholic church and didn't want to force me to go, and that I should choose my own thing. I've never actually been to a church service of any kind.

They're all a little annoyed now, as my choice is that I'm agnostic. Bordering on atheist. I believe Jesus was a real guy. But since I have a lot of trouble believing in god, anyone being the "son of god" is out of the question for me. I also believe the Bible is just a book written by some people, it's not the Word of God. That's not to say there aren't some good things in it, but there are bad things as well.
I also know that what is written in the bible has been changed through the centuries (mostly in the days when books were all hand written) to reflect and promote political and social views of the times.

I think the biggest problem I have with organized religion is when the religious leaders use things to promote their own agendas. I also can't stand all the people who claim to be religious, and promote Jesus as loving everyone, and Thou Shalt Not Judge, but they also push agendas of hatred, against gays or people with different views. Or the people who will pick one thing out of the bible, and say, well Jesus said not to do this so I won't do it and no one else should ever do it because it goes against the bible. But they ignore a lot of other things in the bible that they don't agree with or don't care about.
I also think church is a social event. There's nothing wrong with that, if that's what you're into, but it's not my scene, and I don't think people who don't go to church are bad. (I have had people tell me I will go to hell if I don't attend church. I think they are not nice people; I don't go around telling others they will go to hell. But I guess since I don't believe in hell, maybe it doesn't really matter. Still, not nice.)

In the end, my main code of conduct is Do Unto Others......
And I think the way you act and how you treat others is more important, in the end, than which holy book you read or which church you go to. (And if there were a God, it would be his job to do the judging, not mine or anyone else's)

I am a TOTAL science nerd. I'm not much good at it, but I love reading/hearing about just about anything science. I'm totally into evolution, I think it's really fascinating. Sometimes I learn something that's so cool and mind-blowing, I get a shiver down my spine. I think that must be how religious people feel about their faith, and I can appreciate that.

I am pretty tolerant of other people's beliefs, as long as they aren't haters, and I appreciate the same from others.

Wow SO MUCH of what you say reigns true with me! Except I'm open to the idea of intelligent design, but all the stuff about choosing things from the bible and being nasty to people is exactly what I don't like now. I don't get how someone can profess to be kind and loving then tell them they are going to hell for being gay, or whatever. Makes no sense to me AT ALL.

I also have an idea (I have lots of conflicting ideas) that religion is a form of helping humans understand things that were once beyond our own intelligence. 2000 years ago people didn't have the intelligence to understand the concept of science, so in lots of places religion filled in to explain the ideas. The things that happened and the stories that were told were metaphors for how science works in a way that people could understand. Kinda like a person would respect a great scientist, they respected God, or Jesus, or Allah or The Olympians or whoever they believed in!

The main reason I could never be Christian (and if it wasn't for this I probably would be) is the way the Roman Christians treated English pagans. I do not believe in paganism but I like to read a lot about it. The Christians stormed in, slaughtered many Pagans, stole their religious festivals and attempted to overshadow them with their own (Christmas being the biggest example), created the image of the Pagan god (their are two) and morphed into the devil (horns, tail etc, this is all derivative of the Pagan God of destruction), changed words like villain, which originally just meant 'villager' into negative words..... I simply could not stand for a religion that did this to people, even if its in the past I couldn't be involved in it.

Fran :hearts :brownbunny

Just had to comment on this real quick.. I've heard this from many people- the biggest beef they have against Christians and Catholics are the horrible things they have done to Pagans in history (I'm not a Christian or anything really). But you know what? The Roman Empire was pagan and they massacred many other faiths and cultures to spread their pagan gods (including torturing Christians). Almost every organized religion to date has had a pretty gruesome history, Pagans are no different.. even Muslims war against other faiths now and in history, and many Jews in Israel are not accepting of Muslims in their neighboring countries, same with Catholic, Christian, etc.

Pretty much every religion has been really abused throughout history .

Didn't mean to sound smarty-pants or anything, history is just a fav subject of mine

 

[pinksalamander]

Well that's the reason I'm not religious Causes too many problems, too much hate, too much anger, too much blood split over religion in or entire known history. And the Romans pagan? They believed in what we would now call 'mythology' for centuries but I never heard of them being Pagan.

That was purely an example of why I am not Christian. I'm not Pagan either... The only religion I have to say I think is semi-OK is Buddhism because its a way of life not just a religion, and also we now he existed and so no one can expect me to believe in some book written 2000 years ago by people who weren't even there...

Fran :hearts:brownbunny

 

[NorthernAutumn]

I can jive with the basic tenants of Christianity, as I figure they are the baseline for all religions: Love each other, don't kill folks, and treat other ppl the way you want to be treated.

I'm not OK with other folks imposing their beliefs on me without respect for me having my own already. I don't yank Bible verses out of context; there's a reason why the book is broken into verses and chapters... Need to read the whole story, and take it in the way it was meant.
The letters from Paul rankle with me, with his misogynistic approach to women. He's a hater, fer sure:?.
I think of the Bible as an ever-changing documentation of the history of a people. The Church has chosen what to keep, and what to toss out of the Bible, so I know that it isn't a literal transcription of God's word. As the stories have been passed down, and re-recorded, errors in translation have been made, and authors have injected their personal biases into the Bible. That's pretty inevitable in a living document.

For that reason, I will accept the basics, but I will not adhere to the imprecise translation as being the "Word of God".
God doesn't really give a hoot if you eat tofu on Wednesdays out of an eggcup, or always put your socks on first before your underwear. He (presuming he exists) is more interested in what you DO with your time here.

All this being said, I'm definitely in the scientific camp in terms of biology and evolution. There are good scientific explanations for virtually everything in the bible, and I'm OK with not everything being a miracle. I'm pretty sure there are mysterious happenings that do occur, though. If you look at history, the greatest scientists were men and women who had faith in their lives.
Thus, the mix of science and religion isn't an unprecedented dichotomy to foster in my life.
Probably makes me better as a scientist

My .02

 

[missyscove]

I'm Roman Catholic, confirmed and all. I consider myself practicing, though I'll only go to mass on Sunday if one of my friends is going too. It's about a half mile walk and the mass we go to is at 9:30 pm, so I don't like to make the walk alone.
My faith has always been important to me and I've always enjoyed knowing that I have my faith community to fall back on.
I attended a Presbyterian nursery school followed by K-12 in Catholic schools and I think that sending me to the two Catholic schools was the best decision my family has made for me as I loved every minute of it and I felt genuinely prepared for college. A large part of that likely had to do with my high school being an all-girls school; it was just an all-around great experience.
I wouldn't say I agree with everything the Church preaches, but, it's a church, not a cult, I've always been encouraged to question my faith because only through questioning can there be further understanding.
That said, I'm certainly what you all seem to be calling a "scientific person." I'm an Animal Science major so I'm getting plenty of biology and, for me, there's no denying that evolution happened and is happening right now.

 

[TinysMom]

wabbitmom12 wrote:

But, I know without ONE DOUBTwhere I will spend eternity. And THAT place is perfect!

If you want to be encouraged (and maybe you've already read it) - read "90 Minutes in Heaven" by Don Piper.....let me tell you - it is so encouraging. I bought my mom a copy for Christmas. He was/is a Baptist minister who was in a car accident and pronounced dead at the scene - covered w/ tarp, etc - and another minister felt led to pray for him - and he came back to life. His description of what he experienced in heaven is very much Biblical...and so encouraging.

As I said though - maybe you've already read it.

 

[seniorcats]

We're Christians too. God has done some awesome things in my life! And, it's great to know that there's always Someone to love me -and to know "where I'll go" when my life here is done.

You know, our life has been challenging - excruciating, bone-tiring, discouraging, andchallenging -the past few years, but I never doubt God's love for me. This place, this life, isn't the perfect place that it was in the Beginning. But, I know without ONE DOUBTwhere I will spend eternity. And THAT place is perfect!

Great post Dave! I feel the same - God has worked wonders for both me and my DH. In the last 10 years, I've developed a geneticautoimmune disease (not curable), had cancer, had a grueling stress-filledcareer, etc. It's made my faith much stronger and I've learned some powerful personal lessons. I wouldn't change one minute of it and I love living. The closer I get to God, the happier and more serene I feel. 'I can do all things through Christ' has much meaning for me. My every need is met and I have great hope for tomorrow.

I'll second Peg's recommendation on Don Piper's book. I got a copy here http://www.donpiperministries.com/

My favorite Christmas story http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=49&chapter=2&version=31