Religion

[cadno]

Ok I know this is an odd one but I was wondering how diverse we are in our beliefs.  Also its one of those things which always sparks my curiousity as I love learning about different religions.

So what do you believe in?

Rich

PS.  Please forgive me as I know I've missed loads out, I put other to cover me lol.

[Dreamline]

I am curious about religeons, that is why I am not a part of them   I am not religeous, I am very spiritual.  I have beliefs but not faiths.  I strive to find balace between the ego mind and the spirit mind.  We are spiritual beings having a physical experience is how I see it.  Most of what I know spiritually was just a realization, in moment of remembering the vast truths of the universes.  I have had inspiration from religeous texts, psychdelic trips, animals, people, nature, pain, sex , tarot, yoga...etc.

[cadno]

Are you sure you're not a Pagan lol?

Well obviously for me I'm a Pagan and have been for many years, now I say Pagan as opposed to say Wiccan, Druid etc as its more of umbrella term that emcompasses my beliefs as a whole.  I'm fairly eclectic like the rest of my coven so its hard to define things without resorting to the term 'Pagan' lol.  But lets say my beliefs are based purely on a love of life, nature and the universe as a whole.  I also follow the whole concept of balance and trust me being bipolar I can see the irony in the fact that I'm living proof of one extreme to the other.

Rich

[Dreamline]

That's pretty much the same...I am a hippy.

[tomcat13claws]

Atheist / Agnostic.   Buddhism makes the most sense of any "religion" I'm familiar with though.  I might like to get into that.

I was raised Catholic--which is probably why I'm mentally ill now.

[Phyllis]

my story with religion is long and sorted. i was baptized and raised roman catholic. when i was in high school i was introduced to an open bible church and attended bible study every wednesday. i stopped that and claimed myself as an atheist. this made my mom upset of course -- she blamed it on the open bible church. that experience left me with a lot of questions and made me angry. (for instance, if you didn't 'recruit' people into the church your chances of going to heaven was pretty slim. (this is just one example that made the experience undesirable for me.) fast forward several years and i came across wicca, and even that didn't really suit me, so like you cadno, i just explained myself as pagan. followed the pagan path for many years, eventually joined a gwynnadonic order (welsh) and studied with them for several years. i eventually ended that. at that time, i found that the chinese were on point. (taoism in particular) i then spent many many years studying various religions. i fell in love with the buddhist and hinduist ways. fast forward many more years, and i ended coming back to the catholic church mainly because i offered for brian and i to be god parents to his nephew. so, here i am, back at the catholic church. at first i was pretty good about going to mass, but now i'm pretty lax. i don't like going by myself, but i still do anyway. brian has suggested we take the kids with us and we all can go but the thought of that just exhausts me. and i find that i get teary-eyed during mass.  and i dislike having to shake hands with everyone around me and saying "peace be with you", you know, since i have that whole anxiety thing going on... I prefer to watch preachers on television, not the whacked out ones. My favorites are Joel Osteen, Fr. John Corapi, and Joyce Meyer. They relate teachings of the bible with real life situations. At the end of the day, I still believe that there are many faces to God.

[cadno]

A Welsh tradition, can't fault it

I tell you what I like about your post Phyllis is that you are one of those people who has expanded their knowledge of religion by literally following your heart to wherever it leads you.  In my eyes it makes you a very enlightened person and frankly I think more people should experience as much as possible in regards to faith.  Me, I have to admit I'm not as diverse, started out as a Pentacostal Christian and literally woke up one day and felt a pull towards something that I couldn't explain.  Then I heard about this 'wicca' thing that was supposed to be some form of witchcraft, and at the grand age of 14 my mother took me to a book shop and picked up my first Pagan book, never looked back lol.

I do though read about other religions, I also have great insight into a few as many of friends follow different paths, from Buddhism to Christianity and all that lays inbetween.  I even get an interesting view into other Pagan's as two of my dearest friends both belong to completely different traditions to my own.

Any, me rabbiting on, great post Phyllis!!

Rich

[Phyllis]

thanks cadno  i is what i is.

[Brian]

I need more than 2.

[goosemuffin]

I was raised a holy roller. Hell fire and brimstone. A wrathful and jealous God. I practiced this until my early 20's until I became much more openminded.

I have come to the conclusion, for me, that it is what it is whatever that may be. I respect everyone's beliefs and love to know where they come from in their faith for what they believe.

I believe in a higher being, probably more than one. I believe in all the beauty of nature and would LOVE to live off the land...where am I going with this? Beats the hell out of me. Anyway..so I  clicked christian just because I kind of believe some of it..but I seen a lot of corruption in churches (my dad was a pentecostal pastor and evangelist)....yeah like Tom...that's probably why I'm so fucked in the head now.
I also clicked OTHER..Just because I don't know what to classify what I  believe in.

[cadno]

Corruption sadly is in all faiths, trust me even the nature loving ones like Paganism have a fair old bit of it.  I've seen covens that have literally ruined peoples lives through the pursuit of their own ends.  As for not being able to define what you believe, can't see a problem with that myself, just because it doesn't have a name or fit in any of those nice boxes I put up doesn't mean it isn't equally as amazing.

Rich

[Lostintexas]

Well I would probably classify myself in the Hebrew faith, I selected jewish and other

[Lostintexas]

Well I would probably classify myself in the Hebrew faith, I selected Jewish and other because I try and hold to the old testament laws but I also believe in the messiah Yashua. You'll also notice I say Yahweh and Yashua instead of god or jesus that is because they were the original translations from the hebrew dialect. My faith has really been fulfilling to me mentally, spiritually and emotionally but i do agree with those of you who disagree with the corruption and two faced attitude people and churches can have. It especially pisses me off when leaders of the church take one verse and totally blow it out of context just to justify something they want. That is one of the many reasons I and I'm sure many others strayed away from from church and religion and have found the bible to be contradictory. I am finding out now more and more it's not the bible which is at fault more so those who translated it and interpreted it for others. So if I may please request that if any of you have had an experience like that, try reading it for yourself, it's a great book with lots of good advise on how to be a more compassionate and complete person.When you have faith your having faith in a higher power not the people who deliver it. Stepping off my soap box and hoping I haven't offended anyone, I have lots of friends of different faiths and I try to keep an open mind and an open ear. Thank you.

-Lost

[k]

ah my favorite torment.    so, OMG you guys are all going straight to hell  - you you you thoughtfull insightfull thinkers.

i was lucky cuz when i was 4 i took a walnut tree space ship up to see God himself.  he looked kind and sent me home.  i think he told me not to masturbate but i didn't know what that meant at the time and i didn't of coarse.
i have been obsessed with comparative religions. but, it didn't help me find one. i can never find anything that eases my pain of witnessing the  pain and suffering of so many innocent people, children, animals.. heck i can even go so far as plants and inanimate objects.  maybe i'm an animist.     i respect any religious belief that does not harm others and that a person accepts based upon their own knowledge or faith of that religion not what someone else has told them. perfectly okay to pick and choose for oneself.    i have been so harshly judged by the most devout believers of whom really know nothing about their own professed faith.  that scares me.      lostintexas brings up one of my biggest dilemmas:  interpretation or translation from original texts or language.    one word translated or interpreted incorrectly changes everything.    john steinbeck's East of Eden makes a great point of this.  and, to this day i can't collaborate what was said.     lostintexas do you know Hebrew??? there's a passage in the OT i really want to know about?  plus when people say get back to the bible they don't seem to take into count the time it was written and who actually wrote it and, why some things were left out and others chosen.
oh, my religion??  i'm a devout follower of John Stewart and Stephen Colbert and the old simpson's and i believe in term "gods country"  when i see something beautiful.  and i believe we shouldn't hurt kill or judge others too harshly - unless they're idiotic of coarse.  i believe in a sense of the holy.  and i think tradition and symbolism are nice to ground you and help you feel a sense of belonging in a very isolated world  and i miss them tremendously.
perhaps  atheist who hopes there is a very nice afterlife - or at least stimulating and friendly.
and a place where i get to take my memories and knowledge learned  and see people i love and like.

[D13C]

Atheist / Agnostic.   Buddhism makes the most sense of any "religion" I'm familiar with though.  I might like to get into that.

I was raised Catholic--which is probably why I'm mentally ill now.

100/100 tomcat

: )  D13C.