For those of you who are religious

[Sakib]

My question is Why Do you believe what you believe in? Why are you pagan? WHY are you Christian or Jew or Muslim?

I dont intend to offend but to understand. Is there anything about your religion that specifically strikes you? Anything you question?

[Jessica]

I believe in what i believe because there was a white lady standing in my room when i was little .

[misterID]

Well... That makes sense.

[Izzy]

I believe in what i believe because there was a white lady standing in my room when i was little .

Yeah - the nurse

[pasnow]

I believe in what i believe because there was a white lady standing in my room when i was little .

Yeah - the nurse

At the mental institution...




j/k of course 

[Axls Locomotive]

religion? whats the point? god? where is this deity? what has this "thing" ever done for the world? watching on while millions die every year...i am an athiest...in time the universe will be fully described by science, no religion needed

[2NaFish]

i don't believe a loving god would create this world. thats how i came to my basic belief structure.

and in reference to the original post, especially the bit about what do you question; everything. and those of you who follow other religions should do the exact same. if your god truelly exists then he put you here to question everything about your faith.

[The Dog]

i don't believe a loving god would create this world. thats how i came to my basic belief structure.

interesting POV...the old testament god is pretty vengeful and tough on his creations, while the new testament is a kindler, gentler god, very forgiving etc...

[Markus Asraelius]

I believe in the god/religion I believe in because of how I feel every time I pray, and how I feel everytime I walk down the street.

[2NaFish]

hanna, if i was a christian i'd pretty much ignore the old testament. jesus said "i came not to destroy the law but to fulfill", theres some pretty silly stuff (leviticus esp.) in the old one.

[The Dog]

hanna, if i was a christian i'd pretty much ignore the old testament. jesus said "i came not to destroy the law but to fulfill", theres some pretty silly stuff (leviticus esp.) in the old one.

my point was that you said "a loving god" and the old testament god's voice/POV is far from loving...hes a pretty pisssed off guy actually and he takes a great interest in whats going on.  Jesus rules the new testament and when God is throwing his 2 cents in hes loving and forgiving.

I find the change in God personality pretty interesting.

[Markus Asraelius]

This thread is just gonna be a Christan vs. Non Believers War. I hate threads like this.

[sisterofyu]

Im a polygmist

[2NaFish]

aaah, now i get you. yes, there's a lot more hell and damnation in the first one. there are parts in the new testament where it does seem ridiculously easy to get in to heaven in comparison.

[Jessica]

1) white lady was shiny
2) under hypnosis, regression, catharsis, therapy of the tunnel, it came to be 100% true as it did traumatize and scare me
3) fuck off

[nycangel]

im catholic, and i believe in what i believe because not only did my family raise me catholic, but i taught myself, i went to church and ccd and read literature so i could make up my own mind what to believe. i am not a strict catholic, im only as strict as i want to be.

[SLCPUNK]

I worship the Flying Spaghetti Monster..........

[Mal Brossard]

hanna, if i was a christian i'd pretty much ignore the old testament. jesus said "i came not to destroy the law but to fulfill", theres some pretty silly stuff (leviticus esp.) in the old one.

my point was that you said "a loving god" and the old testament god's voice/POV is far from loving...hes a pretty pisssed off guy actually and he takes a great interest in whats going on.  Jesus rules the new testament and when God is throwing his 2 cents in hes loving and forgiving.

I find the change in God personality pretty interesting.

People create their gods to suit what they need from their leader.  In the early days, people wanted an angry warlike god because they were constantly battling in chaotic societies.  They needed a strong, powerful leader who was willing to be angry and warlike to get what he wanted/needed-- hence the vengeful God of the Old Testament.  As time went on, societies developed further and had less of a need for war, but more of a need for diplomacy-- hence the loving, forgiving God of the New Testament.  "And man created God in his image" -- Jethro Tull, Aqualung.

As for me, I'm a Buddhist atheist.  I am an atheist because simply, I don't believe there is any way there is some big guy watching every move of every living thing on a planet that basically is the size of a pea (if a god were the size of an average human).  I do not believe in creationism, I believe that everything developed by chance.  The universe is 5-6 billion years old (or million... I forgot a lot from 9th grade history).  That's a hell of a lot of time for a bunch of chance occurances to happen several times over.  Eventually, these chance occurances would produce animalia.  It's like taking 1,000 dice and rolling them all at once.  What are the odds on all of them coming up as 4's?  It's extremely unlikely, but if you kept rolling those dice over 5-6 billion (or million) years, it would happen at some point.

As for Buddhism, it just makes the most sense to me out of any religion.  It is the only major organized religion with no required belief in a god and no afterlife.  There is no soul, because a soul is eternal.  Nothing is eternal-- all material things are impermanent.  Impermanence of objects is what causes stress.  It focuses on the individual.  By losing focus on material matters your stress will be greatly decreased.  It makes more sense to me than any other religion out there.

So many religions say you have to accept their god to gain salvation and/or a permanent existance.  Only by removing this idea of permanence, almost to a point of simple existentialism, one can truly be free.

[godiva]

SLC, your god has SOME balls!  And yes, that would be god without capital. As far as I'm concerned, if he exists, he's the biggest asshole I never met. Got some old anger issues with the dude. 

[Izzy]

I do consider myself to be a Christian - and I think the Bible makes a lot of sense - if its message takes priority over the exact wording. I believe what a i believe because i can reconclie it with a scientific world and because it has an inherant logic to it

If things are assesed from a metaphorical point of view it begins to become clear - if everyone behaves to one another they will go to a wonderful place - surely heaven becomes a metaphor for the better world simply behaving while we are alive would create? Surely Hell is less a metaphysical domain than a vision of a world gone bad.

I think God and the devil are just metaphors for good and evil - manifestations of ideas to better convey them, surely god is not some being but the embodiment of all that is good within ourselves and the world

People have to understand this thing was written for illiterate peasants with no concept of life even outside their village - people get so hung up on little details the bigger picture is missed

If you wanted to explain the big bang you wouldn't tell them about protons and hydrocarbons would you? The Earth did process through stages - molten ball - one celled beings - etc - substitute 6 days for 6 billion years (or whatever the figure) and you have something that begins to ring true

Strip away the translation errors etc and go straight to the underlying message - love your neighbour etc and it falls into place. Whether Jesus was the son of god and could perform miracles or just a damn fine public speaker is pretty much irrelevant - its the message he delivered that counts

People take it all so seriously - its just a text to provide guidance and hope -there is no literal afterlife: when you die you rot in the ground - but if you've been good you have permenantly benefitted the world and thus pass into immortality that way. People try and turn ideas into places and bring rules to abstract concepts - its a shame a message of love and understanding gets perverted everyday

Take the supernatural way and leave the message and you u have what i believe - i dont believe in ghosts and water into wine but i do believe in the message the supernatural elements were added in to spice up