What religion are you?

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Well, I have a system of belief that is expansive and open ended and can grow as I grow or learn new things. Though I would hesitate to call it a religion or to name it. The reason is that once something is given human attributes it no longer is ethereal in a sense. The naming of things and giving particular theological coda's and creeds that must be strictly adhered to is generally where a downfall and breakdown of a system of belief will diverge and sometimes fall apart causing divisions among humans who inevitably will add to it per their own need and cognitive ability.

Plato had a philosophy that you could have a perfect idea of something, something in a perfect form but to name it would be to make it no longer perfect and then to make it would be to remove any perfection and it would become imperfect.

Of course I'm not saying that this is absolute, but possible where my own system of belief is concerned. Then again the above statement might not be applicable where all parts of this system of belief is concerned. It is something that I fear absolutely naming or sharing thus creating a religion that could be distroyed by human reason and nature. Though it is inclusive of all religion and shuns no religion or calls no religion imperfect or non-existant by the very fact that they do exist. It neither shuns Atheism or any system based upon a stance of non-religion.

It came about several years ago through a lengthly discussion on theology and philosophy and human nature that my daughter and I had. We each have our own thoughts on this particular system of belief respecting each other and giving viewpoints but never changing the other's stance or system of belief since this would be outside of allowing for an all inclusive stance. The best I can say is that it's obscure but helpful to me. And even the above mentioned could change and is not fixed or a solid creed.

christian

mixed up with some Buddhistical and taoistical elements.

Quaker

Atheist

By which logic, I also have the right to kill my parents for being in defiance of the Koran. They obviously must die in the great jihad for their transgression.

Seriously though, I'm also of the opinion that parents should have no final say in your choice of belief, but the reason you've given for why that should be is flagrantly christianity-centred and hopelessly flawed when examined from a non-christan perspective. To me it makes as much sense as the following statements:

"I know how you feel, but as a Jew, if your parents are against what the Torah says, you have the right to disobey them and obey God."

"I know how you feel, but as a Muslim, if your parents are against what the Koran says, you have the right to disobey them and obey God."

"I know how you feel, but as a Satanist, if your parents are against what Satan says, you have the right to disobey them and obey Satan."

"I know how you feel, but as a Nazi, if your parents are against what Hitler says, you have the right to disobey them and obey Hitler."

The conclusion of all these statements, that the person has the right to follow their own path, is not something I despute, but the reasoning you use to get there is situation-specific (for you, only the christian statement is valid), while the same reasoning in the general sense gets you to many mutually exclusive conclusions merely by altering the starting variables, while furnishing us with all the situational insight as '2+2 = 2+2'.



The question you should ask yourself is whether you're 'christian' (believing in what christians are supposed to believe in) or 'churchian' (going through the motions for reasons social or otherwise without actually believing in the underlying religion).

Sorry about your experiences with getting a hard time for it. Sounds like the local christians were more churchian than christian.

I am a shemsu of the Kemetic Orthodox faith. My Father is Yinepu.

As a teen, I was a member of an Assemblies of God church (Christian, Pentecostal, would be considered fundamentalist if not for that pesky business about taking Luke 16 and Acts 2 literally, too). Went to Bible College and became an atheist.

I realized atheism didn't work for me, either, because it was just as fundamentalist as my Christian experience, and still did not match up to my experience. Studied Wicca for a while, went from there to eclectic Paganism when I got tired of the female supremacist attitudes of Wiccans.

When I found the Kemetic Orthodox church, I had been doing my own spiritual thing for close to 10 years, mostly because it was the only way for me to follow my experience without threat of harm from my then-wife.

Funny thing is, for me, finding the Kemetic Orthodox church was like a return to what I had understood and experienced of spirituality BEFORE it was all twisted by my Christian experiences. It was like finding the pure crystal within a pile of slag and remembering what it was like to have been there before the slag began to pile up.

Last edited by Yinepuhotep on 23 May 2005, 4:33 am, edited 1 time in total.

i am an atheist. was agnostic for awhile my family tried to force christian dogma down my thourght witch only lead me away form there faster. they are however all christian.

Threat of harm? Why? How? What?



I just came accross a lovely quote:

ONe Sory i havent ben posting lately, just havent felt likeit and to answer your question

I dont know. I call myself Catholic but i am starting to wonder...
Why pray to Saints? cut to the chase and talk right to the Boss.
Why Confess to a Priest? He is mortal, shouldnt i confess right to God? he is who i have sinned against right?
The Trinity is good (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) butkeep it simple, i am a humble worthless human, not a pious extremeist who thinks i own half the earth.
Eucharist is good, but Jesus died 2000 years ago on a cross, not 45 minutes ago on the altar at St. John's

I am going through a tribulation of sorts, am i Catholic, am i Christian, i dont FULLY believe in the Catholic Church so am i gonna get flushed down to hell, or be raised on the last day for simply believing John 3:16 ???

Why indeed. Praying to saints is pretty much defacto polytheism in my book, though you'd have to decide if that bothered you. I'd at least think that all the stuff about praying to Mary and so on violated the 'no idols' commandment.



Maybe he's some divine version of a DNS server to help you find God(s). I bet you wouldn't want to get a "This operation timed out while trying to contact this God" error now, would you? Even worse would be if you found your prayers getting directed to the wrong one; you could end up with your details going to The Great Beast who's number is 419 .

Also, it has psychological benefits that may result in a lower suicide rate among catholics. I suspect this would only work if you 'Truly Belived (tm)' in it though.



Humble is better than repulsively arrogant, but don't get carried away with the self-derision.



I always found the eucharist to be rather strange. I thought it was even stranger that people really belived the stuff was turning into christ at some point in the ritual. Whatever does it for you though.



Do you believe that what you believe matters, or do you you believe that what other people believe matters? If you believe the latter, why place any more faith in your parents or priest than you would in the local rabbi, some random hindu or the guy who empties your bin? If it's the former, it looks like you have a bit of philosophising to do to sort things out. Figuring out your own position is far harder than following a flock.

Only you can decide what works for you.

I pray directly to God. Sometimes though, I need the advice of a big brother or older sister...those would be the saints. Often times I pray for the saints to interceed on my behalf, again as a trusted friend might interceed on one's behalf.




You have also sinned against the community by being less than you could. The Priest represents the community.




Its a painful time but a faith exammed is a deeper, richer faith.

Our adult educator states that there are certain core beliefs that must be followed in order to call one's self a Catholic. Then there are many, many perpherial beleifs. Lack of these beliefs, or beliefs in other things that mainstream Catholics might not beleive in but don't conterdict the core beleifs, does not put one outside the Catholic faith.

Have faith as your journey progresses.

BeeBee

My wife at the time threatened to have me committed if I actively practiced any religion she did not approve of. And since she was an atheist, that meant ALL religions. And since she had various political connections by way of her father, it appeared to be a credible threat.

Yes, that's one of the reasons I divorced her.

This is remarkably like the reasons we Kemetics talk with our Ancestors. Yes, we can pray directly to God, and do so, but it also helps to be able to ask for guidance from someone who's been here before and may have experienced the same things in his or her lifetime, so might just have some insight gleaned from experience.

Sounds... disturbing. Was she like this about other topics?

Not to that extent. Religion was the thing she hated the most. She reacts to religion (especially Christianity) the way Fred Phelps reacts to gay people.

Her explanation for it is that her grandmother tried to cram Christianity down her throat before she was old enough to talk, and since her grandmother was the only person in her family who tried to instill discipline in her, she decided it was the fault of the Christianity, and therefore that religion in all its forms (but especially Christianity) was evil. And from there, she decided that anyone who practiced any religion was, by definition, insane, because only an insane person would do something that was evil.

Atheist, since the age of 15.5 years.

Before that, for about a year, my own sorta-religion: Theo-Jesu-Bio-Equalitarian-Evolutionist.

Before that, Catholic. Plain and simple.

Hmm...I do not really know. I don't believe in the afterlife or soul or The Force or anything mystical like that, yet I read mythology and the Bible. Maybe just for kicks? At any rate, I am probably some form of secular humanist who one day will grow up into the next Buddha...who knows?