So, what's stopping you from being religious, anon?
The fact that it's not real is something of a sticking point for me.
Feels disrespectful to God to pretend to believe in Him for purely aesthetic or political reasons
I plan on becoming religious soon. not going to mainstream religion shop but going to read and think more on matters spiritual and moral to have a better understanding of my principles and then meditate daily (hopefully) to have these beliefs at the forefront of my mind as I go about the day. I find it very difficult to stick to my values in the present especially when surrounded by commonplace venial sins (gossiping, unfettered consumption) so I need to lock in and get better
1. I’m not going to believe in something that’s obviously not real
2. I’m not going to ‘submit to my husband in everything’ or otherwise treat myself as an inferior being based on my sex, because I don’t hate myself. Every religion in existence requires that of women
3. Religion as a self-help system and way to get the proles to produce more workers is the cringiest idea to come out of the right wing media ecosystem. Even when they speak about the benefits of religion, they use a purely psychotherapeutic (“it makes you feel better! It helps you stop doing drugs!”) or socioeconomic (“it builds Community! it raises birth rates!”) framing, which shows what their *actual* religion is. Metaphysical claims aren’t something that can be discarded. Most proponents of ‘religion’ in the abstract treat them like an optional addition to the ‘community’ and alleged psychological benefits it provides, which is ridiculous. In that case you can just join any club.
I have no spiritual basis from which to derive *any* religious system. I am a fully atheistic, aspiritual person. It would be stupid and Dawkins-esque to bloviate about how much I love cultural Christianity because I hate muslims, especially when I don't agree with almost any part of Christian doctrine or morality. I was raised in a nation where the first thing we are told is we're free to believe or say anything we want, and the first of God's laws is literally "don't believe anything else and don't talk shit about me." The list of stark differences between any religious system with a single god and the philosophy that guides me is VERY long.
Plus, if god is real, and he knows everyone's heart, would 't "cultural Christians" like Dawkins be sent to Hell for not believing anyway? So why pump god up and push for his fanbase when I will actively be tortured forever either way? And it would lead to more cruelty against the few people I give a shit about too.
Ugh. I don't know what I expected to get from what I said but you two can just go ahead and fuck. I'm not going into leftoid vs. rightoid """discourse."""
Godless communist raised by godless communists. I have played around with Chinese Zen and Daoism, but metaphysical claims mostly make my skin crawl.
I have a leanings, always had interest in religion, mythologies, etcetera but I am simply not, and this fact saddens me immensely. I am envious of people who have natural ability to wholeheartedly embrace any sort of mysticism, even something like Tarot or astrology. The way I see it you cannot persuade or reason yourself into earnest belief. Either you're in some way born into it, or some particularly meaningful experience has coerced you. I was born into largely materialist tradition, and am myself extremely skeptical and downright unbelieving. The best I can do is to cautiously embrace symmbolism that sometimes presents itself in this life. I wish I was the seer type, but I feel like I will never cross this threshold and I'm impoverished by that fact.
I feel too loved to worry about specifics. I'm confident I came from a better place and am going to a better one
Imagine explaining to God that you were doing pascal's wager
I wish I could believe in God. My mind is stuck on being agnostic.
I enjoy reading Chesterton, but could never actually join a church. Its too cringe.
God as in the omnipotent Abrahamic God? I'm gonna be honest man that really hard for me to believe in, reality seems far too skewed towards evil for me to think there's an overwhelming force of unstoppable good. I think most Christians are better people than most atheist or spiritual people though. Islam is retard shit and Judaism is a weird occult group skinwalking a dead religion.
As for gods in the sense of folk religion gods or heathen gods? I think they represent psychological constructs more than anything and are in a way real.
my family are religious but I recognize that state as having very little to do with the truth value of the claim regarding the existence of god. it seems genuinely absurd to see any sort of unique transcendental value to the conception of the christian god after having studied the traditions it's tenets are stolen wholecloth from: platonism, semitic polytheism, atenism etc. likewise, the traditional arguments for the existence of god sneak in many dishonest premises. for example, one may accept a divine first mover or first cause, but there is very little reason to connect this with a particular semitic storm god, or it's abstracted descendant
I do recognize that being religious may be pragmatic or personally expedient in terms of mental health and social/community connection, but it's just simply not true. the beliefs don't correspond to any true reality
I do not believe in one singular god, but instead numerous celestial beings that are responsible for influencing (not creating) Earth and its various flora and fauna. I believe that evolution took place, but that it was also partly influenced by said celestial beings. I do not give them names, beyond the one whom influenced human life "Mother".
As for religion, I used to be a (very non-committed) Christian but came to the personal realization that the Bible is riddled with logical and historical inconsistencies that NO omnipotent creator-of-all would have put in his holy texts. Was there a Jewish man named Jesus in 1st century Judea? Sure. Was he resurrected from the dead, or could turn water to wine? I do not believe so, and the total non-existence of historical accounts of said events beyond the texts within the New Testament is proof enough to me.
However, I have much more respect for the sects that take the Bible as what it truly is: a collection of religious texts written by numerous people in various genres across a time period of 900~ years. And those that actually FOLLOW Christ's teachings and philosophy.
I was just born with a naturally skeptical temperament, the arguments in favor of religions aren't convincing (though I don't think they're without merit), and I have no experience I would consider of supernatural provenance.
I think the latter point is most important from my point of view; I would need to have an experience I cannot explain in materialist or scientific terms that also points toward a specific doctrine in order to embrace religion.
The very idea of a god shaped in man's image has always been arrogant to me. After all, if man was shaped in God's image, then Man is a reflection of God. Thus, we are so much more better and exceptional than anything else in this world. SAD!
The most mature emotion is neither happiness nor anger. It is disappointment. Only with it, can one truly become an adult. For the child realizes that the world is not catered towards them, that the world does not care about what they want. Only then they can mature.
I suppose that's why I dislike, or in some cases outright despise, religion. It's immature.
He would know that my faith isn't genuine so I'm hellbound regardless