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Are you religious?

'I am spiritual, but not religious.' No offense, but what a load of crap.
 
Mentalist said:
Friday, you're a Christian, do you believe that? What about those who are unable to have the word of their saviour Jesus Christ reach them?

Should they burn as well?
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No, I don't believe that, much to some of my fundie friends' chagrin.

I believe if you live a good life, if you live your life as a Christian (and by that I mean Christ-like, following the Golden Rule: Love your neighbor as yourself), then you will make it to heaven. That belief doesn't jibe with most organized religions, which is why I have a problem really belonging to one. I do consider myself Episcopal, but my personal beliefs don't agree with even that denomination completely.

I never tell people that they have to believe, or they go to hell (tho I've been known to tell people just plain old go to hell ;) ). It's a personal choice, and not one that detemines one's arrival in Heaven.
 
I'm willing to go as far as professing belief in a sort of Aristotlean Prime Mover--it seems logical to me that there should be a reason why things are rather than are not.

Occasionally, I'll go as far as Deism. Christianity is a nice philosophy, but I just don't believe that Christ was the Son of God, or virgin birth, or the resurrection, or that God would require Jesus to sacrifice his life to redeem the rest of humanity. I think that's something that Saul/Paul added later, and which was solidified when Jesus's brand of Judaism encountered and blended with the Greek tradition (as well as other traditions, such as Zoroastrianism and other religious cults in existence in the first century C.E.).

Islam is most definitely a bunch of hooey, slightly above Mormonism, which is slightly above Scientology.
 
de_mona said:
'I am spiritual, but not religious.' No offense, but what a load of crap.
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No offense taken-but what do you mean? Why is that a load of crap?
I was once "religious" went to church "religiously" read my bible "religiously"
went to bible study...you get the point right? I did all the "right" things-but did not have the spirit of God within me. (and I don't mean that in a new age way)
I just mean that I did not have a relationship with God as I do today, and that is why I say Spiritual and not religious-there are alot of "religious" people in the world, there are a lot of people who go to church, and may have all of thier lives, but have they ever gone through a questioning phase, a struggling phase, of finding out if it was right for them? Do they have a relationship with God or a higher power? Or are they merely doing what they've always done?
I am not saying I am better than anyone-I am just saying that I am sure of what I believe in and I know where my heart is.
 
Mentalist said:
Thats about the closest to me as well.


I am pretty confident there is a god or gods. In the strictest meaning of the word. I'm a realist and that means that I have to accept that Intelligent Design is on the whole more than likley from my limited view of the universe. PErhaps not, but it semes that way, I don't really know, but I lean that way.

I also believe that good and bad are instinct and are not only taught.

We all know right and wrong, it's wether we choose to actually pay any attention to it that matters.

Live your life well, don't hurt other people and that is enough.


Christians piss me off for a number of reasons. Not least of which is because they believe that non-believers will suffer eternal damnation for ever in the fires of hell.

Well, fuck you too.


Friday, you're a Christian, do you believe that? What about those who are unable to have the word of their saviour Jesus Christ reach them?

Should they burn as well.

But yeah, thats another argument. Organized religion is not something I want a part of, I believe I was given the facility to make my own choices and to discover on my own, not follow a flock of sheep due to location and coverage of a particular religion. That shit is just insane.

But I am willing to keep my mind open. Those who say there is no god and there is nothing after death and think they are being somehow the smartest of the bunch by 'believing' that there is nothing are as delusional as the rest in my mind.

We don't know.

Anything.


And it's going to stay that way. Fixing on a 'belief' so strongly that you can never be swayed to the point you stop accepting alternate ideas is crippling and the indicator of a weak mind.


So in that sense, I am religious. But not to any earthly religion in it's current form.
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That doesn't make you religious. It makes you spiritual. By definition, religious really means that you accept the ideologies and dogmas of one religion, and, as you've so perceptively observed, that you have (or will) dismiss the possibilities presented by other faiths, or by science or metaphysics.

Spirituality is the exemplification of what religion was meant to inspire and encourage.

Unfortunately, religion stopped evolving with the believer, and instead of being a boon to faith, has held on to it's need to control. The medievalism that's evident in Christian churches should have gone the way of witch burnings: The time for recriminations and draconian legalism is long gone, the time for acceptance and support is here, and has been for quite a long while.

At one time, the influence of religion upon social order, and directly upon the believer wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's persistence in our day and age has served to do more to alienate the average joe and jane than it has to encourage them to pursue spiritual interests.

And Menty, you were also right in your observations on those who are atheists or agnostics. No matter how many theorums they quote, no matter how many semantic arguments they offer, at the end of the day, the statement, "There is no God" is every bit as much a leap of faith as those who claim the contrary. While personal atheism is not a foolish pursuit, it is an absolute errand of foolishness for the atheist to reproach the believer for his faith in "God". Regardless of how apparently compelling the evidence against the existence of "God" might be, until we've got a better grasp on the concept "infinity", all claims for and against are mere conjecture, and require faith in what has yet to be proven as fact.
 
Friday said:
No, I don't believe that, much to some of my fundie friends' chagrin.

I believe if you live a good life, if you live your life as a Christian (and by that I mean Christ-like, following the Golden Rule: Love your neighbor as yourself), then you will make it to heaven. That belief doesn't jibe with most organized religions, which is why I have a problem really belonging to one. I do consider myself Episcopal, but my personal beliefs don't agree with even that denomination completely.

I never tell people that they have to believe, or they go to hell (tho I've been known to tell people just plain old go to hell ;) ). It's a personal choice, and not one that detemines one's arrival in Heaven.
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Episcopalians aren't an evangelical bunch anyway. Evangelism is the deed of the fundies and born again and our friends, the misguided Jehovah's Witnesses. Living and exemplary life is all the evangelism one needs.

Spritual and religeous but God knows I'm tired and completely understands why I only make it to church on major holidays.
 
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