Recreation Personal belief systems.

I'm just curious to see who has what belief systems on these boards, be it atheistic/agnostic/theistic/doesn't fit in those three categories.

CARRY OUT ANY ARGUMENTS OR DEBATES OUTSIDE OF THIS TOPIC, PLEASE. We're supposed to be friendly here. Questions of clarification for better understanding of others are welcome, but no attacks, flaming, or insults to other people's beliefs, PLEASE.

Conversations about religion don't have to turn into arguments about the veracity of religion. Let's be sensible. Noone should be afraid to talk about what they believe in because they fear they'll be attacked by everyone else if they're in the minority.

I, for one, was born and raised Roman Catholic. Lately I've been leaning towards more protestant views of Christianity, though I still have devotion to the Church.

Your turn!
-Odin

 

I am spiritual.

 

I'm a fundamentalist Baptist. At first I usually used to be ashamed of it and was constantly in doubt, yet I have been growing stronger in it for the past couple of years.

 

I'm agnostic. I do kind of believe in god, and I believe in an afterlife sort of. I haven't really got any definate beliefs sorted out, I just know I don't want to be in an organised religion(apart from buddhism). They just seem to cause far more harm than good to me.
No debate? In a thread about religion? Then what's the point?

 

I was brought up as a christian catholic type person & now?
well im a realist, not a proper religeon but as long as i dont get thrown into that damn "Atheist" (nothing against atheists... well as if it's organised anyway ) catagory then thats what im saying i am; dont believe in god, dont go to church, try & avoid my local preist (Keeps asking me why im not in church... i have an explination, but at his age i think he'll keel over if i said it... i like to use colourfull language to explain things )

 

The point is for me to get to know where some other members are coming from. I'm also curious on the "religious" makeup of manga to anime. If debates were to occur, then most likely this topic would explode with debate and accusations, and the threat of an argument may dissuade people from posting about themselves.

A large number of this board's population seem to be in those teen years of growing up (myself included), where a lot of questioning of personal beliefs and/or solidifying of them can take place. Some here seem to have a very good idea of what they believe in, like Cunning Servant, while others are very unsure of/don't know what to believe in/ or don't have things really sorted out, like exiztone and drunkleprachaun.

I'm curious on why Angel from Hell doesn't want to group himself under "atheist," when by definition an atheist is a person who doesn't believe in God/gods (unless you do believe in a higher power, or powers, other than God). The term "realist" can actually fit under many religions (since perception of the world is subjective, though each person can hold their subjective view as an objective one). There are even many, many, categories of belief systems under atheism, as you can still have a belief system while not believing in God or gods. Again, I'm not challenging you, Angel from Hell. I just want to know what you DO believe/perhaps how you think.

Who knows . . . maybe through this topic, some people may begin to straighten out what they really believe in (or don't believe in), and possibly receive support from others who think the same way as they do.

For those that aren't Christian/Catholic but have gone through Christian/Catholic education . . . what is it like? I've asked some friends on the manner, but I'm looking for a more various response.

-Odin

 

Atheist all the way for me.

 

Roman Catholic, but I have one problem, wondering if there really is a God.

 

Atheist.

Willing to change.
Waiting for evidence.

 

I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. a.k.a. Mormon. ^_^

 

I'm a Roman Catholic.

I am kinda confused on where exactly I stand. I used to be really hard core old school Catholic, but know I feel that this leads to problems, at least with me.

I just recently realized how much of a bigot I am. Let me tell you, it was a shocker. I recently had a friend of mine tell me he was a homosexual. I had always told myself that I didn't hate gays, I just didnt approve of the life style, but that wasnt really true. I did hate gays and when my friend revealed this to me it blew my mind. He was still the same cool guy I always knew, but now I saw him in a different light. My first internal reaction to his comming out was a loathing and disgust. I couldnt believe it. Ever since than I have been trying, not necisarrily succeding mind you, but trying to not hate people as much. As soon as I realized that I hated gay people alot of other things came to mind such as basically thinking myself above most groups that were not white Christian hetrosexual American males.

I find that my staunch conservative views on religion seemed to shelter these hates somehow. Now I'm trying to be more open religiously and socially and its hard.

I believe in God, but now I am starting to see that God really is in everyone.

 

I am a Disciple of Christ. Just to respond.

 

Wee hee, a religion thread

OK. I'm a catholic. Originally I was a "standard" catholic (the type of those who go to church when they "feel like it". At 21 I had quite a few religious experiences, so I got closer to the Church. It's a whole different world, believe me ^_^

Anyway. Besides dogmas and doctrines, here are some parts of my way of thinking that I've gained thru personal experiences:

* I don't believe in things that claim to be logical but contradict themselves, aka pseudoscience, "everyone's against us" conspiracies, UFO contactees which claim the visitors "hide from everyone for the sake of world peace", illuminati, etc.

* Having studied about cults and destructive groups, i find beliefs with no logical/rational system kinda dangerous, and usually related to manipulating leaders.

* I believe history cannot be erased, and religions which claim historical support should not be afraid of historical documents.

* I believe Science and Faith are different ways which complement each other in the search for the Truth. Religion shouldn't argue vs. science, because the God which created the world gave us scientific laws to work with. (ie "Math is the alphabet which God used to create the universe." Gallileo Galilei)
So I don't believe in creation science and other stuff which interpret the Bible literally and only literally.

* Logic and reason are a very important part of my "thought system". I rather believe what seems to be the truth, than what i WOULD LIKE to believe, even if this puts me in uncomfortable positions sometime.

* I believe that "all religions are true" leads to self-delussion, and that people should work together to find one "unified truth". Just because all religions believe in similar things or have parts of their doctrine that are true, does NOT make all religions true.

Truth cannot contradict itself, therefore there should be only one religion (or maybe there is). BUT i'm not saying that beliefs should be forced upon people. Instead they should be explained so people would decide what to believe in.

* I believe God does not endorse ANY KIND of violence - even those done "in name of God".

* I believe that love / religion shouldn't be just preached if you don't do what you preach about.

* I believe that even when famous people are hypocrite, that does not necessarily rule out their belief system. They just don't apply what they say to believe in - this includes religious leaders.

* I believe that, altho some actions are morally wrong in themselves, people who do them are not necessarily evil or should be judged for them. This implies psychological causes, bad examples lived previously in life, lack of teaching by parents, or even subjectivist society itself.

* I believe God uses what is near us (even people which do not agree with our belief system) to teach us stuff and touch our hearts (even anime wee hee).
This goes both ways of course, so everyone can learn something from anyone.

* I believe that many times people build up an apparently rational belief system to support their anger or frustrations or actions. When these people are presented with logical arguments, usually they go for the tangent.

OK that's about it. Thanks for letting me share!

 

One interesting little tid-bit I'd like to point out...

http://www.petersnet.net/research/retrieve.cfm?RecNum=535

The most important part of this article I'll pick out just for easiness sake.

Thats straight from the Pope.

Thoughts?


I would also like to point out that this is not the first religion to have something like this said. Buddhism, Hinduism and Wicca for one have a similar tenant.

 

im not really religious or nething. dont go 2 church, euh, church *shudders*, well wut i believe in, would freak the mormons and stuff out. shall i tell wut i believe? .... yea y not?

i believe that we r all dead and in hell, everybody. and when we *die* we r actually reincarnated into diff people in hell, and if were good enuff we get in2 heaven, or shangri-la, wutever u prefer. well neways, thats when we c the lite and truth about where we have been. i think there r only a certain number of people, and the growing population of people not equal to the number of dying people is because of souls who took to long trying to get out of hell and into heaven, and souls that were so evil, got split into 2 or more, 2 try 2 lower the amount there. i also think that satin himself is a female, cuz look how organize it is, and how demonic and evil. only a really mean biznitch could do that. neways when we get into heaven we live 4 10 thousand years and get reincarnated, and that also adds to the growing population. i think all these sick sadistic psychics r actually talking 2 their past lives, not the so called dead people. i also think that all the people who r all ultra religious will always stay in hell, bcause if ur that worried about getting in heaven, than theirs sumthin wrong, so they dont want u. and the people who think we r descended from adam and eve r actually descended from evil monkeys that ate mushrooms off evil horse and cow shat, got really good 20 hour long highs, and thats where this religion and crap comes from. and the few people who dont believe in it, r spawns from god and satan 2 gether, since god is a guy, and satin is a woman. the few micro percent of ppl r either pure evil, or pure good, which is like uberly rare, like 1 in a billion, so theres like 5 of us. also, if u think about it, if we all came from adam and eve, and were their kin, then every1 on the planet it related. so all the sex and marraige and all that stuff would make every1 incested.

enuff of my thoughts, kinda scary 4 sum ppl

 

I have no religion. I used to believe in God when I was younger and had to do religion at school. Then I grew up and realised that there are just to many contradictions to make the whole idea believable.
Like, if God preaches forgiveness then why are we all suffering for Adam and Eve's mistake thousands of years later?
There's just to much bad stuff going on in the world to believe that it's all leading somewhere or for a reason.
Hope I don't offend anyone or anything. I respect everyone's opinion!!

But I do believe that their maybe something else out there coz there's been so many freaky situations in my life that just can't be explained.

*niu* mwa! :shy3:

 

Nonpractising Catholic. Never dug church. Always thought priests were creepy. Robes. Ew. What're they trying to cover up? Ick.