Are you religious?

I do not believe that there is a "God" or other single overall being. And even if there was, I cannot accept that he (or she or it) would expect people to waste time in their lives telling him how wonderful he is (praying), or that he would choose which souls will go to heaven based on how often they do so. Nor can I believe that he would appoint people on earth (priests etc) to spread his word in such a hopelessly disorganised and inconsistent manner.

However I do believe that there is some sort of higher level (heaven) that our spirits move onto when our bodies die. I believe it is these spirits of our loved ones that look over us and guide us through life. When people feel that they have been given guidance from above or have been somehow accepted by God, I think it is actually these spirits of our loved ones encouraging us and guiding us down the right path in life.

I also believe that once this work is done, they have some sort of option to be reincarnated and to live another life on earth.

I don't know if all this makes sense to anyone else, but it's what I feel and believe.

 

I am a Deist. It requires no worshiping, and no religion. just reason!

 

I don't really believe in god...well I sometimes believe it.
But definitely I am not a religious person at all...
................................................................
Wait.............................hmm.......................
...............Well, maybe.................................
................................................................
...........................................................Nah I'm not

My family's religion is buddha but we do celebrate Christmas, Halloween, and other events as well

 

My family believes in Buddha too. But I'm not forced to study Buddha's teachings or go to pagodas to pray on special occasions. So i consider myself free thinker. I have some friends who are Christian. They believe in their loving God which I don't but i do believe that there is a supernatural force which conquers everything. We are living like robots. We think we can control our behaviors but actually those behaviors were programmed.:rolleyes:

 

Ahhhh......religion. As I've said on here before, I went to a fundamentalist Christian church for 17 years with my husband but it never felt right to me. God seemed very mean and nasty. Through my own self-awareness and through experiences that have happened to me, I now believe that God is more like an energy and part of our souls and this energy lives inside of us. I believe we live more than one life and can choose to return. I think our heaven can be created here on earth by following our bliss and living authentic lives. I'm still working on that! I've recently been listening to Abraham-Hicks. Most of you have probably heard of The Secret by now. Abraham-Hicks is about the Law of Attraction also. I would consider The Secret as Law of Attraction for beginners. Abraham-Hicks is more advanced. Abraham gives specific examples on using LOA in your lives. In fact, Esther Hicks was in The Secret and was cut because it made The Secret more new-age and they didn't think the general public would buy it. Esther believes she channels entities which she has named "Abraham". Whether you buy into this or not, this is good stuff. It helped me tremendously with my anxiety when my daughter married somebody whom refuses to meet her family. Just recently, I found something on what Abraham says about sexual orientation and it made such perfect sense. Here it is:

In reality all physical beings are bisexual. In other words, when you connect with
the energy of nonphysical, you'd be very hard-pressed to identify male or female in the nonphysical ... There are many families of consciousness that
come forth that have clearly different intentions ...

Now you come forth from the family of teacher. We have to say to you when we look into the physical projection of the family of teachers, what we commonly see are those who have been labeled as homosexual ... Very often those that your society calls abnormal or wrong are part of this family of teachers ...

What you said is, "I am a free being. Even more than that I am a teacher of
freedom. I am a teacher of unconditional love. So I'll go forth into this physical
experience and I'll attract experiences of contrast and I will put myself in a position that while others may not approve of me that I will learn to allow them even in their not allowing of me." And so we say to you don't resist or apologize for or even try to explain who you are, just be who you are.

Now, we talked a little bit earlier about the topic of sexuality being the most misunderstood subject on the planet. In other words, almost everybody is pushing against it in some way. And this is a topic where more than anything else we want to say to all of you ... Just mind your own business. Don't pay any attention to what anybody thinks about you ... What they think of you is only about their business. In other words, it's not about you. It's not about you. It's about where they're vibrating.

And so don't let their reflection of you affect your reflection of you. Let your Inner Being influence your reflection of you.

Abraham-Hicks, G-3/17/96

So in other words, all of you who have a sexual orientation other than straight came forward into this life to be teachers of unconditional love. How beautiful is that? That is what I believe.

 

I don't believe in religion...too many bad experinces, but I do believe that there is a GOD, who I am very close with. I had to turn to him for reasons I have posted in other threads if you want to read them! You don't have to believe in the structure of religion to have a connection with GOD!

 

(wow, another deist! this is the first time I met one! hi!!!)

I'm a deist, or so I consider myself. Deism requires no praying or preaching or any of the crap I can't stand from other churches. I believe that some higher power/s created or helped create earth, then evolution took over. I don't believe God takes a role in modern life nor that he ever took an active role in the universe aside from creation. Deism says that you should use your intelligence and logic to determine right from wrong (not how long some creepy guy up in the sky would damn you to hell) and know the consequences of your actions. You really don't practice it, it's more of a belief system...but I hate the whole organized religion thing in general. I say I'm a deist because it's the religion that coincides most with what I think.

 

I kind of shift back and forth between atheism and agnostism, heh. I don't like being an atheist, but sometimes it's hard to have faith in something that's so contradictary.

 

I am an Atheist of the Dawkinsian school of thought.

In other words I believe that religion is a cancer upon humanity and it must be removed with the use of reason and education.

 

hhmmmm i think i actutually like Deism It sounds cool, and like what i believe in. But i was baptized when i was little so i am technically roman catholic..hurray....

 

Interesting time for this question to come up... I've actually been striving to redefine my spirituality, as being a Missouri Synod Lutheran wasn't the right thing for me. At this point, I am calling myself a "Free-thinking Christian." I believe in Jesus Christ and the salvation he got for us, but I've pretty much given up on most of the dogmatic aspects of Christianity, and I've come to the conclusion that God really should have hired better proofreaders if he wanted the Bible to be a definitive compendium of his word. I've also always believed that there's a certain karmatic balance to the universe that occasionally gets out of sync. Yet, interestingly enough, I've never connected the universal balance to God, as it seems like its own separate thing that God might occasionally interact with if it gets too far askew.

Really, my big beef with the bulk of Christian churches is that they claim to encourage reading the Bible and discovering God's word, yet they are very much against anyone actually doing the research, asking their own questions, and coming to their own conclusions. As long as you stick to the teachings of your particular denomination, they're cool with you, but you start drawing different conclusions and it's all downhill from there. So, I encourage everyone to ask their own questions and draw their own conclusions, and try not to rain on anyone else's parade.

 

I was born catholic but i've been studying buddhism for two years now. I'm officially converting in july. I look at it as a philosophy instead of a religion. Buddhism is a very felxible religion so you can look at in anyway you want to because everybody has a different path to englightenment (freedom from suffering).

 

yes i am religious. i am a christian and the church i go to doesnt form to one demonination but the closest to one i think is presbetarian or one of those... lol my church is pretty accepting does say these people are bad and stuff. i have plenty reasons to believe one just because i feel i should. two i have heard so many things that have happened its impossible to be just luck. once my pastors daughter wanted to go from NYC to cali to visit her brother. she was all ready to go then her dad said no all of a sudden. trusting him she listen but of course was disappointed and confused why. turns out the plane that she would have taken crashed. Another is my pastor was in israel (he was born there) and he was going to stay longer but he didnt and if he hadnt, he would not of been able to get back here for some reason. its not just them either, my sister at the airport cut open her foot so my mom and her went to the bathroom to control the bleeding and what not. i wasnt there but my dad and brother stood right out the door. someone who said she was a nurse came in and helped them. when they came out they told my brother and dad about it and they said they were standing right there and no one went in or out the entire time. last one lol i was walking to track practice after a long day so i was really tired. there is a road between the track and the school so i was walking with my head down looking at the grass and i wasnt looking before i crossed but all of a sudden i felt something pull me back when i got to the road. i stopped there and about 6 inches away from my face there was a bus going past me and ow i would of been dead. all of that and more just makes me believe.

 

I am a Christian, and I am force( hhhmmm, maybe I have to) to go to church every Sunday.

But I do believe in God, I mean, hey, we all have different believe , but I know there are many God, but I'm not polythiestic, just mono, at He is Christ

Well, I only all of that to say^^

 

Probably true! :lol:

I wouldn't consider myself to be religious. I wasn't baptized and didn't attend church until I was in my mid 20s - when I met my wife. She is a Presbyterian, whish is a branch of the Protestant Christian church.

At first I found it quite odd, and resented going. As time went by though, and we found a small Presbyterian church near our home, I've grown to appreciate aspects of it. The church provides a 'community' where one wouldn't otherwise exist, and in today's world I think we are lacking in that sense of community. As well, I think its a good idea to expose our children to religion, so that they'll have the opportunity later in life to see that there are different perspectives that one can take in understanding your world.

 

I have my own spirituality and it feels RIGHT !!
My own beliefs and thoughts, not some made up by a bunch of money hungry ppl.

 

Ya i also prefer to come to my own opinions and beliefs and not just accept those of others...

 

i use religion as a guide when i feel lost or stuck

 

i dont know how u guys feel, but there was a time wen a dud said he hates my religion, I was so mad, I dint hate his,. wat wrong wit him, gggggrrrrr:tantrum: :tantrum: :tantrum: :bang: