I know this is meant to be a casual conversation and this topic can get deep fast, but I’d love to hear everyone’s elevator pitch for their religion or lack thereof. peace and love<3
I’m not religious because I never believed. From the first time when I was very young and asked at church “where was god?” and they couldn’t answer. I called bullshit on it and I didn’t even know what bullshit was.
also don’t know what religion is. try and define it. i dare you.
Why would I?
Edit: I don’t have to though since it has already been explained.
“A religion is large popular cult. A cult is a small unpopular religion.”
Its perfect explanation for a otherwise pointless topic.
Whether they recognize it or not, all humans have religious needs. The need to feel like a good person (whether you are or not) is a religious need. The need to have hope for the future (whether hope is reasonable or not) is a religious need. The need for something bigger than yourself to look up to (regardless of how capable you are) is a religious need. People don’t always meet these needs through what would be recognized as an organized religion, but they still usually meet these needs through religious means.
Nope, I have difficulty taking anyone seriously when they think they have unicorns in their shoes.
Nah, cuz retrovirus in chimps. Also, whales.
lots of people are theistic evolutionists though.
I’m somewhat religious as I believe some feelings are holy/otherworldly/peaceful but it’s not bible religion and there is only one of me, not a group.
No.
When I was a kid my mom send my sister and I to bible camp. I spent time with friends and I didn’t shun the one kid with a developmental disability like everyone else. Not for any particular reason I just got along with him as well as my other friends.
Those motherfuckers gave me a TROPHY.
Looking back it was the beginning of the end of my religious journey. Now I just make the best of it with my fellow normies.
😳
I was raised in a devout Christian family. It never felt right to me. It just never felt capital “T” True.
After expressing that feeling at an early age, I was scolded and made to feel afraid of expressing any dissenting opinions about it. I guess I kind of internalized that fear, more as a coping mechanism than an actual belief.
When I got older, I rejected it outright, and went searching for the TRUE religion. I didn’t find it, lol, and I began identifying as an atheist. Albeit, an atheist with a lot of knowledge of various religious and spiritual traditions.
Then, I read the Principia Discordia. That book changed my perspective on everything. It led me to Leary/Wilson’s concept of reality tunnels. A person who only views things from one perspective (be that perspective religious, philosophical, scientific, or whatever) has a very narrow reality tunnel; a person who views things from multiple perspectives has a wider one. Our perception of reality is based on the perspectives we bring to it.
I think that most religions are structurally unsound as a whole. They fall apart under their own weight. But some of the discrete pieces of those religions can stand on their own, and when I find those pieces, I add them to my reality tunnel.
I’m drawn to non-dual forms of spirituality, because that’s what feels true to me. I feel that way because of experiences I’ve had, or things that just feel true to me.
I don’t expect anyone to feel the same way I do about it though. We don’t have the same perspective, because we haven’t had the same experiences. Expecting others to see things the way I do would be unfair, and wildly irrational.
It’s funny you say this. After I became an apostate and left my faith, as I learned and grew behind that… I came to the conclusion that I knew what true salvation was now. Or at least perhaps one kind of salvation.
Salvation lies within ones ability to embrace different perspectives.
So much pain, struggling, and strife can be resolved by a change in perspective.
Not religious.
Because I was raised well enough to successfully avoid indoctrination into a cult.
Like siempastrophe, I was not blessed with belief. I remember finding out that the adults at the church really believed the stories they were telling were true, when I was 5 or so.
I wouldn’t say I am Atheist, with a capital A, either. No way to disprove, and the simple fact of physical existence is so mind-blowing, the universe existing at all, consciousness, time. But no I can’t believe enough to believe in any particular religion as true.
Nope… I dont buy into modern mythology.
There has been written a lot of fantasy the last 3000 years, but I prefer the more recent ones.
Honestly, the fiction that exists today has the capability of teaching incredibly valuable lessons with thousands of years of progress incorporated into it. I often find myself feeling all the warm and fuzzies when a fiction book of today touches important ethics amidst a simple sci-fi or fantasy story. 💜
There are certainly some good things to learn from ancient morality, like the Golden Rule, but it really cannot beat modern ethics. Many philosophies of long ago are still potent today, but many more (should) have become deprecated with the advent of modern science and ethics.
This is kind of why I’ve been gravitating towards Humanism. It’s much of the goodness of religion, but without God.
No. I convinced myself I was until I was 16 or 17. It wasn’t compatible with my worldview and it was completely unscientific.
What about your worldview was incompatible with religion? Secondarily, do you think there is any religion that might be compatible with your worldview?
No, but I try hard not to be an asshole about it. People can believe what they want as long as it isn’t directly hurting someone.
Personally I find religious studies fascinating simply because of the influence it has had on culture both locally and worldwide.
I’m not, but I kind of miss the community connection and discussion of life wisdom that religion serves.
I’ve thought about trying to go to a universalist Unitarian service sometime, since I’ve heard they dont really care if you are a more secular person, they’re not a Christian church, and welcome folks of all sorts of world views
What type of community were you a part of before you chose to walk away?
Oh eons ago I was raised nondenominationally christian. My missing those things is less a reflection of having had them in the past, and more a reflection of having much less access to community in the present. I dont think I really appreciated those things about church when I was a kid, and while it wasn’t a bad experience (except when I joined for adult service, which bored me to tears), I don’t really want back the same kind of church experience I has when I was little. It was lots of kids activities that snuck in ideals about how to be a good person and worship practices.
But I have a circadian rhythm disorder that limits my ability to get together with other people cause everyone’s asleep for the bulk of time I’m awake, so connection to other people is precious to me. I’d love to find a way to participate in that kind of fellowship and discuss how we strive to be people we can take pride in and build good lives and communities for ourselves
Nah, catholic church was very boring and always seemed like a scam to me as long a I can remember. Also Occam’s razor. I’m not an evangelical atheist though: that seems like a waste of time and effort.
