All Aspects of Religion

I believe in G-d, and also that everyone has a right to choose whatever religion they wish, or none whatsoever. But, in my opinion, if a religion encourages hatred then there is something very wrong with that religion.

Well My Mum is Chalolic and so is the rest of my family but my dad didnt want me to go to chruch for whatever reason.
So really my beilifs are in beetween.
But i did get a level 7 in my R.E. essay

My whooooooooooole family is Orthodox through and through, and are all brain-washed (sorry the use of words..) by it. I never believed in God, sorry to say that, but it's true. I went to the church with a look of utter disgust/boredom on my face :D ...i often fell asleep... xD

ANYWAY!!!!!

Since i wasn't allowed to skip out, i had to be this 'good girl' since our family have tight rules about how to behave and stuff, which is why i'm living with my brother atm :D Yeah, i would consider myself as a atheist. I think God doesn't exist, not until i have high fived him and said "Wazzup, man?"

...

Sorry for my bluntness but hey, that's me :D Even so, i'm very open minded to other religions, and it's not like i run around burning down Orthodox people's houses or something xD Everyone has the right to believe in what they want and so on....

YAY :D

I'm Jewish as well (orthodox) and I love Judaism. It's a peace-oriented religion (don't get me started on Zionism, unless you're ready for a looong debate. Zionism and Judaism are NOT the same things) and yes elana is right. We do not have missionaries trying to convert people. And if anyone approaches the Jewish religion and is thinking of converting, we do our best to convince them otherwise, because we take Judaism very seriously and believe that no one should convert unless they really really want to, for the right reasons.

also I think it's really cool how we have these manuscripts that were written thousands of years ago, and they are full of information that scientists are only now figuring out. And of course, full of bunches of info that they haven't figured out yet.

I don't believe in God. I'm not a part of any religion, and I have no wish to be.

I can understand however that people need something to believe in, and so I don't criticise other people for having a religion and believing in God.

I don't think there's any sort of God out there, or believe in Creationism. But I agree with Caro, people should believe what they want to believe and not come under criticism for it.

And I also agree with streams, religions which promote violence are wrong.

I'm a Catholic. (to get more specific- a Roman Catholic lol). I believe in God strongly. My family might now make it to Church every week, but we're defiantly strong believers.

I always think about how the world had to be created....and then i always remember that there had to be something that created it *shrug*

I follow Pagan beliefs and these beliefs are put down by many people as not being a true religion, though what people dont seem to understand is that Paganism is an extremely old religion, and its not all about riding on broomsticks and wearing pointy hats!!

I agree with the violence aspect. I think it is completely and utterly wrong that others start feuds over religion. I dont understand why people cant let others believe what they want to believe.

I couldn't comprehend not believing in anything. I have a question for those who dont, if you dont mind?

If you don't believe in anything, what is your outlook on what happens after death?

I can't possibly accept that there is nothingness, so this question interests me.

Quote :

If you don't believe in anything, what is your outlook on what happens after death?

I can't possibly accept that there is nothingness, so this question interests me.

I think that you just die. You die, and your life leaves your body, then your body is either cremated or buried. I don't think there's anything after death. I like proof, and there is no proof that anything happens after death. There is supposition, and theories, but no proof.

Until there is concrete proof, I will continue to believe that there is nothing after death.

Lol. I was also wondering, do you believe in souls?

What about coincidences? Do you believe in coincidences, or do you think everything at every place and every time happens for a reason, and everything is interconnected?

Yes, you say that your life leaves your body, do you mean soul? I believe your soul is what makes you, and although your body might get cremated, your soul doesn't and I can't imagine complete darkness. If you think along the lines of you are your soul. So if your soul goes to nothingness then that means you will be in eternal nothingness. Doesn't that scare you?

streams of silver wrote:

Lol. I was also wondering, do you believe in souls?

What about coincidences? Do you believe in coincidences, or do you think everything at every place and every time happens for a reason, and everything is interconnected?

I'm not sure if I believe in souls...I guess it's kind of a contradiction to say that I don't believe anything comes after, then not to know if I believe in souls, but

I'm not sure what the coincidences thing is about...lol

Quote :

So if your soul goes to nothingness then that means you will be in eternal nothingness. Doesn't that scare you?

Not really. I think that once you're dead, you're dead.

lol I do see your point amy...reminds me of a L'Engle book where people didn't simply die, they were X-ed. Snuffed. Exterminated. XD.

I suppose there is no concrete proof that there is 'life' after death, but I've always found near-death experiences fascinating to read. I also find it interesting that nearly every religion will believe in some form of reincarnation or heaven and hell. Interesting how they all came up with the same conclusion, no?

Well, lets see. I am Catholic, and I believe in God. I don't go to Church every Sunday... scratch that. I hardly ever go to Church. I don't think that God wants us cooped up in a stuffy old church while we could be out worshipping in the nature and in the way we choose.

I'm pretty open-minded about other religions, but I also think its wrong when they promote hate among their followers.

I believe in Heaven, and I love hearing about the people that have almost died and seen heaven, but were woken up by doctors and lived. I love that story about how that little boy fell down his front steps and had to be taken to the hospital. When he was revived, he told his parents and doctors that after he fell, he was picked up by doves and flew into the sky, but he could still see his body underneath.

I come from a family of many different religions. MyGrandma Lois, her side of the family, my Grandma Glenda and Grandpa Larry's side of the family are all some type of Christian ( I never asked what there Christian sub-division was). My Grandpa Everett and Step-Grandma Sandy and their side of the family are Jewish. My parents though are both Pagan, though in a way they are different kinds of pagans since they both practice their religion in different ways.

I myself am still a bit confused about what I am, but who can blame me I got all sorts of religions around me. I do believe in certain aspects of the pagan religion, but it is the whole Gods and Goddesses, of any religion really, that gets me. The question I always ask people is if there God, or Goddes, or whatnot, created a life on the planet or even just a bit of it, then who created them? People typically answer with, they just are? But if people can accept a God as just being, then why can't anyone believe we just are?

Throughout my childhood, probley sense the age of eight, I have always found myself debated religion with myself trying to figure out what I believe. I have even thought out theories on time travel that could be a reasoning of the beginning of people...a loop. Like the people of the future go back and time and get stuck. The whole cavemen thing can fit into this too, deforming of test subjects through test traveling in a time machine.

I do know that I believe in souls, life after death, angels (though not exactly the god's angels from the bible), demons (not exactly devil minions), magic (though not the hocus pocus kind), mythological creatres did at one time exist, and I believe in the balance, of good and evil. (Hehe the balance is a fn one isnt it...can't tip it too far on either side or there would be trouble)

I do not believe in god as i am an Atheist. I don't know, maybe i believe in the big bang theory or not....but it's strange you know? Living in a world that we have no clue whatsoever in how it/us was created...i find it scary..

I have followed the pagan beliefs since my teen years. I was raised as a southern Baptist but I did not agree with the way my family believed and so I started to venture out of the family circle and came to my own conclusion as far as religion.
I believe that there are things that are hard to explain and there are miracles that happen. I've followed no particular branch of paganism and I am not a wiccan. However, I am a believer of multiple gods,goddesses and energies.

I believe in souls and spirits and even reincarnation to a point. It took me quite a few years but I've come to develope my own beliefs and I stick by them. I don't believe everything in the world is the good or evil aspect, but I do believe that energies can be manipulated one way or another.

I am quite like you, Kitty, in the aspect that I do not follow one particular path with Paganism, rather adapting to my own views through this set of beliefs.

Multiple Gods and Godesses and Energies are a main focus of what I believe as well

I'm a Christian. To be more specific (because there seems to be half a million different types of Christianity out there) I'm a Non-denominational Christian. When I attend a church, wish I'm ashamed to say isn't very often anymore, I attend a Church of Christ (Thought I'd say that also, because there are so many different types of Non-denominational Christians). I've been baptized, but right now I wish I could really take it back. Not because I don't want to be baptized, or because I've changed my faith, but because when I was I didn't really know what it meant. I'd rather be baptized now, now that I understand what it means. To do it for myself, and not for my grandmother.

The thought of death hasn't ever scared me, but the thought of what comes after always has. Because I just can't imagine us dying and there being nothing, nothing, just emptyness... or not even that... nothing. That scares me. However the thought of forever scares me also. Either forever in Heaven or forever in Hell. I can't imagine forever... no end, everything has to end, but it won't. I just can't imagine that.

Also although I am a Christian, it doesn't mean I agree with everything 100%, because I don't really think you can agree with everything 100%. And maybe someday that will get me in trouble on judgment day. Which also scares me, Judgment Day has to be the scariest thought of all, more then nothing or forever.

But I believe what I believe. And I don't criticize others for their beliefs for everyone is entitled to them. Those are my views on the matter XD.

Ooh. Judgement day scares me too.

I'm not so scared of Hell, mostly because I figure that if I've really done something wrong, I deserve to be punished. But I'm not an evil person so I doubt I'd be in Hell forever...just a short stint in Hell and then I'm off to Heaven...hopefully. XD

But even Heaven is not forever...there's reincarnation and begging favors to appear in people's dreams and...hmm.

I'm really interested in the end of the world. I find that fascinating. According to Jewish religion, we wait every day for the Messiah to come. But if he doesn't (which is always a grim possibility) then in exactly 6,000 years since the world was created, it will END. And by our count, we're up to year 5768. So I think that's pretty cool. I probably won't be around then, but...

I'm not scared of death, or what comes after it. I believe there is a Heaven, and even though I'm going to have to go through purgatory first to get all cleaned up for God, I will get there eventually

But for the people who don't believe in heaven, wouldn't you be scared? I would be terrified if I thought I was going to just be terminated after I die...

The thought of just plain nothingness and not being there anymore scares me...

Umm. I believe there is an afterlife, and yet I think I can understand the people who don't.

Why would it be scary to just not exist? Why worry about it now? Now you are alive. Ladeda. Then you will cease to exist. You will not be scared then. Your fear will have ceased to exist. So what is there to be scared of? No, those people will face both the bliss of nothingness and the utter hopelessness of it, and yet they will feel neither blissful nor hopeless. They will feel nothing. They will have ceased to exist.

Quite an interesting viewpoint, actually.

I don't know, I just think it's scary to not be anymore after I die...

I don't really know how to put it into words haha. It's just that if you cease to exist, it would be like you never lived at all. You wouldn't remember yourself, as you aren't there anymore... so how would you say that others will remember you, if you can't remember yourself?

That feeling would frighten me.

But you wouldn't be feeling that after you were dead! You wouldn't be feeling frightened. You wouldn't be feeling anything!

The concept of memory wouldn't exist either. Nothing would exist for you anymore. I see why you say it's scary, but it's actually not scary at all for the person involved.

And actually, other people would remember you, because they're still alive. It's just the dead person whose consciousness has ceased to exist.

I agree with Cookie, though I don't believe in purgatory.

I don't know, the thought of being nothing is simply scary. I know I wouldn't feel anything, but if I truly believed there was nothing, then my last thought would probably be along the lines of 'So this is it then' if I had a last thought mind XD.

It's nice to believe that I won't be nothing. Nothing is a very scary thing. Can you imagine being nothing? ... okay so that's a bad question xD but you know what I mean.

Ellemanae wrote:

I follow Pagan beliefs and these beliefs are put down by many people as not being a true religion, though what people dont seem to understand is that Paganism is an extremely old religion, and its not all about riding on broomsticks and wearing pointy hats!!

I agree with the violence aspect. I think it is completely and utterly wrong that others start feuds over religion. I dont understand why people cant let others believe what they want to believe.

I couldn't comprehend not believing in anything. I have a question for those who dont, if you dont mind?

If you don't believe in anything, what is your outlook on what happens after death?

I can't possibly accept that there is nothingness, so this question interests me.

Everything Chelle says is what i think. I was christened, my dad is a Pagan as where his whole family from what i know my mum is CoE and so i became CoE buttttttttttt i share my dad's beliefs.

AND to add to what Chelle said about not wearing pointy hats, we dont dance naked at a full mooon (well i dont lol) we dont worship the devil. We believe that if whatever you do harms none, then do it, basically.

I howver will be the first to admit that i do not lead my life based solely on the beliefs of the Pagan religion but i do try my best espically now as i get older and understand more things.

No religion should start feuds, wars and mass discrimination, we are all individuals who should make our own choices and our mistakes, whatever you believe and whom ever you worship, you should not go about killing innocent people in the name of your god.

I was christened Lutheran (a protestant form of Christianity), but my mother's family side is Orthodox, so I kinda grew up with both religions as a background. Maybe it was this "being in between" religions that made me not be too attached to either of them.

How should I put it... it's not exactly that I don't believe in God, because it seems logical for me that there must have been a beginning somehow. I believe in Evolution, but nevertheless, I can't say I will totally contradict the bible story, I'm just saying it mustn't be taken by word - if you ask me, it's just logic that some kind of Creator exists, simply because *someone* had to be there to create the whole space and the elements that existed in the beginning, that were the starting point of Evolution.

As for anything that goes further than that, I'm not very religious and I tend to be pretty skeptical about various bible stories etc. For me, religion is something like a form of common conscience of mankind that has the admittedly practical function of setting moral limitations to human actions. However, I don't think one should have a bad conscience if they don't really believe in any higher beings, but instead just act by their own feeling of moral righteousness and try to do as much good as they can.

Death - interesting question. I'm not really sure about this, but I would tip on the possibility of reincarnation in some form. Not that I'd have given that too much thought, though.

These said, I'm tolerant about what other people believe, it's each individual's own choice. And I will repeat what has already been said, namely that the only types of religion that I have something against are those that instigate intolerance and violence.

I believe pretty much the same thing. u go to heaven and if not u go to hell.

there is some stuff about being reincarnated or something but i dont really believe it.