What And Why You Believe please write logical posts.

[webguide 0]

About the seriousness? I think my religious beliefs are serious and not just some joke.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Really? Then it is your duty to stone to death women that have had sex out of wedlock.

Fact is, that like most religious individuals, you pick and choose your own rules.

[adamsgi 0]

Lev 20:10 And the man that committeth adultery with [another] man's wife, [even he] that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

But isn't one of the commandments "Thou shalt not kill"? Murder is murder, regardless.

 

I have always believed that murder is wrong. Personally I am a Buddhist. I was raised by an atheist father and an agnostic mother. I went to a Church-funded school and even sang in the church choir. I also happen to be gay. From the age of 14, I started to pray twice a day every day for about 2 years for God to make me straight. I asked for His help to not be this way, as it was in the Bible as a sin (Lev 18:22) and so he had to help me because I didn't want to sin. After two years I gave up and came to the conclusion that either:

 

1. Being gay is not a sin

2. God doesn't exist

 

Either way, it caused a problem because if the first case was true, then the Bible was flawed, which ultimately led to case number two.

 

I then began looking at other religions and tried some of their practices (including charging batteries with spiritual energy for alien spacecraft to use to increase happiness on the planet ) When I was 17, I read about an International Buddhist group called the Soka Gakkai and went to a meeting. The practice involves chanting a mantra and a piece of the Lotus Sutra in ancient Japanese. I gave it a go and within 30 days I had got a new job that I wanted, and split up with a partner. I was devastated about the partner, and was told to chant the mantra with these feelings in mind. I soon began to realise that the partner I was with was completely wrong for me and that I was indeed in a better position without him.

 

I can't explain how the process works, all I know is that through practical experience that it does work. Other people have noticed the change in me. Buddhism is not really a religion. There is no God, Buddha was just a man who was awakened to the true nature of life. As for arguments about how the universe was created, the Buddhism doesn't have an opinion. It simply states that life and death are different aspects of being. I take this to mean that the universe will eventually die and then come back into manifestation again. It doesn't matter who or what creates that, it just does.

 

Before I go, I'd like to point out that Barabbas, who the Jews freed when given a choice between said Barabbas and Jesus is Aramaic for Son Of God. Did the Jews release the right person after all?

[kraizii88z 0]

Gods have always been the answer to unanswerable questions, and as more answered dawned; more questions appeared, thus life will go on and religion will probably always consume the minds of the ignorant.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Maybe the whole of humanity is more intelligent than the individual, which is why all of humanity (with the exeption of some individuals) believe in religion, even though the individual cannot explain religion

 

maybe we know more than we think we know ..if that makes sense..

 

 

 

 

Put most simply, I felt that the man in front of me would, though he had met me only minutes before, give his life to aid me. A better word might be 'selflessness', and this was indeed how he reacted to me. My problems were his, and all things were the same as himself.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

We are all connected to each other.. humainty can be considered a solid entity, with a 'life' & 'will' of it's own. I'm not surprised a monk would react this way to another human being, thier religion adressing the connection to human life.

 

 

[kenjvalip 0]

I am a Christian and I believe it because of the things it brought me. Wisdom, strength and blessings. I don't want to attack people who don't believe in the existence of God. It is plain, they closed thier doors for believing and that is thier choice. I became a Christian not of brute force or whatsoever. I became a Christian because I can see it clearly and understand the way things go... From the miracles to the simplicity of silence, I can feel and know the greatness and creativity of my maker. I respect everyone's view in life because that is thier choice and that is what they stand for. The things about the what they say "Bible Contradictions" are just things they seem not to understand. I understand them very well. What the cover can show is not always the way it appears... There are many secrets in this planet that not all men can fully understand and percieve. It goes on well with your faith. I believe in every word the bible tells. That's how you see it, and that's how they see it, I believe it the way Jesus taught it. If you sin, you feel something wrong... something not great... that is because you have a spirit that grieves when you have done something wrong. I am not to answer any questions regarding bible contradictions, because looking at it litteraly won't take you anywhere, no one can think the way God can. Man of limited knowledge compared to the omnipotence of the maker...

[egbert 0]

You do realize that doing this would mean that many many people would die.  It would cause more problems than doing nothing.  For instance, lets say a man who owns a business committs adultery, and you kill him.  Now you have destroyed the livelyhood of all those who work for him.  Do they diserve to suffer this way?  Especially if they knew nothing? 

 

Not only that, but remember the witch trials that occured in America.  It is easy to accuse someone of something like that.  Imagine a pair of people who are really good friends, one a man the other a woman.  Now, if someone is angry at them, they can accuse them of sleeping together and possibly have them killed if enough people believe.  Now the entire community has committed murder.  HMmm. I wonder what the penalty for that is....  Now things are even worse. 

 

The extreme punishment thing just doesn't work.  It is even more silly today than it was back in biblical times.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Alright, many people would die? Well, MILLIONS of unborn babies die each year from people who commit adultery and then abandon the child, and then the mother takes the easy way out and murders the baby.

 

About the business owner? Let's say he also is a mass murderer. Whould he be spared simply because he's the owner of the company. No, that's not fair that some people with more power get more leniance.

 

And why don't the two friends just marry eachother? Problem solved.

However, punishment should only be executed when there can be no doubt in anyone's mind about who is guilty to prevent these 'witch trial' things. You can't easily punish a thing like that, because there is little proof possible to get.

[egbert 0]

But isn't one of the commandments "Thou shalt not kill"?  Murder is murder, regardless.

 

I have always believed that murder is wrong.  Personally I am a Buddhist.  I was raised by an atheist father and an agnostic mother.  I went to a Church-funded school and even sang in the church choir.  I also happen to be gay.  From the age of 14, I started to pray twice a day every day for about 2 years for God to make me straight. I asked for His help to not be this way, as it was in the Bible as a sin (Lev 18:22) and so he had to help me because I didn't want to sin.  After two years I gave up and came to the conclusion that either:

 

1.  Being gay is not a sin

2.  God doesn't exist

 

Either way, it caused a problem because if the first case was true, then the Bible was flawed, which ultimately led to case number two.

 

I then began looking at other religions and tried some of their practices (including charging batteries with spiritual energy for alien spacecraft to use to increase happiness on the planet  )  When I was 17, I read about an International Buddhist group called the Soka Gakkai and went to a meeting.  The practice involves chanting a mantra and a piece of the Lotus Sutra in ancient Japanese.  I gave it a go and within 30 days I had got a new job that I wanted, and split up with a partner.  I was devastated about the partner, and was told to chant the mantra with these feelings in mind.  I soon began to realise that the partner I was with was completely wrong for me and that I was indeed in a better position without him.

 

I can't explain how the process works, all I know is that through practical experience that it does work.  Other people have noticed the change in me.  Buddhism is not really a religion.  There is no God, Buddha was just a man who was awakened to the true nature of life.  As for arguments about how the universe was created, the Buddhism doesn't have an opinion.  It simply states that life and death are different aspects of being.  I take this to mean that the universe will eventually die and then come back into manifestation again.  It doesn't matter who or what creates that, it just does.

 

Before I go, I'd like to point out that Barabbas, who the Jews freed when given a choice between said Barabbas and Jesus is Aramaic for Son Of God.  Did the Jews release the right person after all?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Being gay is not what you 'are'.

It's what you 'do'!

 

God gave us the gift of choosing what we do.

It is entirely your decision whether you are gay or not, it is not god's decision. That's all I have to say.

 

 

Edit: or maybe not.

 

I believe that the cmmandment is 'thou shall not murder', or at least that's what I think when I think about it. Murder is maliciously killing someone with harm in mind. A criminal put to death is not usually malicious, unless he is falsely accused and the court is corrupt.

[MajesticTreeFrog 0]

Being gay is not what you 'are'.

It's what you 'do'!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

By this reasoning, a person is female if they act female. Certainly there are genetics involved, but there are also genetics involved with homosexuality. And the biological aspects? Easily dealt with by modern surgery.

 

So, if a woman or man were to get a sex change, and behave 'like their sex', would that make their new sexuality their 'real' one to you?

[adamsgi 0]

While this subject of Gender swapping is up, I am proud to announce that from 1st April, the UK is going to officially recognise the new gender of Post-Op Transsexuals. They will be given a legal certificate which means they can get married as their new gender and it will also be illegal to discriminate against them.1 more step forward to open-minded Britain - and it's a much better place for it.

[adamsgi 0]

egbert  Posted Mar 24 2005, 05:48 PMBeing gay is not what you 'are'.
It's what you 'do'!

God gave us the gift of choosing what we do.
It is entirely your decision whether you are gay or not, it is not god's decision. That's all I have to say.

I believe you are confusing who you are sexually attracted to and who you have intercourse with. There is much more to being gay than (in my case) having sex with another man. I could make myself have sex with a woman, but I would still be gay, just as you could make yourself have sex with a member of the same sex and still be straight. Does this mean that celibate people are asexual and do not find anyone sexually attractive? Wouldn't this then go against God's wishes? If that is the case then there should be lots of sex before marriage otherwise how will anyone know that they are attracted to the opposite sex?

Oh sorry, I forgot, that's the "normal" way to be.

As a good friend of mine says...

Heterosexuality is not normal, it is just common

[lesmizzie 0]

I was baptised and confirmed Catholic, but I do not really relate to the religion. I consider myself a nondenominational Christian because I believe that organized religion tends to get in the way of what the true teachings of the bible say. I believe that grace is given by God and that all you have to do is accept it- you do not do anything in order to obtain salvation. I believe that people have certain jobs in heaven based on what they have done on earth.

[mitchellmckain 0]

So, I am curious, what do the people here hold as religious faiths? And, at least as importantly, why do you believe it? Finally, don't post unless you are willing to open up your views to criticism.

First I would like to point out that the topic "What do you believe" and "What is your religion" do not mean the same thing despite the first post by Magesictreefrog who request the latter duplicating latter thread. Religion is both a lot more than and a lot less than what you believe.

Religion may include some beliefs, but more important aspects include choices, lifestyle and identity. The beliefs are not always clearly distinct from these others and looking for reasons are like looking for the reasons for love. Beliefs in religion are often not based on reason but are accepted on faith like the axioms upon which mathematics is built.

To clarify the last of these aspects of religion mentioned above, identity, consider your astrological sign. I am a Gemini. Does this mean that I believe that astrology can predict my future? No. I believe that the most important role of astrology is what I call a personality game. A personality game is a healthy psychological activity in which we look at ourselves and think about who we are and what we are like. When I call myself a Gemini, I am not putting myself in a box so that people can look it up in book and by this know who I am. I am of course identifying myself only with certain aspects of the usual descriptions of the Gemini. And it has less to do with accuracy than it does just giving me a way to think about myself.

For most people there are a lot of things that we believe that have nothing to do with our religion. Besides political issues there is philosophy, which often asks many questions that are not a part of religion. For me in particular beliefs have very little to do with my religious faith and much more to do with science and philosophy. As for my religion I will quote the other thread.

I am what I would call a minimalist anti-gnostic born again christian. I am a born-again christian because I have asked Jesus into my life, putting my salvation into his hands and hoping that he will find a way to help me.

I am minimalist because although I have opinions about many things, I realize that I really know practically nothing. Therefore I put no faith in any of my opinions, beliefs, or knowledge. My faith is in God alone. I read, respect and love the bible, but I don't pretend that I really know what it means.I am anti-gnostic because I don't believe there is any knowlege or belief that is any more effective for salvation than good deeds. I think that many christians are gnostic because they think their belief in Jesus saves them, I do not. I know that I am at God's mercy, and have not the understanding needed to hold God to any contract or promise. My assurance is not in my salvation but in the love and goodness of God. I am at peace with the fact that my fate is in His hands and is thus for the greatest good.

I find self-righteousness intolerable and without excuse in a christian. I also know that I am probably self-righteous no matter how much I try not to be, so that I myself am without any excuse. Christian are not saved by any merit of theirs so they are no better than anyone else. Their salvation is an act of God and His to give to whomever He chooses. Christians are beggars and not the gatekeepers of salvation. So, although I might understand their reluctance to accept the teachings of other religions, I do not find the condemnation of other religions to be an acceptable christian practice.

I also do not agree with the tendency of many christians to be like the Pharisees avoiding sin and impurity by association, condemning things like Dungeons and Dragons or Harry Potter. We do not find God, by making sure we quote the bible in every sentence. We can find God in almost every story and activity, using all of our imagination with an open heart and active mind.

To truly answer the question of "What I believe" would take a long time. But I could say that I am an existentialist like Kierkegaard and Albert Camus, and a pragmatist like Charles Sanders Pierce. But my most cherished beliefs are in the areas of metaphysics and especially the philosophy of mind. For both of these a draw a great deal of implications from physics, especially quantum physics and chaotic dynamics. For me the most important (or interesting) question is: what does it mean to be alive?

I think that living is a type of process or activity which is self organizing. A living organism constantly takes in material or information from its environment to build, repair and reinforce its own dynamic structure. Since changes in the environment force the organism to change its structure or die, living organisms must choose, adapt, and learn. I believe that everything that makes us human, intellegence, communication, creativity, consciousness, and feelings are simply our own ways of experiencing these basic characteristics which all living organisms possess. I believe that this life activity is a quantifiable process in terms of volume of input, complexity of structure, and adaptability. I think this means that we can say that a human being is more alive than a bug because of these quantifiable differences but that the human being is not qualitatively different from the bug. The bug is also intellegent, communicates, is creative, is conscious and has feelings in it own way, only on a much smaller and slower scale, which is actually measurable.

I think that the human mind is (at least potentially) a living organism in its own right, building and maintaining its structure from the sensory input of the human body. I think that most animals (and possibly some human beings) do not have a mind, in the sense that the activity of information processing in their brains do not constitute a living organism in its own right. The key point is independence from the environment, for when an organism is dominated by environmental changes, it is no longer alive. We see something as alive when it does things for its own reasons and not simply because it is made to do so by its environment. The environment of the human mind is the human body with all its hormones and other chemicals and if these dominate the activities of the mind then it is not alive but dead.

[rachelwase 0]

I was raised in a home where religion was something that I saw on T.V. When I became old enough to understand what religion was I began to seek it out on my own. I believed that there was a God. I just had no idea who He was. When I showed interest in attending church a good friend of mine invited me to go with her to her own church. It was a Calvary Chapel christian church. I felt a great sense of peace in having a definition of who God is and what is required by God to be "saved" by Him. I spent years holding true to my "christian" beliefs. When I grew to be about 16 I started to question the authority around me and became turned off by what I can only call the hypocritical section of people who belong to the christian faith. I began to read into other faiths and religions that I had never given a chance or even heard of. In the long run I could only say that no one religion truely defines Me. They all have there good and bad parts in my opinion. I do know that I believe in God. That He is the almighty and that one day when I am with him in heaven or valhalla or what ever, then maybe my mind or soul or whatever there is of me will be able to comprehend the true meaning of life death and eternity. Until then I will qoute from another article I read about the true purpose of religion. This is the best way I can describe my religion or at least what I would want it to be if it existed :

"A good religion will therefore only answer the following types of questions: "how can I better understand the world around me?", "how can I be more compassionate?", "how may I ease the suffering of myself and others?", and, "how can I lead a life that does not lead to pain and sorrow, and what can I do about it when I sometimes fail?"
majestic frog:
read the article:
http://majesticfrog.livejournal.com/2485.html?nojs=1

[mitchellmckain 0]

It was a Calvary Chapel christian church.
I began to read into other faiths and religions that I had never given a chance or even heard of. 

Calvary Chapel is the church I stopped going to over my dissatisfaction with their political leanings. I know they are only human, but I cannot help being disappointed.

I love the study of religion, for I think it is vital part of understanding people. A couple of my favorites are Hassidic Judaism and the Quakers (as they were a long time ago). One of the things I like to see most in a religion is melding of conservative and liberal contrasts. In the case of Hassidicism it the return to strict lifestyle combined with a desire to experience joy in one's relationship with God. In the Quaker's it was strong committment to honesty and righteous lifestyle with the radical belief in the divine spark living within each of us.

I thought I saw a little of this kind of melding in Calvary Chapel between one of the most serious attitudes towards the study of the bible I have ever seen with the commitment to break out of cultural stereotypes (take their "bikers for christ" for example).

Ah well, I still love their style of worship and I will probably go back as soon as my disgust cools a little or the political situation changes.

[MajesticTreeFrog 0]

You know, it seems to me that why one believes what they do is usually more important than what one believes. The beliefs can change, but the why rarely does.

[p_r_moreira 0]

But What´s Religion ??WAO