Why do you practice your religion

[Boudica]

What is your religion? Explain why you think that your religion is best for people to have, and why you practice it. Why is it 'the way'? Discuss :)

-I made a similar thread to this awhile back and it had to be closed due to quite a bit of fighting/trolling, so please guys.. Respect each others religions whether it be Atheism or Catholicism.

[Piparskeggr]

I am Asatru, that is, a follower of a modern reconstruction of the beliefs and practices, which are thought to have existed amongst the pre-Christian Norse and Germanic peoples. It is based upon the existing History and Folk Lore.

I follow this mindset and heartset because it is what speaks to me most strongly from the depths of my thoughts and spirit.

It is what is best for me, but is not necessarily best for anyone else.

[rhiannon]

I'm Agnostic. Basically, I need empirical evidence to back up any religious claims to the truth. Until then, in my opinion, none us really can ever know the actual truth.

[Odoacer]

I'm a Christian.

Cornelius van Til gives a good argument (http://the-highway.com/why_I_believe_cvt.html) for believing in the God of Christianity, though of course you may disagree. ;)

[Magister Eckhart]

God is.

No more needs to be said on the subject, really.

[HungAryan]

I'm a Christian.
God is real. Anyone who disagrees is ignorant.
The fact that the Earth exist is a good enough proof. The world can't just start out of nothing. Some sort of force had to start it's existence. And that force was the hand of God.

[Der Steinadler]

one's religion is in the blood.

there's no need convert or extol it upon anyone else.

all you need to do is discover and know yourself.

[2DREZQ]

Christian.
Specifically: The "You must be born again" kind.
I believe that I am to be "always prepared to give an account of what I believe", but that is where my responsibility ends. What anyone does with what I tell them is 100% their responsibility.

My guide in life is a conscience-finely attuned to God's will through spending time in his word and talking to him every day, as well as spending time with others who believe as I do.

I must: 1. Start with the 10 commandments, and 2. Act in accordance with the example Christ gave us in the life he lived and the lessons he voiced.

Every failure of "Christianity" through the ages can be laid squarely on the failure to follow one or both of these requirements. The same can be said for the failures in my own life.

[Oreka Bailoak]

Our minds have a natural inclination towards the higher order, be it values, morality, honor, loyalty, beauty, family values, religion etc.
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That being said, that we have a biological function for religion, I want to go into the social benefits.

http://www.amazon.com/Bowling-Alone-Collapse-American-Community/dp/0743203046/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321555487&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/American-Grace-Religion-Divides-Unites/dp/1416566716/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1321555487&sr=8-2

^The evidence for a massive social benefit for religion is clear through data collected all around the world. Religion builds social capital, bonds which are vital to community, health and family.

That all being said it comes time to select a religion that fits well with ones own belief system and community goals.

1) Unitarian Universalism
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^This guy has my view on the need for rationality.

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^But other Unitarian universalists are marxist culturally.
So I don't think this denomination is for me.

The more religious christian sects like Roman Catholic have universal views of the world. All people are the same, cultures are relative, and we need to help the world through donations, adopting kids, giving out free stuff, buying the religion of others. I'm certainly not saying that every Roman Catholic thinks this way, but I'm saying that a considerable amount of the congregation holds these views- which make me uncomfortable. Same for many protestant sects like Baptist.

So I'm looking for a religion that views heritage as important, is rational and also traditional, anti-cultural Marxist, and has a strong community spirit.

I'm going to try Episcopal next because they are more traditional, upper class, have a high average IQ than other European religious denominations (http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2008/02/pentecostals-are-stupid-unitarians-are-smart/), have less Mexicans than for example the local Catholic churches in my area - the only draw backs being they may be lacking in rationalism (not science oriented) and maybe slightly too universal for my taste.

http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/authors/Kurtagic-Haiti.html
^I wish a church would start talking with that level of rationality, not in a hurtful way (which ironically the politically correct will think) but with the best interests of Haiti and our own interests in mind.

I'm technically agnostic but greatly value Christianity, church, community and social capital, and the need for a sort of biological spirituality of the mind. I consider myself Christian and that's what I say when asked by people.

[Kataphraktoi]

I am a Christian, I don't simply 'believe' in God—I know He exists. I could offer you many proofs of the existence of God, but ultimately you must make the 'leap of faith' as Kierkegaard talked about—the ontological or metaphysical proofs will never satisfy someone who, deep in his heart, has no desire to change his position. A 'pure' proof cannot exist simply because every proof—for anything, really—presupposes certain data.

[Albion]

I don't.

Reasons:


I have better things to do than attend church
I'd be ridiculed by my folks for attending church. Strange, since my parents had me baptised, very strange
I often don't have time to attend church
It may be a cliche but I only turn religous when something really bad is happening
I never asked to be baptised as a kid
I haven't fully convinced myself there is a god yet
Most church-goers left in England are self-righteous, pretentious morons
I have a belief that religion should be at a personal level. Organised religion appeals to those of a sheeple mentality and it is wrong for anyone to act as if they're connection to god is above that of anyone else
I like my day of rest to involve rest. I don't call church restful.

[Turkey]

I'm not sure. They haven't told me yet.

[Flintlocke]

I practice my religion all the time.

Technically, the closest thing I could be called is a pagan. But I don't believe in the supernatural, I am of the opinion that when the ancients created their gods it was a manifestation of values they wanted to achieve even if they didn't quantify it intellectually, they knew it instinctively.

Therefore I could never accept Christianity or Islam or any other major or minor Abrahamic religion. And since the old religion is a manifestation of the racial mind and blood I understand it and like it better. But I don't pray or anything like that, like the ancients didn't bow before their gods, they saw eye to eye with them.

And since it originated from the racial soul it is a manifestation of nature's eternal principles. There is no duality, everything that goes on is accepted on whether it has a positive or negative effect on the individual and the group. It has nothing to do with these neopagan hippies who have a christian ethos combined with Hollywood witch aesthetics.

Loyalty is "to thine self be true", to your kin, to your nation, and to your race. Being a loyal and true friend and comrade. That means there is no morality in the conventional sense. There is no christian type of good and evil. Instincts, intellect, cunning, brutality, ruthlessness, and all things civilized society avoids I see as useful tools in nature's arsenal of eternal warfare. Revenge is good, inequality is good, domination is good, war is good. Victory is the basis of might and all else if fallacy and deception.

[Turkey]

Loyalty is "to thine self be true", to your kin, to your nation, and to your race. Being a loyal and true friend and comrade. That means there is no morality in the conventional sense. There is no christian type of good and evil. Instincts, intellect, cunning, brutality, ruthlessness, and all things civilized society avoids I see as useful tools in nature's arsenal of eternal warfare. Revenge is good, inequality is good, domination is good, war is good. Victory is the basis of might and all else if fallacy and deception.


What you have stated here as pagan values, and I don't doubt they are, are the very basis of Scientology values...


DYNAMIC ONE: The urge of the individual to reach the highest potential of survival in terms of self and his immediate symbiotes.

DYNAMIC TWO: The urge of the individual to reach the highest potential of survival in terms of sex, the act and the creation of children and their rearing.

DYNAMIC THREE: The urge of the individual to reach the highest potential of survival in terms of the group, whether civil, political, or racial, and the symbiotes of that group.

DYNAMIC FOUR: The urge of the individual to reach the highest potential of survival in terms of Mankind and the symbiotes of Mankind.

[Raskolnikov]

I didn't know Scientology overlapped with Progressive Collectivism.

[Turkey]

I didn't know Scientology overlapped with Progressive Collectivism.

neither did I :confused:

[GruttePier]

i am agnostic as well, I don't think anyone knows any truth on that matter even if it somehow does exist. Basically I practice the religion of "I don't know" "and do are you!"

[GruttePier]

"and so do you" i wanted to say :p

[Flintlocke]

i am agnostic as well, I don't think anyone knows any truth on that matter even if it somehow does exist.

I see the higher truths that exist above and beyond man not as something supernatural but existing in the world around us at every moment. We are nature's intellectual manifestation. I see the birth of the universe like the birth of a child, at first nothing but fire and energy, then slowly creating the first type of order in galaxies, the same way a child has nothing but a few instincts and as it grows it evolves and begins to interact with its surroundings.

We are the universe's intellect, there is no great super universal mind, we exist in our world as individuals but we are totally connected to it and can't live without it. It is no accident we are here, call it "destiny" if you will but we have a purpose, our instincts tell us to fight, to create and destroy, but we only see shadows, part of the whole. Everyone knows he must fight but the reasons elude us. Every man's instincts say "go ahead, get land, get gold, get wealth and women, give birth to sons and daughters and imbue them with your will and experience, make them strive higher and higher." But why do people do that? No one understand why, they only know they must do these things and go along with it.

The closest interpretation I can give is that we are some sort of embryo of "proto-gods". Technology is something that we create and use but the reason people are so obsessed by it is very deep. Science and knowledge is a part of us and corresponds with us in order to take us even higher and higher until through us the perfect intellect of the universe is created. And that is the reason of conflict and war. We must do these things and assert ourselves because that's what we deep down want and the universe wants. It demands war and destruction so that only the best can rule and rise above all others and their posterity will take it to another step and so on and so forth.

This is the religion of all men no matter what type of scripture they profess to adhere to. Everyone around the world does the same things, they all strive for wealth and power and the most important thing is their continuation in this life through their children. Instinctive genetics is the true religion of everyone whether they realize it or not. And therein come the importance of death.

Death is everything that make people act because time is limited. If humans lived forever there would be stagnation, decadence and degeneration. We die, and when our time is up we go back to the earth, and become organic matter for the creatures of the world and our successors. Life is defined as the absence of death, but life itself is immortal. We come from live individuals and they come from live individuals until the beginning of life itself. Nothing dead has created life, but life itself "bounces" as immortal energy from individual to individual. During my rather short life of 29 years, I have experienced many small deaths inside me, I have been in pain both physical and mental, I even was on the verge of suicide at one point but I defeated it, thereby defeating death, and in the process defeating life (for what is the conventional interpretation of life other than the absence of it). Pain has been good, it has been a fire which has purified me of all unnecessary things and has raised me to an even higher level. Now there is nothing a man can say or do that can frighten me, I am free to strive to that higher level.

And this is why racism is so cardinal to people. That's why tribalism exists everywhere, because what happens in individuals also happens to groups, and our race is in the highest level of development so far. We have greatly defeated the old notions of nationalism and now we face other struggles with international forces. Could there be something so corrosive as communism 500 years ago? No because it could never exist is such a context, it could never be formulated. And now we fight a new enemy, international liberal capitalism which has crept in as cultural degradation. It is not an accident that we struggle with these forces, it is a "destiny", an obstacle to overcome. And I'm not pessimistic like many others are, because it is natural for enemies to challenge us and it is our duty according to nature's demands and laws to defeat and overcome it. I cannot imagine what will happen when this world order collapses, definitely some other challenge will come up but I can't even imagine it yet.

Hope I didn't bore you or confuse you. I can hardly formulate these concepts myself because they are so above me and I can only see the outer limits of them.

[BiałaZemsta]

I'm a Christian.
God is real. Anyone who disagrees is ignorant.The fact that the Earth exist is a good enough proof. The world can't just start out of nothing. Some sort of force had to start it's existence. And that force was the hand of God.

Proof please...:confused:

[arcticwolf]

Proof please...:confused:

You heathen! :D How dare you ask questions? What gives you the right?! Repent before it's too late! Remember eternal hell is full of sinners like you!!! :p

[Oreka Bailoak]

Why do so many of you agnostics and atheists care so much about saying that the major religions can't be true, but you never talk about the harm done to society from losing an organized community based culture?

The social capital (community) benefits of belonging to an organized religion are massive, those books that I posted earlier ('Bowling Alone', and 'American Grace') detail in full the massive benefits of organized religion. The masses of underclass turning their backs on region and thinking they can do it better themselves has not worked and the data shows clearly that this is not working. Not belonging to a solid major organized religion is a major factor in the decline of our western civilization because so many are living without strong and effective values. (moral values are placed away from any community/family based ideology, and in its place a hyper focus on childish individual based relativistic ideologies etc.)

It's like you guys only care to critique society so much as to bring it down to the crap culture we live in today, but don't bother to think just around the next corner about maybe still belonging to a sort of organized religion for the community benefits. Some community churches don't even have a majority of the congregation believing in a god.

I feel like an old man from a forgotten generation watching his great civilization die as the younger generation doesn't even care because they don't understand the direction they're going. Our civilization in headed for its biggest decline in its history. (all sorts of things are correlated with organized religion; family values, birth rate, community social capital, health, happiness, productivity. Even the The Chinese government studied western civilization and came to this conclusion then estimated that our civilization is declining because we're lacking organized religion. too bad arrogant atheists don't understand statistics. )

[mymy]

I don't practice religion of my parents, but i'm very in touch with my own inner voice. I think i'm spiritual, but not religious. Harmony, love, humanity and understanding are my main principles. I don't want to sound like a weird person, but i am aware of who am i really and my main goal is total liberation of soul. I'm learning about world around me and try to understand where is my place here, i am trying to perceive things, not judge to anyone and accept difference. World is nice if it has many colors. Being in touch with nature and cosmos is also very important to me.

[Lithium]

I have always been mentally connected to the Paganism. It was a matter of time to convert and start practicing it. I feel 100% myself when I practice my religion, it gives me the strenght to face and understand the reality around me.

[zsrr]

I don't practice religion of my parents, but i'm very in touch with my own inner voice. I think i'm spiritual, but not religious. Harmony, love, humanity and understanding are my main principles. I don't want to sound like a weird person, but i am aware of who am i really and my main goal is total liberation of soul. I'm learning about world around me and try to understand where is my place here, i am trying to perceive things, not judge to anyone and accept difference. World is nice if it has many colors. Being in touch with nature and cosmos is also very important to me.

Your world seems beautiful.. I wish my world was beautiful too.

[Derelict]

I'm an atheist and always have been, though I grew up in a lutheran family. My reasoning is this: I personally find it unlikely that God exists. I will base my life in what I believe is good, and I will not follow rules that I find senseless only because they are in the bible. If God exists and he judges me for my actions and intentions, all is good. If he exists and he only cares about whether I believed in him regardless of my moral merits, then I wouldn't have cared to believe in the first place.
Human beings are more than enough to believe in anyway - there is so much capacity for terrible indifference and cruelty, and yet every day you can see how people take the harder path and go out of their way to be helpful, generous and kind.

I do care about tradition, and I tried to convert. I simply realized at some point that I didn't believe any of it so I just dropped it. I really, really hate it when people talk about christian morals when they're actually referring to ethics. Some people I know say "atheists don't follow the bible, therefore they're amoral, therefore they're evil". Basic ethics are ingrained in our brains, necessary for life in community, and also family-taught. Furthermore I don't see a reason why being an atheist would contribute to the breakdown of society or even distance me from it.

[Oreka Bailoak]

Furthermore I don't see any reason why being an atheist would contribute to the breakdown of society or even distance me from it.

You have no idea. Here, read these books.

http://www.amazon.com/American-Grace-Religion-Divides-Unites/dp/1416566716/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321907268&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Bowling-Alone-Collapse-American-Community/dp/0743203046/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321907278&sr=1-1

The data is overwhelming. Atheist culture lacks a HUGE amount of social capital.

http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Apart-State-America-1960-2010/dp/0307453421/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321907657&sr=8-1
^I've heard his lecture about this book and this book is going to be of massive significance too.

[Derelict]

You have no idea. Here, read these books.

http://www.amazon.com/American-Grace-Religion-Divides-Unites/dp/1416566716/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321907268&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Bowling-Alone-Collapse-American-Community/dp/0743203046/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321907278&sr=1-1

The data is overwhelming. Atheist culture lacks a HUGE amount of social capital.

http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Apart-State-America-1960-2010/dp/0307453421/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321907657&sr=8-1
^I've heard his lecture about this book and this book is going to be of massive significance too.

Since I have only read the book descriptions and reviews so far, I can only say that as of now I doubt that the relationship between growing individualism and the decline of religiosity is causal, and not incidental. My guess is that the relationship has more to do with the changes in our way of living, from close-knit small societies to sprawling cities where you're likely not to see the person in front of you again. However, that is just my inkling. I'll pick up that second book which seems the most related to the subject :)

[arcticwolf]

I don't practice religion of my parents, but i'm very in touch with my own inner voice. I think i'm spiritual, but not religious. Harmony, love, humanity and understanding are my main principles. I don't want to sound like a weird person, but i am aware of who am i really and my main goal is total liberation of soul. I'm learning about world around me and try to understand where is my place here, i am trying to perceive things, not judge to anyone and accept difference. World is nice if it has many colors. Being in touch with nature and cosmos is also very important to me.

Mymy you are beautiful inside and out, through and through! :) Don't ever change and become cold and ugly like the rest of the world! I think I may be falling in love with you! In a pure and platonic kind of way of coz! :p

[Oreka Bailoak]

Since I have only read the book descriptions and reviews so far, I can only say that as of now I doubt that the relationship between growing individualism and the decline of religiosity is causal, and not incidental. My guess is that the relationship has more to do with the changes in our way of living, from close-knit small societies to sprawling cities where you're likely not to see the person in front of you again. However, that is just my inkling. I'll pick up that second book which seems the most related to the subject

We'll they've already done studies between religious communities today and non-religious communities today and contrary to what you're thinking- the religious communities are in good shape while the non-religious communities have considerably changed for the worse in virtually every area since the 1960's. The inflection point for all these terrible social trends is about 1965; the sexual revolution, the Vietnam war, Civil Rights laws, hippies, and numerous other liberal cultural movements. The 60's have a lot to apologize for.

I strongly recommend this lecture...
http://aei.org/events/2011/04/04/the-state-of-white-america-event/

[Der Steinadler]

ever thought to ponder what religion is ?

[Turkey]

ever thought to ponder what religion is ?

Nah