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religious rhetoric
Well, It's really not at the forefront of my mind right now, Byzantine history is, but I am debating my religious beleifs from time to time. I am floating somewhere between a Deist, an Agnostic and an Atheist. Something that doesn't have some sort of personality cult at its center. I enjoy other peoples' opinions on subjects like this. I can handle being preached to if it's something that you believe, but what I most want is something well-reasoned. I would like it if some people who sport some religious affiliation to tell me why theirs makes sense and why that is something someone like myself should believe. Thanks for your participation - I hope the rest of your day is a blast!
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Want to answer more questions in the Miscellaneous category?
Maybe give some free advice about: Spirituality?
You might consider trying a Unitarian Universalist congregation, www.uua.org. Thomas Jefferson, who was a Deist, once predicted that everyone in America would be Unitarian.
A UU congregation would have room for your doubts and questions, and certainly doesn't have a personality cult at its center. You can find the seven principles and six sources of UU faith on the uua.org website, so I'm not going to repeat them here. My own passion for UUism stems from its positive, celebratory practical approach to life, its sense of justice and compassion, and its deep ties to humanist and earth-centered traditions (many 19th century Transcendentalists were Unitarian) as well as Judaism and Christianity. I find that it's summed up in Ralph Waldo Emerson's reply to a Harvard seminarian who had to write a philosophical paper arguing for the existence of God (Harvard Divinity School was at that time a seminary for Unitarian clergy): "An actually existing fly is more important than a possibly existing angel."
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I, too, have been questioning aspects of my faith. I was raised Episcopalian, although with much more conservative beliefs than those to which our national church currently subscribe. Above all the denominational clutter and nonsense, I am a Christian. Bringing it down a few steps, I believe in God in the traditional Judeo-Christian sense. Your choice between Deist, Agnostic, and Atheist will probably be the easiest choice you make, especially if you choose Deist. Because that's where you are right now, I'm not going to bother even getting into Christianity, but rather just the fact that I believe in God.
Some people see science as a way of disproving God. Evolution, for example. There are those who take the Bible far to literally and use that ignorance on both sides of a futile arguement. One side says "Look! We have evidence of Evolution. The Bible says God zapped us into existence from nothing, but science tells us that we evolved from apes." Answering, the other side says "I didn't evolve from a monkey! God made us men to begin with." It seems to me that people ignore the possibility that when, on whatever "day" God created man, that "day" probably represents thousands, if not millions of years. More importantly, they don't consider that God may have used evolution to create man. What engineer simply builds something based on one design? Designs evolve and change to accomodate variables. The idea of intelligent design is one of core ideas that kept me believing in God.
More important than any idealogical argument, however, is the fact that humans are arrogant. The very idea that we, completely flawed beings with such limited understanding of our own existence, let alone the universe, think we know anything about God. In my church, there is the often-ignored concept of a "Holy mystery." That mystery being something that no human can understand or explain, but we continue to believe because of our faith.
I've probably rambled on enough at this point. I hope I've given you some ideas to think about. Feel free to contact me to inquire and discuss further.
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First, some background information. My mother was raised Protestant and became Atheist, my father was raised Catholic and became weird. I was raised nothing; I knew what my parents thought of God, and I knew what other kids thought. My parents brought me to a few different churches, just so that I would have the experience. Looking back on it, I think it would have been cool if they brought me to a temple or something, too, but there probably weren't any in my area.
Anyway, it took me a while to get where I am now, and I'm not even sure about that. There are things I like about Buddhism, Paganism, Christianity, Judaism, etc. It was confusing for a while, because I thought I had to be something. But you don't. Because no matter what my religion is, my morals don't change. I think it's morals that matter more than religion. I have my own personal beliefs and set of morals, and they matter to me--and ONLY me. I don't like getting mixed in with organized religion too much, because people just assume that you agree with them on everything. My philosophy is pretty much "Screw it." =D I'm open to all different religions, but in the end, I'm just myself.
Oh, and thank you. My day WILL be a blast, because it happens to my birthday, and it's for once sunny. I hope you have a fantastical day yourself.
>(^.-.^)<
(that's a catfish)
-Lea
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first of all you should know, you dont have to be any religion! Its all about what you believe. I suppose you could call me a Christian, but i know what i believe and its that God created the heavens and the earth (Genisis 1:1 of the Bible) and that Jesus died on the Cross for our sins. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever beleives in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) And that Jesus is the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father except through him. To get into heaven you must believe that Jesus died for you sins, its simple as that! If you just believe and take his free give of salvation you get a whole ETERNITY walking on streets paved with gold! HOw cool is that???! That is my reason to believing in the Bible and what it teaches, its just so amazing and makes so much sense if you try to learn it a little. Please ask me more questions! I'd love for you to ask me any questions to explain ANYTHING you need me too abut my beleif! Good luck, and God Bless<3
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Just about everyone goes through this. Even if they don't admit it. Me, I consider myself an atheist. I'm not going to preach to you about being an atheist either. I'll just answer your question and be gone. You believe whatever you want to believe. Don't let other people make that decision for you. Anyone who is well reasoned doesn't want to preach their religous beliefs to you. I think you should do what you want to do. If yu want to go to church go ahead. If you don't want to, don't. Don't let people you don't even know make that decison for you. I'm growing up in a pretty religous home. My parents go to church just about every sunday. They always want me to go with them but one day I just told them my view point and they respected it. A lot of people go through this, religous confusion, if they grow up in a very religous household. Eventually, you'll decide what you believe in.
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