religion?

I'd thought that with your experience with hallucinogens you'd have said that the plant in the corner was god.

as a dear and recently departed friend said...

"I don't mind the wrath of god. I just can't stand the people who try to talk for him/her/it."

My parents never got around to addressing the religion/spirituality thing until I was twelve... too late

I had my first anxiety attack (or was it a religious experience?) when I was 8, because I had to find god, otherwise I thought me and everyone around me was going to suffer if I didn't figure it out. Since then I have been entirely fascinated with philosophy and religion. It is quite disturbing to have a Mormon come to the door and find out you've been to more Mormon seminary than they have... scares 'em too

Basically, I would be labelled as a Pantheist (it is soo awesome there are so many pantheists on this site). I unfortunately know of no other person with similiar beliefs. For more in depth, watch out for my journal entries, as I address these things on occasion...

Was raised Catholic...became a deist...then an agnostic who puts most of his money on atheism

<edited for being a retard>

[Edited on Dec 04, 2002 by Dantes]

I consider myself very Spiritual ( I belice that there is a god/supreme being), However i dispise religion, if that makes any sence.

best answer ever...

religion has degraded to a burden on people and their lives, and that is not what it's about. religion is about love and that message has been lost in everyday feelings towards it and, obviously, in world politics.

religion isn't about guilt or shame. religion isn't about ignorance. religion isn't about who is right and who is wrong.

it's a shame it's turned into that.

i don't believe in religion... i believe in love...

(god, i am such a fucking hippy... awesome)

Religion is another "tool of the man," made to keep us down. Diamond J said, himself, about religion, "Split a piece of wood and I am there. Lift a stone and you will find me."

um, fight the power, or some junk...

I would really hesitate to use the word religion with so much spite and in such a blanket statement. It honestly sounds like you're referring to a specific religion (or family of religions). I can honestly think of quite a few religions just off of the top of my head that do not fall into your description (I would hardly consider Taoism or Hinduism 'a burden on people and their lives'). It seems like this method is taken as not to be confrontational or offend anyone, which is totally understandable, but it is still an unfair summation in my opinion. Just my 2 cents...

religion is one of the main reason that there are wars out there. it's always been that way. it's just another way to slap a label on our forehead and sort ourselves into another group of sheep.
i'm extremely spiritual though. i just have major issues with religion. i guess the biggest reason is what happened in my country and what a giant role religion played in it. in some countries, including bosnia[where i'm from] during the war, you can get killed if you're the wrong religion according to whoever it is that's terrorizing at that time. and trust me if things got bad enough here the same thing would happen.

Religion is merely a scapegoat. It's easy to blame religion, but it boils down to intolerance. "I don't like you because you're different" On top of that, there are hundreds of wars that have started that had NOTHING to do with religion (Vietnam, WWII, US Civil War, to name a few). I'm not trying to be a champion of religion here (especially highly organized religion), but I really think it is important to accurately identify what the real problems are. If you could successfully abolish religion, people would still kill eachother over their differences.

Another trend I see happening (on this thread especially) is the delineation between religion and spirituality. Religion seems to have taken on quite a negative connotation for liberal-minded people with the recent resurgence of the Christian faith in the US (thanks to Dubbya for that one), while spirituality seems to have come out unscathed. While there are many, many definitions one could use for religion, the entymological root of the word is generally agreed to come from the Latin word religare which means 'to bind together'. Spirituality, could be seen as the act of breathing (Latin, spiritus 'to breathe'). Religion is merely the breathing that binds us together. In my opinion, there is not one without the other.

Religion has existed in some form or another since the dawn of mankind for all we can tell, and is considered a 'universality' among humans as a species. I think that says alot on how integral religion is to a person's (or a people’s) life.

I am proud to say I am very religious and spiritual. I unfortunately don’t know anyone who has the same system of beliefs that I do, but, hey what can ya do?

Sort of a difficult question for me to answer. On the one hand most of my life revolves around a sort of psychotic, home brewed spirituality. On the other hand I have a violent hatred for institutionalized religion. On the one hand I believe in God and gods, on the other hand I don't think God could tell me what to do even if it wanted to. Ugh. On an amusing side note, I've been learning about some of the more recent developments in physics and it is my professional opinion that some of my more fundamental beliefs are well on their way to becoming science. BWAAHAHAHAHA!!!! Come and kiss my feet and give me trinkets!!!

For those of you who find labels more usefull than understanding I consider myself to be, in no particular order, a pagan, a dischordian, a satanist/demonist, and a scientist. Ha!

Religions does seem to lead to a lot of wars and conflicts. The crusades, India-Pakistan conflict, Terrorist attacks. Never seen any Buddhist conflicts. The Chinese persecute them, but they don't start a war. Guess maybe if everyone was Buddhist, there would be no wars.

My religion though: Jedi

I'm not religious

I'm educated

i like that statement. im just wondering how long this melenium long running game of "controll the people through fear of eternal damnaion if they dont live the way i want them to" the religion plays will last?

[Edited on Dec 04, 2002 by WingZephyr]

I'll pass.

JVB

Despite what some people say, not everyone becomes a raving lunatic while on a hallucinogen, and marijuana doesn't cause you to chop up your family with an axe.

nope
i do think though that if youre gonna be religious you have to be open to the idea that maybe the other religions are right
it amazes me how people can be so stubborn about something they have no proof of, yet be so convinced that they are right and others arent.

ive done my religious research...it aint for me

Some people need a crutch.

and some need to hold on to elitist nihilistic ideals, in an
attempt to jealously fit back against something they could never understand....