OK. Here is what is am going to happen here. I want to know what other people in this Forum believe religionwise. I want this thread to stay as nutral as possible So to that end there are going to be some rules to posting on this thread that I humbly ask everyone to observe.
1. Let your post consist of what you believe; why you believe it; and how it effects how you live.
2. DO NOT, repeat DO NOT bash another religion, or posting. Or try frantically to "Convert" the last poster. This goes for Atheist, Christians, Buddiest; Everyone.
3. Please put all that you wish to say in 1 post. Please only add another post if absolutly necessasary.
4. If what anyone says offends you...Then make your own posting and discuss that aspect, or contact that person by some other means other then this thread.
I understand that this is somewhat constrictive; but I am trying to keep this from turning into a senseless brawl. If everyone follows these guidelines there should be a much greater chance of being able to avoid meaningless verbal attacks.
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As for what I believe. I am a Christian; I do not belong to any denomination; nor do I believe that it matters whither or not a person is Catholic, Protestant, or Amish.. I belive that the only real requirment is believing hat Jesus Christ is Lord; and obeying Him in the way I live. I have not had this belief indoctrinated into me, but rather have come to it through circumstances in my life.
As for how it effects the way I live... I believe that I should Obey the Ten Commandments, and live honorably with all men. I believ that I should live peacably as much as possible; but that I also have a moral obligation to oppose evil; and that to this end I must sometimes fight. I do in fact believe Christianity is the only true way; but that is my personal belief.

Ok. Next poster?

Personally, I do not confine my religious beliefs to any heading, much like my political opinions.
I do not believe that the bible is factual, more a guide to keep people in order.
I believe that the concept of God is a result of the collective consciousness of millions of people of every ethnicity and religion.
God is a metaphor for goodness, and every time someone performs a selfless act, they are doing Gods work.
I dont care much for the history of it all, because even events that we know happened are always documented incorrectly depending on who recorded it.
In short, I believe God is like Christmastime. We all know it exists because we experience it. And because we all celebrate Christmas, it is greater that we are.

I am a Christian. I was raised baptist and pretty much follow the Baptist denomination. But I also visit a Methodist Church every once in a while. Like Crossworrior.. I do not think it matters what denomination you are...but that you believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and that he died for our sins and one day will rise again.. and all Christians who believe will be called up with him into heaven.

Not only was I raised in a Christian home and attended church regularly as a child and as a teenager, I have formed my own opinions as an adult.. and still have a really strong faith in God. I believe the bible and it's teachings.

These are my beliefs!

Okay Next Poster....

I'm catholic but I sing in a Protestant Gospel group.

I belive in God and in Jesus. But I'm open to all kind of religions.

The most important thing is that we all belive in the same God whatever is his name.

For the bible, I don't belive in Adam and Eve, but the bible give me peace when I read it.

God bless you all !

I don't believe

I'm not quite sure what i am,
I believe in magic, and the esoteric.
I do not however believe in a god or goddess.
I believe in some parts of the bible:
Eezekials wheel, being a ancient UFO encounter.
Noahs ark and Flood.
All the rest of the bible i think are just storys, fiction at best.

I think that god, is nothing more than a make believe father figure for the human race. Humans need something or someone to look up to, to have faith in, knowing that someones looking out for them. As for all the different religions, they are all one and the same, but with different names, they all give the same messages.

i dont believe in any religion, i dont believe in worship of any kind, in my opinion worshiping anybody or anything (in your mind) places you beneath that person or thing. it makes you less than what you really are.

i believe that we all came from the source, and that we all had a hand in creating this universe. we put ourselves here on this planet, to experience what we created.
i think that we are all our own god, a part of the source. solely responsible for ourselves and our own actions.

religion in my opinion is for those who are not ready to be their own god. which is ok, life is an experience we all chose to go through, and whatever path you take is the one that is right for you. the most important thing is to be happy with yourself, and to be happy to be alive. experience as much as you can. life is short, dont let anything hold you back

As you can tell by my name, I am a Deist - in fact I am a 3rd generation Deist, believing in a Creator but following no dogma (Deists are not an organized religion, we have no creed, churches, scripture, etc). I pretty much let other religions go their way - at least until they start poking their mythology in my face or assuming that they and only their religion has the "Truth", then I get a little vexed.

son of krypton i would agree with you about the american thing, but i think maybe its just on T.V. more. Youd probably be surprised how many people are deeply religious here.

Personally i just amnt sure what to believe, i hope theres a god and if there is i hope that whatever religion you follow he treats us all the same

I dont like the idea of just dying much

I'm with UniversalAbsurdity. I'm a firm believer of technology, science, and mental human progress. We shouldn't be tied down to one thing, just because it gives hope. What makes me happy, is that fact that I can think for myself. For people who always say, "that's something we just don't understand". Then TRY to understand, try to go beyond your beliefs. How far would Hawking and Einstein have gone if they didn't open their eyes to try and understand something greater.

X file

Whilst albert einstein did not believe in a personal god as the christian bible teaches he did believe in a supreme being type of god and was in that way religious.

Oh I knew that. I was referring to the fact that they had an open mind about life in general, and I believe that's how they accomplished some of their greatest discoveries and theories. Hey at least someone read what I had to say


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Ok, maybe I didn't explain myself better. I didn't say anything about believing in GOD or Not believing in GOD. As for my original posts, I was referring to religions that try to control your thinking.

I agree with you nxt2hvn, that people will believe what they want to believe. Yes the truth will come out one day, and I can't wait.

Sorry Crosswarrior, if I violated any rules!

oh cool just thought id mention it lol. U made a decent point neway.

nxt2hvn

Its not death that makes you scared, its fear of the unknown, because no one knows the answer of what lies beyond. Religion in some ways helps comfort the believer, giving you the image of a afterlife. I believe that the afterlife is what you make it, the concienceness lives on but the body dies. I beleive that the body is but a shell for our minds, and we are released from the burden and restrictions of this body.

Totally agree B.A.

We are all full of energy, energy doesnt die it just changes form, so in theory we dont die we just move onto something else.

I attend the Iniipi ceremony, or sweatlodge. I also attend the Sun Dance once a year. There is another ceremony that I have attended once and will again once the oppurtunity arises. These are Native American ceremonies, particularly from the Sioux people. They are used by all kinds of different tribes, however, who've had their own form for a very long time. It's just that the people who run the ones I go to are Sioux, so that is the way it is run.

The basis of the ceremonies is that all things are related, and all things deserve respect. We pray to Creator, who goes by different names all over the world. We believe that the Earth is our mother, the sky is our father. There are also the Grandfathers and Grandmothers, beings or spirits who work for and with Creator to guide us and protect us. These can be human, but are not limited to human as all things have a spirit. Even the stones and trees have a spirit. The water is the water of life, we are made up of water. I've seen these spirits at certain ceremonies, also visions. I've never taken anything mind altering at these ceremonies.

We also believe that all races are related. There are Four directions (East, South, West, North) that we acknowledge, and is represented by the four colors of humans. The colors are within the Sacred Circle.

When attending these ceremonies, it was made very clear to me that I nor anybody else would have to change their beliefs. If you pray to God or Jesus, do so. If you pray to Allah, do so. Same with any other religion, you don't have to change how you know to pray because we feel it is the same. There is the good, which we seek, and the bad, which hurts us. Many people go to these ceremonies to seek healing for themselves or loved ones. This can be physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual. I've also known atheists who've attended, who've walked away with a change in their beliefs. They were given all the proof they sought for so long.

But the further I go, I find that there is something called the Great Mystery. This is the unknown. And as I learn my lessons in life it seems I'm prepared to learn a little bit more about this Great Mystery. And what I do learn is not as far away as I thought, it seems it was right there in front of me the whole time. I am being vague but there is only so much I am allowed to tell. As I've said before, it is all about the experience. I cannot expect someone to understand or believe what I say because of the chance they might not have had a similar experience.

Thank you for listening to me, and as we say, to all my relations!

well im weary of religion and religous people i believe in god but wonder why many people do the evil they do im guilty myself , im only human i only hope to be forgiven here and in the next life and an sorry i do the bad stuff i do and hope that people forgive me for it even if they wont talk or write me do what you think is right

I have grown up in a Christian family, and have always went to church. However, I really don't agree with a lot of what the church teaches. I favor a mixture of religions I suppose.

The "Great mystery" Sounds like a gimmik to get people to come But if its true then Im pretty sure I know what it is.

I looked over a lot of religions a while back and I eneded up choosing christianity , which I based entirely on reading the bible . I liked a lot of the teachings in their mainly including the teachings of Jesus Christ ... it saddens me so many people constantly try to turn it specifically down ( great thread Idea crosswarrior ) .

I also looked at other religions as well , I even had runner ups . My #2 choice was buddhism , and my #3 choice was simply believing in the afterlife ( kind of like BA )

I don’t believe in organized religion. I am sure that once it they all had a beautiful and a clear message, but this is no longer true. Let me put it this way, you know how everyone is talking about the illuminati and how there are trying to control us; I believe that clergy from all of the religion are the illuminati. And they have been controlling for so long, maybe in the beginning it was great, but no it is pointless and ridicules. It has caused nothing but death and destruction. The selfishness of these groups, in their regular life, shows us just a glimmer of the horror they are spreading on humankind. My friends and forum mates, we will not die of an earthquake or a nuclear war, we will die because of them, never knowing why or for whom.

I absolutely believe in god, it IS there a single strand that connects us all. I believe that most “holy books” and all mythology show us proof that we have been visited and even perhaps that we did not originated here on earth.

I personally believe that there is a God, whether his or her name is Allah, God, Jesus, or even Odin or Zeus. I have found as I dive deeper into researching the origins of certain parts of Christianity that it and other religions and myths have a lot and common and have borrowed from each other a lot.
At the moment since I have nothing else better to call myself, I consider myself a Christian. However I do not believe in a lot of what is taught to me in church. I highly believe in evolution, especially since any evidence against it seems to be nill to me. I have also concluded that evolution is not possible without a higher authority having some hand in it. ANd I do pray to God, more then I do Jesus since they are supposed to be the same being anyways. I believe God, or any other name he may go by, is here to help guide us when we ask for it.
I also believe that there is definitly an afterlife, and that prayers can be answered because of some experiences in my own life.
One more thing, I do believe that mainstream Christianity, that being anything like TBN, Pentacostal and similar denominations are as corrupt as any government. No offense to anyone of those persuasions.

Well, I’m sure MY beliefs are no secret

I don’t believe in god…the afterlife…the so called ‘spirit world’, or astral planes, and so on and so forth; I simply have enough confidence in myself and my place in the world that I don’t somehow need to validate my existence by assuming I’m part of a ‘grand plan’ by some higher being.

As I’ve frequently stated, I was raised in a household where, from the very beginning, I was given the choice to choose what I wanted to believe. My mother was a Christian, my dad was an atheist, but neither of them made an attempt to influence me in either direction…school, on the other hand, from the age of four, spoon fed me religion as part of a staple diet, and for the first seven or so years of my life, I actually did believe it all…

After a while though, when I became old enough to think for myself (and without ever having had parents or church preaching to me one way or the other), I came to the conclusion that religion, in my mind, was an archaic, illogical idea, best left in the stone age. It didn’t take me long to look back in history and see how religion had been a leash around human development rather than a guiding light, and it took me even less time to decide, for myself, religion was absolute fiction.

To this day, I still consider religion the very same leash I did then. I look at people with unwavering faith in god and…well…no offence to anybody, but I just have this image of a group of primitive humans, gathered around a spot where a bolt of lighting had struck, worshipping it as an act of their mythical ‘Thunder God’, without question and without logical thinking.

I consider religion nothing but control…a means of terrifying people into line, and keeping them there. I only have to listen to my mother hiss “sssh! You’ll get us all turned into pillars of salt!” whenever my brother and I try and have a rational discussion about atheism (he’s one too, after going through much the same process as I did), that this very same fear is still working today.

Sorry folks, but I’m afraid I just look at religion, and wonder how...or perhaps more accurately 'why'...in the hell you buy it I'm happy being an atheist...I feel my life is a good one, and I live very happily in a world of good morals, kindness to others, and love of my family and friends, without the benefit of a black book being waved under my nose to tell me how to do it.

Hi, I don't usually get involved in religious discussions as they can quickly turn into a nightmare, however, everyone here seems to be respecting everyone else's beliefs, so I am going to make an exception:

I am an Agnostic, which basically means that I belive there is something out there, but I am not sure what (I guess I am a bit of a fence sitter).

My patner is a practicing Wickan, which I also find facinating, although I don't get involved in what she does.

We have an 18 month old son, who we feel should make his own mind up when he is ready, so he has not been baptised and will not be brought up to belive in any one faith; he will, however, be brought up to belive that you should treat everyone with respect, be honest, loving and to cherish this planet and stand up for his beliefs.

To all of you, I say, go in peace, enjoy life and may all your Gods go with you.

seraphina

i guess people buy it so they dont feel like all there good deeds and work has been for nothing. I mean if am gonna live fair life i wanna at least be rewarded for it later

crosswarrior

Thank you I was just about to repeat myself.

Ignore this I will bbl and edit it..