I am an agnostic living with a non practicing christian. I would like to know what you believe and why. Do you believe in God and what makes you so sure that he does exist? I guess I am just looking for some answers. I have not heard anything other than you have to have faith. For some reason I cannot make that leap.

Depends on your definition of God. I rarely use that term because it indicates Christian faith and the image of a Zeus-like figure. I think of god more like the connection of the conciousness and the universe; or more along the lines that everything is god and vice versa.
I reached this conclusion after reading Bhuddist and Pagan/New Age writings and lots of Quantum Physics/Mechanics books.

Also there are other topics similar to this here and here.

This is what I said in response to another thread...it should fit in here as well...

I am a strong agnostic. I would be an atheist but I can't prove there is no higher intelligence anymore than someone can prove there is so I have to settle on that.

I came to this conclusion through much thought, study and scrutinization of religion. No religion is logical to me and nothing in any religion has ever proved to me that it wasn't the creation of man.

Science and logic have been the only steadfast forces in my life and I will never abandon them. Neither is perfect but they are concepts unafraid to be proven wrong. In fact, each idea proven to be false or true only adds to the greater knowledge in my opinion. My quote from Carl Sagan sums it all up nicely.

Well for me, I was brought up a catholic, but only recently have started to study my religion. I am a practising traditionalist.

I believe in God,As in Jesus, God the father, And God the holy spirt. Three persons in One God.

I never found sound proof in science either, evolution never made much sense, or the big bang. The problem with the big bang is that what caused it? a chemical and where did that chemical come from, smaller particles and where did those come from? I could go on and on in this matter.

I have never been an atheist or scientist person because, they think that after this there is nothing. Well if there is nothing then why do we live? Must we have a purpose?

I believe because I have faith, I have knowledge of my religion, and in my own heart I have proof.

If you believe in spirits than it is easy to believe in a spirit older than all the rest, the father/mother spirit.

If you do not believe in spirits than I often suggest to folks to go ghost hunting as words are just words, and some folks need to see and feel to believe.

i don't really have a religion persay. I can tell you what I believe and why.

I believe in God. I do not believe in God as a deity but as a force of light and love.
I believe we are here to learn and grow spiritually. I believe many of us chose our lives before we were born to learn the lesson and serve out our karma. I believe in reincarnation. I believe that we are tiny pieces of the force called "God." And I think Buddha and Jesus were enlightened masters. And I believe that each belief holds some truth as a part of the bigger whole.

It is mostly personal conviction and the path that i feel right for me. Although i do believe other paths might be right for that individual and respect that as long as it does not hurt others or enforce its beliefs on others.

Look around you at the world, its beauty. When you look and listen, you know there is a God. When you know you have done something wrong you know theres a God. When you feel like there is something missing in your life, (before you know him) and then have that God shaped whole filled in, you know there is a God.

Good Luck Queen in your search.

He promises 'you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart'. Dont give up looking and you will certainly find him. Hes waiting on you!
Best , Tags.

I believe in Toltec Wisdom, cause it makes alot of sense. I believe and follow a certain Buddhism philosophy, but I do not study the religion (yet).
why? well this where life has led me. *shrugs*

What is Toltec wisdom? is buddist philosophy similar to christian philosophy?

Shadow
I follow the philosophy of Buddhism like you as well but do not fully define myself in that religion.

I'd be interested in hearing about Toltec wisdom as well. I don't think I've ever heard that before.

There are relating factors in the philsophies of christianity and Buddhism. For example there are alot of teachings of Jesus that are very similar to that of Buddha.I believe them to be most similar on kindness and love and transformation of mind and self.

They differ in respective views about world and self, about the meaning of life and man's ultimate destiny. However both believe in the perfectability of the individual.

I believe in myself

i agree with Becky's mom

and here is a link to another belief thread Click

I'm glad the Toltec peaked an interest, it is worthy.
It's an old teaching, but a new way (at least to me) of seeing things.
the Toltecs are an ancient society of "men and women of knowledge", they came together in the ancient city of pyramids at Teotihuacan, in Mexico.

Toltec Wisdom

there are books by Don Miguel Ruiz, he explains that we are born perfect, innocent, loving. But that society and the way we are programmed destroys that innocence and unconditional Love, our true freedom of thought, of expression. We have internal agreements that have been created through programming, example: If we make a mistake, we feel ashamed, we feel guilty, we tell ourselves we are stupid. This is a state of mind programmed and created by social programming. Instead, we should accept the mistake and learn from it. because, in fact that is the purpose of a mistake, to learn.
We are taught to fear.... everything, driving (road rage), eating (toxins in food), we fear Love (afraid to hurt), we fear not having enough money, etc..... this is all programming.
This programming (state of min) can be changed, to improve our the state of our mind, and life.


The four NEW agreements:

Be Impeccable with your word:

Speak with integrity, say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against youself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your wod in the direction of truth and Love.

Don't take Anything personally:

Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own 'dream' (the fog that prevents them from seing life in a Loving way). When ou are immune to the opinions and actionsof others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.

Don't make assumptions:

Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

Always do your best:

Your best is going to change from moment to moment, it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to when you are sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.



Other books are: The Mastery of Love
The Voice of Knowledge

It's a beautiful philosophy.
you know, when I look at the face of the Dalaï Lama, and it calms me down for some reason.
strange huh?

many people search for reasons to believe. i do not. they call it 'faith' for a reason.

Faith (n.)

1. Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing.
2. Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence

I hope they listen to you.....they didn't me.

I have never seen or heard anything that has made me think oh there must be a god,no sign has ever been given.When i've done somthing wrong there is no sign it is wrong apart from in my mind or in the views of other people.

Thanx for all the input...I guess I will just have to continue my quest till i find something that just feels right... I am going to explore Buddism (sp) and toltec wisdom...they seem like somethng I am missing in my life...also thanx for the linx to the other pages...See you all on the threads...

Yes the same thing for me. He is a great inspiration to me in this life. I'm so glad you brought up Toltec Wisdom. I had never heard of it but googled it afterwards and it was pretty fasinating....something else for me to study and research.

Glad I could peak a new interest!

I believe in facts and evidence. I believe this world is like 'The Matrix' movie in where this world is just a huge holagram. Why?

go to http://www.whatthebleep.com

and you'll see what i mean.

Quantum Physics is proving this in science, that yes, we do live in a huge holagram, and we ARE the controllers.

Beware... that you may learn the truth .....

It's spelled hologram. Socrates and others wondered if this world is the real one since ancient Greco-Roman times.

You are right. It is spelled Hologram. My error in being haste.
Thank-you for your ungracious technical point.

By what or whose standards do you feel it is 'wrong'. Were do you get this measuring stick of right and wrong? There is obviously a higher standard of right or goodness in the world by which we measure all our actions and thoughts into good/bad right/wrong. This is Gods standards.

"This is Gods standards."

nope your wrong.

Its called human standards, and most likely your instinct. Instinct is not god, neither is the little voice in your head.

nope, my little voice is that of a eighteenth century french chimney sweeper girl.
I agree with BM, i believe in myself, and I believe in the perseverance of the human will. that's about it though...

You should always believe in yourself...the most important person is you....and if you like God

I'm an agnostic, belive in everything and nothing. can't refuse any religion and can't totally embrace them either.

I don't "look around me and see that the world is a good place, therefore God exists". I look around me and see that the world is a good and a very bad place, therefore I have my doubts in gods existence.

He does have a very calming effect. It makes me feel warm and happy when I see him anywhere, whether it be a picture or on TV. Hes just so happy. I hope I can meet him one day. My mother and grandmother have both met him before, and I have there invitations to come see him . Plus his signed book! .

I dont know what I believe personally. I know in my heart there is some kind of afterlife..what it is, well I have no idea. But I do believe 100% that there IS life after death.

I am really intrested in Tibetan Buddhism and try and read about it when I get the chance, but I still know very little about it so I dont go and call myself a Buddhist.

On that note..

Free Tibet

Im only 24 so Im still trying to figure things out. Growing up my mother was Irish Catholic turned Presbyterian, Dad was Protestant turned Native American via his distant fathers beliefs. I liked the idea of saints in Catholisism but had a problem with the idea of confession and the idea that priests ordained by other men gave themselves power to forgive sins. Also with Christianity now days, I had problems with many turning the words of the bible to serve their own purposes and then telling me that regardless of how good I was as a person I would burn in hell if I did not attend a specific service on a specific day in a specific building all set up by men. So while Im still learning and trying to figure out my own mind I find myself more drawn to more "earthy" religions such as Shamanism and Buddism where the fate of your soul is more determined on how helpful you were to others here and now in this life and not that you went through specific rituals to cover your bases.

Now my boyfriend was raised pretty extreme southern baptist so we tend not to discuss it much lol but thats my thought anyway. So to save any people attacking my reply I just want to say Im not bashing any religion in particular as wrong. I believe everyone should have whatever belief suits their life questions best for them ... Just saying Ive had a journey trying to figure out what suited me personally.

God is a synonym for consciousness. Believe what you want, just make it good.