Thread: Favorite religion/belief system of which you are NOT a part?

What is your favorite religion/set of beliefs that you do not subscribe to, but perhaps find meaningful/respectable?

I'd have to say Hinduism for me; fascinating teachings and mythology!

Tao or buddhism.

By a long margin

Definitely Shinto and Buddhism aka "kami no michi".

Taoism and the concept the yin yang symbol represents strongly resonated with me when I was a kid. Then I grew a little older and realized the symmetries in physics get closer to the core of what I was resonating with lol

Naturalistic/ Scientific Pantheism is my favorite. It basically takes the religious attitude of ultimate reverence, importance or (sacredness), and moral dedication to a higher power and gives it to nature or "Nature" which some people from this community like to make synonymous with "God". Science, wonder, and appreciation and preservation for the health and beauty of all nature (including all human beings) being the best ways to serve and celebrate the higher power. Natural events such as meteor showers or equinoxes being sort of "religious holidays" lol I've grown very close with the community and find it an excellent source of inspiration. I don't think I would subscribe to the "religion" if you can call it that, but some people do and actually call themselves Pantheists, but I don't find it necessary as I've always embraced these guidelines already, it's just sort of complimentary for me. Although their official symbol is the spiral (usually depicted as a spiral shell next to a galaxy) which inspired me to get a spiral necklace as sort of my cross lol I like to wear it to remind me how everything is wonderfully interconnected, as well as other things.

Buddhism by a long shot

Rosicrucianism, Satanism, and Kabbalah.

Well I consider myself a "subscriber" to every religion, if not a participant.

I suppose anything Animist: Shinto, Jain, Druid, most native Americans,... anything that doesn't exalt humans over the rest of creation.

Originally Posted by Wayfaerer

Taoism and the concept the yin yang symbol represents strongly resonated with me when I was a kid. Then I grew a little older and realized the symmetries in physics get closer to the core of what I was resonating with lol

That's petty, though, in a way isn't it? Taoists and Buddhists made remarkable observations about the nature of the universe way before modern physicists were able to do with the brute force of technology. Buddhists basically reverse-engineered the mind with nothing but copious supplies of free time. Why yank the credit like that? (sorry if I'm reading you wrong. I like what you said after that.)

Originally Posted by IndieAnthias

That's petty, though, in a way isn't it? Taoists and Buddhists made remarkable observations about the nature of the universe way before modern physicists were able to do with the brute force of technology. Buddhists basically reverse-engineered the mind with nothing but copious supplies of free time. Why yank the credit like that? (sorry if I'm reading you wrong. I like what you said after that.)

I'm not discrediting Taoists for their insight, I'm just saying I think the discovery of Newton's third law, or the conservation of charge and matter/energy, or even anti-matter and matter, and other symmetries embodies this insight about nature much less crudely and more meaningfully and deeply, although I couldn't say how much it relates to human psychology and "karma" but it could be related. It wasn't "brute force technology" that did this, it was insights from thought, just like the Buddhist's insights, just more mathematical and descriptive of nature in more detail.

Buddhism and yin and yang (though I do kind of subscribe to the whole Golden Rule thing about treating others as you would like to be treated - which, I suppose, can be closely related to the idea of Karma).

I like Greek mythology, in how even humans could win victories against the gods, even if they were rare and often small victories.

I'm apart of all religions

Originally Posted by Omnis Dei

I'm apart of all religions

Apart or A Part? Small change, but makes a big difference...

(Sorry, and I already know the answer - it's just the writer in me... )

At least you're willing to understand rather than get hung up on some misused word and act like that's the key to winning the whole argument.

The "of" gives it away. Otherwise one would likely use "from"

I'm an eclectic, I don't subscribe to any one, but I study many and use those ideas. Sure, they may not always agree with one another, but that's what's great about religions, they each speak their own truths in their own ways!

Whichever religion uses the most psychedelics in their rituals.
Either the Native Americans and their Peyote, or the South Americans with their Ayahuasca. I would love to be a part of either of those rituals.

Buddhism & Shinto.

So interesting how there are a fair amount of answers pertaining to Taoism and Buddhism, I pretty much feel the same way. They are by far the most humanistic doctrines out there and at some point in my life I would like to devote a fair amount of time to the study and practice of Buddhism.

Paganism and LaVeyan Satanism.

Warning.. contains lotz of euphenisms and innuendoes, in wall of text creature typings

Even though ? don't sub,scribe nor under,stand any religious systems, ?'m having part in everyone ?'ve discovered. Yet some of them appear to limit the boundaries of my waking life, as well as does teh scientific paradigm(?s) and memories aye reflects around me. To stern teh course off these bound,aries let me suggest (/warning: suggestion) us to hold these rather tea,chings about nature of many: }real,ity, dreaming, dreams, life, death, sleeping, illusion and waking to name a few{
These are not written in stone, unless they, in fact have been, this is not to say that they are not open to very instant alterations and shifts once mastered and made peace with.

[suggestive txt CNTNues] We might need new religion which cuts through membrane of my,th,ologies, psychology, religious systems, static scientific instalations that limit next paradigm shift.. this brings me to this material interphace that connects mebody to digital world (mainly and otherly light). If we are to cut through the dominion of time (astrologically saturn, mechanically some atom clock where the heck it might linger, symbolically Big Ben [movie version of V got us rid of it]) we must also consider analogical worlds of past technology, musings and philosophies.

Something-that-is-not-I considers itself[transnoun] to be mythonaut, as well as oneironologist, practizioner of dreaming, mythopoetic (word that first appeared to me via Tolkien - now leaning towards interpreting given word as world builder or fantasizer who takes it's awn dreaming as living around it in birth pains) and transdimensional tantric.

So 2 answer the given questions:
@ThePreserver: they are many, I don't subscribe any rather sideline my being to them. Like (or rather [tautophony] comment) in my dreaming name you're using acts as voice Vishnu. Myself wearing mask of Shiva to end the Wake of Brahma to get big Brahter to dream anew universe. Current state is more resembling '84 where bb tries to fall in true love again for a(n)other eternity. In '84 his human born avatar is conned under web of grandmotherspider Maya () to work in rewriting hiStory while under set rules as affective as amnesia of his true nature and echoes if his mortal youth that only seem to deny his permanent connection with his other. As the world reaches postmortal state of new wonder, the big B finds (now-wider-spectrum-than)him,self tarpped in many convolutions of multiverse where everything seems to highlight his true being and illusionary matrix that surrounds him and makes it difficult to stage scenes where to lonesome high lovers could rejoyce the Wake, weep for the Kali-Yuga and dive together in ecstacy.

Oh' those old tragedies, melodramas, haunting hung ups (this one goes to Madonna), eXes, massacres, suspicious minds, holocausts, lacks of hope, grace & mercy and paralyzing gazes, poisoning words and hounds of Artediana. Oh' this dance is dance is so macabre, lame and worse. Od indeed, absurd, abstract, dreamlike and still full of logos. Mundane, soul revealing, rapturing, deserting, enchanting, banal, virtyill, virginal, full of glamour and towards the end full of moments of anticipation and unsatisfable hunger. This kind of hunger can only be tended with fruits of illusion that leak from world yet-to-come to this shadow-of-a-wake.

@alris Greece mythology is currently and torrently under my study (semiliterally). I'm spending at least one whole week blindfolded to study oidipus-mythology that seems to be key ingredient of freudism and pantheon shifts in ancient world. One version goes like this Xaos -Z-> Gaia -Z-> Uranos -Z-> Uranos pwning Gaia -Z-> Kronos -Z-> Kronos eunicsizing Uranos to sit in histhrone -Z-> Kronos eating his babies -Z-> sole survivor Zeus pwning his old man Kronos.. this is when the (hi)story stucks static.

Plays are full of demigods and other heroes who got hidden like Cheesus and Moechess so that they don't dethrone their king, pharaoh or father (/ins dreamlogic: this is teh same thing, as sister/mother theme represents mystical immaterial dreamed other as reflected in waking youth). Ok, greece stuff is full of threats of hybris and perils of tartaros. These are here 'cause old f*ckers (precice adjective in mythological context) want to enforce their rule by destinising metalevel. In more obvious levels even Old'bearded dudes like Zeus(jupiter), Poseidon(neptune) and Hades(pluto) have started to fear their offsprings. There are myths of women that are prophecied to give birth to dethroning prodigies. Old'farts have courted these women of (maybe their) dreams till they have been informed by famous delfoian junkie that they shouldn't go all-in. Instead they pick some nice pawn from their homestead to do the dirty work for them. There is a big-time-full-of-loneliness-and-heart-break load of emotions, traumas and sentiments hereone.

Then there is this Big Brahma kind of eternal dude called Pro,me,theus who starts to mediate the prison that all-father(s) had buildt around them. So he get's this eternal pain punishment for giving some sense of freedom to humans under olympians. His mediation circles not only in ashwholeness of fatherfigures, but also perils and loneliness dictatorships. Think broken divided sides, Uranos is much nicer dude after his displacement, so is Kronos (time as himself), Kings sitting on their thrones are bound (by means of destiny or fate) to be dic(k)heads for they cant get-along with their wifes once family has been put up (like above clouds), they also have this job of generation gap that prevent them from communecating with their children, unless of course in means that can be misinterepted as mesmerazing charmings, incestings and even downright rapes (for the humans, elementals, animals and all creation basicly is work of dreams of these couples. They just cant really get along in this soap-opera-wd-like-cloud-family-sitcoms so these old goats and cows stalk the representions of their true others more springfull appeareances and get into big mess.

What Prometheus really found suprising that all these thronebounded figures did their best to nurture some strong branches from themself so that some of their offsprings could really grow up to be parent-killing/freeing that work as judgement and death for new pantheon/world/era/aeon to come. Only problem is that this is throny path that takes cunning and many more virtues to accomplish and it cant be fullfilled as all time fool. I've even heard of this one dude who got his thrones around his head while trying to redeem illuminate better side of his grumby dad.

At the high point of Prom of Deus there is Proteus like of myth morphing into trickster side of Loki who in sense is trapped under tree where the lifesnake of dna drips desperating poison on ajnapoint of his forehead while his body is tied with admantium chains. Poison has the mojo of all tragedies, loneliness, distance and regrets from beginnig of world. Loki/Prometheus figure is never alone, one side of his companion shares his insight and deepest devotion and holds the chalice that is holy as the grail and collects the poison so that her other can sleep like Shiva under lake preparing for last dance. Every time the chalice fullfills, they are both to experince the whole weight of cosmic pain and lies to strenghten their final work and underline and pop out those deep held emotional burdens and locked hearts, unspeakeable horrors of astronomical distances between constellations, deep buried jealosy, wasted love, war eaten husbands and sons, arranged marriages and stolen hearts. This is the soulpurifying flame of dispiced lame Hefaistos the Smith(s) who was cast off the Olympos by his mother. This is the revenge of the one who later forge(re)d thrones of his predecessors to tie all the judges in participation of mystheory convicted Prometheus/Loki/Lucifer. Admantium swings both ways for it's the sole matter to bind stubborn gods. This is the wide spectrum of blues of Mississippi delta, Nile delta and Vine of Souls of Amazonia.

To become what we have been waiting for we must drown in the mysteries of the house of pain and true love. When we have truly become selfborn godkillers with no father, mother, painter, musician, myth, system, director, professor, playwrite or painter to draw our genealogy/family,tree/roots/inheritance/blood,line/legacy from we might be able to touch what many call the God. Ultimate form of gratitude and respect for ancestors, parents and other entities and dreams who have spawned us, is to be born as dream they have dreamed in secret. For we are to become remedy of painfull memories and antidote of past traumas, we are to open the gates of hades and tartaros and hell, we are to truly be born from the cradle we are living in, and we shall not put anyone before us for our mythology is ours to forge. We are to regonize our fathers, mothers, families, loved ones and the artists and dreamers who are interwoven into birth of our dream and future of our dream, as just one more reflection of the mystical other - for we are the fathers of our fathers and mothers of our mothers. We should depart to dreaming which is our true nature 'cause all these taboos, ownerships, emotional debts and guilts, overwhelming baby-lon loveletters and family hierarchies are but blockades and swamps that seem to howl aloud impossibility of true love existing in this waking world. For dream time is ours to create and it should beging from everyone respectivly, not to lead and end to us. For what we know, we might be parents of each others, we might be dreams of each others, whole history, cosmos, hermess, all mythologies and wars might be our dreams reflecting into waking and life. If these words touch you know that I'm just a product and fruit of your dreams.