No religion, Looking to change that.

[Reality_is_a_Dream]

Here I am. I have no religion, that is, I pratice none. But I am looking for one. So please, Tell me a religion, and explain it alittle to me. Let's start the bidding.

[A dreamer168]

Why do you want a religion so bad?

[bluefinger]

Try Untheism. It needs more followers...

[Sornaensis]

Come join my religion! Just send me $10 a week for the rest of your life and I can guarantee you a spot in the afterlife.

[juroara]

what do you believe? how do you feel about the world? how does science make you feel? does learning about science make life for you more meaningful, or meaningless?

[Serkat]

When things make you feel bad they are untrue.

[Semja]

Here I am. I have no religion, that is, I pratice none. But I am looking for one. So please, Tell me a religion, and explain it alittle to me. Let's start the bidding. I like Buddhism. As I understand, the Buddhist's view of life is that there is something fundamentally wrong with life, everything in life is unsatisfactory, dissapointing in some way, however small. The big unsatisfying thing about life is that nothing lasts forever which sucks. A great night out always turns into a shitty hangover. Monday morning always comes around too quick. Sex is great while it lasts and then when its over you want more. The reason for this is not that there is anything essentially wrong with life, but our perception of life is flawed, we do not perceive things as they really are, their true nature. Everything, including life and death, is a creation of our minds. The reason we are unable to perceive the true nature of things is because, to put it crudely we are biased, we prefer one thing over another, we are unable to be impartial observers. Everything we do which is biased creates more biased actions, i.e. habits. This works on a very deep level which goes unnoticed most, if not all, of the time. We literally create our own realities, our own suffering, from our bias and prejudices etc. In this way our reality is a reflection of ourself. On the deepest level life really is an illusion, a dream, created by our misunderstanding of what life actually is. It is possible to wake up from this dream that we create entirely by and for ourselves. The (unsatisfactory) dream only continues on and on because of the actions we take which are, for want of a better word, biased. E.g. if everytime a cyclist pulls out in front of our car we swear at them, we are more likely to do it the next time. Everytime we don't swear at them we are less likely to do it the next time. Eventually the urge to swear at them will disappear. This is known as karma. The end of karma is to wake up from the dream, to become lucid in a way. The different branches of Buddhism teach various methods to destroy all our habits and prejudices, our karma, to take off that blindfold preventing us from seeing the true nature of things, to wake us up from our dreams, i.e. to reach nirvana. The methods consist of several types (40,000?) of meditation, firstly to develop concentration, and then to use that concentration to become aware of, and truly know, the mental and physical processes to understand their true nature, to analyse them in a very methodical way. When we are able to see things as they really are we cannot help but let go of them. To understand the true nature of one thing is to know the true nature of all things. Nirvana is already our reality, we are naturally enlightened, buddhas, just like jesus etc., we are just unable to perceive it. That's my summarised interpretation of Buddhism.

[Reality_is_a_Dream]

I like the principal, from what I understand, and I may look further into it... Where would I look further into it?

[Bonsay]

Yeah be a Buddhist if you are serious. Or a Pastafarian.

[Semja]

I like the principal, from what I understand, and I may look further into it... Where would I look further into it? The Access to Insight website is good. It only covers the Theravada branch of Buddhism which can be a bit dry unlike perhaps Tibetan Buddhism which can be more exotic, for that maybe try Sogyal Rinpoche's book(s). There's lots of other types and sub-types as with any religion, Zen is a famous one but I haven't read much about that. Try Wikipedia too.

[Mes Tarrant]

Errr.... If you're looking to find a religion just for the sake of having a religion (I was in this same spot about 4 years ago), back away NOW. You don't need that BS. Meditate to your heart's desire, converse with interesting people, hang up pictures of Brahma on your wall... But don't label yourself as any one religion. It will only make your life less satisfying, and it will close horizons as opposed to opening them.

[RockNRoller123]

Here I am. I have no religion, that is, I pratice none. But I am looking for one. So please, Tell me a religion, and explain it alittle to me. Let's start the bidding. This post, my good sir, has made my day. Try Christianity. With Christianity you have Jesus.

[Sornaensis]

If you are asking for religion then Christianity is the last thing you want. Don't do religion, figure out why you would want such an ugly thing in the first place.

[Vance]

If you are asking for religion then Christianity is the last thing you want. Don't do religion, figure out why you would want such an ugly thing in the first place. Giving reasons would help.

[Sornaensis]

Because it's the same as saying "I want to believe in Snata Claus" err... okay... If you are ASKING to be deluded, then you obviously are missing something in your current life. Find out what it is. Replace it.