Thread: Faith

Originally Posted by Songbird

faith/religion/life philosophy (Atheism and Agnosticism included)

Is atheism a life philosophy?

I am an atheist because I was raised to be one. My parents taught me the good word of atheism and all of its values. Every Tuesday I attended the atheist center to hear sermons about all the things god didn't say. I take god's non-existence on faith. Knowing that god isn't there brings great comfort to my life. Knowing that an eternity silent nothingness awaits me at death helps makes dying seem less scary. I have a strong emotional connection to my atheism which manifests itself in every aspect of my life. When someone I know dies, I am happy knowing that no god will take care of their everlasting souls, which also don't exist. When there is uncertainty in my life, I just turn to not god and don't have a conversation with him. It reassures me that even though I don't understand the direction my life is taking, I feel as though I am being guided and that I'll be okay as long as I just keep trusting that god isn't there. When I go to vote, I wonder which candidate believes in god the least, and who agrees the most with my interpretation of that god didn't say when he didn't write the Bible. This (as well as how all-American he seems) is pretty much the sole determining factor in the way I vote. My faith that god isn't there helps me through each and every day. Just knowing that he isn't there is good enough for me.

I have stuck to being christian because I like to take comfort in knowing righteousness shall pervail in the end.

Originally Posted by NeoSioType

I have stuck to being christian because I like to take comfort in knowing righteousness shall pervail in the end.

You mean your version of righteousness. I've seen a disturbing pattern among people of faith, and that is that none of them believe they themselves are going to the hell to which they condemn so many others. It's almost as if the very concept of hell was invented by mankind to reconcile the fact that people do bad things to us and often don't get punished.

Originally Posted by drewmandan

You mean your version of righteousness. I've seen a disturbing pattern among people of faith, and that is that none of them believe they themselves are going to the hell to which they condemn so many others. It's almost as if the very concept of hell was invented by mankind to reconcile the fact that people do bad things to us and often don't get punished.

Please categorize faith correctly.

Christianity. Is the faith you speak of.

Not really others.

I have very strong faith in God/Self etc. I do not follow any religion in particular, but sometimes bring their teachings together with understanding. I see that spiritual truth underlies the worlds major religions; there is no reason for conflict. I guess you could call me a spiritual student.

I was an atheist for a short while, and I have had trouble remembering what I was like before that (I think mostly a christian, but sometimes agnostic), as today, I realize I have been transformed with an indescribable enormity. There is no way I could see this coming. It is quite staggering looking back at my old ways, how I was at the time. But of course, it will always be amazing to live in the moment as I am close to today.

Concerning the major and radical transformation, once I had studied enough information in many relevant areas concerning religion and spirituality (and many other areas), I suddenly became interested in Enlightenment. I saw why I was doubting God, I saw my own limitations, the limitations of expression/language/symbolism, the limitations of the inherent human ego, its perceptions; assumptions, on goes the list... My life became illuminated, the light of awareness revealed things with a clarity and comforting contextualization. I intuited a strong belief in what is greater than my self, which is the Real Self - the Real Self knows everything by virtue of Being Everything.

Today is beautiful. I am so happy, sometimes I feel amazing Joy. I see the bigger picture, where there is understanding, there is love. I realized how the ego/mind-paradigms exclude things from Reality. Your world/life-view paradigm is like a pattern of all kinds of mentalizations and belief systems. As the patterns become more benign and universal, does peace become profoundly apparent. Reality shines forth by itself. All you have to do for the mind is quiet it down, surrender those inflated opinions, bubbles and judgements - after all, they do not really answer your questions, do they? Tell me an ego that understands what life is really about.

When you have finally died* and comprehended Reality, you are immersed in the Love of God, therein lies a peace beyond all time and description. No suffering thereafter is possible. This is my inspiration, and all the best if it is yours too.

Edit: Ah, I may aswell pop this up too: This video's called "Ego is a closed Loop"



* = ego-death, the only real death.

When you have finally died and comprehended Reality

Religion: ultimate bliss. And all you have to do is make the ultimate sacrifice and die!

I see the bigger picture, where there is understanding, there is love.

Er ... no. For instance I understand Newtonian mechanics ... where's the love there?

Originally Posted by NeoSioType

I have stuck to being christian because I like to take comfort in knowing righteousness shall pervail in the end.

Originally Posted by drewmandan

You mean your version of righteousness. I've seen a disturbing pattern among people of faith, and that is that none of them believe they themselves are going to the hell to which they condemn so many others. It's almost as if the very concept of hell was invented by mankind to reconcile the fact that people do bad things to us and often don't get punished.

of couse, abuse in this line of thinking has caused great suffering.

Originally Posted by Sandform

???
To be honest I didn't watch past the first minute. So this... whatever it is has fallen on deaf ears mr. Sandform.

I am atheist because I was raised a hardcore chrisitian, and I saw the exclusionary view that they proposed. I also researched evil things like evolution and abiogenesis, and saw that it had much more evidence to back it up then religion. Much more, but that's it in a nutshell.

Deism allows abiogenesis and evolution. Just saying.

Originally Posted by Scatterbrain

What are you still doing here?

really has just been posting...

Originally Posted by Xei

Clearly you don't have any true belief in this stuff, or you'd have killed yourself.

Obviously I was referring to ego-death, so I can't "kill myself". You know about the ego, yes?

Originally Posted by ChaybaChayba

Religion is shit someone made up. That's the whole point... or did you think the Bible magically appaered out of thin air? The Koran manifested out of nothing? The Torah grew from a tree? LOL! No.

rofl

Christianity - Jesus taught, apostles documented, but from there the scriptures have been distorted through the church, translation, etc.

Obviously I was referring to ego-death, so I can't "kill myself". You know about the ego, yes?

Actually the word death is normally taken to obviously mean 'death'. You know how to speak, yes?

If there is no ego then why not kill yourself?