I don’t believe in a religion. I am a syncretic pantheist.
“Syncretic” meaning that I don’t think any one religion or sect has a monopoly on divine truth, even if they are sincere and productive attempts. Refer to Rumi’s Elephant.
“Pantheist” meaning that I think God = Universe. The laws of nature are God’s attributes. We are all literally one with God, everything that exists is.
I believe these things because I exhausted basically every other reasonable metaphysical alternative.
Cutting out philosophical arguments, prophecies and “no way this is a coincidence” types of stuff (which, yeah, there’s a lot of those), it’s a combination of
We will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth. But is it not sufficient concerning your Lord that He is, over all things, a Witness?
-Quran 41:53
They have taken their rabbis and monks as lords besides Allah and also the Messiah, son of Maryam (Mary), though they were commanded to worship only One God. There is no god except Him. His Glory is far above any partners they ascribe (to Him).
-9:31
And let not those who [greedily] withhold what Allah has given them of His bounty ever think that it is better for them. Rather, it is worse for them. Their necks will be encircled by what they withheld on the Day of Resurrection. And to Allah belongs the heritage of the heavens and the earth. And Allah, with what you do, is [fully] Acquainted.
-3:180
Of course there’s a lot more where that came from, but the point is: We here have a religious text that encourages independent thought and pondering of the world and itself, promises harsh punishment for hoarding wealth and unequivocally condemns priestly institutions. Does that sound like an attempt to gain wealth or power? Exactly. Also this
He [Muhammad] looked displeased and turned (his attention) away, because a blind man came to him (interrupting his discourse). What would make you realise? Perhaps he would purify himself (by your attention),
-80:1-3
is not how a cult leader talks about himself. It’s admittedly hard to parse from the translation, but this is a somewhat harsh admonition of Muhammad here. The segment continues until verse 10 if anyone wants continue reading, but the gist of it is “you’re ignoring the man seeking guidance and trying to convince those who reject it? That is not how that works. Yes, even if it’s a random blind guy.”
I’ve read through the Bible cover to cover three times. Amplified, NIV, and New King James with a copy of Strongs.
I’m an atheist now.
What made you an atheist?
I used to, because my parents did and I went to church and all that.
But then I started to actually think about it.
Now I don’t believe in anything supernatural.
There are parts of nature we don’t understand (yet) but I don’t think there’s any ‘higher power’ that created the universe, and especially not earth or humankind specifically.My religion isn’t really based on belief, just practice. And I do the practices because they make me feel better and more connected.
Because I’ve personally met Jesus Christ. He’s a 10,000 year old former cave man.
What a movie!
Starring both the Candyman and The Greatest American Hero!
They don’t make films like they used to!
Oh, hey, I’ve seen this one.
I don’t have a religion, but consider myself to be “religiously neutral.” Either smart men from all over are running the same scam — or there are common bits of wisdom in most religions and there may be something to that. Either way, I ultimately believe in Humanism, I suppose. That humans are inherently good, or want to be, and/or enough actually are.
I do not believe in anything original myself. It’s all academic to me.
or there are common bits of wisdom in most religions and there may be something to that.
The entire point of religion is to make important rules followed.
When a food is banned, it’s because that food was killing people when the rules were written. Abrahamic religions don’t like sex that doesn’t make babies, because they all start as persecuted cults by the main branches and the fastest way to grow is to have kids born into it.
It’s obviously all outdated, but it boils down to how you’d convince a kid not to do something when you can’t watch them 24/7: follow the rules or Santa will find out.
Like there’s always jokes about Jewish Sabbath, but honesty that was just the equivalent to modern union mandated lunch breaks. The only way to guarantee a day off back in the day, was to explicitly outlaw doing anything. Pretty much all anyone in the household could do was just relax and hang out together.
Like I said, it’s all way outdated. But every time you try something new suddenly the ATF starts hanging around…
“'Cause, in those days, a pork chop could kill ya!” - Chris Rock
The really weird one is shellfish.
Shellfish allergy is a big deal, And prior to refrigeration it wasn’t a common food unless right near da beach.
So people could not try it till they were adults, and just keel over on the spot. But since shellfish allergy is weirdly genetic, the populations most at risk for it now, are the ones who spent centuries avoiding it. Because everyone else kept losing at least some of the people who were allergic
Exactly what I think. Otherwise, I just attempt to follow the Scriptures (both to the left and right of Matthew), with exceptions due to geographic restrictions, political power restrictions, or divine decrees of course.
Either smart men from all over are running the same scam — or there are common bits of wisdom in most religions and there may be something to that.
Or C: There was an original scam that not so original humans copied over and over through the years.
The scam of hedonist-denying self-restraint, says the Western man. The scam of purpose and belonging beyond the scope of the party, says the anti-religious commie.
because the book said itself was real
You sacrifice for me, I sustain you. I sacrifice for you, you sustain me.
I believe this because nature is hungry, but expected to sustain life.
I believe in God and His judgement because I just do. There’s something instead of nothing, and nothing takes considerably less effort than something to exist (no need to argue this, nor any way to do so, hehe), and for me the idea of a Creator makes entire sense and completes the puzzle. I believe in His judgement probably because of that inner morality and desire for truth and justice everyone has but many deny and avoid. Finally, I do because it makes me happy, and helps me tame the animal and just be overall a person I’m proud of being, one that walks his talk and is at peace with himself and others.
Of course, none of this just came to me, or at least not as well defined and convincingly spoken, this is all thanks to the words of the prophets and the word of God as encapsulated in the Qur’an. Jesus always made sense to me even as an atheist kid (I just thought he was a pretty clever and kindhearted dude, not, you know, “God made flesh” or whatever people believe in), Solomon should make sense to any adult with enough working neurons, Muhammad’s message is basically just a reiteration and perfection of it all, a little bow that ties all of monotheism up. 👍
I disagree with everything you’ve said, but upvoted because you answered the question.
username checks out
Hi! 😅👋
hi yourself there, buddy.
Could you expand (or link to something that expands) on the Solomon thing?
I believe in intelligent design because the theory of evolution boils down to: if you left your room messy for 1 billion years, when you came back it would be the Taj Mahal.
The real fundamental root cause of my belief in God comes from personal experiences.
What? So first of, it really doesn’t. You don’t understand evolution if you think that’s what it is, but that’s beside the point.
You believe that a supernatural sky being made a mud man and a rib woman, who were tricked by a talking snake into eating magic no no fruit. Then 4 thousand years later, a zombie came and made everyone drink it’s blood and eat it’s body in order to get into the good magic sky place.
It’s real easy to dumb down peoples beliefs and make them sound stupid, especially if you misrepresent them.
The question was why do you believe in YOUR beliefs. It was not an invitation to be a superior asshole.
As I said, personal experience. I’m not sure how I was insulting anyone else’s beliefs. That’s literally why I believe in intelligent design: I believe that evolution is mathematically impossible.
If you think that the theory of evolution puts forth the any argument like Taj Mahal coming from a messy room, then you don’t understand the theory of evolution.
Evolution does not “boil down” to that.
The analogy to a messy room fails. I recommend you read this (and the rest of the archive, it’s great stuff):
https://talkorigins.org/indexcc/CF/CF001.html
Of note is “The Earth is not a closed system”
Realizing that the root cause is just because you want it to be true is fine, commendable even. Just don’t try to justify it post hoc with sciency-sounding arguments.
I believe in the Goddess of Luck because, hopefully not sounding too cocky, she’s been kind to me. I’ve told people about her before and they think I’m slightly insane, but then as they hang out with me they start to thank her on thier own luck because they see how she speaks in crazy ways.
All you have to do is thank her when luck is on your side and you’ll see the difference.
