831–840 of 966 posts
Not religious and not really spiritual at all to be honest. The closest thing to "spiritual" that I do is walking slowly. Years ago one day I noticed I had the habit of walking very quickly everywhere I went and that this was pointless. I walk much more slowly now, looking around, watching things, people, anything. I make a point of always leaving earlier than I need so that I never have to hurry. Kind of like the re…
I'm agnostic, but I choose to believe that there's a chance the universe was created, either directly or as a side-effect of some act of will. Given what I know about how complicated projects generally get delivered, I assume that instead of some benevolent, perfect creator, the universe was created in a rush, by some stressed low-level figure. They are probably unhappy with how it turned out, and they had to impleme…
Is it possible the universe is still being created and what we call Big Bang is an ongoing process of manifested boiling out of the unmanifested ;)
Atheist-ish - no spiritual practice of any kind. In terms of beliefs, I think there’s a tonne of massive, unanswered questions about the universe, and it’s certainly possible that there are forces out there that resemble spiritual concepts. Something vaguely resembling a soul, or an intelligent life that created the universe, that sort of thing. Or not - I have no real opinion on this other than “nobody knows”. I do…
Someone in the thread mentioned stoicism, another person mentioned playing Tetris as a practice.
If you have a non-religious one - what is it? How do you connect to your deep self on a daily basis?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm not sure I follow your argument. So because he only manifested himself to a relatively small number of people, he can't prove that he understands us? I'm referring to the miracles attributed to him, which are used as the conclusive evidence that he was God in the flesh. > We have his teachings in writing. How do you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you have his teachings? You do not even know the historical…
> How do you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you have his teachings? "The New Testament has been preserved in more manuscripts than any other ancient work of literature..." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_manuscript "Most historical critics agree that a historical figure named Jesus taught throughout the Galilean countryside c. 30 CE, was believed by his followers to have performed supernatural acts, and…
Recall that I responded to a GP that said all this is "beyond doubt." You're arguing a strawman with me. (On a personal note, I do believe in many of the miracles attested to Jesus, but that isn't evidence to me that he was God in the flesh.)
As for your links, I counter suggest you read the works of Dr. Bart Ehrman.
I was raised religious (catholic), and kind of believed in it. And then when I was 18-20 I spent a lot of time and effort to rid myself of religion, and have been living happy and free ever since. I still enjoy the occasional mass (once or twice a year), mainly because I like to sing. I have not taught my kids any kind of religion or spirituality, and they don't seem to miss it. I wanted to spare them the effort of g…
My experience was along these lines and although I am not an expert on the details, it helped me see multiple viewpoints, spot universal patterns, gain respect for all.
I’m Muslim… on a day to day basis I pray, ideally five times a day. The prayer timings are tied to the location of the sun in the sky, which helps me be more aware of natural rhythms. I’ve observed that the periods of my life where I am praying regularly are associated with lower levels depression, higher levels of satisfaction and purpose.
Atheism. downright non-believer. Grew up by a deist family. they were not really religious. I do remember hearing praying every now and then from my childhood but it was not something that's reflected to me as important part of life. Later on met lots of religious people but did not find them interesting. After learning more about science and technology, the unresolved facts started to disturb me while I was still yo…
I'm Christian and it is seeing this cruel world that confirms for me the existence of human sin and the need for a solution.
Science is wonderful and explains a lot of things and has resulted in a lot of good, but so far for me, it doesn't not explain adequately why this world is so cruel and what to do about. And it doesn't speak to morality either. Morality I'd argue is pretty important for a happy and functioning society.
I was raised atheist by atheist parents. My mother was raised in one of the weirder Christian sects and got out of it before they married. I have always been an atheist despite growing up in a small town with a church on every block, including one whacky church that actually did things like book burnings and burning Michael Jackson in effigy for corrupting the youth. Most of my friends were catholic, growing up, and…
The longer I live, the more I am convinced in the extraordinary nature of our minds to define reality.
At this point I am inclined to admit that in the universe of people who believe in God, God truly exists.
This leads me to have deep respect for religious devotees, and for atheists and agnostics alike.
Tetris. Twice per day. When I get into a good Tetris routine, my mind will continue to play even when I'm not in front of the screen. There's just this constant background game playing in my head. This might sound distracting, but somehow it's enlightening. It provides rhythm. It provides structure. It keeps my thoughts in constant reorganization, constant renewal. Overall, I believe Tetris gets my mind into a place…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Okay, but you said: "that would require assuming that the statement "Is there a god?" is both coherent, meaningful, and answerable." What part of this question is incoherent, unmeaningful, and unanswerable, if you are able to understand religion in an objective sense?
What's a god? How can I meaningfully ascribe any qualities whatsoever to a non-corporeal, non-perceptible entity? What does it even mean to ask if things that are outside of our universe "exist"? Etcetera etcetera. You can't even get past the superficial layers of "Is there a god?" without hitting questions that are ill-formed.
Maybe I'm missing something but that seems like a straightforward question to me.
In a diagram, the universe is a circle. Does anything exist outside that circle?