I am an Orthodox Christian. My day begins with prayer, as soon as possible after I wake up. Prayer consists of reading (or reciting) prayers from a prayer book, followed by 100-200 Jesus Prayers ("Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!"), followed by 12-25 prostrations. I then read the daily scripture readings indicated by the liturgical calendar. At noon, I usually read a Psalm in front of my icons (I work from home)…
Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
351–360 of 966 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#352100% atheism. Was raised some kind of protestant I forget which one, and derived tremendous spiritual and psychological relief when I realized all of that was absolute nonsense at the age of 9. I knew I was gay at the time and wouldn't come out until I was 18 or so, but my life just got a lot easier when I removed religion completely. I also recall discovering increased moral agency -- as a Christian I had been taugh…
+100% ... well, straight here ... but I was 7 when I realised that religion was not only bullshit but actually dangerous as it represents a way for people to justify reprehensible acts by putting the importance of pandering to the alleged whims of a "supreme" being above any rational standard of decency and morality.
It’s the “if you have a problem with fundamentalists, maybe there is something wrong with your fundamentals?”
When otherwise smart people go on about god it makes me uncomfortable - a little like talking to a delusional person. When something there is broken anything can be rationalized. The specific religion doesn’t matter, they all share this flaw (along with woo like astrology).
Though what’s broken is often more complex.
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/CqyJzDZWvGhhFJ7dY/belief-in-...
“Some philosophers have been much confused by such scenarios, asking, “Does the claimant really believe there’s a dragon present, or not?” As if the human brain only had enough disk space to represent one belief at a time!
Real minds are more tangled than that. There are different types of belief; not all beliefs are direct anticipations. The claimant clearly does not anticipate seeing anything unusual upon opening the garage door. Otherwise they wouldn’t make advance excuses.
It may also be that the claimant’s pool of propositional beliefs contains the free-floating statement There is a dragon in my garage.
It may seem, to a rationalist, that these two beliefs should collide and conflict even though they are of different types. Yet it is a physical fact that you can write “The sky is green!” next to a picture of a blue sky without the paper bursting into flames.”
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#353Earlier quoted context omitted.
Quoted post unavailable.
>Atheism is not spiritual and to conflate the two is foolish. Not necessarily, obviously, but there are spiritual atheists, and if OP asks "what are your spiritual practices" then "I have none" is a valid answer. >It is clear that atheism and consumerism in modern society do not make people happy. The least happy people I know are religious, and almost all the Atheists I know are pretty happy with their lives. I don'…
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#354Earlier quoted context omitted.
For forgiveness, you need to actually be contrite and willing to amend your life. God loves you and wants you to heal but you need to be open to it. Also he is just, so he doesn’t exactly let you do whatever you want as you imply. There are always consequences to our actions. Further, I would argue that without living with God, you are actually freed from responsibility in moral judgements, because of the belief that…
I think unless you have been both religious and atheist, it’s hard to compare which results in better morals and values. It’s a common misconception that having a god free life will result in an immoral or amoral existence. It’s simply not true. Leaving religion felt empowering and made me think seriously about which values mattered to me. Humans have always had the capacity to be good to each other inside them. The…
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#355Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Atheism is not spiritual and to conflate the two is foolish. Not necessarily, obviously, but there are spiritual atheists, and if OP asks "what are your spiritual practices" then "I have none" is a valid answer. >It is clear that atheism and consumerism in modern society do not make people happy. The least happy people I know are religious, and almost all the Atheists I know are pretty happy with their lives. I don'…
It is a contradiction. “Spirit”ual. You cannot be Spiritual without belief in Spirit. It is in the word itself. You can be a good Atheist however that is mostly in line with good spiritual practices. Atheists seem to want it both ways. To believe in nothing but also define themselves as “Spiritual”
How would you define "Spirit"?
Languages evolve over time and I'd argue the word "spirituality" is morphing into something with a very broad definition of "spirit", one where, for example, an atheistic Buddhist can practice and still be considered "spiritual".
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#356100% atheism. Was raised some kind of protestant I forget which one, and derived tremendous spiritual and psychological relief when I realized all of that was absolute nonsense at the age of 9. I knew I was gay at the time and wouldn't come out until I was 18 or so, but my life just got a lot easier when I removed religion completely. I also recall discovering increased moral agency -- as a Christian I had been taugh…
I was raised in the Catholic church, and I don't think your take on confession is quite right. The process of confession isn't "sit in this booth and walk out scot-free on all of your wrongdoings". It's meant to be an assisted meditation on what you can do better in your life, and how to do so. The act of confession doesn't help you if it's not done in good faith, and a penance for murder might be a confession to the…
1. You actually have to confess your sins; intentional omission of a mortal sin invalidates the absolution.
2. You must express repentance for your sins (that is a firm intention to not continue sinning); confessing a sin that you fully intend to go out and continue doing invalidates the absolution.
3. You must perform penance for the sins; in modern day penance is usually private, I don't think this is a strict requirement. Note that a public penance does not reveal the specific sin; something like "walk back and forth down Main Street 10 times while carrying a cross" would be a public penance. It may include restitution towards those harmed as well (most commonly returning stolen items) but said restitution may always be anonymous as a priest may not require divulging of the sin outside the confessional as a condition of absolution (though they may suggest it; e.g. they will almost always suggest that addicts seek treatment).
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#357I try to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I like to seek out and fold in examples and teachings of other religious leaders as well as long as I can resolve differences in some creative way. I am particular keen of various Asian ideas of late. I read scriptures and other inspiring works when impressed to (I think that Dr Seuss, The Life of Pi, and maybe L…
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#358Earlier quoted context omitted.
Quoted post unavailable.
Incorrect. Hinduism has had Sankhya Yoga which adopts a “rationalistic” approach and at some points in its existence has questioned the existence of God (Ishvara) [0]. I think Buddhism and Taoism are atheistic as well. This is my assumption though and I will be happy to be corrected. 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samkhya#Views_on_God
Hinduism believes in God. Many gods in fact and the concept of a cosmic intelligence.
Have you not heard of Bhakti or devotional yoga?
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#359100% atheism. Was raised some kind of protestant I forget which one, and derived tremendous spiritual and psychological relief when I realized all of that was absolute nonsense at the age of 9. I knew I was gay at the time and wouldn't come out until I was 18 or so, but my life just got a lot easier when I removed religion completely. I also recall discovering increased moral agency -- as a Christian I had been taugh…
I’m curious. How did you originally arrive at the conclusion that god didn’t exist?
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#360I used to be devout Mormon, and a hardcore one at that. It was woven so deeply in my reality, that everything had spiritual significance for me. A few years ago, I encountered history, documents, and truths about the religion that were never presented to me. Since then, I've slowly, painfully, removed myself from the religion, and removed the religion from me. It's extremely painful to go from a space where everythin…
>nothing actually matters Maybe it’s just a matter if having a time perspective that is appropriate for what we can possibly get a handle on as humans. In the medium term, as opposed to the heat-death-of-the-universe long term, stuff definitely matters. Also btw that phrase “nothing actually matters” is a little piece of propaganda planted by religion as a false caricature of non-religious thinking. You might conside…
But still - ultimately nothing has value. With the sun eventually consuming the earth and the universe either collapsing or going cold, everything that could have value will eventually cease to exist.
Any number, multiplied by any other number, and multiplied an endless list of values, and eventually by zero at least once is still zero. The death of everything that ever has been influenced by anything I do will eventually be multiplied by zero. Therefore, ultimately, every piece of value, regardless of how significant, is ephemeral.
But I do understand the dangers of anti-religious religiousness. The exmormon community is full of people defining their lives as the exact opposite of what they were told, and in doing so are still defined by what they used to be, but are no longer.