Religion.. a dangerous topic

[ylrebmik]

me too, i love hearing about what others' practice. I am almost obsessed with Star Wars so i bought a book Star Wars and Philosophy and it is amazing. There is so many different religions and practices that were made into that movie. I believe a ramble of different things so I'm trying to find a religion that works for me. I don't want to call myself A_______ if i don't believe everything or almost everything. I love philosophy and "people watching"- along with traditions and cultures. We had an entire class on it last year and it was absolutly amazing reading about everyone elses' religon.

[CathyBogart]

I am with you ylrebmik on that. There is but 1 God, 1 Creator and no matter what religion you are, you are worshiping the same God that the rest of us worship. So WHY is there a problem?

I don't worship, and I work with many deities, not just one...

[VTJess03]

I have been to church about 3 times in my life, and I have to say I found it extremely depressing and in a way, a little offensive. You could tell the 'regulars' were looking at us as though we didn't deserve to be there, and they never once spoke to us or passed us a hymn book or anything. They are the sort of people that have put me off having any faith in religion.

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience...it's never easy to feel like you're being singled out...I don't have faith in any religion either...I just have faith in God. My experiences have led me to accept the Christian viewpoint as my own, but my faith is not in the 'religion' (i.e. the routines, ceremonies, rituals, hymns, etc.). In short, I worship Christ, not Christianity. Everything I hear in church, I question and research for myself before I adopt it into my own beliefs; if I find that my beliefs were wrong, according to Biblical truth (taken in context), then I change my opinion. If I can find no written support for a claim, I retain my old opinion.

The thing with a belief system, whether it's religious or not, is that we each think we're right. If we thought we were wrong, wouldn't we believe something else? We would not go on believing we are wrong about something. That's against human nature. If you have a different belief system from mine, I would expect you to uphold the values of your system, not mine. I would also hope you would hold me up to the standards of my system, and not yours. I do try to hold myself accountable to my own standards, but I admit that I fail at it a lot of the time. I'm just happy that my belief system has a component to it that involves forgiveness when I mess up, and I try not to abuse that privelege.

Oh, and thanks CathyBogart for clarifying the pagan origins of those Christian holiday symbols

[ylrebmik]

One thing i do love from one religion is in Buddism. I love the whole selflessness part of it.

[ramanth]

Hi Kimberly,

We share the same name and the love of Star Wars. The book you described sounds interesting. I'll have to check it out.

As far as religion goes, I too don't have a problem with what people believe in as long as it doesn't harm others.

Personally I'm just a spiritual type Pagan. Earth lovin' tree hugger.

[ylrebmik]

hehe thats awesome. For a while i called star wars my religion :P On an interview with George lucus (christain) he said a lot of it was based off of Christianity and other religions. In that book i was reading, there is a section on Stoics. There way of life is exacly how Yoda lives. It was very facinating. Even though i was already obsessed with star wars- it made get even deeper into the anatomy in it. I really do believe in a lot of things from Star Wars- but those ideas are from other religions so it isn't as crazy as it seems Yup, I don't have a problem- until people start having wars over it saying "their god wanted it". Almost every God was asking for peace. "love thy neighbor, turn the other cheek"

[dragonfly]

I consider myself to be spiritual, not religious. Probably leaning more to the Pagan and Buhdist type religion if any. Every religion I've ever read or heard anything about has the same values and beliefs, so it's hard for me to understand all the arguing about it. I know people feel passionately about their religions but if they could just take a step back they would see that other religions aren't all that diferent from their own.