What do you believe, or not? Another religion thread ...

I will go first.

I believe in God. I believe that he is a God of mercy, grace & patience and that He abounds with goodness & truth (Ex 34:6).  I am amazed that people don't believe in God or that there is a God. I have done open water swims where I was privileged to watch the sun come up over the water and wonder how someone could believe that kind of beauty happens by chance. Same thing with watching the sun go down while out riding or running. Even considering the complexity of the human body, how could that happen by accident or chance?  I also believe we can have a relationship with God, that its about a "relationship", not about "religion".

Thats my opinion!

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may We, alone, must walk the path. - Buddha's words, my creed

I believe that when I die, it's game over. I return to the Earth from which my predecessors rose.

I believe that our time is limited. I'm very thankful for that.

I believe that our moral and religious constructs are human inventions, naturally.

I do not believe in an anthropomorphic god.

I believe in Gaia which sustains and feeds us. I believe Gaia is going to flush the human species down the toilet. We are creating a cesspool of our planet and it will be the undoing of our species and others.

Other species will eventually rise and fall, ad infinitum. Or until our sun explodes.

Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays I am Christian.  Tuesday, Thursdays, and Saturdays I am  heathen.   Sunday is a day of rest and I don't worry about it one way or the other.

You think when we get to the "gates" someone will "sort" by relition?  You guys go downstairs, you guys are in, go ahead upstairs.  Hey, you guys over there got to hang in purgatory for a while.

I believe in God and most of all I believe he is FAIR, PERFECTLY fair to be specific.

That's all I have to say about that ......

I believe that after reading your posts for a few years, you must be a really nice person that people are lucky to know in the non cyber world.

Joe

So no reincarnation???

I don't have an opinion on that either way. Maybe yes, maybe no. I'm okay with either possibility. It doesn't really concern me, either way.

What an unbelievably kind thing to say. Thank you. I feel blessed to have the people in my life who like and tolerate me.

I was ready to write a long reply and then I saw Renee’s reply which covered everything that I wanted to say just much more eloquently than I would have.

So I definitely have it right in chasing you with a casserole dish ... and a nice big stein of beer.

Don't care for organized religion. That's Man... God has nothing to do with it.

I believe we are born with a God gene. That is it a evolutionary coping mechanism that gives us a purpose and a community.

... or of course there could be a God. Never could really wrap my head around the "Supreme Being" thing. I am more spiritual than I ever have been in my life and moved up from atheist to agnostic.

One of the more profound things I have heard was surprisingly said by a Catholic priest. His take was... Man looks at religion like a dog looks at a stick. The dog thinks the stick is the object of the game, but the owner just uses it as a thing to have communion with his dog... people get too fixated on the stick... and completely miss God. He goes on to say Jesus was a man that had a spiritual experience with God and that got repeated and passed down and millions of people have used it to find God in their lives. Mohamad was a man that had a spiritual experience with God...Budah was a man that had a spiritual experience with God... let God see fit to express Himself how ever He sees fit to who ever he sees fit. Search for the experience with God, how you get there is irrelevant.

... again, maybe not so profound depending the source...but from a Catholic Priest??? I was not expecting that.

There is a lot about Buddhism that I really like... I get pretty lost in the reincarnation thing. Not necessarily in the concept... but the whole thing gets a little complicated.

I did read an interesting book though... the premise was that Buddhism falls short by relying too much on self, and Christianity falls short by relying too much on God. The author felt some place in the middle was a good place to be. It was an interesting take.

Tebowism.

Absolutely concur.

I do believe in some sort of "recycling program" for our souls. Haven't you ever met someone who seems wise beyond their years? Who just seems to "get it?" Who just knows? I believe those people to be old souls. Haven't you ever met someone who reminded you of someone else.... yet you can't place who? I don't know. I think we come around again and again and again until we get it right. And maybe we never get it right.

One needn't believe in reincarnation to follow the Buddhist path.

As with Christianity, Buddhist thought has evolved and acquired the cultural stamp of the various societies in which it was taught. It began with The Buddha, Siddhartha Gautam. He said that he was merely the latest discoverer of The Truth. He didn't invent the truth, he didn't receive it by any divine or mystical means. He sat and became intimately acutely aware about the workings of his own mind. Truth is always there to be discovered. Even when it is lost, eventually someone will rediscover it. Truth doesn't die just because we stop teaching it. To be enlightened is to become acutely aware.

Theravada Buddhism is the closest interpretation we have of what Buddha actually taught. From there, his words have been reinterpreted by others and Buddhist thought and traditions evolved  according to the culture in which it is taught. Mahayana Buddhism is a more mystical tradition, putting more emphasis on rebirth.  Tibetan Buddhism follows a more mystical tradition, for example. Buddha, however, was not a mystic.

In it's most distilled form, Buddhism teaches that it is our distorted mental formations that create our own suffering. And that we have the key to ending our suffering.

Before Buddha became enlightened by Truth, he was a Hindu.  The belief in reincarnation was embedded in Hinduism and the culture of his times; it was accepted as a fact of life. So, it's natural that Buddha would speak about reincarnation. But Buddha also taught that we should not accept what he said as a matter of gospel. He said it must comport with our own reasoning. If reincarnation is not part of our accepted reasoning, it's natural that we reject it or simply have no opinion of it. Rejecting reincarnation does not alter the truth of our suffering and causes of suffering which is the heart of the Buddhist teaching.

I hope I didn't misinterpret anything. That is my understanding of what Buddha taught and meant.

I believe there is some higher power that set everything into motion, just because everything had to come from something.

I believe that there is some form of afterlife, or "next" because I don't want to believe that this is everything and I want my daughter to meet my father some day.

I believe that there is no "divine" plan, or fate, because that would imply that the "bad" stuff happens on purpose as well, and I don't want to believe that is the case.

I believe that every form of organized religion or belief structure was/is a type of mythology to explain what can't be explained (yet).

I believe that all prominent religions today at the highest levels are corrupted by one form of politics or another for selfish gain.

I believe that most organized religions came/come from a good place and applaud those that help and serve others, but hate their exclusionary tactics.

I believe that there will never be “peace on earth” until some global catastrophe forces it, and assuming humankind survives, things will eventually devolve again to what we are experiencing now.

I believe the Constitution is a great work and our government was a great concept but they came from a place that is so different than where we are now and they've both been twisted so badly that they both need to be totally reworked.

I believe that only doing what is good for others (that means everyone else) is the only way things can be truly righted in the world, but that it would take every individual’s commitment and release of their dogmas for that to happen (and I know that I’m as guilty as anyone for not following that).

I believe that not everyone has the strength to be "good" (mental, physical, biochemical, environmental differences), and that those are the ones that need help the most.

I believe that passing judgment based on a headline perpetuates the cycles that everyone condemns from their pulpits.

I believe there are forcibly perpetuated "lower-classes" in America and that fact is ignored due to the comfort that comes from not being a part of them.