I've had issues with this since high school. I was raised in a very religious family, though it was always split with my father being Catholic and my mother being raised Lutheran. Now, I am agnostic in a sense that I can't prove that a higher power exists and don't think anyone else can either (that I've seen) but I believe in something anyway. I look around me and can't imagine some greater force being involved, even if it seems silly when I look at it academically.
Back on topic, I really liked the poem. It seems to illustrate these two opposing forces in myself nicely.
That's wonderful. I admit, I shy away from the longer ones, but I'm glad I stuck it out :)
I don't know what to call myself... Jewish by birth and tradition, Taoist by nature, agnostic by intellect.
I guess the assumption that we know what God is and everything s/he intends strikes me as incredibly egotistical. If God is as amazing as s/he is made out to be by religion, how could we know all there is to know about him/her? Would it be so hard to say 'we think there's somthing out there... But we have no way of knowing more than that'?
I do think there's a universal order... Just based on observation. Things are pretty constant on the large scale. Birth and death, benevolence and malice, joy and suffering. All things change. There are enough truths and commonalities in the patterns of things that I can't imagine they're random.
I don't know. Most of my upbringing as a Christian has included the point that we don't know all there is to know about God, and we never will/can until the day we die and ascend. It's what we do know that we can work with, but something to always be borne in mind is that we don't have the whole big picture, and shouldn't be assuming we do.
I hear you. I just don't think anyone can really know anything about God. Yet so much of organized religion's impact on society seems based on the assumption that they know more about God than others... And so many of those assumptions run contrary to fundamental Judeo-Christian principles of tolerance, acceptance, humility, etc.
To be fair to organized religions, most of them believe that their scriptures are the actual words/directives of God. (Although this may not technically apply to Hinduism/Buddhism/Taoism/Confucianism, since those have their roots more in polytheistic mythology or human-philosophy-elevated-to-godliness. Actually, I think it only really applies to monotheistic religions, since only those involve the concept of a God AND conducting one's life according to his laws.... but I digress, sorry.) Those directives are what form the fundamental principles of each religion.
Which one has the 'original', then? That's probably something that's up to each person to discover for themselves. For me I'm sticking with what has always rung true with my heart and the historical evidence supports.
I believe because God speaks to me through the Earth and through energies and life. There's no real explanation or rationale to it. I believe partly because I was brought up to, but have also varied widely in that belief system.
God is a small, still voice inside. There are many names and many traditions for God, but in them all, He is there to guide, hold and help us. It is a comforting feeling knowing that it will all, eventually, work out, regardless of how hard we, as humans, try to screw it up ;)
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Back on topic, I really liked the poem. It seems to illustrate these two opposing forces in myself nicely.
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I don't know what to call myself... Jewish by birth and tradition, Taoist by nature, agnostic by intellect.
I guess the assumption that we know what God is and everything s/he intends strikes me as incredibly egotistical. If God is as amazing as s/he is made out to be by religion, how could we know all there is to know about him/her? Would it be so hard to say 'we think there's somthing out there... But we have no way of knowing more than that'?
I do think there's a universal order... Just based on observation. Things are pretty constant on the large scale. Birth and death, benevolence and malice, joy and suffering. All things change. There are enough truths and commonalities in the patterns of things that I can't imagine they're random.
But again, no one can know.
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I hear you. I just don't think anyone can really know anything about God. Yet so much of organized religion's impact on society seems based on the assumption that they know more about God than others... And so many of those assumptions run contrary to fundamental Judeo-Christian principles of tolerance, acceptance, humility, etc.
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Which one has the 'original', then? That's probably something that's up to each person to discover for themselves. For me I'm sticking with what has always rung true with my heart and the historical evidence supports.
Reply
I believe because God speaks to me through the Earth and through energies and life. There's no real explanation or rationale to it. I believe partly because I was brought up to, but have also varied widely in that belief system.
God is a small, still voice inside. There are many names and many traditions for God, but in them all, He is there to guide, hold and help us. It is a comforting feeling knowing that it will all, eventually, work out, regardless of how hard we, as humans, try to screw it up ;)
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I don't think that belief is necessary or justified or anything else. I conduct my religious life the way I do because it adds beauty to my life.
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