Well you can most certainly have this conversation with me as much as you like! No one will talk to me about this sort of thing, either, - even my closest friends won't discuss it with me. Which I don't mind, but I wish *someone* would talk to me about it. When my views bump heads with another the most I will do is agree to disagree, so I see no harm in talking about it.
I know what you mean, though. I grew up as a Pentecostal Christian and my main source of religious guidance came from my Aunt and Granny. I am an animal rights activist, always have been. When the topic of souls would come up I was always told only humans have souls, animals go nowhere when they die, and humans have dominion over all animals. I never agreed with any of this. I always thought animals and humans are equal, and if animals have no soul then either humans have no soul as well or everything has a soul. I decided to go with the majority and say nothing has a soul.
I never spoke of this to my family, of course - they would have died hearing something like that from an 11 year old child - but every time they would mention something in the Bible that I didn't agree with I would ask them to explain it more and admit I didn't understand why I was supposed to believe it. My family's favorite thing to say in reply to this was "Well, God says it, so it doesn't matter what you believe. You just have to trust that he's right and ignore your doubt." It was always about giving up your opinions and fighting so damn hard for something someone else told you to believe. That's where I was skeptical of God to begin with. Why give someone a mind if they can't use it without going to Hell?
Truthfully, I used to have severe anger problems when I was a Christian [most likely because of all the suppressed opinions and being angry at the fact that I was going to Hell for thinking for myself]. When I completely let Christianity go and decided to believe that thinking for myself wasn't wrong, I became a MUCH more peaceful person. Of course, you can't say that about every godless person - some people become godless out of anger. As far as I'm concerned, you can't pin someone for something simply because of what they do/don't believe. There are "bad" [and "good"] Christians, Wiccans, Pagans, Catholics, Buddhists, Taoists, et cetera. It's not about their religion, it's just human nature. No community of people is perfect, so the whole "all godless people are bad" argument isn't legit to begin with.
I pretty much agree with everything you said. I think its quite stupid, irrational and spineless of a person to agree unquestioningly with whatever they are told. I think people should question everything and never believe that they have the right answer and that "thats just the way it is". I just had another interesting conversation with the same person that I think I'm going to ask here in a new post.
I guess the things I do believe firmly are, you're never right, always believe in new possibilities "Anything is possible" because you are closing yourself off to SOOOOOOOO much by just thinking "Well thats the way I think it is".
The only way I differ is that I think we're all spirits, everything. Personally having experienced not being in my body. I think spirits might be a type of energy and people who have "psychic" abilities are just people who tap into it. Most people ignore it or think "Everyone can do that". I have certain people ( my brother and sister, my dad, my best friends, my pets even) that I always know when they are thinking about me. Its kind of an energy charged feeling.
But I'm still not sure how to relate that all to existence, purpose, and God.
Sometimes I think that earth was just a [un]happy accident.
Don't get me wrong, I believe in spirits, just not souls. I have always been told of everlasting souls, and I do not believe anything lasts forever. I agree with the spirits possibly being energy... I'm still contemplating on what a spirit truly is, but I do believe all things have one. It's sort of hard for me to not believe in spirits [I've tried] when I sense vibes from nearly everything I come in contact with.
I don't have an opinion on where the Earth came from - I just accept that she is here and has a spirit, too. I think there are some things in life that will forever go unanswered, and I believe her origin is one of those things. Strangely enough, it really doesn't bother me not knowing where she came from. I just accept the fact that I will never have the answer to everything.
I know what you mean, though. I grew up as a Pentecostal Christian and my main source of religious guidance came from my Aunt and Granny. I am an animal rights activist, always have been. When the topic of souls would come up I was always told only humans have souls, animals go nowhere when they die, and humans have dominion over all animals. I never agreed with any of this. I always thought animals and humans are equal, and if animals have no soul then either humans have no soul as well or everything has a soul. I decided to go with the majority and say nothing has a soul.
I never spoke of this to my family, of course - they would have died hearing something like that from an 11 year old child - but every time they would mention something in the Bible that I didn't agree with I would ask them to explain it more and admit I didn't understand why I was supposed to believe it. My family's favorite thing to say in reply to this was "Well, God says it, so it doesn't matter what you believe. You just have to trust that he's right and ignore your doubt." It was always about giving up your opinions and fighting so damn hard for something someone else told you to believe. That's where I was skeptical of God to begin with. Why give someone a mind if they can't use it without going to Hell?
Truthfully, I used to have severe anger problems when I was a Christian [most likely because of all the suppressed opinions and being angry at the fact that I was going to Hell for thinking for myself]. When I completely let Christianity go and decided to believe that thinking for myself wasn't wrong, I became a MUCH more peaceful person. Of course, you can't say that about every godless person - some people become godless out of anger. As far as I'm concerned, you can't pin someone for something simply because of what they do/don't believe. There are "bad" [and "good"] Christians, Wiccans, Pagans, Catholics, Buddhists, Taoists, et cetera. It's not about their religion, it's just human nature. No community of people is perfect, so the whole "all godless people are bad" argument isn't legit to begin with.
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I guess the things I do believe firmly are, you're never right, always believe in new possibilities "Anything is possible" because you are closing yourself off to SOOOOOOOO much by just thinking "Well thats the way I think it is".
The only way I differ is that I think we're all spirits, everything. Personally having experienced not being in my body. I think spirits might be a type of energy and people who have "psychic" abilities are just people who tap into it. Most people ignore it or think "Everyone can do that". I have certain people ( my brother and sister, my dad, my best friends, my pets even) that I always know when they are thinking about me. Its kind of an energy charged feeling.
But I'm still not sure how to relate that all to existence, purpose, and God.
Sometimes I think that earth was just a [un]happy accident.
Reply
Don't get me wrong, I believe in spirits, just not souls. I have always been told of everlasting souls, and I do not believe anything lasts forever. I agree with the spirits possibly being energy... I'm still contemplating on what a spirit truly is, but I do believe all things have one. It's sort of hard for me to not believe in spirits [I've tried] when I sense vibes from nearly everything I come in contact with.
I don't have an opinion on where the Earth came from - I just accept that she is here and has a spirit, too. I think there are some things in life that will forever go unanswered, and I believe her origin is one of those things. Strangely enough, it really doesn't bother me not knowing where she came from. I just accept the fact that I will never have the answer to everything.
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