Religion and spirituality discussion. [Civil conversation only!]

[lobotomy3yes]

I taught myself to lucid dream, but I didn't really find it all that amazing. I prefer to see where my dreams go without interference.


As for religion? Sometimes I believe in God and sometimes I don't. I do not think it really matters because the supernatural is not a physical, testable, falsifiable thing.
So believing there is a God or not is just an arbitrary decision. I used to think my ethics stemmed from my religious beliefs. I started to distance myself with religion once I realized that I held beliefs about ethics beyond what any book says. It is just something that I believe, and no bible can tell me otherwise. Generally these beliefs fit into a utilitarian/consequentialist frame of mind though.


I can't say that I believe in out-of-body experiences in the spiritual sense. I believe the mind is a physical thing, and that no matter how real such an experience may seem, the reality is that it is simply neurons firing.


So yeah, that's what I think I believe.

 

[Wolfeyes]

Personally I've found my own path. It's rather complicated to explain, but it's essentially common elements of various religions combined with self formed ideologies. I'm also deep into various flavors of mysticism, mostly Slavic, Afro-Caribbean and Native American.

 

[Rstank]

i believe spirituality and religion to be enterily different things religion is an organized thing a book a gathering a basis of control and then i belive spirituality to be all around us at all times i get spirtual when i stand in the forrest i feel the energy of everything around me embracing me.....i belive spirituality as an individual experience there is no same two ways everyones path is different everyone marches through a different time and place so none can be entirely the same......i belive smoking and drinking although can be used to recieve lessons that this plant such as tobacco and marijuana have to teach....but most people these days abuse and use to escape there spiritual existance......it is denying a piece of yourself by doing so....RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY NOT THE SAME THING.....i can agree that a spirtual pressense can be felt at any mass temple or masq.....but the answer is simple enough people are present throwing there energy and soul into dities that arent physical or spirtual by any nature thusly making them funnel such love and compassion into a bottomless pit...and to belive that christ is a physical aparition and physically did what he did....is to miss the entire point of the book

 

[Rstank]

im prone to native and shamanic practices because medicine mixed with ideal and prooves effective....well i diffently get behind things that help people and heal them

 

[tallhorseman]

pat robertson (non-capitalization intended cause I don't like the old shit-head) is using the Haiti earthquake to sling mud at Haitians. He says that god (not capitalized because I don't believe in the same god as he) intentionally lit the fuse on Haiti because they made a pact with the devil. I believe this is a good example of Bad Religion.

 

[veggieguy12]

For anyone who believes in god(s) or "higher power" or even identifies as a member of a major religion, I'm wondering: how much of the texts do you believe to be literally true?

The stories of Prophet Muhammad or the Old Testament tales, the sermons of Jesus, the life and reincarnations of the Buddha - how much do you, as a subscriber to the faith, take as actually real and accurately reported, rather than as a metaphor or fable?