confused? of what to call myself

[unsure77]

ill start of by saying i do believe in a god.......what i dont believe in is man and especially his interpratations and opinions that he finds absolute...it seems like vanity to me........doubt seems not only more believable but much more humbling
with that said i know im not an athiest.......certain aspects to agnostism seems to apply but others dont.......i simply feel like i have since i was a child...a certainty that something is responsible for all of this. but i dont assume i know what it is,but for someone to act or preach that they absolutly know (the way) whatever that is,is nothing but lunacy to me.....i know there is something out there but his/her ways are so far above ours ,we could never possibly comprehend them,,and why would we want to,why cant it be a mystery....its seems people fear some kind of hell so terribly...they spend there lives preparing for some kind of afterlife in "disneyland".....while this one turns to ****......if more people preached the gospel of "i dont know" instead of certainty.....we might strive to make the most out of the live we have now......and when we die,it could be something more amazing then we could have possible imagined...why is that so bad?....i know in my heart and gut there is a higher power........what does that make me? please dont try to convert me to athiesm or try to make me a christian. i just want an honest opinion......thank you (sorry for the spelling errors)

 

[LuisDantas]

Welcome to the RF.

Have you read about Deism, Pantheism and Panentheism? You sound like you might have affinities with some of those beliefs.

 

[unsure77]

no i havent but thank u and i will check them out........seeing as how i live two notches over from the actual bible belt .............those just arent words you hear very often.......thanx for giving me a place to start....

 

[unsure77]

well deism and panantheism certainly has somes aspects of my beliefs...it helps but when i combine that with the aspects of agnosticsism.....it raises
more questions ,,,i cant just stitch some kind of frankenstein religion together can i ?and i dont have the want, need,charm ,time,and stage presence to start a cult ....so i guess the search continues..................it just seems so simple to me , just a gut feeling in a god,but have u have no way or desire in interpurting his/her ways..u just no he/she is there...live a good life and take it from there...he may intervene he may not.....people say i love to curl up and read a good mystery.....well they wouldnt if i told them the end would they......but these same people spend their life ,trying to ruin the ultimate mystery.....amazing.........i mean whats the worst case scenerio ..your in a box in the ground..........who cares your dead.....so anything besides that is a bonus....right?.....so thats it ,just a gut feeling in a higher power and thats enough for you....i cant believe there;s no word for that,,thanx again

 

[Koldo]

You can mix religions as you wish, or you could just call yourself a theist and leave it at that.

 

[unsure77]

theism sounds a little broader than i had hoped , but so far ,its the closest thing ive come across.....thank you....see im from tennessee and there are more baptists here than ut fans(thats alot).....and ive had dozens of people try "turn me" and i just cant drink the kool aid(or jesus juice).....christianity should be in the guiness book of records for worlds longest game of telephone.thats why i cant trust it(too many chiefs throughout the centuries and not enough indians)....so many years have passed and too many people have used the bible and that religion for there personal agendas,,,i would need absolute truth to believe in it...and we know thats just not gonna happen(everything is so cryptic in the bible,like an old pink floyd record)u can interpret it in so many ways.like revalations for example,its almost like john had some kind of fever dream when he wrote that..and if someone has the nerve to say he understands the meaning of that book hes either an out and out liar or on peyote buttons..and that makes it unreliable,but people here belive it whole heartedly"oh its true i know." really ,how do you know ? "because its in the bible"wow!! alot of these people literally think, god himself sat on a cloud with a typewriter and banged that swill out in a weekend,why? because thats what they were told!!and they just buy into it!!(religion is the only area of life were its o.k. to throw rational thought to the wind...astounding).i had a lady come to my business a few years ago to teach us quick books...she went to ut and had a masters in religous studies.....now shes an athiest... so that tells me if you drag the waters of religion for long enough ,something will make you question it eventually....in other words i believe people tend to over think it....i just feel the way i feel and im content with that,but it would be nice to a have a single word handy,when people say "well what do you believe"....so again thank you, theism will do for now...i doubt many babtists know what that word means,even though they are monotheistic.....as far as mixin religions go,i think ill have to pass....i dont want to end up some kind of joseph smith..my familiy owns sub contract glaizing business ,and i woud say that over 1/4 off our business are churches....gigantic tax free summer homes for god!!......and there all way too big...with indoor tracks and basketball courts..and it makes me think ,jesus wouldnt be caught dead in these places,because according to him its easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle ,than a rich man to enter heaven.and if what he said is true,id love to know his opinion on the vatican....see its little contradictions that are riddled through out the bible that make it impossible for me to accept it...well anyway thanks again theism will do for now,meanwhile the search continues............

 

[unsure77]

while looking at your suggestions , i came across religious pluralism.....and its defenition. And i have to say that is somethimg ive strongly believed for a long time....if you take three of the major religions,lets say,christianity,islam, and judeism...while very different they have many things in common....such as some of their stories beliefs and characters within these stories....common sense tells me that...they all stemmed from an original religion and at some point ,there was a major dissagrement among certain members which caused them to branch off and over many years ,the original idea was lost and each of these religions mutated it.to fit their particular needs and beliefs......not unlike the differnces between a catholic and methodist or a baptist and a mormon.just to the nth degree...it seems to me at some point it all had to start somewhere...and the truth or our idea of what the truth is.was more pure and honest and man's vanity and pigheadedness.caused us to forget this fact..ive always felt if we blew ourselves up in some foolish holy war....GOD would just shake his head and tell us "you morons i was the same god to all religions. u just gave me a different name and your stubborness has destroyed what i created for you."......everything has to have a point of origin dosent it? does this make any sense at all or am i complete hammerhead? please be honest..........thnx

 

[Luminous]

ill start of by saying i do believe in a god.......what i dont believe in is man and especially his interpratations and opinions that he finds absolute...it seems like vanity to me........doubt seems not only more believable but much more humbling
with that said i know im not an athiest.......certain aspects to agnostism seems to apply but others dont.......i simply feel like i have since i was a child...a certainty that something is responsible for all of this. but i dont assume i know what it is,but for someone to act or preach that they absolutly know (the way) whatever that is,is nothing but lunacy to me.....i know there is something out there but his/her ways are so far above ours ,we could never possibly comprehend them,,and why would we want to,why cant it be a mystery....its seems people fear some kind of hell so terribly...they spend there lives preparing for some kind of afterlife in "disneyland".....while this one turns to ****......if more people preached the gospel of "i dont know" instead of certainty.....we might strive to make the most out of the live we have now......and when we die,it could be something more amazing then we could have possible imagined...why is that so bad?....i know in my heart and gut there is a higher power........what does that make me? please dont try to convert me to athiesm or try to make me a christian. i just want an honest opinion......thank you (sorry for the spelling errors)

some sort of agnostic theist...perhaps a Deist.

btw: Christianity and Islam came from Jewdaism.
and Jewdaism is not a major world religion.

 

[Breathe]

I agree with Luis: look at pantheism, panentheism, and deism.

Welcome to RF, unsure!

What religions have you looked at, may I ask?

I'm guessing you've looked at Christianity, Mormonism, Judaism and possibly Islam, but have you looked at others, like Bahá'í, Ras Tafari, Sikhism, Hinduism, or even, if your view of God is broad enough, looking into say, Taoism and some schools of Buddhism?

It depends what you think is the nature of this 'God', if you believe in one, but I hope I've given you something to think about.

 

[LuisDantas]

well deism and panantheism certainly has somes aspects of my beliefs...it helps but when i combine that with the aspects of agnosticsism.....it raises
more questions ,,,i cant just stitch some kind of frankenstein religion together can i ?

Why wouldn't you? In a way, it is the best approach.

BTW, agnosticism is compatible with just about everything that is worth considering believing in.

and i dont have the want, need,charm ,time,and stage presence to start a cult ....so i guess the search continues..................it just seems so simple to me , just a gut feeling in a god,but have u have no way or desire in interpurting his/her ways..u just no he/she is there...live a good life and take it from there...he may intervene he may not.....people say i love to curl up and read a good mystery.....well they wouldnt if i told them the end would they......but these same people spend their life ,trying to ruin the ultimate mystery.....amazing.........i mean whats the worst case scenerio ..your in a box in the ground..........who cares your dead.....so anything besides that is a bonus....right?.....so thats it ,just a gut feeling in a higher power and thats enough for you....i cant believe there;s no word for that,,thanx again

Out of curiosity, do you feel that you really need to have a clear description of your beliefs? It is not like it is an inherent duty for anyone, AFAIK.

 

[unsure77]

i dont really NEED it put i really ,just wanted know if there was a word for this gut feeling i keep talking about ....and if ther are others that felt this way......i dont need it because i know what i feel is deep down is right.............it would just be a nice thing to know ty

 

[charles brough]

What really is certain about our understanding of ourselves, the world and the universe? We depend upon scientists to make all that we understand about it all more accurate, but we can never know everything about anything. So, there is no reason to expect it.

I am totally content to accept what the physical scientists agree on. One thing they agree on is that we can never prove their is no "God" because it is not possible to prove a negative. We cannot even prove Santa Claus does not exist.

So that saves us from the problem. If there is a god that we can never know exists, then it is one we can totally dismiss. He has no bearing on our lives. If he did, we would have reason to believe he does indeed exist.

There is cause to be an atheist, an agnostic and a diest as all are consistent with science, all deal with natural cause and effect.

That is why I like this thread. I am an atheist, but what is more important, I am with the rest of us a Non-Theist. We are the ones who align with science against those who believe there is a "God" up there who fools around with natural cause and effect and responds to prayer when, for example, people pray for peace. He then stops all wars and responds to those gentle souls who plead with him so earnestly.

Or is it that wars continue because none of them do pray for peace?

Myself, I wish we who were Non-Theists would come to an understanding that the world needs us to replace all the old theistic religion that have cut the world into divisions---such as Islam, Christendom, Hindu India, etc. They and their ancient ways of thinking lead the world to breed like rabbits until we over-populate our globe and have no where else to go but to colonize space---which we are unwilling to pay the cost of doing. We need birth control universally to stop the over-population and the ruining of the environment. We need to replace the ideologies that divide our world. We need a way of thinking and world view that will carry us on, unite the globe and enable us to replace this declining civilization with a new one.

I'm working on that. Anyone else willing to do so also?

 

[The_Evelyonian]

Thread moved to Comparative Religion​

 

[tumbleweed41]

well deism and panantheism certainly has somes aspects of my beliefs...it helps but when i combine that with the aspects of agnosticsism.....it raises
more questions ,,,i cant just stitch some kind of frankenstein religion together can i

Look, my Deism differs quite a bit from many others.
I don't need to fit in. All I need is to know what I believe, and be comfortable with it.
You don't need to join a Club, or belong to some defined group to have a belief.

 

[blackout]

So is this right?....

You are inclined towards the belief that there is some kind of "Higher Power".

There really should be a word for this.
I'm thinking about it.

 

[blackout]

I often play Word Games.

I also love Mystery.

Sometimes I say that mine is a "Mystery Religion".

I really don't know what to call mySelf either,
so I try to have a sense of humor with it.

While I am inclined to the Left Hand Path,
I sometimes prefer to call mySelf "Ambidextrous".
Or a practitioner of the "At Hand Path".

It sometimes sucks not having any succinct kind of label
in a world that reveres labels so highly.

humms tune "A little bit of this.... A little bit of that....."

 

[Muffled]

ill start of by saying i do believe in a god.......what i dont believe in is man and especially his interpratations and opinions that he finds absolute...it seems like vanity to me........doubt seems not only more believable but much more humbling
with that said i know im not an athiest.......certain aspects to agnostism seems to apply but others dont.......i simply feel like i have since i was a child...a certainty that something is responsible for all of this. but i dont assume i know what it is,but for someone to act or preach that they absolutly know (the way) whatever that is,is nothing but lunacy to me.....i know there is something out there but his/her ways are so far above ours ,we could never possibly comprehend them,,and why would we want to,why cant it be a mystery....its seems people fear some kind of hell so terribly...they spend there lives preparing for some kind of afterlife in "disneyland".....while this one turns to ****......if more people preached the gospel of "i dont know" instead of certainty.....we might strive to make the most out of the live we have now......and when we die,it could be something more amazing then we could have possible imagined...why is that so bad?....i know in my heart and gut there is a higher power........what does that make me? please dont try to convert me to athiesm or try to make me a christian. i just want an honest opinion......thank you (sorry for the spelling errors)

How can you be certain that uncertainty is better? I don't like the idea of always having to tread on thin ice. I want a firm foundation under my feet. I believe that firm foundation means that I walk a sure path making the life I live most valuable.

 

[confusedius]

Worth a look perhaps...

The Human Jesus and Christian Deism

james

 

[confusedius]

i cant just stitch some kind of frankenstein religion together can i ?

Why not? How do you think all the other ones came about?

james