That's true for me as well. Ideally everything I do will become a manifestation of love. So if I wash dishes with love, it's part of my spiritual path.
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How important is your religious or spiritual beliefs for your life?
- Thread starter Starlight
- Start date
That's true for me as well. Ideally everything I do will become a manifestation of love. So if I wash dishes with love, it's part of my spiritual path.
Wildswanderer
Veteran Member
I don't know if I'd be alive without them. I'm certain I would be a much worse person.
Yet you apparently believe that Noah lived for 950 years - and the others doing similar? You have abandoned critical thinking here and simply trusted in a religious text as to being factual, in my view.
If anything was to replace or dramatically affect my ability to reason and apply critical thinking, so as to plump for what appeals to me instead, then I doubt I would be better off with whatever did that. Hence no such religious beliefs to effect this. Given that is what tends to happen - and so many examples here on RF.
Very important though I ashamedly admit I don’t necessarily practice it the way I’d like. Though in our beliefs just wanting to pleases God. He’s pretty chill that way.
Very important though I ashamedly admit I don’t necessarily practice it the way I’d like. Though in our beliefs just wanting to pleases God. He’s pretty chill that way.
I have a friend who wrote a song with the message "another silly blunder" because that's the way it is. If we can be more like children, we don't carry our failures on our back but just try again to master whatever we're working on.
Sgt. Pepper
All you need is love.
My spiritual beliefs are significant to me, but not to the extent that I must rely on them to get through the day or that I feel like I can't make the right decision about something without them. After renouncing my Christian faith, I eventually realized that I didn't need the biblical God or any other deities in my life to feel peace, joy, and contentment. I've learned to stand on my own two feet, so to speak, and I no longer feel the need to rely on some deity to help me get through difficult times, to control how I behave, or to dictate what decisions I make. The Wiccan Rede, the different deities, the respect for nature, and the openness of Wicca regarding death and the afterlife are why I find Wicca most appealing. Being a Wiccan has been liberating, and unlike when I was still a Christian, there is no longer any fear, guilt, or shame hanging over my head (click here to read my Christian backstory). I feel peace and joy in my heart.
The negativity I encountered during the years I was a Christian eventually led me to Wicca and, later, polytheism, and being a Wiccan has been a very positive experience for me. After being constrained to only one God as a Christian, learning about these other gods has been fascinating, and I feel liberated. I don't feel pressured to worship a particular god or goddess, nor do I feel pressured to always live morally upright in order to placate a very vengeful and jealous God who threatens to damn me to hell for all eternity if I don't toe the line and play by his stringent rules. I don't feel intimidated by any deities, nor do I fear the angry wrath of any deities.
Wicca isn't a rigidly structured, patriarchal religion that pompously claims to be the only true religion in the world or that pompously claims that women should be submissive to men and views women as inferior to men or claims that it's the only religion with the correct answers to theological questions like how to worship a god, pray to a god, or live a moral life. There are no holy scriptures, no widely accepted revelations, and no doctrines about what the afterlife will be like. Each Wiccan decides for themselves what they believe about spirits, the afterlife, and death. Wicca isn't a religion that arrogantly claims to be the only one with the correct answers to what happens after death, either. There are a few differing views found within Wicca when it comes to life after death, but there isn't an overseeing authority that instructs Wiccans to believe in any particular version of life after death. There are conclusions that many Wiccans may share, such as reincarnation, but there are no official stances. In my opinion, Wicca is a very welcoming religion.
My spiritual beliefs are absolutely the most important thing in my life!
Sand Dancer
Crazy Cat Lady
It is important to me, but I haven't found a religion that perfectly suits my spiritual beliefs. I crave ritual and community, so I am in a quandary.
Koldo
Outstanding Member
I am not even saying that critical thinkers must embrace materialist philosophies. What I am saying is that if something is deeply important to you, to the point the meaning of your life relies on it, you will do whatever it takes to preserve it. You won't want to think critically about it.
muhammad_isa
Well-Known Member
I think that might well be true for a lot of people .. but it does not follow that that is the underlying reason for their belief.
Atheism is clearly important to some people, as well.
They feel it gives them some sort of freedom.
Exaltist Ethan
Bridging the Gap Between Believers and Skeptics
This is exactly what I wanted to say about my own. You nailed how I feel about my own spirituality sun rise.
I will add however that what I'm striving - and what all we're striving to become - is God. One day I know we'll get there.
I'll steal a thought from @Quintessence here. The actions that reflect my spirituality are very important. Other than the core beliefs like a belief in God, what I do is more important. As an example, a person makes a flower mala, goes to temple to give the mala to God, then sits and sings songs of praise, then meditates, and while leaving deposits some money in the anonymous donation box. All of these are actions, and could be done by a wide variety of Hindus, or other folks, whose worship is anything similar. One would not know their belief unless an intellectual discussion occurred.
Messianic Israelite
Active Member
Hi Starlight. Good evening. Without Yahweh, my life would lack meaning, clarity and direction. Matter of fact, what would be the point of life? To live for a brief amount of time and then die? No resurrection. No reward for righteousness. That to me is a dismal existence, especially because some people have difficult lives. No wonder so many people keep suicide today, because they have no hope.
Romans 15:13 says:
"May the Elohim of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope."
It's interesting, just today I attended a meeting where we wished someone good-bye for their 10+ years at the workplace. During that meeting someone said, religion is brainwashing, but he was referring to those who are taught religion in schools at a young age. I have spoken to this guy a couple of times and I was about to wade in to him but someone changed the subject and I thought dropping it would be preferable to starting an argument at a meeting where we were supposed to congratulating the colleague for their success in getting a new job. But I wonder how many people believe this. Is religion simply brainwashing? A poll a few weeks ago in the U.S.A said that just 20% of people in the U.S believe the Bible to be the literal Word of Yahweh. That's horrendous. At one time that figure was about 80%. But the Bible is certainly not brainwashing anyone. Keeping the Word allows us to follow in Yahshua's perfect footsteps. There is great joy, peace and love in keeping the commandments of Yahweh. But to those who reject the Law of Yahweh, they're missing out. The early apostolic assembly were willing to give their lives, to be tortured, persecuted and killed, in order to please Yahweh through the keeping of the commandments. Our faith means something far more than gold, silver or riches insurmountable. We have a treasure in heaven (Matthew 6:19-21) which no-one can take away.
If the solar system was brought about by an accidental collision, then the appearance of organic life on this planet was also an accident, and the whole "evolution" of Man was an accident too. What a bleak way of looking at things! That our whole existence is one accident after another. I certainly don't believe it, and I don't think that believing such an idea is going to enrich our lives at all.
GardenLady
Active Member
Can you say more about this? I don't think of religion and ambition in any way going together, but would be glad to hear what that means to you.
Koldo
Outstanding Member
I didn't say anything about that being the underlying reason for their belief. Rather, it is the reason they can not afford to believe differently.
rational experiences
Veteran Member
My love for my father and his losses. I not only feel constantly about what we once shared in life. I heard my daughter's memories grieving him.
Spiritually the love we have together that he allows me to realise is in his spirits presence. Is so real without me loving him anywhere else or as anybody else as a living family member.
I do not love my family as I love my father. It's why I know his presence is with me. Spiritual. Spiritual causes a history of reasons human owned why.
It's how I know my brother's mind is missing from consciousness and he's virtually just a humans psyche only.
Spiritually the love we have together that he allows me to realise is in his spirits presence. Is so real without me loving him anywhere else or as anybody else as a living family member.
I do not love my family as I love my father. It's why I know his presence is with me. Spiritual. Spiritual causes a history of reasons human owned why.
It's how I know my brother's mind is missing from consciousness and he's virtually just a humans psyche only.
