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Poll: Which Parts of Religion Do You Focus On the Most?

Which Parts of Religion Do You Focus On the Most?


  • Total voters
    48

Exaltist Ethan

Bridging the Gap Between Believers and Skeptics
I had a book called Religion for Dummies written by a rabbi and in the book he splits religion into three equal parts. Beliefs, ethics and rituals. All three seem to be vital to sustaining an identity of a religion or a religious group. But I'm wondering what people here tend to focus on.

I myself tend to focus on beliefs and theology. That's the primary reason why I consider myself a member of Earthseed, as I highly value its three-part creed and its belief in extropy. I feel like ethics and morals is built into most people and doesn't need proper explanation from a spiritual or religious source. Rituals I really couldn't care less about.

This will become a poll with three options: beliefs / theology, morals / ethics, and rituals / rites. I will make the poll so it is possible to vote for two options if so desired.

Which areas of religion do you tend to focus most of your energy on and why?
 

VoidCat

Pronouns: he/him/they/them
Ethics and morality. Sometimes i don't have the energy to do rituals or to focus on beliefs.
 

SalixIncendium

अग्निविलोवनन्दः
Staff member
Premium Member
I find this a rather fascinating, because the breakdown above isn't all that dissimilar from the three yogas of Hinduism, Jnana (path of knowledge), Karma (the path of action), and Bhakti (the path of devotion).

The emphasis on this life has been on the first, but, as I see it, all are equally important.

I may pick up that book at some point, as it sounds like it's worth a read.
 

TransmutingSoul

Veteran Member
Premium Member
I had a book called Religion for Dummies written by a rabbi and in the book he splits religion into three equal parts. Beliefs, ethics and rituals. All three seem to be vital to sustaining an identity of a religion or a religious group. But I'm wondering what people here tend to focus on.

I myself tend to focus on beliefs and theology. That's the primary reason why I consider myself a member of Earthseed, as I highly value its three-part creed and its belief in extropy. I feel like ethics and morals is built into most people and doesn't need proper explanation from a spiritual or religious source. Rituals I really couldn't care less about.

This will become a poll with three options: beliefs / theology, morals / ethics, and rituals / rites. I will make the poll so it is possible to vote for two options if so desired.

Which areas of religion do you tend to focus most of your energy on and why?

I see Ethics and Morality is what feeds the other choices.

Regards Tony
 

Quintessence

Consults with Trees
Staff member
Premium Member
Practice. By a country mile.

Could've checked a second one, but didn't feel the need. Practice, practice, practice. Doing the things. The actual doing, feeling, experiencing, sensing... all matters tremendously more than whatever one thinks, believes, or projects onto the world.
 

osgart

Nothing my eye, Something for sure
I focus on the arguments in favor of the beliefs. Ethics is also quite interesting. I consider morality to be quite simple and obvious.

Mostly I look for religious footing in reality. Since I consider life a profound mystery I enjoy exploring some of the beliefs about it and see what's plausible.

I have not found it easy to know much beyond morality in religion. It's not like the physical world. It can feel like spinning your wheels and getting nowhere often.

My convictions land me squarely in the realm of religion and philosophy.
 

The Hammer

[REDACTED]
Premium Member
I had a book called Religion for Dummies written by a rabbi and in the book he splits religion into three equal parts. Beliefs, ethics and rituals. All three seem to be vital to sustaining an identity of a religion or a religious group. But I'm wondering what people here tend to focus on.

I myself tend to focus on beliefs and theology. That's the primary reason why I consider myself a member of Earthseed, as I highly value its three-part creed and its belief in extropy. I feel like ethics and morals is built into most people and doesn't need proper explanation from a spiritual or religious source. Rituals I really couldn't care less about.

This will become a poll with three options: beliefs / theology, morals / ethics, and rituals / rites. I will make the poll so it is possible to vote for two options if so desired.

Which areas of religion do you tend to focus most of your energy on and why?

Rights and rituals helps create ethics and morality. So those two
 

Yazata

Active Member
I had a book called Religion for Dummies written by a rabbi and in the book he splits religion into three equal parts. Beliefs, ethics and rituals.

From a Buddhist perspective, there's arguably only one: Practice. Practice can be divided into two subcategories, I guess: Ethical practice and meditative practice. I suppose that ritual can be considered a practice too.

All three seem to be vital to sustaining an identity of a religion or a religious group. But I'm wondering what people here tend to focus on.

In my own case, ethical practice is my biggie. I don't meditate as much as I should and ritual plays very little part.

But I'm an old philosophy major and metaphysics plays a big role in my religiosity. It only plays a small role in Buddhism, but I'm not a Buddhist in that regard. I'm more of a Deist I guess. I'm fascinated by the big metaphysical questions: reality's first cause, its ultimate metaphysical ground of being, the source of cosmic order, why existence exists at all. (And many more questions like those.)

I sense (perhaps wrongly) that there are answers to those kind of ultimate questions. Unfortunately, I have no clue what the ultimate answers are. Hence my agnosticism.
 
Last edited:

exchemist

Veteran Member
I had a book called Religion for Dummies written by a rabbi and in the book he splits religion into three equal parts. Beliefs, ethics and rituals. All three seem to be vital to sustaining an identity of a religion or a religious group. But I'm wondering what people here tend to focus on.

I myself tend to focus on beliefs and theology. That's the primary reason why I consider myself a member of Earthseed, as I highly value its three-part creed and its belief in extropy. I feel like ethics and morals is built into most people and doesn't need proper explanation from a spiritual or religious source. Rituals I really couldn't care less about.

This will become a poll with three options: beliefs / theology, morals / ethics, and rituals / rites. I will make the poll so it is possible to vote for two options if so desired.

Which areas of religion do you tend to focus most of your energy on and why?
I get most out of the rites and rituals. I am a bit of a free thinker and sceptic when it comes to religious doctrine, having seen so many different religions on my travels, with so much in common in spite of apparently diverging doctrines. What I look for is a special point in the week to set daily life aside and go somewhere else, to have a bit of a reset and contemplate what is really important in life. The ritual of the mass and music are important to me for that. The ethics and morality, as encapsulated in the teaching of Christ, are what I like to contemplate, of course. But without something to get me in the mood, nothing happens at all.
 

sayak83

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
I had a book called Religion for Dummies written by a rabbi and in the book he splits religion into three equal parts. Beliefs, ethics and rituals. All three seem to be vital to sustaining an identity of a religion or a religious group. But I'm wondering what people here tend to focus on.

I myself tend to focus on beliefs and theology. That's the primary reason why I consider myself a member of Earthseed, as I highly value its three-part creed and its belief in extropy. I feel like ethics and morals is built into most people and doesn't need proper explanation from a spiritual or religious source. Rituals I really couldn't care less about.

This will become a poll with three options: beliefs / theology, morals / ethics, and rituals / rites. I will make the poll so it is possible to vote for two options if so desired.

Which areas of religion do you tend to focus most of your energy on and why?
It will be the first part for me. But I also do meditation, not sure if that actually is a "rite or ritual" though.
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
I had a book called Religion for Dummies written by a rabbi and in the book he splits religion into three equal parts. Beliefs, ethics and rituals. All three seem to be vital to sustaining an identity of a religion or a religious group. But I'm wondering what people here tend to focus on.

I myself tend to focus on beliefs and theology. That's the primary reason why I consider myself a member of Earthseed, as I highly value its three-part creed and its belief in extropy. I feel like ethics and morals is built into most people and doesn't need proper explanation from a spiritual or religious source. Rituals I really couldn't care less about.

This will become a poll with three options: beliefs / theology, morals / ethics, and rituals / rites. I will make the poll so it is possible to vote for two options if so desired.

Which areas of religion do you tend to focus most of your energy on and why?
When I was trying to be a Christian, it was certainly an obstacle that I couldn't accept various beliefs, but the things that actively repelled me were the aspects of Christianity that I saw as unethical.

Apparently, for me, ethics is most important.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
I had a book called Religion for Dummies written by a rabbi and in the book he splits religion into three equal parts. Beliefs, ethics and rituals. All three seem to be vital to sustaining an identity of a religion or a religious group. But I'm wondering what people here tend to focus on.

I myself tend to focus on beliefs and theology. That's the primary reason why I consider myself a member of Earthseed, as I highly value its three-part creed and its belief in extropy. I feel like ethics and morals is built into most people and doesn't need proper explanation from a spiritual or religious source. Rituals I really couldn't care less about.

This will become a poll with three options: beliefs / theology, morals / ethics, and rituals / rites. I will make the poll so it is possible to vote for two options if so desired.

Which areas of religion do you tend to focus most of your energy on and why?
The realistic aspects.

I want the direct truth on how things actually are.

Not flights of fantasy, embellishments, and imagination.
 
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