Your Line of Reasoning (NO DEBATE)

[St Giordano Bruno]

So what led you to your beliefs, what reason is there. Not asking for evidence, just what makes you think your beliefs are reasonable. If your answer is just "Because I have faith" then please don't bother replying. I'm not going to debate you or anything, I just am interested in your form of reasoning.

So basically: X therefore I think Y. (X is what is a known fact, Y is your beliefs).

I separate my beliefs from knowledge, my beliefs are much more uncertain than knowledge and therefore much weaker. My beliefs change from time to time in the light of new evidence but stuff I know or I think I know stays pretty constant.

 

[BruceDLimber]

We're not even a speck compared to the whole universe.

Therefore I don't see it likely that God would care about us.

The Baha'i scriptures state otherwise:

“O SON OF MAN!
“Veiled in My immemorial being and in the ancient eternity of My essence, I knew My love for thee; therefore I created thee, have engraved on thee Mine image, and revealed to thee My beauty. “
―The Hidden Words, Part One, #4

"Upon the inmost reality of each and every created thing [God] hath shed the light of one of His names, and made it a recipient of the glory of one of His attributes. Upon the reality of man, however, He hath focused the radiance of all of His names and attributes, and made it a mirror of His own Self. Alone of all created things man hath been singled out for so great a favor, so enduring a bounty."
―Gleanings, XXVII, pg. 65

"Man is the supreme talisman. Lack of a proper education hath, however, deprived him of that which he doth inherently possess. Through a word proceeding out of the mouth of God he was called into being; by one word more he was guided to recognize the Source of his education; by yet another word his station and destiny were safeguarded. The Great Being saith: Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasures, and enable mankind to benefit therefrom."
—(Gleanings, CXXII, pp. 259-260)

Best!

Bruce

 

[Quintessence]

Well, part of the reason I gave a very simple answer, Sum, is because to go into a lot of detail would be very complicated. We all have quite a large number of "beliefs" we could discuss our reasons for, and it could easily fill a book. I'm not writing you a book.

Just to pick one, though, the trail of reasoning that led me to "believe" in deity is something like this (oversimplified):

1) The universe is an awe-inspiring and wondrous place!
2) Humans depend completely on the universe for their existence!
3) Given 1 & 2, the best word I can come up with to describe awe at the universe and a humble acknowledgement of dependency on its greatness it is "deity/spirit/sacred/magical." Hence, pantheism.
4) The universe is a darned big place. It's a lot easier to honor that awesome greatness when I can interact with it more directly and personally. Hence, polytheism and animism.

 

[Caladan]

So what led you to your beliefs, what reason is there.

When I left the search for truth, I remained with the search for facts.
I don't look for answers to supernatural questions. religion is not a philosophy that should provide me with definite answers about metaphysical questions, such as the afterlife, belief in miracles, or theological truth. the real quest is to understand the context. for example lately we have been debating the historical existence of Jesus, but what scholars would tell you is that the real quest is not finding the sandal of Jesus, the flask of John the Baptist, or a lock of hair from one of the camels of Muhammad's caravan. it is about constructing a picture of the world and culture as it was during the period of Jesus or Muhammad, or in other words what the society which produced the narrative of the gospels or the Qur'an looked like, what were their ideas, cultural traits, political circumstances.
I don't think Jesus turned water into wine, I think its possible that such a miracle was written in order to show his superiority over the Greek god of wine. I don't think Jesus was the Son of God, again I think that the writers of the gospels had to compete with the Imperial Cult's claim that Caesar was the Son of God. this is the search for facts.
however, if you really look for the material from which religion is made of, look at the speech of Jesus and his actions, look at the reasoning the prophet Jeremiah uses with his king in times of regional conflict, look at the other real life situations which demand character and show of reason.
to believe that Jesus rose from the dead doesn't mean much to me, to discuss his actions at the Temple in the face of the commercial activity in the compound is more interesting and telling about what a Jewish man's critical opinion of his contemporary society might have been like.
as I said in the beginning, I don't look for truth, I look for facts. or at least for evidence.

 

[zenzero]

Friend T S o A,

Your Line of Reasoning (NO DEBATE)

Resoning requires use of the MIND, and since all efforts are in STILLING the mind have no line of resoning nor any faith or belief system.

Love & rgds

 

[Falvlun]

Friend T S o A,


Resoning requires use of the MIND, and since all efforts are in STILLING the mind have no line of resoning nor any faith or belief system.

Love & rgds

So how'd you come to the belief that stilling of the mind was the best route?

 

[icekold]

To be honest my family background was from a little known religion "cross bearers" who would before teaching children their holy book (grail message) would read passages of "transmitted writings " Fictional stories? based on other prophets from other religions. Most were factually very similar to what other religions said about their originators i found out later but there was alot of extra information regarding their positive reasons for doing things in a particular way. As well as going past their deaths and explaining how certain societies and figures adapted their message to suit their own aims.

Its funny writing this has shown me exactly how much this childhood has influenced my perceptions. The funny thing is however when i got to read the actual holy book i then got this feeling that certain things didnt fit.
Why was this a religion with temples and levels of advancement. when one of the founders main point was he did not want to create a religion. Also certain ideas in the texts like elemental beings (similar to fairies) i did not see a purpose for coming from a scientific viewpoint because they performed tasks which there was no reason for there to be an entity performing as the naturals laws already governed them.

I then came to the conclusion this is not completely right either. I then began my searching I read most of the bible but certain things particularly wrathful god and "slaves obey your masters" and other scientific inaccuracies made me move on.

I read some translated parts of the koran and moved on.

I lightly researched budhisim taoisim, dabbled with atheism then researched various polytheistic religions. During that time I began seeing common themes occurring with similarities between deity s and other individuals.

The thought popped into my head what if the reason their are so many similarities is because of a shared heritage. I researched a bit more and discovered some of similarities were probably cause by deification of historical figures for most polytheistic religions.

And while the teachings of most monotheistic pseudo historical figures was similar they appeared to be individuals (note: across many religions there is a theme of death and rebirth for their most holy figures which i find similar to scientific big bang big chill ideology. ) This is probably where i began to unconsciously formulate my shared source theory.

At the end of all this I came to these conclusion I don't believe in any religion. I have a scientific viewpoint.
However after a certain point several coincidences together must have a certain level of significance. I don't mean miracles i mean events that needed to occur for the universe and earth to exist in the first place same for humans to evolve.
( There are alot more of coincidences i will describe them somewhere at a later date)
This is what made me further conclude there is a hidden track something we cannot quite see and while I hate the religious connotations of calling it god because i do not see why anything supremely powerful would require "praise" or performs miracles like a magician but that is the one word that best fits what i am noticing. There are a few other phrases that may work The source, The creator. I really don't think it matters and i am still searching for answers.
as for what i think about religion o wrote a bit about it on my im new page but i will post when i find the right topic.

 

[zenzero]

Friend Falvlun,

Reading and converting words into deeds:
STILLING the MIND!

Love & rgds

 

[Satyamavejayanti]

So what led you to your beliefs, what reason is there. Not asking for evidence, just what makes you think your beliefs are reasonable. If your answer is just "Because I have faith" then please don't bother replying. I'm not going to debate you or anything, I just am interested in your form of reasoning.

So basically: X therefore I think Y. (X is what is a known fact, Y is your beliefs).

Well i view the universe as structured, so structured that we can mathematically formulate what things are made off, and i see the "design" in that structure.
So i assume of a designer.

 

[Marcion]

So what led you to your beliefs, what reason is there. Not asking for evidence, just what makes you think your beliefs are reasonable. If your answer is just "Because I have faith" then please don't bother replying. I'm not going to debate you or anything, I just am interested in your form of reasoning.

So basically: X therefore I think Y. (X is what is a known fact, Y is your beliefs).

I started out disliking superstition and other irrational ways of thinking and admiring rational ways of thinking [from age 5] and science [from age 8]. Then I started thinking there must be a higher and more unifying truth beyond relativity and beyond time, place and person [from age 17]. Then I started to accept that I am/must be connected to this unifying truth through my own subjective being, my own consciousness [from age 20].

So I reached my present way of belief through admiration for science and what I thought must lie beyond reasoning, I wanted to go a step further than the present level of knowledge about physics and the universe and found this in a philosophy that includes mysticism.