Please outline your beliefs
 

I'm curious as to what the beliefs are of the theists, or even the ideas of religion/spirituality of those who are open minded and have no solid stance on the matter.

What are your beliefs regarding what God is?
What are your beliefs regarding who Jesus was and his relation to god and us?
What are your beliefs regarding other religeons?

Basically I'm interested in people's beliefs. Share anything you feel like.... recent revelations perhaps.

It'd be nice to see that I'm not the only one here that believes something.

Re: Please outline your beliefs
 

What are your beliefs regarding what God is?
What are your beliefs regarding who Jesus was and his relation to god and us?
What are your beliefs regarding other religeons?

1. Who's God? The homeless man on central and 4th says he is god, but the guy on 5th says he is. So I don't believe eitehr of them, lieing pieces of shit just want my money. I usually like homeless guys too.

2. Same as the homeless guys. Except this one is an old lady on 11th. I don't even think the supposed Man called Jesus even exsisted.

3. I really don't care. The only ones that are cool are eastern thought, and Hinduism. Hells yeah to many armed chicks.


All in all, I don't give two shits what any guy in a steepled building with roman torture devices hanging on it's walls says. Or what some guy that has people on his knees praying to some rubix cube in some desert. I do't care about them until they shove their lies in front of me and down my throat. If god loves me, I'd prefer it if his holy dudes didn't try to deep throat me with their ramblings.

Re: Please outline your beliefs
 

I think that the many ideas labelled god are very easy to delineate. But if I want to treat god as more than just a sound-pattern linked by numerous people to numerous concepts, then things become very difficult. For it seems that I cannot define it by the similarities between the concepts conventionally labelled god within cultures and subcultures, since they are so diverse: for example, some say that god created everything, while others say that it did not create anything, but that it is everything. So perhaps the solution, then, is to move away from the internal definitions and toward the external functions. God would then quite quickly appear to many as an active presence that delimits the possible. But here I worry about interpretation problems, as indicated here.

For the reasons expressed, I am hesitant about using the term atheist for myself. Certainly, I do not believe in the Abrahamic deity or Brahman, but to call myself an atheist, when it now comes with so many connotations, and when I may reject god as anything specific but a sound-pattern, I find problematic. To prevent confusion, rather than tell people I am an atheist, I would much rather ask them what they mean when they use the word god, unless it is blatantly obvious, and then evaluate them individually.

Bracketing questions of Jesus’ historical existence and divinity, I want to draw attention to what I find to be an interesting similarity between Jesus and Epicurus, Christianity and Hellenistic philosophy. The latter was born out of the effects political upheaval, centralized government and despotism had on the mind of the subject: because it had lost all political power, all control over external circumstances, and was being swirled around within a chaos, it turned its search for self-fulfilment inward and came to define happiness as absence of pain. This ultimate goal, happiness, was to be achieved through resignation of life and acquiescence: for the stoics and epicureans, everything passes and everything is fated, so one must live simple and unattached, accepting all that comes, while the sceptics said nothing can be known, and so we might as well give up the strain caused by the search for truth and be tranquil.

Similarly, Christianity taught obedience to the state, acquiescence and ascetic resignation from life for spiritual (inner) fulfilment. But whereas Epicureanism denied an afterlife, and stoicism did not promise personal immortality, Christianity promised an eternity in heaven; I believe this is one reason why Christianity replaced stoicism as the state religion of Rome. Certainly, stoicism, like all the other Hellenistic philosophies, was not, for the most part, just a philosophy: they were also cults. This is another point of similarity: both Christians and Epicureans lived in communes, and just as Christians believed Jesus to be the son of God, the Epicureans believed Epicurus was divine.

So to answer your question, I believe Christianity was born out of the same poverty as Hellenistic philosophy, and therefore that Jesus, whether real or fictional, was a nihilist. On a side note, I believe this ties in well with Marx’s theory of religion as the consequence of a politically alienated man. In fact, I believe that it essentially comes to the same conclusion, at least within the case of Christianity.

My opinions on them are probably trivial.

Re: Please outline your beliefs
 

I don't know what my God is. I don't even know if what I believe in could even be called a God. I don't know any of its specific properties. I don't know where it came from or if it created the universe or if it will end it. I don't even know if it exists only in my imagination or not.

All I have is that I sense something out there, and I respect it.

Jesus may or may not have been telling the truth. Jesus may or may not have even been real. I don't know, but I don't think it really matters.

They may or may not be telling the truth. I don't know, but I don't think it really matters.

Re: Please outline your beliefs
 

God is the oneness of all.

I think that it is most probable that Jesus from the bible did not exist, and was just a story that got recycled through many religions, ultimately originating in paganism. But I also think that lots of what 'Jesus said' in the bible can be very meaningful, if interpreted a certain way.

But thats the problem with religions. People should find the answers themselves, not follow along with insanity without question.

They're false, but all have some truth if you look for it.

I believe quieting the mind opens you up, brings about realizations about reality. I believe entheogens can be used ritualistically with the proper intention to learn more about the intricate nature of reality. Or God, in so little words.

Re: Please outline your beliefs
 

Shroomin up for the almighty one?

Now theres a bitchin religion.

Re: Please outline your beliefs
 

This thread has the potential to be a better consensus than the Poll we've had running for months now. Some people probably have difficulty assigning their beliefs to just one denomination.

Re: Please outline your beliefs
 

I see what you mean, the poll says that 60% of totse is athiest. And that only like 15 is chritian. WHich doesn't seem to be the picture here.

Re: Please outline your beliefs
 

I don't think either (christian or atheist) has been adequately represented here to portray the entire Totse population. It'll take awhile for this thread to mature before any accurate *picture* is available.

Only 4 people have responded to the OP.

*bump*

Re: Please outline your beliefs
 

I have not responded b/c I am trying not to shit on threads that seem to be more about pure theistic discussion, with atheism, as I have been known to do (especially since I am trying to clean Obbe shit off one of my threads as I type this) Hare said something about this in the thread about favorite bible verses and it got me thinking. If atheists were to back off and allow some theistic disscussion between theists ONLY it would draw more theists here. THEN when we have a enough fish in the barrell.....:)

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I am 100% atheist. I believe that any idea cannot be taken seriously and given any credence without evidence of some kind.

That being said I will say this.....I do not hate theists. I really don't. I know some of you can dredge my posts and find out something I have said to the contrary. I do not hate someone for believing in something without evidence.

I hate someone who believes in something, without evidence, and ALSO believes they should be able to fuck with my life based on that belief.