Religious Beliefs

Lets keep this to a sane discussion, what are your beliefs and why?

I'll respond later.

I'm a buddhist, mainly because i find the religion quite interesting.

I suppose I shouldn't speak definitely on anything, but I'm probably Agnostic. It's sad really. It's no longer that I want to believe that there's a God and all that, it's now a matter of me being afraid of what will happen if I don't believe.
Hell does not sound too appealing.

I suppose, if anything, I believe in nothing. I like to view life the same way the ancient Stoics did though.
I believe in some sort of guiding force and energy that exists in all things that are alive. I believe in using logic to get past situations, and suppressing emotions as best you can. I believe that when you die, you're dead. I think I believe all those things.

For me, I considered myself agnostic for a few years trying to see if there were any other beliefs that made sense; but eventually I settled with atheism. As for being afraid of death I really never am, things die and grow and should consider myself no exception.

As for going to Hell or things of that sort, there are so many religions with a threat of a miserable afterlife if you do not adhere to their doctrine, I see no reason why one should be more threatening than another. Who knows in some strange twist in the soap opera that is the universe Scientology could be the true faith.

Also any god that would send you to a place of eternal torture just because you choose not to devote your life based on your pure faith in a book or a crazed prophet, seems like a huge jerk to me.

In a sort of conclusion I think trying to observe and understand life around you instead of writing everything off as a grand plan of an almighty deity makes the most sense to me.

Nice replies so far.

@ Murcu - Thats called Pascals Wager

@ Keyamon - Since when have you been a Buddhist and what do you find interesting about it?

@ Enteschloss - No matter what anyone says Scientology is gonna prove to be false. Those guys dont have a religion they are simply lunatics, have any of you read about that faith? Its complete and utter rubbish, and i dont care who thinks im being harsh for saying it because its true.

My views - To be honest i dont beleive in God or heaven and Hell but i do beleive that some people can be more 'godly' than others. Jesus was godly as he knew what was important in life and knew the difference between right and wrong. People have twisted and distorted the essential nature of the Bible and eventhe Qu'ran to either control or manipulate the masses. Heaven and Hell was simply made up there is no debate for me over that.

The fact is that no one knows what happened to Jesus between the age of 14 - 33 i believe it is. What people have said is that he went off and joined a Buddhist monastry during that time. Buddhists always call themeselves the sons of God and there teachings are IDENTICAL to that of Jesus'. There are even the supposed footprints of Jesus after he was 'resurrected when he went back the the monastry.

When he was crucified he was given a sponge with vinegar on it after which he soon died after. He was up on the cross for appoximately 6 hours when it usually takes 36 hours for someone to actually die, is this a coincidence?? No i think he that was simply a drug on the sponge that knocked him unconsicous. The Roman soldier that declared he was dead was the same soldier who 6 hours before had stabbed him with a spear and then said "he trully is the son of God" after he had a vision. Its obvious that he was taken to the cave and then woken up from his coma which people back then saw as a resurrection and so it has gone down in history as one.

Jesus' footprints in the monastry show two distinct wounds on his feet that show that this person had a bolt going through one foot to another, coincidence?? I think not. Jesus never died on the cross but simply fell into a near death sleep and then woken up again only to return to the Buddhist monastry to carry on his life.

There are literally hundreds of references to Jesus being a Buddhist and i really cant go into all of them here as it would take forever but i would urge all of you to read anything about it because it really is fascinating.

I am a hardcore Philospher and have studied the Classical World as well as many different religions around the world. Buddhism is the only true 'thing to follow. Its not a faith or religion but a lifestyle. You choose to follow Buddhism to gain enlightenment about the world and grow to be at peace in mind and body. Its the perfect way to live and i know for a fact that if everyone was a Buddhist then this world would be heavan. There would be no famines, poor, or capitalist monsters taking over the world. It would be one of peace, tranquility and harmony.

You dont have to beleive everything that comes with Buddhism, i dont beleive their views on the soul but i do beleive in reincarnation. Thats not to say that i sit around thinking about my days as a spider or frog but know that our minds/souls are seperate to our living bodys.

As a Buddhist says your body is weak and frail so make your mind an impenetrable fortress upon which death will break. I used to do loads of drugs guys (like waaayy to much, weed, ecstacy, ketamine, cocaine, mushrooms, acid anything that would give me a high) and what i can tell you is that NOTHING absooultely nothing compares to the inner peace i now feel from simply meditating.

Someone had to persuade me to do it and at first i thought it was a load of rubbish but it really does work. Im not an idiot im an intelligent normal human being so dont think im going all religious on you. Im not looking for anything out of life and i have nothing to gain from telling you this other than the fact that i want everyone to share the same bliss and happiness i feel when i wake up in the mornings now.

If anyone wants to talk more about this i would be glad too

I'm a buddhist for 2 years now, the thing that interests me the most of it is reincarnation, i have been wondering what would come after death, i couldn't stick with heaven and hell, and i've always quite believed in life after death, 2 years and 3 months ago i had to do some research for school about religions, and then i stumbled upon buddhism, i was quite interested in the religion so i read some more about it, like the Four Noble Truths, 3 months later i decided to become a buddhist, although nobody really knows, but i don't think that would matter a lot, as only you decide what you should believe in.

Dev- It takes 36 hours or more to die on the cross if you're NOT stabbed in the torso while you're up there. Jesus was.

Footprints at the monestary? The chances of that coincidentally being Jesus' print and surviving all this time are insanely freakin low.
Look, I respect your beliefs and everything, but I really feel like you just gave an incredibly one sided, biased description of Budhism. And for someone like me, that unfair description might be enough to turn me off to it forever.

I believe in competition. Nitsche and such. The best man is the strong man. Capitalism is victory. Those are extremes obviously, and I am a much more moderate person than that, but the point is, world peace, in my opinion, is not the natural order of things.

If everyone was Budhist, then it would turn out just like every other religion. Someone in power would manipulate the religion so the poor and uneducated would accomplish his will. People are by nature competetive.
Now, if you're talking about some ideal, where people actually do follow the original ideals of Budhism forever and ever, then yeah, that would work.
But then- you might as well start practicing communism.

People suck. Chaos rules supreme. Moderation and logic are the only answers.
That is my opinion.

Quote :

@ Enteschloss - No matter what anyone says Scientology is gonna prove to be false. Those guys dont have a religion they are simply lunatics, have any of you read about that faith? Its complete and utter rubbish, and i dont care who thinks im being harsh for saying it because its true.

I know, you don't have to tell me that twice. All I was saying is I don't see how any religion has any more of a resonable and observable truth to it than another, the scientology example was sort of extreme. But who knows maybe if given 2000 years and enough people to forget how little sense it makes, it would be the predominant faith, all based on the holy book of dianetics.

You guys are bigots! XENU IS REAL I TELL YOU! REAL!!!!

Quote :

You guys are bigots! XENU IS REAL I TELL YOU! REAL!!!!

Well if you'd believed that much you'd also have to believe that Jesus raped children, and all forms of psychiatric medication are evil.

... You mean you don't believe that?[/i]

I have seen the light! Must... Go..... get auditing!

Murcu this isnt some silly thing i just made up to tell everyone. And for you to turn around and tell me that 'i' have put you off Buddhism by saying that then not only are you simply lying (as your obviously just someone that doesnt agree with my views not someone that was actually put off) but your also extremely rude. I could have said the same thing about your view of fate which was dumb by every strech of the imagination, but i didnt because i didnt want to be rude.

Whether or not people beleive whehter they are Jesus' footprints is debatable as obviously it all comes down to what you believe. Do i beleive that Jesus was a Buddhist? yes i do. But does everyone? no and that doesnt matter to me. Otherwise every Christian would be Buddhist now but thats not happened so its obviously just what you beleive in.

I have studied Nitsche and only find his conclusions to be depressing and pointless conjured up by a man that had given up on life himself.

You tell me Capitalism is the way forward? free enterprise right? Its the backbone of American society and i wouldnt expect a different response from an American. Believe what you want but im no Communist, in fact i hate people that say they are with a passion. Lots of my friends claim to be Communist and we are always getting into fights about it. The bottom line is that its not simply a choice between being Capitalist or Communist, you dont have to agree with either one.

Communism obviously doesnt work as Russia has proved for us but neither does Capitalism. Whats happened to everyones moral values? Big enterprise with no thought or consideration for small tight knit communitys has led Western countrys to bring up thier children in a world of greed and corruption.

We need to go back to the days of Aristotle to truly learn how to lead a virtuous life but thats not gonna happen with the way people are nowadays. The world is too big for it to work, no one cares about their neighbour anymore and thats what led this world to be so fucked up.

Just look at China's new rise to Capitalist ideals? People getting thrown off their land to make way for factorys and warehouses. Rain forests being cut down so that some rich bastard in the West can spend the sickening amounts of money they earn from extorting other people in smaller countrys.

Capitalism just like Communism seems good when you think about it on surface value, but in an age where a corporation can be bigger than a country and weild more power than empire we will all look back an see that Capitalism again doesnt work.

And whats all this talk about dictatorship?? Its a question not even up for discussion, the Greeks system of democracy is probably one of the biggest achievments of man and your telling me it would be better for one person to rule? You tell me that when leaders like Stalin, Hitler or even people like Tony Blair and GW Bush kill innocent people.

I aint got no argument with you but your position is so biased and uneducated that i had to say something. I mean dont you think people considered the fact that Jesus was stabbed into the equation?? lol of course they did. Like i said this isnt stuff i have made up its the work of hundreds of people that have more expertise than you or I have in this field. All i did was lay out thier ideas and i said i beleived them

World peace isnt the natural order of things?? Thats because you live in your cushy American life, try living with nothing but the shirt on your back mate and tell me that again. And what the $%#! are you talking about if everyone was a Buddhist it would end up like any other religion?? Buddhism doesnt have leaders just teachers, its called democracy. And what the hell are you talking about we might as well be Communist? Its got nothing do with the Communism and is soooo far removed from Communism that its not even up for discussion. Read a book on it or something and youll see how wrong you are.

Dev, you misunderstood me on several points. To begin, I never said anything about Buddhism being stupid. Ever. Personally, I have a lot of respect for the religion, as it doesn't call itself a religion and doesn't try to force people into extremely organized doctrines and all that. It allows for open interpretation.

And yes, I know you dind't make up the Jesus Buddhist thing. I myself am tempted to believe he was influenced by the Buddhist religion because, as you said, they are extremely similar. However, I don't think there's enough forum based religion flame wars in this world to make me believe that he got up after death and walked back to the temple.

And perhaps the biggest midunderstanding- I don't believe that dictators are best! Are you crazy?! lol
I was simply saying they are the natural order of things. Unless we can (in my opinion) use our logic and reason for moderation. As in- man kind begs for dictators by nature. But what's best for man is definitely not a dictator. So, logic asks us to sacrifice the good of one for the good of the many.

Dev, I feel like you didn't read my words carefully enough, or maybe there is really that much missing when reading things.
And don't assume someone never had to live "with nothing but the shirt" on his back. Because I have. For about a week my family was homeless. For about four years we were damn near homeless.

Now, allow me to explain your last bit. Jesus was not a "leader" he was a "teacher", right? Well look what happened. Some smart asshole (Constantine) took the religion and harnessed its followers to meet his own ends. I'm sure that if Buddhism's popularity started growing in the western world, the same thing would happen. It's nothing against the religion, it's about man kind's inability to make peace with itself.

Again, I have to stress that while I do believe in competition and all that as being the way forward, I also believe in moderation. I think it's retarded that America doesn't have free health care.



PS: The link to Communism was not a link. It was an analogy.

An analogy is a link lol but yeah i guess i misunderstood

Ugh, I'm christian and I don't like it. I plan on converting to Buddhism since I find it more interesting and more suitable for me.

( I'm half-chinese and half-filipino )

China = Buddhism
Philippines = Christianity

It's just a matter of transferring to my other race's religion.

they say i'm christian, but i don't wanna be. i think there's no such thing as God, because if he was real, then why doesn't he do something to make the world a beter place?