Anybody a theist? Spiritual or whatever? (Not religious)

I'm open to anything basically. Just not an organized religion that tells me I can't **** my hand when need be. I believe in a creator wether it's a being or a consciousness of some kind. I belive there's existence after death. Do I think it will be anything like this one just with all the shit bits took out? No. I think we will have majorly different priorities of which we currently don't even understand nor are able to at this stage.

We are infinite in the cosmos and we live on as the same piece of the cosmic consciousness until the very last star burns out in the very last galaxy.. or beyond? Who knows. This is my genuine belief. I'm not a tinfoil hat man or a gypsy, really. And I thought of this long before Russel Brand started running his mouth mind you, so don't be hatin'.

Thoughts on existance? Or are we chemical mass that happens to be sentient by a vast chance?

To me it doesn't really matter. I don't spend time thinking of life after death or if a Creator is pleased with me or their plans for me. I live life thinking of what I want to do with it and what I can do for others and I like to think that if a Creator really exists, he/she/it/them would like for me to do just that.

"I don't know", basically.

I'm not a religious person so to say. Everyone believes this, that, I don't want to follow that type of religious group, I just try to do what's right and live my life the way I see fit.

"chance" is one of the worst arguments you could put forth

Agreed.

no. i refuse to believe in anything.

Agnostic.

there's roughly 4000 religions worldwide, most of which contradict each-other. If you're right, 3,999 other religions are wrong.

What makes your tall tale any more special than the others?

Pantheism FTW

I'm certainly a spiritual being. I believe there is a consciousness out in the universe which some have short-sightedly called god. Personally I find this word inappropriate and too limiting. I am on the spectral opposite side from religion, it's a tool humans have created to scare and control those they wish to rule over.

Meditation is the tool I choose to connect to now and remain mindful.

I think I'm still pretty much agnostic.

Often times lately I haven't really been very believing of anything to do with God/spirits, but even at worst times every now and then it feels like I can't resist trying to be optimistic.

And I say no one has to be religious or part of any religion, to just simply believe in God/spirits.

ha, you fucking losers

i believe in all of them

i will see those shiny gates

Are we all on the same page when it comes to God though... Different religions seem to have different concepts of God. Some say he is three in one and one in three. Some say there are many gods. And some say He is One.

I think if we are to narrow down the number of religions we need to find the correct concept of God and perhaps we can find that from logical reasoning. I do however sternly believe that there is a specific way to submit your will to God and that can be seen from historical examples such as people like Noah, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad etc.

And I don't get the logic when it comes to being a spiritualist. How did you get the idea of life after death. Sorry but that idea stemmed from other religions not from your own 'spiritual feelings' and what-not. You are in essence religious but claim not to be because you borrow ideas from various religions and make it fit your own desires.

I don't think religion is some kind of cult or a kind of detriment to freedom. From my understanding God is someone we are meant to submit our will towards. He created us after all so that is obviously in our best interests to serve him. Following Him only brings satisfaction. Obviously as our Creator he knows us better than we know ourselves. That's why a religion where you don't give up your desires is quite illogical. It means you didn't submit your will to God and just want to go about doing whatever you please.

Dissapointing answer Uninspiredcup :(

What religion are you? And I get you, humans perhaps might not be ready to understand the more complex things in the Universe. Why think we have the mental capacity to suss out everything?

Yeah but who isn't agnostic? A die hard atheist is agnostic because he doesn't know the definative answer. And the whole contradictory thing isn't as cut and dry as some people think. The book of Islam (Quran), the Bible, the Jewish holy book, Buddhism etc all depict a virgin birth. They all depict a great flood and the story of Noah.

Are you even capable of a legitimate, original thought?

You are the poster child for Internet wannabe philosophers and armchair intellectual.

You're a simpleton in denial

Considering a lot of the religions that have "shiny gates" will have them barred to you if you believe in any other Gods, you're pretty much screwed =P

Who's that? I'm intrigued.

Yes please :)

@bobrossperm: Most religious people? Not many of them will tell you they are unsure of God's existence.

Ah yes I see what you're saying. I read it wrong and thought thegerg said 'someone that knows wether god exists'. Then I recently read his clever edit about specific names, you got me gerg. You got me :)

Yeah I caught your edit clever cloggs :)

@bobrossperm: Yep. Being sure about something and being right about it are two different things. I might be sure the Earth is flat, but that doesn't make it so. =)

Erm I don't? It was a misread on my part. I thought you said that there are people who know if God exists. I glazed over the word 'believe'.

A religion where you don't give up your desires? What do you mean by that? First let me say I am by no means disagreeing or attacking you, I agree people should live honest to good lives trying to do good and help each other out, but it's almost impossible to give up our human desires such as sex, food, and other things that bring us pleasure. It's biologically ingrained in our bodies to keep doing something that makes us release dopamine, so to me it doesn't seem morally right for a God to give us these bodies and expect us to just give everything up, and then suffer consequences for not doing so. How come God doesn't just keep us in heaven with him to stop us from coming into contact with all these "desires". The only thing I can think of is to give us a challenge, something to overcome and be proud of, like people who lost weight they gained from eating too much. Is that what you mean?

The problem with that challenge though, is not many people succeed, and it leads to lots of suffering, such as war, rape, torture, and the large gap between the rich and poor. I see what you are saying though. I mean, if people like dictators and selfish kings submitted their wills to god to do good, the world would be a much happier place, for sure. But, wouldn't a god see all this coming, and decide it's not best to let people act upon their desires. I guess it's just a matter of free will then. God wanted to give us a choice. What Im trying to say is in an ideal world, people would give up their desires to make the world a better place. But this isn't an ideal world, this is a world full of hate and selfishness, so why would God just make it like this and expect it to be something entirely different?

A continuation of my previous philosophizing. If it's true that God wants to give us the gift of a challenge, knowing full well many will fail and suffer, it's time to consider that maybe God himself isn't all that nice of a guy. If he hasn't done anything to minimize the suffering, he must find it, at the very least, interesting to observe our flaws and failures. Not saying God is sadistic and wants everyone to suffer all the time, but it would make sense he at least sees some evil as good, and prevents this world from being completely boring. So that means God would be like us in a way, who has his own dark side as well as good side. If this is all true, then is a God like this worth submitting ones will to? A God who sees some evil in the world as a necessary balance to the good. Well, that is something more personal, but I'm sure people's answers will vary depending on how much pain they have endured in life, as well as how much resistance they have, both mentally and physically.

Religion and me don't mix.

I don't like the rules many religions impose and I will never worship false idols created by man.

I'm agnostic.

I know what i was brought up to believe. In reality, i don't know what is after life ? Emptiness ? Light ? Gates ? Born again ? I have no idea. But i do know i am sorry for any wrong i've done, and tried to be good as much as i could. Especially good to others.

@Yoshi9000: Actually you have the wrong idea of giving up desires. I like to think of it this way. Just like every device you get a manual with it. We are his creation and He sent down a manual for us to follow. And here's the thing, the more we follow God's commands, the more it benefits us. It's not something that disadvantages us in any way. He never tells us to do things that would damage us, rather things that would purify us. Nobody said you have to give up eating or drinking because that's not what he intructed us to do. Rather following what he instructed us to do only benefits us.

@BboyStatix: Yeah that makes sense. Thanks for the clarification. I was limiting my definition of desires too much. The only problem I can see now is how do we know what that manual is, and what is God trying to say to us. Yes, there is the Bible, but I usually find that to be too full of contradictions and ultimately confusing, but I admit I don't really read it much to begin with. The other thing I can think of is everyday coincidences, like God is trying to give me a subtle message, for example meeting this person I haven't seen in a while isn't just a coincidence.

no proof...

@Yoshi9000: Yeah I understand that confusion and this I would say is a pretty hard question to answer. In my opinion people saying stuff like God interacted with them through things that happened to them throughout the day holds extremely little weight. It just feels like they're all making it up or overthinking things. We can always, always answer it was just a coincidence. Every thing. Chance. I do think there is a problem with pushing the chance argument way too far though. Idk but I won't dwell into the existence of God.

As for which is the correct manual. I personally did not propose that the Bible is that manual and I do not believe it is either. But to find out which manual among all the dozens out there are the real one I can only propose the following criteria to judge upon.

1) Is the concept of God that the book puts forward sound? Does Zeus qualify?

2) Have the contents of the book been changed over the years? In this case, even Bible scholars have admitted to changes in the book.

3) Are there any contradictions? Now this is the part I want to say we have to be very open-minded about. Even though I don't believe the Bible is the word of God, i think there are some flaws in the arguments of atheists who try to point out contradictions in the Bible. Same as those who point out contradictions in every other book. Thing is, it feels as though these guys read the book with the intent to find contradictions. If you read any book with this kind of mindset you will inevitably find contradictions where there is none.

Anyways it was nice having a discussion with you. I haven't answered your questions completely but this was never an easy topic anyway.

I'm not a religious person. I just go out and live my life in a way that doesn't purposely have a negative affect on other people. By doing this I feel good in myself when I close my eyes at night and that's all I can ask for.

I don't try to prove or disprove a God because it's not relevant in my way of thinking.

I do find most religions as a bad thing though, just for how they hamper scientific progress and preach hatred towards people that are different.

Agnostic.. I find declaring there is absolutely nothing after death or higher entity etc etc absolutely is silly as declaring that there is.. I do accept the scientific theories of Evolution and Big Bang for instance as fact, and I do think hypothesis's like Biogenesis some of the more reasonable explanations we have with the origin of life..

but probably the best answer any human being would be capable of giving at this point in time,

to really say with utter certainty that you know one way or the other is crazy talk

I hope I'm alive the day a perfectly scientifically explainable god-like force is discovered to have created the universe, and both atheists and theists alike go "see? I told you so!"

I believe in God. But I'm not an adherent of any religion.

I believe in God. I don't read the bible or anything. I see the bible as the basic logic of God.