Religion and spirituality

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Spiritual.
No.
I didn't like what I saw. I changed it. What I'm am now works for me.

Do you consider yourself religious, spiritual, or other?
Not at all. I do study buddhism, because I think many of the ideas make sense, but am a long way from being anything resembling "a buddhist".

Do you follow the same path you were raised in?
Not at all. Was not raised with any religion, although my mother took me to an Episcopalian church a few dozen times, and expected that to make me religious. My father's side was raised catholic, never attended church that I can recall, and also expect me to be religious.

If not, what made you choose a different path?
As someone else said, none of it makes sense to me. Not the organization, the church, the beliefs, not one part of it makes any sense to me. I was an atheist by the 8th grade, and leaning that way several years prior to that.

it's sad actually...

most join for the churches welfare and you've seen many tongan churches break up over the last few years because of stupid church politics, they pissed off the white-congregation by abusing the facility they are borrowing for worship, or, they can't pay their bills... and what do they do? They join the Mormon church.

its unfortunate when religion absorbs all of life, you either take it too seriously like back home on the island, or when you leave to a place with greater opportunities and choice, you break most religious tenets that prevent you from having fun and choose the ones that are socially convenient or preserve your power. It's ugly and their raising a generation of biblically illiterate agnostics.

I get partial point for guessing mormon do I get any for guessing Tongan?
[/quote]

Why Tongan? Intriguing language - one queries whether Tongan > built up or Hawaiian > worn down.[/quote]

kona is tonga in hawaiian, as we populated those islands by following the migration of birds, and mapping the stars. It is a great language btw, I have a bit of a fluidic accent so some assume I am 1.) french polynesian and 2.) speaking some odd dialect of french.

what do you mean greater then built up or hawaii greater then worn down?

In the past I considered myself religious before negative experiences of some people's attitudes and behaviours in religious groups towards myself and others. Institutional and individual hypocrisy and elitism in the form of cliques had a role in my rejection of organised religion.

Now I consider myself spiritual tho I was also spiritual while a active member of a religious group in a leadership role. Over the last five years I had more spiritual experiences going along my own path than following the organised institutional paths of faith.


NO!! ! I was born into the Mormon church (both my biological parents are also church members)
My mother when less active just after having me as she face social stigma from the church.
Years later she came back to church & that was when I became baptised.

I received the Melchizedek Priesthood and was preparing to sever a mission before things happened that led me to become less active myself, lets just say this in public one of them experiences near cost me my live. The UK has a small LDS community so am weary of going into full details in public, feel free to PM if you to know more details


See behove plus am changed to a path of sorts tho due to stigma from LDS social contacts that I have I wish to keep the from being public knowledge and only of knowledge of people I can trust to keep that shared knowledge private.

Do you consider yourself religious, spiritual, or other?

I don't consider myself to be religious, however I do dedicate a significant amount of thought and research to 'spiritual' concerns, my influences are diverse and mostly come from the agnostic disciplines.

Do you follow the same path you were raised in?

I was raised a working class conservative Irish catholic and while this forms the foundation of my spiritual development I have since realised the forest is full of many more interesting and usefull paths worthy of exploration even if I do still use the same two legs to walk them.

If not, what made you choose a different path?

Initially youthfull rebellion was my main motivation, I was raised in a represive environment and when puberty hit - BOOM - however the foundation of 'values' femained undamaged and the inquisitive mind would not rest so I have explored many many different philosophies, spiritualities and religions and applied a certain amount of reason to comparing them, assessing their merits and incorporating what was usefull, true catholicism perhaps? or just a spiritual borg?

peace j

Thank you for replying, RedHanrahan. If you don't mind, I would love to hear your thoughts on specific paths you have researched.

Well, if you are still interested after this time lag [my apologies I am an inconsistent visitor],

Taoism as enshrined in the foundation text 'Tao Te Ching', it is a non-religious 'guide to life' and basically a philosophical work that uses observation of natural phenomena as it's primary mode, It is however translated with much predjudice by some translators and poorly by others so the cross referencing of several over a long period is essential. later Taoist texts have the odd new contribution or differing perspective but I basically work from the Tao Te Ching alone in this regard.

'Coptic Dread' this is my catch all designation for several branches [mansions] of the rastafarian faith which include Bobo and Nihabinghi dread, I like the tradition of there being no god but merely creation [which is kind of animistic] and I like the concept of the 'grounation' or 'reasoning' which is a co-operative sharing of insight and thought about life from the spiritual perspective and refers to any and all texts [the conventional bible and the Kebre Negast are two primary texts used in Jamaica] without predjudice or leadership and often involving the aid of much ghanja sharing in order to induce a random/inspirational and meditative aspect to the thought process [this is however optional].
In reality however I have seldom experienced this here as most Rasta's here are 'twelve tribes' which is heavily christian based [big on Psalms and other old testement dogma] and literally believes that Haile Selasie was the embodiment of god on earth and I find this hard to swallow. I have however experienced a kind of non-denominational equivelent on occaision and found it most excellent and rewarding.

The basic premise that appeals to me about the coptic dreads is the interpretation of the nature of 'good' and 'evil' and 'god' and the 'devil'. essentially god is all of creation and not a sentient being, when one is harmonised with the greater creation and not experiencing oneself as seperate then one is 'I and I' or one with the divine, however when one 'rocks with the little i' or seperates onself from this oneness then one is the embodiment of the devil and capable of evil [selfishness, destructiveness etc..] I find this co-relates with my undertsandings of the nature of ego/happiness/attachment etc as I have understood them from Buddhism - another influence on my thinking.
Lastly I find both Zen Buddhism and Sufism enlightening.

I would love to experience reasoning sessions on a monthly basis with similarly diversely interested minds followed by the raising of a 'joyfull noise unto creation', this would perhaps then become my 'religion' until then life goes on and I work with what I have which at it's core is the knowledge that I know so little.

Usefull?

peace j

Whenever I hear the word "spiritual" I reach for my phasor and it is not set to stun.

ruveyn

None of the above. I am atheist.

I strayed from the path of Christianity since I was a teen.

Nothing has occurred in my life that I can give a God credit for. I grew up in a Christian household all my life, so since it felt normal as a kid the possibility of God not existing never occurred to me until I was a teen. Many people believe in God because of something amazing that has happened in their life (a near death experience, luck, fortune, etc), but the fact is that reality gets stranger than fiction when perfectly logical (or things that are logical, but illogical since they are logically inconsistent with our preconceived notions) but shocking things happen that shatter our notions of reality.

Non-religious and non-spiritual.

No, I was raised to be a Methocaholic (Methodist + Catholic + Alcoholic), and I find that "religion" is as repugnant as a garbage heap, with "spirituality" not far behind.

The realization that each religionist is no different from any member of an exclusive social club - you have to be a "Member In Good Standing" (or "Born Again") to even be considered human.

Oh, thank you, Miss Greyhot, for allowing me to answer your wonderful survey. It was both an honor and a pleasure!

Quite useful. Thank you.

Thank you for answering.

No worries! PM me if you need more info.

Presumably this is why you are such a ray of sunshine in this forum? all that materialism getting you down?

peace j

I thrive on it. I am a physical being who lives on and with physical material. Spirit is just a misidentification of the electro-chemical processes the produce our consciousness.

If you consider factual truth a form of light I am perfectly willing to shine forth.

ruveyn