How do you introduce yourself to religion? (Buddhism, genesis, churches)

[Serious Conversation]

I'm a person going through a sort of personal crisis/revolution. I was raised SBC, but never believed a word of it. I've always had a hard time of believing anything but the hard scenes and anything without physical evidence.

I'm not asking how did you believe the doctrines of your specific faith. How did you merely dip your toes into the waters of general religious faith and mind, especially if you were never a person of faith, or lost your childhood faith altogether?

[normstad]

I never did.

I was not baptised, and we didn't practice religion at home. I went to a Catholic public school for 7 years because that was all there was in the town we moved to. The older I got, the more I saw the hypocrisy of what was taught and what was done, and any bible stories I had to listen to while sitting in catechism, I saw as little more than fairy tales. I still see them that way, although I recognize that a few life lessons were involved, but one can say the same of some of the Grimm Brothers Tales.

I have no interest in being involved in religion. I've lived my whole life without it, raised wonderful kids who are wonderful adults who are raising wonderful kids of their own. No religion required.

[GoCardinals]

Originally Posted by Serious Conversation

I'm a person going through a sort of personal crisis/revolution. I was raised SBC, but never believed a word of it. I've always had a hard time of believing anything but the hard scenes and anything without physical evidence.

I'm not asking how did you believe the doctrines of your specific faith. How did you merely dip your toes into the waters of general religious faith and mind, especially if you were never a person of faith, or lost your childhood faith altogether?

A simple and straight start is to first empty your brain from any religious or Atheistic indoctrination.

Start fresh with a blank slate, and use your own intelligence and ponder upon your sorroundings, these trillions of processes and all this design in nature , the stars, planets and their motion etc - just look around and ponder.


The question then is,
Is the entire universe and everything in it came together by itself?

If your brain, intelligence and logic tells you, Yes, then you are perhaps an Atheists.
If your answer is, I don’t know AND I don’t care - then perhaps you are an agnostic

However, if your answer is something like, “I don’t know but I want to know” - OR - “No, the entire universe and everything in it can probably not come together by itself, and there is probably a creator behind all this then you have cross over the line from the non-believers camp into the believers camp.

The obvious question then becomes, “which one is it?”

You then start the journey in an effort to identify this creators, THIS FORCE that some call God, **** NOT ***** by an evidence but by his signs.

Then you will follow a simple rule,

The God of any and every proclaimed religion will be judged by his message towards humanity and his message towards me.

You will then start studying and pondering upon the holy scriptures of any religion of your choice, and you will go one by one thru all religions who claim to have God’s message in the form of a book.

And here is the key that requires a little bravery.

While you go thru the holy text of every religion, you will periodically ask yourself this key question.
“Is it the truth?”
And you will let your heart honestly asnwer the question.

Remember, the brain does the research and pondering part, but the call to faith comes from the heart.


If your heart says No (whether you are studying the Bible or Gita or Talmud or whatever) then move on to the next one.

If your heart says, Yes and you want to know more then ask your questions from the scholars of that faith only. (Just as you will consult a doctor for medical advice, and not your postman).

Believing in God is faith and faith is NOT based on evidence or else it’s not faith.

Nobody actually “knows” who and what’s out there - we are ALL playing a game of probabilities.
We have put our stakes after doing our own research by using our own intelligence and logic because the clock on EVERYONE is ticking. We will probably know the truth only after our deaths.

—————————————-

I wish you all the best if you decide to take this journey and hope that you find something that talks to your heart.

Remember, if you look for EVIDENCE then you probably won’t find one - primarily because you can’t *fully* define the entity (God) whose evidence you are looking for. How can you demand the evidence of something that you can’t define?? Think about it!

There are 7 billion people on earth. How are you going to bring ALL on agreement as to what is God before you look for evidence. Is a rat a God? Probably not for you but it is for someone. So what is God? Who defines it and how are we all 7 billion going to unanimously agree on it?

And then you can’t define exactly what evidence you will accept AND how will you validate it?


You want all misery and disease eradicated over night on earth? You want someone to grow a limb? You want the water in your glass turn into wine?

Suppose it all happens - how are you going to verify that it was done by God?

There is no evidence my friend - it’s onky signs. And they are only for those who want to search God.
Otherwise there is compulsion on anyone to believe or not to believe - we have free will to make our choices, and in the end we will be responsible for our choices that were based on free will.

[TRANSPONDER]

Originally Posted by Serious Conversation

I'm a person going through a sort of personal crisis/revolution. I was raised SBC, but never believed a word of it. I've always had a hard time of believing anything but the hard scenes and anything without physical evidence.

I'm not asking how did you believe the doctrines of your specific faith. How did you merely dip your toes into the waters of general religious faith and mind, especially if you were never a person of faith, or lost your childhood faith altogether?

Ha, Boring Personal Story time again. I was brought up in a census - Christian society where you went to church three times a year. In fact, more because the school system taught Christianity (never mentioned any other religion other than false Gods or the wrongness of the Pharisees). Growing up in a small town we did church at the festivals, and it was part of life. I even joined the choir for a while, but I never believed. Not even when I was Agnostic about Santa.

I began to wonder about it in my teens. I had a sorta look at the Occult, but after some acquaintance with various kinds of prognostication, divination and various magical claims, I decided it was bunk. It at least prepared me for the heavy Evangelical sell of the 60's -70's. I even sent for their literature. I won't go into the Three Things that stuck in my mind, Tyre, Cosmic origins and "darkest Africa" claims about Russia. I pinned credibility on an end of world claim with epidemics Fire and graphic images of bulldozers shovelling heaps of bodies into pits.

It didn't happen and for me that was Evangelism, Fundamentalism, and Jack Chick tracts in the Bin. So I looked at all the religious claims and came to the conclusion that, if there was some sorta god, it was the god of all religions - or none. I thought it was not a bad idea to experience contact with this 'God' and it looked like meditating your way to the Mystical Experience was the way to do it. I looked at Sufism, but found the culture of Buddhism more to my taste. In fact I got into it, even joining the headshave and robe club for a while. I've got my doubts about the claims and Dogma of Buddhism, but I still like it. When it doesn't act as a cover for veniality and violence, as it can.

It was a colleague - indeed, a pal - at work, pressing the claims of the NT that set me off on a study of the gospels. Immediately, I was amazed at the glaring contradictions. So I went back to him with them and he just ignored them (1). I have NEVER taken NT apologists seriously since then. But it did set me off on a study that led me to internet atheist forums...and here i am.

If I was 'introduced' to a religion, it was Buddhism. Christianity had a chance to make its' case either in the OT - end of World form or the 'Gospels true/resurrection happened' form. Neither have stood up to scrutiny - At All. Christianity is simply not a credible option.

Oh yes. Almost forgot. The ONE thing that was never a factor in my thinking about Theism or not - was Evolution -theory. Whether it was true or not, it simply didn't matter. It is Genesis -literalist Fundamentalism that has made this the top factor in the debate.

(1) I'll tell you what it was - "Even if not a single word of it is true, it could still be true." That's absolutely the apologetic. But that's not the belief - that is Faith that it is true and (I am sure - indeed the evidence is lockdown -compelling) that the believer thinks that God is putting the facts into their head.

[bUU]

Originally Posted by Serious Conversation

How did you merely dip your toes into the waters of general religious faith and mind, especially if you were never a person of faith, or lost your childhood faith altogether?

"To all who hear me, I would say, with the Apostle, Prove all things, hold fast that which is good. Do not, brethren, shrink from the duty of searching God's Word for yourselves ..." -- Rev. William Ellery Channing, 1819.

For me, I found that it was a matter what I found to be truly important: character, not what you belief.

[Freak80]

To the OP:

Simply let all of your hard-wired irrational tendencies run wild. The human brain is hard wired for logical fallacies and magical thinking. If you want to become religious, simply give in to your deepest, darkest instincts. Ignore anyone who tells you that you are going off the deep end, and consider such people as enemies of the faith.

[nateswift]

Originally Posted by Serious Conversation

I'm a person going through a sort of personal crisis/revolution. I was raised SBC, but never believed a word of it. I've always had a hard time of believing anything but the hard scenes and anything without physical evidence.

I'm not asking how did you believe the doctrines of your specific faith. How did you merely dip your toes into the waters of general religious faith and mind, especially if you were never a person of faith, or lost your childhood faith altogether?

So OP is really asking someone who HAS experienced an introduction (or possibly reintroduction) to faith from either a position of atheism or disinterest.

To be honest, I looked at the logical consequence of determinism in nihilism and didn't like it. I decided that I could discern a progress in human consciousness toward an innate sense of community that speaks to me of some kind of impelling spirit (whatever "spirit" may be). If you know anything at all about modern economics (and I don't know much) you might compare the difference between Adam Smith and John Nash in recognizing that concern with the interest of all the people involved in a transaction is to the advantage of everyone involved.

Your suspicion of institutional religion is well-founded and I woud avoid ANY of the dogmatic types. Depending on where you are you might want to look into a Unitarian Church. I found a home with Liberal Quakers.

[Mightyqueen801]

Originally Posted by nateswift

So OP is really asking someone who HAS experienced an introduction (or possibly reintroduction) to faith from either a position of atheism or disinterest.

To be honest, I looked at the logical consequence of determinism in nihilism and didn't like it. I decided that I could discern a progress in human consciousness toward an innate sense of community that speaks to me of some kind of impelling spirit (whatever "spirit" may be). If you know anything at all about modern economics (and I don't know much) you might compare the difference between Adam Smith and John Nash in recognizing that concern with the interest of all the people involved in a transaction is to the advantage of everyone involved.

Your suspicion of institutional religion is well-founded and I would avoid ANY of the dogmatic types. Depending on where you are you might want to look into a Unitarian Church. I found a home with Liberal Quakers.

Isn't "Liberal Quaker" redundant? Seem to me so with the folks in my local Meeting.

I have belonged to a liberal Episcopal parish for community for about eight years. I have issues with the Episcopal church because like all churches, it is an organization with a hierarchy that sets rules and employs people to fill positions that I find questionable. Because we are small, we tend to fly under their radar most of the time. I stayed with this community in spite of my dislikes because the benefits of being part of a community outweighed them.

What I like about the Episcopal church is their liberal outlook, their non-fundamentalist view of the Scriptures while still using them for study and discussion, and the knowledge that are free to question any aspect of Christianity and still be accepted as part of the Christian community

I would not automatically recommend ANY Episcopal church, however. I first stumbled upon one back in 1991, a community very similar to the one to which I now belong. After I left that one due to a move and a divorce, I did not find another to my liking, and in fact, had no interest in being part of any sort of religion until I found this particular parish in 2010 while seeking to meet people in a new area to which I'd moved.

I would start with this: Practice tapping in your own natural intuition first. Ask the questions, let them go, and allow your intuition to take you to the answers. It can be for mundane, everyday stuff, not just Big Life Questions. Then, when you feel ready, ask if/when/where you should find a spiritual path.

I realize that last part may cause some eye-rolling. I don't care.

[Pleroo]

I have no desire to dive back into religion. When I lost religion, I lost belief in God for a time because I was still thinking of God in religious terms which were, in many ways, ridiculous and self-contradictory. As I began to be more free from the religious mindset that had once controlled me I found that it still made sense to me that the Source of our vast and complex reality has sentience and is, relative to us humans, unfathomably powerful.

Religion is born out of a fear of that power, I think. Which is understandable, but it makes sense to me that if that power does not have love at its foundation then all the religious doctrines in the world can’t make it approachable, or something I would even desire to approach. On the other hand, if it does have love as it’s foundation then it must be eminently trustable and one’s religious beliefs or lack thereof could have no bearing on its trustworthiness.

I’m not anti-religion. It can be a path to connection (but equally to divisiveness). I just know it’s not for me anymore.

[Pleroo]

Originally Posted by nateswift

So OP is really asking someone who HAS experienced an introduction (or possibly reintroduction) to faith from either a position of atheism or disinterest.

To be honest, I looked at the logical consequence of determinism in nihilism and didn't like it. I decided that I could discern a progress in human consciousness toward an innate sense of community that speaks to me of some kind of impelling spirit (whatever "spirit" may be). If you know anything at all about modern economics (and I don't know much) you might compare the difference between Adam Smith and John Nash in recognizing that concern with the interest of all the people involved in a transaction is to the advantage of everyone involved.

Your suspicion of institutional religion is well-founded and I woud avoid ANY of the dogmatic types. Depending on where you are you might want to look into a Unitarian Church. I found a home with Liberal Quakers.

Originally Posted by Mightyqueen801

Isn't "Liberal Quaker" redundant? Seem to me so with the folks in my local Meeting.

I have belonged to a liberal Episcopal parish for community for about eight years. I have issues with the Episcopal church because like all churches, it is an organization with a hierarchy that sets rules and employs people to fill positions that I find questionable. Because we are small, we tend to fly under their radar most of the time. I stayed with this community in spite of my dislikes because the benefits of being part of a community outweighed them.

What I like about the Episcopal church is their liberal outlook, their non-fundamentalist view of the Scriptures while still using them for study and discussion, and the knowledge that are free to question any aspect of Christianity and still be accepted as part of the Christian community

I would not automatically recommend ANY Episcopal church, however. I first stumbled upon one back in 1991, a community very similar to the one to which I now belong. After I left that one due to a move and a divorce, I did not find another to my liking, and in fact, had no interest in being part of any sort of religion until I found this particular parish in 2010 while seeking to meet people in a new area to which I'd moved.

I would start with this: Practice tapping in your own natural intuition first. Ask the questions, let them go, and allow your intuition to take you to the answers. It can be for mundane, everyday stuff, not just Big Life Questions. Then, when you feel ready, ask if/when/where you should find a spiritual path.

I realize that last part may cause some eye-rolling. I don't care.

Good stuff.