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I'm new here, this is my first thread, and I'm asking a question that always comes throw my mind, do you try to explore other religions? maybe you find a truth in a path that not yours, or you just decide to follow your parents and community's religion or you took the easier way to reject them all ?
I'm new here, this is my first thread, and I'm asking a question that always comes throw my mind, do you try to explore other religions? maybe you find a truth in a path that not yours, or you just decide to follow your parents and community's religion or you took the easier way to reject them all ?
Studied my own religion more deeply, found great value in it as well as truth, and continuing my journey.
I have studied other religions as well and find at their depth they all say the same truth. I believe religion is deeply embedded in culture, soil, and way of life. To stay with what you have been given and understand it in a way it sits well with you is the easiest and the best.
Yes. When I left home for college, I discovered that I had a freedom to explore any faith that I wanted. So, I took time to do just that. I attended so many different types of events all pertaining to various faiths. I found it to be educationally enhancing. I found the anthropology classes which discussed religious beliefs and rituals to be equally fascinating.
While I now identify as an atheist, in that I believe that no such "god or gods" exist outside of the human mind, and that gods are a creation of the human imagination, I will say that I am glad that I went out and explored on my own.
When I was growing up, we had one moronic Sunday school teacher in our Baptist church go so far as to tell us not to explore other religions or even ask other people what their religion believes. His words were "If you want to know what another religion teaches, ask us and we will tell you" Experience shows that when asked, the answers he gave were wrong nearly 100% of the time.
Yes. When I left home for college, I discovered that I had a freedom to explore any faith that I wanted. So, I took time to do just that. I attended so many different types of events all pertaining to various faiths. I found it to be educationally enhancing. I found the anthropology classes which discussed religious beliefs and rituals to be equally fascinating.
While I now identify as an atheist, in that I believe that no such "god or gods" exist outside of the human mind, and that gods are a creation of the human imagination, I will say that I am glad that I went out and explored on my own.
When I was growing up, we had one moronic Sunday school teacher in our Baptist church go so far as to tell us not to explore other religions or even ask other people what their religion believes. His words were "If you want to know what another religion teaches, ask us and we will tell you" Experience shows that when asked, the answers he gave were wrong nearly 100% of the time.
When you became an adult did you ever explore all aspects of Christianity? Did you read deeply what Jesus said, and the various reflections on him by various scholars? Did you explore gnosist christianity?
Sunday school teacher may not be the right spiritual guide.
I went to a jesuit university and Religion was a required course. Our first exercise was an essay on a Religion of our choice. The choices were all Abrahamic religions and the various sects of Christianity. I asked the professor, a jesuit priest, if i can write my essay on Hinduism. He first said it is too complex but then agreed. Not only did I score an A on the essay (not too complex for him obviously) he asked me to read the essay for the whole class. This in Ohio.
I am sure there is narrow mindedness and even ignorance in those who we consider religious leaders. But in all through my education in Catholic (Irish Catholic) institutions i never experienced that. The only time i have been accosted by bible holding missionaries asking to save me, they were lay people. Not scholars.
I'm new here, this is my first thread, and I'm asking a question that always comes throw my mind, do you try to explore other religions? maybe you find a truth in a path that not yours, or you just decide to follow your parents and community's religion or you took the easier way to reject them all ?
When I 'discovered' Theravada Buddhism it was the result of travel that opened up a different culture to me.
I'm new here, this is my first thread, and I'm asking a question that always comes throw my mind, do you try to explore other religions? maybe you find a truth in a path that not yours, or you just decide to follow your parents and community's religion or you took the easier way to reject them all ?
You can not find the Truth in a path, that is not yours.
By yours, I mean - one that is not appealing to your heart.
You can be born into a path, forced into it, a trend may pull you in, etc.
But, if it does not speak to your heart - that is not your path and, in long run, it will only harm you.
So yes, it is only prudent to explore your options, plenty as they are, until certain vibes will align with the vibes of your heart - and then, you will be TOUCHED and The Light will open for you and shine bright, no matter, how strange that path may appear to others.
You can not find the Truth in a path, that is not yours.
By yours, I mean - one that is not appealing to your heart.
You can be born into a path, forced into it, a trend may pull you in, etc.
But, if it does not speak to your heart - that is not your path and, in long run, it will only harm you.
There may be a sense in which this is true of me. I was compliant and (too) eager to please / comply with my flavor of fundamentalist Christianity, but in retrospect I don't believe it ever really 'spoke' to me. The trouble is that as a youth I didn't really know myself or who the heck I was to begin with.
Subsequently I did consider a variety of other religious options that were open to me but by then I had identified my basic problem as one of epistemology (what truth is and how one identifies it) and I saw all of these options suffering from failed epistemological approaches to truth.
What "speaks" to / appeals / draws me now is supportable, substantiatable arguments built on sound hypotheses, which pretty much means scientifically valid hypotheses. Hence my atheism. I am an atheist in the definitional sense (no belief in any deities) but it really has less to do with that with having the freedom to draw conclusions from evidence rather than pale substitutes like dogma, and, the freedom to say "I don't know [for sure]" as appropriate also. That is, being able to sit with uncertainty, even uncertainties unlikely to be resolved in my lifetime.
I'm new here, this is my first thread, and I'm asking a question that always comes throw my mind, do you try to explore other religions? maybe you find a truth in a path that not yours, or you just decide to follow your parents and community's religion or you took the easier way to reject them all ?
I have been a Christian for 30 years, and have been seriously studying other religions and apologetics for about 28 years. And no, I haven't found a truth in other religions. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
I have been a Christian for 30 years, and have been seriously studying other religions and apologetics for about 28 years. And no, I haven't found a truth in other religions. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
'seriously studying other religions"...what does that mean? And in all that studying you didn't find a single shred of wisdom?
You can not find the Truth in a path, that is not yours.
By yours, I mean - one that is not appealing to your heart.
You can be born into a path, forced into it, a trend may pull you in, etc.
But, if it does not speak to your heart - that is not your path and, in long run, it will only harm you.
So yes, it is only prudent to explore your options, plenty as they are, until certain vibes will align with the vibes of your heart - and then, you will be TOUCHED and The Light will open for you and shine bright, no matter, how strange that path may appear to others.
Agreed.
I was raised Baptist but became disillusioned with the impact of humans on the beliefs. I started looking outwards to find something that made sense to me. It's been a journey of many years.
As recently as a few weeks ago I bought some books about world religions in an attempt to learn. I do not believe there is only ONE way. I believe the path is truly individual, as ukrkoz so eloquently put it.
Open your mind and your heart...if that is the path you need to take.
If not, there is nothing wrong with following in the footsteps of your family and culture.
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