My current thoughts on spirituality and god, have any input?

[Joey]

Im thinking about the existence of a god, many gods, or some spiritual representation of a higher or supernatural being(s) occuring in every society in the history of human civilization.

The dogmas and messages are all different, but only different representations of the same feeling inside and strange psychic experiences that people have.. these things which suggest to people that there is more out there. Even going so far as to to devise entire religions, and sects within religions; with great tomes of stories. Each with God or these spiritual things being the principle.

It all comes across as metaphor to me, but its so real to so many and the feeling of our individuality, the lesser being of one in a vast universe which we cannot actually control. Even great kings have needed their god to command their power, because I guess who would he be otherwise? Some dude with a funny looking crown I guess.

Even in something like athiesm, you are awknoledging god by being in oposition. I dont think there's a person in the world who feels this isnt a subject in some way. The netherrealm, the powers that be, god, creator, spirits, the elephant in the room, etc.

Does that not basically prove that there is something out there? If this is an experience subjective to every human does that not prove the existence of something somewhere somehow?

I do not believe in any god or religion, but I awknowledge the presence of that spiritual world in all of us.

This is not agnosticism, its not skepticism, its believing but not believing in any story which man applies to it because we are only limited subjects. we're subject to flight of fancy at that, to dominate using whats unattainable in our stead. Theres a god, or something, but we dont have it right and may never will. Maybe not even in death.

 

[TripSitterNZ]

I believe in god the power / thing above all that is one with everything and has no limits eternal all powerful the creator spirit that bought reality and life to existence from nothing. After that interpretations can get blurry some believe we are all god limiting ourselves to play this game of life could be the truth or psychedelic induced delusions of egocentric grandiose to believe one is literally god. I believe we are created human bought into this world by the power of gods creation of the universe. I believe we are free agents but that we should expect justice to be served when we died for our actions.

I believe in the afterlife and i have actual photo evidence taken in 2004 that proves ghosts exist in the most sacred forest in this country of new zealand. This affirmed my belief in the afterlife 100% but i still didn't believe a all powerful god above all for a while. Til thats where every psychedelic was taking me showing me some ultimate reality that could be only be called god. But that is subjective but everybody has to experience the spiritual / supernatural before they truly become converts and believers.

Whenever your journey ends up i believe true objective truth can be found eventually.

 

[Gormur]

Even in something like athiesm, you are awknoledging god by being in oposition. I dont think there's a person in the world who feels this isnt a subject in some way. The netherrealm, the powers that be, god, creator, spirits, the elephant in the room, etc.

I don't. It's not a feeling either. I just don't believe in religion

 

[Joey]

I don't. It's not a feeling either. I just don't believe in religion

Neither do I. I think that there's something innate in people to have a sense of spirituality, even if it's a lack of. There could be a duality there that represents the same sort of thing.

It's an idea I'm kicking around.

 

[Brendan12]

If you could pick and choose perfectly.. are there any positives to religious belief?

 

[Brendan12]

Maybe to help people that are desperate or lonely..?

 

[Gormur]

Neither do I. I think that there's something innate in people to have a sense of spirituality, even if it's a lack of. There could be a duality there that represents the same sort of thing.

It's an idea I'm kicking around.

I think that's the problem though. When one uses spiritual or spirituality it doesn't have any meaning. Spirituality in what? That's my question

Assuming we're spiritual beings, then everyone's spiritual and has spirituality in their life

 

[TripSitterNZ]

If you could pick and choose perfectly.. are there any positives to religious belief?

a structured lifestyle that can be fulfilling for alot of people and give people hope where they might not of had any. Plus if religion is real it is 50/50 you don't know til you die then you hit the jackpot and have more chance of your sins been forgiven eternal life in heaven for been a good person and worshiping the one god seems quite worth it and billions of people seem to think the same way.

 

[Joey]

Maybe to help people that are desperate or lonely..?

Yeah. I think there are some positives to religions in the context that I've literally gone to church in that exact situation at one point about 2.5 years ago. The communal and social aspects of it, where its largely a group of people trying to better themselves isn't a bad thing either. The churches are where most of the AA/NA meetings I've been to are, for better or worse my experience in 12 step has left me neutral at best. They are places of refuge and assistance, I've eaten some meals at churches before when I was hard up.

It's the bigger picture of religion as a manmade construct to dictate your entire belief system, laying a dogma, "fact", and its atrocities which bother me.

 

[Gormur]

Apparently, everyone's experience is unique. I was forced to go to church from when I was 2 or 3 years old, so my take on it is that it isn't a social event to hang out with a bunch of Christians. Sure it's free and you can participate in groups

I was given communal wine when I was 7 and I think it's funny they have NA/AA meetings in the same building where this happens. Although I laugh about it now, I think it's weird. I don't think being desperate or alone has anything to do with seeking religion. That's also foreign to me and to the way I perceive things, but more power to you if you actually get something for free. I know I never did when I went to an NA meeting. They simply had no answer to even one question I had

I know churches can have soup kitchens and such but, and maybe I'm mistaken these aren't actually funded or run by the church but by individuals. That may be something different then and not a religious experience

Just trying to give a different perspective

 

[Jabberwocky]

I was brought up a Catholic in a very religious family. For years I was an alter boy and actively involved in Antioch, the Catholic Church youth group. Looking back on it all I feel that there was not really a spiritual dimension to many people in the Church - I mean in the sense of somehow achieving a direct personal connection with the Godhead.

Really it was a community of people sharing ritual and custom and taking a large part of their social identity from their membership and participation. I realised this when all of the Catholic sex abuse scandals broke and I found I could no longer support the institution that allowed that stuff to happen and then covered it up. At that time I felt a great loss from being cut off from that community and having to forgo the celebration of ritual and custom that had become a significant part of my life. I could no longer call myself Catholic in good faith. I saw a lot of people, especially my parents grieve for years over what they lost.

I think organised religion can give a great deal to people - especially if it is an organised religion that is not to heavy on the doctrine and dogma. I’ve actually thought of checking out the Anglicans since they basically leave it up to the individual which bits to believe in.

 

[Brendan12]

So religion is a write off, no?

 

[TripSitterNZ]

So religion is a write off, no?

Most religion i guess. You will find your own spirituality through life. When you have a family your values change for some people and they also start going to church and become more conservative

 

[Brendan12]

Inner ethics or constitution.. honourability.. truth over the fear of beng wrong..

The true charisma based on pure strength and faith..

 

[Zopiclone bandit]

Im thinking about the existence of a god, many gods, or some spiritual representation of a higher or supernatural being(s) occuring in every society in the history of human civilization.

The dogmas and messages are all different, but only different representations of the same feeling inside and strange psychic experiences that people have.. these things which suggest to people that there is more out there. Even going so far as to to devise entire religions, and sects within religions; with great tomes of stories. Each with God or these spiritual things being the principle.

It all comes across as metaphor to me, but its so real to so many and the feeling of our individuality, the lesser being of one in a vast universe which we cannot actually control. Even great kings have needed their god to command their power, because I guess who would he be otherwise? Some dude with a funny looking crown I guess.

Even in something like athiesm, you are awknoledging god by being in oposition. I dont think there's a person in the world who feels this isnt a subject in some way. The netherrealm, the powers that be, god, creator, spirits, the elephant in the room, etc.

Does that not basically prove that there is something out there? If this is an experience subjective to every human does that not prove the existence of something somewhere somehow?

I do not believe in any god or religion, but I awknowledge the presence of that spiritual world in all of us.

This is not agnosticism, its not skepticism, its believing but not believing in any story which man applies to it because we are only limited subjects. we're subject to flight of fancy at that, to dominate using whats unattainable in our stead. Theres a god, or something, but we dont have it right and may never will. Maybe not even in death.

Shall I RAW him?.........yeah I thinks so.

 

[Zopiclone bandit]

"It seems to be a hangover of the Medieval Catholic era that causes most people, even the educated, to think that everybody must "believe" something or other, that if one is not a theist one must be a dogmatic atheist, and if one does not think capitalism is perfect, one must believe fervently in socialism, and if one does not have blind faith in "X", one must alternatively have blind faith in not X or reverse of X. My own opinion is that belief is the death of intelligence. As soon as one believes a doctrine of any sort, or assume certitude, one stops thinking about that aspect of existence. The more certitude one assumes, the less there is left to think about, and a person sure of everything would never have any need to think about anything and might be considered typically dead under current medical standards where absence of brain activity is taken to mean that life has ended." - Robert Anton Wilson

 

[Asante]

If you ask me..

I subscribe to the belief that consciousness is a fundamental property of energy and that every discreet body has a consciousness of its own that bundles the consciousness of what it is comprised of.

A rock has consciousness.
Your heart has consciousness
You have consciousness.
Your family has consciousness
Your ethnic group has consciousness
Your species has coinsciousness
All Life of Earth has consciousness
The earth, the sun, the solar system.
The galaxy, the local group, he supercluster
The Universe and the Multiverse.

And now comes the kicker: ITS ALL YOU.

You ARE Energy.
You ARE Consciousness.
You ARE the Multiverse.

TAT TVAM ASI - YOU ARE THAT.

We are the Ocean in a Drop but more so
we are the Ocean, eternally in motion.

As my Spirit Guide put it:

Spirit Guide said:

There is a beginning, and there is an end to all things. we grieve the loss of what we hold dear and go on until we, too, end.

But! What if this universe is eternal? What if all things that once begun and ended, will happen again in every possible way, forever?

Think about it! You would not just have one life, but you would have every possible life, in every possible way, forever!

That means that no matter what you lose, your keys, your friends, your life, it would all come back to you, forever.

Rather than a prisoner of circumstance, you are liberated into total freedom.

Even if the sun would explode, a new earth would be, life would form on it and you will be born again into every possible reality.

Be free! Be brave! Play! Work! Achieve! Love! Not even all the nukes in the world can stop you! YOU ARE ETERNAL!

 

[Foreigner]

On an utmost practical and evolutionary level, spirituality functions to preserve our animal sanity. There is so much in our day to day lives that is outside of our control and outside of our heuristic ability to adapt. Without a third party resource to surrender the burden of it to, the burden would be left on our nervous systems to process, which would probably cause collapse of the organism.

Everybody has a framework that they rely upon to stay sane, whatever it is. Science, religion, philosophy, mathematics, etc. It's why people fight so hard with one another about their frameworks... because they need their framework for survival and don't want it torn down. Government torturers over the decades have gone on record describing these frameworks. Their job is to hone in on them and then break people by tearing down the framework. Once the framework is destroyed, the person's identity crumbles and then they no longer function independently.

I'm not saying that spirituality is *only this*. Perhaps it served a utilitarian purpose at the outset, and then later we collectively discovered some worthwhile truths in it. Or maybe it's the other way around... spirituality was self-evident in all of nature, then we became too materialistic, and now we are having to reverse engineer the whole thing in order to stay sane. Let's face it, the modern world is pretty material reductionist... it causes a great deal of despair and limits the imagination of the individual.

In today's world it's easy to discard religion because there are other worldviews that a person can build internal security with. Science comes to mind. But imagine a time when the world was much larger, a lot of it was unexplored, and people lived very locally. Also, most people were illiterate and unread. Religion provided a worldview that let people surrender the stress of their daily struggles. It still functions that way for many, especially those born into it. Children are taught at a young age to use this framework for their internal process.

My problem is that I was given a choice, so I learned about all the different worldviews I could. The result was that I became too smart for anything to really stick and I sunk into existential despair. The only solution was to dive into the existentialism, I had no choice. But for many, the existentialism is to be avoided at all costs, and so religion provides a relief structure.

 

[Gormur]

I guess my perspective is unique. I've studied the major religions and the thing I find in common with them is materialism. That's why I reject religion. What's the point in having a heart if you can't see what's in front of you?

 

[Brendan12]

Everything is a frame of reference.. a perception.. of how things are.

Each frame of reference has properties.. the definition of the information inside.

Thus do all perceptions (mental stuff).. have real physical spaces that they occupy.. after each perception is thought of.. the thought recedes back into the zero point field..

Depending where the thought is will determine how conscious of it you are.