Anyone non-religious here? Please be nice!

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

Can you say Theocracy? So many people are utterly terrified of losing to socialism and they forget to fear theocracy.......

 

[Pumpkinpup]

Quote:
I just found your thread. I was pleased to see that somone else felt pretty much as I did deep down about the different interpretations of the actual words from The Creator.

I subscribe to my own way of thinking based on what I have read throughout the years and what I feel in my heart is right or wrong.

 

[deb1]

I have been researching this a little on line because it frightened me. Apparently, Jefferson will be taught in fifth and eighth grade American history. The problem is that the enlightenment was a philosophy movement during the 18Th century that advocated reason and logic as a basis for authority.

Jefferson was, of course, a product of the enlightenment.

Thomas Aquinas was a religious philosopher from the Middle Ages and should be studied during that time period. He believed in divine revelation which seems the opposite of the Enlightenment philosophy. Calvin also, predated the enlightenment by a couple of centuries, if I am not mistaken.

Both men should be studied but surely they shouldn't replace Jefferson.

 

[deb1]

Quote:
I just found your thread. I was pleased to see that somone else felt pretty much as I did deep down about the different interpretations of the actual words from The Creator.

I subscribe to my own way of thinking based on what I have read throughout the years and what I feel in my heart is right or wrong.

If there is a God, and I think that there is, then I think that he cares more about how we treat our fellow man then what name-if any-we call him.

 

[deb1]

Just curious, do any of you consider yourself Deists?

http://blog.beliefnet.com/stevenwaldman/2009/09/deism----its-back.html

Deism was a philosophy, especially popular in the 18th century, holding that God had created the universe and its laws but then receded from the action. It was treated as heretical -- akin to atheism -- because Deists rejected Biblical authority.

 

[curliet]

Wow, thanks Deb1 for posting that link. I think that it might help a lot of us understand what it is that we are feeling regarding our faith, or lack of it, in religion. It seems to make sense to me as to what I think about God. After being raised in the church I am pretty much locked into the idea that there is a higher power. And as a Native American I have belief in the Creator and the Spirits. But as far as letting an organization like the church dictate to me how this higher power works and thinks and expects me to act, well, not so much.

Oh, and I'm sorry and hope I wasn't the one who started to get things off topic, can we please get them back on track now?

 

[thaiturkey]

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No it never hurts to pray.

I too wish rain for you and your land (just as soon as the roof for the chicken coop is completed). Thank you for the links you provided. Being a great admirer of asian spirituality (though not of asian descent) I was surprised by the statement that you were responding to and appreciated the gentle answer you provided.

We woke to heave rain in the early hours! Thank you for your help.

.

It's a mixed blessing with one coop not suitable for the poults and another not yet finished. They sleep happily under a mosquito tent on the back verandah for the time being but this morning was cold for this country. We put them in an animal transport box and they joined us indoors to warm up. Then the flying termites made their annual appearance and the dear little poults are now running around the driveway gleefully mopping up those downed by the rain.

It just shows that you must be careful what you ask for in prayer. We got the rain that the garden needs but the timing is bad for the poults. Perhaps the responsibility is mine in that I should have got on with finishing the coop quicker.

When I need some help with a problem that is blocking my path or worrying me I meditate and ask an undefined higher power to offer a solution. I don't know what that higher power is because, although I have some personal experience that it exists, I have never seen enough of it to be able to give a description. The higher power might even be my own unconscious mind that is prodded into action when I make a quiet request away from the everyday noise of my own thinking. Whatever it is, it often works. I ask in very general terms for a solution to the defined problem and end by saying 'In the best possible way'. I think that it's wrong to directly ask for something that will affect the life of another person and I always bear in mind that the solution I think I need might have consequences that I regret.

 

[curliet]

Here's another thought that's occured to me on occasion. When I was in high school, admittedly a very long time ago, we learned about the size of our brain and how much of it doesn't get used for anything. Over the years that's come back to me when things come up like, "why do some people seem to have the ability to 'see' things?" How is it that crtain people can communicate with others through some kind of ESP or something? I never really spent the time to put these questions together, but lately I have wondered if it's possible that these folks have been able to exercise that unused part of the brain and get it to work, doing what it was meant to do in the first place.

In my case, as I became more involved with some of the concepts of my Native Spirituality and opening my mind to things that I had never thought were possible, I realised that those things were easily possible. And I then caught on to the fact that I could have been aware of those things all along, they were there for me to experience if I had let myself.

Now you may be wondering what this has to do with the topic. I'm seeing a pattern with a lot of the people who are questioning 'religion' per se. They seem to be the ones who are not willing to accept the answers that are offered by those in authority and are trying to put to use a part of their thinking processes that a lot of people don't use. In other words, to me as if it looks like they are exercising that unused area to find answers. Am I all wet here?

 

[deb1]

I think that you are probably right curliet. Also, it is easy today to be exposed to many different belief systems. When I was a teenager, I had to find appropriate books about other religions in the library. The pickings were slim. Now I can just go online and find someone who will answer my questions.

I think this makes the world much smaller. Many of us discover that people of other faiths-or no faiths- are good, decent people with valid reasons for why they remain in their particular religion, or give religion up all together. We have to face that our childhood faith might not be the only way for people to be find meaning in their lives.

Thaiturkey, I love how you view prayer .

 

[BlackBart]

Quote:
Do you mean left side and right side brain thinking?
Most adults use the right side, the world weary logical side of the brain.
Those that are empathic/psychic/sensitve use less of the right side and more of the left side.
Just attended a seminar about right and left brain thinking. Very interesting.
When you are born you use both sides of your brain.

I am not religious but I am spiritual. I believe in a God/Creator but not in Jesus Christ. I believe in Karma, fate and power of attraction.
I respect those that have a deep faith in religion but its not for me.