Not sure if you're referring to me or OP, although I think we both come from similar backgrounds and all, but I'll go so far as to admit I still cling to some sort of Christian teaching and stuff.

Jesus Christ is my desktop wallpaper - true story.  It was Tony Montana a couple months ago rofl

But ummm, I'm honestly content with what I believe in now.  I know what I took from Christianity as a kid when going through Sunday school were the right things.

I never developed any intolerance towards others not like me, or any of the other ignorant things that a lot of religious people develop.  All I ever got from it, more than anything, was the way Jesus acted and the way he treated people, and I remember always thinking "I wanna be/act like Jesus."

..Not to "please" Jesus, or get my ticket to heaven, or anything like that.  Because what I saw, personally framed in my mind, was how happy it made Jesus when he HELPED OTHERS.  So that is what I have developed as my own religion, essentially.  Just help others, not for eternal happiness in heaven, but for the temporary but real happiness you get from actually helping another human in need.  To this very day the majority of my happiness comes from making others happy

Something also to note - I may have felt some weird connection to Jesus to because apparently we share similar personality types too, which I learned after taking a test that said "famous people with your personality" Jesus is one of them lol.  I think Gandhi too.. but it's strange I found a special connection to these other great people before I knew my PT.  I've just always had that kinda view on the world I suppose

I've now spent a lot of my day mulling over religion and shit

Last time I spent so much time talking about religion on a forum was 3-4 years ago when I first started questioning my faith.  Only difference was then, I'd argue FOR Christianity.  Now I argue for the real middle-ground, the one truth I can find in this mess.

The farthest I'll go down the atheist path is down to "logical atheism" if there is such a thing LOL which I would define as "it's mathematically very improbable a certain divinity exists, therefore, none do exist"  I mean I'm already kinda here, but I still wonder how the fuck we made it into this form lol.

Jesus, I could talk about this seriously all night

DivineIntensity said:

But yeah, I hate conflict - I just love it when everyone gets along.

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Hell yea brother.  Same here, same here.

extreme said:

DivineIntensity said:

Going with the majority? This only applies to my family - My friends know that I'm not religious.

And I'm a liberal, and again read what I said about most of the Christians I know being level headed and being, Pro-choice, and being completely fine with gay marriage.

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Dude I totally hear you DI, 100%.  Like I find all of your experiences to be strangely similar to my own

I just took a shower and got to thinking,

How advanced is our communication now, really?

As far as instructions go, describing things, etc, our communication is about as good as it gets.  5 minutes.  10 miles.  Half a tablespoon.  All exacts, can't really be interpreted wrong, etc.  It's why our systemic society functions so well I bet.

Now get to ideas, thoughts, feelings.  I can do a decent job at explaining to people how to throw a football, or how to do their work correctly at my job, or the number of times I've smoked weed in the last 3 days.  Now it gets incredibly more difficult when I have to describe my FEELINGS, or complex IDEAS I've had to others.  I've felt "WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH ~build it up~ crack snap" on intense acid trips.  To someone that hasn't taken acid, they have NO IDEA what the fuck that means.  To someone who has done LSD, they still might have no idea wtf that means..  Or my feelings, explaining how I feel about certain people, how I "feel" about certain ideas, objects, laws, etc.. I could say one thing and it can be seen a hundred different ways by a hundred different people with a hundred different contexts, based on their own ways of being brought up, their own intelligence, their own application, etc.

I learn the most from this I think just trying to describe the way I feel to certain women.  Some of them will just go nuts over the things I say and I don't even know how lol, but it's a combination of all the things that make communication what it is, past just simple words with simple meaning.

I mean we all even know one statement can have 2 completely different interpretations, all based on context.  Things written in text can so easily be taken out of context and I don't know if people even realize how often this really happens.

~~

Just got done eating Easter dinner with the family.. while the rents prayed I sat there silently with my head down as usual.  Then I went HAAM on a very large meal and now I'm super full.  If it wasn't for religion, I wouldn't get big awesome meals on Holidays

Then again, maybe I'd get big awesome meals on random days instead

Kamikaze said:

DivineIntensity said:

most of the Christians I know being level headed and being, Pro-choice, and being completely fine with gay marriage.

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Ok, well good for you then. Most of the Christians I know aren't. Since I'm surrounded by irrationally conservative Christians, I feel it's important to stick to my beliefs

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Lol the irony,

what i've been typing up over the last half hour could be summarized ^^

OP acts as he should around the Christians he knows, just like I do, and we all get alone.

Kamikaze is more of a bitch to the Christians she knows, but it's justified since they are in turn more irrational than most.




In the end, the world still spins.

Happy Easter everyone!

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I'm a bitch to the Christians I know? Don't know where you came to that conclusion. Telling my parents that I'm an atheist makes me a bitch? Ok then

DivineIntensity said:

Dude, so could I! And I agree I take a lot from Christianity too, but I don't believe what it teaches as far as the validity of God and all..

But yeah, Jesus was a hippie liberal and now thankfully most Christians are starting to emulate that!

And yeah, I love contemplating these topics too

By the way, you're a cool member man! I hope to see you in the pub more often

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Right on man.

Yea the more I think about it, the more I realize I'm naturally a hippie liberal who happens to be a lot like Jesus lol.  Never cared much at all for the goofy stories of the bible, the old testament, the new testament after the gospel.  I mean it all sounds kind of ridiculous.  I never even cared for "is it really possible that a God-Man could make a blind man see?"  What I read was "man does best to help another man in need (of vision, etc)"

Ironic how those things turn out haha.  First time I've seen someone call Jesus a hippie liberal, but honestly not a bad description at all - I like it a lot personally

Then again I'm a smart motherfucker and I naturally never needed to read into the Jonah and the whale story too much cuz who seriously gives a shit about some dumb Jonah kid getting eaten by a sea creature?  What does that have to do with being a good person?  I just naturally saw what I wanted to see in religion to help shape me into a good person, nothing more, nothing less.  I really could never understand why the pastor would spend so much time on the other stories.  Like isn't Christianity really all about one thing/idea/person - Christ?  I saw it that way early on, and it helped me see what's truly important and right in this life, and also taught me that there's a lot of other little things that don't matter much that'll just get in the way for a lot of people.

If there's a Jesus who watches the gates to heaven, I've already made my peace with him and I hope he's kind enough to let someone like me in there.  I'm more on the "good" side than the "bad" side, so I think in the end that's where I'd end up, but if it comes down to some weird way our thoughts our processed over the way we actually live our lives, then so be it I guess there will probably be some chill cats in hell then too.





So I had a funny thought today about heaven and hell.  Something like, heaven is where the good souls go once they pass the test.  It's just fantastic up in heaven.  Hell, well that is earth.  It isn't eternal hellfire and damnation, but rather, an imperfect world where you can't ALWAYS be happy.  Again, earth.  If you fail, you just get to live another life on earth reincarnated as something else (who knows) until you pass.  I'm not saying this holds any weight whatsoever as a legitimate belief, but saying it's just as possible as the traditional Christian "H&H" which is seen as either pure bliss or pure torture.  I mean honestly some people really are stuck with unfortunate lives and I don't know how you can punish them eternally for the way they were brought up and all.

I stand firmly in my position of not knowing, and will proudly and peacefully fend for it 'til I die.

Hopefully one day more people will realize what the purpose of being good to others is about.  Not personal gain, but benefit as a whole, as a race, as a people.  I don't go out of my way to emulate Jesus, it just comes naturally as that's how I genuinely want to act.  And being the one to bring a smile to another person's face truly gives me more happiness than almost anything I can think of

Quote:

So I had a funny thought today about heaven and hell.  Something like, heaven is where the good souls go once they pass the test.  It's just fantastic up in heaven.  Hell, well that is earth.  It isn't eternal hellfire and damnation, but rather, an imperfect world where you can't ALWAYS be happy.  Again, earth.  If you fail, you just get to live another life on earth reincarnated as something else (who knows) until you pass.  I'm not saying this holds any weight whatsoever as a legitimate belief, but saying it's just as possible as the traditional Christian "H&H" which is seen as either pure bliss or pure torture.  I mean honestly some people really are stuck with unfortunate lives and I don't know how you can punish them eternally for the way they were brought up and all.

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I believe that's what typical buddhists believe

But yeah man, if everyone tried even a little bit to make this world a better place it would be completely different.

DJ_avocado said:

Either say you do, or don't.

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What if you don't know?

I don't say it to be the happy middle man for everyone, I say it because that's all I feel I can possibly know in this lifetime.

Religion or lack thereof shouldn't be an opinion.  But from theism to deism to atheism, they're all opinions of some sort, in the way I interpret the meaning of each.

It is my OPINION that if there were a God, it should have no reason to care about us (deism) but it does (not deism) because when I look at this being's creation of the universe and everything within it, I can't help but think it cares at least a little about everything it has created.

I mean I've spent a lot time thinking about all this in my past, and I surely will think a lot more about it in the future.  I don't think my faith is gonna really go anywhere either.. it's simply fun to think about.

Just my

DivineIntensity said:

Half ass because we're not arrogant and don't claim to have the answers to unknowable questions? Yes, of course . You can call me a fence sitter if you want I really don't care.

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Haha

extreme said:

It is my OPINION that if there were a God, it should have no reason to care about us (deism) but it does (not deism) because when I look at this being's creation of the universe and everything within it, I can't help but think it cares at least a little about everything it has created.

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extreme said:

my religion is LSD, anyone wanna join?

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Bro,
You know I'm in!

Drink half a vial to get in.



OP:
No bro you're not an Ass,
They just haven't seen what you have, (assuming you've done psychedelics before), and they probably don't understand life in the same way you do.

I say we dose everyone!

DivineIntensity said:

Agnosticism has no definition of God whatsoever unless you subscribe to some sort of agnostic theism.

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