Religious and Cultural Survey for Anyone

[SiofraTural]

Since Gaia's forum community has grown substantially in the last couple years, I hope this little survey is in the right location. ^^'



'EYYYYY MY PEEPS. I HAVVA QUESSION FER YEW.

I guess this could be a type of opinion survey, but:

~*~
What kind of religions do you believe in/worship, and why? Is there any type of culture related thing you do during religious celebrations?
~*~

The reason why I'm asking about this is because for my story involving Carth (an original character), culture and religion is a HUUUUUGELY important thing in order to make the world look and feel more diverse. It's a type of fantasy world with spirits and monsters, and while I do have an actual origin of the planet, I got curious as to what the people would worship since they never met their creator. So I'm curious and want to see everyone's different opinions and ways of going about. It doesn't have to be a popular religion.

This is is a friendly environment! Don't go bashing any religion, because people are free to believe in what they want. This is mainly to help me get a more personal understanding of individual thoughts.

I'm personally not religious, nor am I athiest. I'm sort of stuck on a "what if whoever I choose to worship isn't really the right god/dess? Will I upset them?" So my confusion on this won't help me get a better understanding personally; I'd rather hear it from you guys!

I must gain knowledgeeeeeee~

[SiofraTural]

Bump~

[Sugarbeary]

SiofraTural

This is is a friendly environment! Don't go bashing any religion, because people are free to believe in what they want. T

Hope so. Anyway, I'll help.

I am a Christian, Southern Baptist denomination. I'm guessing that doesn't answer your question, as you say what kind of religion. I guess I could try to describe what it means to me, or what it is..

So my religion has a creation story, of an all-knowing and all-powerful singular God in 3-formes that all have different roles but are of the same. The God- the father- spoke, and everything came into existence. He gave instructions to the humans, who were given dominion over all the animals and plants, but they were ignored, and sin came into everyone's life. God saw that the people were sinning, so He gave them a law in which to follow, and ways to correct themselves if they were to commit sins through sacrifices. God then sent His Son - also God - to the Earth, to live a perfect life, to die as a true sacrifice for anyone who believed in Him to be made blameless and allowed to enter the Kingdom of God. Unlike all other religions, your afterlife stance is not determined by how good or bad you were, but rather do you have faith in God?

It seems like in your book, you'd want to create a new religion that shows resemblance to others, but maybe pick and choose parts you like and mesh them together. The 3-in-1 concept would be pretty cool to write about, Also maybe you could write about a culture that tried desperately hard to keep the laws until a savior came, but like Jesus they didn't recognize Him as the savior.

Does this help?

[SiofraTural]

mluck24

SiofraTural

This is is a friendly environment! Don't go bashing any religion, because people are free to believe in what they want. T

Hope so. Anyway, I'll help.

I am a Christian, Southern Baptist denomination. I'm guessing that doesn't answer your question, as you say what kind of religion. I guess I could try to describe what it means to me, or what it is..

So my religion has a creation story, of an all-knowing and all-powerful singular God in 3-formes that all have different roles but are of the same. The God- the father- spoke, and everything came into existence. He gave instructions to the humans, who were given dominion over all the animals and plants, but they were ignored, and sin came into everyone's life. God saw that the people were sinning, so He gave them a law in which to follow, and ways to correct themselves if they were to commit sins through sacrifices. God then sent His Son - also God - to the Earth, to live a perfect life, to die as a true sacrifice for anyone who believed in Him to be made blameless and allowed to enter the Kingdom of God. Unlike all other religions, your afterlife stance is not determined by how good or bad you were, but rather do you have faith in God?

It seems like in your book, you'd want to create a new religion that shows resemblance to others, but maybe pick and choose parts you like and mesh them together. The 3-in-1 concept would be pretty cool to write about, Also maybe you could write about a culture that tried desperately hard to keep the laws until a savior came, but like Jesus they didn't recognize Him as the savior.

Does this help?
This helps a whole ton!

In my book/character world there is no one religion, there is a whole bunch of them, just like in real life. However, some religions may be more popular then others and vice versa. So reading something like this is interesting.

I am baptized as a Roman Catholic when I was a baby, but currently I'm just in a sort of comfortable state of mind that I don't worship anything, because I don't know which is the real one, and that's fine with me. My vast curiosity however wants me to see into the minds of others and see how and why they believe in what they do. My characters will meet many other people of different religions and cultures, so I want each to feel very unique, even if they worshipped the same religion. If that makes any sense. xd

I am acceptable of all religions and try to see through all the bad labels and know what they're really about. There's a big difference between religion and hate groups.

[Sugarbeary]

SiofraTural

mluck24

SiofraTural

This is is a friendly environment! Don't go bashing any religion, because people are free to believe in what they want. T

Hope so. Anyway, I'll help.

I am a Christian, Southern Baptist denomination. I'm guessing that doesn't answer your question, as you say what kind of religion. I guess I could try to describe what it means to me, or what it is..

So my religion has a creation story, of an all-knowing and all-powerful singular God in 3-formes that all have different roles but are of the same. The God- the father- spoke, and everything came into existence. He gave instructions to the humans, who were given dominion over all the animals and plants, but they were ignored, and sin came into everyone's life. God saw that the people were sinning, so He gave them a law in which to follow, and ways to correct themselves if they were to commit sins through sacrifices. God then sent His Son - also God - to the Earth, to live a perfect life, to die as a true sacrifice for anyone who believed in Him to be made blameless and allowed to enter the Kingdom of God. Unlike all other religions, your afterlife stance is not determined by how good or bad you were, but rather do you have faith in God?

It seems like in your book, you'd want to create a new religion that shows resemblance to others, but maybe pick and choose parts you like and mesh them together. The 3-in-1 concept would be pretty cool to write about, Also maybe you could write about a culture that tried desperately hard to keep the laws until a savior came, but like Jesus they didn't recognize Him as the savior.

Does this help?

This helps a whole ton!

In my book/character world there is no one religion, there is a whole bunch of them, just like in real life. However, some religions may be more popular then others and vice versa. So reading something like this is interesting.

I am baptized as a Roman Catholic when I was a baby, but currently I'm just in a sort of comfortable state of mind that I don't worship anything, because I don't know which is the real one, and that's fine with me. My vast curiosity however wants me to see into the minds of others and see how and why they believe in what they do. My characters will meet many other people of different religions and cultures, so I want each to feel very unique, even if they worshipped the same religion. If that makes any sense. xd

I am acceptable of all religions and try to see through all the bad labels and know what they're really about. There's a big difference between religion and hate groups.
Indeed there is a difference, and I'm very proud of you for being able to have a conversation about it, as many others either shove or destroy, but I feel like you are someone who you can look eye-level at and talk about it, and I respect that very much.

What if in your book you have a religion like Judaism, which is half faith, half something you're born as, like an ethnic group. Your characters could be born into some group, maybe this whole group having something physical that defines it. And then some spirit/monster or other religion decides to attack that religion. And they have to go house to house to seek shelter, sometimes being aided and sometimes being shunned, of course having dramas of close encounters, with a nice coming of age theme to tie it all in.

[SiofraTural]

mluck24

SiofraTural

mluck24

mluck24

SiofraTural

This is is a friendly environment! Don't go bashing any religion, because people are free to believe in what they want.

Hope so. Anyway, I'll help.

I am a Christian, Southern Baptist denomination. I'm guessing that doesn't answer your question, as you say what kind of religion. I guess I could try to describe what it means to me, or what it is..

So my religion has a creation story, of an all-knowing and all-powerful singular God in 3-formes that all have different roles but are of the same. The God- the father- spoke, and everything came into existence. He gave instructions to the humans, who were given dominion over all the animals and plants, but they were ignored, and sin came into everyone's life. God saw that the people were sinning, so He gave them a law in which to follow, and ways to correct themselves if they were to commit sins through sacrifices. God then sent His Son - also God - to the Earth, to live a perfect life, to die as a true sacrifice for anyone who believed in Him to be made blameless and allowed to enter the Kingdom of God. Unlike all other religions, your afterlife stance is not determined by how good or bad you were, but rather do you have faith in God?

It seems like in your book, you'd want to create a new religion that shows resemblance to others, but maybe pick and choose parts you like and mesh them together. The 3-in-1 concept would be pretty cool to write about, Also maybe you could write about a culture that tried desperately hard to keep the laws until a savior came, but like Jesus they didn't recognize Him as the savior.

Does this help?

This helps a whole ton!

In my book/character world there is no one religion, there is a whole bunch of them, just like in real life. However, some religions may be more popular then others and vice versa. So reading something like this is interesting.

I am baptized as a Roman Catholic when I was a baby, but currently I'm just in a sort of comfortable state of mind that I don't worship anything, because I don't know which is the real one, and that's fine with me. My vast curiosity however wants me to see into the minds of others and see how and why they believe in what they do. My characters will meet many other people of different religions and cultures, so I want each to feel very unique, even if they worshipped the same religion. If that makes any sense. xd

I am acceptable of all religions and try to see through all the bad labels and know what they're really about. There's a big difference between religion and hate groups.

Indeed there is a difference, and I'm very proud of you for being able to have a conversation about it, as many others either shove or destroy, but I feel like you are someone who you can look eye-level at and talk about it, and I respect that very much.

What if in your book you have a religion like Judaism, which is half faith, half something you're born as, like an ethnic group. Your characters could be born into some group, maybe this whole group having something physical that defines it. And then some spirit/monster or other religion decides to attack that religion. And they have to go house to house to seek shelter, sometimes being aided and sometimes being shunned, of course having dramas of close encounters, with a nice coming of age theme to tie it all in.

This has personally never crossed my mind, and I should totally go into further research and story fiddling with this. Thanks!

I could possibly put this into a type of nomadic group I was slightly thinking my characters could run into. I should probably explore the idea a bit more now that you mentioned this. 3nodding

Thanks for allowing me to hear about your beliefs as well as giving me an idea that I never really thought of before. *super hug*

[SiofraTural]

bump~

[Chieftain Twilight]

I reject organized religion. however, I do have my own Spiritual/Religious beliefs.

I am a Panentheist Monist. I believe that God is completely undefinable, and both eminent and transcendent. God is like the equation 0 / 0 = {0, 1, Undefined}.

think of it like this; in physics, we know that White Light is made up of a spectrum of seven colours (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet). but we can't see those colours until we refract the light through a prism. in the same way, all of reality is a Spectrum of God, refracted through our minds.

I believe in the basis of the Tao Te Ching of Taoism, and the view of God/the Tao in Shakti Hinduism and Taoism. I know that those are an odd combination of religious beliefs (one being transcendent, and the other being naturalistic). but I have reconciled them smoothly in my own beliefs.

I worship really just be being grateful of Everything. I don't often see the need for Prayer.

[Lady Vizsla]

I believe in Christianity. I come from a family of many religions including Christianity, Hinduism, and Sikhism. For me Christianity is the most legitimate one based on various evidences I've studied. I won't go into detail but it's the only theistic worldview that makes sense to me and has seemed consistent in terms of prophecy etc. There are various scientific reasons I'm a theist as well mainly involving the universe, its constants, laws, fine-tuning and all that jazzz.

The only religious celebration I engage in would be Communion where we partake of the bread and wine that are symbols of Christ's sacrifice. I also take part in Divali as a cultural thing because my maternal great grandparents were Hindu and though I'm not Hindu, the cultural celebration is fun and the food is delicious : )

Hope this helped.

[Chieftain Twilight]

KimberlyAriel07

I believe in Christianity. I come from a family of many religions including Christianity, Hinduism, and Sikhism. For me Christianity is the most legitimate one based on various evidences I've studied. I won't go into detail but it's the only theistic worldview that makes sense to me and has seemed consistent in terms of prophecy etc. There are various scientific reasons I'm a theist as well mainly involving the universe, its constants, laws, fine-tuning and all that jazzz.

The only religious celebration I engage in would be Communion where we partake of the bread and wine that are symbols of Christ's sacrifice. I also take part in Divali as a cultural thing because my maternal great grandparents were Hindu and though I'm not Hindu, the cultural celebration is fun and the food is delicious : )

Hope this helped.

I would like to know more about what this evidence you mentioned is for your position, and why it makes the most sense to you. smile you can PM me about it if you like.

[Lady Vizsla]

Chieftain Twilight

KimberlyAriel07

I believe in Christianity. I come from a family of many religions including Christianity, Hinduism, and Sikhism. For me Christianity is the most legitimate one based on various evidences I've studied. I won't go into detail but it's the only theistic worldview that makes sense to me and has seemed consistent in terms of prophecy etc. There are various scientific reasons I'm a theist as well mainly involving the universe, its constants, laws, fine-tuning and all that jazzz.

The only religious celebration I engage in would be Communion where we partake of the bread and wine that are symbols of Christ's sacrifice. I also take part in Divali as a cultural thing because my maternal great grandparents were Hindu and though I'm not Hindu, the cultural celebration is fun and the food is delicious : )

Hope this helped.

I would like to know more about what this evidence you mentioned is for your position, and why it makes the most sense to you. smile you can PM me about it if you like.

Sure. If you won't be turning this into a debate I'd be happy to oblige.

[Chieftain Twilight]

KimberlyAriel07

Chieftain Twilight

KimberlyAriel07

I believe in Christianity. I come from a family of many religions including Christianity, Hinduism, and Sikhism. For me Christianity is the most legitimate one based on various evidences I've studied. I won't go into detail but it's the only theistic worldview that makes sense to me and has seemed consistent in terms of prophecy etc. There are various scientific reasons I'm a theist as well mainly involving the universe, its constants, laws, fine-tuning and all that jazzz.

The only religious celebration I engage in would be Communion where we partake of the bread and wine that are symbols of Christ's sacrifice. I also take part in Divali as a cultural thing because my maternal great grandparents were Hindu and though I'm not Hindu, the cultural celebration is fun and the food is delicious : )

Hope this helped.

I would like to know more about what this evidence you mentioned is for your position, and why it makes the most sense to you. smile you can PM me about it if you like.

Sure. If you won't be turning this into a debate I'd be happy to oblige.

I was actually hoping to in fact make a debate out of it. not to try to convert you or anything; just for the mental exercise and learning. I enjoy debates. and this is the ED, after all. I figure people here are supposed to expect and be prepared for Debate.

I really hope you will be open to a debate on the matter. I want to explore your ideas and reasoning.

[Jessi Danger]

I was raised Catholic, and come from a strange mix of old Hispanic culture and a lot of hippies. My family has actually lived in the United States since the territories we happened to live on were annex after the Mexican American war. Specifically California, so theres a lot of history.

My family is varying degrees of Roman Catholic.

Me personally? I like most any religion and consider most to have something worthwhile about them. I guess I'm a sort of eclectic pagan.

[Faithful Denomination]

SiofraTural

~*~
What kind of religions do you believe in/worship, and why? Is there any type of culture related thing you do during religious celebrations?
~*~

I'm a none denominational Christian,
I believe in God and Jesus Christ as my Savior. i DO NOT believe in the trinity.
Although baptized a Roman Catholic as a child i do not follow the doctrines they teach.
i worship God through his son Jesus Christ and try to follow the scriptures the best i can.

Why? I was given free choice as a child and never pushed into anything, as a i grew up i made the choice for myself to read the bible and did extensive research into things and this is when i dedicated my life to Jesus.
As for Celebrations, i celebrate christmas but make it about Christ (we all know that it's not really his birthday but still...)
Easter is probably the most important thing for me.
I disapprove of Halloween so don't celebrate that.

hmmmm anything else? smile

[AvenirLegacy]

I believe in Elder deities that have amassed great power and wisdom over the ages. My hallucinations game me my first glimpse of such entities and have been greatly influenced by them. Although it is easy to dismiss my beliefs as the results of complex hallucinations, auditory and visual, my hallucinations always seem to leave me with a sense of Truth. They have really opened my eyes to some insights about life and the universe. While I am not prone to kneeling and worship, I see my Gods as teachers and wise men and woman / entities. Could this be called a religion? Probably not, but they do influence my way of thinking. Do I ever try to commit actions based on my beliefs that impact others; naturally no, as they probably do not believe in any of my hallucinations or what may seem as nonsense. Via hallucinations, I have grown into a more confident individual in regard to my beliefs, and sincerely believe that my Gods are keeping an eye on me and my spiritual progress.