Welcome to Gaia! ::

I consider myself a polythiest no specific religious title. I question pretty much everything so my belief system is constantly evolving as I gather new information. What is important to me is self development. moving beyond the drama
that life often gives us. I wont stand on a soap box and tell people what to believe. As it isnt my place. Also I think it is somewhat silly. I am of the belief that every person has a bit of the truth. that there is no monopoly on truth.

My views are somewhat unconventional....

As I tell my friends often "God is an a*****e." And that's sort of what I believe. That there is some omniscient being that can do anything they want, but they just don't want to. They sit up there and watch us all like their own personal soap opera and throw plot twists at us just to see what we do. Not that they don't care about us all in some way or another, just that they're more interested in watching then helping.

If I'm going to talk to god in any way, shape, or form, I'd do it as if I were talking to a snarky friend. I do say please and thank you when I ask for something though.

As for my religious background, I was raised on and off a conservative Jew. I was put in hebrew school twice, taken out, and put in different saturday schools on and off for most of my life. I've always been bored with religious practice, so maybe this suits me because I never have to sit through services.

Im in the inbetween phase myself. i believe in something, I jsut havent labeled myself.

Personally, I think(yes my opinion) Is that if there truely is a god/goddess, then theres really just one, and that all these religinos are actually just following different faces that this being has decided to show them. Maybe there are more than one and its a group of being, but I doubt they dont know of each other if thats the case.

And yes I agree, all those religions that try to convert you are very annoying. My stepmom for a very short time was pushing me for being a Jehovah's Witness. While my self turned Jewish grandmother(who apparently changes to a new religion every few years when shes learned as much as she wants to on her current religion) never gave me info unless I wished for it. My family jokes with me that since I was raised Christian, my grandmothers jewish, stepmoms JW and my aunt believes God's a alien(her little joke, being the sci-fi fan she is) is that I should put down my religios views as confused.

Right now im looking into pagan, wiccian, ect views because they interest me and none Ive spoken to that call themselves as such ever push me to do what they do, so its nice.

This right here is exactly what is wrong with most theists in the western world. What a deeply unsettling sentiment. Until you question your religion, you are not really even a member of it. What is the age requirement for free thought? On second thought, nevermind; the church frowns on that.

Putting something above the powers of human comprehension. Even if it wasn't to escape logical fallacies, it's a fine reminder of why I left Catholicism.
Not to be hostile, but I found this... Disturbing and thought that counterpoints were needed...Desperately.
I imagine that it would upset your deity if you misspelled the name of his babymamma. It's "Mary," dear. One "r." Unless your referring to the sacrament (read "legal procedure.")
I would like you to tell the rest of us one thing, not because I don't know, but because I think you should be the one to articulate it. What is the Catholic church's stance on homosexuality? If you don't know, then I think it very important that you ask your pastor.

So what you're saying is that you believe in the church-sanctioned bigotry brought on the LGBT community by your religion and other religions like it? You, yourself support this ostracization of these people?

I think that religion is a tool for seeking out, locating and unearthing deep and profound truths in life that are part of the human experience- and like any tool, it can be misused.

I know people who are so wrapped up in empiricism that they fail to grasp greater metaphors that are important to our humanity.

Laziness and fallacy are more of a poison than religion is.

My mother is Roman Catholic, and my father is Baptist. My step-father is Southern Baptist (which is, contrary to popular belief, different), and my Dad's current girlfriend is atheist. His ex, which I babysit for, is Jewish. As are a large group of my friends. Of course, a large group of my friends are simply 'christian', not particularly specifying which sect they originate their beliefs from. So, I'm coming from a well-rounded background as far as religions go. And I personally believe in a higher power. For lack of better word, God.

The main problem I find with religion is that it was created to make people perfect. The problem is, nobody has the same definition of perfect. So the founder of religions aimed to create perfection in society, and as a result caused the problem of us as an imperfect people struggling to obtain what is literally impossible. Although humanity has it's bright, shining points... It has it's craters as well. So an overall perfect human society is pretty much as pure an oxymoron as you can get.

Another problem with religion is the extreme ends. As much as anything, extremists ruin things. If there's one thing humanity as a whole needs to learn, that's it. By extremists, well, there are two kinds. The WAYYY too serious about having religion, and the WAYYYY too serious about ragging on it at every opportunity and demolishing it completely. The first start Crusades and 9/11's... The other end start Holocausts and ethnic cleansing.

And for all you who say religion causes nothing but Crusades and wars, what about all the community service that's a part of most religions? The helping others for the sake of helping others? Maybe it's to save your eternal soul, but helping is helping. I'm not saying that those of you with this opinion do nothing; I'm simply suggesting that perhaps religion isn't all badness and leading sheep to slaughter. That might be how it winds up when psychos gain control. But when sensible, reasonable people are in control (again, an oxymoron), I think that religion will not only be tolerable, but even more beneficial to society than the best parts of it are today.

If you continually strive to be better, would you not theoretically eventually become perfect?

Acceptance and understanding are the most difficult things religion try to teach. But think about it- if you understand and accept everything about you and your life, that's perfection. Just, instead of raising yourself to your expectations, lowering your expectations to reality. Either way.

And perfection has nothing to do with a strict moral code. And seeing as everything 'in accordance with Will' falls under the category of the founder's perception of perfection, it actually proves my statement true.

And extremists DO ruin things. The most prominent example happens to be religion. Pardon me for confusing that statement, and thank you for pointing it out.