Welcome to Gaia! ::

Well, luckily, you're not alone. Millions upon millions of people don't believe in God. And a lot of people discover their beliefs as a teenager. There's nothing that says you HAVE to feel the same way about existance as your parents (though it would make your life easier), so I encourage you to keep exploring and find what you do believe in.

A fellow Taoist, I see.

I would have quoted some of the Tao Teh Ching if I knew where my copy was at this moment. Quite an enlightening read, and relatively short too. Damn, I wish I knew where it was.

Anyway, to further the Taoist conversation, a great introduction to Taoism is the Tao of Pooh. Relating it to Winnie the Pooh sounds hokey, but it's honestly the best layman's terms I've seen.

Look. I can't tell you if God really exists or not, because I feel that would be something like imposing you a faith maybe you don't want to follow, so if you want to define well your faith, I'd suggest you to think well about it. My faith is a little weird and it requires a lengthy explanation, but I'll try to make it short.

I don't believe in a God like the Christian, Jewish or Muslim god, that is, an almighty god who rules all the god damn world and unleashes storms, earthquakes and Rains of Fire when he gets really pissed off. That concept of God is way too farfetched to me; besides, most natural phenomena now have well documented and strictly scientific and verifiable explanations. So, that means, if there is a God, he doesn't have any control over the nature, because their causes are completely natural, leaving God only with control over man.

And this is where I mix the concept of God with human will, because human will is what makes people do what they do. They choose to do their own actions. And don't jump out and say there ain't no free will, because you still can choose not to do something your environment pushes you to do, which is a proof that will indeed exists. God must be behind human will, because he still has power over men, influencing people to do what they do. It's a much more general concept, coming out from the fact that the concept of God in the three mid-eastern religions is basically the same s**t.

Think about it, and make your own idea of God. Nothing prevents you from doing it. After all, in America, in theory, it's totally OK to be Christian, Muslim or Jewish or even Satanist. You're free to have any religion.

Believe it or not, there are religious people of all sorts. Remember that intolerant people can twist religion to their own ends. Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, and the Ku Klux Klan are only the most extreme of this phenomenon. Basically, there are Christians who are gay or bisexual. They belong to more liberal congregations, but the fact of the matter is that that school of thought does exist. What that means, in the end, is that you aren't damned to hell, you just need to find a church that is willing to accept you. I myself am not Christian, though I believe in God. I don't quite understand how our loving God could condemn us to oblivion for factors beyond our control. I mean, you were born bisexual -- right? That means God had something to do with that. Unless you're making bad choices, such as to do evil deeds, I don't think you need to worry about damnation. At least that's my take on it.

I don't believe that religion is anything to be necessarily proud of. Organized religion's sole purpose is to segregate people into two groups: believers and non-believers. Hence, I have issues with the vast majority of organized religions, especially those based on Christian values/thinking.

Anyway, I am a Taoist simply because it's above an organized religion. You don't hear of going to Taoist churches, or worshiping a Taoist idol (though Lao Tzu must have been quite a guy). Taoists believe simply because they choose to. That, to me, is what spirituality is all about.

Okay, here comes the big bad Roman Catholic.

First, to the people discussing christianity: the "beliefs" you are talking about are most likely misconstued Bible passages. Many nonchristians or uneducated christians look at the Bible as some stupid outdated lawbook, when really its full of journals, letters, speeches and some old law books. Those law books are Leviticus, Numbers and Dueteronomy, yeah, thats 3 books out of how many in the bible? If I recall correctly, there are 26 books in the old testament alone. Did I forget to mention that Catholics don't follow the old testament at all? That's slightly important to know.

Jumping into the New testament, what is it about? JESUS coming to save everyone. 4 books devoted to telling about his story alone. There are many letters from Paul, a man who slaughtered the early christ-followers, and converted to spreading that very religion across the Mediteranian. Another book in question of the christian motive is Revelations. This book is one of the most misunderstood books of the bible. This book was written for very early christians during a time of mass slaughter and persecution. It was to reassure them that thier tormentors would face apropriate punishment. While crude and unacceptable in today's caring society, this book reflects the time and perspective it was written in.

There were new core beliefs made for non-jewish christians during these early years: No fornication, No drinking of blood, and No eating the food given to idols (after food was given to the idols, pagans would eat it). Also, Acts tells another core belief of christianity, "God makes nothing unclean". Basicly saying that God has made all people and things, so they are not unworthy of salvation (for example, homosexuality is a grave sin in the old testament, but because nothing God makes cannot recieve the gift of the holy spirit, homosexuals can still be accepted into heaven). This is why the laws of the old testiment are dropped by followers of Jesus, and have practical applications.

That said, I apologise for the babbling.

@ the thread maker: Basicly beyond the wall of text I've presented, you need to educate yourself on ALL policies and beliefs of religions before you chose one or rule another out completely. Sometimes things aren't as they appear, this goes for many things, beyond religous preference. Before you close anything down, you have to know all the pro's and con's, right?

@ Soleq: I'm just going to pretend you didn't nail down all organized religions for existing to only segregate people. That's a stereotype, and I thought you'd know better.

Well I'm not Christian, but I understand that a lot of denominations are perfectly accepting homosexuality and bisexuality. In fact, if I recall correctly (and I could easily be wrong) Methodism is one of the more liberal ones.

As for the belief in God, I can't really help there. I'm a Unitarian, and I tend to lean towards more Agnositc beliefs. But they say that there may be some evidence of a God. It all depends on how you look at it.