Has religion/spirituality ever helped you?

[EveWasFramed]

OK...I think I've removed all posts that are either off topic or fall under "debate."
Religious debate isn't allowed. It doesn't matter if you don't put the thread under the "Debate" section or not. I've decided to allow the thread to stay open a bit longer and see where it goes. If you already posted, and your post has been deleted, please don't take it personally. If you want to post, just keep it on topic and not something that would be considered "debate." Thanks.

 

[Felix]

Buddhism is pretty cool. I like some of their ideas, but don't really believe in the supernatural side. I'm Atheist.

Inb4 locked.

 

[CherrySlushie91]

Yes my faith has helped me tremendously. People have a lot of opinions about religion but it does change peoples lives. I never went to church with my family, my mom would send us but she wouldn't take us. I've always had faith but i never knew what to do with it lol I can honestly say that God found me i didn't find him, he found me at a time in my life when i had given up on being good. I was 18 about to graduate high school, smoking weed everyday and working 3 jobs. Since then i've stopped smoking weed,cigarettes, moved 6 hours away from home gone to college. I stumbled a lot, but i've gone way farther than i would have. I'm no longer afraid of death. I still have problems but thru faith i can over come those problems i'm no longer helpless and i'm no longer alone. If you want to know more in depth or if u have specific questions feel free to msg me.

 

[isthatso]

Inspirational stuff!

 

[Lone Apothecary]

that was the kind of response I was expecting. Sadly, religion has done a lot of harm..too...
I guess my parents walked the talk. they didn't just go to church..they created a loving family environment. That's what reinforced my belief I suppose.

Anything you force on others can cause damage, especially if the person you are pushing things on trusts you. It causes even more damage to a young, impressionable child. Peeling away the beliefs which I had been taught to hold without evidence also meant picking apart family relations and several friendships. Now, I find the solace I always needed in observable reality, so it all worked out.

 

[Okiedokes]

It's been a problem for me and also been something that has helped...when I decided to seek my own way into it without the help of others prying or trying to force beliefs on me. Although I can honestly say I feel more spiritual than religious..I do still hold onto some religious things that I do follow because they are from a source I believe in and not just a religion with their own rules. I like to keep an open mind which is why I think religion can sorta..well.. bother me with the hmm.. boxed in thinking? Like, with the smaller denominations I guess.. I like to think of myself as Christian, more than the smaller branch I am somewhat a part of. Trying to be nice here.

 

[bulmabriefs144]

It's helped me and hindered me. Eventually, I had to come up with my own religion, as I realized that many of the existing ones were like "do this, believe that, and you're worth it." No forget that jazz, whatever you wanna do is up to you, make your own decisions and love yourself, and stop telling people how to live. But I guess this stance largely came from Taoism which is somewhat heavy on anti-control.

My religion has helped me understand why I feel as I feel by understanding how religion itself can ideally bind people together in love for healthy connections, or enslave them to unhealthy ones.

 

[lonelyfairy]

Some kind of spirituality has helped me a lot, especially with my depression. New age things can be little silly, but they have some great sites about thinking positively etc. to make life better in many ways.

 

[ladyforsaken]

I'm not sure if religion has helped me, but having faith and believing that things happen for a reason and that there is a greater good out there and an unknown higher power has surely helped me. It's all about belief and positive mindset. Goes a long way.

 

[isthatso]

I'm not sure if religion has helped me, but having faith and believing that things happen for a reason and that there is a greater good out there and an unknown higher power has surely helped me. It's all about belief and positive mindset. Goes a long way.

Absolutely!

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Some kind of spirituality has helped me a lot, especially with my depression. New age things can be little silly, but they have some great sites about thinking positively etc. to make life better in many ways.

I really believe we need something to believe in. Something beyond what we see superficially everyday. Or look at things with fresh eyes.
Unlocking our imagination is a key to setting us free from boredom and drudgery.
Oh and i forgot to say that spirituality can contribute to our mental health as in your case.

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It's helped me and hindered me. Eventually, I had to come up with my own religion, as I realized that many of the existing ones were like "do this, believe that, and you're worth it." No forget that jazz, whatever you wanna do is up to you, make your own decisions and love yourself, and stop telling people how to live. But I guess this stance largely came from Taoism which is somewhat heavy on anti-control.

My religion has helped me understand why I feel as I feel by understanding how religion itself can ideally bind people together in love for healthy connections, or enslave them to unhealthy ones.

Initially I was concerned by your comment about forming your own religion but I think what you mean is we all have to take responsibility for our choices. Not hand over the reins to a church. Keep questioning. Keep seeking the truth, because no 1 religion/deity has all the truth. "the truth lies within"...OK enough preaching for one day.

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I like to keep an open mind which is why I think religion can sorta..well.. bother me with the hmm.. boxed in thinking?

Interesting point that. I mean dogma is a problem for me. Believing in all the details. I can't fully comprehend or agree with"karma" for instance.
What has helped me is to keep a big picture perspective on all religions. "do unto others" is universal for example.
Born a christian but sometimes I wish I grew up in a Shaolin Temple like the TV program "Kung Fu."

 

[JustALonelyGuy]

I get what you mean. I suppose religious debates were banned because of the zeal some people have regarding the subject. We respect each other no matter what, so i guess it's alright.

That being said, i personally believe that everything happens for a reason. I believe in fate. I believe everyone has a path in life, i believe that life is meant for learning, learning all sorts of things. I believe that your death has already happened, how morbid as that sounds, the date of your death is kind of set. The way you die is entirely up to the circumstances. Basicly, until the day you are set to die you are pretty much indestructible, so to speak. But the most important part of what i believe in is the soul, how it carries over from body after body, so yes, i believe in reincarnation. However, that does not make me a hindu. I believe in souls and spirits, but that does not make me a shinto.

How strange it might sound, i believe everything has a soul or spirit of a sort. That includes that apple you are eating, that paper you are holding. If a soul needs to learn something specific that can only be learned by reincarnating as an apple, then it will be an apple, so to speak. I know this might sound ridicilous, but it's just a short description, i guess.

Anyway, the believe that everyting happens for a reason, and that everything happens just so i can learn from it helped me alot. I won't die because of this, it's just a learning process, you know that sort of thinking.

Some up pretty much what i beelvie too, thanks rose

 

[Lone Apothecary]

Care to clarify and elaborate on a few things, isthatso?

I really believe we need something to believe in. Something beyond what we see superficially everyday. Or look at things with fresh eyes.

What has helped me is to keep a big picture perspective on all religions. "do unto others" is universal for example.

Who is this "we" that you refer to in the first sentence?

What do you mean by "Something beyond what we see superficially everday?"

Are you attributing the idea of treating people as you want to be treated to religion/spirituality?

 

[isthatso]

Care to clarify and elaborate on a few things, isthatso?

I really believe we need something to believe in. Something beyond what we see superficially everyday. Or look at things with fresh eyes.

What has helped me is to keep a big picture perspective on all religions. "do unto others" is universal for example.

Who is this "we" that you refer to in the first sentence?

What do you mean by "Something beyond what we see superficially everday?"

Are you attributing the idea of treating people as you want to be treated to religion/spirituality?

"we" means "we". I'm not allowed to speak for all?
Even if you just believe in yourself.
There is more to life than what we objectively see. And "objectivity" is more an ideal than a reality. More likely that we all see subjectively.


Don't want this to go down the debate path as I'm sure you're better than me.
Do unto others before they do unto you.

 

[Lone Apothecary]

"we" means "we". I'm not allowed to speak for all?
Even if you just believe in yourself.
There is more to life than what we objectively see. And "objectivity" is more an ideal than a reality. More likely that we all see subjectively.

Don't want this to go down the debate path as I'm sure you're better than me.
Do unto others before they do unto you.

You're more than welcome to speak for all. You stated that it was your belief beforehand, after all. I've no quarrel with that. I was simply curious if you literally meant everyone.

I was more so wondering if you were implying that the things we see every day are superficial unless they're viewed with religion and spirituality in mind, which is assuredly false. Communing with nature is a spiritual act that I often partake in and, even from an objective view based upon observable reality, nature is infinitely beautiful and inspiring. In that sense, spirituality has helped me. I don't mean spiritual in religious sense, but in the sense that one holds little value for material pursuits.

My questions are meant to clarify, not challenge. This is no place for debate. I just like understanding people's points of view sometimes.

 

[isthatso]

Communing with nature is a spiritual act that I often partake in

Yes of course...
We can take things for granted, stop seeing how beautiful nature is..I live near the beach and sometimes take for granted how beautiful it is.
To me it sounds like you are a spiritual person because you appreciate the beauty of nature.

 

[isthatso]

I was more so wondering if you were implying that the things we see every day are superficial unless they're viewed with religion and spirituality in mind, which is assuredly false.

I'm still worried about this comment. You may be onto something here. Some of my superficiality shining through perhaps?

I guess what I'm getting at is that we stop seeing altogether. Mindfulness teaches you to appreciate every breath, every step you take, everything in your sight. i read somewhere the other day about some woman who had been attacked by a tiger or lion and had her face half chewed off. Now she can only be fed through tubes. her dream was to be able to eat something using her mouth./teeth again. Things we certainly take for granted.

 

[bulmabriefs144]

It's helped me and hindered me. Eventually, I had to come up with my own religion, as I realized that many of the existing ones were like "do this, believe that, and you're worth it." No forget that jazz, whatever you wanna do is up to you, make your own decisions and love yourself, and stop telling people how to live. But I guess this stance largely came from Taoism which is somewhat heavy on anti-control.

My religion has helped me understand why I feel as I feel by understanding how religion itself can ideally bind people together in love for healthy connections, or enslave them to unhealthy ones.

Initially I was concerned by your comment about forming your own religion but I think what you mean is we all have to take responsibility for our choices. Not hand over the reins to a church. Keep questioning. Keep seeking the truth, because no 1 religion/deity has all the truth. "the truth lies within"...OK enough preaching for one day.Smile

It's not that I'm still searching. My religion goes something like this. All these religions have certain things in common because all of us have common things as humans. But they all have different things from afterlife (one has heaven/hell as afterlife, another has reincarnation, another nihility) from whether it's God/gods/no god/don't care, because it's what the founder believes. I believe religion is personal truth. Well, there's more to it than that (link below), but that's the relevant bit.

Why does religion debate have such rage/passion? Because people don't understand this. It's your truth, not the truth. Until people do, yeah, we can't debate reasonably.

 

[Phaedron]

Well said. In the case of Christianity, it has helped me to overcome Christianity... They have a beast with 7 heads and 10 horns... (matthew, mark, luke, john, james, peter, jude... and Paul (he is the eighth and is even of the 7, goes into perdition, causes them all to curse God) and of course the 10 horns are Paul's epistles (not counting secondary letters sepearately) and well every verse in Job 41 applies to Paul... because well, he was the antichrist... Which has led me.... to Messianic Judaism...

With Judaism you get the laws, with Christianity you learn love and grace, with Islam you learn submission, with newage and eastern faiths you learn meditation, reincarnation, enlightenment, yoga, chakra balancing, and a whole bunch of other stuff that are more interesting on the whole. With Atheism you learn science and critical thinking. I train in all these schools of thought to a small extent, and I obey the commandments and ways of Yeshua (Jesus).

But there is likewise a lot of evil to be found in all of them... especially when combined with convert or die political systems, bowing to statues, crap like that. Especially the beast, aka, the Vatican, headquarters of the Jesuits, freemasons, and absolute bad guys. -My two cents. It's a very fascinating journey over all.

 

[bodafuko]

There should be no "debate", only respect and tolerance. And until your religion picks my pocket or breaks my bones, you will get both from me. (Not directed at anyone, simply stating my viewpoint).

 

[Sigma]

I'm agnostic, I suppose it's possible there's some omnipotent entity out there responsible for absolutely everything, but if there is there are several things that bother me; the first being that I can't understand how such an entity wouldn't desire my worship or care at all how I live my puny little life, why it would grant us free will if it was benevolent as is so often claimed (see what good that has done us...), why does it tolerate evil, why did it create us and everything else in the first place, why create a reward for good behaviour (heaven) - that's how you treat a small child, you make it do what you want by giving it a reward, we aren't supposed to act righteous because it's right but because we'll end up in hell otherwise.
The list goes on and on...