and if you atheist/switched faiths, why did you do it and what faith did you choose?
im in a curious mood today :>
It’s complicated but I used to be essentially atheist but now believe that there is something one might as well call “God” after studying philosophy. Essentially everything has a cause and something must be at the end of that chain, and we might as well call that “God.” I also practice Christianity because I feel that it is good to have the community and structure that a religion can provide but I don’t think that “God” necessarily exists in the way Christianity typically presents it.
Upvoting you because as an atheist I think its stupid that others are downvoting just because someone says they lean towards christianity
Eh. I could care less about downvotes and I understand that the idea of practicing Christianity for reasons beyond personal faith in it is going to be controversial to Christians and atheists alike. If someone made a chill Atheist/agnostic “church” where there was singing and discussions on moral philosophy, and a community of people devoted to helping each other and their community I’d probably be doing that but as it stands religion is the only game in town for such things and I think that it’s good to do something like this. Plus I don’t know, it’s kind of cool to be a part of rituals people have been doing for thousands of years.
Maybe this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_atheism
It’s more complicated than that since I do believe God exists but in a way that is incomprehensible to humans, and, according to all evidence, doesn’t “intervene” with the universe. I say “intervene” because God, as classically described, is simultaneously incapable of intervening and incapable of not intervening. If we define God as “an omnipotent being”(which, for the record, I do not), then He is necessarily also all knowing and exists outside of the limitations of time and space. Such a being would be perfectly optimized as well, and so it would be impossible for anything to occur without its express permission and cause. Therefore, under classical theism, it seems impossible for God to say, answer prayers, because this would imply that He could possibly change His mind or that what was happening wasn’t already what He wants to begin with.
Buddhist, I was more Christian. Growing up in a fundamentalist church and becoming more intellectual drove me to ask big question that Christianity didn’t answer for me. Causes and conditions allowed me to encounter Buddhism when I was living in Japan and it’s grown in me ever since. I really liked how Zen meditation made me feel. Very different from being told to pray but there was nothing and also no unstructured. Buddhism has clear practices and results. I know it has “supernatural” elements but it’s all mostly logical to me and I like that
I never heard anybody make fun of Buddhists or slander them, quite a lovely religion ❤️
That’s kind of you to say but there are certainly plenty of problematic Buddhist groups, like any social group.
What about you?
Thank you for reminding me about times Buddhists were violent in an organized way. Things related to that are probably documented around https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_violence#Violence_against_religious_minorities
It was surprising to learn that any Buddhist advocated for or enacted violence, but it has happened, and surprisingly recently. Luckily, it seems that there aren’t many cases of that in the 2020s.
I’m sure the Thai, Myanmar, and Sri Lankan things are still going on but bad people of a religion doesn’t equal said religion. Unless you’re an atheist in the west than that equals all of said religion.
Yes it is surprising but people are of their circumstances
Me? Id say I’m currently agnostic, used to be Muslim, problem is, I’m still living in the Muslim country, so I just kinda act like I’m Muslim to avoid getting into trouble for my beliefs.
I don’t want to get too deep into it, I can write a whole essay about the religious attitude in my country and how I feel about it, but I won’t :>
I’ve kind of always liked the idea of Buddhism, but I’ve never really been able to grapple with it in a way that made sense (in a gut-feel sort of way) to me. I guess living somewhere that has a sizeable Buddhist population could make the difference.
What makes you feel that way?
I think there are many very different ways to approach experiencing it. If my first experience was at a temple in my local area I would very much be turned away….
Because I feel like the Buddha had some pretty good ideas. Like I get that suffering comes from desire, I can vibe with the cycle of rebirth and renewal, etc. I just… I never got to the point where I was like ‘This is the one for me.’ Maybe because I didn’t investigate it all that deeply back when I was investigating lots of other religions around the world, I was always pulled away by other ideas in Hinduism or Gnostic Christianity, or Sufism.
I just… I never got to the point where I was like ‘This is the one for me.’
I get this a lot! :) I think it has to be more than just reading but physically experiencing it. Meditation and university classes did it for me.
I was always pulled away by other ideas in Hinduism or Gnostic Christianity, or Sufism.
What about those ideas draws you?
Spinoza’s god fascinates me enough to be agnostic rather than an atheist with conviction.
Could you explain further
Pantheism basically. The universe literally is god.
It’s more of a philosophical god than a being with consciousness. He said that god is “the sum of the natural and physical laws of the universe and certainly not an individual entity or creator.” Simplified, everything in existence is god, but individual things are not god on their own. That point is an important distinction between Spinoza’s god and animism.
Perceiving god as more of the framework of existence itself is a very compelling way for me to appreciate the connection of all things, without accepting a bearded man in the sky or encroaching on my scientific understanding.
Im a romuvis :3
Used to be an atheist before ig
What is that? 🤔
Romuva is lithuanian paganism :3… kind of obscure everywhere outside the country
Man it’s been a while since I’ve come across a pagan reconstructionist in the wilds of social media. Cheers!
I hadn’t heard of Romuva before, but I used to know a bunch back in the day; Celts, Hellenists, Kemetics, etc.
Baltic pagans are definitely rarer to encounter online than the others :3… these days I feel like I mostly meet hellenists and wicca with a sprinkle of germanic pagans
At least there’s a lot of holidays to attend in person tho haha x3
Yeah, true that. Hell, reconstructionists in general are pretty rare, much less finding the rare thing within a group of rare things. ;) Also I’ve always been a lil uneasy around German pagans, unfortunately there’s a strong undercurrent of white nationalism that has co-opted/corrupted some of it and it’s hard to tell them apart at a glance.
Though Wiccans aren’t reconstructionists in the usual sense; they’re not rediscovering/recreating something that once was so much as syncretizing something new out of the pieces of a bunch of pre-Christian/indigenous practices.
I guess at this point I should consider myself a buddhist.
I was raised in a Christian household in the us midwest but never felt drawn to it or any form of sprituality, over the years Buddhism in its many forms kept creeping up on me enough times and explaining things in such elegant ways that I eventually looked into Tibetan Buddhism more closely and realized that once you understand how the symbolism of it all works in terms of connecting the words of practices to actually useful life tips then it becomes a great benefit to yourself and others.
As simply as possible, I chose this route because it is like becoming a scientist of experiences and all the practices we do are things that prove what we experience just as a scientist forms a postulate, a Buddhist forms a practice that leads to some form of awareness.
I am a Muslim, so Islam.
Wow, you are like the only Muslim here lol, are you from the west?
Nope, not the west, asia
Christian. Only by the Grace of God am I alive today.
Grew up atheist, went through a semi serious pagan phase, got certified as a shaman, went back to atheism. Will still throw in the odd ritual, but more with the expectation that it will affect the way I think about a problem rather than the ritual doing anything on its own.
So like if you have a job interview you can either raw dog it and show your lack of confidence or.preform a ritual and gain some confidence which will count in your favour during the interview.h
Is the ritual doing any direct alterations? No, but it’s still useful.
Antitheist
2nd
Apathetic since forever.
Satanist.
Raised Mormon, was a Mormon missionary. Had a nervous breakdown, and religious leaders said that I must be sinning, and needed to pray more, read my scriptures more, and repent. But… What sin? And how was I supposed to pray/study more when I had already dedicated two years of my life to preaching? E.g., there’s 24 hours in the day, and I’m already spending multiple hours doing that stuff, so where am I supposed to fit that in?
That was the first crack in the foundation. Took a while, but once you realize that religious leaders are just men (and yes, it’s always men in the Mormon church), and that despite their claims they don’t have any prophetic powers, then you start questioning a lit of things, like how you can even know truth. (Spoiler: you can’t know truth without some kind of objective evidence, and all religions’ truth claims are based on subjective evidence and “see?, it says so, right here in my book!”)
Atheist is a label that says what you don’t believe. Satanist is a label that says what I do believe. So I eventually settled on Satanist.
Quaker curious
I learned recently that there is such a thing as nontheist Quakers.
My true faith is: don’t be an asshole and be a decent, rational and empathetic human being.
Everything else I may or may not believe does not matter, it’s decoration.
I was raised protestant Christian.
I would say what I believe now is heavily influenced by that, but also heavily influenced by how clearly the focus that evangelical Christians put on the idea “God needs to be feared more than They need to be followed” has fucked up so much of the world. Fearing someone at the cost of spreading their message is nonsensical, idiotic, hypocritical, and toxic to human society.
According to the Bible, Jesus Christ rarely answered direct questions with direct answers; most of the time his answers came in the form of a story or a parable explaining one possible answer to the question given one possible context, implying that humans are encouraged to use their judgment to figure out how best to approach a situation. Imagine that. An all-powerful creator who granted intelligence like Their own to Their creation and actually wanting that intelligence to be exercised.
One of the most notable instances where Jesus answered a direct question with a direct answer is Mark 12:28-31:
“Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
In no uncertain terms, love is the most important commandment. Furthermore, Jesus equates loving your neighbor to loving God in Matthew chapter 25. It’s not evangelism, it’s not religious authoritarianism. It’s not indoctrination. It’s love.
I believe this world was created by an omniscient Creator who wanted humanity to use the intelligence granted to us to freely develop a society centered around love.
No evidence for God, that’s why I’m an atheist.
