What do you believe?

-H-

tl;dr

Blind comment: Nobody got religion right, and to subscribe blindly to any one set of beliefs is just silly.

Hail lord xenu and the 12th planet nibiru!

Buckaroo Santa wrote:

tl;dr

Blind comment: Nobody got religion right, and to subscribe blindly to any one set of beliefs is just silly.

I titled the topic wrong I'll give you that. However, had you taken the time to read the "too long" post you would have realized your blind comment is irrelevent for the most part.

This isn't a straight forward I'm (insert religion). This was meant more toward the philosophical ideas of each indevidual.

My beliefs are centered entirely on death, as are most people's, whether they realize it or not. In this world, there is only one thing guaranteed to each and every person. Death. Because of this, death is the one thing we can base our lives around without fear of having lived for the wrong reason. It is guaranteed. It cannot be avoided. It is, without fail, entirely dependable.

Sounds gloomy, right? Well, that's not how I intend for it to sound.

"It is the Gods that envy us. Life is beautiful... because we are doomed." - Brad Pitt as Achilles (Troy)

The inevitability of death gives us complete freedom, which is something a lot of people fail to see. The question is, how should we use this freedom? To me, the answer is obvious.

We should seek happiness. We should live for joy. We should love everything, and everyone. We should live our lives in a manner that yields the most joy. It's true that nothing matters at the end of the trip, but who's to say that we shouldn't enjoy the ride?

However, this is where your own personal values come into play. Should you seek your own happiness, forgoing the happiness of others? Or should you give freely of yourself, helping others without regard for your own well-being?

I've never been one for extremes. Rather, my own personal beliefs fell right in the middle.

For a time, I believed people should live in a manner that provided them with the most satisfaction, while at the same time subtracting minimally from the happiness of others.

However, that was a naive statement. Even the smallest of personal joys can spell disaster for someone else. Buying yourself that nice pair of Nikes could very well result in the death of a sweat-shop worker in China, whose increased workload due to the popularity of Nikes resulted in a fatal heart attack on the job.

But what does this mean? How are we to subtract minimally from the happiness of others, when it's so very hard to do?

That is why religion was invented. It unifies people. It unifies them in a way unlike any other.

I don't mean this in a disrespectful manner. Rather, I appreciate the thought. But the fact of the matter is that religion exists to turn all men into moral clones, and establish the status quo right along the middle, where joy can be exchanged for joy, without anyone getting the short end of the stick. The logic behind religion is irrelevant. The goal is what matters. Unfortunately, a huge amount of people do not use religion correctly.

Religion unifies people through hope. The hope of a better tomorrow. The hope of a better life. The hope of a better afterlife.

Hope is a beautiful thing. But every person is different. Some people need to know that there is something else out there. Some people (most people actually) need more than the guarantee of death to find true happiness.

I feel joy, knowing that there are people that have found joy themselves, regardless of whether or not that joy stems from religious fulfillment. I won't try to convince them otherwise. I won't try to stab holes in their logic. Instead, I will add to my own joy by knowing that others are joyful, and I will live for the day that we can all live in harmony, though, as a realist, I know this to be a near impossibility.

Ideally, people would not need the promise of an afterlife to find peace. But humans are only humans.

Do I believe in God? No.
Do I believe there isn't one? No.
Do I even believe religion is the path to universal peace? No... But it tries, and I'm glad it exists.

I'm certain that if there is a god, and if he is a god truly deserving of worship, then he will simply demand this of his people : Love your fellow man, no matter what.

That is what I believe. I believe in joy, and I believe in love. I believe in the happiness of others, and I believe that something can be created out of nothing. And that something is personal peace. THAT is the way religion should be used; to establish personal peace. I have a great respect for religion, because it tries to do this. I no longer care about what is correct in the world. I care about happiness. I cannot repeat this enough times.

I've found my path to peace. I hope everyone else does too some day, for it shall add to my own.

PS - *Ahem* I didn't mean to make this sound like a religious observation. Rather, I meant to merely point out that joy is the reason we exist, and that religion is one wildly popular method of obtaining said joy, because of the hope and peace it creates in the hearts of the faithful. I feel pity and sorrow for those that use religion to hurt others.

tl;dr - We're all going to die, so let's just enjoy the ride. Take joy in the fact of joy, and love your fellow man, no matter what.

Well said Trigger. On many levels I agree with your knowledge. When anyone asks me my view of religion I this is my reply: "I will live my life according to what I believe to be 'right' or 'good' and will in the end be judged by whatever force exists after death.


It is entirely true that no man truly knows what lies after death. Yet, from what I have gathered from my research into mankind I believe there is such thing as an afterlife. I simply define it as either a utopia or a torment. I watched a movie the other day named "the lovely bones." The movie is about the afterlife of a girl who is murdered. The afterlife portrayed in the film is almost the afterlife I believe there to be. Sadly, anything past death is theory that none of can be proven..
The only thing I do know is I'd like to be able to accept death before my time. Personally the easiness at mind the FULL acceptance of ones own death is what I believe to be enlightened.

I told you this earlier, but I'll post it here for good measure.

The idea of a life after death pleases me, so I shall remain optimistic about it. Unfortunately, that's the best I can do. The only way to know for sure is to die. D:

I believe in the Golden fat guy who grants wishes. May be bless us all.

Turns out there was a book out recently dealing with my way of thinking.

It is titled "The Brief History of the Dead"

I am sad that it was stolen.. but happy I'm not the only one that thinks this way.

Personally, the way I see it. No metaphysical concept is either Right. Nor wrong. our faith is what makes whatever we believe in truth, for instance, I've a very mixed "religious belief." I believe in the old ways, the Egyptian deity's and such; however, I don't believe in "The World after death". Instead, I believe that when we die, we're reincarnated.

True faith does not come from organized religion, true faith comes from what we truly believe in our hearts and minds. It can't really be explained, it can't be rationalized, it's a metaphysical concept that changes based on personal faith.

So the way I see it is very simple, I believe that when we die. The faith that we held, whatever that might be, be it heaven, a life-after-life, reincarnation, what have you. That will be our afterlife. Gods all exist, but we only go to the ones "we" believe in.

What I do believe is wrong, is organized religion. They have forgotten what true faith is all about, and are mostly mongering for money and supporters now.

Be glad that you will never understand this.

"Let future generations reject us, let history stigmatise our names, as the names of traitors to the human cause—still we will compose hymns to deformity, destruction, madness, chaos, darkness. And after that—let the grass grow."

und

"Dare we speak,
lest our voices be heard above the din
of an unnatural birth,
a birth of many generations at once
and we it's keepers watch
this horror from below take form...

Caveat

Dare we say,
we consecrate this union of manured flesh
upon which boils lester
and on opening, the sores reveal "children",
umbilical cords receiving liquid filth
an act somewhat obscene...

Caveat

And so,
slowly they scatter
away from their blemished "nests"-
offspring born inside out
moist organs adorning breast and torso
and from their bowels they nurse...

Caveat

So what purpose would these serve?
A creature which mates itself
and spawns visceral demons!
Dare we say,
there's to be a change in the food chain...

Caveat"

und

"He will bear thee away to the houses of lamentation, beyond all darkness, where thy flesh shall be devoured, and thy shrivelled mind be left naked to the Lidless Eye."

und

"What is good?— Everything that heightens the feeling of power in man, the will to power, power itself.

What is bad?— Everything that is born of weakness.

What is happiness?— The feeling that power is growing, that resistance is overcome.

Not contentedness but more power; not peace but war; not virtue but fitness (Renaissance-style virtue, virtù, moraline-free virtue).

The weak and the failures shall perish: first principle of our love of man. And they shall even be given every possible assistance."

Silence... and dancing!