What do you believe?

[Void]

Basically, I believe in God, and I believe that God is compassionate and loves us all equally and forgives us of our sins if ever we ask.

I also believe that God doesn't care what religion you belong to or what you believe, all that God (I refuse to refer to God as "he" or "she" unless I slip due to my heavily Roman Catholic background and say He) wants for you to do is lead a basically good life. In the end, I think, God understands and welcomes us into heaven.

Thus, I don't have too much in the way of formal practices for my "religion," I merely pray for guidance when I need it.

[Lady Violet]

Yes, I think that I have things in common with Zinn's beliefs, since mysticism and eastern religions tend to view God more pantheisticly. God is not a superior being, but something evident in the everyday.

I take that a step further and say there is no God, but the everyday/mudane/nature is divine in itself.

To me there is no God, Heaven, Hell, demons, sin, evil spirits, ghosts, afterlife, reincarnation, good spirits, angels, etc.

But, this does not make the universe any less interesting or divine.

The universe is complex, beautiful, and mysterious. We should be in awe of nature and the beauty of our world. It is worthy of awe and worship.

Reincarnation is when we emmulate the ideas and examples set by those that have existed before us. And, if we make an impression on others, we are perpetuated through their good deeds and memories. (Much like what Zinn said)

Life is eternal since matter can not be created or destroyed. We have and always will exist in some form or another. When we die we will return to the Earth through decomposition.


Therefore, our matter will always exist in some way.

Heaven is when humanity learns to live equally and in peace.
It is the communism envisioned by Marx where human nature can for the first time flourish.

My beliefs are atheism that sees the divine in a godless world.

[Edea]

I agree with Void. Very good anylisis Violet. Well thought out.

[Illuusahn]

Another part of said belief system is that, to rip off Matrix: Reloaded, "My beliefs do not require you to believe."

It's a good system and I'm quite comfortable with it. Anyone want to convert? ;D

[Helene]

I like that. Very detailed and well thought out. And coming from you, LV, you believe it with a vengence.

(Only reason I refer to God as a she is because I mix other beliefs into what I believe in. Make sense? If it doesnt, its not suppose to.)

[Anutsaka]

I understand, where you are coming from, Bassarov. Hinduism never says anything homosexuals, but I believe that even though they are not at all respected in society, god does love them. Marriage is said to be only between a man and a women, because only then, can a child be born of them, a new child, that has the potential to more good in the world. Being Hindu has nothing to do with disliking gays and gay marriage. Those are my own personal beliefs.

I feel extremely sorry for painting a wrong picture of a true Hindu. It is hard since I am the only one.

Think about arranged marriages a minute. Even though, you might love people, think of the divorce rate in countries other than places that use arranged marriage. 50% of all marriages end up in divorce. Do these people even think of the impact it might have on the kids, any regard for anyone but themselves? 5% of all marriages in India end up in divorces. I know you don't believe in marriage but I think arranged marriages are the right way to go.

[Cruella De Vil]

Thats not really fair. I mean You should be able to marry anyone. Hinduisim is a very hard religion to live by. Living with the karma and all that jazz of social classes. I learned it in Social Studies. I mean marrying someone you love is the way to go because you want to spend your life with some one you love not hate.

[Andrew Kasher]

Cruella, I hate to break it to you, but social studies doesn't give a good impression of any religion. I take everything I learn in there with a grain of salt. It isn't that hard to live with traditions if you're brought up with them.

The spiritual world and the material world aren't separate. They're the same thing, but their relationship can be strained....

It's really hard to describe.

My grandparents had an arranged marriage. There are still Orthodox communities that have them. I personally do not believe in them, but I respect the idea.

[Ichirolazy]

The is a hell of a lot difference between what they teach you in SS, and how it really is.

Thats the reason I am a Atheist, I think that hinduism is very interesting the ideologies, but I truely disagree with many of them.

[Mikhael Nadyezhda (Mischa)]

In regards to homosexual marriage, I think it's totally unfair to say that it should be restricted to male and female, on the grounds that it is traditionally between a man and a woman. By extension, you could say that women should be banned from history books, because if you trace back the literal definition of the word 'history', it translates to 'his story' (which women were removed from by the way). Also, if you want to use the "don't bear children" argument, then what about heterosexual couples who can't have children? What if the mother was just born sterile, or the father got into an unfortunate farming accident, and can't bear children? Should these people be banned from being married?

To say that homosexuals can't get married, is like saying marriage is only for rearing children, and that love is impossible outside of a male/female relationship. How can anybody honestly say such a thing? And by the farthest stretch of the imagination, let's assume that this is true (that a man can never love a man like he loves a woman, it's all out of lust, etc.). What's the harm in it anyways? How does it hurt anybody else on this planet? This same debate was brought up about inter racial marriages not too long ago, and I don't see much difference.

Summary: two people who love each other shouldn't have to be told who they can and cannot marry.

[Mikhael Nadyezhda (Mischa)]

Oh and I forgot to mention, I'm an athiest/agnostic. Even though I do get a little, err... Beligerant, in regards to my dislike for religion sometimes, I do my best to keep an open mind, and think that it's really cool that there is such a diverse level of spirituality on this RPG alone. I don't know too much about Hinduism, but it sounds fascinating. I do believe that the common thread amongst all theist and athiest religions is that of "do unto others as you would have others do unto you."

Of course religion can be bent for the sake of controlling people, which is exactly what happened in the Soviet Union, but that doesn't mean that religion is and of itself, bad. No victim, no crime.

((And on a totally random note, this is my 777th post. Hallelujah!))

[Cruella De Vil]

Congragulations. Well alright. Well I have to pay attention to it now. SO I can get good grades you know. thats what I learned.

[Zinn]

I remember that unit...

I had to explain that I don't worship a god called Yaweh. And for the most part, despite the language, Judaism is not really that paternalistic.

And that Hannukah isn't even worth mentioning, because we really just pulled that holiday out of our ass to compete with Christmas.

Little Jimmy: Mommy, how come all of the goyish kids get presents? I wanna cenebrate Christmas!

Mom: Well Jimmy, it's uh... *long akward pause whilst struggling to think of something*

Hannukah! Yeah, that's it...

And you get..... eight days!

[Cruella De Vil]

I don't think so. But oh well.

[Zinn]

Half of the info about Judaism was either inaccurate or incorrect. I can only imagine how much non-Abraham based religious information is screwed up.