Your Religion and your view on other Religions

I simply want to know what religion people follow, and what their views are on other religions. good bad enlightening or neutral
Here are a couple of specific walks of life i would like to see the contrast and comparison of(though not to exclude anything):

• Judaic views on the Nag Hammadi (dead sea scrolls)
  
• Judaic views on Vedic religion and the like: Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism vice versa
  
• Paganism
  
• Gnosticism
  

etc

I only ask, because I started out as an atheist, studied and participated in many of the world religions, and I would have to say I have found "god" in all of them, and noticed the politics and personal views of the teachings are all that cause disruption between any groups of people. Even the atheists.
I now meditate and pray almost constantly, but i put no name or face on what i know as "God/spirituality", and through studying theology and science, i see no difference in the two. I just wanted to start this post so perhaps we could all learn a thing or two about the differences in how we all interpret the miracle of life. I dont really like to use any preprogrammed terminology to describe what i have experienced, because I follow no specific faith but that of truth. I cannot put it to labels that may be ridiculed or sided with.

In actual religion, I belong to the Unitarian Universalist Church. Theologically, I consider myself a Hermetic Kabalist with strong Gnostic leanings.

As a UU, I study world religions, and draw inspiration from them all. However, the final revelation is reason, not dogma or scripture.

BTW...you sound like a UU too!



[edit on 21-2-2008 by Masonic Light]

reply to post by Masonic Light

Thats interesting; I have read the Corpus Hermeticum and greatly enjoyed how shines its light on things. Also I am greatly consumed in gnostic works, but at the same time a constant student of vedic nature.
I suppose I would be considered merely a student of 'god'. nothing more, nothing less.

I'll check that out, never heard of UU; thanks for the link

[edit on 21-2-2008 by psychedeliack]

reply to post by psychedeliack


other peoples religions except for the jews do not interest me.as far as the religion my wife and i follow on our own it is as close as we know how to do what is written in the bible.

we keep the 7th day sabbath and the holydays of leviticus 23/the 10 commandments of exodus 20/the 7th year land rest for our vegetable garden leviticus 25/and we eat the clean meats of leviticus 11 and deuteronomy 14 but eat no blood.

we are not members of any religious organization because we can find none so far that does all these things.even the rabbis/synagogues and sacred names/assemblies do not keep the holy days at the right time using the lunar calendar with jerusalem as its starting point--they all have devised their own inaccurate calendars.the last time the jews kept most of G-D's holydays at the correct time was in 2000 and even then they still kept the feast of firstfruits/pentecost on the wrong day.

I don't belong to "a religion". If I were have to define something under the term of "my personal religion" it would be...

I am a created being. My creator has created me and God loves me so I should be found worthy of that. I seek truth and to illuminate the darkness of confusion within my being.

My brotherhood is all beings. They are all part of my religion though many don't reconized this as a fact yet. They do not understand they are too a created being and that they should be found worthy of God's Love.

However this is through no fault of their own they just don't know the way of errors that have been set before them so if I am to be of any use to my brotherhood I must go ahead an remove dealing with all stubling stones.

I however can not force truth upon any brother, each has their own free will and abilities of understanding.

I must always strive to clearer and higher understandings for my own perfection so that I may be worth being called a child of Our God.

Well here is my religion: NONE

I believe in GOD and that his son Jesus Christ (version of God) was here on earth and did in fact die for the sins of man. I believe without embarrassment that GOD created the heavens and the earth and life as we know it. I also believe there will be a return of Christ, and a period of time that man cannot phathom.

Now with that said...the reason i don't have a single religion is due to man. Since the beginning man has put his own spin on everything. What was once pure and true was destroyed and twisted for personal gain. (i.e. fame, fortune, power, etc)

So is any one religion right...or are all religions in some way wrong because of us. In my mind there is no PERFECT or 100% right religion. There is 100% faith and a true belief in something....and that something to me is ONE GOD....from there...we screwed things up!

reply to post by rcwj75

"Now with that said...the reason i don't have a single religion is due to man. Since the beginning man has put his own spin on everything. What was once pure and true was destroyed and twisted for personal gain. (i.e. fame, fortune, power, etc)
"
well put.

"So is any one religion right...or are all religions in some way wrong because of us. In my mind there is no PERFECT or 100% right religion. There is 100% faith and a true belief in something....and that something to me is ONE GOD....from there...we screwed things up!"
again, well said.

reply to post by Incarnated


couldnt have said it better myself!

I'm a Nondenominational, Grace-through-faith, personal relationship with God, evangelical, bible thumping, holy rolling, fundamental, futuristic eschatology believing, Jesus and people loving Christian.

Judaism: Love it to bits. I would be a Jew if Jesus, the promised Messiah, had not already come. Some of the orthodox laws make me uneasy (Thank God Jesus fulfilled them all and now we are under grace). The main problem I have with it is they reject Jesus as the Messiah but I do believe that will change in the near future.

Buddhism and Hinduism: Mystic and peaceful and the philosophy is appealing. But, I chose Jesus after about 5-10 years of critical searching.

Islam: Yikes. Too much of their religious teachings contradict what we have from historical documents. I actually don't deny the religion on the basis of 'outrage' contrary to popular belief but due to historical contradictions and its conflicts with Judaism and Christianity.

Baha'i: I don't really see the point in this one.

Atheism: Not a religion but I'm throwing this one in. I've simply seen too much to doubt.

UFO cults: Not in this lifetime.

Animism: I think it has some supporting evidence but not enough to convince me. Some of their beliefs also contradict with other things I know so it's a no go.

Denominational sects of Christianity: I consider them my family in Christ but find the fragmenting and labels unappealing. Going by what the Bible says is all one needs. Don't let other people get in the way of your beliefs and tell you what to believe or to put their own spin on it.

Originally posted by AshleyD
I'm a Nondenominational, Grace-through-faith, personal relationship with God, evangelical, bible thumping, holy rolling, fundamental, futuristic eschatology believing, Jesus and people loving Christian.

Denominational sects of Christianity: I consider them my family in Christ but find the fragmenting and labels unappealing. Going by what the Bible says is all one needs. Don't let other people get in the way of your beliefs and tell you what to believe or to put their own spin on it.

Amen!

I don’t mean to offend anyone but I have personal reasons for believing the Hindu religion is demonic in nature. I’m not going to get into my reasoning so really I probably shouldn’t have posted this but I felt compelled to voice this opinion/feeling/vision.

reply to post by kinglizard


KL, as unpopular as our belief is, it is still the way we feel and I will speak up and say I agree with you. When it comes down to it, most Christians will agree that other religions who deny the existence or divinity of Christ are 'demonic.' That is one reason why Christians/Christianity is accused of being intolerant. We truly believe there is only one way and any other philosophy is not of God. Islam, Hinduism, new age philosophy, etc. Although Hinduism teaches peace and some of the philosophy is beautiful, there are some other things that become disturbing when you dig deeper. Like Jesus said, 'If they're not with me, they're against me.' Point blank from the Teacher's mouth. The politically correct programming makes me cringe as I type this comment but to say anything else would not be my honest opinion. And that is what the OP is asking for.

Honest opinions eh!

We're all crazy, howling at the moon and dancing in our skimpies crazy. Maybe I haven't seen the light? Maybe there is no light? Maybe I saw the light and told it to bugger off, I don't know...

I live my life as best as I can. I try as best as I can to do the right thing.

I do not "throw my hands up air and shout Jesus take the wheel"

This is my life. I'm driving and if you don't like it. Get off my bus!

There are so many factions within so many BASE religions that I don't see how any off them can be untainted by the greed of humanity... There was a buddhist monk who called his penis his "Flaming thunderbolt of knowledge" and if that's not an abuse of power then I don't know what is. Some Jews collaborated with the nazis. Some Kings split their churches so they could get rid of an annoying wife (not such a bad move that one). Catholic priests and their choir boys, it's not right. You know that I could go on and on with the weirdness that have come about through, because of, as a direct result of RELIGION is control is power is money is not right.

Personal faith... Personal beliefs... Personal codes of conduct... Personal, that's what it should be: PERSONAL.

Hugs and kisses all round.

MonKey

reply to post by psychedeliack


I am A MUSLIM or Moslem as most americans spell it
i have respect for all other faiths and cultures hence why i have friends from diffrent faiths and backgrounds

the only people i dont like are the morons who have no respect for others

I love this feedback! ashleyD, kinglizard, defcon and chikeymonkey!

I agree with reading the bible and following strictly what jesus taught(common sense?), strangely to me, its the same place i get in reading what the vedas taught.
maybe its something to do with meditating and finding "spirituality" without labels, and then reading all the labels for what is considered spiritual/religious.
surely there are different views of what god is based on the region and political powers influencing such.
I really like the eastern approach just because they point out that even our labels of what we call Krishna, Christ, or God, is only what we will manifest it to look like or be within our limited reality. that by getting caught up in the labels we miss the point of the teachings.
this is not to discredit any religion, we all need what we need relative to our experience/situation.
'If they're not with me, they're against me." That ME Jesus is speaking about, IS god, far beyond any conception of a man. in my opinion.

and chikey monkey, yes, we are all crazy, that is if we keep using how other peoples minds work as justification for how ours should as well! lol, gotta love every bit of it!
and im sorry if it sounds like im arguing, im not, I wish not to trodden over anyones beliefs, any/all feedback helps me to get a better picture of the greatly changing spiritual aspect of humanity, and I love you all as brothers and sisters equally.

Personally, I love the bible more after having read the vedas and vice versa! I could never choose one or the other, as they both speak multitudes about the history of god moving through the human race at different times always teaching the exact same thing. Unconditional love and understanding for all living beings. the words may be drastically different, but the message is the same to the ears that hear.
There are many "living" works that embody the essence of "god", and any godly man of any religion can decipher between what god influenced a man to write into a scripture, and what man's ego has put into any given scripture. in any religion.
thanks god!
praise "the lord"(whoever that is for you!)

reply to post by bodrul

"the only people i dont like are the morons who have no respect for others"

forgive them, they know not what they do