You and God

SpecialEdition said:
We weren't allowed to eat the little Jesus wafer if we weren't Catholic lol
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LOLOLOLOL Religion is really crazy. I was careful not to cite it even though it cannot be helped because so much of these constructs are so man-made as it was earlier pointed out by @Asa. I do acknowledge your non-belief. It's acceptable any which way. I'm curious though, would you say then that you have never experienced anything sort of Godly in your life?
Sometimes I wonder if people whose thought processes follow more of particular logic and rationality tend to be non-believers. Would you say that is the case for you?

Sloe Djinn said:
Maybe that God is the potential that allowed for any of this (existence) and that includes the random chance by which we arose and evolved into a species with rudimentary ability to reflect on where we came from and where we are going.

The codes we live by may change and be influenced by individual experience, generation, culture, etc. They are kind of like a map to the heavens or hells that are a byproduct of freedom of choice.

Idk, kind of reasoning this out for myself as I write it.
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I understand the loss for words, Sloe. It's a difficult subject matter. It needs some sitting on. But I've sat on it perhaps my whole life and I still have no answers so honestly, we just go on about our daily lives. Which isn't bad at all I think.

I just wish I had a way of understanding it better but I honestly don't know what I'm talking about either.


Asa said:
A good example of an ancestral experience in my personal life was that dream I shared in my old blog where a Dís appeared to show me the meaning of my life. (The same dream where I found out what my fylgja/spirit animal was.) Dísir are ancestral dieties.
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I want this experience.

I think I am saying that I am of a specific faith and so I would like to feel more of the inexplicable. But it's weirdly weird.
 
mintoots said:
LOLOLOLOL Religion is really crazy. I was careful not to cite it even though it cannot be helped because so much of these constructs are so man-made as it was earlier pointed out by @Asa. I do acknowledge your non-belief. It's acceptable any which way. I'm curious though, would you say then that you have never experienced anything sort of Godly in your life?
Sometimes I wonder if people whose thought processes follow more of particular logic and rationality tend to be non-believers. Would you say that is the case for you?
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I actually can't think of anything I've experienced in my life that felt Godly in any way. There's never been any instance that I can recall that had me thinking about God, or that something was an act of God or an expression of God. Even when I was going to Church when I lived out West and people were crying and dancing and it was a whole thing. I remember each service we had an opportunity to go up and get "Saved" and part of me thought about doing it but I just couldn't get there with it.

Some people I know attribute everything good and beautiful in life to God. I just don't think about it like that.

Believing in God doesn't make sense for who I am and my life. It's nice for other people, but I just cannot connect to it in any way.
 
SpecialEdition said:
Some people I know attribute everything good and beautiful in life to God. I just don't think about it like that.
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How do you perceive the beautiful things in life?

SpecialEdition said:
Believing in God doesn't make sense for who I am and my life. It's nice for other people, but I just cannot connect to it in any way.
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Ah. I want to look deeper into this. Why? Why? Do you see life as simply something that passes?
 
Sloe Djinn said:
Maybe that God is the potential that allowed for any of this (existence) and that includes the random chance by which we arose and evolved into a species with rudimentary ability to reflect on where we came from and where we are going.

The codes we live by may change and be influenced by individual experience, generation, culture, etc. They are kind of like a map to the heavens or hells that are a byproduct of freedom of choice.

Idk, kind of reasoning this out for myself as I write it.
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I’m looking at it similarly, but I think the beauty of it may be a little more in between the lines of interpretation. It’s like… hmm. If what you’re saying were the basis of what creates the idea of ancestory/evolution, or symbols of culture, then what is God to you beyond that? What doesn’t make sense spiritually that is worth stepping out of will, judgement, and choice for?
Spirituality to me is what we can perceive. What is a light to your life? Isn’t it beautiful that you can perceive it to create too?
 
mintoots said:
How do you perceive the beautiful things in life?


Ah. I want to look deeper into this. Why? Why? Do you see life as simply something that passes?
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Exactly as they are. I see a sunrise and I think wow, that's a nice sunrise, great colours, it's nice to be out early enough to see it. That's it. I literally never think about God when I see something beautiful. I can let beautiful things be beautiful things. I don't need to justify them with God's presence. They are as they are on their own. I know other people will say "God is good" and think God is responsible for everything but it never occurs to me to think about any kind of God or whatever.

To me life is something that just passes. I don't feel that it has much meaning or purpose or significance. I was born and now I'm alive and then I will be dead and I will leave nothing behind when I'm gone and that will be that. I do not feel that I am placed here with some special purpose or significance. I'm just here doing whatever it us humans think they have to do to get by.
 
mintoots said:
Win3, I have a question. Were you taught about God? Could you say that you ever embarked on a journey of knowing God better?
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I was raised Roman Catholic and wished to join a convent or monastery; you could say I sought God out, yes. In my early teens I fell into apostasy, and held no beliefs for many years.
In my early twenties, I studied paganism and practiced that for a time. There was a flicker there, some kind of connection, but I couldn't maintain it. Sometimes, I still think about it.
God, or something like it, returned to my life maybe five years ago. It isn't so much a presence for me - though I'm familiar with something like that.

Many westerners have certain preconceptions about God, because of Christianity. For better or worse. The God I speak of feels related to that somehow, but to say it's identical feels dishonest. Perhaps it is? we all come to our own personal understanding about it - our own inner cosmology.
My inner cosmology doesn't feel meant to be shared openly. Besides being personal, it feels wrong. Like being wanton with an entrusted secret. But, talking about these things is interesting and I love how close it brings people (when it doesn't resort to arguments, lol).
I love what Jesus taught and He is important to me; that never truly left.
 
1. My relationship with the dharma is all encompassing. It's what teaches me the most on how to be good to others. It brings me a sense of peace and purpose when there doesn't seem to be any other out there.

2. Daily meditation and listening to dharma talks somewhat often. I've got a ton of books I need to read but I've been slacking off in keeping up with it. I think I'm a little stagnate in general at the moment but I imagine sooner rather than later I'll dive back into it to increase my understanding of peace and truth.

3. It's just necessary for lack of a better word. It reflects the truth as a sense of goodness. If I want to help myself and other's it's one of the best ways for me to do it. I don't really feel like I have any other options but to listen and learn.
 
SpecialEdition said:
I don't need to justify them with God's presence. They are as they are on their own. I know other people will say "God is good" and think God is responsible for everything but it never occurs to me to think about any kind of God or whatever.
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While I do say this and while I do believe it to a degree, it's not entirely as simple as imagining little God tidbits among all of it, or of God being absolutely responsible for it either. I suspect therein lies the core difference between our respective beliefs. I do not entirely have this notion that something ethereal belies all of life, but that there is indeed a spirituality to it that beats for more than what is perceived in a moment. Perhaps it's an intuitive understanding of something pulsating among us, as one of us and part of us. While I also see the structures of the world as functional, there is also a meaninglessness about it to me. Hence, not all religious systems appeal to me either for I think much of it subscribes to a similar meaninglessness. To be honest, being a Catholic might be systemic to me but it is not entirely what God is about to me. Catholicism to me is a system, a code akin to many other codes. It isn't necessarily special although its hunan history alone makes it formidable. But God is an existence. To me, God is all of our very existence. A fundamental core. A beginning of our every being, but that God also includes our being and out interconnectedness. So in a way, God is not a skygod that looks upon us all. Far from it. To me the world itself as we perceive it empirically or as we experience it is just as meaningless or meaningful as you prescribed it, but also I found an essence to it and somehow to me this essence is God.

I don't know if I was able to convey something comprehensible enough. I am surely trying. I appreciate you chiming in though. I actually see what you mean and perhaps even personally grapple with it. I feel that when I take such a stance, I lose my essence. I go on about in life with a mindset similar to yours as I do most times and over time I find myself devoid of meaning and life ceases to matter, which then fills me with a depression I abhor. Somehow the belief in God has been like a pill. I'm not sure if mbti even has to have anything to do with it but if INFJs must subscribe to meaning, perhaps this is also why I lean toward it. I'm also not sure.
 
Winterflowers said:
I was raised Roman Catholic and wished to join a convent or monastery; you could say I sought God out, yes. In my early teens I fell into apostasy, and held no beliefs for many years.
In my early twenties, I studied paganism and practiced that for a time. There was a flicker there, some kind of connection, but I couldn't maintain it. Sometimes, I still think about it.
God, or something like it, returned to my life maybe five years ago. It isn't so much a presence for me - though I'm familiar with something like that.

Many westerners have certain preconceptions about God, because of Christianity. For better or worse. The God I speak of feels related to that somehow, but to say it's identical feels dishonest. Perhaps it is? we all come to our own personal understanding about it - our own inner cosmology.
My inner cosmology doesn't feel meant to be shared openly. Besides being personal, it feels wrong. Like being wanton with an entrusted secret. But, talking about these things is interesting and I love how close it brings people (when it doesn't resort to arguments, lol).
I love what Jesus taught and He is important to me; that never truly left.
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You're growing more and more interesting to me with every post, Win3.

I originally wanted to place this thread in a blog because to me it felt too intimate a subject matter to share to a wide audience. Mods moved it here for appropriateness but I'm saying, I understand just how profoundly personal it is.

You've explored. You've been seeking. Now I wonder what you've found about God too.
 
milo said:
1. My relationship with the dharma is all encompassing. It's what teaches me the most on how to be good to others. It brings me a sense of peace and purpose when there doesn't seem to be any other out there.

2. Daily meditation and listening to dharma talks somewhat often. I've got a ton of books I need to read but I've been slacking off in keeping up with it. I think I'm a little stagnate in general at the moment but I imagine sooner rather than later I'll dive back into it to increase my understanding of peace and truth.

3. It's just necessary for lack of a better word. It reflects the truth as a sense of goodness. If I want to help myself and other's it's one of the best ways for me to do it. I don't really feel like I have any other options but to listen and learn.
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Dharma. God. Allah. Jehovah. Finding God is an inward self-exploration, isn't it Milo? Would you see that it has all been an inward journey?
 
mintoots said:
Dharma. God. Allah. Jehovah. Finding God is an inward self-exploration, isn't it Milo? Would you see that it has all been an inward journey?
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I don't think I would entirely. There's that incoming information from the outside world that influences how you view the world itself. Things you notice that aren't a part of you directly that shape who you are. I don't think in some ways there's much of a reason to make a distinction between the inside world and the outside world, as they all flow together. We are not separate from the world, we are part of it. These barriers of the body exist but mostly as our own perceptions.
 
milo said:
I don't think in some ways there's much of a reason to make a distinction between the inside world and the outside world, as they all flow together. We are not separate from the world, we are part of it. These barriers of the body exist but mostly as our own perceptions.
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This deserves emphasis. This is something to ponder on more.
 
mintoots said:
While I do say this and while I do believe it to a degree, it's not entirely as simple as imagining little God tidbits among all of it, or of God being absolutely responsible for it either. I suspect therein lies the core difference between our respective beliefs. I do not entirely have this notion that something ethereal belies all of life, but that there is indeed a spirituality to it that beats for more than what is perceived in a moment. Perhaps it's an intuitive understanding of something pulsating among us, as one of us and part of us. While I also see the structures of the world as functional, there is also a meaninglessness about it to me. Hence, not all religious systems appeal to me either for I think much of it subscribes to a similar meaninglessness. To be honest, being a Catholic might be systemic to me but it is not entirely what God is about to me. Catholicism to me is a system, a code akin to many other codes. It isn't necessarily special although its hunan history alone makes it formidable. But God is an existence. To me, God is all of our very existence. A fundamental core. A beginning of our every being, but that God also includes our being and out interconnectedness. So in a way, God is not a skygod that looks upon us all. Far from it. To me the world itself as we perceive it empirically or as we experience it is just as meaningless or meaningful as you prescribed it, but also I found an essence to it and somehow to me this essence is God.

I don't know if I was able to convey something comprehensible enough. I am surely trying. I appreciate you chiming in though. I actually see what you mean and perhaps even personally grapple with it. I feel that when I take such a stance, I lose my essence. I go on about in life with a mindset similar to yours as I do most times and over time I find myself devoid of meaning and life ceases to matter, which then fills me with a depression I abhor. Somehow the belief in God has been like a pill. I'm not sure if mbti even has to have anything to do with it but if INFJs must subscribe to meaning, perhaps this is also why I lean toward it. I'm also not sure.
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There was a time when I believed this exact thing, that we are all one and there's a sort of collective consciousness that holds us all together and connects us to everything else that exists. So much of the material that makes us up is the same and consciousness expresses itself through it, etc.

I don't connect to that anymore. Maybe I'm in the midst of a deeply existential period in my life.
 
SpecialEdition said:
There was a time when I believed this exact thing, that we are all one and there's a sort of collective consciousness that holds us all together and connects us to everything else that exists. So much of the material that makes us up is the same and consciousness expresses itself through it, etc.

I don't connect to that anymore. Maybe I'm in the midst of a deeply existential period in my life.
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Sending love and hugs your way.
 
Kgal said:
I was a devout Atheist for most of my life.
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That's an oxymoron. Atheism is not a religion. Conviction -regardless how strong- in your belief that god don't exist does not equal spiritual faith. Lack of spiritual faith is not a form of spiritual faith.

I have no idea why my text is being crossed out, ignore it.
 
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