and if you atheist/switched faiths, why did you do it and what faith did you choose?
im in a curious mood today :>
Atheist
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
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.
Yeah the germanic thing is quite unfortunate… the main symbol for romuva also catches the religion a fair share of drama tho x3
Spinoza’s god fascinates me enough to be agnostic rather than an atheist with conviction.
Could you explain further
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.
I’ve not read Spinoza, but this idea has for most of my life seemed fairly self-evident. Something clearly seems to exist, I’m not the biggest most important thing in the something, though I am a part of it. Do I believe in God? Not per se - but I do believe there is something incomprehensibly larger than I am, and that in and of itself deserves a little respect and contemplation.
My religious parents didn’t see it that way of course.
Atheist. Religion is an explanation of the world that’s made the fuck up. I think people make shit up to explain reality because accepting uncertainty is difficult, but that doesn’t make it ok. The world around you exists, just like it is. There is no special place you get to go if you follow the right set of rules .
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
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?
Yeah, that’s probably true. I fell pretty hard out of Christianity as a teenager and was extremely not interested in more organized religion. That didn’t keep me from being fascinated by the ideas held within various religions, but didn’t set foot inside another place of worship for at least a decade after, so all I had was books. Tried meditation and it was one of those ‘this is hard so I’m gonna quit’ things, unfortunately.
For Hinduism I like polytheism in general, I like the idea that divinity is not a monolith (and not a stern, judging father-figure), and I was pretty into karma and reincarnation for a while. From Gnosticism I really liked the idea that the world is a prison and that the enlightenment everyone is seeking has a practical purpose, to escape it and rejoin the divine. I hated the world and most people in it as a young man, so the idea that it was all bullshit suited me quite well. My current beliefs (which are very syncretic and come from all over the place) are rooted in a similar idea, but these days I think of the world more as an illusion than a prison. Sufism… man, what’s not to like? It’s kinda weird, most of Islam doesn’t do much for me, but I craved that ecstatic religious joy, that utter dedication and purity of purpose, for a long time, and I have long leaned more into the mystical aspects of religious experience and that’s hard to find in organized religion in general and Abrahamic faiths in specific.
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?
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 :>
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
Baptized catholic by my parents, did all the ritual things all my youth until i was 16. Then i was old enough to try to understand it, got exposed to other schools of thought, and it all collapsed like a house of cards.
I am now fully atheist, and I find religion ridiculous, like fairy tales for adults, based on nothing. Organized religions are also usually structures of power for men. This can all go.
My spirituality would be:
We are made of star-stuff. Temporary piles of molecules which work together and stop after a while, to recombine into something new. I don’t need to be remembered, I don’t need to leave my mark. Just try to do no harm, any maybe help others along the way, while on this ball of rock and water, tumbling into the immensely empty void.
My mom let me figure it out for myself. I wanted to go to mass with grandma so she let me.
I quickly figured out the nonsensical nature of what I was seeing. When I found out I had to do a bunch of extra shit before I could get in line for Jeezits, I lost all remaining interest.
Been an atheist since. Probably was around age 12.
Nihilist, insofar that even if there is a god (about as likely as me actually being a secret agent for moon people) why would it matter? While nihilism is not a religious belief I think it fits the prompt.
I made a poop the other day, I’m its creator, I don’t care about it, I don’t control its destiny beyond the flush.
I’m an optimistic nihilist, nothing matters and that’s kinda neato. Existence happens, how fascinating is that? It’s absolutely meaningless just like everything in the universe, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the ride.
Grew up in a Christian household, but grew out of that kind of superstition around high school or a bit younger. My parents never did, so that and politics caused a bit of tension, but never enough to keep us from talking to each other, visiting, etc.
Really happy for ya, parents usually don’t take these things so well, mine would probably disown me if I ever came out about having different beliefs
I will never understand this. Every parent knows their children have their own minds; you don’t expect your child to think the same thoughts as you, or to have the same experiences as you had, so why would you ever be surprised - much less dismayed - that they come to different conclusions about religion than you do? Did you do your homework and come to that conclusion yourself? Great, if that’s what makes you happy then I’m happy.
In their mind it’s not a simple difference of opinion, it’s the fate of your eternal soul forever. They can’t understand how someone could reject infinite happiness in heaven for pure unending suffering in hell.
And even worse than that, you are (directly or not) saying they are wrong, that they are fools for believing in fairy tales, and not just about any old subject, but about the most important thing in the universe - it’s whole purpose.
That’s quite a hard thing for a lot of people to accept unfortunately, and some don’t take it well at all. I do feel like I was lucky that my parents didn’t take it as harshly as some do.
Probably helps that I’m still cis and straight, and grew up in a left-wing area, so it’s not like I’m the only atheist they knew.Right, but like that has to be tempered with the understanding that different people think different things about stuff like religion, right? Some acknowledgement that what might be self-evident truth to you is a muddy contradictory mess to others? shrug Iono, people be dumb I guess.
Yeah, my parents were pretty chill, took a kind of ‘expose the kids to lots of things and let them make their own minds up’ view and didn’t even really comment (they asked, obviously, but they were just like ‘whatever’ upon hearing the explanation) when I told them I had been asked to not come back the church we had been going to. But I do get that this is a big deal for other people, so I don’t mean to demean their struggles or anything.
I was raised Christian, went to church every Sunday and believed as a kid. Then I stopped believing in all my imaginary friends. Being slightly cheeky, but also I genuinely just grew out of it as I learned more about… Everything, really.
Damn I thought there would be more religious people, it is all exchristians in here
i think it comes with the territory; the kinds of users that lemmy attracts–and doesn’t.
The bit of the internet based in european languages tends to skew more atheist in general from my experience
Agnostic atheist. Agnostic from the standpoint that the the existence of god is no more knowable than the number of angels who can sit on the tip of a needle. Atheist from the standpoint that theism ain’t it
Add me to this.
Raised “Christian” in the evangelical/born again/southern baptist milieu. Strip mall churches and unaccredited schools with unqualified teachers and Bob Jones text books. Became atheist as soon as I was able to think rationally. The thing that did it for me was the hypocrisy, which became too obvious to ignore.
long inhale SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN
endless defiance, i didn’t know i could be free until i heard the archenemy singing to me
Taoism is a practice that doesn’t rely on or reject a higher power. It gives meaning to day to day life and the writers I’ve read who practice it have a very practical view on the world.
As for religion, I fall into agnosticism. I certainly don’t have any hard evidence that there is a higher power, but at the same time, with how insanely complex, terrifying, beautiful, loving, and hurtful the world can feel, I can’t help but feel that there’s something beyond what’s in front of us at play. It may not be a theist’s idea of God, but something else entirely.
Pantheist. Mother nature itself is the God
