A Religious Thread

[Truthseeker]

I don't like being a lone Hindu, either.

No wonder you come here on this forum!

 

[Truthseeker]

I have gone with my brother several times to Mass recently. I feel a sense of peace there, oddly, despite having many issues with the theology.

I have also also been to mass a couple of times with my wife Sara. She's a Baha'i like me but she got involved with the secular Franciscans. i enjoyed the unique experience the first time, but by the second time it wore off a little.

 

[Truthseeker]

Whilst on holiday once in Italy, we visited the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi. His remains are interred in the crypt, which is open to the public. The atmosphere in the crypt was incredible...hard to describe...it literally made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

My wife Sara would love to be at that Basilica. She adores St. Francis.

 

[Truthseeker]

Always content, always re-examining(to some, that will make perfect sense, and to others, none at all).

I love that.

 

[Truthseeker]

I do not do a lot of reading of scriptures aside from reading what I have to for posting here.

I have not been engaging in any religious activities for a long time, but recently I decided to start taking part in some of the activities in my religious community, the Baha'i Faith. So far I have attended one 19-Day Feast and one Unity picnic, and I plan to keep attending the Feasts every 19 days.

I am content with my beliefs and I have been a Baha'i for over 52 years.

That last item about keeping attending Feast every 19 days is new to me!

 

[JustGeorge]

I love that.

Thanks! I find as I find new information, it always causes for more reflection, but I view it as a positive.

 

[Trailblazer]

Yesterday evening I hosted a discussion about the Most Holy Tablet (also known as the Tablet to the Christians) by Baha'u'llah. Tonight with some friends we will be discussing God's Plan for Planet Earth by John Hatcher. Both on Zoom. I love the era of Zoom. With Zoom I can interact with Baha'is from every corner of the USA, and even from Panama. Specifically @Pete in Panama. He occasionally with others attends my Saturday afternoon Zoom meetings where we for a long period discussed the Hidden Words by Baha'u'llah, then we moved more recently on with my Sermon on the Mount series where I put side by side the Sermon on the Mount and Baha'i Writings. I was doing interfaith devotions every week, but due to overload and fear that I'll run out out of material in two years, I'm now starting to do that every other week. That way, when when I may run out of material in four years nobody will notice the difference.

Obviously, you are much more involved with the Baha'i Faith than I am. I basically only like to share and teach about it, not be involved in it myself.
I feel a great resistance to religion, but I am in between a rock and a hard place since I believe the Baha'i Faith is true, and that is no small thing.
That probably sounds contradictory, but feelings just are.

 

[Trailblazer]

That last item about keeping attending Feast every 19 days is new to me!

Maybe that is because you have been too busy to listen to what I have been telling you about my private life or maybe it was someone else on here that I told. I cannot quite remember.

Attending Feast is the least I can do, now that the Baha'is have resumed in-person Feasts. I need to connect with people since I am now alone and so isolated.

 

[Truthseeker]

Obviously, you are much more involved with the Baha'i Faith than I am. I basically only like to share and teach about it, not be involved in it myself.
I feel a great resistance to religion, but I am in between a rock and a hard place since I believe the Baha'i Faith is true, and that is no small thing.
That probably sounds contradictory, but feelings just are.

You are a strange person, and I care for you. Talk about strange people, at the end of season 3 of Broadchurch, there was a man that was so strange and sociopathic, I understand Trump better. The 3rd and final season was a dud in my opinion, though, after good seasons 1 and 2. I watched all of it with Sara. The 3rd season was confusing. Too many suspects to keep up with for 8 episodes. I got PBS Passport for giving $5 a month. I didn't do it just because of PBS Passport, but because I like watching PBS, so I should chip in a little. It's not as good as BritBox, though, because BritBox goes back much further in time.

 

[Truthseeker]

Maybe that is because you have been too busy to listen to what I have been telling you about my private life or maybe it was someone else on here that I told. I cannot quite remember.

Attending Feast is the least I can do, now that the Baha'is have resumed in-person Feasts. I need to connect with people since I am now alone and so isolated.

I'm sure you didn't tell me. My memory isn't that bad. It means a lot to me that you are doing that because now you are not alone in the flesh. Of course you also have me, though not in the flesh, and kind people like @JustGeorge. You are also good friends with @Sgt. Pepper. There are other friends you have here.

 

[Truthseeker]

Thanks! I find as I find new information, it always causes for more reflection, but I view it as a positive.

There are people here that don't believe this, but I am content I also re-evaluate. I re-evaluate in smaller increments, I'm sure. I look into things with a searching eye as my signature now says.

 

[JustGeorge]

There are people here that don't believe this, but I am content I also re-evaluate. I re-evaluate in smaller increments, I'm sure. I look into things with a searching eye as my signature now says.

I find without growth, things get stagnant.

 

[Trailblazer]

You are a strange person, and I care for you.

I am strange just because I feel a great resistance to religion?
If you knew anything about psychology you would understand that just because I believe something that doesn't mean I have to like believing it.

Do you really think I enjoy being part of a religion and sacrificing what I could otherwise be doing for it?

 

[Truthseeker]

I am strange just because I feel a great resistance to religion?
If you knew anything about psychology you would understand that just because I believe something that doesn't mean I have to like believing it.

Do you really think I enjoy being part of a religion and sacrificing what I could otherwise be doing for it?

I don't understand that last sentence. It looks garbled.

I like religion, so how could I understand? I am unable to step outside myself. Is that normal?

 

[Trailblazer]

I don't understand that last sentence. It looks garbled.

I said: Do you really think I enjoy being part of a religion and sacrificing what I could otherwise be doing for it?

My point was that I could be enjoying life if I was not a Baha'i. It is not that any Baha'i activities preclude me enjoying life, it is the belief system!
We are not supposed to be 'living' for the material world of dust, if we take the Baha'i Faith seriously.

“The world is but a show, vain and empty, a mere nothing, bearing the semblance of reality. Set not your affections upon it. Break not the bond that uniteth you with your Creator, and be not of those that have erred and strayed from His ways. Verily I say, the world is like the vapor in a desert, which the thirsty dreameth to be water and striveth after it with all his might, until when he cometh unto it, he findeth it to be mere illusion.”​

Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 328-329​

I don't know if other Baha'is take it seriously but that is not my business. The point is that I cannot believe it and not take it seriously.

And as a Baha'i you know we have two natures, the lower material nature and the higher spiritual nature, so maybe I have a conflict between my two natures. Maybe my lower material nature wants to enjoy itself and my higher spiritual nature wants to serve the Cause of God. Thus far my spiritual nature has won out. I guess that is a good thing but my material nature is spitting mad.

I like religion, so how could I understand? I am unable to step outside myself. Is that normal?

I don't like religion so I cannot even imagine liking it. It is a huge sacrifice for me to even be involved in it.
Hear that @ppp and @It Aint Necessarily So?

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

It upsets me rather that my forebears were uninterested in book writing and philosophy and theology, thus produced none. I didn't really want to be a local Pgan because it seems inferior compared to what the Ancient Egyptians and others had. The Middle Eastern people, the East and Southern Asians have these wonderfully thought out religious philosophies and Nothern-Central Europeans are stuck with basically nothing so people are essentially forced into Christianity, yet this is also my forebears' fault for not writing stuff in the first place! I feel as Europeans we've been incredibly short shafted and our current religious tradition is foreign.

Cardomancy is where you take a card deck, often a kind of Tarot, and usually pick 3 or more cards at random that you have chosen carefully using insight as to which you should pick (drawn to the purple cards? The red?) And then consider which cards you picked and why the God/s are telling you that.

Yes, it is unfortunate that our forebears didn't have a regular system of writing books, etc. But I don't think this makes them inferior. It was the civilizations that were able to have such systems that were odd. Most people and cultures were tribal and passed their laws and teachings down orally. Another thing they had that we largely don't are rites of initiation. Then came Christianity and "civilization", which was more or less forced on them in various ways, and that alone caused a huge loss of culture all around the world as they were forced to adapt.

However, even if they had written things down, that may not have been preserved, anyway. For example, the Spanish destroyed the vast majority of the codexes that the Aztecs produced. They didn't see them as worthy of being preserved. People have a right to be angry at Christianity and Islam for contributing to such a large amount of humanity's heritage being lost or destroyed. It wasn't only their fault, but they sure played a big part, and still do. Trad Catholics are just as puritanical as jihadists when it comes to other religions.

 

[InChrist]

I said: Do you really think I enjoy being part of a religion and sacrificing what I could otherwise be doing for it?

My point was that I could be enjoying life if I was not a Baha'i. It is not that any Baha'i activities preclude me enjoying life, it is the belief system!
We are not supposed to be 'living' for the material world of dust, if we take the Baha'i Faith seriously.

“The world is but a show, vain and empty, a mere nothing, bearing the semblance of reality. Set not your affections upon it. Break not the bond that uniteth you with your Creator, and be not of those that have erred and strayed from His ways. Verily I say, the world is like the vapor in a desert, which the thirsty dreameth to be water and striveth after it with all his might, until when he cometh unto it, he findeth it to be mere illusion.”​

Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 328-329​

I don't know if other Baha'is take it seriously but that is not my business. The point is that I cannot believe it and not take it seriously.

And as a Baha'i you know we have two natures, the lower material nature and the higher spiritual nature, so maybe I have a conflict between my two natures. Maybe my lower material nature wants to enjoy itself and my higher spiritual nature wants to serve the Cause of God. Thus far my spiritual nature has won out. I guess that is a good thing but my material nature is spitting mad.

I don't like religion so I cannot even imagine liking it. It is a huge sacrifice for me to even be involved in it.
Hear that @ppp and @It Aint Necessarily So?

I don’t like religion. I actually think of it as a distraction and bondage. Nothing compares to the freedom I have found in Christ.


…Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. John 8:36

 

[ppp]

I don't like religion so I cannot even imagine liking it. It is a huge sacrifice for me to even be involved in it.
Hear that @ppp and @It Aint Necessarily So?

I don't know why you are telling me that, or why you think that should matter to me.

 

[JustGeorge]

**Threads in Interfaith Discussion are Non Debate**​

 

[ppp]

**Threads in Interfaith Discussion are Non Debate**​

Sorry @JustGeorge . I didn't realize I was being dragged into an Interfaith Discussion