Do you find peace in your beliefs?

[Aupmanyav]

but according to RV he is Supreme god. and yes Varuna was supreme one time, i am not sure why he reduced to minor deity in Vedic time. any idea why Indra became a supreme god during early vedic period?

You can find all Gods mentioned as Supreme in the Vedas in the various hymns dedicated to them. When the Aryan poets praised, they did not observe any limits. Before Indra, there were Twastr and Parajanya (probbly equivalent of Thor and Perun in European Pagan mythology). It is in the later period that Indra became prominent.

God does not punish people for not believing in Him. People punish themselves by not following the rules He has given for them to find true peace and prosperity.

As an atheist, I do not agree to your first statement but agree with the second. Rules are created by the societies and not by any God.

 

[Kori]

I find that "peace" really depends on ones willingness to know things to be proud of and to be ashamed of in ones religion. I know my ancestors did wonderful things but also horrible things due to religion and or culture. I am at peace because I do not run from it I admit it and move forward. That is true peace to me in what I believe.

 

[Akivah]

1) You didn't answer the question

2) I do not capitalize the word god in any instance, but I capitalize the names of specific gods as they are names.

I answered as best I could with the way you worded (and spelled) your question. The problem I had in being specific is that I didn't know if your question was referencing the christian god or the G-d that I worship.

If you were referencing the christian god, then I think the stories show that he gets mad when people don't believe in him.

If you were referencing the G-d that I worship, then the answer is no.

But what I really don't know, is what this question has to do with finding peace in my beliefs.

 

[loverofhumanity]

I was always interested in a belief that was able to help others not for personal satisfaction or for personal feelings of paradise. I felt that was selfish when there were so many problems like poverty, disease and war in the world and felt that unless humanity could benefit a belief was of no use to me personally as I was not the centre of my belief but humanity. That's why I rejected a lot of the curfew t beliefs as they were all centred on 'personal salvation' on reaching 'nirvana' ignoring a suffering mankind around them and offering no vision, hope or solution. Then I met some Baha'is and found it was what offered humanity a way out of its suffering. It gave me more than just personal salvation or nirvana but certitude. It accepted all faiths so I didn't have to reject the other faiths and it offered a realistic plan for humanity and was and is working to build a world spiritual civilisation for all the peoples of the world to enjoy not conditional upon conversion. So in Baha'i I found a rescue remedy for an ailing world and not just personal salvation which means nothing to me if humanity doesn't benefit. It's about giving, serving, helping not gaining. So one does not gain anything by becoming a Baha'i but becomes a servant of humanity. If the object is to gain something then better look elsewhere as Baha'is are centred on creating a loving, prejudice free and friendly world free of war and hatred and to this end we don't just sit on our hands content with personally being saved. It's not enough to just be happy for ourselves while humanity is suffering.

 

[Reflex]

So, do you find peace in your beliefs? Atheists are always welcome to answer, for even though you may not hold spiritual or religious beliefs, you believe something. Look forward to your responses.

It's not my beliefs in which I find peace, but my religion. If anything, beliefs are a distraction, howbeit a necessary one if I am to make sense of my religion, which rises from the experiencing of a meaningful unity in everything I experience, material and spiritual.

 

[Milton Platt]

I'd say most humans yearn for peace...peace within one's self, one's life, with others. When I was an atheist, it's not that I lacked a sense of peace in my life, but *something* seemed to be missing. I couldn't ever put my finger on it really, and so I searched for meaning in other faiths and belief systems. Coming back to Christianity, I've had a sense of peace over these past few months that had been missing. To me, you have found the 'right' path for want of a better word, if you are at peace in your life. If you are truly content with who you are, and how you are living...then you have found a path that works for you.

So, do you find peace in your beliefs? Atheists are always welcome to answer, for even though you may not hold spiritual or religious beliefs, you believe something. Look forward to your responses.

I believe many things as do all humans. Because I am a life-long atheist, one of them is not a belief in a supernatural deity in the sky. I have more peace with that than most religious minded people do because I do not
worry about eternal torment or being reborn eternally into some kind of cast system or whatever. Also, because I recognize my current life as all there is, it is more important and meaningful to me.

 

[Deidre]

I believe many things as do all humans. Because I am a life-long atheist, one of them is not a belief in a supernatural deity in the sky. I have more peace with that than most religious minded people do because I do not
worry about eternal torment or being reborn eternally into some kind of cast system or whatever. Also, because I recognize my current life as all there is, it is more important and meaningful to me.

Why do you assume that most religious people sit around worrying over eternal torment? Many don't. I don't.

 

[Deidre]

It's not my beliefs in which I find peace, but my religion. If anything, beliefs are a distraction, howbeit a necessary one if I am to make sense of my religion, which rises from the experiencing of a meaningful unity in everything I experience, material and spiritual.

I find your post to be fascinating, and would like to hear more.

 

[Sundance]

I don't know how others may feel, but as for me, outside of Jesus Christ, outside of Christianity, there is no peace only endless wandering, restless searching for a meaning to life. I tried it all, from A to Z, still wanting more, y'know? Even in the darkest pits of life, God, the words of the Holy Bible, all of it was and is and will always be my light. Jesus Christ is my standard for living! In everything I try to be, I try to imitate Him. I'm not ashamed of what I believe, because it's been my Rock. It's real to me, it's steadfast.

 

[InChrist]

I don't know how others may feel, but as for me, outside of Jesus Christ, outside of Christianity, there is no peace only endless wandering, restless searching for a meaning to life. I tried it all, from A to Z, still wanting more, y'know? Even in the darkest pits of life, God, the words of the Holy Bible, all of it was and is and will always be my light. Jesus Christ is my standard for living! In everything I try to be, I try to imitate Him. I'm not ashamed of what I believe, because it's been my Rock. It's real to me, it's steadfast.

I truly appreciate what you have said, but I don't understand what you mean by (hopefully Roman Catholic). If Jesus Christ is your peace and your Rock why the need for the rituals, baggage, and distractions of the Catholic religion? I was raised Catholic and went through all of that for years and never heard about or knew the real Jesus until years later after leaving Catholicism.

 

[Reflex]

I find your post to be fascinating, and would like to hear more.

Well, that's one. Atheists here, (many of whom I ignore) simply can't grasp that I'm serious when I say religion is not about ideas. Ideas are simply the vehicle.

Here's something I posted in another thread, in an area that receives relatively few visits:

Although its source is questionable (WingMakers.com), the message below stirs my soul enough to want to share it.

My Central Message

I convey this message to you whom I have stirred with the sound of my voice. These words are my signature. You may bring your doubt, your fear, your faith, or your courage; it matters not, for you will be touched by the rhythm of my voice. It moves through you like a beam of light that sweeps – if only for a moment – the darkness aside.

I dwell in a frequency of light in which finite beings cannot uncover me. If you search for me, you will fail. I am not found or discovered. I am only realized in oneness, unity, and wholeness. It is the very same oneness that you feel when you are interconnected with all of life, for I am this and this alone. I am all of life. If you must search for me, then practice the feeling of wholeness and unity.

In my deepest light I created you from my desire to understand my universe. You are my emissaries. You are free to journey the universe of universes as particles from my infinite womb with destinies that you alone will write. I do not prescribe your journey or your journey’s aim. I only accompany you. I do not pull you this way or that, nor do I punish you when you stray from my heart. This I do as an outcome of my belief in you.

You are the heirs of my light, which gave you form. It is my voice that awakened you to individuality, but it will be your will that awakens you to our unity. It is your desire to know me as your self that brings you to my presence so perfectly hidden from your world. I am behind everything that you see, hear, touch, taste, smell, feel, and believe.

I live for your discovery of me. It is the highest expression of my love for you, and while you search for my shadows in the stories of your world, I, the indelible, invisible light, grow increasingly visible. Imagine the furthest point in space – beneath a black portal, cast in some distant galaxy, and then multiply this distance by the highest numeric value you know. Congratulations, you have measured an atom of my body.

Do you realize how I am unfathomable? I am not what you can know, or see, or understand. I am outside comprehension. My vastness makes me invisible and unavoidable. There is nowhere you can be without me. My absence does not exist. It is this very nature that makes me unique. I am First Cause and Last Effect connected in an undivided chain.

There is no supplication that stirs me. No prayer that invites me further into your world unless it is attended with the feeling of unity and wholeness. There is no temple or sacred object that touches me. They do not, nor have they ever brought you closer to my outstretched hand. My presence in your world is unalterable for I am the sanctuary of both the cosmos and the one soul inside you.

I could awaken each of you in this very moment to our unity, but there is a larger design – a more comprehensive vision – that places you in the boundaries of time and the spatial dimensions of separateness. This design requires a progression into my wholeness that reacquaints you with our unity through the experience of separation. Your awakening, while slow and sometimes painful, is assured, and this you must trust above all else.

I am the ancestral father of all creation. I am a personality that lives inside each of you as a vibration that emanates from all parts of your existence. I reside in this dimension as your beacon. If you follow this vibration, if you place it at the core of your journey, you will contact my personality that lives beneath the particles of your existence.

I am not to be feared or held in indifference. My presence is immediate, tangible, and real. You are now in my presence. Hear my words. You are in my presence. You are within me more than I am within you. You are the veneer of my mind and heart, and yet you think yourself the product of an ape. You are so much more than you realize.

Our union was, is, and will be forevermore. You are my blessed offspring with whom I am intricately connected in means that you cannot understand and therefore appreciate. You must suspend your belief and disbelief in what you cannot sense, in exchange for your knowing that I am real and live within you. This is my central message to all my offspring. Hear it well, for in it you may find the place in which I dwell.

​

I don't think of this as something I believe, but as something pointing me in the direction of the One, "the circle of infinity whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere." As the anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing wrote, "By love He may be gotten and holden; by thought, never." Another pointer is The Impersonal Life (pdf).​

 

[Unveiled Artist]

I truly appreciate what you have said, but I don't understand what you mean by (hopefully Roman Catholic). If Jesus Christ is your peace and your Rock why the need for the rituals, baggage, and distractions of the Catholic religion? I was raised Catholic and went through all of that for years and never heard about or knew the real Jesus until years later after leaving Catholicism.

Really?! Where are you from?

 

[Sundance]

I truly appreciate what you have said, but I don't understand what you mean by (hopefully Roman Catholic). If Jesus Christ is your peace and your Rock why the need for the rituals, baggage, and distractions of the Catholic religion? I was raised Catholic and went through all of that for years and never heard about or knew the real Jesus until years later after leaving Catholicism.

Tell me, what do you know about Christ now and how is it different from what you knew of Him as a Roman Catholic?

 

[InChrist]

Tell me, what do you know about Christ now and how is it different from what you knew of Him as a Roman Catholic?

I only have time to mention a few things which I know about Jesus Christ now that I did not know or fully understand as a Catholic.

I know that He is not still hanging on a crucifix..
.I know that He is not an infant still sitting on Mary's lap.
(Yes, I knew He was risen and not literally still on the cross or a baby on Mary's lap, yet the imagery of Christ in those weakened positions was prevalent in Catholic churches.)
I know that Mary is only His mother in so far as His humanity, she is not the sinless mother of the eternal God.
I know that Jesus is not literally and repeatedly present in the Eucharist wafer and wine each mass, because He once and for all sacrificed Himself ( Hebrews 7:27) and it is finished.(John 19:30).
I know that when one repents and places their faith in Him for forgiveness and eternal life, at that moment they are born again..not as an infant when baptized.
I know that one must personally trust Jesus alone for salvation, not the sacraments or institution of the Catholic Church.
I know that Jesus alone is the High Priest who intercedes for believers (Hebrews 4:14; 6:20; 7:26; 8:1) and to Whom we are to confess our sins,(1 John 1:9), not a fallen human priest, Mary, or 'saint".

I never once heard the gospel of forgiveness through Christ alone. My entire extended family are Catholics and not one of them is saved. They think they are okay because they are born and raised Catholics, go to church and sometimes confession, but Jesus has no impact or importance in their lives.

 

[Reflex]

I believe many things as do all humans. Because I am a life-long atheist, one of them is not a belief in a supernatural deity in the sky. I have more peace with that than most religious minded people do because I do not worry about eternal torment or being reborn eternally into some kind of cast system or whatever. Also, because I recognize my current life as all there is, it is more important and meaningful to me.

I don't believe in a "supernatural deity in the sky," either. Nor do I worry about "eternal torment or being reborn eternally into some kind of cast system or whatever." Does that mean I'm an atheist?

 

[AlphaAlex115]

I'd say most humans yearn for peace...peace within one's self, one's life, with others. When I was an atheist, it's not that I lacked a sense of peace in my life, but *something* seemed to be missing. I couldn't ever put my finger on it really, and so I searched for meaning in other faiths and belief systems. Coming back to Christianity, I've had a sense of peace over these past few months that had been missing. To me, you have found the 'right' path for want of a better word, if you are at peace in your life. If you are truly content with who you are, and how you are living...then you have found a path that works for you.

So, do you find peace in your beliefs? Atheists are always welcome to answer, for even though you may not hold spiritual or religious beliefs, you believe something. Look forward to your responses.

Religion is comfortable. It fulfills some need all humans have. But religion is highly illogical. All religions are equally as viable, and yet people believe firmly in one or another despite life's cruelty. I mean whatever deity you believe in probably isn't a massive saint but some old testament sandcastle smasher.

I'm not religious or even spiritual. And I'm downright fed up.

 

[Paleo]

I find peace in my path, something that I lacked when I was Christian. I feel loved by my Lord and Lady and that is reflected in my actions as I try to show as much love to others, to the world as I can.

 

[AlphaAlex115]

I find peace in my path, something that I lacked when I was Christian. I feel loved by my Lord and Lady and that is reflected in my actions as I try to show as much love to others, to the world as I can.

Why love something that's apathetic and harsh?

 

[Paleo]

Why love something that's apathetic and harsh?

The world already has a lot of hate in it, you can not fix hate with more hate so why not love? You can not soften it's harshness by being harsh, be the change you wish to see.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

I'd say most humans yearn for peace...peace within one's self, one's life, with others. When I was an atheist, it's not that I lacked a sense of peace in my life, but *something* seemed to be missing. I couldn't ever put my finger on it really, and so I searched for meaning in other faiths and belief systems. Coming back to Christianity, I've had a sense of peace over these past few months that had been missing. To me, you have found the 'right' path for want of a better word, if you are at peace in your life. If you are truly content with who you are, and how you are living...then you have found a path that works for you.

So, do you find peace in your beliefs? Atheists are always welcome to answer, for even though you may not hold spiritual or religious beliefs, you believe something. Look forward to your responses.

I was thinking more about peace in our (humunity's) religions or values whether it be in Christ or reading a good book, helping charity, or praying to Allah.

Anyway, was thinking about the thing you "missed" when searching varies beliefs. For me, everywhere I searched (which wasnt too far) it all came back to family. I mean, our family really isnt close as we would like but unlike atheism where spirituality I guess can be natualistic, excluding gods and spirits and unlike Buddhism, where the mind is the foundation, but..

Sorry run on

When you come back to the spirits (or Christ or Ordin) you really get a whomesome feeling that I personally believe an atheist may not have. In my personal opinion, without the spirits, really, where would we be?

Spirits as in ancestors, I mean. I guess its peace in not just knowing as in mind and not just being as a natualist view but becoming involved in life itself. I know. Its hard to put in words. Im sure non believers have something similar but then again, if a hundred people like ice cream and forty like cake that doesnt mean they dont have the same peace in their deserts. Just mean our peace is different given when the sources are different, why would one logically expect both parties get the same experience.

Anyway. Split second thought.