How Religious Are You?

[Mackerni]

I'm pretty much in the middle, but there's no neutral option in the poll so I refrain from voting.

I'm a physical monist, which is very irreligious, yet I find extreme veneration in things like the Sun, even making up my own Solar Holidays to accompany the fact. I believe in pantheosis, a form of apotheosis, which is gnostic in origin. Although not religious, gnosticism is extremely spiritual. Extropianism is irreligious, but I use extropianism as a human marker for the seven divine qualities of divine life, which is (at least) spiritual. I believe in an afterlife but only one that exists with human intervention, which ultimately is irreligious. The problem of evil I believe can be answered with what I call 'human entropy'. The decay and chaos of everything gives people the choice to do wrong and benefit themselves while hurting others. This is also pretty irreligious.

Gee, I guess I am pretty irreligious, or at least I have non-religious beliefs. Let's just put it this way: I am inspired by French philosopher Auguste Comte, his Positivist philosophy, and his Religion of Humanity. I am also inspired as to what Unitarian Universalism has become.

When it comes to my own beliefs, my own philosophy of Exaltism and the Faith of Exaltation, it turns otherwise irreligious ideas like Comte's and turns them into a religious force. My faith does believe in two possible outcomes that are very similar to the Heaven and Hell in Christianity, only in a physical sense. After all, it was the Jesuit priest Chardin that coined the term the Omega Point which has been adapted into my own faith. Many scientists now believe Heat Death, where the Universe will have maximum entropy and everything will be spread out as much as possible. This to me is a physical Hell, where as the Omega Point is the opposite, a Universal Heaven.

It is utterly impossible for me to answer this poll. On the one hand, pretty much all my concepts are not religious in origin. On the other hand, I've developed them into beliefs that are both spiritual and could be viewed as religious. I believe that 'The Creation is the Creator', that we unknowingly manifested ourselves sometime in the very distinct past, before the Big Bang, before entropy even. I think if I were to answer the poll, it would have to say, "I believe in irreligious concepts that are meant to be taken spiritually and religiously." A grey area, as they otherwise would say.

You might have seen these posts on the Internet, I see them on YouTube, that asks the reader to "repent because of entropy." Then they'll give statistics regarding at how fast energy is decaying. That is the antithesis of everything I believe in. Christians have Satanists these guys that spew this garbage are my Satanists ... Entropists. People that also condemn the things that ought to be exalted, like the sun, are the antithesis of what I believe.

If there was an option that said, "I'm not religious but I'd like to be." I'd answer to that, too. I do belong to the First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee, but I'm not fully onboard with the Unitarian message. Their message is "Deeds Not Creeds." I believe in, "Good Deeds become Greater Creeds." I have, "Faith in Works, Faith in Science, and Faith of Humanity." And I'd say Unitarians only really have Faith in Humanity. It's frustrating.

 

[Smart_Guy]

"I consider myself somewhat religious", here.

 

[Quintessence]

What's interesting here to me is the diversity of interpretations about what "religious" means. Makes it a good idea to ask what folks mean by such a term, yes?

 

[Jainarayan]

I said I consider myself somewhat religious. The why and how are a little hard to explain. I always tended to think of "religious" through an Italian grandmother lens... going to Mass at 5:30 every morning, a perpetual candle to the favorite saint, and the like. It's a hard habit and baggage to drop. Nowadays I'm less inclined to do regular rituals, except for my little morning routine, and to worry about it. This came about as I became more and more a hard polytheist, accepting that the gods are not omniscient nor omnipresent. They probably only come when invoked. So, they're not going to get peed off because I didn't do a Sumarsdag blót last Sunday.

 

[Acim]

Somewhat religious. Very spiritual.

Feel I could've voted for any of the options and not been way off base, but would've stipulated my vote with - very spiritual.

 

[Acim]

What's interesting here to me is the diversity of interpretations about what "religious" means. Makes it a good idea to ask what folks mean by such a term, yes?

Religious to me means being aligned with a particular religion or paradigm of religious theology. Could also mean being willing to consider religious doctrines without automatically detracting from it as a non-believer / atheist might. Thus, using discernment to understand how religious doctrines (messages) fit within my current understandings of God, Life, and my pursuits.

Spirituality means to me being devoted to a path that seeks (and finds) Spirit in nature. Perhaps downplaying physical existence, as if that is the entirety of existence. Also could mean seeking messages of Divine from many to arguably all things, while seeing myself as within Spiritual reality and staying open to all considerations aligned with this paradigm. Using discernment to understand the spiritual messages / revelations found anywhere / everywhere.

 

[Rye_P]

I consider myself very irreligious >> For I have no relation for religion or what our country called as "religion". Well, some narrow-minded peoples in our country only consider Islam, Christianity (only limited for Catholic and Protestantism), Buddha, Hindu, and Confucius as our "legal religion". So some of them put me in an Atheism box, duh!.

But again, it depends on ur definition of religion tho.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

What's interesting here to me is the diversity of interpretations about what "religious" means. Makes it a good idea to ask what folks mean by such a term, yes?

Religion is that which gets tax breaks but wouldn't meet a normal definition of "charity".