I feel like I need ONE religion

[Lintu]

I didn't really know where to put this, but I figure this is as good a place as any.

I think that comparative religion has made my life really hard I am so used to having certain things that I believed to be true. Most of all, though, I miss the ritual and tradition of a particular religion. It really helps reaffirm my beliefs, bring me closer to the spiritual entity I consider to be God, etc. I feel lost without that sort of stuff. I also feel, though, that it would be really hard to join just ONE religious group. Also, the religious groups that I feel most closely align to me are not part of my culture, and I think I would feel like I was "appropriating" another culture's traditions and religious beliefs.

One solution that I've thought of is to join the UU church. I know I'd be in good company there, but I need tradition. I guess I haven't outgrown that childish part of myself. I feel that if I just took traditions from the major religious groups I believe in, it would just be tacky.

 

[robtex]

Lintu its back to that phrase I said to you before, confusion is the last thing you experience before clarity. I was really lost at that age and put it on the backburner instead of dealing with it than. I think it is awsome that you are going to check out a church that is different than the one you grew-up in.

Look religion shouldn't make your life hard. Wheather or not you know or believe various things about your existance will not change the nature of your existance just your understanding of it. If we were made to know all the answers than we would and if we were not (which we are not obviously) and we can exist than its not vital to our day-to-day existance to know. If your preception of reality changed tomarrow you would still get up go to school go to work and everything around you would still be the same just your understanding of it might be altered.

I am glad you are here with us and our sharing your insights on our collective journeies and I hope you realize that some things will fall into place over time and others never will. I am a big believer in perpetual motion and applying that think you should just jump with both feet in without looking...check out the damn UU church, go to a mosque if that helps, to a synagog, a buddist temple ect and after making a run at it stop and look at your notes.

I have looked at your profile and it has autonomy written all over it. To have your linguistic skills, your drive in the woman's rights movement and your direction in philologism you must be use to taking charge and intitive and your spirtual journey is no different. I also notice you put pumpkin pie in your profile and I have to tell no matter what you learn about God the universe and your existance...realize it will have absolutly no effect on the prescence of pumkin pie in your life.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

You might come to appreciate Humanistic Judaism.

 

[Lintu]

Humanistic Judaism? Please tell more! That little internet selector test gave me 100% Reform Judaism, 96% UU, but I overlooked Judaism for my aversion to circumcision. (As you can tell, I like to play by the rules! )

 

[Lintu]

I am a big believer in perpetual motion and applying that think you should just jump with both feet in without looking...check out the damn UU church, go to a mosque if that helps, to a synagog, a buddist temple ect and after making a run at it stop and look at your notes.

I'm planning on going to the UU service this Sunday. Hopefully the weather will cooperate! (I don't have a car). I would really like to try other forms of services, but I'm still afraid of being offensive in going. I can actually get extra credit in my comparative religion class by going to another faith's service, but I hate uncertainty and feeling out of place.

 

[robtex]

I'm planning on going to the UU service this Sunday. Hopefully the weather will cooperate! (I don't have a car). I would really like to try other forms of services, but I'm still afraid of being offensive in going. I can actually get extra credit in my comparative religion class by going to another faith's service, but I hate uncertainty and feeling out of place.

Post what you find along the way. I bet this will be fun. I am sorry you feel nervous about the whole thing. If it helps we are right here in cyberspace behind you. I can tell you though that UU worships services are very laid back compared to others. It is more of a celebration than an atonement and you are very likely to be around happy upbeat people which means you should fit right in.

Reform Judism if you haven't read much about it seees the Torah and Talmund (the OT in Christianty) as allegorical as oppossed to literal. They are monotheistic and the ones I have met down here in Texas have said that the only qualification to be a reform Jew is belief in one God. Everything else is up for discovey. They do have dietary laws they follow (or are encouraged to) they fast, and the really interesting thing is that the religion is passed on from the woman rather than the man. That means if you do convert and become a Jew that your child is born a Jew. If your child becomes a buddist later on than he is in Judism, a Buddiest Jew. The religion is very heavy on the symbolism and the partipation in the Jewish communty is stongly encouraged. Unlike Christians who recruit, a Jewish rabbi, who is not an extension of G_d but rather a teacher of Judism, is not likely to consider converting you unless he feels you are committed and he has talked to you a few times. The religion puts morality on the indivduals shoulders and during Yom Kippur they atone for their sins against man by asking forgivness first from their fellow man (woman) and than from G_d. Like the Islamic religion ones relationship to G_d in the afterlife is directly correlated to ones actions and deeds on earth. The reform Jews do not believe in satan, hell, and some don't believe in Heaven but I am not sure if all of them do. The Rabbis in the religion are tenacious in their study of religious theory and while you can stump some religious leaders easily with relgious questions it would be much harder to stump your average Rabbi. That is all I know from personal experience I figured we will find the same stuff on the net so I didn't post links.

 

[Lintu]

I love Jewish theology, but because of the issue of circumcision and various political beliefs, I feel like it wouldn't be the best. It's too bad I couldn't just ignore those parts but I tried that with Catholicism and being pro-choice, and that didn't work too well.

I am also very much attracted to some parts of Hinduism. And, as part of my culture, I'd like to explore some of the various Native American religions. That is my father's religion. I feel like I really need a religious *community* at this point, though. I'm starting to feel good about my beliefs, but I'm really missing the community and ritualistic nature of religion.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Humanistic Judaism? Please tell more! That little internet selector test gave me 100% Reform Judaism, 96% UU, but I overlooked Judaism for my aversion to circumcision.

Actually, as far as circumcision is concerned, I believe the Society for Humanistic Judaism has an exclusion for female philologists, but you'd have to check with them.

As for the rest, let's take the Exodus as an example. It is of central importance to theistic Judaism. It is not

I am the HaShem thy G-d, thou shalt have no other gods before me​

but

I am the HaShem thy G-d, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage;

thou shalt have no other gods before me


​

But it is also possible to view the Exodus, not as myth, but as the cornerstone to a system of ethics. ...

And should a sojourner sojourn with you, you shall not wrong him

Like the native among you
shall be the sojourner who sojourns with you,
and you shall love him like yourself,
for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt


​

I've noted a related example in another thread. Biblical Hebrew - lacking cantillation marks - often permits more than one reading. My favorite example is Leviticus 19:18, where

Love thy neighbor as thyself​

can also be read as

Love thy neighbor; he is like you.​

Taken together, Humanistic Judaism serves as a nontheistic religion informed and inspired by its theistic and ethical roots. So the Exodus is appreciated as valued myth and mandate, such that, upon seing the likes of the current genocide in Darfur, the response is ...

Never again! For I too was a sojourner in the land of Egypt.​

They are like me - let my people go!​

 

[Scuba Pete]

Just be an honest seeker...

Look at everything and everywhere...

Be prepared to discard your theology often...

If you truly search you will find what you are searching for...

 

[Master Vigil]

I understand exactly where you are coming from. I deeply want to become a priest or monk. But of course, I was brought of catholic and could go that direction. But it just isn't me anymore. I love all the religions. And my heart is really in eastern culture. Taoism and Zen. But I am not chinese or japanese. Luckily I don't have to be nowadays, and am going to a zen temple to learn more. Good luck on your journey. And let love and peace always fill your soul.

 

[kreeden]

Lintu , there is power in Ritual / Tradition . They are not childish at all . If nothing more , they " condition " us , firm our beliefs . I wish you luck in your journey .

 

[may]

The question is, what does God require of us,not the other way around,like the majority of people think , it is not a case of what do i what to believe, but what does God require of us.

 

[Master Vigil]

The question is, what does God require of us,not the other way around,like the majority of people think , it is not a case of what do i what to believe, but what does God require of us.

The problem with your idea, though noble it is, is that no one knows what god requires. We only know what people tell us god requires. The bible says slavery is perfectly ok, do you believe that? I hope not. And if you don't, you are putting your beliefs before "what god says." No matter how you put it, every single person is different. I should therefore follow that everyone can and does have a different religion. Religion does not define a person, the person defines the religion.

 

[cardero]

Master Vigil writes: No matter how you put it, every single person is different. I should therefore follow that everyone can and does have a different religion. Religion does not define a person, the person defines the religion.

I would suggest "Patrickism" as a religion but it is already taken. How about "Lintuism"?

 

[Master Vigil]

Thats the point carrdero, if everyone followed the same strict codes of religion, we would all be little religious praying robots. But of course we aren't, we are all unique individuals. So even if you want to put a broad label on yourself, Scott is not the same kind of catholic as Martha, Salam is not the same kind of Muslim as Rearing Arabian, Mr. Spinkles is not the same kind of athiest as Ceridwen, etc... Is Scott a better catholic than Martha? That we cannot say for any certainty at all. So who is right, Scott or Martha? Neither, they both are. So Scott is a "Scott catholic", Salam is a "Salam muslim", Spinkles is a "Spinkles Athiest", etc...

 

[may]

The problem with your idea, though noble it is, is that no one knows what god requires. We only know what people tell us god requires. The bible says slavery is perfectly ok, do you believe that? I hope not. And if you don't, you are putting your beliefs before "what god says." No matter how you put it, every single person is different. I should therefore follow that everyone can and does have a different religion. Religion does not define a person, the person defines the religion.

Jesus assured his disciples: "If the Son sets you free, then you will be really free." (John 8:36, Today’s English Version) The fulfillment of this promise will mean nothing less than freedom from the most damaging of all forms of slavery.
How can we be freed? By becoming Jesus’ disciples, we can benefit from Christ’s sacrificial death, which has the power to "bring to nothing the one having the means to cause death, that is, the Devil" and to "emancipate all those who for fear of death were subject to slavery all through their lives." (Hebrews 2:14, 15) Imagine that—freedom from slavery to sin and death! Isn’t the thought of such freedom appealing?

consider this: Jehovah God was directly responsible for the greatest march to freedom in all human history. You may be familiar with the historical record.


​

The nation of Israel was enslaved by Egypt, set to hard manual labor and subjected to brutal treatment. They cried out to God for help, and he, in his great mercy, heard them and acted. Using Moses and Aaron as his spokesmen, Jehovah issued a demand that the Egyptian Pharaoh let the Israelites go free. That proud monarch refused repeatedly, even after Jehovah brought a series of devastating plagues upon the land. Finally, God brought Pharaoh to his knees. The Israelites were free at last!—Exodus 12:29-32.
so, why has he not intervened in human affairs and put an end to slavery? Remember, Jehovah is not ‘the ruler of the world’—Satan is. Because of the challenges raised back in Eden, Jehovah has allowed this wicked Adversary to rule for a limited time. Slavery, oppression, and cruelty are simply hallmarks of Satan’s rulership. Under such influence, human rulership has built up a miserable record. The Bible tells us "Man has dominated man to his injury."—Ecclesiastes 8:9.

 

[Master Vigil]

And may, you quoted from a book that scholars are not even sure if they were written by said persons. Nor do you know indubitably that is says what god intended. You may believe it to be true, but that does not make it true. And again, you may interpret the book different than someone else. Who is right? I believe you both can be, and you both can be wrong. Hence the part about everyone having their own unique religion.

 

[arthra]

I became a Baha'i years ago because I didn't feel i could reject the other major religions or rather their source of revelation...

Baha'is accept the Founders of the world's great religions as Messengers or Manifestations of God.

Baha'is have a minimum of prescribed ritual, that is we have certain obligatory prayers we say daily but our meetings are open and the responsibility of the Baha'is themselves.

We have no priests or ministers either... We elect our major Institutions.

The Faith is progressive in many ways in terms of recognizing the oneness of mankind and working for international peace with law.

- Art

 

[may]

And may, you quoted from a book that scholars are not even sure if they were written by said persons. Nor do you know indubitably that is says what god intended. You may believe it to be true, but that does not make it true. And again, you may interpret the book different than someone else. Who is right? I believe you both can be, and you both can be wrong. Hence the part about everyone having their own unique religion.

Among religious writings, the Bible is uniquely accurate and candid in presenting history. That is why many of the facts and events in it are confirmed by secular history, though they are not dependent on that support. Actually, the Bible is bound up with facts and history and these are the threads that weave the fabric of its message, the message of a God who acts in history. Whenever the Bible’s narrative deals with points of culture, customs, titles of officials, legal and even scientific matters, it is historically accurate in every detail, and cannot be successfully contradicted.

 

[Lintu]

Whenever the Bible’s narrative deals with points of culture, customs, titles of officials, legal and even scientific matters, it is historically accurate in every detail, and cannot be successfully contradicted.

That's a pretty big blanket statement. Even history textbooks aren't 100% historically accurate.