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looking for a belief system.

Sgt. Pepper

Sgt. Pepper

All you need is love.
Snow White said:
I was with Wicca for awhile. I agree that some of its beliefs may do some good. However, I also found it lonely for people who aren't a member of a coven, and therefore sometimes seen as "heretics" or "doing it wrong" by other Wiccans.
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I'm sorry to hear that. I've had a very positive experience practicing Wicca. It is the polar opposite of what I experienced when I was a Christian. And I'm not in a coven, but I don't feel lonely at all. I know other Wiccans and consider a couple of them friends, but I decided that for the time being, I wouldn't join a coven. I've never had any trouble with them or seen or heard of them being accusatory toward other Wiccans. They accepted me with open arms.
 
PoetPhilosopher

PoetPhilosopher

Veteran Member
JustGeorge said:
I would caution a person getting in with the UUs that there is a tremendous amount of liberal politics involved. Unless you feel aligned with the American left, it might prove uncomfortable at times. If that is where you fall politically, it could be a great fit.
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To be fair, I might agree. Even if I still believed in God, I'm not even sure I could fit in with today's Unitarian Universalists. They might somehow see me as centrist-left and not want to be around me much.
 
Debater Slayer

Debater Slayer

Vipassana
Staff member
Premium Member
Rival said:
Yes, that's true. If I looked for such communities here I'd be hard pressed in my city. However, when one looks globally, those four are the biggest, most widely practiced. So you are likely to find a group somewhere. With other religions you're basically on your own. Many religions we think are large are actually tiny, such as Judaism, Sikhism (very ethnocentric too), Baha'iism, etc. Paganism is tiny. Where I am, England, even if you're a Christian it's hard; the main religious communities here are Islamic and Dharmic. UK and Western Europe as a whole are basically atheistic.
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Yep, where I am, even Christians who are not Orthodox may struggle to find a community. I've just gotten used to traveling my own path and finding company online instead.

My online company includes many who don't necessarily share my worldview, such as on RF. :)
 
Rival

Rival

Diex Aie
Staff member
Premium Member
Soandso said:
You are absolutely right, but it certainly would be useful to learn about them. Speaking for myself coming from a very fundamental Christian background, I was very ignorant to every other religion or even other monotheistic religions. Learning about them, and even experimenting with their ideas, helped me a lot to better understand what fit me best
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This is a fault of the US education system, which is sad.

By the time I was 10 we'd studied Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Paganism (to an extent) and celebrated Diwali, set up a mock Indian market and dressed up in Saris, lit candles, had food etc. We had specific lessons for religion.
 
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JustGeorge

JustGeorge

Imperfect
Staff member
Premium Member
Rival said:
It was a decade. A whole decade. They were bad to her.
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That's very sad. :(
Rival said:
@JustGeorge

Religion, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics

The religion of usual residents and household religious composition in England and Wales, Census 2021 data.
www.ons.gov.uk
  • For the first time in a census of England and Wales, less than half of the population (46.2%, 27.5 million people) described themselves as “Christian”, a 13.1 percentage point decrease from 59.3% (33.3 million) in 2011; despite this decrease, “Christian” remained the most common response to the religion question.
  • “No religion” was the second most common response, increasing by 12.0 percentage points to 37.2% (22.2 million) from 25.2% (14.1 million) in 2011.
  • There were increases in the number of people who described themselves as “Muslim” (3.9 million, 6.5% in 2021, up from 2.7 million, 4.9% in 2011) and “Hindu” (1.0 million, 1.7% in 2021, up from 818,000, 1.5% in 2011).
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Interesting!

Rival said:
This is a fault of the US education system, which is sad.

By the time I was 10 we'd studied Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Paganism (to an extent) and celebrated Diwali, set up a mock Indian market and dressed up in Saris, lit candles, had food etc. We had specific lessons for this.
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I've heard some horror stories from Hindu youth that say Hinduism is often taught all wrong in the education system, and teachers aren't always open to correction.
 
JustGeorge

JustGeorge

Imperfect
Staff member
Premium Member
Snow White said:
To be fair, I might agree. Even if I still believed in God, I'm not even sure I could fit in with today's Unitarian Universalists. They might somehow see me as centrist-left and not want to be around me much.
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That was my experience(and I could probably be labeled about centrist left as well). Mostly, though, I wanted to talk religion and not politics, and that in itself wasn't very welcomed. Though, I hear congregations vary. So if one's comfortable with the political alignment, it might be worth a shot.
 
Saint Frankenstein

Saint Frankenstein

Here for the ride
Premium Member
Rival said:
This is a fault of the US education system, which is sad.

By the time I was 10 we'd studied Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Paganism (to an extent) and celebrated Diwali, set up a mock Indian market and dressed up in Saris, lit candles, had food etc. We had specific lessons for this.
Click to expand...
My mom told me when she was a kid, her school would go on trips to at least different churches to teach the kids a bit about them, from what I remember her telling me. That was in the '50s so apparently our educational system has declined since. My schooling certainly did not include religions and so on.
 
Rival

Rival

Diex Aie
Staff member
Premium Member
Saint Frankenstein said:
My mom told me when she was a kid, her school would go on trips to at least different churches to teach the kids a bit about them, from what I remember her telling me. That was in the '50s so apparently our educational system has declined since. My schooling certainly did not include religions and so on.
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My mum said she visited a mosque and a synagogue and hated both. Lol.
 
PoetPhilosopher

PoetPhilosopher

Veteran Member
My school taught me about Muslim religion and culture, but did it in a way that was kind of biased, to the point of being kind of misleading.

Though, I'm not sure if it was true bias, or more there being less available information to teach in the US at the given time.
 
JustGeorge

JustGeorge

Imperfect
Staff member
Premium Member
Rival said:
She said the synagogue had too much gold/too showy and the mosque was oppressive (from her female pov).
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I guess I liked the showy synagogue. :D

The president of the local mosque was a woman. She held that position for many years, until she moved away. She was very outspoken in the community, and did a lot for public relations in the area.
Snow White said:
My school taught me about Muslim religion and culture, but did it in a way that was kind of biased, to the point of being kind of misleading.

Though, I'm not sure if it was true bias, or more there being less available information to teach in the US at the given time.
Click to expand...
My son had a virtual lesson on Islam when he was doing Virtual Schooling... it seemed like at least a third of the lesson was discussion on hijabs. It annoyed both of us... I really don't understand why folks get stuck on that one detail.
 
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