What is Religion? I don't get it!

[DagonVarunaMitraApolloZan]

ttps://youtu.be/OGLns88Ibck
Hello! I have been feeling a little confused for maybe a few months now or years when I try to think about what religion even is when it comes down to people saying such and such is their religion.

My definition for religion is at its most simplified Beliefs and Actions Related to or stemming from those Beliefs which are organized or prioritized by those beliefs, and it not being that different from a philosophy of life and how one decides to live it based on their ideas and interpretations and beliefs about things.

So of course I face the usual online atheists who get stuck on certain ideas about words and insisting they have no beliefs whatsoever and my explaining that they believe in the sky or the ground or their hand and then their saying they don't have to believe in such things, and round and round in tedious rubbish with people I couldn't care less if they lived or died that moment.

Then I encounter other people who say they have a religion, they may even give it a name, but when asked about it or how it is practiced they have nothing to say, they just use it to insult other groups of people who are likely the same or may even do more than just running around mocking and insulting other groups of humans.

So what the heck is religion even at this point? It seems like a word that has almost entirely lost any meaning among people who seem to barely do anything different or anything at all.

Everyone eats, sleeps, releases waste, generally bathes, buys and sells, gets paid or receives income, everyone mainly lives in roughly the same manner as human beings. Then there is "religion". What does it add? What does it mean? What do people do and why? Very few of the people I talk to who identify as "religious" ever experience or even report thinking in any spiritual manner at all, they scarcely believe in miracles, nor do they share any idea about any God, and its all like a big nothing.

Scarcely anyone prays, and even fewer worship. They just talk, and most don't even talk. I almost think that "religion" is just some kind of lie they tell themselves and others occasionally to seem a certain way.

Like, lets take an example of the Jehovah's Witnesses, what do they do? How is that a religion?

Which ones of you are even sincere devotees of any God at all? You never worship, you never seek anything, you don't do anything, nothing is done in the name of your God of choice, its all just a big vacuum, as far as it appears to me.

Or is it just shyness? I've interrogated and observed people in depth for years, why would they be hiding anything? They seem like they are all really atheists even when they take some name or say a little prayer here or there once in a blue moon.

Furthermore, none of the people I've encountered, thousands upon thousands from all over the world, ever are seen practicing anything nor do they care to hear anything on the subject if it is ever brought up, nor is anything ever interpreted in special ways or with a mystical eye whatsoever.

Hindus too, they may say blah blah and take some name and the whole day is spent with electronics and making money and not a second thought about anything else or religious thought.

I think humans were like this in the past too but still did more and thought more spiritually at times, but now it seems really very much dead, a spiritual silence or darkness, like a blackout over the world population and very scant lights to be seen anywhere.

So what is religion now? What do you even do? Why do you even do it? Do you even experience anything special at all? Aren't you mostly just like everyone else and actually think very little and do even less?

Isn't it the case you barely pray, barely think of any God, barely ever worship, have no practices, are not steadfast, and nothing is very inspiring or empowering for you?

How am I any different?

ttps://youtu.be/LR19IHWUS4o

What I'd also like to know is what does anyone get out of even stating they have a religion or believe in some God or not?

I just don't get it! Plus, what are any of you doing here?

I've been distressed about this sort of thing for a while now, and have very little hope of receiving any thoughtful answer regarding it, its always up to me.

So, my answer is, to say certain things, or half-imagine them, triggers certain chemical reactions in the brain, which makes people feel a little good, maybe almost like eating a little sugar or something, and thats about it.

Its all I must be doing too, except I'm able to extract these feelings out of a lot more things in a lot more ways and with a lot more depth, making me a religious diabetic vampire.

My plan or fantasy is to become physically fit and then appear near naked, and haveca nice home as well, to show off and boast of my superiority in every regardm with the pretense that I am doing so in order to motivate people and show them how they can achieve things as well, while I am really probably only planning the practice of hubris and self-glorification.

My existence is very much a cursed one, can you imagine the kind of feeling where nothing anyone says seems creative, stimulating, or interesting in the least because I've heard it all before and consider their thoughts and ideas vastly inferior? I only get excited by those things which are accidents of their passive imaginations, things they didn't come up with which are just seemingly occurring to them or thought them.

Love is an important aspect as well, because I want to love people and be loved, and people must identify with various cliques, gangs, and clubs called religions in order for some sense of love, but when they start to see clearly, they rarely feel it from anyone anywhere, and its even worse if they don't love themselves and their imaginary friend reciprocally. Luckily, I don't have that issue. However much I dislike the way things are, I still admire Might, and the Mightiest, and I'm very fond of myself at least, and everything I do is to maintain that fondness, so everything I say is what I wish would be said but which I hear from nowhere else and no one else.

I don't get it though, how can so many people be satisfied with so little? How can people claim one religion and not even live up to the one? One God they never think of, and when they do, they think it could never be thinking about them.

ttps://youtu.be/WQVz21i38Wc

Jesus, and other human figures, I imagine must be some sort of mirror for humans to feel good about themselves. How anyone feels satisfied by parroting sentences they don't even comprehend or think deeply about, just for the dopamine hit or whatever they get, they might as well say "Juicey Juice Lucy Truce" and they probably do too.

Are the barbarous utterances (see barbarous names in the Greek Magical Papyri) and gobbledygook really enough for people? Is that the luck of small-mindedness? Less space to fill? A smaller home to clean and manage?

Every religion by itself seems so utterly dissapointing, particularly its representatives and their utter lack of interest, enthusiasm, knowledge, or practice.

If Hell is other people, what is being utterly alone? Probably heaven. So why does it burn?

Haha, hope you enjoyed my writing and it might cause some thoughts to be provoked!

Religiousity for me is a type of pleasure. I don't know what at all it is for other people. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter and have asked numerous people what they actually do and think. Looking forward to the miraculous answers forthcoming someday, even an admission of doing nothing at all really would be a relief, and I'd think you're bold for facing the mirror and being honest with yourself.

Can anyone deeply and carefully introspect and take me on a journey through their thoughts, beliefs, preferences, understandings, and the actual practices stemming from those beliefs? Any formal worship or measures? Anything? Do you get any pleasure ever? Out of what? Atheists can answer as well, (No)God knows how they love to chime in. Why is that also? Its like Atheism at times creates some kind of weird fetish about getting involved with religion again from the perspective of someone who says "I'm outside of it, I'm not part of it" which must give some sense of hubristic pleasure that I can understand. I also enjoy looking down upon people, but even that can become boring eventually and needs a break (for me at least, Atheistic Hubris never seems to exhaust simplistic people).

I am envious of every sort of pleasure, particularly psychological simplicity and people satisfied with practically nothing and barely using their brains. I'm like Agent Smith in the Matrix, I am greedy and often want what I can't have, and when I get it, I'm never pleased for long.

Everything is a bore, and there is no everlasting gobstopper. That is why I've gobbled up everything from everywhere and can't care about who that might displease.

ttps://youtu.be/4vfFmGtM4oo

 

[Link]

Everyone values something, that which you value most is your god, be it yourself. Quran commands to value God way above everything else.

As for religion, English definition is confusing, changing, and unreliable determination is made by so called experts. In Arabic, it's what we feel obliged by or owe something to the most, what we feel we must devote ourselves to and act by and owe obedience but also mostly it's about love, what religion is, is love, and so what we love most and how we orient our love and the code of love is our religion.

Again, if our desires are highest priority and we feel everything should be done for ourselves, then that's it. That's what our god and religion is.

It happens to be, when selfish and egoistic, it's not even us we are acting for, but an illusion of who we are, while breathed in us is a devil from the tree of hell who the root is Iblis himself and so we value Iblis above all else, when we live for the self he tricked us is us, but is really him.

He breathes into us not quickly unless we do a really dark sin early and suddenly, but usually, likes to lite little fires first, before the big ones.

 

[February-Saturday]

There's no such thing as "religion." The entire concept was created by the Church post-enlightenment (yes, that recently) as a way to categorize the enemies of the church. Our modern concept of "religion" comes from Christendom's Eurocentric propaganda, as can be clearly seen in early religious studies.

Now, to be fair, recently anthropologists have started to try to distance themselves from the biases of their past when they're categorizing and studying various religions. They have yet to come up with a very good definition of religion, though.

"Religion" really only makes sense when talking about Abrahamic sects and denominations. It's the only time that the lines are clear-cut, and it's what the concept of religion itself originally came out of. That's why "Hinduism" is considered one singular religion, but Christianity and Islam are considered separate.

It's sort of eating anthropology out from its core right now as people argue over what religions are supposed to be and how to categorize them. Right now, we're still mostly using Eurocentric categories for religions, with some Afrocentric push-back.

So at the end of the day, religions are just abstract categories that are founded more in tradition than taxonomy. It's why Wiccans sometimes aren't protected for their religion in the US, because their state or county courts don't recognize Wicca as a religion. Having a religion "recognized" is a semi-arbitrary formality that can mean different things.

Who is it recognized by? Anthropologists? Governments? Religious scholars? Theologians? The general public? Does the general public get a vote? Do individuals get to self-label their religion, or is religion more objective? For instance, if somebody called themselves a Christian but didn't know who Christ was and didn't know anything about the Bible, should we respect that self-identity or disregard it because they aren't actually Christian?

These questions do have answers, but they're entirely contextual. There's no singular right answer for any of them. That makes "religion" a highly subjective term without a singular concrete definition. Again, it's a system of categories that's mostly based in tradition, not a well-defined concept.

Technically, I'm part of a "New Religious Movement," but I consider myself to be following a tradition that's evolved right alongside Catholicism and Catholicism isn't considered a New Religious Movement. None of its newer creeds or theological doctrines suddenly turn it into a New Religion. The only reason for that is because the concept of religion was made to prop up the Catholic Church to begin with.

So there is no definition of religion yet, it's too new of a concept. Eventually, I think academics will settle on a consensus of what "religion" actually means, but right now it's just a loose categorization founded on propaganda and now it's mostly based off of whether your movement considers itself to be a religion or not. The only reason LaVeyan Satanism is considered a religion rather than a philosophy is because Anton LaVey specifically called it a religion. It's really that simple.

So in that sense, when you say you don't have a religion, no matter who you are you're right. If you decide that you do have a religion, then whatever you say your religion is has just as much a right to be called a religion as anything else. It's a very subjective word.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

^ good grief ...

 

[Kenny]

So what the heck is religion even at this point? What does it add? What does it mean? What do people do and why? Like, lets take an example of the Jehovah's Witnesses, what do they do? How is that a religion? So what is religion now? What do you even do? Why do you even do it? Do you even experience anything special at all? Aren't you mostly just like everyone else and actually think very little and do even less?sn't it the case you barely pray, barely think of any God, barely ever worship, have no practices, are not steadfast, and nothing is very inspiring or empowering for you? How am I any different?What I'd also like to know is what does anyone get out of even stating they have a religion or believe in some God or not?I just don't get it! Plus, what are any of you doing here?
Are the barbarous utterances (see barbarous names in the Greek Magical Papyri) and gobbledygook really enough for people? Is that the luck of small-mindedness? Less space to fill? A smaller home to clean and manage?
If Hell is other people, what is being utterly alone? Probably heaven. So why does it burn?

The initial statement is quite complex and probably has too many questions to answer all at once. Not even sure where you want to go with all of this

There are so many definitions of religion but I think the best way is to express is in its life-style. It includes that which you do upwards to God (or gods if it is another religion) and that how it is expressed to humanity.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

Religion is stubbornly holding onto beliefs that you can't find any rational reason to support. If you could find those rational reasons, you wouldn't need a religious creed to bind you to them -- they would be sufficient on their own.

 

[Bear Wild]

ttps://youtu.be/OGLns88Ibck
Hello! I have been feeling a little confused for maybe a few months now or years when I try to think about what religion even is when it comes down to people saying such and such is their religion.

My definition for religion is at its most simplified Beliefs and Actions Related to or stemming from those Beliefs which are organized or prioritized by those beliefs, and it not being that different from a philosophy of life and how one decides to live it based on their ideas and interpretations and beliefs about things.

So of course I face the usual online atheists who get stuck on certain ideas about words and insisting they have no beliefs whatsoever and my explaining that they believe in the sky or the ground or their hand and then their saying they don't have to believe in such things, and round and round in tedious rubbish with people I couldn't care less if they lived or died that moment.

Then I encounter other people who say they have a religion, they may even give it a name, but when asked about it or how it is practiced they have nothing to say, they just use it to insult other groups of people who are likely the same or may even do more than just running around mocking and insulting other groups of humans.

So what the heck is religion even at this point? It seems like a word that has almost entirely lost any meaning among people who seem to barely do anything different or anything at all.

Everyone eats, sleeps, releases waste, generally bathes, buys and sells, gets paid or receives income, everyone mainly lives in roughly the same manner as human beings. Then there is "religion". What does it add? What does it mean? What do people do and why? Very few of the people I talk to who identify as "religious" ever experience or even report thinking in any spiritual manner at all, they scarcely believe in miracles, nor do they share any idea about any God, and its all like a big nothing.

Scarcely anyone prays, and even fewer worship. They just talk, and most don't even talk. I almost think that "religion" is just some kind of lie they tell themselves and others occasionally to seem a certain way.

Like, lets take an example of the Jehovah's Witnesses, what do they do? How is that a religion?

Which ones of you are even sincere devotees of any God at all? You never worship, you never seek anything, you don't do anything, nothing is done in the name of your God of choice, its all just a big vacuum, as far as it appears to me.

Or is it just shyness? I've interrogated and observed people in depth for years, why would they be hiding anything? They seem like they are all really atheists even when they take some name or say a little prayer here or there once in a blue moon.

Furthermore, none of the people I've encountered, thousands upon thousands from all over the world, ever are seen practicing anything nor do they care to hear anything on the subject if it is ever brought up, nor is anything ever interpreted in special ways or with a mystical eye whatsoever.

Hindus too, they may say blah blah and take some name and the whole day is spent with electronics and making money and not a second thought about anything else or religious thought.

I think humans were like this in the past too but still did more and thought more spiritually at times, but now it seems really very much dead, a spiritual silence or darkness, like a blackout over the world population and very scant lights to be seen anywhere.

So what is religion now? What do you even do? Why do you even do it? Do you even experience anything special at all? Aren't you mostly just like everyone else and actually think very little and do even less?

Isn't it the case you barely pray, barely think of any God, barely ever worship, have no practices, are not steadfast, and nothing is very inspiring or empowering for you?

How am I any different?

ttps://youtu.be/LR19IHWUS4o

What I'd also like to know is what does anyone get out of even stating they have a religion or believe in some God or not?

I just don't get it! Plus, what are any of you doing here?

I've been distressed about this sort of thing for a while now, and have very little hope of receiving any thoughtful answer regarding it, its always up to me.

So, my answer is, to say certain things, or half-imagine them, triggers certain chemical reactions in the brain, which makes people feel a little good, maybe almost like eating a little sugar or something, and thats about it.

Its all I must be doing too, except I'm able to extract these feelings out of a lot more things in a lot more ways and with a lot more depth, making me a religious diabetic vampire.

My plan or fantasy is to become physically fit and then appear near naked, and haveca nice home as well, to show off and boast of my superiority in every regardm with the pretense that I am doing so in order to motivate people and show them how they can achieve things as well, while I am really probably only planning the practice of hubris and self-glorification.

My existence is very much a cursed one, can you imagine the kind of feeling where nothing anyone says seems creative, stimulating, or interesting in the least because I've heard it all before and consider their thoughts and ideas vastly inferior? I only get excited by those things which are accidents of their passive imaginations, things they didn't come up with which are just seemingly occurring to them or thought them.

Love is an important aspect as well, because I want to love people and be loved, and people must identify with various cliques, gangs, and clubs called religions in order for some sense of love, but when they start to see clearly, they rarely feel it from anyone anywhere, and its even worse if they don't love themselves and their imaginary friend reciprocally. Luckily, I don't have that issue. However much I dislike the way things are, I still admire Might, and the Mightiest, and I'm very fond of myself at least, and everything I do is to maintain that fondness, so everything I say is what I wish would be said but which I hear from nowhere else and no one else.

I don't get it though, how can so many people be satisfied with so little? How can people claim one religion and not even live up to the one? One God they never think of, and when they do, they think it could never be thinking about them.

ttps://youtu.be/WQVz21i38Wc

Jesus, and other human figures, I imagine must be some sort of mirror for humans to feel good about themselves. How anyone feels satisfied by parroting sentences they don't even comprehend or think deeply about, just for the dopamine hit or whatever they get, they might as well say "Juicey Juice Lucy Truce" and they probably do too.

Are the barbarous utterances (see barbarous names in the Greek Magical Papyri) and gobbledygook really enough for people? Is that the luck of small-mindedness? Less space to fill? A smaller home to clean and manage?

Every religion by itself seems so utterly dissapointing, particularly its representatives and their utter lack of interest, enthusiasm, knowledge, or practice.

If Hell is other people, what is being utterly alone? Probably heaven. So why does it burn?

Haha, hope you enjoyed my writing and it might cause some thoughts to be provoked!

Religiousity for me is a type of pleasure. I don't know what at all it is for other people. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter and have asked numerous people what they actually do and think. Looking forward to the miraculous answers forthcoming someday, even an admission of doing nothing at all really would be a relief, and I'd think you're bold for facing the mirror and being honest with yourself.

Can anyone deeply and carefully introspect and take me on a journey through their thoughts, beliefs, preferences, understandings, and the actual practices stemming from those beliefs? Any formal worship or measures? Anything? Do you get any pleasure ever? Out of what? Atheists can answer as well, (No)God knows how they love to chime in. Why is that also? Its like Atheism at times creates some kind of weird fetish about getting involved with religion again from the perspective of someone who says "I'm outside of it, I'm not part of it" which must give some sense of hubristic pleasure that I can understand. I also enjoy looking down upon people, but even that can become boring eventually and needs a break (for me at least, Atheistic Hubris never seems to exhaust simplistic people).

I am envious of every sort of pleasure, particularly psychological simplicity and people satisfied with practically nothing and barely using their brains. I'm like Agent Smith in the Matrix, I am greedy and often want what I can't have, and when I get it, I'm never pleased for long.

Everything is a bore, and there is no everlasting gobstopper. That is why I've gobbled up everything from everywhere and can't care about who that might displease.

ttps://youtu.be/4vfFmGtM4oo

Since religion is a common behavior in humans the answer to what is religion is what it does for humans. What are the benefits of a religion?
Studies of religion that look how religion changes over time gives us some of these answers.
We see changes in religions with increasing urbanization of population and social structure and political changes.
It has been argued that the primary purpose of religious belief is to enhance the basic cognitive process of self-control, which in turn promotes any number of valuable social behaviors.

My opinion is that religion
1. Promotes social behavior
2. Helps an individual understand their relationship to the world
3. Decreases stress and anxiety promoting health of the individual.

There is considerable information now supporting these Ideas and they can be applied to any religion.

 

[Valjean]

4. Keeps the peasants in line, in the absence of a police state, with threats of divine wrath or hopes of reward.

 

[Bear Wild]

4. Keeps the peasants in line, in the absence of a police state, with threats of divine wrath or hopes of reward.

Yes I agree that is the down side of what religion can do. Interestingly the rise of monotheistic religions with increasing urbanization of societies.
The increasing urbanization and increasingly controlling political developments had major consequences for peoples social attachments and sense of security. There was the increasing loss of kin networks and increasing interactions with strangers increased interaction with strangers increasing impersonality of urban life and urban misery.
A god that can provide salvation and release the worldly suffering become increasingly desired. A god outside the world who is all knowing and all powerful yet loving and merciful becomes the answer to the loss of power and control for people.
A transcendent god could then be used by the political elites to legitimize their power, and take advantage of a special relationship with the god to exert rule.

That's why I limited my list to the three and not include the need of a supernatural god to legitimize a religion.

 

[DagonVarunaMitraApolloZan]

I really enjoyed all your answers, particularly the devil and the fox (I am a devil and a fox as well, which might be why I liked those answers a lot), but was that the whole thing? I mean, if anyone read my entire article, was that all I was getting at?

I'll clarify, I was more asking what people themselves who identify as having a religion understand it as and asking how, when they so often seem to do barely anything, feel they are even "this or that" and what they even get out of it? The songs were meant to enhance the the themes mentioned and there was supposed to be some introspection involved: "Do I really have a religion? What is it really? What do I even do? Do I even feel I have any relationship or interaction with anything? Really? Lets be honest with ourselves."

Many will be expected to say yes, but how then? Why is there often so much difficulty in people outlining the 15 waking hours of their day and what parts of those hours are taken up by religious or spiritual activity and how its differen

Ah shoot I'm so angry right now. I wrote a ton more than this, I sneezed, and it deleted it all somehow. Literally a sneeze. Screw it. I wrote like thirty paragraphs. Well, no one was likely to read them anyway, but they were good:

"Everyone values something, that which you value most is your god, be it yourself."

I had this whole thing where I commented back about what everyone said and explained a lot more and gosh.

Terrible. Happens a lot to me.

ttps://youtu.be/_lK4cX5xGiQ

 

[February-Saturday]

I'll clarify, I was more asking what people themselves who identify as having a religion understand it as and asking how, when they so often seem to do barely anything, feel they are even "this or that" and what they even get out of it?

I understand it as a convenient short-hand to describe my spiritual temperament, by referencing the spiritual tradition I feel that I'm a part of. I don't think it's very descriptive, and I often answer differently.

Sometimes I'll say my religion is Traditional Satanism, Devil Worship, Gnostic Alchemy, Qayinite Chaosophy, Spiritual Satanism, Cainite Luciferianism, Sihr, Demon Worship/Demonolatry, Animism, Monism, Dualism, Mysticism, Shamanism, Magic, Occultism, Esotericism, Western Necromancy, Neo-Hermeticism, Ceremonialism, Grimoiric Tradition, Orthodox Diabolism, and on and on and on and on. It all depends on what I'm trying to explain or relate to somebody else.

I don't actually identify with any specific religion. I view myself as devout and religious in my devotion to Satan or the Devil. It's a devotion I show in regular rituals, lifestyle, and even aesthetics and fashion. For that reason, I feel like "Satanism" is probably the best name for that, although "Satanolatry," "Diabolatry," and "Devil Worship" are apt, too. I use "traditional" to specifically refer to the fact that I view myself as taking part of a Gnostic tradition that dates back to Cainite heretics who worshiped the Devil and survived through demonological grimoires, and also because it carries the connotation that I believe in Satan as an external force or being.

To me, those are the two most fundamental and wide-reaching descriptions of my practice, so I go with Traditional Satanism. If I'm narrowing my beliefs down when talking to other Satanists, I'd probably call myself a Gnostic-Hermetic Shaman, because it communicates a lot of my mindset, values, and practices.

What I "get out of it" is becoming a power-user of my own mind, which is an incredibly handy thing, as well as an easy solution to existential angst. Spiritual practices in general are also very good for my mental health and well-being.

Do I really have a religion?

I don't think I do in the traditional sense. I don't have a community or go to a temple. I don't even view my spiritual "beliefs" as inherently separate from my knowledge about physics or biology or math. I definitely don't think there's one, clear-cut label for my "religion." Nonetheless, it's convenient to have a label to reference when talking to other people.

What is it really? What do I even do?

I gain gnosis and achieve spiritual liberation from carnality. Or, in other words, I gain a direct experience of focused and intentional altered states of consciousness that result in insight and allow me to live more intentionally without being as affected by my impulses and environment.

Do I even feel I have any relationship or interaction with anything? Really? Lets be honest with ourselves.

Yes, I do. When a demon materializes in a room in front of multiple other people, you can call that a "shared hallucination" but I'm calling it sorcery. We can debate about how "external" those beings really are all day, but if we're being pragmatic it's a lot easier to just treat them as separate entities. It saves a lot of headaches in the long run, believe me. I went a long time trying to remain "agnostic" about their existence, and it just felt rather silly after awhile. You were there for my epiphany on the other site about that, though.

 

[DagonVarunaMitraApolloZan]

I understand it as a convenient short-hand to describe my spiritual temperament, by referencing the spiritual tradition I feel that I'm a part of. I don't think it's very descriptive, and I often answer differently.

Sometimes I'll say my religion is Traditional Satanism, Devil Worship, Gnostic Alchemy, Qayinite Chaosophy, Spiritual Satanism, Cainite Luciferianism, Sihr, Demon Worship/Demonolatry, Animism, Monism, Dualism, Mysticism, Shamanism, Magic, Occultism, Esotericism, Western Necromancy, Neo-Hermeticism, Ceremonialism, Grimoiric Tradition, Orthodox Diabolism, and on and on and on and on. It all depends on what I'm trying to explain or relate to somebody else.

I don't actually identify with any specific religion. I view myself as devout and religious in my devotion to Satan or the Devil. It's a devotion I show in regular rituals, lifestyle, and even aesthetics and fashion. For that reason, I feel like "Satanism" is probably the best name for that, although "Satanolatry," "Diabolatry," and "Devil Worship" are apt, too. I use "traditional" to specifically refer to the fact that I view myself as taking part of a Gnostic tradition that dates back to Cainite heretics who worshiped the Devil and survived through demonological grimoires, and also because it carries the connotation that I believe in Satan as an external force or being.

To me, those are the two most fundamental and wide-reaching descriptions of my practice, so I go with Traditional Satanism. If I'm narrowing my beliefs down when talking to other Satanists, I'd probably call myself a Gnostic-Hermetic Shaman, because it communicates a lot of my mindset, values, and practices.

What I "get out of it" is becoming a power-user of my own mind, which is an incredibly handy thing, as well as an easy solution to existential angst. Spiritual practices in general are also very good for my mental health and well-being.



I don't think I do in the traditional sense. I don't have a community or go to a temple. I don't even view my spiritual "beliefs" as inherently separate from my knowledge about physics or biology or math. I definitely don't think there's one, clear-cut label for my "religion." Nonetheless, it's convenient to have a label to reference when talking to other people.



I gain gnosis and achieve spiritual liberation from carnality. Or, in other words, I gain a direct experience of focused and intentional altered states of consciousness that result in insight and allow me to live more intentionally without being as affected by my impulses and environment.



Yes, I do. When a demon materializes in a room in front of multiple other people, you can call that a "shared hallucination" but I'm calling it sorcery. We can debate about how "external" those beings really are all day, but if we're being pragmatic it's a lot easier to just treat them as separate entities. It saves a lot of headaches in the long run, believe me. I went a long time trying to remain "agnostic" about their existence, and it just felt rather silly after awhile. You were there for my epiphany on the other site about that, though.

Haha yes, and this is the winning post so far!

Great answers.

Can you other people read what they wrote and give your own take on what you all do and are or use and say and how and all that?

I basically try to sneak into any interaction but can't generally get too close because any of the very strict and exclusive systems are lacking the other things I want to enjoy and play with. So, I might identify and use Christian language to speak toba Christian but never feel fully comfortable with them for what they would say regarding my God in detail or any of the various names or symbols I may use which they consider evil or demonic or from outside their fence.

There are also all kinds of little punks who love laying claim to every word, like if I say I'm a solitary witch, that means something or no you're not and blah blah, no matter what anyone says.

To top it off, and even though I'm obsessed with God (The Demonic), I certainly don't value anything over myself, my entertainment, my pleasure. If God (The Demonic) didn't please me, I'd not pursue it at all. I'm in love with myself, my feelings. I don't care about flowers much, they don't amuse me or stimulate me much, so I don't pursue them.

What amazes me are all the people who don't even think about what they even want or like or why and how to get it.

Also, unlike you and me who have these direct experiences, a lot of people say they've never experienced anything at all! Yet, they dedicate a lot of their time to lifestyles which don't even seem to make them feel very good, or activities which just eat up all their daily energy, it seems so miserable to me.

Speaking of which, I've been watching a show called Wonderfalls which is available on Youtube.

The first two episodes seem to be on theme regarding some of the ideas this thread's content is meant to lead the mind towards regarding action and identity:

ttps://youtu.be/nE_uvysLeIo

ttps://youtu.be/N_p2hAZH5uo

When people ask me what I am, I'd probably tend to say "oh, nothing, nothing much", since I don't like people to assume. Even "everything, most things" tends to get people agitated.

How much of our character is based on desire to be? How much is vased off of reaction?

My religion is to enjoy myself for as long as possible, hedging my bets in case I can enjoy even longer, to make myself a receiver and giver of pleasure to myself, to cast and mould and pour my efforts into making myself increasingly a vessel of bliss, ongoing, and utilizing what I may be able to towards that refined purpose.

I want to be beautiful, I want to be satiated, I want women to to lust after me and men to think I am the best, but if they never see me either its just as well so long as I'm enjoying myself and thinking I'm great.

What does Ego mean?

"
e·go
/ˈēɡō/

noun

1. a person's sense of self-esteem or self-importance.
   "a boost to my ego"
   
   Similar:
   self-esteem
   
   self-importance
   
   self-worth
   
   self-respect
   
   self-conceit
   
   self-image
   
   self-confidence
   
   amour propre or common vanity"
   • the part of the mind that mediates between the conscious and the unconscious and is responsible for reality testing and a sense of personal identity.
   • (in metaphysics) a conscious thinking subject.

God doesn't matter. Its me whose at risk here. The only reason I don't just do whatever is to reduce the chances of things going badly now and later, according to superstitions with long precedents.

Its only been a matter of luck that I happen to find what I call spirituality so entertaining, or else I might have bednbeen like anyone elswho doesn't at all.

Its the same luck that I'm able to spiritualize just about anything or feel its profound and get a sense of the miraculous from it.

I don't think anyone earned what their brains happened to form into.

Its also my lack of luck that I'm so friendly but can't seem to get along with many people who try to identify as this or that strictly or try to say I can or can't be or do this or that or be part of their cliques or clubs or disqualify me from everything. Maybe its true, maybe they are pointing out a big difference, but its mean, alienating, and makes me wish ill upon people who aren't kindly and welcoming.

On the other hand, I enjoy the people who are confused by their strange experiences and are on the cusp of being devotees to the things that terrorize their minds.

 

[DagonVarunaMitraApolloZan]

Do any of you (all of you) ever feel a little bothered about feeling totally alone in your beliefs and understandings or do you find that there are many people who are just like you, who think like you, who can relate to you and be related with entirely, they do everything or most things you do in a day both mundane and spiritual, etc?

For example, I'm quite confident that no one would believe as I do, at least not on their own or without my explaining it, and after it is explained barely give it a second thought, that God is represented in a villain seemingly based on Satan, unwittingly named "Deceiver", because God controls all things produced and broadcastm, and that the symbols that the character happens to be marked with by the designers are legitimate spiritual signs and marks and thematic clues. People would scoff because what I'm talking about is from a Japanese TV show called Return of Ultraman from a Japanese Catholic guy, and the Alien I'm talking about is named Nackle, which happens to be a demonic name in the texts from Qumran or Turfan as nkyl or something, maybe he knew about that but I think its pretty obscure stuff, and regardless if he knew or not, I don't think people perceive what they create or create for entertainment as divinely inspired material which God uses to illustrate signs which no one cares about.

Anyway, such totally unfathomable and unrelatable, schizophrenic sounding beliefs about things people scoff at or just find ridiculous and invest no greater or more impactful meanings or references into leaves me feeling utterly alone with my God and excluded from all communities and intimacy with people.

ttps://youtu.be/_5NciSPJNDY

ttps://youtu.be/uTJmV1EVyJI

Its just asking too much for anyone to know what the hell I'm ever talking about, but if they share the same worldview of interpreting everything or all content and experience as specifically "targeted and made for you to experience as you do" spiritual communication, there might be a chance.

Then again, the people who do report interpreting things like that, usually have it mingled with anxiety and stressors and don't really get much out of anything still, and its hard to get peopld to derive any sense of value or anything.

I don't know, it really sucks overall, so I am just lost in my own world of magic and signs and just try to extract them from others as well, but its almost like there is a wall between myself and others because I have a strong feeling they wouldn't find it easy to find some guy in s frog suit a divine symbol.

 

[rational experiences]

When humans are humans as humans, owning a human life. Knowingly live for about 100 years, die. Get born as a baby from 2 humans having sex and then humans, with egos talk and talk and talk and talk. Talk in groups, talk to each other and claim I know.

What do you know really?

Science says it knows science, as expressed by humans, for and on behalf of humans about humans in their experiences for human sake and purpose.

So being born, and am still alive, when I was young I thought about religious ideal and compared my life to the hypocrisy of religious status.

And said to myself, we are all owners of the exact same life. Some of us are suffering terribly others seem to care less about it. I was one of those humans who cared. Self reasoning, I owned suffering too.

So I realised humans said...look after God, honour God, realise how important God is in life....so I asked and read, what is God or the One or what you claim are spirits of God/Gods?

Most religious documents spoke of science. So I said to myself obviously you all have a problem with reality for religious is discussing scientific concepts.

God and One it said is the philosophy of humans talking about why a planet existed as a body of stone. Said stone was its own entity, and that stone body owned the creation of its owned atmosphere.

Made common logic in my life, take care of the planet spiritual humanity said after being given details of scientific idealisms.....don't change the planet or else you will have no where to live. Common sense.

Lots of other stories were proven to be utter nonsense......for as we live due to 2 human beings first...have to own human parents to have sex to own any life....then life for us begins with those 2 human parents, no matter what other stories you want to tell.

So science, when you want to argue and complain about religions, know it is your own fault, and today you are living your own scientific human karma for lying.

 

[Native]

Hello! I have been feeling a little confused for maybe a few months now or years when I try to think about what religion even is when it comes down to people saying such and such is their religion.
My definition for religion is at its most simplified Beliefs and Actions Related to or stemming from those Beliefs which are organized or prioritized by those beliefs, and it not being that different from a philosophy of life and how one decides to live it based on their ideas and interpretations and beliefs about things.

IMO you have to differ between a "collective religion" and "social impacts on religion". The term "re-ligion" itself means "a mutual connection".
The collective religion deals with the common global Stories of Creation into which the local social impacts can take several forms and human moral ideas.
These global Stories of Creation are "common knowledge for all humans" - but a cultural local intepretation of these can cause all kinds of contradictive perceptions on other cultures.
In this sense "beliefs" in the Stories of Creation can be turned to knowledge, whereas the local traditions require an understandig of the local traditions and how these came to be.

Note my profile signature

 

[rational experiences]

IMO you have to differ between a "collective religion" and "social impacts on religion". The term "re-ligion" itself means "a mutual connection".
The collective religion deals with the common global Stories of Creation into which the local social impacts can take several forms and human moral ideas.
These global Stories of Creation are "common knowledge for all humans" - but a cultural local intepretation of these can cause all kinds of contradictive perceptions on other cultures.
In this sense "beliefs" in the Stories of Creation can be turned to knowledge, whereas the local traditions require an understandig of the local traditions and how these came to be.

Note my profile signature

A mutual connection between all conditions living on Earth today is the gas mass atmospheric natural body in between all objects and also within our bodies......as near water/oxygen and microbial use.

Science said it knew how to ANTI us...why they intensely study information today about all conditions of when nothing existed....for they are doing the same theorising as they did originally in the concept of when science was first practiced by humans.

Human argument in the religious sciences was about whose explanation was correct in theory and whose information was not correct.

The theme G O D proved that pi O was a known atmospheric signal in the gases, if you wanted it removed it was to want to use the value of SIN, and SIN for God the stone was hot burning gases. Why Stephen Hawking I suppose tried to warn religious science about how wrong it was. For our atmospheric gases/spirits are not of "stone"...they came out of a volcano.

Therefore the theme constantly stated as studied by many astute philosophers today said....science was told that it had practiced nuclear before and it is why life was destroyed as a very basic, don't change One or the God of our atmospheric history/Creator...the body of stone a planet.

Learning for a human is to make choices, be harmed by those choices and not do it again. Science proves to its ownership religious idealism in the sciences that it as yet has not been successful in the human male claim of Mr know it all.

 

[`mud]

Spirit=Religion=Fear=Imagination=Death=Spirit

Spirit=Life=Stuff=death=Spirit

The `fear` part isn't needed !

 

[Thief]

didn't vote

the choices didn't include me

 

[DagonVarunaMitraApolloZan]

didn't vote

the choices didn't include me

I may be able to edit in something more, what section would you make for yourself? My article defines religion as beliefs of any sort and actions based off of those beliefs, so everyone has something they believe or think is true or right or better or best and behaves accordingly.

 

[DagonVarunaMitraApolloZan]

Spirit=Religion=Fear=Imagination=Death=Spirit

Spirit=Life=Stuff=death=Spirit

The `fear` part isn't needed !

What is spirit?