What Is Your Theology?

[Jimmy]

I believe your beliefs don't count for much. Evidently one or two false beliefs leads to others.

Ok

 

[Jainarayan]

However I am willing to tell you lies if it makes you feel better

You can lie until Krishna's cows come home. Your beliefs and opinions are not important to me insofar as they don't denigrate others beliefs. No one has a right to do that.

 

[Exaltist Ethan]

I would like to express the major change in theology that I have decided to adopt.

I am still a panendeist and syntheist. I believe that God is The Omniverse and that Entropy and Extropy are the two fundamental forces in nature. I believe that while The Omniverse is creating reality it is not solely responsible for life on Earth. The Sun, the Earth itself and the Moon all take responsibility for that too. And my syntheism hasn't changed. Humans hold some amount of divinity and help create God through wisdom, technology, among other traits.

What has changed, is that I'm not going to conflict myself when I say that the Syntheos we create will make a monotheistic reality, or that every identity will become God due to the Omega Point. Monotheism and omnitheism are two separate theologies easier and more completely understood when one realizes that when you combine panendeism and syntheism, it results as panentheism instead. The syntheism is the theism of my panentheism.

And instead of causing confusion and conflict, I am just going to say that my theology is panentheist, and that while there is The Omniverse, Entropy and Extropy, contained in all of that is one God, one Reality, which we are all part of. Instead of using the slightly ambiguous term nature to describe God now, I will attempt to use the very real and concrete idea of reality to describe all that is. In fact, I talked to my mom on the phone and expressed this already, and all my close friends know already that I believe God and reality are synonymous with each other.

 

[Kelly of the Phoenix]

1. A God(dess) is a being that embodies a concrete or abstract concept, from the entire cosmos to an amoeba or whatever.
2. I consider a God to be a macrobeing. I am just one cell in this huge body. The being may or may not care about me as an individual.
3. I "worship" by respecting Their abilities.
4. Avoid harm when an option.
5. Other than prayer, I have no other real rituals.
6. Don't have any other forms. Not anymore.
7. I can't change what is. I can only live despite it.
8. See 5.
9. No books. Reality is the "book."
10. Only one: everything is interconnected.
11. I don't believe in the supernatural. If it happened, it's natural.
12. Yes. I figure there's one afterlife and how you view it will determine its "skin".
13. I don't do holidays. All of them suck due to traumas. Mother's Day has usually skipped the trauma, but I just learned my aunt has stage 4 cancer, so I can check this holiday off the list.
14. I don't know about sects. I'm asectual.
15. Not really. Each species must behave as they do.
16. I look at the history of beliefs and believe the scientific method can help with many imperfect perceptions.

 

[Muffled]

You can lie until Krishna's cows come home. Your beliefs and opinions are not important to me insofar as they don't denigrate others beliefs. No one has a right to do that.

Your religion is all sunshine and roses. Good enough?

 

[Ashoka]

• What is your conception of God/Gods? Why?
• What does the existence of this God or these Gods mean or imply in relation to you and others?
• How do you relate to God or the Gods?
• Does this God or these Gods have a set of morals It/they desire you to follow, any kind of rules?
• What rituals do you perform and why? If other people in your group have a different ritual (i.e. some Christians have a sacrificial mass, others have a symbolic sacrifice, still some have no mass etc.) why do you reject those forms of ritual?
• What other forms of worship do you have? Why? What underpins these specific kinds of worship?
• Is there anything about your religion that makes you uncomfortable/you would change/you dislike etc?
• Do you engage in any forms of worship your religion forbids? Why?
• Does your religion have a book or books, even if not explicitly sacred scripture?
• What would you say are your religion's 3 main theological teachings (about God, spirits, angels, salvation etc.)?
• Would you say you've had any paranormal or supernatural experiences? How does this fit or not with your beliefs?
• Is there an afterlife?
• Are there holidays? What do they celebrate?
• Are there sects? What differentiates them?
• Are there separate rules for men and women?
• How do you judge the truth of your religion? Why do you believe it at all?

1. God to me is Krishna, Svayam Bhagavan (God Himself).
2. To me personally, it means there is a Supreme power that is real, uncreated, and personal. He wants, I believe, a relationship with his creation. My philosophy is Bheda-Abheda (same and not the same) in relation to Krishna, just as the sunbeam comes from the sun, but is not the sun itself.
3. God is love and compassion and sum total of all desire.
4. Yes! Check out the Yamas and the Niyamas.
5. I perform Pujas to Krishna (rituals) as well as chanting his name; my path is mainly Bhakti (devotion) though some choose Jnana (knowledge) or Karma (action). So there will be differences in how each Hindu approaches the divine. I just happen to do it via Bhakti Yoga.
6. So as I said above, I chant the holy names through the Hare Krishna mantra. I also chant to Shiva, who is Mahadeva (The greatest of the Devas).
7. No
8. Tons. Most notably the Bhagavad Gita and the Srimad Bhagavatam.
9. I would sum it up as "Chant Hare Krishna and be happy"
10. I have. Sure, it fits into my beliefs because there are many different kinds of spirits in Hinduism.
11. I believe so. Goloka is the highest realm of Sri Sri Radha Krishna, but there are other realms, both heavenly and hellish. Note: The hell realms are not eternal and are more like purgatorial realms to purge of sins.
12. Yes! Most notably Holi and Diwali. Diwali celebrates the return of Sri Ram. Holi is a festival of colors.
13. Yes. Vaishnavism (worships Vishnu) Shaivism (worships Shiva) and Shaktism (worships the Mother Goddess). There are other lesser known ones.
14. Depends. Traditionally yes, but there is a movement within Hinduism that is more progressive and fights for women's rights in India. It's been growing exponentially. I personally practice Gaudiya Vaishnavism away from ISKCON because of their archaic views on men and women. There is actually an organization called GALVA-108 that is part of the Hare Krishna movement. They are pro-feminism and pro-LBGT.
15. It's based on personal experience. I believe it to be true, but that doesn't mean others will. And that's okay.

 

[PureX]

What do you believe?

• What is your conception of God/Gods? Why?
• What does the existence of this God or these Gods mean or imply in relation to you and others?
• How do you relate to God or the Gods?
• Does this God or these Gods have a set of morals It/they desire you to follow, any kind of rules?
• What rituals do you perform and why? If other people in your group have a different ritual (i.e. some Christians have a sacrificial mass, others have a symbolic sacrifice, still some have no mass etc.) why do you reject those forms of ritual?
• What other forms of worship do you have? Why? What underpins these specific kinds of worship?
• Is there anything about your religion that makes you uncomfortable/you would change/you dislike etc?
• Do you engage in any forms of worship your religion forbids? Why?
• Does your religion have a book or books, even if not explicitly sacred scripture?
• What would you say are your religion's 3 main theological teachings (about God, spirits, angels, salvation etc.)?
• Would you say you've had any paranormal or supernatural experiences? How does this fit or not with your beliefs?
• Is there an afterlife?
• Are there holidays? What do they celebrate?
• Are there sects? What differentiates them?
• Are there separate rules for men and women?
• How do you judge the truth of your religion? Why do you believe it at all?

 

[PureX]

What do you believe?

I try not to pretend that my understanding and opinion of truth and reality are true or real to the exclusion of any other. In a word, I try to avoid "belief".

• What is your conception of God/Gods? Why?

I conceive of "God" as the mystery source, sustenance, and purpose of all that is.

• What does the existence of this God or these Gods mean or imply in relation to you and others?

The term 'existence' is not logically applicable to my concept of "God". How does the source, sustenance and purpose of all that is, "exist"? That question simply doesn't 'compute'.

• How do you relate to God or the Gods?

By necessity. I use my idea of "God" however I need to for the sake of my own well-being.

• Does this God have a set of morals It desires you to follow, any kind of rules?

No. But I do. So I imagine that the inclinations within myself that helps me to embody those morals in my life are "divine" inclinations.

• What rituals do you perform and why? If other people in your group have a different ritual (i.e. some Christians have a sacrificial mass, others have a symbolic sacrifice, still some have no mass etc.) why do you reject those forms of ritual?

I practice gratitude for the sake of my own mental well-being through daily prayer.

• What other forms of worship do you have? Why? What underpins these specific kinds of worship?

I don't understand the idea of "worship". It makes no sense to me.

• Is there anything about your religion that makes you uncomfortable/you would change/you dislike etc?

I am not comfortable with the idea of collective religiosity. And I am not religious as a result.

• Does your religion have a book or books, even if not explicitly sacred scripture?

Wisdom can be found is all literature.

• Would you say you've had any paranormal or supernatural experiences? How does this fit or not with your beliefs?

As small a child, I had a direct personal experience with what I understood to be God. I suppose it shaped the way I've conceptualized God ever since. Though I could also say that I experienced God in the way that I did because it was already how I conceptualized it. Either way it makes no difference. I don't need to understand it.

• Is there an afterlife?

I don't know.

• How do you judge the truth of your religion? Why do you believe it at all?

The truth is what is. And I am not religious. I don't need to "believe" anything.

 

[dybmh]

@Starlight @dybmh @Shadow Wolf You guys wanted to see my answers.

Are you maybe writing a book? No sarcasm. I'd read it if you did. Just say'n. Hope all is well for you,