The ultimate questions: What am I? Why am I? Where can I go?

in religion •  8 years ago  (edited)

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I try not to write about religion very often as it is a touchy subject for most people. I have been somewhat of an amateur religious scholar for the bulk of my life. It began when I experienced religious persecution at an early age even though I wasn't particularly religious. They would assume I was a thing (in my case Satanic) without talking to me and treat me as such. You may be wondering what were my crimes and stains? I had long hair, listened to heavy metal, and had band patches on my jackets. I'd wear concert t-shirts. I draw logos for bands on my notebooks.

It didn't help that Geraldo Rivera pushed out his Devil Worshipper documentary which told people SIGNS to look for. The signs were vague and general enough I had my mother ask me if I was a closet Devil Worshipper.

I also got written up in a newspaper of a nearby town that described me to perfection in terms of appearance. It was a newspaper article about satanism. I lived in a small mountain college town not far from some ski resorts. At the time it was mostly ranchers, and mostly granola/Grateful Dead fan college students that were in the area. So me, as the metal head I stuck out. I didn't hurt people, I did not drink alcohol (was actually very anti-alcohol at the time), I did not do drugs though I had friends (long hair, and normal looking alike) who did drugs. I never had anyone from that newspaper actually speak to me or anyone that actually knew me. This is why my name was not in the paper, only my description.
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I remember passing a catholic priest a couple of times walking on a side walk to have them turn their head away from me and stick their nose into the air.

I have a strong sense of justice, and of right and wrong. I have no doubt those of you that have been reading my material are chuckling and thinking "no shit?" with a sarcastic tone.

I began voraciously studying religion. I also ate up all kinds of scholarly works about Christianity, and the Judaeo-Christian faiths. After time I actually knew more about the history of the religions than the priests I would encounter. They could rattle off scripture, and they had memorized passages in whichever version of the bible their denomination happened to use, but I actually knew the history of their religion. I also studied every other religion I could.

I am walking in the airport and a moonie offers me a copy of The Baghavad Gita and I said "sure" and thanked them. It ended up on my shelf with a growing collection of bibles. I would eventually read even Anton Lavey's The Satanic Bible, and I'd read the Necronomicon. I read everything I could get my hand on. I read them with a critical mind and looked for common threads. I tried to see if I could determine where an idea may have originated from.
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I questioned things that made no sense. I am a huge enemy of hypocrisy. I don't know that I've ever found an organized religion that doesn't have some hypocrisy. Some of them have an extensive amount.

By the time I was in College if the Jehovah's Witness came to my house. I'd invite them in and debate with them. After awhile one of my roommates grew frustrated with them and scared them off by saying "We don't care what the bible says, what do you think?" because they would always try to fall back on a piece of scripture. They stopped coming over, but that was not my doing and I gave my roommate shit for spoiling my fun. For I was young and I liked the term "Mind Fuck" at that time and I seriously felt that was what I was doing when having these debates. I eventually would grow out of that. I have no interest in messing with people's minds anymore. It is actually easy to do, but ultimately doesn't accomplish much that I would call positive.

Life would change, eventually I'd get married, and have some kids. Yes, this changed me a lot. Yet I kept collecting bibles, religious texts, esoteric books, etc. I still do to this day.

Enter the arrival of web pages and one web page in particular that I highly recommend.

www.religioustolerance.org


Is jam packed with essays, bibles, and information about virtually every religion, non-religion, atheism, spiritualism, etc in one place. It's goal is to simply present this information in a non-biased format.

I fell in love with this website. Even with my years of scholarly pursuits there were many different religions I had never heard of.

I remember this is where I first heard of the Unitarian Universalists (aka UU) and I thought it was neat they had a church but welcomed ALL faiths under one shared roof. This could even include welcoming atheists.

I thought that was pretty cool, and I liked the solidarity of it. Yet, church is not really my thing. I am an individual. I really do not feel the need for a church.

Yet, one day I stumbled upon a hidden gem. It was something that had been around for quite some time and some rather prominent intellectuals (especially in what is known as the Age of Reason) were of this "faith" if you can call it that.

This was called Deism. It is not to be confused with the word Theism which is very different, and it is Theism that Atheism as a term is applied to. I wrote about Deism many months ago in one of my favorite blog posts I've written. It didn't receive much notice. Yet, I do like to mention it from time to time for as a blog entry I've written it is one I am proud of.

Deism


Basically they believe there was some creator. They do not seek to define that creator. They do not seek to tell you how you should live your life based upon religion. They do not believe a book written by someone is the revealed truth about everything. They do not believe in revealed religions and prophets. They believe in using observations and reason. They believe if you wish to read the word of God it is written into nature, it is written into physics, it is written into chemistry. It could be the golden mean, the Fibonacci sequence, fractals, etc.

They don't believe a human standing in front of you is super human and thus wiser than them and that they must listen to what that person says.

They use their own mind. They may still read books to get some good historical records, some common sense teachings on morality, etc.

An example of this would be Thomas Jefferson (yes a U.S. President, writer of the declaration of independence, and a founding father). He was a Deist. He wrote the Jeffersonian Bible which took the Christian bible and removed references to revelation, etc and simply left it as something historical with good examples of morality. He saw value in the scriptures, but did not see them as the word of God.

So why is deism so obscure?

I asked this same question in that post I referenced above.

I suspect because it is not very good for controlling and manipulating people. In fact it is the antithesis to that. It is thus not a good tool for divide and conquer. It is not a good tool for making someone hate people of another faith. It is not a good tool for telling someone they are "blaspheming" to try to keep them in line.

In other words, it undermines a lot of the tools that those with power have traditionally used to control the populations.

Today we have people talking about "What if reality is just a simulation?" and having some great debates. One of the things I find interesting about that discussion is that if reality is a simulation then that actually fits nicely within the concept of deism.

It does not define creator, or God. It doesn't even state they are necessarily superior. It doesn't state they are omniscient. It offers no definitive definitions for the term creator or God. In reality, all it boils down to the CATALYST for what we perceive around us.

Is this true? I cannot state for sure. I talk about this more in the post I shared above and I talk about atheism a bit, as though this seems the opposite of atheism, they actually get along quite well in some cases and I explained why in my other post.

I sometimes refer to myself as an atheist/deist. :) It seems a contradiction, yet with a little thought it is not as contradictory as it may seem. And no I am not saying Agnostic. That is quite different.

So why write about religion?


There are people here delving into similar thoughts that were not around during any of my earlier journeys into these subjects. I wanted to share some information, as it is very likely most people have never heard of Deism. I know they've heard of Theism, but they are very different things.

What some people are describing in their personal journeys actually often sounds like Deism, and I'd like them to know there were some respected individuals in the past that have had similar thoughts, and they have a label for this thing.

Deism.


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All of the religions you mention are satanic not CHRISTLIKE JESUS was against religion. I,m certain you are suffering from strong delusion not surprising reading the likes of crowley. There is only one true BIBLE as you know the KJV everything else are written by satan through it,s demon infested minions.

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In regards to your youth, people are too quick to judge, but the fact that you haven't ended up a cunt after being treated in such a way is testimony to your character.

I think you're quite right. I may very well be a Deist based on this. That's a shame, I was hoping I would fit the criteria for a littler-known religion called pastafarian. Lol.

I wish I was joking, but that is a legitimate religion, though it is somewhat of a spoof at the same time.

You can be a Pastafarian too. Ramen!

I joke about wearing a faraday collander sometimes instead of a tinfoil hat.

That is my homage to the Flying Spaghetti Monster. May he bless you with his noodly appendage.

Lol. Now that's a deity I'd be happy to prey on.

If I actually was a church goer that's the type of church I would attend. I feel no need for church. My church is reality.

The Kingdom of God is within you.

Even the bible says that shit, so how Christians feel compelled to go to church I have no clue!

I sometimes would debate that with Jehovah's Witness and Priests.

I'd say something like this...
"Jesus saw the pharisees and said God id not in there"
referring to their temples and attacked their practices
"God is in you"
and from the stories seems to have held gatherings outside frequently...

What happens when he is dead? (assuming he actually existed) The people go back to doing what the Pharisees were doing.

EDIT: And me with my loathing of hypocrisy... that shoves me right into the deep end and I go nuts. ;)

Also... that was punny. ;)

I wasn't sure if you would punderstand or not..

I like it, definition through lack of definition.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts @dwinblood ! Very interesting. I like the fact that you introduce the notion of Deism here. To be honest, for several years I feel close to this current. This is for me, one of the most neutral ways of believing in creation. Even if it does not appeal to everyone. In my opinion, we are all in the same boat. And Deism as you mentioned, is a path to union and not division. By the way, added your post to religion-trail channel.

Excellent post- thanks for sharing

I think people are too concerned with what they are instead of what they are good for or what they want to be good for.

There is some of that. Getting too fixated on any one thing can really limit our world. So yes people do get fixated like you describe, and they likely miss out. Yet other people also get fixated on other things. It can be tough to avoid, and really the only people that can stop that from happening is ourselves. :) Thanks for the comment. I like it. Thought provoking.

I always find it interesting when people hold strong beliefs without ever investigating alternatives. Usually, those strong beliefs just happen to be the first ones introduced by their parents and culture. Most are likely unwilling to seek alternative views out of fear it will compromise their current position. One they have possibly committed heavily to, albeit largely passively. No one likes to admit they are wrong so 'ignorance is bliss' holds true for many. Others however are willing to burn their beliefs to the ground if a more logical (or useful) alternative is discovered. Others still are able to mix and match beliefs/practices without needing to commit to one 'form'. I would argue that if we all investigated varied belief systems it would eventually lead many to discover how and why beliefs get formed which may increase the chance to remove the programmed restraints and take a more active role in how they choose to live their lives. However, this is a risk to those that look to divide, control and conquer populations so they will use the divide stage to create barriers to discovery if they can and by any means available. Usually, they themselves are not the ones that end up suffering at the hands of this division, it is the 'true' believers that saw no alternative.

Yep, history would seem to cover this quite a lot.

I am kicking around the idea of doing some posts about Judaeo-Christian faiths from before the Council of Nicea. If you go back far enough the entire concept of Heaven/Hell, Satan/God goes away.

At one point there was only one place in the afterlife, and Satan was but a footnote mentioned as a helper.

They mingled with the Zoroastrians who had a dualistic system (not monotheism) and two places in after life.

Eventually we got Heaven, Hell, Satan, God, and you can thank that on Zoroastrians. Which has led me to wonder is it really a monotheistic religion now? They tend to have two. The good guy and the bad guy. It may have started with ONE, but this is true of many polytheistic faiths.

You should if for nothing more than to delve deeper into an interest area.

I saw your response in son-of-satire's post which led me here. Actually it would be more accurate to say that a series of events beginning with our brief interaction on your followers post, continuing with your kind words on my post from yesterday and finally running into you on s.o.s.'s post led me here :) Even if I didn't want to believe in the divine, or something larger at play then myself it would be a belief I would have to fight hard to keep, ha!
I've actually never heard of deism, but it sounds the most similar to how I would describe myself. The problem for me is that it's still a label.
I was born into an evangelical Christian household, and the level of brainwashing involved in an individual being taught this particular faith from the time they have language is, well probably one of the highest levels of such there is on the planet. Extracting myself from this faith was a monumental effort, hence why I am shy of labels of any kind at this point, lol. Though I am always fascinated by what others believe, if I would allow myself to indulge in one label, it would be seeker, as I am constantly seeking the truth.
From the way you described deist, is it safe to assume that they don't have one particular idea of what happens after this body dies?

Deism is based completely on observation and reason. So each deist may have their own probabilities/speculations they consider for after life. Yet for the most part to treat SPECULATION on what happens after we die as fact is not using reason. So I don't think you'll find a deist telling you what happens after you die.

They might gleefully speculate on possibilities all day long with you though. They simply won't treat such speculations as fact.

After life is a great adventure. It is something each of us will get a chance to experience. Hopefully there is more to it than simply oblivion, but it is not something we've found a way to accurately observe YET.

EDIT: I will tell you I've encountered something related to people that died long after they died before. We use a label of ghosts for such a thing. From my observation the experience of such things leads me to believe there is likely in some/all cases something that occurs after death. It doesn't really tell me what that is though.

Then it is as I suspected, you and I believe very similar things :) I also love to speculate on what might happen after we die, in fact I think it's a lot of fun.
I say similar, mainly because while I like to look at logic and reason before anything else, there are some things I let myself just feel. I feel that my spirit is something living in this physical body, but not tied to it ;)

Yes, I feel it is very important to speculate, to imagine, etc. In fact that is the hypothesis stage of the scientific method. Yet, sometimes we cannot determine how to properly test/prove/disprove those speculations. This does not mean they have no merit and may not be truth.

Yet it also does not mean we should treat our speculations as truth when we admit we are guessing, speculating, or hypothesizing.

It is healthy as it may be impossible to generate new ideas without first at least having that step.

I simply leave room in my speculations that I may be completely wrong, partially wrong, or correct. I try not to turn my words into a bible or to treat them as having the same weight as something that has been proven with fact rather than speculation.

There are a lot of things we have not explained. You cannot prove a thing by lack of evidence, likewise you cannot disprove a thing by lack of evidence.

We really can only disprove or prove things when we have evidence. So speculations could well be true, or paths to truth.

This is also why I tell people I would do them a disservice if I pulled them onto my path. We each walk our own path. Yours could end up being a better choice than mine, for we are not prophets. So by each of us walking our own path we increase the chance of finding the truth.

Very well said. I actually can't find anything about this I disagree with ;) The last part is something my husband often says. He has a way of philosophizing that is appealing to people so he has to be careful about those looking to be led. It sounds like you have that same way about you ;)
I still would love to hear your current speculations about life after death, as a fun discussion.

Let me see what I can do as that'd be a tall order to codify my current speculations. I have several and none of them dominates the other. It is essentially a collection of different speculations and I believe they could all be wrong, one could be right, or several of them could be right at the same time. I'd likely need to frame that as a post. I simply need to decide how I wish to approach it.

Looking forward to your next post...
No pressure. :p

Frank

  ·  8 years ago (edited)

Sorry, I just saw that you responded. Of course, I know they're just speculations, I probably should have phrased that differently, asked what possibilities ran through your mind. You mentioned that some people thought this could be a simulation, and that is definitely something I've considered. With the way that technology has improved, it doesn't seem we're that far off in this current incarnation from the ability to make a virtual realm that not only appears real, but also feels real. Imagine a virtual reality steemit, where you would put on a full body suit with head gear, plug it in, and step into the platform? Walk the halls that I described in my post? LOL, this is what a fictional writer's brain comes up with :)

I did quite a few posts months ago about reality as a simulation. There were quite a few people bringing up the topic during and after that, as well as some sporadically since then. When I make my post I'll see about including links tot he past thoughts on reality as speculation. Though I don't believe I've ever written specifically about my speculations on after-life before, so I may actually do that. I'm just trying to wrap my head around how I wish to approach it. I may post this today. Depends on time, inspiration, and if I'm satisfied personally with an approach.

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