Hi, I'm so happy to have come across the Interfaith forum. I hope to learn a lot here from many interesting people.
I was raised in the Christian faith, primarily Evangelical, and for many years have tried to reconcile my own beliefs with what I was taught at home, at church, at the Christian school I attended briefly. Finally, after all these years, I've given myself permission to ask all the questions that in the past, would have resulted in admonishment or guilt, and here I am.
Hello! Glad to see an excited new member. I am very new myself here.
Feel free to ask anything at all. I've been able to say all sorts of stuff already in the brief time I've been here and the (very few active) people here are a bit more easy going than at some other forums so you'll probably enjoy it. How I cope with writing is I write first of all precisely how I enjoy it and I write for myself first as the first person who sees and likes it. If I wrote expecting pleasing responses I'd be needy and unsatisfied, so I make things to please and satisfy myself first and which I enjoy first of all as the first (and possibly only) reader of what I write or viewer of what I make. That way, no matter what reception you receive, you will at the very least be happy as your first reader making what you precisely enjoy, saying and expressing what exactly you want to in the way that makes you most happy or excited or relieved.
As far as I've gathered we have on this website a few active people:
Two Active Atheist/Agnostics: Cino who likes Buddhism and Wil who doesn't like the long posts I make, but don't let that stunt your writing if you want to go all out!
Two semi-active or slightly less active Muslims: Arif Ghamiq and Abdullah
One active Western Theist: RJM Corbet
Two people interested in Baha'i: One a serious practitioner, the other a serious learning.
One Budo Samurai I just saw called Thomas.
There are some friendly moderators and administrators floating around.
Then there is me! I can answer or try to answer literally any question you have at all about anything, especially religious type stuff regarding any religion from those you consider yourself already familiar with to those you may be curious about.
The things I might bring up may be really curious or uncommon to see typed about so maybe you will find something of interest in what I write or how I write about things if you manage to read any of it or care about the time and effort I put into writing more than a few sentences.
If you want a good healthy outlook, I reccomend Cino as having some good training in Buddhist style peaceful interaction with the world. If you want mental wrestling and thinking seriously or painfully about difficult things bluntly then there is me. Wil is good for having a similar background and likely having come across similar difficulties as you. The two muslims here don't seem to be proselytizing or anything (which is prohibited in the rules of the website also, to forcefully promote any particular religion or try to convince people to convert or whatever).
I actually came to this website because I was looking for a place to talk about Greek or polytheistic type stuff in a modern context, but instead got to writing more general stuff which reveals my own difficulties and complaints regarding the way things naturally seem to be.
I've yet to satisfy my interest in talking about mystical or spiritual things or to engage anyone regarding those but I don't really find anyone here to be too much into that sort of way of thinking (and most generally aren't anywhere). The people here seem much more down to earth and moderate in their thinking and behavior as far as I've seen.
Hope you have a good time! I also hope to see you make some threads or start asking some questions or saying pretty much everything you ever wanted to say or ask.
