What attracts me to interfaith...

wil

wil

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I think it is the variety of reasons people have faith. Their societal upbrings, their families belief, the culture they were raised in, how often they've been exposed to the world, their travels to other cultures/countries.

And then there is the Comfort level they have in their belief. It is like an old baby blanket it contains so much more than the fabric from which it was made. You know darn well there are bigger, better, more comfortable blankets... But it is a whole cloth, it is not just the fabric it is what the fabric means to them.

And the fact that my beliefs are not different, they are mine, they are what make me. I stand on them, I live in in them, in them I live and breathe and have my being. I walk in their midst as I strive to be all that I see that they are.

And then I take all that a step further and believe that others are similar, we all have Notions and our ego wants our Notions to be more right so if that's not wrong for me, that's not wrong for you either.

Love you all, and don't wish my belief to harm your belief or your being
 
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wil said:
we all have Notions and our ego wants our Notions to be more right
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I see it differently. To me it's about direct experience of the 'touch of God' and then finding confirmation from scriptures and spiritual writings and comments of others. It's about -- yes I understand exactly what you mean. Its not about ego at all, imo
 
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We would never be content with just one religion. As there is only one Jesus Christ, there should only be one Christian religion. Having said that, it's not what we believe, but rather what do our beliefs inspire us to do.

You will never look into the eyes of anyone who does not matter to God, so in that sense we are all related, and we should care for all of God's creation. We are all created by the same God, and the same God hears all our prayers despite our many differences.
 
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I have a strong distaste for sameness. It's especially true with life and spirituality. I love hearing other people's stories and seeing their perspective on life. I might disagree, but I would be bored if everyone believed the same as me.
 
I have always been fascinated with religion. I was not raised formally religious -- it's more complicated than that, due influence by a zealous religious convert grandparent who was not of an orthodox persuasion and stood alone in the family and community with his faith. But no matter what I always felt on the outside looking in, and fascinated by everything both my grandfather and other religious people said. I have forever been eager to learn more about the beliefs and the lives and thinking of people who hold those beliefs.
 
Even though my parents are strong Orthdox Xtian, they let me choose my path once I became a teenager. So I was apathetic to religion until I had my first religious experience in my 20s. Motivated me enough to explore the Bible and Quran. They didnt really seem to cut the mustard regarding a sense of matching what my experience had revealed to me. But Eastern religions like advaitha and daoism seemed much closer and I studied them more.

What I really enjoy about Interfaith is the sharing of beliefs without needing to have it forced down my craw as was happening on atheist and xtian forums and IRC. There werent really many nonduality and daoist forums back in the early days of internet. Closest stuff was Buddhism i guess.
Ultimately, my belief about belief is that it makes no sense to judge another by what they believe. As long as that belief doesnt hurt anybody and brings peace and comfort to the believer in times of hardship, more power to ya.
 
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what attracts the " interfaith " forum to desire to receive comments ?

is it a tremendous lacking or huge missing of information and understanding that exists between different faiths ?

Or do the different faiths already fully understand and expound their core differences and conflicts and disagreements in many writings and documents -

we notice that the Older Faiths of history past do not condemn or mention the Newer Faiths in a detailed description - because the Newer Later Faiths have not been invented yet, therefore, for example, the Gospels mention nothing concerning if Islam is valid or not - but in vice versa - Islam goes into great, great depth to explain its concerns with the Gospels.

The Hinduism Faith does not mention things related to the Gospels or the Old Testament. and when Hinduism was being invented there was very little known concerning the writings of the Hebrew Prophets.

I am attracted to " interfaith " because I believe that all faiths share one thing in common and that is a struggle for the observer to expand their sight around them and see their faith woven and influential into everything around them - like a dye that saturates a bucket of water and turns the water into a representation of the dye..... so it is with a river that flows to the sea but fills all the land around it with tributaries that pull the minerals and elements of the land also into the sea.
 
I believe that open unhindered dialog in free discussion is the only way to truly understand all faiths.
things like placing restrictions and prohibitions upon the translating of ancient manuscripts only creates more distance and confusion and degrades the originality of the transmission of the ancient text in its original meaning and design for its time.
 
Tolerance and diversity are what attract me to this interfaith forum, in short.

As a conclusionary atheist, I'll never change my mind about the belief (the conclusion) that there is no god. However, I am fascinated by religious beliefs of all sorts. I have read the Dhammapada, the Qur'an, the Tao Te Ching, the Christian Bible, some of the apocryphal and pseudepigraphical books, all because I enjoy learning what others may believe or follow. I even have a copy of Dianetics, because I found it at a thrift store for just a few bucks. I love to learn about cults as well as legitimate religions. It's all a very enjoyable time.
 
JP Bradt said:
As a conclusionary atheist, I'll never change my mind about the belief (the conclusion) that there is no god.
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I find this interesting. I like the conclusionary atheist line! Makes me want to say am a conclusionary agnostic at first but thinking more about it would like to modify to currently conclusionary atheist based on current conclusions!

Now should someone put doubt in my mind I would have to revert to conclusoinary agnostic.

But as one who came to a conclusion how can you not leave it open to new information providing you a new conclusion?
 
One motivation for me is that I am kind of a Christian Muslim or a Muslim Christian, and there's no denomination that would accept my faith. Interfaith is somehow a substitute for this lack. In real communities, I'm either a dissident believer or disbeliever (Islam) or a welcome guest, but not "one of us" (Christian churches).

The other one is that I strongly believe that the most important things in our (sg=personal and pl=humanity) spiritual life and development are not the differences but the commons of all or many branches.
 
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