HI I am new here

TheLightWithin

TheLightWithin

...through a glass, darkly
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I am new here. I have known about this website for some time but I cannot believe I overlooked the forum. I missed out on so many years here! In fact I wonder if I might have joined years and years ago and then lost track of it somehow? In any case I am delighted to be here.

I am theistically/religiously inclined but not a practitioner of any particular religion. I used to attend Unitarian and Unity churches, and briefly joined Quakers for bible study years ago. I am sympathetic with Judaism and Noahides. I found Deism unsatisfying due to the skepticism about prayer.

I look forward to many discussions to come!
 
@TheLightWithin G-d bless you..
I am a Muslim living in UK. I was raised a Christian, and discovered Islam in my 20's.
I am now 70, and have 12 grandchildren. :oops:

I sometimes attend a mosque, JW Kingdom Hall, and a Christian ecumenical church..
 
Unity (newthiught) and Theraveda Buddhism is evidently where most the is where this nontheistic panentheist unitic resides.

But never knowing there is a forum...we should make sure all know.
 
Oh, and since we're doing more heart-to-heart intros - lovely, thanks for getting this started, @muhammad_isa - I grew up in various cultures: Muslim, Buddhist, and Christian. My partner and my child are rediscovering their Jewish heritage. I'm atheist, but have had some events impact my life which lend themselves to mystical language and interpretation. I don't begrudge anybody their faith or their gods or God, but have none myself.
 
@Cino, true. It is there in small size letters, that too in red, makes it difficult to read. I missed it out for a long time. I always went directly to the forum through the link.
 
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TheLightWithin said:
I am new here. I have known about this website for some time but I cannot believe I overlooked the forum. I missed out on so many years here! In fact I wonder if I might have joined years and years ago and then lost track of it somehow? In any case I am delighted to be here.

I am theistically/religiously inclined but not a practitioner of any particular religion. I used to attend Unitarian and Unity churches, and briefly joined Quakers for bible study years ago. I am sympathetic with Judaism and Noahides. I found Deism unsatisfying due to the skepticism about prayer.

I look forward to many discussions to come!
Click to expand...
I thought it might be a good idea for me to put my religious background down too so when I am in discussions on threads if they ask I can refer them to my intro post.

I was not raised religious, not formally. All the adults in my family had different beliefs, and their beliefs evolved individually.
The one thing everybody seemed to agree on was that regular Christianity in any form was dead wrong on almost everything, and they were very sternly disapproving of Catholicism in particular (many Protestants of earlier generations were too)
My mom was more into New Age ideas than into formal religion, my grandmother more into superstition and paranormal things than into formal religion thought she would sometimes speak as if she still believed the religion she was raised in (I don't know if it was Baptist, Methodist, Holiness or Pentecostal, something like that) but she didn't follow it generally and referred to her church experience and all churches as "full of hypocrites and fanatics" My grandfather wasn't raised religious, and used to be bah-humbug until he got involved in The Worldwide Church of God, an Armstrong church https://www.britannica.com/topic/Worldwide-Church-of-God

My mom, who usually was very skeptical of churches, sent me to a Methodist Bible Study day camp when I was 12, for some reason. I don't know what her motives were. But when I came home with questions about the Trinity, which didn't make sense to me, I was told to talk to my grandfather who was the most theologically minded, as "he understands those things" He of course went on a classic rant about how the Trinity was a "pagan abomination which isn't in the Bible and is not Truth"

So, my response to all those mixed messages was both fascination and skepticism and I have responded to that by trying understand world religions and especially to make sense of the theology of Abrahamic faiths and their differences.
 
TheLightWithin said:
I was told to talk to my grandfather who was the most theologically minded, as "he understands those things" He of course went on a classic rant about how the Trinity was a "pagan abomination which isn't in the Bible and is not Truth"..
Click to expand...
Has your grandfather got any native-American blood, by any chance?
In any case, as you are probably aware, I completely agree with him. :)
 
muhammad_isa said:
Has your grandfather got any native-American blood, by any chance?
In any case, as you are probably aware, I completely agree with him. :)
Click to expand...
To my knowledge he did not. His ancestry was English and German, maybe some French or Irish or Polish -- trying to remember.
I supposed it's possible there was Native American somewhere, but I don't have any info on that.
I haven't done the DNA thing myself yet.
This group claims to have an especially sensitive test to accurately identify Jewish or Native American ancestry
dnaconsultants.com

DNA Consultants Test - Discover your Genetic History

DNA Consultants offer the most specific DNA Ancestry tests available. Our exclusive, best-selling Fingerprint Test examines all your ancestral lines at once.
dnaconsultants.com dnaconsultants.com
I just discovered them recently.
However today I cannot get the site to come up. I hope they haven't closed down or something. :confused:
 
TheLightWithin said:
I thought it might be a good idea for me to put my religious background down too so when I am in discussions on threads if they ask I can refer them to my intro post.

I was not raised religious, not formally. All the adults in my family had different beliefs, and their beliefs evolved individually.
The one thing everybody seemed to agree on was that regular Christianity in any form was dead wrong on almost everything, and they were very sternly disapproving of Catholicism in particular (many Protestants of earlier generations were too)
My mom was more into New Age ideas than into formal religion, my grandmother more into superstition and paranormal things than into formal religion thought she would sometimes speak as if she still believed the religion she was raised in (I don't know if it was Baptist, Methodist, Holiness or Pentecostal, something like that) but she didn't follow it generally and referred to her church experience and all churches as "full of hypocrites and fanatics" My grandfather wasn't raised religious, and used to be bah-humbug until he got involved in The Worldwide Church of God, an Armstrong church https://www.britannica.com/topic/Worldwide-Church-of-God

My mom, who usually was very skeptical of churches, sent me to a Methodist Bible Study day camp when I was 12, for some reason. I don't know what her motives were. But when I came home with questions about the Trinity, which didn't make sense to me, I was told to talk to my grandfather who was the most theologically minded, as "he understands those things" He of course went on a classic rant about how the Trinity was a "pagan abomination which isn't in the Bible and is not Truth"

So, my response to all those mixed messages was both fascination and skepticism and I have responded to that by trying understand world religions and especially to make sense of the theology of Abrahamic faiths and their differences.
Click to expand...
Ohh I understand now. Everything about how I practice my faith must rub you the wrong way LOL. It's all good 😊.

Are you interested in understanding me or how I practice my faith? Warning! It will be ALL scripture. In my faith we are here to be more like Christ and what's more Christ like than to quote scripture 😃

I've been on this forum since before 2004 and that's because there was a different site for this forum previously. I've had a lot of experiences with many people so when I say I have your number.. I'm saying that I believe you might fall into the category of poster that asks question innocently then when you don't agree you go on the offense. Trust me when I say I will eventually bore you and you will lose interest or hopefully you will just come to be friends with me and accept me for who I am.

God bless you and welcome to I/O 🤗
 
TheLightWithin said:
I thought it might be a good idea for me to put my religious background down too so when I am in discussions on threads if they ask I can refer them to my intro post.

I was not raised religious, not formally. All the adults in my family had different beliefs, and their beliefs evolved individually.
The one thing everybody seemed to agree on was that regular Christianity in any form was dead wrong on almost everything, and they were very sternly disapproving of Catholicism in particular (many Protestants of earlier generations were too)
My mom was more into New Age ideas than into formal religion, my grandmother more into superstition and paranormal things than into formal religion thought she would sometimes speak as if she still believed the religion she was raised in (I don't know if it was Baptist, Methodist, Holiness or Pentecostal, something like that) but she didn't follow it generally and referred to her church experience and all churches as "full of hypocrites and fanatics" My grandfather wasn't raised religious, and used to be bah-humbug until he got involved in The Worldwide Church of God, an Armstrong church https://www.britannica.com/topic/Worldwide-Church-of-God

My mom, who usually was very skeptical of churches, sent me to a Methodist Bible Study day camp when I was 12, for some reason. I don't know what her motives were. But when I came home with questions about the Trinity, which didn't make sense to me, I was told to talk to my grandfather who was the most theologically minded, as "he understands those things" He of course went on a classic rant about how the Trinity was a "pagan abomination which isn't in the Bible and is not Truth"

So, my response to all those mixed messages was both fascination and skepticism and I have responded to that by trying understand world religions and especially to make sense of the theology of Abrahamic faiths and their differences.
Click to expand...
Replying to myself again here -
Interesting little riddles-- My mom and grandma were not the religious ones but they were the ones who celebrated Christmas and Easter (secular stuff fun for children. No religion) My grandfather was apparently all bah humbug about it all when he wasn't religious. When he WAS religious, he thought the holidays were, once again, pagan abominations that were not scriptural. Also, though not Jewish, he followed Old Testament dietary laws (mainly not eating pork)
 
Faithfulservant said:
Ohh I understand now. Everything about how I practice my faith must rub you the wrong way LOL. It's all good 😊.

Are you interested in understanding me or how I practice my faith? Warning! It will be ALL scripture. In my faith we are here to be more like Christ and what's more Christ like than to quote scripture 😃

I've been on this forum since before 2004 and that's because there was a different site for this forum previously. I've had a lot of experiences with many people so when I say I have your number.. I'm saying that I believe you might fall into the category of poster that asks question innocently then when you don't agree you go on the offense. Trust me when I say I will eventually bore you and you will lose interest or hopefully you will just come to be friends with me and accept me for who I am.

God bless you and welcome to I/O 🤗
Click to expand...
Well, I try not to jump to conclusions. I hope you try similarly. I generally don't get super upset about things.
I'm mainly interested in both what people think (content, information) and how they think (how they arrived at their conclusions/process)
I don't know how I missed this forum before. I would love to have been on it for years too but at least I've found it now.
 
TheLightWithin said:
Well, I try not to jump to conclusions. I hope you try similarly. I generally don't get super upset about things.
I'm mainly interested in both what people think (content, information) and how they think (how they arrived at their conclusions/process)
I don't know how I missed this forum before. I would love to have been on it for years too but at least I've found it now.
Click to expand...
I like to go back to older threads and bump them. New faces bring fresh dialogue.
 
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