Your belief

Thinking required

Thinking required

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In listening to people talk about their religion, how well do you think people know what they believe to be factual and true? I find that most people who believe in a religion only believe in what they believe because that is what they have been told or either grew up in that religious household and that is what they were taught as kids. Any thoughts?
 
I don't think many require their beliefs to be factually true.

A comforting paradigm goes a long way.

A wish of something better, a faith in some sort of hereafter...or the traditions of their family are more than enough for many.

Religion (to me) is a comfortable bed to lay in, the protection of a blanket keeping the cold winds of life at bay.
 
wil said:
Religion (to me) is a comfortable bed to lay in, the protection of a blanket keeping the cold winds of life at bay.
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I believe this is so true for many. But, do all religions lead to a place with God after this life is gone? I have found that this life never gets easier or better; marriage, kids, grandkids, family dying, sickness, body failing and ...... If there is a God and heaven, then shouldn't I seek the Truth. I am looking forward to going home and can't wait. (home being heaven)
 
RJM said:
"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls."
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These are the verses that God used on a night in 1983 to open my eyes and bring me to Him. Since then I have come to understand that many have come to Christ because of these verses. "rest for you souls"
 
JustGeorge said:
I ended up pretty far from the religion that was in my childhood household.
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I have read that as many as 80% of those kids raised in Christian homes walk away from what their parents believe. Catholic and Muslim homes are different, they just about will always believe they are a Catholic or a Muslim since their religions are based on works. I am so thankful that I was not raised in a "religious" home. I had nothing to get in the way.
 
Thinking required said:
I have read that as many as 80% of those kids raised in Christian homes walk away from what their parents believe. Catholic and Muslim homes are different, they just about will always believe they are a Catholic or a Muslim since their religions are based on works. I am so thankful that I was not raised in a "religious" home. I had nothing to get in the way.
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Matthew 10:34 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. 35 For I have come to ‘set[a] a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; 36 and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ 37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.

I was brought up in a Christian home and my children were as well. Both of my children have a close walk with their Lord and I believe their faith was built on my trials and tribulations that God manifested Himself in. Thank the Lord . However I know a lot of people that walked away and I don't believe they were in the walk in the first place.

This is why the word religion is so distasteful to me as a description for what I experience. I had a conversion experience in my late 20's my daughter did as well and my son in his teens. I think people that grew up in a family culture of religion won't mean anything without that experience.

IMO
 
Thinking required said:
I have read that as many as 80% of those kids raised in Christian homes walk away from what their parents believe. Catholic and Muslim homes are different, they just about will always believe they are a Catholic or a Muslim since their religions are based on works. I am so thankful that I was not raised in a "religious" home. I had nothing to get in the way.
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I guess in my case, it was what one parent believed. My mom was pretty open minded. Dad wasn't. (He's since become much more tolerant.)

Why do you think that few Muslims and Catholics walk away from the religion they were raised in? I hear similar statistics regarding Hindus.
 
JustGeorge said:
Why do you think that few Muslims and Catholics walk away from the religion they were raised in? I hear similar statistics regarding Hindus.
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I believe it works more like a cult, you belong, and people love to belong to something, right or wrong. I use to dismiss brain washing as none existent, but I truly believe that the term has merit. Plus those two religions are religions based on a works mentality. Do enough “good” and you get heaven, or in a Muslim’s case, a Garden with rivers flowing under it. With Christianity it’s all about a person Faith. Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons are also like this, you belong to the group and if you are different, you are shunned. All those religions grow through birth rate, not conversions. Only Christianity grows through conversion. Don’t misunderstand me, many many people who claim to be Christians or not Christians. this is made clear in the Gospels through what Jesus says.
 
I have given my personal story on this matter. I definitely am different from my family when it comes to religion, politics, and so much more. I didn't know my father as a child, but when I met him later in life I was stunned to see how much in common we had for our beliefs. I guess nature had a stronger affect on me than nurture. But I am still different from my own father, just not as much as everyone else.

I find that most people care more about their own opinion than they do any facts. This is across the board. I have had people refuse to talk to me anymore because I provided facts about football players that contradicted their own opinions of that player. Most of us tend to have the same religion, politics, sports teams, preference for beer, etc. that our parents had. It's just really comforting this way. It's not comforting to disagree with the masses.
 
Thinking required said:
In listening to people talk about their religion, how well do you think people know what they believe to be factual and true?
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I believe that a person knows best what goes on in their own minds and hearts. Who am I to tell them what they believe, or whether they are doing it properly according to some arbitrary standard?

Unless they persistently try to tell me what to believe, by quoting ancient texts. Then I sometimes pull out the nasty Bible verses, or the misogynist Sutras, you get the picture. To me, the question is less about the factual accuracy of religion, and more about the frankly horrible ethics of many revered scriptures. Scripture without a living tradition to mediate it is often just plain evil, in my eyes.

I find that most people who believe in a religion only believe in what they believe because that is what they have been told or either grew up in that religious household and that is what they were taught as kids. Any thoughts?
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All of culture is learned, is my thought.

Another thought is that people sometimes walk away from educated childhoods, or from uneducated ones, they work their way to better economic status from a poor childhood, or they lose their riches... Children are not carbon copies of their parents. We can change our lives to some extent, and our world views are one of these degrees of freedom.
 
Thinking required said:
life never gets easier or better; marriage, kids, grandkids, family dying, sickness, body failing and ......
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No, life never gets better....but by choices, experience, perspective, acceptance of reality...we do. Look neither high nor low for heaven, we are in the midst.

I believe heaven and hell are experienced right here on earth...and it is our perspective, our viewpoint, our understandings that determine which we are in at any given moment.

In the past few years I have spent much time in hospitals and in recovery, in my struggles to heal and get stronger...my understandings, my beliefs have been my rock which have sustained....and I have seen how choices of perspective and attitude are so powerful.

This has allowed me to understand how much your beliefs mean to all of you. Allowed me to be closer to understanding your need and use of your beliefs to your benefit.

What I will never understand is griping or whining about my condition or circumstances as I cannot grok how that will benefit my condition, circumstance or attitude. For me, in order to change the first two I must change the last one first.
 
wil said:
What I will never understand is griping or whining about my condition or circumstances as I cannot grok how that will benefit my condition, circumstance or attitude. For me, in order to change the first two I must change the last one first.
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Oh, I don't know..
If somebody is in constant pain, and does not have access to decent painkillers, I can
understand why they might be grumpy. :(

Same goes for those who have no access to shelter or food.
 
RJM said:
Nevertheless, the core message of the life and words of Jesus the Christ?

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls."
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew 11:28-29&version=KJV
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Philippians 2:5, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”

“I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God....”

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father."

“That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love.”

We read the same books and come away with different understandings...and that is ok...with me....but not often for others.

I see every day as Christmas...everyday a chance to realize the only begotten Son is continually begotten in me.

Everyday I am crucified by the status quo, the powers that be, conventional wisdom or archaic thought...and everyday I have the potential to go within the tomb, meditate, cogitate, circumambulate what is and determine my viewpoint.

Every day is Easter....everyday an opportunity for the Christ mind/consciousness to be in my decisions, my life, in me.

We don't believe in the same god, yet this nontheistic panenthesit unitic loves my G!d with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind.
 
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muhammad_isa said:
Oh, I don't know..
If somebody is in constant pain, and does not have access to decent painkillers, I can
understand why they might be grumpy. :(

Same goes for those who have no access to shelter or food.
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I have experienced all three and did not pass thru those trials by moping or begging. I realize my choices are not others, and others have been much worse off than I.

My mantras for the past years have been "get stronger or die trying" and "i will live until I die"

I got out of the hospital two weeks ago and 3 days later.left on a planned trip with old friends. My mother asked if I was fit for travel and if my docs approved. My kids said Granma there are hospitals down there and it is dad, he will do what he does.

But yes, I am extremely lucky to have the life I have lead and still be living. Yet every trial, blesses me with new understandings.

I call them blessons....
 
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Cino said:
I believe that a person knows best what goes on in their own minds and hearts. Who am I to tell them what they believe, or whether they are doing it properly according to some arbitrary standard?
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Is Truth an "arbitrary standard"? I ran across Blase Pascal talking about what we think and mostly it is our imagination that we live in. In other words, what we want to believe. As far as the heart, only God knows that. But we All have two sides to us, the one that we allow people to see and the hidden one that we keep behind closed doors. I am not trying to tell anyone what to believe, that would be foolish of me. But shouldn't we care about people? If there is a Heaven and Hell, and if there seems to be rational and logical answers, should we not prod people to at least search out what they have been told. Everyone believes something that someone else has told them, we all believe lies, even me.
 
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