Religion

[Indref]

True, you rarely think about it, or visit church on a daily bases, or let it consciously control your life,...but nonetheless, it's effects are everywhere.

But hopefully, not for much longer.

[Ironklaw]

It HAS formed the basis of our society and I thank it for that. There's some evil that has come from religion (and that's any religion, really, even Buddhism), but at the same time, most of the codes of morality that moral people adhere to are rooted in religion. As rational people, we've come to no longer need the religious foundation to exercise morality, though religious fundamentalists would argue otherwise.

In the world there are moral and immoral people and religion doesn't really figure into it. It's personality. There have been some evil, evil religious types (several ayatollahs and popes, for example), and there have been some fantastically good ones (the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, Mother Teresa, et cetera). In the end, they justify their actions with their faith, but their personal sense of morality is what drove them to act, good or ill.

[Poof]

We call our religion "The Dreaming".  Nothing to do with the Australian stuff.  It's sort of eclectic pagan.  I can't speak much about it though as it is the first rule not to speak about it to anyone who doesn't ask specifically.  Strict injunctions against proselytism and all that.  

I can talk about issues surrounding the particular path but not particulars (not out in an open forum you understand).  Basically, as we believe there are many ways to "exist" shall we say for lack of a better word, any deity or spiritual being is possible and viable.  However, we do not believe in the truth of a deity's existence unless spoken to personally by that deity.  We believe that allowing a human being to tell us what "god" is like and what he/she wants from us as a matter of undeniable Truth, is vile and wrong.  By such words, humans enslave each other.

This belief is why I sometimes wear an inverted crucifix.  It is not to declare allegiance with Lucifer (although I'd rather like to meet him), but because I was raised Christian.  I wear it to remind me to never again allow another human being to enslave my mind and tell me what to believe.  The ability to choose a spiritual path (or NOT to choose a spiritual path) is a sacred human right.  

There are very basic rules Dreamers follow.  Basic because each deity often wants a different thing and one must do certain things to get what one wants from that deity.  Makes sense.  Figure out which god has what you want and ask them what you need to do to get it.  That's basically how it works for us.

[Draantier]

I would call myself a Buddhist, although I don't practice it actively. I've read a decent amount, I've been to some lectures at a temple I know, and accompanied my mum to some retreats here and there.

To me, I find that everything I've learned makes sense to me, and either works with or doesn't conflict with everything else I've learned through school, related to science or whatever, heh. I like that a lot of the focus of it is self-improvement, and that (one of) its main goal for most people is simply to live a happier, healthier life, heh.

Wouldn't mind learning more about Shamanism, but... yeah X3