Why do you believe what you believe

[Arrit]

Zdenek

True prayer, by the way, doesn't not mean chanting verses from the bible or anything. All you need to do is have a heart to heart talk with him. As if he was your best friend....well, he actually is. When I'm in my room, I start of by saying "Hello there, what's up. How was your day?" and so on.

That is So Completely and Beautifully True.

3nodding

Personally, I believe what I believe because if I didn't, I couldn't survive. It may sound silly, but it's true.
I have not been a christian for a long portion of my life- not even a slight majority of it. But I've been one long enough to fully depend upon my faith to get me through things. Some people may see that as a weakness, because most people want to have ultimate control. But the way I see it, I've got the same control as everyone else- I just have a safe-guard. I can screw up, and know that No Matter What, someone is there to catch me- and in a way that no one else can.
So, to shorten this quite a bit from what I originally wrote (and then edited because it was pretty much a sermon whee ), I believe what I believe because that's what makes me what I am. I did not make it- it is making me.
(^ Lyrics that I stole. pirate )  

[mangahyperfox]

religion, science, anything to do with explaning things has its roots from the human need for answers, that's what I think.
within every system of belifes there are errors, that's obvious, but that doesn't mean that it's all bad.

by the way, I was raised buddist but then i never was that religious, it's all really sort of boring in detail  

[The Book Addict]

I don't believe in God. I don't really know why. If I was actually to sit down and explain it, the Bible itself was what convinced me that God doesn't exist. Adam and Eve had two sons. What happened to the human race after that? Noah built an ark and took two of every animal as well as all of his sons and their wives. That would mean every single creature would die of inbreeding or incest. It doesn't say anywhere that god didn't just create more people and animals. On the other hand, it doesn't say anywhere that he did either. I don't really believe in the afterlife either. I believe that when a person dies, they just cease to exist.  

[bfdhshsgvjggh]

Being raised in a mixed-faith household (father a unitarian who believes in reincarnation, mother a dualist who sees good and evil in a constant struggle), I have my own views of faith and nature and how the two are intertwined, and I've come to these conclusions through observation and studying other belief systems.

First, I believe in evolution because I was raised on dinosaur books and the like. And those things are cool. I heard some creationists down in America are trying to prove it's false by stating they found evidence of velociraptors in South America. Just this once, I want them to be right. C'mon. DINOSAURS.

I studied other religions and came to the conclusion that they're all after the same thing: peace, unity, love and harmony. The problem is, in my mind, that when these systems were established, the founders had far too much faith in people. Y'know the saying: "Love God. Hate the fanclub."

Perhaps what solidified my belief system the most was a line from the Qu'ran which said, and I quote: "Behold the Qu'ran. Final message of God." As such I've come to the conclusion that whatever made us left because of humankind's own incompetence and lunacy. That's it in a nutshell.  

[chessiejo]

i have explored many different groups, gone to worship and fellowship with them, to see not just how they looked on paper but in person.

these groups include:

roman catholic
methodist
mennonite
presbyterian
reform jewish
islamic
byzantine catholic (orthodox)
serbian catholic (orthodox)
pentacostal
lutheran
anglican
and baptist

i also have a big library of spiritual reading, and have online friends who are satanist, wiccan, buddhist and "other".

so i have done my best to find a tradition with which i can be sympathetic, one which recognizes spirituality but does not devalue live in the here and now, that cares for the earth and promotes peace, that is honest but forgiving, that cherishes life.  

[Cornelius loh Quatious]

Does this mean you have yet to find your ideal belief system?  

[Evil Karma Angel]

God? Of Course!!! Goddess? OH YEAH.
I am Wiccan. We don't worship Satan, we don't believe in Satan. Our deitites aren't perfectly, saintly good, they become vengeful as well, hence our belief in KARMA!!! *but that doesn't mean everything bad is because of Karma*

I believe in Wicca, because it doesn't make sense to have 1 male ruling over everything. I've always believed in Magick, and meditation. I've been researching it all for over 1/2 my life.
And so, I believe in Wicca.
"If it harms none, do what you will."
"And all deeds you do, whether blessed or bane, might they be returned to you threefold."

4laugh  

[Dirk Bolero]

I'm Christian because it just makes sense. I mean, creating life in a controlled environment, providing for their every need. Then, He gives them free will, but in the simplest way possible: You either eat the fruit, or you don't. From where I'm standing, God finds as many loopholes as He can to help His children. He makes rules, then obeys them Himself... Which is a lot more than any other "diety" does. And using His own son to save us... That's love, right there.  

[Cornelius loh Quatious]

Please explain what you mean by "just making sense." I'm sure many people of Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and other faiths around the world would disagree with you.

Can you define how life here is in a controlled environment and providing for their every need? I'm sure that the many people who are starving around the world, who are being killed off systematically, who are people oppressed by tyrants and criminals would disagree with you.

How is free will given to us in the simplest way possible? I'm sure many of us have never been given the simple choice of whether or not to eat the fruit.

Lastly, about him obeying his own rules, I do believe that the flood of 40 days is enough to show that even a deity believes in divine retribution, whether or not it involves killing somebody.  

[NarutoGirl]

I do believe in God, but I do not believe that he made the world. I like the scientific version of how the world was created and how people evolved into society. Call me strange but I like facts and not what's written in a book that has been edited and revised over a dozen times. I believe in God because it gives me something to look forward to when I die. I do, however, think that when you die you just become non-existent. It scares me to think about it but still.. Believing in God does not make you religious it make you someone who wants to believe in an all mighty being, which could be anything. You can even make your own being. It doesn't really matter if you do or do not because in the end someone is going to be right and the rest of us will.. Well.. We'll just be wrong.  

[Shtona]

I'm an Atheist, so i don't believe in any upper-power, but i do have morals that i hold. I don't know if that counts as the beliefs you want...but they work for me. And, to answer your question of 'why?': It makes sense, it's how i was raised, they work, i just do...There's no definite reason to why i believe in what i believe in, i just do really...  

[meiastar]

Wow, it's been a long time since I've been interested in talking about religion.

I was raised Jehovah's Witness, which is kind of a whacked group to begin with. They're Christians, and believe the Bible is 100% true (except in some cases like the days of creation and the book of Revelation which they believe to be symbolic or figurative).

I started to have a problem with their version of Christianity finally when I was in my late 20s. I was learning a lot about emotional health, and the more I learned to trust my own feelings as valid (which the JW's condemn as being selfish and dangerous) the more I realized that my inner values were in disharmony with the ones that were told to me.

I like Christians who are all about the love. Jehovah's Witnesses talk a lot about the love but they don't really practice it. And if they do, it's usually with an ulterior motive (to get more members). The two things I took away from the Bible (and I don't believe most of it now) are: "God is love" and "man was created in God's image". The conclusion I choose to take from that is, "I am love. You are love. We are all capable of divine unconditional love"

I don't believe in the biblical version of God. I don't even like to use the word "God" because it still has negative connotations for me of the conditional god the JW's preach. I have a problem with Jesus because I don't believe that I have to have someone die for me in order for me to deserve life, but some of his teachings were definitely cool and enlightened.

I believe in evolution because it makes more sense to me than what I consider the "easy answer"...I believe it's important to be spiritual, but I don't really believe you have to have a defined deity to be spiritual. There are pure, divine parts of myself that I can connect to when I need to.

Growing up a JW taught me that I don't ever have to worry about anything because they gave me an easy answer to every possible problem that exists on earth. But how does that help you grow as a person? It doesn't. Part of you remains a child, stunted, if you don't learn to deal with the realities of grief, pain, suffering, and loss. And it is possible to learn to deal with those things in a peaceful, equanimous way.

Technically, I guess you would say that I'm agnostic.

/me in a nutshell. ninja  

[xBloodyxValentinex]

Evil Karma Angel

God? Of Course!!! Goddess? OH YEAH.
I am Wiccan. We don't worship Satan, we don't believe in Satan. Our deitites aren't perfectly, saintly good, they become vengeful as well, hence our belief in KARMA!!! *but that doesn't mean everything bad is because of Karma*

I believe in Wicca, because it doesn't make sense to have 1 male ruling over everything. I've always believed in Magick, and meditation. I've been researching it all for over 1/2 my life.
And so, I believe in Wicca.
"If it harms none, do what you will."
"And all deeds you do, whether blessed or bane, might they be returned to you threefold."

4laugh

Ah, this goes for me too. I am Wiccan as well, but none of my family really knows it yet. All of my family is Christian, but that just never worked for me. I cannot believe in one all-powerful being that condems beings it created to eternal damnation for using the free will given to them. I also cannot believe that a God that is supposed to love everyone and everything would let them go to 'Hell' and let them be tortured, beaten, raped, murdered, etc. That is not love to me. I kind of fell into Wicca because of one of my friends. I was drawn to the idea of magick she introduced me to, but once I actually learned what it was, I knew it was the right path for me. There's no descrimination - you choose what you believe in and no one will tell you it's wrong. What you do affects what happens to you - as Evil Karma Angel said, karma - what you do comes back to you threefold. Power is separated between male and female dieties, commonly Goddess and God, but nothing is set in stone so it fits into any lifestyle. Balance, it's all about balance. I love being Wiccan because it fits who I am, and has become who I am. I love how it's tied so closely to nature as well.

heart Blessed Be heart  

[Henry Killinger]

Ah, the age old question of religion.

Me? I'm agnostic. Why am I agnostic? Because I really don't care. Let me explain: While growing up, the only thing I saw religion do was cause conflict - Sure, if you were all the same crowd (Catholic, Jehovas Witness, etc) then everything was all cheer and forced smiles... But the scorn I saw always came from opposing sides butting heads. A christian talking to a wiccan? It'd be with pity in their eyes, if not outright hostility. To me, religion just seperates people into warring groups ready and ripe for conflict and arguements.

Do I believe there is a god? Yeah, there probably is. But I don't go to church, I don't read the bible. I don't have faith, and going into a church pretending to be faithful is going to be more insulting than not for all parties involved. All I do is live my life ethically and morally correct, and if that's not good enough... Well, you just let me worry about that. But in the meantime, I'm just fine doing my best to get along with all people of all religions.  

[angel_girl39]

well me i think is if you chose something and belive in it well that your choice and if you dont understand what i just said you are evil evil evil