Not talking just about organized religion here–mainly belief that there is some Reason for us being here. And if not, what do you believe in?
I’ve explored more than one major religion–my Dad is a minister; started out as a Baptist, migrated to the Congregational Church (now the United Church of Christ) then eventually became an Episcopal priest, so by the time I was 12 and ready for confirmation, I was confirmed in the Episcopal church. I had always felt drawn to the mysticism of the Roman Catholic faith, though, and by the time I got to college began to explore further on my own, even taking a class on comparative Eastern religions. I was also starting yoga about that time, and ended up joining a religious cult that follows the tenets of the Sikh faith. There were many things about the Sikh religion that were very comforting to me, but when I left the cult (after 4 years), I also stopped the Sikh practices I had been following. I’ve mostly floated around the past 30 years, attending Episcopal services from time to time, yet not really feeling “at home” there. Yet I have never lost my underlying faith in a Higher Power, and in fact found it very comforting to have that faith when my mother was dying two years ago. I think I’d still be drawn to the Sikh faith but it has been twenty years since I went to an actual Gurudwara service, unfortunately.
Which leads to the second part of my question - what do you believe if you -don’t- think there is a Higher Power? Is it the organization part that keeps you from believing? Yes, there are corrupt folks in nearly all branches of organized faith–however, should that be a deterrent from simply believing? When my Mom was suffering, I was praying for an end to her suffering and was actually relieved when she passed away, because (for me) I knew that she was no longer suffering … and my faith believes that she is in a good place now, whole once more and happy. If I didn’t have this faith, then her death would simply be the complete end of her, although it is true that she lives on in the memories of those who knew and loved her, and through her children and grandchildren. I guess I’ve just been thinking a lot about this lately and wanted to see what others thought.
If this is the wrong forum for this sort of question, please move it, moderators. Thanks!
Personally, I don’t know if there are any Higher Powers out there waiting to strike from a dark corner. All I know is that if there any out there, they sure as hell don’t give a damn about us, so why should we care about them?
What do I believe? I believe religion brainwashes and blinds people. This usually results in much happiness for them, and much suffering for everyone else. I believe religion is the single greatest evil mankind ever created.
And I believe the afterlife is overrated, and life itself even more so. So somebody dies and it’s the complete end for them. So what? There is too much emphasis placed on the importance of human lives. The universe, as a whole, goes on. Or maybe it doesn’t. No big deal either way.
I don’t believe in any sort of higher power or reason for our existence. I wasn’t traumatized by the evils of organized religion or anything like that; I just realized sometime during middle school that I wasn’t feeling it and never really looked back.
I’ve never really understood the quest for some overarching Purpose. I can make up my own mind what shape I want my life to take: I want to try to savor my existence all the way through and do right by the people I love as much as possible. Others can do as they see fit.
I don’t really feel one way or another about the idea that people die and don’t survive in any form. To me, that’s always just been How It Is. It does make me feel like people who live as martyrs in the hopes of reward after death are making poor use of their time, but their choices are really none of my affair. Me, I’ll try to live in such a way that I leave some good behind me when I go, and hope the people who remember me have a smile on their face when they do so.
(A note: I’m not a hard atheist, in that I don’t completely deny the possibility of there being a god or some other spiritual Something; I just personally feel that there is not.)
I’m a pseudo-agnostic lapsed Christian, but I pray on a fairly regular basis. I’m rarely 100% comfortable saying something like “God exists”, but I’ve never thought it was more likely that God doesn’t. Almost every day, I ponder the question of God’s existence, with varying degrees of certainty being the outcome.
I also vacillate on the interaction with God that we have - sometimes I think God’s fairly active, making little differences most people never notice. Other times I drift towards the idea supported by deists, that God doesn’t do lots of interaction with this world. My faith, like that of most, is sometimes strong and other times weak. But I would say faith does definitely play a role in my life.
Faith plays a role in my life only in the sense that it plays such a big role in so many other people’s lives and have done throughout history, that it is virtually impossible to live on this Earth without faith playing some role in your life. As for faith of my own, I have none.
The question “What keeps you from believing?” is misstated. Nonbelief is the default position, and I see no reason to revise it. A much more pertinent question is “What causes you to believe?”.
There is nothing that stops me from believing. I’m not an atheist out of spite for some past transgression. It’s just what makes the most sense to me. On one hand, a world ruled by some mystical creature with unlimited superpowers, makes very little sense to me. On the other hand, a world ruled by physics and biology, where people believe that there is some sort master plan, to make the day to day suffering easier, that makes perfect sense.
Priceguy has it just right. The real question is indeed, “What causes you to believe?” After all you wouldn’t ask a person, “Why don’t you believe Martians are controlling your mind?” Rather, you would probably ask of someone, “Why do you believe that Martians control your mind.” You probably wouldn’t expect a very rational answer either because a person who believes Martians control him or her is almost certainly delusional.
Sam Harris has written what looks to be a brilliant book that I must go buy this week. It’s called **“The End Of Faith–Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason”. **The following is quoted from a New York Times book review. No registration is needed for the link.
Think about that some. He is quite right when he implies religion is delusional. Unfortunately not even all the extremely intelligent people on the SDMB can come to a consensus on that concept. So it would be hard to imagine many persons of lesser reasoning ability ever arriving at that conclusion. Still, for our race to survive I believe we must somehow get the message across.
I am an atheist for the simple reason that I don’t find the idea that there is a creator in the least bit plausible. It has nothing to do with organised religion putting me off. It’s just a belief beyond choice that even if I wanted to believe there is a God and a heaven, there just… isn’t.
I have to admit that when I lose consciousness (temporarily or permanently) I have no idea what it would ‘feel’ like. I suspect the human brain is incapable of understanding non-consciousness, because, well, it can’t ever experience it. (to die is to lose brain function. a non-functioning brain can’t ‘feel’ anything)
In the past I dabbled in buddhist meditation, and had a faint belief in the self-as-an-illusion idea (but I remained sceptical about reincarnation)
Atheism does not require that one has a belief about when they die. An atheist can live an function with the question unanswered, just like a scientist. Theism seems to be a system that answers all questions. But why do they need answers? They don’t.
Thanks to all for the thought provoking comments so far. I would like to clarify that what I actually asked was: what do you believe in if you don’t believe in a higher power. I then additionally asked if the idea of organized religion was off-putting to some. My upbringing is most likely responsible for the way I feel - and I think that’s the key here – it’s what each individual feels is right for them. And it’s also very personal.
When I was a teen, though, it was always said that the PKs (preacher’s kids) were usually the wildest of the bunch. laughs So while I may have strayed at times, deep down my spiritual beliefs have remained with me. I too am interested in the Sam Harris book and plan on reading it. I can say, though, that prayer and meditation have helped me, sometimes a great deal, through some very rough passages in my life. I wouldn’t characterize that as dangerous, at least on a personal basis for myself; however, I do find the amount of power wielded by the religious right in the US to be frightening. Very frightening.
Hope this discussion continues! I am enjoying it, and thanks again for the link to the review of Harris’ book, I Love Me, Vol. 1 (interesting name there, btw!).
What do you mean by “What do you believe in if you don’t believe in a higher power?” Are you asking how we think the universe could’ve formed without Higher Powers?
I guess then that I don’t really understand the question. Are you implying, that without belief in god, we must have some other belief to fill the void? I believe in trees. I believe that oatmeal is yummy with brown sugar. I believe that I should change my socks occasionally. I suspect though, that that is not what you’re after.
I think that the universe we live in is completely natural in origin (that is, not “created” by any kind of god) and that even though I don’t have all the answers to the how and why of it all, that doesn’t make it any less interesting…in fact it makes it more so.
I think organized religion is a simplisticly satisfying answer to a complicated question that provides only limited relief for the larger questions (godidit), and that religion both discourages searching for answers and all to often takes unfair advantage of people.
I’m a card carrying atheist as well but it’s irritating how readily my fellow atheists/agnostics like to pile on religion as a knee jerk reaction to a very simple question which does not ask for your patented and canned opinion of religion as an institution.
But by all means, ignore the question and jump up on your self rightuous bandwagon. Beats walking a mile in other people’s shoes I guess.
I believe in no higher power and no Reason to be here.
We are an accident and the chances are high it has been repeated elsewhere. However we either don’t have the capability or the right tools to contact them.
Organized religion is worse than organized crime in my personal opinion.
I am a hard atheist emotionally, but logically I have to retreat back to soft atheism as I can’t defend the first one logically.
Yes it does. I don’t believe in a creator myself (considering how rare organic life is in the universe/existance at large, I find it unrealistic, that is like saying the entire ocean revolves around a single atom in a single grain of sand 2000 miles off the coast) but I do believe in the personification of certain attributes we have as a species and I have gotten alot of benefit out of that personal philosophy. It may not be true, but I do not see a problem with that. Nobody really knows whats true anyway.
