Quote:
Originally Posted by anitablaze
So lately I've been having trouble deciding what I 'am' regarding religion. I was raised lutherin. Not severly, but pray to God when you don't have trouble and go to church when you have time kinda thing. I dont know what to think. Am I athiest, do I believe in God? Do I just believe that here is something out there that created us, that hasn't yet shown itself, and we know nothing about it? When people say they saw 'jesus' is it because they believe in it so much that thier mind tricks them, or because it really happened? what are your thoughts? what happens when we die? Is church just a way for the pope to grab cash?
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I have to agree with verk to a degree, anitablaze. The reason being is that to me reading this post, you start with giving a brief history of self on the subject. You state that at the point you are uncertain what to think, or basically what to conclude. You ask a couple questions regarding yourself, then gradually get more specific and external.
The questions that we almost all seem to be faced with at some point or another in life are far beyond the religions that we have created in an attempt to answer them. By sifting through the various religions of the world you can see the same similar questions addressed over and over. In that sense each religion is simply a pooling of thoughts and speculations over the answers to these extremely perplexing questions.
So why be any of them? Why not try to just take in and be open to as many perspectives and thoughts on the subject as you can be. Take in as much as you can and from this huge, vast, diverse, pool of knowledge, speculate yourself.
My perspective on some of the questions you asked...
If I believe in God or not is totally dependent on your definition of God.
I think it's entirely possible for the something that created us to
have shown it self and be all we know about.
How do you differentiate between seeing something and it being real.
What happens when we die will, imo, probably be what's been happening ad infinitum.
The Church does more than grab money for the pope, but I could see it being part of what it does.
Hmm... I really don't like exclusive/conclusive forms of thought. Gotta think on that more...