Do you believe in God

I understand. I was just making the point that he was mistakenly lumping Buddhism in with the religions that believe in God.

 

Alma, your still mixing up the existence of god and religion.
I believe religion exists and fulfills an important function for many people. I believe many principles of religion are true, the Christians' 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you' and the Buddhists' all life is suffering.
But I have no reason to believe there is a god. To say I can't know what an experience of god is unless interpreted through the constructs of every religion is ridiculous.
Once you adopt the definitions and constructs of a definition, you are working within a set reality tunnel.
If I 'try on' a religion that tells me breathing is an experience of the divine, then I have just had an experience of god within the constructs of that religion. It's true within that reality tunnel.
That doesn't make it objectively true, and it certainly doesn't make it true within the constructs of my personal reality tunnel.

 

There are many sects and interpretations of Buddhism. Many Buddhists interpret the demons mentioned frequently in Buddhism as negative forces of human nature. That's particularly common among Westerners who practice Buddhism.
However, your average Buddhist in Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, etc. does believe in demons.

 

Appreciate the clarification. My only experience is as a Westerner who has dabbled in Buddhism.

 

Well, then we'll have to agree to disagree, because I think that's a preposterous standard.

 

Some call him Jehova, others call him Allah, some say he Buddah. I say we're all talking about the same person. God. I believe his son Jesus came and died for our sins that we may have a right at the tree of life. Read John 3:16.

 

I've got a devil in my dick and demons in my semen.

 

I'm not dealing with his story.

 

I'm more of an agnostic. I don't have anything against anyone who wants to believe, but in my view it's blind faith. I realize there are huge numbers of people who think I'm wrong, and that's fine.

A lot of things in religion make me shake my head. I'll mention one: If you believe, then if you pray about something, why do people tell others to pray for them? If you believe He hears your prayers, why does He need to hear other people pray about the same thing? I think it's because it makes you feel good that you're praying to help somebody else with their problem/plight. I suppose there is value in that, but I've never understood why there's a perceived cumulative effect. That's like saying that God would not answer a certain prayer because only one or two people said a prayer about it.

Not about religion, but I similarly never have been into wearing a certain kind of ribbon to show support for some cause. I have an highly functioning autistic son and obviously I care a lot about finding a cure. But I couldn't possibly care any more by wearing a bumper sticker or a puzzle-piece ribbon than I already do. I view this a lot like I view a lot of religious practices: largely symbolic.

I'm proud to be an American, but I've never been a flag waver. My conservative, Southern baptist parents display the flag as much as possible, wear ribbons (including the autistic puzzle-piece ribbon) and have no desire to visit Canada because it's not the United States. I've never understood that last one. They also blindly supported the president on the war and finally recently came around to my way of thinking.

Possibly inconsistent: I'll wear caps and jerseys of my favorite teams/school.

Other than funerals or weddings I never go to church other than occasionally going to a Christmas service just to please my parents.

I fully support anybody who wants to do any of the above that I mention I'm not into, it's just not for me.

 

i believe in God, but I have a beef with organized religion.

 

I believe in Twiki.
That robot was alright.

 

schizophrenia