Religion and Philosophy

[VirtualWeasel]

Alright, here's how this is going to go. I want no one criticizing anyone else's religion/philosophy. No arguments, please, but a discussion of friendly grounds is okay. No Aethiest vs. Super-Religious discussion, as this will end VERY badly. If someone says something that seems offensive, but not extremely intentional, please don't respond badly to it.

I am my own religion. I believe in a spiritual force, not a great white bearded man in the sky. Kind of like the Druid religion, where they believed in a spiritual force, not a "god".

[Chaos the N'wah]

I'm an atheist with a pension for romanticism

[Dark Lord Cam]

I am agnostic.

[Veck]

I'm a Buddhist, I think. I say this because I recently had a mini crisis of faith where I suddenly lost the tiny amount of belief in a diety that I had, which let me embrace Buddhism, as I'd been quite closely linked to it before. I wouldn't say I'm a religious person, as it's more of a philosophy than a religion, and I'm obviously atheistic for following it. I also believe in karma being another natural force of existence, reincarnation, eternal existence of reality, bodhisattvas, and natural order and chaos.

[JockoBeans]

I am an orthodox Roman Catholic. I believe that there is truth in all forms of religion or belief and so I will not antagonize people of other faiths.

By the way... Veck, you probably that denominational, but I will ask anyway. Do you lean toward the Theravada, the Mahayana or Zen?

[Generalno1]

I'm Hindu, Not religious enough to remember all the pooja dates, but religious enough to remember the important ones. I'm not all that religious, just spiritual. Hinduism doesn't actually count as an Regular religion, we don't have a holy text, or rules to live by, Its more of a lifestyle really.

[Veck]

@Jocko I'm Zen, but in terms of the big two I lean more towards Mahayana. I tend to like to interpret things for myself and I don't agree with some of Theravada's set-in-stone traditional principles, so the choice is natural for me.

[MARS]

I believe in a cycle. The universe is created, blossoms whilst moving towards a state of total entropy. It withers and falls apart until it returns to its "initial" state of beginning and the cycle is repeated.
I don't think about deities much. There may be one, but unless I see proof of it I don't believe it and I wouldn't follow or worship it unless I had a reason to. I've never needed faith in a deity. I have faith in myself.

[Moeboid]

I don't believe in a god or any other supernatural/spiritual force, so I guess you could call me an atheist. Not sure how much I want to call myself that though, since I fear I could be stereotyped.

[Lindai]

Catholic,but I don't believe everything it says. The God and Jesus thing, I believe. The moral code and teachings that come hand in hand with Catholicism are ones that I respect greatly and do my best to follow/uphold.

[Wolfie]

Christian, I'm not really any type of them as which ever church i can go to I will go


I how ever do have so things i dont agree with in evrey one of them

but for the most part I keep it to my self

[Mucro]

I'm pretty opinionated on the subject, but I try my best to stay away from pee'ing anybody off, at least most of the time. I do have intelligent debates about it at school though.

I'm not a follower of any religion. But if I would, I'd follow buddhism.

[Veck]

I'm not a follower of any religion. But if I would, I'd follow buddhism.

NOT A RELIGION!!!/buddhistrage

[Mucro]

It's a religion based on a philosphy.

[Wolfie]

I'm not going to argue but i just want to say a religion dose not need a god, many kings where "worshiped" not as god's but as them self
you follow Buddha and i consider that a religion
"imitation is a form of worship"
anyways no auguring on this thread if you must PM me your rant jk

[Veck]

Taken from Wikipedia:

Religion (from O.Fr. religion "religious community," from L. religionem (nom. religio) "respect for what is sacred, reverence for the gods," "obligation, the bond between man and the gods"

As Buddhism has no belief in respect, reverence or bonds with gods or spirits, it can't really be classed as one.

[Wolfie]

don't you "respect" Buddha as a spirit?

[Mucro]

Buddhism (Pali/Sanskrit: बौद्ध धर्म Buddha Dharma) is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices

[MARS]

Post removed

[Wolfie]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worship#Wo ... n_Buddhism

Worship in Buddha Dharma may take innumerable forms given the doctrine of skillful means. Worship is evident in Buddhism in such forms as: guru yoga, mandala, thanka, yantra yoga, the discipline of the fighting monks of Shaolin, panchamrita, mantra recitation, tea ceremony, ganacakra, amongst others.

You don't have to be a "god" per say to be worshiped
Look at animal and tree worships (to be fair some do call them gods but most dont)
He said we could have freidnly debates mars

[MARS]

In that case ignore me.

[Veck]

Fair enough, but I still consider it more of a philosophy for me than a religion, as I treat it more as a realistic outlook for me than a theistic or spiritual form of worship.

[OblivionDuruza]

If you regard it as a philosophy rather than a religion, than it is a philosophy and not a religion. I believe that our belief systems are purely our own. Yes we borrow from others, but at the end of the day they are whatever we make of them.

[Veck]

Dang straight. I should probably also add that I take a tiny bit of influence from some more traditional religions and philosophical followings, such as Bahai and Stoicism.

[Wolfie]

I'm not sure I understand that at all

Religion and Philosophy are night and day in this case

If i said Christan was not a religion it would not be true would it?

Maybe I'm ocnfuing the two defnitions