New ex-Christian who is lost in his own freedom and uncertainty.

reply to post by Kiltedninja

you're looking for absolute proof that God does or does not exist, then I wish you luck.

I do not belive in luck and I am NOT a christian. I do know 100% that God does exist.

To the OP:

I'm not much older than you (23), but my departure from the Christian upbringing I had, happened at around your age. I would first recommend you take a basic World Religions class at a local community college. That is what I did at your age, though I wouldn't say I was in your position on being "confused". I simply knew I had an open mind, and Christianity wasn't going to allow me to have one.

Personally, after taking the class, I grew quite fond of taoism, specifically philosophical taosim. I don't practice religiously, but if there were an already established school of thought that most closely resembled how I personally think the Universe works metaphysically, taoism would be it.

Good luck, and welcome to the free world of thought.

[edit on 11/11/2008 by prototism]

reply to post by prototism


Sorry to ask.

I'm not much older than you

Who was you talking-reply too when you mentioned about your post?

Originally posted by gordonwest
reply to post by prototism

 

Sorry to ask.

I'm not much older than you

Who was you talking-reply too when you mentioned about your post?

The OP. I should probably edit it to make that more clear.

Originally posted by gordonwest
reply to post by Kiltedninja

 

you're looking for absolute proof that God does or does not exist, then I wish you luck.

I do not belive in luck and I am NOT a christian. I do know 100% that God does exist.

Can you provide proof? That is the only way you can know 100%, if you can show others this. I keep an open mind about this, there may in fact be a God, but I can't say, I've never seen, heard, or in any other way come into a tangible contact with this supposedly supreme deity.

reply to post by prototism


Cheers bro. lol thanks for resurrecting an old thread.

I might point out that Taoism (as I understand things) is the inspiration for the Jedi religion.

I'm atheist now btw.

Originally posted by Good Wolf
reply to post by prototism

 

Cheers bro. lol thanks for resurrecting an old thread.

I might point out that Taoism (as I understand things) is the inspiration for the Jedi religion.

I'm atheist now btw.

Indeed. In their minds, the tao = the force.

I've been meaning to look into Taoism. To my understanding, both Taoism, and Buddhism are Nontheistic religions, which is, that they don't require the belief and worship of and deity. So one can be a taoist while still saying that they're atheist.

Originally posted by Kiltedninja
I've been meaning to look into Taoism. To my understanding, both Taoism, and Buddhism are Nontheistic religions, which is, that they don't require the belief and worship of and deity. So one can be a taoist while still saying that they're atheist.

That is true. Or, if you are anti-religious like me, you can consider yourself a philosophical taoist.

Most of eastern religion is much more accepting and infinitely less hateful than western religion. In one (I'm pretty sure is Buddhism) the Dalai Lama considers Jesus to be an "enlightened one", which I agree with, assuming Jesus existed, and assuming his message was truly about "love and peace"

Atheist huh? Cool.

Hey i just thought I would chime in with something not directly related to whether or not God exists, but nonetheless helpful for someone who is searching for truth.

I went through the same trying time as described in the OP. Heck I am still looking for the truth (probably will be for a while longer).

I find that when one is brought up under the umbrella of Christianity, it can be quite terrifying when you first take away the comfort of the knowledge of an afterlife. This is, in a way, what keeps many people coming back to organized religion: the promise of the continuity of consciousness through the death of the body.

If, by chance, you are still feeling twinges of this fear; might I suggest a few paths:

Look up "Lucid Dreaming". Read all about it. Get excited about it, and before you know it, you will experience it. The first time is easy. If you are lucky, this will progress into OOBE's and Astral Projection.

I know that many people will write these things off as mechanations of the brain, and many of those that do have probably never experienced them first hand.

There is something unique, something that can not be passed on through words, about esoteric experieces. Those that are not privy, can not possibly understand all of the implications.

What am I getting at? When you have these experiences that I mentioned above, you will no longer doubt that there is some sort of existance outside of the body. This will abate any fear that you might have had.

It goes no further towards proving the existance of a God, but it makes all of ones searching seem a bit safer.

Who knows, perhaps it would be the head of a new path to some sort of answer for you.

I wont tell you what my ideas on God are, as nothing holds any meaning until you find it for yourself.

I read once, about a Christian missionary who had gone to a temple in India, and was telling the monks about Jesus, one monk said something to this effect:
"This Jesus man sounded wise, he must have been a Buddha"
Buddha is an offshoot of the Indian word "Bodhi" Which means enlightened.

I'm Buddhist, I used to be a Christian, and I was sort of left in that void of not knowing what to do, and my dad was actually the one to tell me about Buddhism. I find that it's much easier to connect with than Christianity. Eastern religions are in fact much more accepting of others, while the Western religions are not so.

Originally posted by Kiltedninja
I find that it's much easier to connect with than Christianity. Eastern religions are in fact much more accepting of others, while the Western religions are not so.

I heard that! They don't carry with them dogma that it's about being right or wrong but they just want to be humble and honourable.

Originally posted by Kiltedninja

Originally posted by gordonwest
reply to post by Kiltedninja

 

you're looking for absolute proof that God does or does not exist, then I wish you luck.

I do not belive in luck and I am NOT a christian. I do know 100% that God does exist.

Can you provide proof? That is the only way you can know 100%, if you can show others this. I keep an open mind about this, there may in fact be a God, but I can't say, I've never seen, heard, or in any other way come into a tangible contact with this supposedly supreme deity.

or in any other way come into a tangible contact with this supposedly supreme deity.

Only God picks who he wants to know about him. How do I know him? That is kind of a secret.

Originally posted by gordonwest
Only God picks who he wants to know about him. How do I know him? That is kind of a secret.

Awful bloody convenient.

The soul is eternal. It is a fallacy to believe that you need any organized religion to tell you this.

All else is speculation.

reply to post by Eleleth


Dude where did that come from? Seems a bit out of the blau to me.

Originally posted by Good Wolf

Originally posted by gordonwest
Only God picks who he wants to know about him. How do I know him? That is kind of a secret.

Awful bloody convenient.

That's how 'God' does it most of the time.

reply to post by Kiltedninja


Well that's unfortunate then, it makes God indistinguishable from delusion.

Maybe, we won't know about that, we should however keep an open mind, let's say that if God comes to us and actually shows himself to us, then we believe, if not, then nothing really changes.
I think God was conceived because we as human beings needed something to follow, all of our ingenuity and we couldn't even live independently.

reply to post by Kiltedninja


Hold on there, kite. I didn't say to disregard the idea of God, you are right, we do need to have an open mind. But it will take something like God showing up to give us reason to believe.

I've said this many times now, I need evidence beyond reasonable doubt, so I've invited God to show up like you said. That way the ball is in his court if he exists.

What we have now is not sufficient so a belief in God with what we have now, is indistinguishable from delusion.


I think belief in intelligence(s) like god(s) is natural in anthropology, but there is a turning point in most cultures where suddenly these being had hominid & sentient form. I think this can be explained by the ancient astronaut hypothesis, it's very logical, but it needs more evidence unfortunately.

[edit on 11/13/2008 by Good Wolf]