Are any of you religious?

[GenericUsername 1,108]

I’m wondering how many of you are religious by day and put on a purity facade when involved in a church or other religious institution. I just got back from a young adult event at my family’s church with a friend. Talking about how horny I am with these people would be unthinkable. I genuinely wonder how many of them “succumb” to the horny and how many of them can genuinely repress it. I’ll never repress my sexuality. Just not possible for me. Especially not while having the world’s best kink.

I’m going to church stuff for the time being because I find it to be better than nothing and my social life doesn’t exist right now. My only current IRL friend goes to this stuff with me.

[Phyche 435]

Personally, I was raised Christian but grew to be an atheist by age 14.

At 17, I smoke weed for the first time and my perception of reality completely shifted. During my first experience being high/stoned, "Reality" no longer looked real but instead like some kind of simulated existence. After the experience I found what's called "The simulation hypothesis" and it perfectly described what I not only experienced but visually witnessed. 

At 19, I had been smoking weed everyday. From the time I woke up to when I went to sleep, I'd been high tge entire day everyday for 2 years at that point. Around that time, I had my first experience with Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD or more commonly known as just "Acid"). It was a starter dose/microdose of only ⅓ of a single tab, roughly 50ug(micrograms). I didn't get many visuals other than tunnel vision towards the peak. Though I did get the sense that me and a friend I was tripping with(I was microdosing with 2 friend) were reading each other's minds in a sense, not fully but finishing each other's sentences(I know it sounds crazy but keep in mind LSD is a very powerful psychedelic compound). That experience locked me into further researching the simulation hypothesis and my belief in the hypothesis grew stronger and stronger. 

At 20, I went back to LSD for a 2nd time, a full dose this time, roughly 150ug(micrograms) a full tab. This time I DID get ALL of the visuals. It was a powerful experience and completely changed how I view the world in a sober state.

Now at 22 years of age I'm not a religious person. I'm not christian like I was raised to be but I'm not an atheist either. I do follow God but I view him/her as an entity/spirit instead of a physical beings like you and me, in my mind he/she is the universe in and of itself or simply the mind of the universe and is guiding you and me through the same he/she did for me during my psychedelic experiences. 

Also, I don't only follow Christianity. I follow ALL religions because I believe it is important to learn all aspects of believe and not say one is right or wrong, but instead ALL religions have value and provide something to learn from them.

In conclusion, no I'm not religious though I am spiritual and highly recommend researching the simulation hypothesis in your free time even if you don't believe in it.

Edited October 21, 2023 by Phyche

[Sophie 24,410]

I went to a Church of England primary school and had to say a prayer every day, sing hymns, visited church every couple of months etc but I have never considered myself religious. My parents put me in that school not because of the religion, but because it was the best of the bunch. 

I consider myself to be atheist.

[Kupar 13,340]

I'm not a church person, or religious. But I do sing in choirs where the repertoire is often sacred music, and I love visiting church buildings for the architecture. But day to day I am not religious at all.

I can imagine that it can be difficult if you are in a country / community where religion is commonplace.

[mickymoist 3,514]

Mother was catholic and father baptist but I'm not religious at all, consider myself atheist. 

[Pisslover40 1,265]

I'm Methodist an only went to church on special occasions. My folks never push us to go. I'm more spiritual than religious 

[WantonLee 861]

No, not religious. My upbringing was fairly neutral in that way.
I am leaning mostly towards atheism, but am curious about unexplained phenomenons.
What mostly made me chose atheism as my point of view was seeing what religion tries to teach us.
I just can't wrap my head around the idea of a big guy in the sky that created us simply to have something to play with (and not even in a kind way, mostly).

Currently I am exploring spiritual ideas and are coming to conclusions that are somewhat related to what Phyche wrote.

NOTE:
I consider "spiritual" to be almost the polar opposite of "religious", so relax if you are an atheist or agnostic and think "Oh no, we lost one to HIM™... ."


The last year - after being diagnosed with (and successfully treated for) ADHD - my interest in self development kicked into a higher gear.
The youtube channel I mostly followed had an interview with a spiritual teacher that sparked my interest (it's all German, and there is no English interview with that person, so I will not share any of this here).
 

This has lead down a rabbit-hole mostly filled with interviews of people who had an NDE (Near Death Experience) and it rekindled my interest in quantum physics.
(If this sounds like an odd combination: it actually isn't. Many NDE'ers started to become interested in quantum physics as a result of their experience, and they (and I too) think it is key to understand the universe and our place in it.)

I am not nearly done with exploring these topics, and they have changed my perspective on reality to a degree I could not have imagined a year ago.
Most interesting about all of these NDE's is, that many of the people who had one totally change their point of view on religion (and life).
People who were very religious previously do not even use the word "God" anymore - especially the once who claim to have seen what they formerly would have called God.

It appears to be soooo incredibly different from what we humans tell each other that God is (and is like), that the term "source" has been established and is very commonly used.
The explanation given is in essence "Well, "source" best describes what it felt like."

As a bonus you get reincarnation for free, btw. ^^
(And also some very solid explanations for what the point of reincarnation is and what Karma is actually all about.)


@Phyche:

I don't think it's a simulation, as this would indicated that what is simulated also exists as an original somewhere else.
As far as I can tell this seems not to be the case. However, the only source for this idea are the multiple NDE's I studied. This is obviously no proof for anything.
However, I would like to point out that many of the NDE'ers claim that - after they died - they had a feeling like "waking up".
Which is something that for many of them consists to some degree even afterwards.

But calling this a dream does not feel right, either.
Because if they "woke up", wouldn't that mean the dream would disappear?
This is obviously not the case, because we are all still here. And they (including their body) still existed, too.
So, if this is a "dream", than it is a common shared dream... and I have no idea who is all involved. I would guess "literally everyone, including any life-form that is capable of sustaining a consciousnesses of any kind".
Which is were quantum physics is knocking on the door. 😉

So, I understand why the simulation-hypothesis exists.
I am just not sure that "simulation" is the best term to describe it.

I think Tom Campbell has some interesting answers here, but again:
I can not prove anything. I am still investigating. 😉

That being said:
after all of this, at the moment I seem to have lost the ability to feel depressed. Well, not nearly as much as before, anyway. 🙂

[numberten 1,316]

I am very not religious.

[secretfan 106]

I am Christian not really the fundy kind. More moderately conservative (Outside of my unorthodox interests here 🙂

 

I get it though. It's awkward thinking or talking about this. It's getting somewhat better as newer generations can talk about it (Even more conservatives recognize that sexual repression isn't healthy). They'll have more conservative rules like no sex outside of marriage but they'll basically be pretty forgiving of high sex drives and don't think its an inherently bad thing. 

 

Not sure where they'd come on terms of fetishes. 

[Phyche 435]

6 hours ago, WantonLee said:

But calling this a dream does not feel right, either.
Because if they "woke up", wouldn't that mean the dream would disappear?
This is obviously not the case, because we are all still here. And they (including their body) still existed, too.
So, if this is a "dream", than it is a common shared dream... and I have no idea who is all involved. I would guess "literally everyone, including any life-form that is capable of sustaining a consciousnesses of any kind".
Which is were quantum physics is knocking on the door. 😉

I don't think of this realm of existence as a "dream" but more like a virtual reality simulation (like how in this world we have VR), not necessarilya videogame, but a simulated existence.

Our bodies are part of the game/simulation like everything else around us. We are coded to see, smell, taste, hear, and feel everything about this world as if it were 100% real.

If I go back my roots in Christianity (sorry if you follow a different religion, this is just what I have learned the most about), this world could be Heaven and the outside world is Hell or vise-versa.

Scientifically speaking, all our reality is, is just light bouncing off our eyes creating the world around us. Take away the light and none of this exists, we only believe it does because we are coded to still feel/touch things without light.

We are not our bodies.

We are our MINDS.

That's why I call myself psyche(I spelt it wrong in my username by accident) 

The "psyche" is the soul/spirit/mind.

And I identify with my mind because that's all I know to ACTUALLY exist. 

I believe death is just taking the headset off and if it's not yet our time the entity controlling everything (GOD) can put us back in where we last left off. 

Just my personal beliefs and views on reality.

I originally started looking into this to try to better understand Christianity and what's said in the Bible. I could never really grasp the ideology of it all, it always seemed like a fun story but was never really believable. 

But isn't that all religion is, just a strong belief in something to give hope and a reason to keep moving forward. Even if it doesn't make sense, so long as it gives YOU hope and motivation. Isn't that all matters?

 

Edited October 22, 2023 by Phyche

[gldenwetgoose 21,495]

Everything you've written there is a pretty good explanation of Christianity (which I know is the point you're making) - created creatures with some extent of free will, playthings of a greater power).

My background was similar to a few others, I grew up in the UK and from a very young age, barely more than toddler years my parents found Evangelical Christianity which took over our lives.   Church became centric, two or three times on a Sunday, a couple of other times during weekday evenings, 'retreat' holidays in the summer - although everything that could be retreated from was already off limits.   No alcohol, no pop music, definitely no sex.  And it was all being brought up in an environment that taught these things were evil and to be avoided.   Even other 'Christian' churches were shunned and tutted at if they were too charismatic.

Think of the movie Footloose, where a small town is dictated by what scripture forbids - we weren't in a small town, but the church maintained that isolation from the real world.

In my teenage years of course I rebelled. Most of the teenagers did of course to a greater or lesser extent, they were surrounded by 'normal' kids at school having way more fun.  By university years and into my early 20's I'd assimilated a double life where I'd still go to church, and had genuine friends there - but was living a 'normal' young person's life of student clubbing, drinking, perving at girls and the like.  In my student life I'd randomly found my shared house inhabited by rockers which suited me fine.   One of the girls had family connections with patch wearers (Hell's Angels) bike clubs - and I suddenly realised these guys had a moral code just as strong as the church, but far more tolerant.  It definitely wasn't as black and white or as much to be feared as we'd be taught.

Probably the real turning point came when a close friend, one of the youth group became pregnant.  Obviously outside marriage, obviously unplanned.   So one Sunday at the end of the service, the church held an open meeting where her situation was discussed and the members held a vote, deciding her membership of the church should be terminated.   Effectively banished from the community.   She was just a 17 year old, scared, vulnerable pregnant girl.  Obviously going to keep and bring up a beautiful baby - but all these morally uptight hypocrites shunned her. They threw her out of their precious congregation for committing the sin of having sex, then went back to talking about the love of Jesus and blessing one another.

 Also - the whole concept of everyone has pain, suffering and then dies and goes to hell. All treated as being evil because a distant ancestor gave in to temptation and ate fruit from a forbidden tree?   But if you pray to God asking forgiveness (no matter how evil you've been) then you get a place at the big table in a cloud somewhere?   All orchestrated by an all powerful loving God.

 

Today I can't describe myself as totally atheist - I honestly don't know quite what I believe, and I guess I try to live by a moral code more than anything.   Looking out for those that need it, but at the same time trying not to stick my nose in where it's not wanted.

 

[colette888 6,968]

If you allow me, I'd like to affirm here that "Religion" and "Church" aren't synonyms -at least as far as I can understand!

I personally don't belong to any human structure which pretends to put me in contact with the Creative Intelligence, but my belief is not an atheistic one.

 

[avatar 382]

I guess you could call me a staunch atheist but culturally roman catholic? I was raised as irreligious by my mom really from as far back as I can remember, as in I never had any sort of belief in any god or deity, nor have I ever practiced any organized religion. However we've always practiced a lot of things that many people could call christian in my family, like celebrating Easter and Christmas. Though I never viewed it through a religious lens, just a custom/holiday for the family to get together and stuff like that. That could also most likely be said by a lot of other catholic-influenced things that have very likely imprinted themselves on me just by living in the society I live in. At the same time, I no issue appreciating a lot of the less religious customs etc. like even despite it is viewed as a 100% pagan thing in here and still really shunned, I see the appeal and fun in celebrating Halloween.

Hopefully that makes any sort of sense lol.

[Spotremix 8]

If you would like to get into a private chat about religion along with sexual activity please feel free to message me and I’d be glad to share my thoughts. I’m not quite ready to share these thought with the whole community yet. 

[Adyguy6970 877]

I am religious, but in a very liberal, Church of England, way.  I don't see any conflict between my faith and my pee interests.  In fact I know of nothing in the Bible or Christian tradition which condemns pee interests, and I speak as someone who is pretty familiar with both.  

[WetMart 1,128]

I’m not that religious 

[Spotremix 8]

14 hours ago, gldenwetgoose said:

Today I can't describe myself as totally atheist - I honestly don't know quite what I believe, and I guess I try to live by a moral code more than anything.   Looking out for those that need it, but at the same time trying not to stick my nose in where it's not wanted.

 

This is pretty much where I am right now. I try to live by a moral code. And my moral code has nothing against sex, masturbation, or porn. 
 

While I am Catholic, I suppose I’ve been living with a moral code longer than I realized. I’m currently 42 and I’ve been having sex and masturbating since my teen years. 

[WantonLee 861]

On 10/22/2023 at 7:05 AM, Phyche said:

(...)

We are not our bodies.

We are our MINDS.

(...)

I originally started looking into this to try to better understand Christianity and what's said in the Bible. I could never really grasp the ideology of it all, it always seemed like a fun story but was never really believable. 

But isn't that all religion is, just a strong belief in something to give hope and a reason to keep moving forward. Even if it doesn't make sense, so long as it gives YOU hope and motivation. Isn't that all matters?

 

^Pretty much this.

I kinda disagree with the God-part ("entity controlling everything", as you call it); my personal research has led me to believe that this entity might just simply be the collective of all that is (you and me included) and we are disconnected on purpose and voluntarily for... well... probably just plain curiosity...?
I can't really tell, since - if this is correct - I am disconnected right now, as is anyone else.
Well, with some spiritually very advanced people being the exception, maybe. ^^

In any case:
Either we will all come home and remember once we cross over (aka "die"),
or we all just fade into nothingness (which kinda is OK, too, since when you do not exists, you can't suffer, either). 😉
(I am pretty sure that the idea of hell is just to scare us sheep into submission, but again: no proof, just my gut feeling.)
 

We'll have to wait,... and I am not in a hurry. 🙂

And when in the meantime we can just remember that we are all basically sitting in the same boat on the same space-rock,
probably we can wake up to the idea that we all just want to live a descent life. Together - not at the expense of one another. Pretty-please...? 😕

P.S.: I really think Tom Campbell is exactly down your alley. Have link to a specific interview in mind; if you are interested I'll pm' it to you. 🙂

[WantonLee 861]

On 10/22/2023 at 12:51 PM, colette888 said:

If you allow me, I'd like to affirm here that "Religion" and "Church" aren't synonyms -at least as far as I can understand!

I personally don't belong to any human structure which pretends to put me in contact with the Creative Intelligence, but my belief is not an atheistic one.

 

Thank you for your input.

I can only speak for myself, in that I am aware that church and religion are two different - sometimes VERY different - things.

I hope you do not feel offended by my words when I said that I consider spirituality and religion to be almost polar opposites.
I am aware that this statement very much hinges on my personal perspective of religion, which was almost always the organized form of religion (what I assume you are meaning by saying "church").

I think the major problem I have/had is the dogmatism related to many religions.
That being said: I am not a fan of dogmatism in general, as I find for instance dogmatic atheists also not very... uplifting company... (to put it politely).

Feel free to elaborate... or don't... what ever suites you! 😄

[Spotremix 8]

We are not our bodies, we are our minds. 
 

I can’t really get behind this myself. I don’t know if God exists are not. But I’m extremely loose in what I can accept and how I live my life. I’m perfectly fine if there is no life after death. If we are just this body living on earth I’m fine with that. I don’t seek something more. If there is more great. But I’m also not willing to live my life differently from how I want to live it to get more. I don’t seek heaven or hell. This is all coming from a Catholic by the way. 

[MidoriLemonade85 2,366]

I am spiritual. I have been influenced and inspired by new age things as well as Asian religions. And being kind and helpful is more important than religion. My interests include Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, angels, Tarot, crystals, astrology, meditation, mandalas, and mermaids. 

[LovesToWet 3,802]

I am not religious at all, it is definitely not for me

[steve25805 126,116]

My parents were nominal Church of England Christians but neither of them were practicing ones, though my mum was more of a believer than my dad. Neither ever went to church except for weddings and funerals. But my siblings and I got dumped in Sunday school most weeks, more so our parents could get rid of us for the morning than for any other reason. Everyone else there knew this and resented us being there as if we had any choice in the matter, which did not showcase much sense of Christian charity to me. After bible lessons we all traipsed off to the local church where we heard sermons, sung hymns, and said prayers. I do not remember ever getting the feeling that anyone was up there listening to my prayers and quite soon began doubting the very existence of God and found some of the bible tales - eg Genesis - too obviously nonsensical and ridiculous to possibly be true.

So I rejected Christianity as any kind of Truth, yet came to feel as my adulthood progressed that a purely materialistic reality was not all there was either. So I kind of went on a spiritual journey, reading the bible and books about other religions, looking into paranormal phenomena, pondering and meditating upon the possible dimensions and form of any spiritual reality.  I was one of those rare people who invited the Jehovah's Witnesses in for a chat when they knocked on my door. In the end I came to believe in a form of karma, what comes around goes around, that we reap what we sow if not in  this life then the next. I came to believe that we have an immortal soul that is constantly being reincarnated and which evolved spiritually over enormous periods of time in tandem with the evolution of  material bodies. I came to believe that every living thing has a soul. And that there is a spiritual afterlife where our souls go before returning again. I have come to believe in the reality of good spiritual forces but also dark and evil ones akin to demons. I believe in an all encompassing higher spiritual entity, but doubt this is remotely like the God of the Old Testament. I believe Jesus walked the earth but not as any divine entity, just a spiritually enlightened faith healer type of human mortal, son of God only in the sense that we are all the sons and daughters of God

So not really a Christian as such but a believer in an ad hoc form of personal religion formulated by myself, which most closely resembles a spiritualist outlook suffused with aspects of Buddhism and Hinduism.

[Maclir 1,060]

Raised church of England, drifted away for many years, until the death of both parents and my wife.  Returned first the a local Anglican church (note: in the USA, Anglican  means a very conservative branch), left that for a far more accepting Episcopal church.  Happy there.

[Bacardi 10,134]

Raised southern Baptist Christian and am an atheist now. I've experienced too much racism and sexism explained away with the bible to even begin to entertain the idea anymore. Plus some more things that are personal to me, but the sentiment is still the same. I dont want to be in heaven next to the old woman who called my dad a derogatory term to my face when I was 5 years old so I'll take my chances in hell.