I do know how to sacrifice for a spirit in terms of telling them thank you for helping me out and practicing reciprocity with them
As a Cherotaw (Cherokee and Choctaw) I would love to know fully how to do this or in the terms of if you do not have Indigenous beliefs and just have knowledge about this subject in general that would be helpful as well.

Thanks :3

A podcast I used to listen to just released an episode with a former Buddhist who says he went to hell (and is now a Christian because of it)........he shared a lot of specifics about what he saw in hell and I'm curious if it squares with what most Buddhists think of when they think of hell?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbwWCFhQ3es

Anyone have apphonies about the games religion because I do.

Hello everyone. Lately I've been struggling with the concept of religion and it just came to be that everyone believes their own religion to be the ultimate truth. So, please please please tell me what religion you follow and why (with reasons and proofs) do you believe in it.

I would be so grateful thank you. 😭😭😭🙏🙏

Not your central figure, but the religion as a whole.

Ours would probably be The American bison.

Hi everyone, I appreciate all your opinions. But I thought that when a post asks for a specific response. Such as mine where I said, "Anyone else able to see this too?" I'm trying to reach a specific reply from those seeing the same thing so that we can connect to discuss. If your reply isn't within the framework, would you please delete your reply. Grateful

from a sky high view, it's seems there's really only two main categories of religions.

One is where we allow humans overlords to tell us what to believe. And the human overlords say if we're good enough for God.

The second is no matter what, God loves and welcomes everyone. Our spiritual journey is a private matter.

It's my study of comparitive religion and Gnosticism where I see this.

Aanyone else see this too?

I don't know if this occurs in other religions; but in Christian disagreements between denominations, people will often on all sides try to posit that Scripture "plainly" or "clearly" points to their position, when a blind unbiased reading of the Bible would clearly not.

An example is the Trinity. Yes, there's evidence for the Trinity that can be gleaned in Scripture; I'm a Trinitarian Christian and believe in that teaching. But it's not "clearly" laid out like my Sunday school teachers made it out to be.

Another example is "on this rock I build my church" said to be "plain evidence" that the current line of Popes is Peter's successors, and that the Catholic Church was appointed by God. A bad argument? No, I can 100% see it. But the smug, "how can you not see this" attitude of most people I've heard cite it makes no sense to me. You read it that way because you were brought up to read it that way. I give Catholics a bit of a pass because, unlike Evangelicals, y'all ADMIT that tradition and the church has an influence on how you read Scripture. But still.

Then you get into debates between Christians and Jews on the Old Testament, where many Christians make it sound like the prophets clearly, inarguably point to Christ and anybody who claims not to see it is delusional. But on a naked reading, you have to really squint to see that.

And again, I'm not saying that I throw out any of these interpretations. But to act like they're clear and indisputable from a blank reading seems either dishonest or close-minded to me. And the smug, mocking attitude that often accompanies it is even worse.

They will be useful to me as a Shia Muslim inshallah

ETA: I say decades because this is when they’ve cropped up in the media most often. But this of course has likely been going on much longer

Do you believe that, since they aren’t permitted to even masturbate given their vows they have to take, and how masturbation in and of itself is considered a sin in the eyes of the Church, yet is a natural bodily function, this is the main driving force behind why so many priests have done what they’ve done to children? And also, why do you think they target children specifically instead of just having relationships with consenting adults?

Sort of as it sounds. For years I’ve referred to myself as agnostic, however even though I was raised southern Baptist, I do not singularly identify with the idea of a monotheistic entity.

Rather I believe that in attempting to label and classify the meaning of a higher entity, the construct is then inherently a man-made projection rather than the true ethereal deity(s) that are omnipresent. Meaning that by defining God, God is no longer a “god” rather it’s now a man-made concept. It pretty much rejects the idea of God, which cites that by labeling and classifying the entity(s) and means of worship and beliefs of the religion, that the purity of said entity is diluted and no longer truly ethereal. And the continued attempt to classify and label is a folly of man’s hubris as we will never be able to truly construct nor obtain a full understanding. However it still recognizes external forces beyond our comprehension are at work within the larger world and day-to-day existence.

But then I also have this idea of everything existing within four spheres: the human (body), the spirit (soul), the earth (the natural world, and the universe (whatever omnipresent being(s) that exists that humans have tried to label, categorize, and worship.

I’m not sure if any of this makes sense but I’ve never really felt true with the agnostic label but wanted to know if others have ever had similar discussions.

I am an athiest, and I wasn't raised around any religion. Recently, I've become curious about religions and how they work.

So, in accordance with my research, I'd like to know why you follow the religion that you do. All religions are welcome to answer, and I really, really encourage that you do lol.

Thank you!

I think it's quite...fascinating.

To find God in wires and fluorescence, circuitry and metal...

The desire to become one with the machine...

To abandon your paltry flesh and merge with cold, certain steel...

Oh to feel that eternal humm of fans and the spark of circuitry in my flesh...

Hello everyone, I have been searching for a long time and I feel lost. My main problem is that, for instance, I can't feel like I belong to any religion because I am not someone who likes performing rituals. Almost every religion has different forms of worship, but mentally, I don't feel well enough to fulfill them. I want to believe in something; I want to feel a sense of belonging to a religion. Otherwise, I will just hang around as an atheist or an apatheist, which doesn't give me the happiness I am looking for.

Atheists say that all theists are as atheistic as them

For example there are 4000 gods and theist believes in one god and atheist 0 . The atheist says that you are almost as atheistic as me just that i believe in one less god than you do but this creates a loophole

That's like saying as a single man says to a married guy I am also married just that I have one less wife than you so you are also almost bachelor as me

And this is not to deny that theist sees other 3999 gods the same way as atheist does , this can be true

And I feel there is less of a difference between 2 people who believes in 4000 gods and 1 god

Respectively

Than compared to 2 people who believe in 0 and 1 god respectively it's not about quantity here

While researching how different religions view the afterlife, I came across an Islamic philosophical theory that caught my interest because it completely changes the traditional view.
This view belongs to an Islamic Shia philosophical tradition called Transcendent Philosophy. One of the main founders and developers of this view is a scholar titled Sadr al-Muta'allihin (Foremost among the Theosophers). Doesn't that sound like a unique title?
Simply put, this perspective states that the afterlife including Heaven and Hell is not something pre-built where a person enters as they are, while it remains as it is. Instead, a person builds Heaven or builds Hell through their actions. Good and righteous deeds are what build Heaven, while bad and wrongful deeds are what build Hell. This concept is called (Embodiment of Deeds), where the actions and choices a person makes in this life physically embody themselves to become the very place they go to after death. A person builds their Heaven stone by stone, palace after palace, and plants one tree after another, along with all the intricate details within it.
What is even more interesting is that this view doesn't stop there; it suggests that a person also shapes their actual physical form in the afterlife through their actions and behavior. Someone whose actions are genuinely human will have a human body there, whereas someone whose actions resemble those of a beast, an animal, or a demon will take the form of a beast, animal, or demon. For example, it is mentioned that someone who ignores the truth and commits bad deeds will be blind in the afterlife because they were spiritually blind in this life. Someone who acts arrogantly toward people and looks down on them will be resurrected as small as ants, stepped on by others.
According to this view, a person builds their own destiny with their own hands, whether in Heaven or in Hell.
Do you know of any other interesting perspectives from different philosophies or religions that I should look into?

It is known that Zoroastrianism had a huge influence over the development of 2nd Temple Judaism.

However, could we even affirm 2nd Temple Yahweh to be an adaption of Ahura Mazda itself, rather than an evolution of the previous Yahweh ?

Original Yahweh was one of many gods, and he was the national god of Israel and reckoned to be the highest. But in no way anyone believed the concept of divinity to be shared by one entity only. The basic structure of 1st Temple Judaism was not so different from the rest of contemporary religions. They never saw the divine as absolute, but rather recognized multiple gods each with limited power.

By 2nd Temple Judaism, when the O.T. started to be redacted, there was a shift toward seeing Yahweh as an absolute, eternal, omnipotent being that was necessarily one and to whom all divine attributes belonged.

Such developments already happened before in Zoroastrianism, and, indeed, by the time 2nd Temple Judaism arose the Persian empire was influencing Israelites.

But can we go as far as affirming 2nd Temple Yahweh to be derived from Ahura Mazda, rather than original Yahweh ? Could the name Yahweh have shifted its meaning toward being the Israelite word for the same entity known by Persians as Ahura Mazda ?

Ahura Mazda itself was too, originally, one of many gods of the Sintashta religion, the ancestor of both Mazdeism and Vedic religion. In early Vedic religion this same god was known as Varuna and was the highest one of many gods. While between Iranic speakers it became an only god and overtime basically an impersonal cosmic force, in Vedic religion it was demoted to water god, and while Indra became the new chief deity, no monotheistic development took place.

At very least, the history of Iranic branch Varuna turning into Ahura Mazda and of Yahweh turning into 2nd Temple Yahweh is very similiar.

i mean there’s thousands of religions and unique beliefs, someone had to have the right answer at some point. and i know that we can’t, so a real “correct” answer isnt what im looking for.

background u can skip: im a catholic, although i love my faith and trust a lot of my beliefs, but i worry some of my ideas about sin and the supernatural are gonna send me to Hell if the Church is right and idk if i like that. for example, im bisexual; i need to quit my loving relationship with another girl and seek the same forgiveness as, for example, a rapist? his life wont change, and neither will his victim’s which he permanently traumatized. how can an all-loving God condemn love?

so basically i came on here to ask this and other things when i looked at the flair list, theres sooo many religions i didnt know about! it has me worrying tho. my real question is, how can we be so sure of 1 single religion being completely true, when there’s thousands of competitors? and if im wrong, im gonna suffer for all of eternity?? how do people not worry about that???

For me, I started by comparing the ideologies of different schools of thought and religions.

Christianity teaches that Jesus is God, the Son of God, and the Lord and Savior of humanity. Christians believe that Jesus died for humanity’s sins and that salvation comes through him. However, the concept of the Trinity, which describes God as one being in three persons, is something I personally find difficult to reconcile with the idea of absolute monotheism.

Judaism teaches that the Jewish people have a special covenant with God. However, I initially interpreted this as the belief that Jews consider themselves superior to everyone else, although I am open to correcting this understanding.

Hinduism encompasses a wide variety of beliefs, including the worship of multiple deities, as well as different interpretations of the divine. Many Hindus use statues and other physical representations as focal points for worship, although these are not necessarily understood as gods in themselves.

Buddhism, in many of its forms, focuses more on spiritual practice, ethics, and understanding the nature of existence than on belief in a creator God. For this reason, I initially viewed it more as a philosophy or a way of life than a religion, although I recognize that it is generally classified as a religion.

Atheism, on the other hand, rejects belief in God or gods. One of my initial objections was that I understood atheism to imply that the universe and the first living organisms came into existence through mere coincidence. However, I recognize that atheism itself does not necessarily make claims about how the universe or life originated. My concern was that, if I am going to base my worldview on evidence and science, I should also question the assumptions underlying my own position rather than simply accept one side.

As for Islam, among the religions I considered, it stood out to me because of its uncompromising emphasis on the oneness of God (Allah). It also recognizes that non-Muslims are not necessarily all destined for Hell, with their ultimate judgment belonging to God. Furthermore, Islam offers not only a theological framework but also a comprehensive way of life.

Ultimately, I chose Islam because, even after reading the Quran several times, I personally could not find a contradiction or an error that convinced me it was false. Nor could I find a convincing argument against it online. In contrast, while reading the Bible and the Torah, I came across several passages that I interpreted as mistakes or contradictions, despite not having finished even half of their respective texts.

Of course, I am open to discussing and reconsidering any of these points. I am not claiming that my understanding of every religion or philosophical position is perfect, and I am willing to hear arguments that challenge my conclusions.

One final factor that influenced my decision not to embrace atheism was a more personal consideration. If I am going to choose a worldview, I would rather believe that my life has a purpose and that there is an afterlife than believe that existence ultimately has no greater meaning. I also worry that, given my current mindset, a worldview in which death is the absolute end could negatively affect my outlook on life and my future.

That said, I do not want to believe something merely because it comforts me. I would rather believe something because I consider it true, while acknowledging that my desire for purpose and an afterlife may also influence how I approach the question.

Hi,

How come all the animals depicted in the stories and manuscripts are only animals from Indian subcontinent only?

Tigers, Lions, Elephants, Rodents, etc are local to the Indian subcontinent.

How come animals like Zebras, Giraffe, Kangaroo, Polar bear, ostrich, etc that are not familiar to Indian geography not mentioned anywhere?

Was the knowledge limited to the subcontinent?

Can anyone explain.

Hi everyone! I’m looking for participants who practice Hinduism, Sikhism, Taoism, Buddhism, or Confucianism for a 1 on 1 interfaith dialogue assessment for my university project.

This will be chat-based only spread over 5 weeks. We’ll discuss beliefs, practices, ethics and community contribution (2 questions per week,answer at your own pace)

If you're open to participating, please feel free to send me a dm or you can comment down below and i will personally message you. Thank you!

It's crazy how such an obvious lie no older than 400 years can cause so much death and suffering. It's insane how it could have been prevented had people just seen this blatant innovation for what it was.

I am curious to see everyone's feedback. I am not proselytizing; I am merely asking a question. All questions are welcome!

Inspired by a scene in Long Story Short where the family is teaching a younger relative how to light the sabbath candles and they demonstrate it with a gesture of fanning of the flames towards oneself with one's hands. She asks what it means, and none of them have an answer. It's just what you do.

In my Zen practice, we sit in a way that kind of forms a rectangle, with the master and one end and the senior students leading the ceremony at the other. It's a faux pas to walk through the center of the rectangle. If we need to get up for whatever reason, we walk around the perimeter. I've never really known why.