What is your belief system?

[Raincloak]

I'll just leave this here:

 

"Let me live deep while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and stinging wine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exultation of battle when the blue blades flame and crimson, and I am content. Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content."

 

R.E. Howard, Queen of the Black Coast, 1934

 

meh.  Conan can live like a beast, ask no questions, and love and slay and be content.  I'll be a human and philosophize and ask the big questions and read those dusty tomes he couldn't be bothered with.  And once in a while I'll remember that fasting can make meat and wine taste better.  Balance has its rewards.

[Bekah]

I'm so glad I asked this question

[AlterStephen]

Raised Mormon, currently agnostic.

[metakiiro]

Spiritually ambivalent realist.

 

There may be something beyond what we know, but chances are, we can't wrap our minds around its vastness. We are merely human, after all. And what are humans but fancypants apes?

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Spiritually ambivalent realist.

 

There may be something beyond what we know, but chances are, we can't wrap our minds around its vastness. We are merely human, after all. And what are humans but fancypants apes?

I believe one may make the case we are in fact apes with fancy pants.

[StoneMonkey]

I had a huge conversation about this with a friend yesterday!

 

I was raised in a traditional hindu household; we went to the local temple every week and we did all the things that good hindus do. Now, the thing with hindu temples is that every temple has a kitchen that serves food regularly throughout the day.

...the temple cook was especially talented.

So, every week, we'd go to the temple and I would pray to all the gods as quick as I could and rush to the kitchens for rice, stew and dahl. After a while, however, I realized that I wasn't actually praying, you know? I just acted like I was praying so my parents wouldn't be annoyed. Deep down I didn't believe that those statues were anything more than just statues.

This concerned me.

Now, the thing about Hinduism is that, as there's no hell per se, we don't need to really worry about the afterlife being that of eternal hellfire and what not. Sure, there's the chance that you might end up a cockroach or something as per your karma, but that's not necessarily a bad thing in Hinduism. All it means is that you're not spiritually developed enough to progress as a human.. but you'll get there throughout a good few lifetimes. No, I was worried that there was something wrong with me; I just didn't fear the gods, at all.

 

It was around this time that I started reading about Hinduism as a whole. I read the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the stories behind the Avatars of various Gods. Now, I was already pretty well versed in Greek Mythology but seriously, as much as some would dispute it, Greek and Roman mythology has absolutely nothing on Hindu mythology. At times I wondered whether I was reading holy scripture or a mix of sci-fi, philosophy and fantasy! Lemme go off on a tangent for a bit, but you guys might be aware of the story of Rama and Sita? Well, the story's well known in the west but people always neglect to mention that Rama didn't kill the primary antagonist with a normal arrow.

The fella imbued his arrow with the equivalent of a nuclear bomb for goodness sake. Ancient warriors were said to be able to invoke the weapons of the gods to devastating effects. The Brahmastra is a weapon that, when invoked and used, utterly destroyed the enemy that it struck and was so effective that "the land around it would be rendered barren and inhospitable, the men and women would be struck infertile and develop strange illnesses whilst life would all but cease for leagues around."

...ahem, back to where I was heading.

 

Now, when I finished the Mahabharata I was left more confused than ever. The whole point of the story was that even the gods weren't free from sin and punishment either; Krishna himself acknowledges all the evil he'd caused and is sorely punished for it.

That ended my belief in Hinduism as a "literal truth". I still believe that the sages who came up with the stories and myths of Hinduism were onto something major but yeah, after reading the mahabharata I lost the idea a belief system could tell me anything about the world I lived in.

 

I'm still influenced by hinduism in the way I see things; I personally believe that there's a balance, a structure to the universe. I feel as though there's evidence for this underlying structure based on the "unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences". However, that's about as far as I'm going to go.

As of the moment, I only take into account knowledge that has been either empirically shown to a standard level or rationally proved to an irrefutable level. It's an algorithmic, cold and boring way of looking at the world around us, but it's also very hard to feel any sort of doubt through your beliefs.

For example, taking the existence of God - can I prove it through experience? Well, people would argue yes, but would their experience stand up to, say, a system of scientific enquiry? Most likely no. Can it be proved through mathematics or pure logic? Well, others would argue yes, but are any such proofs irrefutable? Most likely not.

 

Ah, I'm well aware of how boring that sort of outlook is. For example, the existence of aliens becomes a grey area. Cool things like the afterlife and ghosts become untreadable ground. It's boring, but it still works. Essentially, I don't really have many beliefs.

...I'm not too fun at parties.

 

Damn, this turned out to be pretty long! If I ramble this much already I'm going to be insufferable when I'm elderly. ^^

 

TL;DR: Started out a hindu, read hindu books and realized how much more confusing actual hinduism was, realized how hard it is to believe in things so... well, I don't believe in much.

 

If you folks take anything out of this ramble, just realize that Hinduism is a very misrepresented religion in the west; especially in America. Most people believe that hindus worship cows, for instance. This is like, the most minor part of the religion. The mythology of hinduism is extremely rich, entertaining and thought-provoking; people of any belief can benefit from learning about it.

 

Again, sorry for the massive rambling text. ^^

[Liberator]

From the little I know about Hinduism, I am amazed at the poetry of the stories and view of the cosmos in this ancient religion long before there was any scientific explanation of the universe, physics, the age of the earth. My understanding is that Vishnu created the universe as he was dreaming with Lakshmi rubbing his feet and a lotus blossom growing out of his navel. Wow what an interesting and beautiful way to explain creation. Ganesha an elephant headed baby who rides a mouse and removes obstacles, so light-hearted and creative and humorous. There are so many beautiful hindu stories of love and human nature that are a rich source of inspiration and understanding.

[Fearkiller]

*fascinated* If all your ramblings are as interesting, by all means, go on.

*takes mental notes to visit the library*

[Eleanorsbee]

I don't believe in anything ... I just don't feel the need to.

 

Its just another thing that us as humans have some underlying urge to be part of something and live our lives by appending rule sets to them based upon what a lot of other people are also doing and giving it a label so we can all be part of the same thing.

 

I just want to be myself, I don't want to have a name for my feelings towards what happens in the world, I don't want to pigeon hole myself "I am a left hopist"

 

its all to much effort and I don't need the payback of believe that is comfort  ... I am comforted enough by letting happenings happen.

 

That said though, I do thoroughly believe that ANYTHING can be cured by a suitably large dosage of caffeine .. headache - caffeine, weightloss - caffeine ... child wearing you down - caffeine 

 

POW !!!!!

[insanity]

 

 

That said though, I do thoroughly believe that ANYTHING can be cured by a suitably large dosage of caffeine .. headache - caffeine, weightloss - caffeine ... child wearing you down - caffeine 

 

POW !!!!!

Caffeine Overdose - Caffeine....

[Fearkiller]

[Nedwin]

I'm right there with you, Eleanorsbee!!