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catsareniice1
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Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Off topic - Atheists
I know some of you here are atheists. I was raised Catholic but have trouble connecting to religion. Although, I admit I haven't put in any real effort. I do not attend church and pray inconsistently. I believe or would like to believe there is a God and afterlife but feel uncertain at times.
My question is to atheists.....do you believe there is a life after death even though you do not believe in God or a god?
Re: Off topic - Atheists
That could be it. They say it's a relationship you have to build in order to feel the connection like any relationship. I think it's the concept I have trouble with sometimes. When I look at the world I think there has to be a God who created everything but it seems so hard to imagine. I feel confused most of the time.
I don't believe in confession (or confessing to a priest) and my religion promotes it as key to reaching afterlife. My argument is if God is everywhere, why do I have to confess to a priest. I'd rather God read my mind or confess to God myself.
I don't believe in an after life. Sometimes I wish I did, seems like a very comforting belief, but no I cannot force myself to believe in heaven or any other life after death. I think when we die, we're dead.
It'd be pretty awesome to become the Queen of my own Kingdom though (Mormonism).
This is what my ex husband believed. Some days I feel this way, other days I think no there must be something else after all the bs we go through in life. I guess I am technically agnostic.
Another theory I have is maybe we are in hell or purgatory now and heaven is next. Thinking about it is too stressful.
my dad grew up catholic and even went to catholic school and he got so burned out on religion that we stopped going to church when I was in elementary school. He never wanted to go to a catholic church again so we would go to baptist/presbyterian churches. I have yet to feel a connection with a church. There is this church I want to try out down the street from us. It seems like a non-denominational church which is kinda what i'm looking for.
I think I would feel most comfortable in a non-denominational church. I feel that the Catholic religion is too strict (no offense to anyone here who may be Catholic). i.e. I don't believe it's a sin if your gay. And, another thing whose to say what religion is right. My religion is to be the best person you can be as much as you can, help others when you can, etc...
I think I would feel most comfortable in a non-denominational church. I feel that the Catholic religion is too strict (no offense to anyone here who may be Catholic). i.e. I don't believe it's a sin if your gay. And, another thing whose to say what religion is right. My religion is to be the best person you can be as much as you can, help others when you can, etc...
I think so. I find church boring and too ritualistic. But, I have trouble sitting through movies. I hate movies. I think I have ADD.
My husband is Catholic but does not regularly attend church. At best, he goes on holidays if he is visiting his family. He very adamantly defines himself as Catholic and says he does not understand the concept of Protestantism (as in, doesn't understand how people could purposely adapt the church and then consider that to be the right way), but at the same time, he is not a strict follower of doctrine in the slightest. I find his mentality to be somewhat confusing/possibly counterintuitive but can't complain as it does not play into our relationship and he does not buy in to the things that bother me about the Catholic church (like homosexuality being a sin, forbidding birth control, etc). We are not married in the church and will not raise our child(ren?) in the church.
As for the afterlife question- no. My honest belief is that the concept of an afterlife was created with the explicit purpose of controlling people in this life. What better way to wrangle a population than to convince them that to misbehave = eternal damnation?
Interesting theory!
For whatever reason, my mind has come to understand religion as an extremely functional and evolving tool, which used to lead to some fun debates with my HS friends when we were studying this. My admittedly simplified view, as developed over the years of assorted history/religion classes/perusings/etc:
Religion is science (and is why modern science and religion so often conflict). It explains the inexplicable. In a time when knew nothing, when we were simply incapable of understanding things like weather, plague... religion came to fill a void.
A ship sank in a storm at sea- we've pissed off Poseidon. There was a drought and a bad harvest- now Min and Osiris must be mad. What did we do? How do we make them happy again so they won't subject us to these problems anymore? Religious ritual results.
But we have conflicting loyalties- the farmer might worship the gods of rains and seasons and the god of harvest, while the fisherman strives to please the god of the sea, and the sun god. And then where does the mortal ruler assert his dominance?
Monotheism is a consolidation of power. This god is the only one, he controls it all, and you will all worship him- and the king/pharaoh/emperor is his representative on earth. To anger the king is to anger your one and only god, who has total control over what will become of you now.
And then repercussion (i.e. eternal damnation, etc) comes into play. A bright and sunny afterlife spices it up and makes it a good, desirable thing to follow those rules set by your god, rather than simply creating a lifetime of resentment.
I find the transition from polytheism to monotheism particularly interesting. I think the 'Plagues of Egypt' story is a great look at the clash and the early assertion of monotheistic dominance over the ancient Egyptian religion and gods.
I honestly don't know. I try not to construct stories about what heaven would be like because I don't think that one of us is going to stumble upon the right story, and even if we did - how would we tease it apart from everyone else's story? When people try to project what heaven is, I often feel more like they're designing an all-inclusive resort of the cosmos than using evidence to reason what it would be like.
I'm perfectly content to say: there's probably no afterlife, but at the end of the day I don't know and I don't try to pretend to know.
I agree with Lexi (again). I think religion is used as a tool. Kinda like Santa Claus and Christmas. If you're not good, you won't get any presents.
Cats, if you're looking for a church, you might try a Unitarian church. My sister has struggled with her beliefs and really enjoys it. It's a very open and progressive church. This is from Wikipedia:
Though there is no specific authority on convictions of Unitarian belief aside from rejection of the Trinity, the following beliefs are generally accepted:[47][48][49][50][51][52]
Unitarians have liberal views of God, Jesus, the world and purpose of life as revealed through reason, scholarship, science,philosophy, scripture and other prophets and religions. They believe that reason and belief are complementary and that religion and science can co-exist and guide them in their understanding of nature and God. They also do not enforce belief in creeds ordogmatic formulas. Although there is flexibility in the nuances of belief or basictruths for the individual Unitarian Christian, general principles of faith have been recognized as a way to bind the group in some commonality. Adherents generally accept religious pluralism and find value in all teachings, but remain committed to their core belief in Christ's teachings.[citation needed] Unitarians generally value a secular society in whichgovernment is kept separate from religious affairs. Most contemporary Unitarian Christians believe that one's personal moral convictions guide one's political activities, and that a secular society is the most viable, just and fair.[citation needed]
Unitarian Christians reject the doctrine of some Christian denominations that God chooses to redeem or save only those certain individuals that accept the creeds of, or affiliate with, a specific church or religion, from a common ruin or corruption of the mass of humanity. They believe that righteous acts are necessary for redemption in addition to faith.
(sorry for the length of this post)
Nope. We're all just carbon. Plants die, they turn into fertilizer. Same with people. I don't believe in souls, God, heaven, etc. It doesn't make any sense to me.
Some religious people seem to think this is sad and fatalistic. I think it's freeing. This is the only life I get, so I plan to make it a good one.
My Lunch Blog
I have to say that this is pretty much where I stand also.
I was raised Catholic, went to Catholic school. In
2nd grade is when I first started to question religion,
just mine at the time. but gradually all.
(now I worship fezzes, cause they are cool
)
Hee!
I went to Baptist school for years. I started questioning them when I was 9 or so and they told me that I would go to hell because I watched "Family Ties".
Religions are stupid in general, though.
Family Ties? Really? I am wracking my brain for a reason.
The only reason I came up with is that the church knew Meredith
Baxter was a lesbian even before she did.
It "advocated drug use" because the parents once mentioned they smoked pot in the 60s.
I'm a pantheist. I believe in reincarnation... though more in a metaphorical sense than a literal one.
I believe that the idea of an afterlife enslaves the mind; and can't help but feel that an afterlife would be an enslavement of the soul as well, perhaps along the lines presented by Le Guin or Pullman.
I'm actually more agnostic than atheist. I don't believe in Christian Heaven, but I can't rule out the possibility there is some "spark" of consciousness that continues to exist in some form after we die. It seems unlikely we would remain aware of our Self as we do when we are alive. I love the idea of reincarnation, although I don't find it very likely.
Of course, that's all pure conjecture. The fact is, you can't prove or disprove anything with regards to the afterlife. People are free to believe whatever they like as long as they don't try to pass laws based on those beliefs.
That's what the Bible actually teaches. "The dead are consious of nothing at all." So, if you aren't conscious of anything, how would it make sense that our "souls" live on? Every part of you ceases to exist when you die. BUT the Bible also teaches that eventually there will be a resurrection, where "good" people will be resurrected to a life in Paradise, and "bad" people will be judged. The bad people will be given a choice to make: remain dead (not tortured in Hell or anything, just plain dead) or to live forever in Paradise with the "good" people. A small number of people WILL live in Heaven, but as spirits, not actual fleshly humans. God has already chosen who these people are.
Yep, and also that the more wretched, poor and meek you are, the more you will be rewarded in the afterlife. So, no need to rebel, peasants, just wait it out!