Honsol (post 30):
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->May this is not the right thread but i need help.
I consider my self an ex-christian and i dont know now which religion is true.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Don't worry about religion. Just be as good and humane a person as you can be. Think logically, if you had a child that was trying to do its best, would you punish it for infinity because its best was not good enough? You wouldn't, would you? So how can a supposedly benign ('merciful') entity exist that is so 'loving' that it punishes much of mankind <i>forever</i>?
Can you think of anyone - no matter how evil - that you would punish for Eternity? Imagine if there was only one life, like christoislamics believe, and someone had committed all the most heinous crimes imaginable in that life. If a hell existed and it did all those horrible things back to him, it should (logically speaking) only go on so far as to the extent he had affected his victims. Not for all eternity. And we're not even taking into consideration any thoughts of sincere repentance here - true remorse is often an unbearable punishment in itself.
Life is finite. Infinite punishment for finite sin is incomprehensible and reprehensible. You as a humane individual would not do that (prescribe infinite torture) to anyone, why would you expect or accept this of any loving creator? Loving creators aside, back to my original point. Just be kind and good, respect truth as if it were God. Any God(s) who might exist will value, appreciate and love you for doing your best, for being compassionate and kind-hearted and for honouring the truth. And if no God exists, then surely, you have given the best of yourself to this world and have made it a better place for having lived here.
If you have the need to believe in a God, remember that he/she/it must be truly kind, truly understanding and compassionate. It must love all creatures, it must love truth, it must accept all individuals. More so than we are capable of. Since if any God is considered our parent, he/she/it must completely love us without any expectation, like a mother-mouse loves its children without expecting them to love her back.
In this world, we can see our fellow creatures with our own eyes. We see their lives are no different from ours: joys, sufferings, confusion, anxiety, pain, wisdom, nobility - these are some of the traits we all have. Others are as sentient as us. We therefore realise we must treat them as gently as we wish to be treated. And we must try to be the best we can be, not only to satisfy our own conscience, but also to serve as a beacon of light/guidance for future generations. We do not live in a vacuum. Our actions and words affect all. (I might not consciously write or say useful things much of the time, but ideally all of us ought to do so.)
You appear to be a sensitive individual who is trying to find answers to life's questions. Keep questioning and coming up with your own answers, or if you see that another's answer to any particular question is applicable, then incorporate that into your view of the world. Never accept anything without examination.
Do not uncritically accept all of one religion/one view blindly, without examining all the beliefs/doctrines of that view or religion. Critical examination of each dogma is essential. We are individuals, so answers that may seem right to your neighbour might not be applicable to you. Be an individual, make your own way. If you will believe in one or more Gods (as many of us do, myself included, yet other good people do not), then make him/her/it/them to be the best that you can imagine - at least what you would expect from a hero. Gods are there for us to try and become more like them. If they exist and we emulate them, then we become their instruments in bettering the world.
Take what is good (wholesome) and seems true from others and other spiritual paths, and reject all that is against your humanity and conscience. Respect all people as being of equal worth. Believe in each person's potential to do good.
Remember that people act according to their beliefs. Often these beliefs are controlled by their ideology. Therefore, recognise bad ideologies and still believe in the potential for good of the individual. And do not equate what is good with what is bad (confused sense of pluralism), but exercise critical judgement.
And do not label yourself unless you fully understand and agree with your label: for example, do not say you are a 'Rationalist' or 'Humanist' merely because you think these words mean 'rational person' and 'humane person'. Rationalism and Humanism are very specifically defined movements and you may not agree with all of their specifications, even though you may be a rational and humane person. It is best not to join any movement until you understand yourself and your own view of the world and of course all of the movement itself. Feel free to agree with 90% of any stream of thinking, and disagree with the other 10% of its ideas. Same thing with books: use critical judgement to take what is useful and leave what rings untrue. No one can make you accept all ideas of any system. We must be free to form our own opinions, follow our conscience and exercise our own judgement in all matters. Our opinions may change in time, with better understanding or more experience, but at least in these cases we are making our own way instead of letting others' ideas dictate our beliefs.
There is no exam, no pass or fail, at the end of our life. There is only our continuous progress. Always be in the process of becoming better. And if there are any Gods out there, you will surely progress with their blessing (in many eastern religions, we believe in reincarnation, so in that case the progress might take place over several lives).
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->May this is not the right thread but i need help.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->The only help you need is to learn to trust your own ability to discern right from wrong, truth from untruth and to always develop that ability. Be conscious of what you believe, think, say and do. And don't fall for the easy trap to let a religion or ideology (like communism) dictate all the do's and don'ts for you. Christoislamism does that even though its do's and don'ts are mostly not even humane or logical. (Most other religions do not prescribe, from what I've been able to find out.)
For the rest, you seem to already have all the abilities needed to make your own way in life quite well. Don't have such a low opinion of your own understanding of the world and what is humane that you will let narrow-minded religions undermine your naturally developing views.
Life is too short to allow a narrow-minded religion or ideology to control you. Let your beliefs be uplifting instead of making you feel bad. Doing what is right and thinking what is true should never make you feel bad or guilty or fearful. Any religion or ideology that teaches otherwise is cruel and untrue.
It appears post 31 already explained all this, and in a manner more to the point. <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->May this is not the right thread but i need help.
I consider my self an ex-christian and i dont know now which religion is true.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Don't worry about religion. Just be as good and humane a person as you can be. Think logically, if you had a child that was trying to do its best, would you punish it for infinity because its best was not good enough? You wouldn't, would you? So how can a supposedly benign ('merciful') entity exist that is so 'loving' that it punishes much of mankind <i>forever</i>?
Can you think of anyone - no matter how evil - that you would punish for Eternity? Imagine if there was only one life, like christoislamics believe, and someone had committed all the most heinous crimes imaginable in that life. If a hell existed and it did all those horrible things back to him, it should (logically speaking) only go on so far as to the extent he had affected his victims. Not for all eternity. And we're not even taking into consideration any thoughts of sincere repentance here - true remorse is often an unbearable punishment in itself.
Life is finite. Infinite punishment for finite sin is incomprehensible and reprehensible. You as a humane individual would not do that (prescribe infinite torture) to anyone, why would you expect or accept this of any loving creator? Loving creators aside, back to my original point. Just be kind and good, respect truth as if it were God. Any God(s) who might exist will value, appreciate and love you for doing your best, for being compassionate and kind-hearted and for honouring the truth. And if no God exists, then surely, you have given the best of yourself to this world and have made it a better place for having lived here.
If you have the need to believe in a God, remember that he/she/it must be truly kind, truly understanding and compassionate. It must love all creatures, it must love truth, it must accept all individuals. More so than we are capable of. Since if any God is considered our parent, he/she/it must completely love us without any expectation, like a mother-mouse loves its children without expecting them to love her back.
In this world, we can see our fellow creatures with our own eyes. We see their lives are no different from ours: joys, sufferings, confusion, anxiety, pain, wisdom, nobility - these are some of the traits we all have. Others are as sentient as us. We therefore realise we must treat them as gently as we wish to be treated. And we must try to be the best we can be, not only to satisfy our own conscience, but also to serve as a beacon of light/guidance for future generations. We do not live in a vacuum. Our actions and words affect all. (I might not consciously write or say useful things much of the time, but ideally all of us ought to do so.)
You appear to be a sensitive individual who is trying to find answers to life's questions. Keep questioning and coming up with your own answers, or if you see that another's answer to any particular question is applicable, then incorporate that into your view of the world. Never accept anything without examination.
Do not uncritically accept all of one religion/one view blindly, without examining all the beliefs/doctrines of that view or religion. Critical examination of each dogma is essential. We are individuals, so answers that may seem right to your neighbour might not be applicable to you. Be an individual, make your own way. If you will believe in one or more Gods (as many of us do, myself included, yet other good people do not), then make him/her/it/them to be the best that you can imagine - at least what you would expect from a hero. Gods are there for us to try and become more like them. If they exist and we emulate them, then we become their instruments in bettering the world.
Take what is good (wholesome) and seems true from others and other spiritual paths, and reject all that is against your humanity and conscience. Respect all people as being of equal worth. Believe in each person's potential to do good.
Remember that people act according to their beliefs. Often these beliefs are controlled by their ideology. Therefore, recognise bad ideologies and still believe in the potential for good of the individual. And do not equate what is good with what is bad (confused sense of pluralism), but exercise critical judgement.
And do not label yourself unless you fully understand and agree with your label: for example, do not say you are a 'Rationalist' or 'Humanist' merely because you think these words mean 'rational person' and 'humane person'. Rationalism and Humanism are very specifically defined movements and you may not agree with all of their specifications, even though you may be a rational and humane person. It is best not to join any movement until you understand yourself and your own view of the world and of course all of the movement itself. Feel free to agree with 90% of any stream of thinking, and disagree with the other 10% of its ideas. Same thing with books: use critical judgement to take what is useful and leave what rings untrue. No one can make you accept all ideas of any system. We must be free to form our own opinions, follow our conscience and exercise our own judgement in all matters. Our opinions may change in time, with better understanding or more experience, but at least in these cases we are making our own way instead of letting others' ideas dictate our beliefs.
There is no exam, no pass or fail, at the end of our life. There is only our continuous progress. Always be in the process of becoming better. And if there are any Gods out there, you will surely progress with their blessing (in many eastern religions, we believe in reincarnation, so in that case the progress might take place over several lives).
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->May this is not the right thread but i need help.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->The only help you need is to learn to trust your own ability to discern right from wrong, truth from untruth and to always develop that ability. Be conscious of what you believe, think, say and do. And don't fall for the easy trap to let a religion or ideology (like communism) dictate all the do's and don'ts for you. Christoislamism does that even though its do's and don'ts are mostly not even humane or logical. (Most other religions do not prescribe, from what I've been able to find out.)
For the rest, you seem to already have all the abilities needed to make your own way in life quite well. Don't have such a low opinion of your own understanding of the world and what is humane that you will let narrow-minded religions undermine your naturally developing views.
Life is too short to allow a narrow-minded religion or ideology to control you. Let your beliefs be uplifting instead of making you feel bad. Doing what is right and thinking what is true should never make you feel bad or guilty or fearful. Any religion or ideology that teaches otherwise is cruel and untrue.
It appears post 31 already explained all this, and in a manner more to the point. <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->