A change from politics...

[sqbr]

I've been pondering doing one of these for a while, but wasn't sure I'd get the wording right. Since it worked so well on his lj, I've decided to completely steal the language of angriest's recent post instead(*).

1. Tell me your religious beliefs. It can be as simple as "I am an X" or it can be a lengthy paragraph if you like. If you feel your religious and/or spiritual beliefs are private, either don't reply or leave a note saying as much.
2. If you want to reply to something someone else has written, feel free - particularly if you want to ask them a question about the religion you've always wanted to ask but have never been able to, or felt comfortable enough to.
3. This is one of the biggies: if someone asks you a question and you don't feel comfortable answering it, do not feel obliged to answer. Either don't reply at all, or drop a quick reply saying "I don't really want to answer that".
4. Religious intolerance will not be tolerated. I'm aiming this particularly at the aggressive atheists who seem to get their kicks scoring points, but the rule applies in any direction.

I know a lot of you are on both flists, I decided to do it now while it's still fresh in your heads. You are quite welcome to repeat/post a link to your comment over there! And yes fred_mouse I know you were also planning on stealing his idea, but, well, there's no reason it can't be stolen multiple times :D

(*)And yes, I checked it was ok. Don't want to be sued for copyright violation by the big mean famous writer :)

Comments

[flyingblogspot.livejournal.com]

The short answer is 'atheist' but the short answer isn't very interesting. I shall add some sprinkles and whipped cream on the top:

- Seventeen years of Catholic upbringing and schooling; after rejecting that, it's only been in the last couple of years that I've come to a kind of peace with the idea that one can be 'culturally Catholic' without being theistic. (It's not an idea I see very much among Catholics, although it sees common among my Jewish friends.)

- I believe that theism derives from an human tendency to anthropomophise a mind-bogglingly huge and complex universe into something more cognitively manageable. In this, I suppose, I have a lot in common with panthiests.

- My personal spiritual practice is fluid, and vaguely totemic, as anyone who has seen my tattoos will attest. I struggle to find the words to explain this without sounding totally mad, but my deer god and cat goddess are best understood as parts of myself - constructs or archetypes perhaps - through which I process the universe. I find it useful to have guides when I'm meditating and they do the job.

[alias_sqbr]

I think mandragora2003 has a similar catholic-themed-not-catholicism. I have a very protestant themed atheism, I guess, though it's not quite the same thing.

I believe that theism derives from an human tendency to anthropomophise a mind-bogglingly huge and complex universe into something more cognitively manageable. In this, I suppose, I have a lot in common with panthiests

Same.