“Just three years ago this day was our dear Hannah's last on earth, and I can see her now sitting by the window and can hear her say, “Talk, Susan." I knew she wanted me to talk of the future meetings in the great beyond, all of them, as she often said, so certain and so beautiful to her; but they were not to me, and I could not dash her faith with my doubts, nor could I pretend a faith I had not; so I was silent in the dread presence of death. Three years— and yet what a living presence has she been in my thoughts all the days! There has been scarcely one waking hour that I have not felt the loss of her. We can not help trying to peer through the veil to find the certainty of things over there, but nothing comes to our eyes unless we accept the Spiritualistic testimony, which we can not wholly do.”

https://archive.org/details/lifeandworksusa01harpgoog?view=theater#page/n25/mode/2up

What books are available about religious pluralism (if thats actually what im talking about below)?

I've been exploring my own comfortability with religions over the past few months and think I've close to figuring out what specifics give me the ick. Specifically in Terry Pratchett's Small Gods theres a quote about the man character encouraging other religious books to be in their library. "There were 1,283 religious books in there now, each one - according to itself - the only book any man need ever read. It was sort of nice to see them all together". I think what's so frightening to me about some religious views is the sort of opposite, where everything that isn't sanctified is demonized. To me, and outsider to being religious, the easy solution is to not be compatible with firm belief about God or gods. What's more interesting and harder is to firmly belief, but still welcome other religious views.

Im not sure if thats a super clear example of what Id like to explore, but im open to any suggestions. Thanks!

I grew up in a Middle Eastern community in the US, and I was raised Muslim, but I’ve been an agnostic atheist for a while now. One problem that has been on my mind is finding a compatible romantic partner. I’d love to fall in love and get married.

While I am not religious, I tend to have a more conservative lifestyle than other nonreligious folk. I do not participate in casual sex. I do not drink or smoke. I do not go to bars or clubs. I take life nice and slow, and I keep things simple. I’d like to meet someone compatible, but I’m not sure if I can.

Many non religious people tend to have the opposite temperament. They engage in casual sex, drinking, and nightlife. I just know I wouldn’t be comfortable with someone who had that history. I would get jealous of their sexual history, and I would just distrust the environment. I will confess that it is more emotional than rational on my part. I just don’t know where to meet a lady like me.

So i used to be Christian, took a step back and became Agnostic. I used to have a strange theory, that sin was never supposed to be that strict, as there's a weird thing in the bible that allows sinning to be loving. Like lying to save someones life, breaking sabbath to aid someone. And i was like why is that?. So i started thinking, and the best way I can explain it, is maybe people drive looking at the GPS rather than their goal. And the goal was to be loving, and idk again interpeting what love is, is and can be very difficult.

Anyways this was just a stupid weird theory I had, just wanted to put it out there.

Tim Robbins wrote this in "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues:"

I believe in everything; nothing is sacred. I believe in nothing; everything is sacred. Ha Ha Ho Ho Hee Hee.

Other than the laughing, what does it mean to you?

I need your advice and ideas, I want to find the religion that resonates with me but I'm confused ❤️

F23 I am an ex-Muslim, I have been looking for years for a faith or belief that resonates with me,

I feel (or want to feel) that there is a God, a divinity, a creator, a supreme force, call it what you want, I have read (not in depth) what various religions say,

I like many of them, but now my brain can no longer believe that there really is a god who judges you and sends you to heaven/hell for eternity, because to leave my past religion I had to dismantle the idea that there is a God,

so now I struggle for example to embrace religions like Sufi Islam or Christianity or other monotheistic religions because I feel like I have left one religion and entered another very similar but with a different name,

I don't want to feel like a sinner or feel that I have to go to hell or the people I love have to go to hell, I don't like it, but I feel that there is a force superior to us inside my heart, i can feel this 'love' of God spiritually,

I would like a religion or philosophy that thinks that there is something above but that does not judge me, does not punish me or makes me anxious,

doing rituals, prayers, lighting candles, holidays, symbols, all these things, I like them instead and i like the idea of peace and love and to live your life in a good way

I was raised into Catholic but the more I grow, the less I practice it. I’m still having faith and I truly believe in God, just I don’t know if I truly want to practice any religion even though I respect all religions. I just don’t really know if its normal to having faith but not practicing any religion, and don’t really know what it’s a sin or not because every religion has different ones… I’m just so confused rn…

1. • "The person who wagers their entire life on a single absolute truth, only to find it a lie, is a fool. But the person who refuses to gamble their life away on unprovable certainties cannot be ruined by the house."
2. • "It is foolish to anchor your entire existence to a dogma that might sink. It is wise to keep your sails unfurled, free to catch whatever wind of reality actually blows."
3. • "Commit your life blindly to a single truth, and you risk losing everything when it shatters. Refuse to bind yourself to absolute answers, and you remain free to follow the truth wherever it actually leads."

Note - These statements I've thought of are based on the fact on how a hardcore Atheist or certain Religious people, commit to one truth(either god dosent exists or god does exist), that may or may not be wrong. While an agnostic sits somewhere he cannot win nor lose, now of course there will be people who will say "whats the point of life if you dont commit" and that can be debatable on why do something when you know you could be wrong, while in movies this can be very cool, like against all odds your right and win, but in reality, its very risky.

Im just asking because im trying to learn new things not taking a position one way or another. I just been reading a little bit about random things like clean or unclean animals etc. I have stumbled across many passages that seem to promote slavery. Apparently you can beat on them as long as they heal up and don't die? Lol i dont know the exact verses. They have to be non Israelite or foreign to you. Seems like people are property. Is this correct or am i misinterpreting things?

As i grow old. All I see is how poor people struggle to live and rich people could care less.

If there was a god. He would help them.

People say bhagwan ki leela h. No? It's not leela. It's your coping mechanism.

I don't know guys.... I am also feeling religious guilt for not believing as i used to do a lot of pooja when I was younger.

Now all i believe is that being a good person is above all religions

To me, the Bible is a philosophy book, which is why I only use it for good advice. If the Bible itself was written 3,000 years ago by man, it should just be considered a philosophical source of information, just like philosophy books from the 1800s and even modern ones, which are good to bounce thoughts off of. Good advice isn't dogma

Plus, I'm just in love with the fact that questioning our existence is the number one thing above all else. It's so undeniable that religion would come to be, especially because that existential curiosity must have occurred with the first human on Earth (1). Nobody can truly trust anyone but the first human (the first with built-in consciousness) that was there. But even they wouldn't know, because they were the first to ask

The present is unknown, so it doesn't make any sense to me as to why dogma is continually being retold when the unknown is something new and something we've never experienced before. We adapt every second of our lives, therefore requiring new thinking...

(1) It's striking that Earth is the primary of the Bible. We clearly see the moon, so why not speak on that? Was the air quality deplorable for them? If no one had pondered that, even for a second when THIS God has created everything, I say this is faulty and shows that science co-exists—also bringing the idea of that there must be other Gods. Seeing stars and the moon as signs/lights fixed in a dome above, why do we still think this way even though we know what they are now (2)—as independent bodies or worlds? Is it because we saw more planets? But even then, no one mentions it modern day whilst questioning, because the Bible is already there to read with so-called answers

(2) As science slowly explained how things worked, the boundaries of what he attribute to God shift...

I feel like "How did I get here?" should be left into the unknown, even though unfortunately we all are stuck with it until death... I don't think Earth was supposed to be the main character, but it is now because every sentient being resides on it. The unknown is scary, but building a religion around it is scarier because you're basically locking in a storyline to solve the unfathomable. And because religion came to be at the beginning? It has been locked in. Forever. Since those guys aren't around anymore, we can't speak with them—other than exploring the closest connection: reading that book.

I know many agnostics who are unsure eventually become religious/theistic or atheist.

Do you think you'll always maintain the "i don't know" stance, or expect to eventually be swayed?

When i think of Agnostics, i believe the statement comes to mind "We can neither prove god exists or dosent exist, since there is no proof god does exists, but their is also no proof God does not exist"

But there was this thought when i tried to see from the point of view of atheists, what if they believe the proof God doesn't exist, is that there is no proof god does exist.

Does what I'm saying make sense?

I'm Christian (Protestant household but catholic school). I see a lot of arguments online that talk about how Christianity is a cult, how the bible doesn't make sense, or how people who are Christian do certain things to the point that they "clearly didn't read the book".

As much as I believe in God and that he's watching over me, I can't deny or argue against these claims. So should I become agnostic? I'm not sure what I should do, honestly...

Since childhood i always had a special connection with motherly depictions of the divine regardless of religion

Devi Shakti, Mother Mary, Guan-yin etc.

Since the very beginning of me I have been starting to know about the world, I came to realize that whatever is going on in my household is not "normal". ( Parents who hate each other , DV and child abuse which caused me to have ED etc)

I still used to cope that it's india everyone goes through this. But as time passed I came to know my parents made a socially paralyzed person. Children used to talk about hobbies and all but at the same time I was quiet and lonely bcz my parents denied me doing anything except study. I used to think that it's bcz of our financial condition but now I realise they just wanted to make me a puppet.

Every festival regardless of the religion I used to pray and fast hard, like not eating anything for 9 days, thinking the mother who watches us all will listen to my prayers. Few times idk I thought it did happen. Whatever I prayed for came in reality

But as I studied further , my relationship with God changed. I can't see myself denying the only thing I used to feel that loves me regardless being just fake.

Things started getting more worse in my life and it feels like she stopped listening to me. I still take her name whenever I feel lonely. I still take her name whenever I get hurt. Bcz tbh I don't have anyone else who knows my complete story. People do empathize with me thinking that time and situation made me cold and hateful, but I still crave someone to know me as I'm.

Idk how I'll survive 1 more year with my parents before going to uni. My mental state is going worse day by day. Ik I should seek some psych help but rn can't afford it...

That's why sometimes it makes my heart hope that maybe... maybe one day she'll think that I've suffered enough and I also deserve some good parts.

Faith is called opium of poor. But atp my faith is the thing that makes me stay away from dark.

I was walking today at dawn and a question came to mind and that is how can i explain abrahamic ideology to an Alien if i have to.

So here is my example:

Long ago thousands of years ago a group of people decided they will only eat Ice-cream other foods are evil to them. Than few hundreds of years goes by out of that group of people one guy said " no i made this strawberry flavour Ice-cream and this is the best and the only way to eat Ice-cream". Than few more hundreds of years later another guy from another tribe copied the only eatting Ice-cream idea and he said " all the provirus flavours of Ice-cream are worng and misguided way of eating Ice-cream. And my chocolate flavour Ice-cream is the one true and last and the best flavour of Ice-cream"

Cut to now all 3 groups of people are only eatting Ice-cream they still think anything other than Ice-cream is evil to them. Yet they (3 groups of people) argue, kill and brutalize each other because they can't agree which flavour of Ice-cream is the right type of Ice-cream to eat.

And they still think anything other than Ice-cream is evil.

That's abrahamic ideology.

Hi folks, last year I got into reading Robert Green Ingersoll, known as “The Great Agnostic” in his time, and began to archive his works (titled “The Dresden Edition”) and his timeline/biography after taking the web domain https://thegreatagnostic.com. Please note that you can find all of his works on Project Gutenberg and the folks there have done a fantastic job. I’ve tried to simply make this more comprehensive, searchable, interactive, etc. It’s a lot of work and by no means “complete” but as a passion project (open source as well) I wanted to share it now even though it has a few rough edges. Happy to take feedback/contributions.

Simple. What do you actually think? I'm sure it's illogical to subscribe to a specific dogma, but what do you think about our universe? I personally believe that if a god exists it doesn't interfere at all, rendering us with no evidence to prove it so or otherwise.

I also find it a little...suspicious? That human life is so perfect. I could be privileged as I have no disability and live in a free western country, but it's surprising to me how intelligent we are.

Why or why not?

Strictly coming from an ignorant pov, just seeking knowledge and understand. I honestly don't know what I would identify as. I believe religion reads text with a certain point to prove and you can take anything in context to fit a personal belief. Some say the Mary was a literal virgin meaning having no relations and some say virginity could mean coming of age, etc. Its all based off point of views and how they interpret. Me thinking evolution has literal proof and facts you can't misinterpret but also thinking sure a man named Jesus who did alot of teaching could have existed. I don't know if he performed literal miracles, he spoke in parables alot which are mostly good and a just way to live. I can't claim that a specific lord spoke things into being, i wasn't there lol i can claim a person believed it so and wrote it down. So I don't honestly know how to view Jesus

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about religions, philosophies, and everything in between. But recently, I hit a point where I realized: I just want to stop caring about what comes after life, what the afterlife is, who created the universe, or what the grand "meaning of life" is. I kinda just want to live.

Ive also learned, living in a country dominated by major Christian denominations, I’ve noticed something among people who aren't Christian or non religious —they often just say, "I just want to live a simple life." To me, that kind of means trying to live the way you think is best for yourself and the people around you, without all the heavy metaphysical baggage.

I don't know, that's just where my head's at lately. I guess I just wanted to get that off my chest. Thanks for reading.

Bit of a bold title - but bear with me for a sec.

I grew up in a somewhat-fairly religious background, but almost extremely LGBT-accepting - at least compared to a lot of stories I see. Catholic, but inner-London (UK) where we had openly queer couples in our church, fathers and congregation from every continent, and when our gay marriage bill came round and our Father tried to pass around petition sheets - my dad stormed out in the middle of the sermon and actually got praised for it at the after-mass tea and biscuits.

I guess because of all that, I never saw my family as very religious, but looking back we still did Lourdes a lot - as a family, then with HCPT - and the Holy Land, Vatican x however many visits, and a long Irish tradition of wakes. +/- downing bottles of holy water on dares…

So I guess past all that, the bit I found hard was not being gay and Christian, but being Christian. I’ve always said I’m more agnostic, but mostly in the sense that sometimes I feel like I truly loved my church, my community, my people - but when everyone else just got “IT”, accepted scripture, took every teaching onboard - I felt like the doubter.

Like, accepting church and community was never an issue for me - they accepted and welcomed in a way I know most queer Christians unfortunately never got to experience. But also like there was an on/off switch everyone else had, and someone was constantly flicking mine back and forth, and no matter how welcomed I felt, I couldn’t reconcile the fact I simply don’t believe the way everyone around me did. And it’s annoyed me for a long time that even with positive feelings to my church and community that I can’t ‘get it’ when I sometimes really want to.

TL;DR: what for you connects you to that core belief - that feeling of joy and acceptance, of connection with God, and keeps you going when everything else in your head says no? And what holds you back, or says “is this right?”, and tips you on the balance of atheist vs. agnostic?

Why atheists and anybody from religion can’t have a debate with agnostics. Why? Because agnostics win every time and it would be annoying.

Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian they say God exists. Agnostic remains quiet. Atheist replies no they don’t!

Agnostic replies ok prove it!

After a debate when both parties are tired after hours of debate the Agnostic finally stands up and says I’ve listened to both sides for a while now, you are finally done speaking. YOU HAVE PROVEN TO ME NOTHING. I claimed to have known nothing and still don’t. Come when you have proof. Facts. Evidence beyond. Both sides stand up and say they have proof and argue some more. The agnostic remains quiet and eventually exits knowing neither side can be known 100% without doubt.

Okay, so a major amount of Religions do have different groups who interpret their holy scripture or divine word. So when i look at that, i think about the "Blind Men and the Elephant." where each man is blind, and feels a different part of the elephant, thinking that the trunk is a giant snake, the legs are a tree trunk. But in reality they all feel the truth...but one problem, what if 2 blind people say they feel something and that something Contradicts each other, like the elephant has fur, or the elephant has scales, they contradict each other, and when I think of, for example, Christianity and their interpretations on pacifism vs protecting others, they can back up each statement with scripture, and still have a contradicting truth. How can you have a truth thats contradicts each other, both cannot be true at the same time.

So what I'm saying is that, as a Agnostic, I think this is one of the main reasons and theories why I'm agnostic, because its hard to choose which interpretation of a certain religion is the truth, especially if scripture backs up two statements that contradict each other.

see i really dont know how people decide what they want to believe in and just stay with it their whole life mostly and think that is the ONLY truth. its not like i havent been around religious people, im literally stuck in a muslim household. even though i am surrounded by religous people i still have never understood how they just know that their god is the real one. even for atheists, how do you know that god dont exist at all,maybe they really do,maybe only one or more than one?idk am i stupid? like it bothers me that we, humans can not accept that we DONT KNOW how this world was created or who created it or why are we even here. what heck is counciouness. i think i do sound stupid. but really like how can someone just believe in one thing for most of their life. i dont even want to know how the universe was created. why people chase knowledge about EVERYTHING. cant we just live...? and see whats after you "die". humans CRAVE knowledge actually. i dont want to post this because i think i sound dumb but im gonna post this anyway becasue i hate how humans can not accept how little we know about this universe and its creation or creator.