Beliefs

[Alec Walter Conway]

Following my posting of my Mjöllnir pendant...

A thread about your beliefs, religious, philosophical, ethical, etc.



My Mjöllnir actually means something to me. It's an anchor I can carry around with me, an anchor into Ásatrú (its also an anchor in the litteral sense of the word, the damn thing is so heavy! lol)

All my life I've felt like this christian religion I grew up with was totally meaningless, fake, artificial, "custom made for sheep-people". So I decided to build up my own set of values and principles of life and lived according to them for the most part of my "mature" life. Then some months ago, I realised that all I built for myself, on my own, independantly, like a big boy, all of this actually corresponds to what Ásatrú is. And so I figured...

Why not? I'm sure it would feel nice to know that there are other people out there that live according to the same stuff as I do, that I can call my kin. I'm sure it'd feel nice to actually have something else than open space to gaze at when I look upwards, to be able to look up there and be able to put names on then presences I've felt were there all my life, calling them Odin, Thor, Freyr, Frigg or by another name, to smile to myself and think of Heimdall when I see a rainbow, etc...

And I can tell you, it does feel very nice. It cuts the feeling of loneliness and it gives meaning to my actions. It gives me a reason to push forward into what I do, telling myself "this is what I chose, those are the value I decided were mine, now to be true to all of it, I have to push on forward". I reach for my Mjöllnir, give it a slight squeeze and I keep going.

Ásatrú was a major turn in my life. I'm still leaving myself an opening to go back to my previous self, but I am feeling very good in this new "faith", even though I probably shouldn't use this word to describe this. More like... way of life.

What about you guys?

 

[Doomtroll]

Agnostic. I take interest in studying religions, and I feel that my new learnings tend to influence my lifestyle in some ways, but I'm really not set on any specific belief. I was never really brought up in any religion, I was left to make my own decisions ever since I was a child, and just being brought up by so many different people of different beliefs, I just found myself learning from each and every one of them without being more influenced by one and not another. My entire lifestyle is based around everything I have learned from either family, peers, religion, nature, science, history and society, I take in everything and just find my own path rather than listening to one source and following its teachings.

Not having a true belief is painful, but it drives me to learn more.

 

[Alec Walter Conway]

Agnostic. I take interest in studying religions, and I feel that my new learnings tend to influence my lifestyle in some ways, but I'm really not set on any specific belief. I was never really brought up in any religion, I was left to make my own decisions ever since I was a child, and just being brought up by so many different people of different beliefs, I just found myself learning from each and every one of them without being more influenced by one and not another. My entire lifestyle is based around everything I have learned from either family, peers, religion, nature, science, history and society, I take in everything and just find my own path rather than listening to one source and following its teachings.

Not having a true belief is painful, but it drives me to learn more.

This is exactly the way I worked my way through life. Gathering what made sens to me from various sources.

 

[Vampyrian]

As I've already stated previously and in the Mjöllnir thread, I have forsaken religion. I am a self-proclaimed militant atheist and also anti-theist. I regard religion as something completely useless in an age of science and reason, in an age where we're supposed to demand evidence about anything and everything. I regard religion as a plague upon society and I firmly believe that should a Third World War happen, it'll be the fault of religion. I also cannot, no matter how hard I try, understand and respect people of my age who are believers in one religion or another (for this reason I just severed contact with an ex of mine, who's become quite a burning Christian as of late). And the fact that I choose to not be afraid, to understand that there is nothing beyond mortal flesh, simply empowers me. Sure I have dabbled in various religions as a misguided teenager, everything from your Ásatrú to even Buddhism, but in the end it just came to me that I do not require any religion or specific philosophy to stand strong and confident of my own life, to behave as a normal member of society. I'm a strong skeptic as well and I hardly take anything at face value. I am certain that there's a scientific explanation (either already proven or still to be proven) for anything that happens in this world and universe.

put names on then presences I've felt were there all my life, calling them Odin, Thor, Freyr, Frigg or by another name, to smile to myself and think of Heimdall when I see a rainbow, etc...

This just seems silly to me. What's the point? Why delude yourself? No offense meant to you personally of course. It's the same with most religions tho. People can't for the life of them come to accept that there really isn't anything magical or outworldly out there. They're afraid. It's easier to think that there's some invisible benevolent presence or force out there that watches over you in one way or another than to accept you're 'on your own' I guess.

 

[Blind Guardian]

Agnostic,not saying there is something at a higher level than us,not saying there isn´t. I like to leave all doors open. But i wonder if i will feel the same if i become 90 years old,maybe one gets another view of life at that high age.

 

[Vampyrian]

Agnostic,not saying there is something at a higher level than us,not saying there isn´t. I like to leave all doors open. But i wonder if i will feel the same if i become 90 years old,maybe one gets another view of life at that high age.

If for nothing else, for a good laugh. He mentions what happens as you get older.

 

[Det Som Engang Var]

Heh, Carlin is great. It's funny, the older he gets, the more cynical and better he becomes. I wish I could find a video where he's a really really old fuck.

I guess I'm an agnostic, godless heathen myself.

 

[Blind Guardian]

..."but he loves you"
And i agree about Joe Pesci,for being such a small guy,he´s pretty fucking scary.



I also like Bill Hicks,another cynical crazy guy,he´s got some good lines about religion too.

 

[Naglfar]

I'm a mystic nihilist!

What the fuck does that mean?

There's a novel by Miguel de Unamuno titled Niebla, and in that novel the main character falls in love with this girl who is an anarchist. He courts her and goes to her home, where she lives with her uncle, and he strikes up a conversation with him while he waits for her. Her uncle tells him that him that he's an anarchist just like her, but he's too lazy to go around putting bombs and breaking things. He just likes the idea of man's freedom! So he's a "mystic" anarchist.

Thus, I am a nihilist who compromises with his disbelief in everything and functions normally every day and gives people the benefit of the doubt for whatever they believe in. Because either I am lazy or practical. Take your pick.

 

[The Minds Eye]

I think some religions have an element of truth in them but in general alot of them have been corrupted over time. I'd like to think I'm a realist, I mean I have seen some spiritual things in my life so I know there is more to life than just human kind but I also think science cannot really be argued with.

 

[Rivfadír]

I'm an atheist myself, but I really couldn't give two shits what people want to believe. If they feel the need to put their lives in the hands of a higher being, then that's fine with me. I just love asking them why they believe what they do. I find the subject of religion very interesting, both psychologically, philosophically and mythic. I love the old tails, but I also love debating what they mean to different people and how they view them. I've read all of the major religious scriptures, and I'd most definitely recommend doing exactly that to everybody in the world. It really expands your horizon.

 

[Doomtroll]

I'm an atheist myself, but I really couldn't give two shits what people want to believe. If they feel the need to put their lives in the hands of a higher being, then that's fine with me. I just love asking them why they believe what they do. I find the subject of religion very interesting, both psychologically, philosophically and mythic. I love the old tails, but I also love debating what they mean to different people and how they view them. I've read all of the major religious scriptures, and I'd most definitely recommend doing exactly that to everybody in the world. It really expands your horizon.

Stop being so perfect <3

 

[Alec Walter Conway]

What really brought me to Ásatrú is the values and principles part, which were, as I said, exactly the same as those I built for myself, independantly, over the years. The rituals are kinda nice though I'm not up to that point just yet, and I don't know if I'll ever get there. And thats another thing I like about pagan religions : you practice in whatever way you want, whatever way you think is best, whatever way makes the most sense to you. So in some way, everybody is a pagan, even atheists and agnostics : they're just being pagan in their own way like everyone has a right to, but their way consists in doing and believing in nothing at all.


The part about the Gods, well take it this way... If they're even there somewhere as conscious beings, which I strongly doubt, then they probably just don't give a fuck about me. I don't believe a bunch of Gods packed up in some other plane of existence called Ásgarðr and all those other things. Gods are... nothing... and everything... parts of one's own self, part of the world. Odin, Thor, Freyr, Frigg, Heimdall, whatever God you care to bring about, they're all just names you put on concept just the same way you call a chair a "chair", a pen a "pen" a book a "book" and so on. They're names to relate to specific spiritual, ethical and philosophical concepts which would otherwise be abstract, as in "not named". This said, it doesn't mean you can't bring about a bit of faerie tales and fantastic thinking to your everyday world by spicing it up a bit with the traditional images of the Gods, big bearded men with great axes and all that. It just comes with it, sugar coating for the whole "God" idea. Hence me smiling to myself thinking about Heimdall when I see a rainbow.

Oh and, I don't pray to anyone, or anything. I relate to concepts and idea, I honor ancestors and the Gods in my own ways, but I don't pray. Praying, kneeling, thats for the masses.

EDIT : I almost pissed myself watching this video! LOVED it!!

 

[Vampyrian]

I'm an atheist myself, but I really couldn't give two shits what people want to believe. If they feel the need to put their lives in the hands of a higher being, then that's fine with me. I just love asking them why they believe what they do. I find the subject of religion very interesting, both psychologically, philosophically and mythic. I love the old tails, but I also love debating what they mean to different people and how they view them. I've read all of the major religious scriptures, and I'd most definitely recommend doing exactly that to everybody in the world. It really expands your horizon.

All fine an dandy, not caring about what people believe. Cool, not caring about those people putting their lives into the hands of a higher power. But what about when those people decide to blow themselves the fuck up in your vicinity? Or in the vicinity of any innocent people, the world over? Or scarier yet, try to shove their religious dumbfuck views into every aspect of your daily life? It would've been a great approach, if nobody cared what you believe in. But the sad truth is that a fuckload of the believers do care. And they are fucking up this world. If everybody would just believe what he wants to and keep his damn religion to himself... GREAT! But since that's not the case... well we're fucked. The sooner people realize this, the better. The sooner people stop blindly believing in this tarradiddle (word of the day calendar), the better!:/ It's insane, the shit I read about religion, day after day after fucking day... Crazy Sudanese assholes wanting to put to death a teacher because she named a damn teddy-bear 'Muhammad'. Insanity. Obviously my main gripe is with the three main abrahamic religions. And it's beyond me how someone could respect them. Not with all of the batshit things going on in this world in their respective names.

I apologize for my extreme use of profanity. I've been watching a lot of 'Deadwood' lately.

 

[ErikSL]

I don't worship or believe in any higher power, I trust that my own existence and the existence of like-minded people will get me through. Humanity is all we know of at the moment, so why not make some friends and enjoy life...rather then worrying about what happens when you die. I don't like religion, to be honest it frightens me...the mass manipulation and enforcing systematic beliefs on people is fucked up. But to each his own either way.

 

[KRaEzTaIuRmED]

I think a lot of people find a certain romance behind believing in something and not believing in something.
Either way I'm not really interested in any.

 

[Naglfar]

Same. It's all make believe to me. I stopped being interested in peculiars when I started seeing repetition in it all. I get so little out of talking about religion that I find myself exasperated whenever I'm around family and friends, and they go off about why religion is good or bad, why some believe, why some don't...

And it's not that I haven't read anything, either to study or out of self-interest. How many times do you need to read the same story about a single truth, or how a other truths are a variety of another single truth?

I don't consider myself a jaded person, but I just think at this point that religion just serves to provide further differentiation between people. I understand that some people have the good sense to keep their religion to themselves, but in doctrine, that's not how the major religions work. You still have a truth to sell to the rest of the world.

Anyway, that's why I always say I'm a nihilist, and not an atheist. It's irrelevant to me whether there's a god or not. I can't be bothered to make up my mind about it.

 

[Rivfadír]

All fine an dandy, not caring about what people believe. Cool, not caring about those people putting their lives into the hands of a higher power. But what about when those people decide to blow themselves the fuck up in your vicinity? Or in the vicinity of any innocent people, the world over? Or scarier yet, try to shove their religious dumbfuck views into every aspect of your daily life? It would've been a great approach, if nobody cared what you believe in. But the sad truth is that a fuckload of the believers do care. And they are fucking up this world. If everybody would just believe what he wants to and keep his damn religion to himself... GREAT! But since that's not the case... well we're fucked. The sooner people realize this, the better. The sooner people stop blindly believing in this tarradiddle (word of the day calendar), the better!:/ It's insane, the shit I read about religion, day after day after fucking day... Crazy Sudanese assholes wanting to put to death a teacher because she named a damn teddy-bear 'Muhammad'. Insanity. Obviously my main gripe is with the three main abrahamic religions. And it's beyond me how someone could respect them. Not with all of the batshit things going on in this world in their respective names.

I apologize for my extreme use of profanity. I've been watching a lot of 'Deadwood' lately.

It's all very true, and I'm mostly speaking from a philosophical perspective. This does mostly work out in my every-day life, as Denmark is generally quite calm with regard to these things. Of course, the whole Saudi-rape case and the Muhammed teddy bear really piss me off, but not more than stupidity and unfairness caused by philosophical or political views. These cases are nothing but pure faggotry. Nothing can excuse this, but I do not view this as something directly descended from religion, but mostly from stupidity. I know plenty of stupid atheists as well, these people aren't any different.

Stop being so perfect <3

Let me tell you, I'm most definitely not

 

[Svarthjärtad]

I'm a Heathen, Norse Pagan, Odinist... whichever you decide refer to it as.
Although, ever since listening to Vintersorg, I've become a bit more... scientology, I suppse you would say? I don't know if that would be the correct term for it. A lot of questions that I have are to do with Science and Math that have to deal with life and existance on earth and the galaxy. I already know that when I die, may my soul be carried to Valhalla, that's no question. I would like to know the existance of us and why things are the way they are?
Oden can't explain it and Christianity... fuck Christianity. So, there isn't any other road to look down, but science and math.
A lot of the questions on earth have been answered, or atleast a thesis to it. With space and the vast galaxy, we are still questioning everything.
I never want to be left unanswered. I like to know the answers to everything, but in some cases it's almost next to imposible.

When it does come down to it, I really don't know what EXACTLY to call myself. Other than being Heathen, I just believe in myself and nature. Haha. I can't really explain it any better than that. Haha.

 

[darcy]

No Svarthjartad... that is not Scientology And be glad for that.

My father was a Unitarian Universalist, and I think a lot of those beliefs have been impressed onto me in more subtle ways, so even though I didn't really go to their fellowship much growing up or know much about it, I found when I finally did research it there were a lot of elements to it I agreed with. Just to give you an idea, here's what UUism is all about:

-Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life;
-Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love;
-Wisdom from the world's religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life; (this is kind of a tricky one- it is the role of religion to INSPIRE, not to instruct or to punish)
-Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves; (the best part about Abrahamic religions, if you cut out all the crap and dogma it's mostly just a few bearded men talking about how nice it would be if we just treated each other decently and with respect)
-Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit. (again this is a good one- basically it says to me, if science and logic suggests one thing, then it's probably right, and maybe our interpretation of faith needs to be revised if suddenly science tells us that the Earth is billions of years old, or that humans evolved from lower primates, or the planets revolve around the sun, etc etc etc)
-Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature. (pagans across the world have always understood that humans are at the mercy of nature and we must not forsake Mother Earth)

It's not like... an exact guide to what I personally believe but that's kind of my background and my take on it. Most people don't know what it's about at all so there you go.

I don't believe in any God as an individual, intelligent, supernatural creature, but instead just as pagan deities are to me poetic expressions of various aspects of humanity and nature, the monotheistic God is perhaps an over-literalized expression of the oneness of the universe (kind of a Zen thing I guess?). I don't see the two as being necessarily incompatible, either... "God" exists outside of the realm of human comprehension and permeates all existence, while pagan deities exist within our sphere.

I don't believe in sin or any other such dogma, I think that concept comes from an attempt to explain to people how we sometimes do things that weakens our connection to nature and our fellow man. The only "sin" is to treat life (your life, someone else's life, life in nature) as a thing to be exploited for shallow purposes, with ignorance and disrespect. That, to me, is spiritually destructive and puts us at odds with our own existence.