Why is your chosen (or inescapable) faith your truth? Details encouraged! (more)?

Question

Specificity is roundly encouraged. What brought you to it? Does it negate any anthropological or scientific theories that are accepted by the mainstream? Does it intermingle? Tell me whatever it is you believe - stream of consciousness or whatever. I really want to know :)

Answer 1

Peace be upon you!
Thanks for your interest. I'm Muslim, and I love and appreciate my religion (Islam). It goes perfectly with science; in fact, 70% of the Quran has scientific facts in it, and some of these facts have just recently been discovered by scientists (and others have yet to be discovered). These include the human embryonic development and the embryo's gender, role of mountains, tectonic plates, expanding universe, positions of stars, etc. etc. (More info is given on the web link below.)
I know that there are many anti-Islamic folks out there, but I also understand that it's only due to the misconceptions about Islam that these people dislike Muslims and Islam. Such people refuse to search for themselves what Islam is all about and just believe verything they hear about it! Sooo annoying!!
Anyway, I was born a Muslim, and I am more than sure that I'd choose Islam as my religion even if I weren't one; I would never leave it and am grateful I am its follower. Islam is simple and based mainly on common sense. We believe God is One, no son/father; no one knows what He looks like, but He's All-Powerful, All-Merciful. He has set for us certain Guidelines to follow because He knows us REALLY well (since He created us) and hence knows what's good and what's bad for us, and He has told us that we CHOOSE whether to follow them or not. Islam teaches the basics like no lying, no cheating, no cursing, always remember and praise your Creator, respect others--especially your parents-- forbid evil around you and encourage others to do good, etc., and then the Quran says you can't fight wars unless the enemy attacks you first. I love that! The more I read and understand the Quran, the more I fall in love with it.
Anything else you'd like to know? :D IM/Email me anytime, if so.

Answer 2

specificity-is that a real word? if not it should be. I love it! having a hard time saying it though! My chosen faith is my truth. I believe we have a creator. God. I love Him and am thankful for everything I have. I don't think any specific religion is the right one. I don't believe any group of people are the chosen ones. If one religion had it right and no others, it would be impossible to know which was right. People rarely change their minds when it comes to beliefs. There is so much suffering in the world from people thinking only they are right. And alot of the religious people do horrible things. Alot of non believers do great things. I believe God knows all this. I believe you just need to be a good person. Love and care. Even if there is no God, no reward at the end of our lives, it's still the best way to live and be happy. If everyone could just forget their differences, and love each other and help each other, life would be good for everyone. We would all have our reward here and now. Heaven would be everywhere. Maybe I'm kooky, but this is what I believe. Take care

Answer 3

My faith, Wicca, is my truth -- and only my truth. I would not presume to say it would automatically be truth to anyone else. I believe that there are many paths to the Divine, and this particular belief is one that many Wiccans share. It was one of the things that attracted me to the religion.

I was brought to Wicca following what can only be described as a midnight vision of the Goddess, which came to me as I was living a happy and fulfilled life as a "soft" atheist. After considering the experience for several weeks, I decided to explore thiesm again, and found Wicca to be the religion that most closely suited my new-found spirituality.

Several things about Wicca appeal to me: the idea that men and women are truly equal, the fact that women can be priestesses, the fact that all members are considered members of clergy, the wholehearted embrace of the joy and beauty of the world while acknowledging the darkness and honoring it as being in balance with the light. The notion of Deity as both male and female, God and Goddess, and the idea that the world and the seasons express the eternal dance of Their love. The possibility that the universe itself is the very body of God/dess, that the Divine is not somewhere "out there" but is all around us, in every breath we take and every beat of our heart. And something more, something that is intangible but which I can only describe as "coming home". The more I learned about Wicca, the more I felt as if it had been tailor-made for my explorations of the Divine in the world.

As far as negating any anthropological or scientific theories that are accepted by the mainstream -- for me, personally, not at all. I do not believe in fairies, for example, and it would take a LOT of evidence to convince me that things like ESP exist. I believe that what are now termed "supernatural phemomena" are either illusions of the human mind or things that will be explained scientifically as our understanding grows. I think that science is a magnificent tool and our best one for comprehending the workings of the physical universe. To me, the laws of nature are the laws of the Divine.

Whew! That was longwinded. :-) But I hope it answered your questions. I look forward to seeing other peoples' answers.

Answer 4

I choose the Bahai Faith because it accepts the prophets of the past and yet adapts the spiritual laws to the needs of the current age. it promotes the equality of men and women, acknolwdges that science and religion are compatible, advocates the unity of humankind, provides a vision of peace for the world, has neither clergy nor rituals, has a leadership structure based on democratic principles. I also like the concept of progressive revelation, and saw the logic of it.

Answer 5

I first accepted the Bible as truth by faith, as a child. I always knew God existed. When I got older, I walked away from the Church, into a life of satisfying my own desires of my flesh.

About a year and a half ago, I was at a place in my life where I woke up every day just wanting to die. I knew God was real, and I was extremely pissed at him. Everything was falling down around me, and I tell you I should be dead right now, seriously.

One night I lay on a hospital bed, dying from a drug overdose, and I started to pray for the first time in years, and like I never had prayed before. I told God that I needed him, and that I was so angry and confused, and that I just wanted to know what he wanted from me. Sure enough, I made it out of that hospital, and back into Church, where I was saved a short time later.

God has answered all of my prayers, not by explainable coincidences, but by miracles and wonders; things that can only come from God. I know the Bible is his word, because it has become a part of me, and because I know my shepard's voice. God is always there for me, even though I really don't deserve it, and I would not be today were it not for his grace. Over the past year, I have learned so much, and grown alot, and God has lifted me out of the hole I had dug for myself, a hole I never thought I could have escaped. Things that used to make no sense, now make perfect sense, such as those "questionable" Bible passages atheists are always quoting.

I cannot stress enough how much God has done for all of us; 90 percent of the world recognizes his existance, but just don't know who he is. Why not ask him yourself?

Answer 6

Intermingle... yes. I don't understand why giving the "scientific explanation" for a "miracle" makes it any less a miracle.

My faith is inescapable after a lifetime of births, deaths, and miracles that many may explain away as extremely convenient coincidences.

Answer 7

When it comes to religion, I know only 2 facts. That God created everything, and he gave everything a way to adapt and survive. If it did not survive, he made it so. I also know that Jesus Christ is the son of God and my personal Savior. Through him I will have all the answers when I join him in heaven. Other than that, I am always happy to see the discoveries, of Scientist's, of the things God allowed to happen. I was Roman Catholic, and raised Catholic. I left the religion when I found it did not actually follow what I was reading in the Bible. I am Christian, and I will never stray from my faith, but I will accept evidence from scientist's that prove certain things that God has allowed to come forth and become.

Answer 8

my faith is my truth simply because i believe in it.

I am a Pagan, and some of our beliefs are against science.
I believe in many things that are not in the mainstream. (fairies,magic etc)

I am Pagan because to me it makes sense.

i became Pagan because after reading the bible and the Quran and the Torah i asked myself

"why can't all fo the gods exist?"

then i started studying paganism, i started with roman and greek gods, then found my way to the Celtic Pnatheon. and the gods in that pantheon seemed to work well with my ideas of what the world should be like.
everyone has a place in it, and noone has a right to force their beliefs on anyone else. yes all of your gods exist and so do mine.
and the simple fact that you and i believe in a different god is no reason to fight.

this is why i am a pagan.

Answer 9

My truth is everybodys truth. If everyone in the world sat exactly in the spot I'm sitting right now, in the same direction and everything. They would be facing North. Even if they didn't know what way was north. It would still be North. The only way it wouldn't be North is if someone else's truth was very powerful and was able to rename North. But it would still be north even with a different name.

Answer 10

It isn't my truth - it is my belief. Only time will tell if it is true.

I came to my current religious beliefs after years of intense study. Some people play golf, some people build model ships... I spent ten years reading every religious text I could get my hands on, studying Greek, Hebrew, Latin and Chinese, and reading the works of many major philosophers.
I decided on two religious concepts: Eastern Orthodoxy and Freemasonry (which some folks mistakenly believe to be incompatible).

Eastern Orthodox theology is rational, consistent, and accounts for most (if not all) of the theological paradoxes that so many Christian denominations wrestle with.

Freemasonry is a beacon of tolerance and rationality in religion. A famous passage by Pike illustrates this:
God is still everywhere in nature. Wher-
ever a heart beats with love, wherever Faith and Reason utter
their oracles, there is God, as formerly in the hearts of seers and
prophets. No soil on earth is so holy as the good man's heart;
nothing is so full of God. This inspiration is not given to the
learned alone, not alone to the great and wise, but to every faithful
child of God. Certain as the open eye drinks in the light, do the
pure in heart see God; and he who lives truly, feels Him as a presence within the soul. The conscience is the very voice of Deity. Masonry, around whose altars the Christian, the Hebrew, the Moslem, the Brahmin, the followers of Confucius and Zoroaster, can assemble as brethren and unite in prayer to the one God who is above all the Baalim, must needs leave it to each of its Initiates to look for the foundation of his faith and hope to the written scriptures of his own religion. For itself it finds those truths definite enough, which are written by the finger of God upon the heart of man and on the pages of the book of nature. Views of religion and duty, wrought out by the meditations of the studious, confirmed by the allegiance of the good and wise, stamped as sterling by the response they find in every uncorrupted mind, commend themselves to Masons of every creed, and may well be accepted by all."


I believe that freedom is the highest good of man.