If I believe in a God of my vision and do not want to belong to any religion what would you think of me?

Question

I believe in a supreme power that remains unidentified by any Epic. I do not believe in any God glorified by a particular religion. I live a normal life liberally blessed by the God that resides in me. Neither do I go to a place of worship nor am I a member of any religious institution. I wish to donate my body after my death and part of my savings for public good while living. What would I be after my death true to your belief? If your reply is fact-based with a broader out look on life and living realities, it will not hurt me. Be frank in your response.

I expected brickbats to my question but I received bouquets in return. Thanks to all those who contributed such intelligent answers as you see below. My special thanks to 'Yahoo! Answers’ for providing me with a platform to air my outlook.

Answer 1

As a Christian, you would go to Hell. However, I respect that you believe in your own God. I am a Christian, but I have this odd conviction that Christianity isn't the only "Right" religion... I believe that you will go wherever you want to / think you will go.

Answer 2

Your thoughts are quite commendable.

Here're my thoughts (please note that my reply is not intended to disrespect any specific religion or any God):
Though I believe there is God, I think religion is something that is created by man and the primary objective of religion when it was created was to have a social harmony and to bring in a value system in which people can live together and help each other instead of fighting one another and soon become extinct. The only way to bring such a value system to masses is a medium akin to religion. The core of any religion would actually preach love, peace, helping each other, living by social laws etc. Your choice of believing in an unidentified supreme power and not associating with any specific religion would not only keep you in the right spirit but also free you from the fanatism that some religious fundamentalists carry along with them.

Following such a belief, I think, after death you would be simply be remembered by all those who have received benefits from you and those who have witnessed your good deeds, and thus you live eternally!

Answer 3

I was agnostic for many years, believing very much like you do. As a mystic, I explored many different paths, experiencing what they had to offer, adapting my philosophies to the truths I found within them. I gave Christianity the same open minded searching that I gave to other religions. This lead to the exclusive claim of Jesus that He is the way, the truth and the life... and that no one could come to God except through him. My belief in the possibility that this may be true opened the door to find this claim was indeed true.

The living God had touched my heart and changed my life. He has done this for millions over thousands of years. I still do not belong to any religion or denomination. I am simply a Christian... a follower of Christ. I live a spiritual life, not a religious one, in personal relationship with a loving and dynamic God. My searching had ended, and I began a new journey of a life with God.

I believe you are a good person, with good intentions. I believe most people are as well. I think you also realize that something is still missing in your life. That void is filled by the living God. We are lost and separated from Him until we come to Him through Jesus Christ. There is no other way, belief, philosophy or religion that will do this for us. If we do not find our way to enter into relationship with Him before we die, then we face an eternity lost and separated from Him.

Email me if you have more questions you would want me to answer for you. I would be glad to share with you.

Answer 4

What if the Supreme Power had gone to the trouble of revealing itself, and you had not shown any interest in the revelation? This is complex, because most religions claim some deity's self-revelation. As I am a Christian, I will not attempt in this post to evaluate other religions. You say God is in you. Therefore, from a Christian point of view, you are in effect claiming a revelatory event of your own. Did God reveal Himself to you? If so, how would you authenticate it? Even more interesting, why would you want to have one of us validate your experience? You see, experiencing God is something that naturally must be shared. Furthermore, you wish to contribute to the public good. Now you have an inner revelatory experience combined with a desire to positively affect the lives of other people. In addition, you have chosen a public forum for expressing your view, possibly in hopes of finding others of like mind and belief.

In doing all these things you have demonstrated the core attributes found in most religious institutions. You have in effect added yet one more "religion" to the vast array of religions already clamoring for our attention. That is all well and good, and in a free country you are welcome to pursue self-made religion. But it begs the question: Did God already perform a self-revelatory act that has a greater claim to authority that one more person's self-made religion? That is precisely the Christian claim, that Jesus came into the world by a birth, a life, a death, and a resurrection that constitute an irrefutable self-revelation of the one and only Deity. If this claim is false, you may safely enjoy any private conception of God, and I am sure He will not mind. If, on the other hand, the Christian claim that God has revealed Himself in the Messiah is true, then I think we are obligated to consider that revelation more informative and more consequential than the musings of our own heart. Jesus made a specific claim against what you have said. I will repeat it here for your consideration:

For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. John 5:22-23.

Therefore, if Jesus is the self-revealing act of God, rejecting Him is equal to rejecting God, and accepting Him is equal to accepting God. Something to think about.

Answer 5

Hai pal, you have the braveness to particular your perception while maximum persons do lack in it. that's the strking actuality that maximum persons belonging to assorted faiths finally comprehend. however the question the thank you to make a living out of it? you're speaking approximately what could you be after dying. i'm in simple terms referring the way you would be whilst living? you like some identity, team, faith you're envisioned to persist with or attributed to be belonging to. How else you may get relieved of those born with presents? this could be a materialist international the place each and every thing spins around money and ability. attempt to comprehend and have an account of that philosophy which shows the two the techniques. Sinmple living, severe thinking, pious, philonthrophic, and confortable want based accompalishments and a watch on the existence after dying. have been given it?

Answer 6

Nimit,

What you are describing in your introduction, to me, is spirituality and not religion. Religion is a systematic world view that is motivated by Man's effort to be reconciled with his Higher Power, be that God, Yahweh, Allah, Vishnu, etc. Spirituality, in my opinion, is ones motivation to commune with God, to have meaningful conscience contact with ones Creator. I personally self-identify as a Christian, however, I have no use for all of the rules, traditions, works, performances and dogma associated with many Christian denominations and quasi or pseudo Christian religious systems.

Nimit, base on your short self-description, I would say that you are more on the Spirituality side of the issue than on the religion side. So what do I think of you? I think that if you are able to commune with God in a meaningful way on a regular basis, He will show you His true nature and teach you what he expects from you. It may be by means of a direct, one-on-one communication, or it may be through another human being or set of circumstances. I do not judge you. I cannot see what is in your heart. Only God can and as such, he is the only one qualified to decide your future. No man can legitimately lay claim to such a decision. Keep sincerely seeking Him and you will find Him. I have found in my own personal experience that this seeking principle is a true principle.

Answer 7

I would try to find out who/what that supreme power is. As far as what I would think of you, I wouldn't think any different of you than I did before you told me this. You can live without today's corrupt religion but you can't live without spirituality( a relationship with God). If your belief is not in the one true Christian God then you will spend eternity separated from him. Whether that be in limbo or in hell I'm not the right one to ask. You should be asking your supreme power. GOD BLESS!!

Answer 8

What if he's glorified by all religions? This would make your vision just one among many, but no less valuable. What if glorification is something that happens to worshipers, and not to God, who really has no need of it?

The value of places of worship is not that everyone inside thinks the same as you do, or even that they think well of you for what you believe. The value of places of worship is that there are people there, and community is as necessary as individuality.

Act in a way worthy of a child of God. What I think of your eternal destiny doesn't really matter too much, does it?

Answer 9

No problems.You incarnate.
First you have to know about God.


Who is God? Where is God? How can I come to know God?"

God has no names, but all names are the names of God. Whether you call Him this or that, He remains Who He is. But in our tradition we call God by the loving name Siva, which is only one of His 1,008 traditional names. Supreme God Siva is both within us and outside of us. Even desire, the fulfillment of desire, the joy, the pain, the sorrow, birth and death -- this is all Siva, nothing but Siva. This is hard to believe for the unenlightened individual who cannot see how a good, kind and loving God could create pain and sorrow. Actually, we find that Siva did not -- not in the sense that is commonly thought. God gave the law of karma, decreeing that each energy sent into motion returns with equal force.

In looking closely at this natural law, we can see that we create our own joy, our own pain, our own sorrow and our own release from sorrow. Yet we could not even do this except for the power and existence of our loving Lord. It takes much meditation to find God Siva in all things, through all things. In this striving -- as in perfecting any art or science -- regular daily disciplines must be faithfully adhered to.

Siva is the immanent personal Lord, and He is transcendent Reality. Siva is a God of love, boundless love. He loves each and every one. Each soul is created by Him and guided by Him through life. God Siva is everywhere. There is no place where Siva is not. He is in you. He is in this temple. He is in the trees. He is in the sky, in the clouds, in the planets. He is the galaxies swirling in space and the space between galaxies, too. He is the universe. His cosmic dance of creation, preservation and dissolution is happening this very moment in every atom of the universe. God Siva is, and is in all things. He permeates all things. He is immanent, with a beautiful form, a human-like form which can actually be seen and has been seen by many people in visions. He is also transcendent, beyond time, cause and space.

That is almost too much for the mind to comprehend, isn't it? Therefore, we have to meditate on these things. God Siva is so close to us. Where does He live? In the Third World. And in this form He can talk and think and love and receive our prayers and guide our karma. He commands vast numbers of devas who go forth to do His will all over the world, all over the galaxy, throughout the universe. These are matters told to us by the rishis; and we have discovered them in our own meditations. So always worship this great God. Never fear Him. He is the Self of your self. He is closer than your own breath. His nature is love, and if you worship Him with devotion you will know love and be loving toward others. Devotees of God Siva love everyone.

This is how God Siva can be seen everywhere and in everyone. He is there as the Soul of each soul. You can open your inner eye and see Him in others, see Him in the world as the world. Little by little, discipline yourself to meditate at the same time each day. Meditate, discover the silent center of yourself, then go deep within, to the core of your real Being. Slowly the purity comes. Slowly the awakening comes.

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Answer 10

Well, I would say hats off buddy! It's been a looonng time since I met across stuff like this. Frankly speaking, you totally match my way of thinking. I would like to announce this to all. Make as many rounds of the globe in search of God, you will not find a single trace of Him, at least not alive!

God is unity in diversity. He wants us to know Him as one. There are many so-called religious people, whom I know, have used religion for their own good........hypocrisy. People know only to find faults in others' religion without taking a look at theirs.