Why are they so important to you?
2007-10-23 22:55:00 · 18 answers · asked by los 7 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
Without my LACK of religious belief I would feel creatively stifled. I'm an agnostic & I love to ponder on the various forms ultimate reality, if it exists, may take. Without that avenue for creative thought life would seem very dull.
For practical purposes I do like to hold a working belief in the existence of the material world around me even though there is no reason to believe that it isn't an illusion.
2007-10-24 06:44:54 · answer #1 · answered by SolarFlare 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Beliefs about what? Surely everyone believes something or other? Do you mean religious beliefs? I think everyone needs to believe in something... (even if its not logical or proved; it could be a religion or the fairy's!) If you are not "religious" then you still have beliefs don't you; you believe that god doesn't exist. I think that everyone needs direction, so we set ourselves aims and goals so we can feel like the journey of life is actually moving forward and going somewhere.... even thought you do not have any idea of where it is going or where you will "end up" eventually. You can't have an empty, blank mind with no thoughts and no beliefs.... unless you're in a coma!
2007-10-24 06:41:08 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I wouldn't be alive (spiritually) without them. I first met Jesus, then I believed......I received the holy Spirit which is the second birth, a spiritual birth and why christians are all 'born again.'
It's important to me because as a former selfish person, I need to know that I am following the truth, and I truly believe that God knows me best, that I will find my purpose only in relation to Him and that Jesus' death has made it possible for me to spend eternity in heaven. I am nobody's fool, I wouldn't be a christian if I didn't have enough proof of it's veracity.
2007-10-25 10:43:22 · answer #3 · answered by good tree 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Matthew T, you are so wrong. As an unbeliever I have a responsibilty not just to myself but to everyone. I have no claim to a protector or an ultimate judge of my actions. Unlike you and all your fellow believers, I take responsibility for this world and my place in it, and I do it without any comfort in the thought of some ultimate reward. But then again , I am a grown up...
2007-10-24 17:00:03 · answer #4 · answered by davy j 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Jesus is not a belief. He is the truth. I cannot stop living and have no reason to live without him
2007-10-24 07:06:26 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have a few which I adhere to, no matter what. I could not make the necessary day to day decisions without them. I rely on them to answer my own questions and guide my actions. Some are hard or ridiculously old fashioned (according to some of my friends) for others to follow. They are just a matter of fact for me. They have always set me apart and given me personal self worth and strength. They are the foundation of who I am.
2007-10-24 06:47:35 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Beliefs are necessary for living. We seldom have complete proof. I believe that God exists because I find in myself a desire to know my Creator. Unbelievers believe there is no God because they have the hope of not being responsible to anyone but themselves.
2007-10-24 07:21:52 · answer #7 · answered by Matthew T 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Noone can live without beliefs, but they can be changed to fit circumstances.
IMHO everyone has to believe in *something*. Be it religion, science, or philosophy.
2007-10-24 06:02:05 · answer #8 · answered by Marvin the pedantic martian 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No because I cant live without God...I believ in Him 100%
2007-10-24 06:53:32 · answer #9 · answered by sweetie29 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Perhaps by beliefs you mean predominantly religious beliefs, or may be you have beliefs about moral and ethical codes inherent to a society one owes one’s sense of belonging to, the beliefs that we all adapt as our personal values and principles.
In general, when people talk about their beliefs they often talk in relative terms, in terms of their religion, culture and ideological standpoints. They aim to prove that their belief system is not only valid but also one of the best, and eventually not only one of the best but also the best in the world. They then speak with the force of their beliefs and strength of their convictions. But when people speak from a purely intellectual and rational standpoint they often consider questions like - if we need to believe in some supreme being at all? Or, they way you do - could we live without our beliefs?
I do not think that you are offering us here to consider an abandonment of human social and personal values generic to normal human co-existence, and wellbeing, as I that would not make any sense in the end. My answer to the matter of your question therefore would be mainly in the context of what generally the religion propose to us, and it is strongly in favour of having beliefs for the purpose of living – yes, we do need beliefs for our spiritual needs and wellbeing just the way as we need food for our physical needs and wellbeing.
In my view, it is not natural in the mind to live without an elaborate and comprehensive belief system that would define what intellectually and rationally we are unable to understand, or define. What the religion offer in term of belief system is to fill the huge capacities present in the mind to know, to experience, to witness, and to be a part of something absolutely grand and majestic in existence. Our beliefs, if we have them, encapsulate great and unknown voids that are present all around in a mind lit like a candle in the middle that would be left in the dark otherwise.
How would you for instance explain a matter a common as dying? Can you imagine an absolute end to all this while you are alive? And where did all this begin? What the religion offer is a way to manage what we know and the reason to define and understand what we could not other wise know.
Even in doing simplest things in life we exercise the power of our beliefs. We induce a sense of trust and reliability that we need simply to act in this world of uncertainties and wild possibilities. We anticipate, speculate, doubt and fear in our partial ignorance but then our faith in our being wins over enabling us to keep living. How do we know that there will be tomorrow? We just believe that there will be one because there is today and there was yesterday, but we cannot never say with certainty that we would wake up to see another sunrise!
The very life, in my understating, is an act of belief. It is a state of belief that stays latent in the mind. It is always present in the way we have eyes on our face but seldom think about them and never see them while we see the rest of the world with them, through them. The act of realising this latent capacity of our essential human mind is in fact the act of finding God in our being.
2007-10-24 08:57:44 · answer #10 · answered by Shahid 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋