Who influences your thoughts on religion, faith, god(s), and spirituality? How has the influence shown itself?

Answer 1

The bible was the biggest influence - reading it convinced me Christianity and Judaism were a crock, and I later extended that to all religion. Thinkers who have influenced me included Isaac Asimov, Carl Sagan, and Mr. Hudson - my geometry teacher who taught me logic.

Answer 2

My thoughts of the past were influenced by a Christian school. I attended because my grandfather wanted me to have a better education, not necessarily to become Christian.
Now, that same school influences me to investigate everything & search out reasoning. My education is my main influence, particularly the history, science, & philosophy areas. Other influences include people who like to debate & really seek out the truth of things & my life experiences.

The influences have shown themselves in who I am today. I've developed my own thoughts from examining, accepting & rejecting certain ideas. I think that all faiths have something truthful to offer me on my "quest" but that no one faith has an absolute way. All faiths, no matter what they believe, are untrue when they deny another faith's sincerity of purpose., & so I show respect to all even if I don't accept what they believe.

I continue to learn, understand, & sometimes adopt them into MY faith. I'm still on the fence about "God" or a creator. I would certainly like to believe that there is a God, not as an entity to provide me an afterlife or intervene in my life, but simply as a creator. It would so cool to think that there is something that powerful to create such a magnificent place. But reason has shown me no proof that one such creator exists.

While reason tells me there's no god, I still have, I guess, 'hopes' for lack of better way to say it, & there in lies the fence. I have yet to gain the ability to fully reject or accept the existence of a higher creator.

Answer 3

History is the single greatest influence I have for my faith. I can't wrap my head around a religion based on a book, whose preachings are to love thy neighbor, and spread the word, which has been interpreted as force thy neighbor to live by the word, or kill him. (Historical documents date this practice back to the forming of the Catholic religion)

If you study history outside of the bible you may discover that Christianity is not the loving religion you believe it is, or an accepting religion either for that matter. My faiths reside with gods much older than the Christian god.

But what it all boils down to, is one word. Hope. Religion is just something to give the restless human mind a destination, a bearing to navigate through life, and something to be accountable to (because of, in the case of many).

Answer 4

All who I meet have potential to influence my opinions because I choose to be open and consider all ways of thinking but it is I who decide which ideas are valuable to me and which are not.

I went from spiritual but unchurched to marrying a man who has a strong Christian family I eventually denied myself questioning and became a proper little fundie until coming here and meeting such a diverse group. I've learned a lot here and although I still attend church with my family, if anyone knew how far from traditional Christianity my beliefs are I sincerely doubt I'd have to keep telling them that I REFUSE to teach Sunday school - some of them would no doubt tell me I'm going to hell. You know Methodists all food and fellowship until someone rocks the boat.

Answer 5

nobody influences it now, but when I was about fifteen years old, a guy I knew would always make fun of religion. I had never heard anyone make fun of religion before. He would talk about god with a chuckle, and it was just blasphemy to me. I thought surely this guy would die right away. Well, he has been my friend for thirty two years now. He still laughs about religion. Half of the crazy stuff I say about religion came from him, like "our lady of perpetual motion" etc. I don't laugh at god , though, I don't think he's funny at all. quite the opposite of funny, maybe that is why i strive so dilligently to be funny.

Answer 6

I started to go to Bible College when it dawned on me I would come out believing exactly what they believe. If I went to a Baptist College it would be exactly what they believe; Lutheran etc.

So, I studied by myself trying to rightly interpret God's Word, and it did begin opening up. Wrote a book on eschatology which made me study deeper.

It is God's word coupled with faith that influences my thoughts 'not on religion' but spirituality.

Its funny the more that I studied the more I knew I did not know. The depth of this amazing book is incredible.

Answer 7

i don't see that clothing. I see a marvelous, proficient, humorous guy. i like ya in simple terms the way you're, ((((((((((Jack)))))))))). No faith, no ailment can replace that. And, to be truthful, i don't provide a rat's asss what any faith has to assert approximately HIV - or homosexuality. So, i can't extremely say the way it is been motivated via it. ordinary, faith maintains to be conventional in an afternoon and age whilst humanity would desire to be previous such archaic questioning because of the fact human beings like to have an excuse to choose others - a minimum of, it is proper to the Abrahamic religions. And, I say "screw 'em".

Answer 8

Society does, my family does, the education of my past does. People I come in contact with on a daily basis do as well. The influence of these things/people show itself in many ways. Through the words and actions of others, and even through potential brainwashing. Experiences shape us, and mine have shaped who I am and how I believe.

Answer 9

My life experiences, mostly, and observations of other people. Naturally, it began when I was a child: learning about the world also taught me about what to (or not to) believe in.
It has taught me not to be gullible: to not believe that something is so just because someone else said so. I need proof before I will believe anything - if someone says it is raining, I need to experience it for myself in some way, be it throught the window or actually going out there and getting wet.

Answer 10

I've quested all my life for answers. I believe I'm much better off for the effort. I now feel very comfortable with the fact that God is imaginary, as I'll attempt to explain.

The supernatural – including God, heaven, hell, Satan and tooth fairies – is an invention of the human imagination. The following is for those who believe in the supernatural or indulge other fantasies in preference to reality.

Faith and logic are antithetical. If religious adherents would admit that they believe for PERSONAL, rather than logical, reasons, THEN they would be honest about their "faith". But it’s dishonest to claim one's faith is logical – faith is a personal position, not a logical conclusion.

Faith and doubt always go hand in hand. Faith without doubt is BLIND faith. It takes a closed mind to sublimate doubt to the point of blind faith. Normal people leaven their faith with a little common sense. Doubt always nibbles at the edges of their faith. After all, without doubt, faith would have no context, no purpose, no meaning, no point. Would it?

Because there is no evidence for anything supernatural (including God), NOBODY can claim ANY knowledge of it. Anybody who does is lying or delusional. It takes suspension of disbelief to believe in the supernatural: one must convince oneself that the impossible is possible. This is the opposite of curiosity. You have one life, one quest: yet you choose to surrender it to something you can’t possibly know anything about.

When people talk about faith, they're usually talking about the supernatural: God, angels, miracles, etc. There is, of course, lots of doubt involved because the supernatural is entirely outside the human (natural) realm. It's not so much that God or angels can't exist . . . the real point is that NOBODY has access to the supernatural and thus NOBODY knows ANYTHING about it. Anybody who claims to have faith in something he knows absolutely nothing about is actually confessing to placing his imagination before, and above, his intellect.

Imagination has its place . . . but not where life decisions are involved. Placing imagination above intellect is surrendering your quest for meaning. You are surrendering the meaning of your life to your religion; to your version of God.

And that's fine. Just be honest about it. You made a leap of faith. Your faith is a personal position – not a valid logical conclusion.