Exploring Religions?

Question

I grew up w/me mums side of the family going to Full Gospel churches and my fathers going to Southern Baptist.
By blood/heritage my dad is 60% Jewish and 40% Native American
By blood me mum is half irish and half jewish.
My family stopped long ago practicing Judaism.
From the ages 11-15 I preached at small and big churches no matter wat the denomination. Then I finally admitted to my family last year that I was gay.
They flipped.
I hav always been interested in my familys heritage and in religion. Now I have explored so many different religions all awesome yet I am becoming more interested in parallel universes, big bang theory, and sci-fi stuff...

Mainly I am just curious to learn about more people's religions and I'd like to hear some of yalls responses.

Answer 1

That's really interesting. I have also studied a number of religions, and have recently been gravitating toward subjects like cosmology and string theory myself. I find a lot of parallels between science and theosophy.

Answer 2

Religion is a way for mankind to understand the world and how they fit in that world.

Religions have the same basic philosophy. Based on that philosophy, religion provides guidelines on how to live in a good way. It also provides a means of passing that knowledge from generation to generation.

Religion has a very strong cultural influence and reflects that culture's history and worldview. The problem with religion is that when it is taken by different societies, the philosophy is not accurately understood because they have a different worldview.

People's practices begin to focus on the ritual aspects more that on the philosophy. Eventually that religion loses meaning and the people look for something more meaningful to help them understand the world.

You can see the corruption of the worlds philosophy's in the practice of things like Yoga, Chung Fu, Native American sweat lodge and ceremonies as well as, Judaism which produced Christianity.

For some, science can replace religion. It's a way to understand the world. But, so much of science is theory, just like religion. You will still be studying and trying to understand the unknown.
.

Answer 3

I'm a naturalistic pantheist which means that "I believe in God/dess but spell it N-A-T-U-R-E." It is sort of like a nontheistic and rational "pagan". It's paganism for the 21st century and is even more earth-centered than "mainstream" paganism which focuses on magic. It is very eco-centered and Green in focus.

Knowing of the interdependence of nature (food cycle, etc.) as well as the interdependence of actions (ancestors' past actions affect my current circumstances and my actions will affect the circumstances of my descendents) fills me with a sense of gratefulness which I demonstrate both through my actions as well as concrete actions of respect and honor.

We celebrate the solstices and equinoxes. Some of us even do rituals - for myself I have developed offeratory rituals to honor Nature and the ancestors, Sacred Meal ritual, and chanting and meditation practices. These are available in the files section of the public pantheist groups here on Yahoo and on Beliefnet.

Check the links below for more information on pantheism:

Answer 4

Religion is man made. Read the bible for the truth. Start with Romans 1:18-32. I suggest a New Living Translation.

Answer 5

So long as you recognize that religion is science fiction before science, you'll be alright. What confuses people is thinking empty claims, be they science fiction based on bad science or religion, are just as valid as demonstrable fact.

Faith is not a virtue, it's a disease of the mind.

Answer 6

It isn't about man made religion. It isn't about belonging to a cool group. The point is Jesus. You have a stirring in your heart about God, don't sell yourself short and seek religion as the answer, but pray and ask God to guide you to Him. Find a group a believers who can support and teach you the Bible. God Speed!