What do you believe?

Question

( this is just curiosity, personal bias aside) What is significant about human life? what is significant about your life specificaly?.... and what makes your opinion matter more than mine?
This is a serious question.... I'm wondering why anyone listens to anyone over someone else... and how what anyone thinks really matters to anyone else... and beyond the boundries of our atmosphere, what does a human life mean.... how does human emotion have anything to do with anything?

feel free to get preachy everyone.

Answer 1

You ask a lot of questions...but I'll stick to the first one, and try to incorporate the second (the one about opinion).

My opinions are subjective.... but I don't base my belief system on opinions. Opinions are open to interpretation, but my belief system is not based on opinion.

I believe.... Jesus walked amongst man.

I believe... Jesus was beaten, spit on, and ultimately...died on the cross.

I believe (and this is not opinion)...that the tomb was empty.

I examined what that meant, and realized I have to stretch my imagination even farther to try to come up with an air-tight explanation for anything other than....Resurrection.

I believe there was purpose in His dying.... I believe His death serves to pay the price needed to atone my sins, and to begin the sanctification needed to reconcile me with the Creator.

Thank you... not too preachy was it?

Answer 2

There a number of different kinds of being. There is a rock. There is a plant which can grow and reproduce itself. There is an animal, which can generally do what plants do, but can also can absorb knowledge, and make decisions. There are humans which can do what animals do, but can also rationalize about abstract ideas. There are angels which are not material, and do not know about material things, do not rationalize but gain knowledge by direct apprehension. Then there is a supreme being which is entirely different from all the other beings.

To a philosopher the distinctive ability of a human is his rationality. To a theologian, it is a material being who has the power to love. I think that the person who truly loves his or her fellow humans is a good listener. He thinks about what the other person has said. He tries to find out how that person has arrived at his position. I believe that I was created to know and love God in this world and to be happy with Him in the next world. Meanwhile, I must work, and eat, and sleep, and share my life with this woman I am married to.

Answer 3

Human life has great significance, since we have a profoud affect on our environment and on each other, and we are human, so we should make the most of what we are. Opinions matter more if they are more informed, or based on more reliable experience. Some people put a lot more thoiught into their opinions that others, and can be helpful to others with their ideas, ot take on life. If your opinion is superior for the above reasons, I should be spiritually sensitive enough to pick up on that fact and learn from you. I do put a lot of thought, experience and some knowledge into my opinions, so they might have something to offer you, butI can never be sure. Listening to others is important, failure to pay attentions to others can lead one to have a very limited perspective on life. Human emotion is a very powerful agent to make things happen in this world. One is not well motivated if one's emotions are not behind what one is doing. Being in control of emotions so as to direct them constructively is important. Meditation/pray, mind-body exercises, healthy eating, and not overindulging can help one to get stronger emotionally, and hopefully inspire you to move in a constructive and positive direction, with regards to both your moral ideas, and your emotions. Beyond the atmosphere of this planet, I believe there is more human life. And since I believe in reincarnation, we may be more connected beyond the earth than we think through past lives elsewhere. Also we may connect at night in our dreams beyond this earth also. Speculation is what begins the process of discovery.

Answer 4

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.

BTW, when you die, you're just dead, except in the memories that you leave behind so live a life of significance.

Check the links below for more information on pantheism: