Some call it Agnostic, I call it confused.?

Question

That would be referring to myself, actually.
I'm in need of a religion, since sitting on my fleshy backside without an sort of belief system except my personal morals just isn't fun anymore.
I have attempted to be a Christian for the better part of my life, but it comes and goes, and doesn't exactly "stick." If you think you can assist me, then try.
If you think Jews are snazzy, then provide me with some links to read up on it or something. [;
Please, sway me how you wish. I'm in the market for something new. Spirit guides? Bhuddism? ATHEISM?

Here are the major sticking points.
-I'm not interested if gays are immediately smited. {I'm straight.}
-It mustn't rule out UFOs or ghosts. I know what I have seen with my sober eyes. I can't deny it.
-I'm not up for something that is very err.. Hardcore, I guess. I will not shave my head and slather my naked body in peanut butter while screaming, "Hermit crabs! Hermit crabs!" {Not literally, but you get the picture.}

Delta Z-Haha, you're charming.

Honestly, even if I don't find a religion that suits me, I at least want to be armed with knowledge about multiple belief systems.

I can't have faith in something if I don't know about it, which is why I am exploring.

Snout--> My hermit crab died this morning. Dx

{And hah, what can I say, I'm random.}

*eyeroll*

I see a "group" religion {such as Lutheran} as a gaggle of people who all believe the similar things, but not exact. I'm not looking to fit myself in a mould, but find a mould that fits me.

xphoenixwingsx-I would like to hug you.

o.O Raised Christian, if it's any interest to anyone... Hah, I just took a bath and pondered things.. Buddhism is fascinating.

Answer 1

Yeah, trying to find a religion is crap. I was just like you with Christianity.. -prepares to get out the torch to beat off people- and I finally just gave up on it. I got baptized I think like three or four times over the course of my attempt to live in denial. I kept a lot of the good parts in it, like the loving and respecting others, (but not blindly following/obeying like a good bit of them tend to do) including others that don't believe the same way I do.

As of this moment, I've decided to take things from many different polytheistic faiths. I follow the Hindu goddess Kali and the Norse god Loki primarily, but will keep my ears open for any suggestions from the other deities, and I practice various things from Neo-Druidism, Shamanism (Mostly American Indian), a tiny bit of Wicca, and Hinduism.

Basically, I think you should keep an open mind and you should research all your possibilities. You'll know your path when you find it. Just do some self-searching beforehand.. figure out what matters most to YOU. Don't let anyone else tell you what they think you should follow, and don't just pick one faith at random because they are all corrupted in some way or another. After all, we're only human.

And, don't rule out atheism, either... I have trouble picturing it, but it is possible that the higher powers a lot of humans treasure so much might not even exist.

Sorry for rambling... Good luck with your journey. I wish you the best! (let me know how it goes once you figure it out, if you'd like ^.^ I'd LOVE to know!)

Answer 2

Your question includes an invitation to be swayed however the one answering the question wishes. I am not sure you are looking for Christianity. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the light. No man come unto the Father but through Me." It seems that you are looking for something to make you feel comfortable with who you are. You won't find it in a relationship with God. God's truth is hard core and very uncomfortable at times; not sure that the message of Christianity would fit with what you are seeking. If you are ready to die to yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus whereever He leads, the invitation is still open. However, this is personal, a transaction between you and Him, not a question that can be answered in this forum. It is a matter of the heart, as another respondant pointed out.

Answer 3

my thing after 25 years of "living by faith" and not understanding the world, myself or other aspects of reality and current existence, was simply to

get to know myself, do research, satisfy my needs before filling a want like 'religion'

we all have a need for community

I am having some friends over tomorrow for dinner, beer and conversation. there is no religion involved but it is very spiritual in the fact we connect and stimulate conversation and challenge new thoughts, share and give each other something to think about and to hope for

hope and purpose in life, largely what people turn to religion or organized social groups for

Answer 4

Well, young sapient, it sounds like you're way too out there and aware to get sucked into just any old one religion. So, why not get sucked into a religion that's all of them rolled into one, and one of them that's none at all.

Yes! You need to accept "Bob" into your life. You want snaz? "Bob's" got it. You can be a high priest, or a pope or an evil Which-Doktor (c) in the Church of the Subgenius. It's every religion you'll ever need and you'll be ditching them all for blessed eternal SLACK, in the process.

Don't settle for those tired, old fashioned religions! Step up and take this sleek ultra-modern baby for a ride, now with Dogmat-o-flow auto belief adjusting spasm drive and all the most up-to-date luxury accessories.

Face it, you're just too danged smart to buy any of that "faith" B.S. You'll never believe that bunk again, because you've got too much upstairs, so pull the wool over your own eyes, for a change, and feel the difference a truly cynical and satirical anti-religion can make.

Answer 5

Research pantheism. I think you would like it. Atheism and Agnosticism in practice are not wholly different.

Write all of your beliefs down on paper and find a belief system that can incorporate what you already believe. You don't need ancient texts or other people to tell you what you have to believe. If you can't find a belief system to suit you, then become an Eclectic, and start your own system. Everyone has their own path to follow. It just takes some longer to find it than others.

Answer 6

Most of us atheists have studied many religions out of curiosity. I even attended a Bible college undercover.

You get to keep your hairstyle, no disrobing or screaming if you go to the UU Church.

However, they will tolerate it if you do!

This way, the hermit crabs along the gulf coast can stay busy stealing each others shells.

And no, my alligator and I are not in church during that photo shoot.

Answer 7

you sound so pagan, i can almost picture you in my healing circle. what i like most about paganism is that i can go at my own pace, accept the practices of any religion, and don't have to accept things that strike me as ridiculous.

i dedicated myself by making an offering of bread crumbs to mother earth on a snowy winter nite. i haven't regretted it for a minute, and i now have a huge extended pagan family that accepts me just the way i am.

but now i feel like i've proselytized and need to take a shower.

Answer 8

Okay, first of all, did you ever have an actual religious upbringing? I am a Christian (Catholic) and I know that many "Christians" can be worse than atheists in their behavior and hypocrisy, especially when they attack each other's denominations. There are many 'Christian' denominations who openly hate Catholics.
However, I also know some 'agnostics' and those people usually are the ones who cannot admit that there can be anything bigger, better or smarter than they are. They ride the fence by saying "Well, there COULD be a God and there could NOT be a God" thus hedging their bets.
Being a Christian, a true Christian, is not something that "sticks". It is a journey, a process, if you will, towards imitating Jesus Christ's unconditional love towards other human beings. I have been a lifelong Christian and I have committed sins. The idea of Christianity is NOT SOME LONG LIST of morality and moral, PERFECT behavior. It is looking at people and loving them--and FORGIVING them. Think about the person who has abused you the most during your life and try to truly forgive them and FORGET it. I do not expect you to do it immediately or easily. That is the idea and 'challenge' of being a Christian--although 'challenge' is not really the correct term. Christianity is really about SACRIFICE. Have you ever made a sacrifice of something precious to you for another person? If not, I doubt you'll understand what I mean.
People say God is Love and this is true. If you made a billion dollars and you had a child, or parent, or relative or anyone that you love deeply die, what good would that money be?Money cannot bring back the dead, no matter what science tries to tell you. (And, please don't try pointless arguing, I was a science whiz in school and I still keep up with it.)
Do you love the majesty of nature? That is God's handiwork for you. Do you love music? That is one of the gifts God has given us to know each other.
As for ghosts, I have a hard time believing in them. Oh, I believe there are spirits and not all of them are 'demonic'. If I believed only that, I would not believe in an afterlife, hence no Christianity.
But I cannot understand why God would allow someone to be stuck in between earth and heaven doomed to repeat whatever act it is they repeat forever. That is why He died, in Christianity, to bring them to God and NOT wander aimlessly.
And I know whereof I speak. I have experienced communication with the dead. There is mysticism.
As for UFO's?
Well, answer this.
If there are some type of 'sentient' beings out there and they are evolved enough to perfect space travel, why in all of the thousands of years we have been here and especially in the LAST 50 years, have they not contacted us? And do not give me the ridiculous argument that they have some idiotic morality about letting us develop on our own. If they are so evolved, and they see we are killing ourselves with pollution, murder, and nuclear war, why the hell wouldn't they have enough brains to step in and say, "Hey, there's another way"? If they were that evolved, they would have 'interstellar compassion' wouldn't you think? They would say, "let's not let this little blue planet of beings destroy itself when we can so easily go down there and help or guide them."
Trust me, I worked with someone who believed in New Age which is what it sounds like you are describing in wanting a
'religion'. This woman, who was rational in every other sense and was partially a Christian, would come into work in the morning and say things like "I saw a little alien out of the corner of my eye while I was saying my prayers and meditating." I kid you not.
If she really DID see an alien, why didn' t he/she/it make contact? And why only in the corner of her eye? Why not openly show itself?
I mean, for cripe's sake, even GOD made contact with us. He came to be one of us, he spoke to the prophets--in Christianity anyway. We don't see him riding around in a little spacecraft or out of the corner of our eye in the morning.
The whole precept of God and Christianity is LOVE. Do good to those who hate you. (Or even your rotten neighbor or boss or the guy who cut you off on the freeway. It's hard enough just to do THAT, huh?) By doing good to those who hate you AND those who love you, you are teaching them a better way by your ACTIONS. Now, why can't those pesky ALIENS do that? Shouldn't THEY have this concept down pat?
Do you have children? One of the best analogies I ever heard about God was to imagine your only child on a train with you and everyone on the train. There is to be a crash and the only way to save all those people is to throw your only living child onto the tracks in front of the train. Would you do it? In essence that is what God did-He threw His only Son on the crucifix for a bunch of people who most of the time don't even think to thank Him or remember it. And YOU are one of those people on the train.
I also studied comparative religions so I am not just some uninformed, uneducated Bible-thumper. A true 'religion' is defined by the belief in a deity-a god. There are many 'faux' religions that picture God as some vague energy field or as one of the Greek mythologies that have no time or concern to develop a real relationship with humans. Then there was human sacrifice by other humans. What if those religious figures decided YOUR MOTHER or your child or even YOU were to be the sacrifice? Would you subscribe to that religion?
In Chriistianity, GOD has made the sacrifice so that YOU, YOUR MOTHER or WHOMEVER you love does not have to do it or be it themselves. HE has done all the hard work. All you have to do is learn to LOVE.
(And, NO, John Lennon did not come up with that concept in the song "All You Need Is Love" He was merely repeating Christianity's premise.)
Or, perhaps, learning to love is the most difficult sacrifice of all.

Answer 9

It seems weird to "shop" for a religion, rather than truth. I, personally, would not want to be in any religion if it was man made (100% of them) or dedicated to a non-existent god or gods (also 100% of them).

If you wish to persist, try Taoism or Buddhism.

Answer 10

Be honest you should look into Islam. The Islamic religion isn't what the media makes it sound like or from the extreme fanatics in 3rd world countries. Just type in Islam on your computer and get to see the insights of the Muslim world believe me there not scary! You will find peace god willing.