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MonSno_LeeDra
June 8th, 2008, 04:17 PM
Why do we do and believe as we do?


I think at times we all must ask ourselves; "Why do we do and believe as we do?" Yes we go about our lives and do the things that we do but do we really know why or what it is that motivates us to do so? Do we just go through the actions and really have no understanding of the why and what for’s of it? Though I wish I could answer this for everyone I realize I can’t so it will be my answers.

I guess the first place would be "Why do I believe as I do?" Really, it should be an easy question to answer but it is not. When did I first discover what I believe? Perhaps that is the place to start on my discovery.
Like many other’s I think I first became aware of the religious fact of my life in the Church. Yes, many where the hours I spent in Bible school and sitting through sermons. Yet, I never quit felt it as my siblings and others about me did. Oh yes, the charge was there and the energy that made the nape of the neck tingle and caused the heart to race. But it felt shallow in comparison to my siblings.

It was but a shallow sensation of what I experienced when I sank my hands into the Earth and felt the energy of life and growth. The sensation of cupping the roots of some plant in my hands and placing it into the damp, coolness of mother Earth. In contrast to the church, the land did not belong to me; I co-existed with it and was part of it.

Yes, that was the truth! I co-existed with the land and was part of it, not the lord and owner of it as the Church told me. So if I was outside of the teachings on this what else was wrong to me?

The core of my beliefs was being laid at that moment. Yet even as that was ongoing the next stage was being set as I was introduced to two important people. One was a man that taught me the joy of growing things and to listen to the land and seasons. The other being an elderly Italian lady that made me her adopted son and introduced me to her families religious beliefs.

Before I reached the age of 12, I had developed the sensation of Earth, Gods and Goddess, the energy of the land and the flow of the wheel of the year and my place within and upon it. While my friends read comics and such I read about the Bermuda Triangle, Ancient Civilizations, Mythology, and things occult. History became a passion for it was always filled with Why and Why Not with a great helping of What IF?

Those became the three guiding principles of learning, Why? Why Not? and What IF?

Through that search I discovered that religion and spirituality are not the same thing. Religion was the way I approached things that dealt with divinity. It was the ceremonies and rituals and talks with the gods and goddess. It was the offerings and conditions of offering and times and places. Those things that set the stage for the inner dialog that would follow.

Spirituality, now that was different. That was the way I felt and the charge and excitement I felt when I spoke to my gods / goddess. It was the charge that filled the church in my youth but now I understood it and why it touched me but not deeply as it did my siblings. It was the realization that all I had to do was close my eyes and open my heart and they where with me. The ability to recall a sensation and I could be in their presence again.

It was the ability to look upon the world and see the under lying energies that made me think of them. No, not to look for them but to think of them and see their energy and charge in the entire world about me. It was also the realization that all things where possessed of a given life force and we where all part of it. By using the sensation of the spiritual I could feel and sense the great vibration of the physical world about me.

I realized that the religious mundane formulated the concept and placement of my world and expectations from it. It was the "Do unto others" and the "See each for what they are not what you would have them be!" It became the rules and guiding factors that would be molded by my morality and experiences to mold the pattern. It is the reason I view things the way I do.

Yet my spiritual placement is the thing that allows me to look beyond the right now and see the what if’s and the way things might be, could be or even should be. It is the emotional and spectral facet of myself. It is the part that lets me look upon a thing and see the beauty and special-ness of it. It is the fuel that ignites my mind to explore and be open to new things and try to grow beyond the limitations that hold me in place.

My life experiences expectations and beliefs are the framework upon which I build and maintain my beliefs. They form the physical boundaries and structures of what I think and believe to be true. The constants of my path are the things that give me perspective of time and passage of time and life. They are the means I use to mark the points that hold importance to me and give me guidance in the life path I walk.

The spiritual is the blood and energy that moves me within the framework of my path. It is that which is pliable and allows me to consider other options and recognize the divine in all things. It allows me to understand that while I may view in one fashion it does not make it all right, for divinity will reveal to others as it feels best for their growth and its purpose. Even if that purpose were of no purpose or reason I may comprehend.

I ask the questions and ponder for that is the product that Spirit has created within me and inspires me to pursue. Spirit is the outside force and catalyst that has made me ask why and not settle for "Because I said so!" or just simply "Because!’

Yes I mark the passage of time with ceremonies and such but they are of little importance once the hair begins to tingle on my neck. They serve as the trigger to create the condition to move me into the realm of my divinity. They pale under the power of inspiration and mental expansion I feel as I stretch my self, my earthly and spiritual perceptions and energy to touch and experience the land and world about me.

Yet, I wonder have I answered my question though, "Why do we do and believe as we do?’

TygerTyger
June 9th, 2008, 08:34 AM
That was a good read.

I shall return with my considered thoughts.

RubyRose
June 9th, 2008, 10:19 AM
I think I first discovered that Christianity wasn't for me, when I was at the age where I was too old for Sunday school. The idea of going to church and listening to a sermon scared the hell out of me. So many people and faces. And I really wasn't sure the Christian path was for me.

The church outings stopped soon after that, as my parents were divided. My father didn't want my sister or I to have a religious upbringing but my mother did. Turns out my father won, and from that point on (I think I was about 8) we didn't go to church again.

It wasn't until I was in my 20s that I discovered Paganism, and found that it seemed to fit more with what I believed in than my so-called Athiestism did.

TygerTyger
June 10th, 2008, 05:47 AM
I was raised as Church of England Christian. Initially I found the whole religion fascinating and believed strongly in God and the teachings of Jesus. As I grew older I found that my questions, pretty simple in themselves, did not always elicit a straight answer. Indeed, whenever I raised questions related to my being born disabled and why God had made me like this, in the orthodox belief that I was created by God, things tended to become very vague indeed.

Later I became aware of the deficiencies, contradictions and even corruption of the church as an institution. Although I went through my young adulthood with no real contact with any religious organisation I felt a need for a spiritual aspect my life. I took up Shotokan Karate as a means of trying to hold onto my diminishing physical ability and this brought me into contact with Eastern religions but they never seemed to me to be anything but exotic, although I liked the inherent reverence for the natural world of Shinto.

As a child I had become interested in Dinosaurs and this led to a fascination with Palaeontology that I still pursue today. I found an elegance in the theory of Evolution that always seemed missing in creationism.

Whilst studying Philosophy at college I came across Spinoza and Pantheism. I had an epiphany. I can remember it very well. I was returning to the accommodation block, the sun was shining and I reached the top of some steps and it was like I had stepped into the sunlight for the first time.

Pantheism allowed me to reconcile my spiritual and scientific and individual needs with so little compromise that it just felt right. Since that day I have followed this path, with varying degrees of determination.

I believe in God as both an intelligence and as the fabric of existence.
I believe that I am the way I am not in order to fulfil some obscure and mysterious plan of a deity sitting on a throne in a separate reality, but because that is the way of the natural world and a part of the miracle of life.
I believe that we are in heaven when we live within the natural world and in hell when we put ourselves outside of it.

I know that I am happier with myself right now, all deficiencies accepted, and with my life and my place in this world than I have ever been for a very long time, which seems a good reason to continue believing as I do!

Tanya
June 10th, 2008, 06:49 AM
well... for me it started with Barbel, my parent's German Shepard. See... my parents had a dog before they had a daughter... I was 2nd child to them.. and I had a big sister... that she had 4 hairy legs mattered nothing at all to my way of thinking... she was wise, strong and sensible... all you could want in a big sister... right?

but being a dog, she died when she was 10 and I was 4... and when I started Catholic school and they dared to tell me the person who rocked my cradle and let me partice walking by dragging me around on her tail was
a. not a 'person'
and
b. without a soul....

well it jst struck me as wrong.

how could these people who were spposed to be so wise NOT know dogs had souls!!!

who was this Jesus guy I was supposed to love who DENIED my dog had a soul?

I think it all kinda spiraled down hill for me....

everything I saw and knew for a FACT as a farm kid was denied by the church... and when they came around to me... that because I was female I was "As God is to man so Man is to woman....":

well... I had enough of th bullshit and I started exploring... and realized all these ideas I had in my head came from my Mom, Grandmother and Great Grandmother...as well as my father and his half Lakota grandfather.... and I discovered WE had a tradition that made a hell of a lot more sense than anything I heard in church

for me, it all starts with a dog... and goes to... if dog and people are pretty much the same... then aren't we all pretty much the same... deserving of respect and decency? and where is the line if it is not a human line? dogs? cats? fish? butterflies? flowers? trees? mushrooms.... til I have come to the one thing I know is true.... physics has proven it... there is NO clear line where I end and you begin... be you mold, or monkey, whale or waterbug... we are all a continum of life..... and any religion that is homo centeric is totally off kilter.

Bettie
June 10th, 2008, 09:08 AM
I have known what I believe for a long time, since I was quite young. I didn't really find out it had a name until I was in my early teens. But my beliefs came first, the labelling came later. It just happened to coincide with what I already knew.

mystic_zoe
June 10th, 2008, 10:16 AM
when i think about it, ive always known what i believe (or dont). i dont believe in god(s) because it isnt important. believing or not believing has not effect on my life. and IMO i cant prove the existance of one or however many gods, so i choose not to believe.
i went through a whole phase of trying to believe in god(s), trying to find a religion to follow etc but i am now coming to the conclusion that i dont need to believe in god or have a religion.

Skylar
June 11th, 2008, 09:51 AM
I've learned over the past few years that the truth that is found, is different with every person, and that no one person can say that their beliefs are definite. ( Although some Christians try to). What a person believes to be true, is what fits their lifestyle and what they are comfortable with.
This was hard for me to realize. It took a while to accept the phrase "Seeing isn't believing, Believing is seeing" I was one of those who wanted proof. I had to have proof that something existed. Then I 'grew up' and saw that the only proof that could ever be offered to me, was the proof that I found in myself.

Myrr
June 11th, 2008, 08:17 PM
As far back as I can remember I've always believed the way I believe now.

SacredWithin
June 17th, 2008, 12:44 PM
The flip from Christianity to becoming an Eclectic was quite interesting. I would aways have prophetic dreams and such and dream analysis was where I started. But growing up, I was very interested in Christianity (it was what I knew)... More so Jesus and his teachings and not so much what the people were saying in the church. What was most interesting in my transition was that I had a dream about Jesus and that I was actually mummifying him. I was painting the mask of the most beautiful mummy when I recalled his messages in the dream that it was okay to move on. At the time I had no idea what the dream meant until long after I began embracing some of the Kemetic ways. But I say Eclectic because I embrace much more than that. I was also studying more deeply in the Christian tradition and felt it was just awkward and didn't make much sense. There was too much confusion in that community and I wanted to begin from "scratch" and as far back and original as possible. I also was experiencing things that would not be mentioned in the bible or the Christian community had frowned upon.

But I do agree that it is important to think of how we've come to where we are now. It helps to clarify many things from the past and in the future.

Circe3
June 18th, 2008, 02:16 AM
I've always believed differently, as far as I can remember. I always had an afinity for the earth, the ocean, the wind. It might have been passed on to me by my grandmother who always believed in more and my mother who believed but hid it as her sisters didnt share in their mothers belief. I always sat in church the rare times we went and wondered why I needed to be there when God was everywhere. Why could I just not say, I love you, thank you, teach me while I was walking down the street? Why was this building made of bricks and stone more special than nature which came before. Then I always wondered who this god was who made women inferior to man, if everyone was made in its image that meant I was to which meant this god must have another part to it, a female aspect of it. Then I wondered why this aspect wasnt let known to us. I wondered why a god who was all loving would tell you to rape and murder if people dont follow your views then send someone to hell for loving someone of the same sex that when thats how god made them. I always thought trees, plants, rocks had an energy to them, i always believed we came here to learn and did it various times. Then I researched and found I wasnt the only one and I could practice what I believed instead of what others wanted me to.