Are you religious? Why or why not?

[deathbybigsad@sh.itjust.works]

I was born in China, I remember very early on, I was taught the concept of 命運 (fate), 投胎 (reincarnation), 上天 (the heavens) 睇住你 (are watching you), and 報應 (karma)... lot of that stuff.

My mom told me that if I "waste food", i'd 畀雷公劈 (get stuck by lightning by the "god of thunder"; or some bullshit like that)

A lot of Chinese drama has those spiritual themes

One time I was like: "so what religion are we?"

Then my mom was like 道教 (Taoism), but I was so confused like I thought it was 佛教 (Buddhism)?

So idk what ever the fuck their "religion" is?

My mom always said "唔可以全信但唔可以唔信" (you can't believe it all, but you also can't no believe any)

And she also told me the story about the tale of man that was "waiting for god to save him" when it was flooding" and said that guy was stupid

I used to believe in Santa, then I found out my uncle was the "Santa", so yea I just stopped believing. I used to believe in ghosts cuz all the Chinese ghost stories in media, but then I stopped believing.

I read a lot of Western Atheism stuff... Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins... so I believed less and less...

I still sort of hang on to the reincarnation thing as a sort of copism, well not the karma stuff, but more as in "matter cannot be created or destroyed" so it must be recycled, that sort of way...

We weren't able to see atoms for a long time, maybe there's a "soul" that we cannot yet measure? (I know atheists are gonna say I'm being silly xD)

Like the "fate" thing is just so bizzare. I wasn't supposed to be born as a second child during One Child Policy, so I feel like "maybe 'god' intervened and saved me?". So bizzare, I wasn't even supposed to exist.

edit: typos

[ace_garp@lemmy.world]

As it is 95% a hereditary construct, no.

[lvxferre@mander.xyz]

It's probably better if some Satanist answers this instead of me, but AFAIK there are as many answers for this as there are Satanists out there.

For a lot of them Satanism boils down to a set of moral principles; e.g. embracing individualism, non-conformism and carnal desires as virtues instead of sins. It's an opposition to Christianity on moral grounds, but it says nothing about agreement/disagreement on epistemic ones. (AFAIK most of those are Atheists.)

For some Satanism is more like an instinct of opposition, internal to the individual, that pops up across multiple religions; e.g. the Set from the Ancient Egyptian religion, the Asurāḥ from Hinduism, and the Satan from Judaism/Christianity/Islamism. And it's that instinct that they worship/appreciate/support. (I'd argue those are either Pantheists or Panentheists.)

Then for a few it's like "inverted Christianity" — the epistemic beliefs are the same (there's some guy called Yahweh creating the world, he create a guy called Satan, Satan backstabs Yahweh), but the morality is flipped (i.e. worshipping Satan instead of Yahweh).

So TL;DR: it depends, but for most of them there's no belief in the epistemic claims of Christianity.

[whitemonster@lemmy.today]

Wow! That's so interesting! Have you ever thought about what would need to happen to confirm or deny that what you believe is the “right” religion?

[whitemonster@lemmy.today]

That’s Awesome! How long have you believed in God and how did he meet you?

[unhingedfridge@lemmy.world]

No. Started in a Baptist family, but Mom died while I was young and Dad was less interested in the church, so I spent most of my adolescence not even acknowledging the hard questions of life. When those hard questions did arise, and answers aplenty showed their face, I was able to pick apart things in each religion that didn't make sense in order to keep myself from falling into the easy answers offered by others. Eventually, watching my grandma suffer from Alzheimer's gave me everything I needed to know about the soul and what makes each person themselves, so I found myself wholly stuck in an atheistic and scientific worldview.

Could there be something more? Maybe, but I can't see any of the existing religions fitting neatly into our cosmos.

[argumentativemonotheist@lemmy.world]

Eh, I would say about 4 or so years in earnest but by then I was already a big fan of the words of Jesus and Solomon, I just disregarded the parts that talked about God, lol. And through my now wife, although it was more circumstantial: she's Muslim but not like a preacher who "convinced me", we had even reached the middle ground of me doing the rites but not believing... and then one day it clicked.

[a_union_of_kobolds@lemmy.world]

I consider myself Buddhist. Im not a particularly good Buddhist and im not an asshole so I generally keep it to myself.

When I was a teenager 20+ years ago I learned as much as I could about it. I wasnt ready to commit to anything so I carried on as an atheist, but I always felt that if anyone got it right, it was Buddha. If youre going to have a spiritual/religious philosophy, being devoted to the elimination of suffering seems like pretty much the best central concept you could go from IMO.

Im particularly drawn to Soto Zen. Theres a straightforwardness to it and zazen that makes sense to me. I really do need to sit zazen more regularly though.

[deathbybigsad@sh.itjust.works]

Reincarnation seems interesting except I hate the "you shouldn't desire anything" aspect...

like... what if its wrong? Why the fuck shouldn't I get to enjoy my current incarnation?

[a_union_of_kobolds@lemmy.world]

There's nothing to say you can't enjoy life. Buddhism teaches mindfulness, which encourages you to appreciate where you are. There is joy to find in simply appreciating your circumstances, rather than striving for things like material wealth endlessly. It teaches escaping the treadmill of accumulation which ends up controlling us. By grasping interconnectedness, possession is left behind, and we liberate ourselves from suffering.

Thats my understanding, anyhow. Ive got a long way to go still.

[zloubida@sh.itjust.works]

Unless I radically change my mind, I don't believe I'll ever consider any religion to be the true, one and only. For me, religions are like languages; none is necessarily truer than the others. A chair is no more a chair than a chaise, or a silla, or a 椅子. Languages ​​don't capture reality, but each allows us to interact with it. However, it's important to master at least one, and for that, you have to practice it diligently, work on it, and study it.

For me, spirituality is one of the essential needs of human beings. It's therefore important that everyone seeks the spirituality that resonates most deeply with them. There are non-religious spiritualities, and there are even spiritualities that deny being spiritualities or religions when they are in fact (as I move also in Leftist circles, I don't see much difference between Marxism and a religion...). If we deny ourselves our need for spirituality, then we risk giving a religious character to something that shouldn't be. It's often not a big deal, but it can become one, and I see in this one of the roots of political extremism (my nation is a god, my race is a god, my favorite politician is a messiah, this book of political theory is sacred, this other nation is a devil, this other politician is a demon...).

The ideal, then, is to find a spirituality that suits us without ever essentializing it. We don't all have the same level of spiritual need, and some fulfill their need by following a sports team. Good for them! But if we have a stronger need, then I think we should turn to a religion. Religions offer unparalleled depth, an opening to the unseen that makes the spiritual aspect of other human realities seem bland: someone very active in a religion can then go into politics, for example, keeping politics separate from religion.

Of course, the opposite is unfortunately also possible. Some movements are explicitly or implicitly both religious and political, but that's a very bad idea. I ground my political action in theology, and I apply my political ideals to the way I participate in my church's governing bodies, but I keep my affiliations separate. What must be avoided is thinking that one's spiritual current holds the truth. But by practicing one's religion as a truth, by practicing its full depth, then one can improve one's life and the lives of others.

[mac@mander.xyz]

Religion is abuse.

[starlinguk@lemmy.world]

Nope. Wasn't raised religious. It's pretty common where I come from.

[cris_color@lemmy.world]

I'm not, but I kind of miss the community connection and discussion of life wisdom that religion serves.

I've thought about trying to go to a universalist Unitarian service sometime, since I've heard they dont really care if you are a more secular person, they're not a Christian church, and welcome folks of all sorts of world views

[zlatiah@lemmy.world]

I'd like to think I'm a person of free will but... no, I'm not religious mainly because I was raised atheist. China was mostly folk religion (with a good bit of Buddhism) and in modern history it became aggressively atheist so... It's probably quite fascinating for ppl interested in history/religion studies, because I don't know any other country that is over 90% not religious

Obviously with scientific training & stuff I probably would have become an atheist or an agnostic anyways, but it's not because of my education that I became not religious so I can't really pitch it or anything...

[venator@lemmy.nz]

Nah, catholic church was very boring and always seemed like a scam to me as long a I can remember. Also Occam's razor. I'm not an evangelical atheist though: that seems like a waste of time and effort.

[deathbybigsad@sh.itjust.works]

I wouldn't call weird spiritual stuff "atheist", per se.

Does your family burn those fake heaven money thing? Burn incense? Put a chicken on a huge plate as a "sacrifice", then like hold the fake heaven money in their hand then like pray to spirits or whatever while muttering weird 4 character phrases like 心想事成，快高長大, 學業進步。。。 etc... then throw the fake money into a metal container with burning fire... you know what I'm talking about, right?

Idk wtf they are even doing lmao... so weird, I just never participate since I was a teen because those traditions just felt silly.

That, to me, is religion, even though its not "officially" religious.

I don't think I'm gonna be burning fake heaven money if I have kids... like... nah... kinda weird lol... I don't really believe in the spirits stuff and feels like its adding more pollution for no reason. Maybe I'm just too westernized and don't feel attached to Chinese culture anymore.

My family is from Guangdong btw, maybe your family is different, idk, does your family do those weird rituals?

I feel like a "banana" lmfao... ("asian on the outside, westerner on the inside"), the only attachment I have is that I can still read basic Chinese characters... and speak on a 2nd grade level, that's about it...

Oh btw, my mom is very anti-mental-health care and constantly think my depression is just “鬼纏住你” and tells me to wear some necklace or some dumb shit that "wards off evil" lmfao...

And wasting food will “被雷公劈” lolol.

I threw away food I didn't like (I was a kid okay lol) and I never got struck by the lightning god or whatever so... okay boomers.

[daggermoon@lemmy.world]

No. I convinced myself I was until I was 16 or 17. It wasn't compatible with my worldview and it was completely unscientific.

[zlatiah@lemmy.world]

My family is from Manchuria/Beijing where the communist party has a much stronger grip so... I'm not kidding, a lot of ppl literally practice no religion whatsoever; probably got stamped out by the CCP. I think there might be a rather strong North/South divide in China: the North unfortunately has always been under stricter supervision by the party so...

Like they separate it very clearly. My grandparents' generation have old folk religion but ppl would call them "Mi Xin" so... my dad did burn the fake money things, but only during my grandparents' tomb cleanings or anything to do with the older generation. One of my grandparents is Buddhist, but she does make it quite clear. Otherwise most ppl I know literally have nothing remotely resembling religious in their apartments

[iww4@lemmy.zip]

Nope.. I dont buy into modern mythology.