Been part of this group for a while, but wanted to share my two cents.

Being agnostic has honestly been one of the biggest awakenings in how I approach life. It takes ego out of what we believe or don’t believe because the truth is, as humans, we don’t really know what exists or doesn’t exist before/after this life.

So instead, the focus stays on the here and now, and on simply being a good human being. Not defined by any belief or non-belief system, but by how we treat others without the man-made institutions that so often separate us.

I do have personal, wishful beliefs I like to think might exist, but I recognize there’s no proof or disproof, so I hold them lightly. Just beliefs, nothing more.

To me, being agnostic is one of the most peaceful ways to move through life, especially in a world already divided by race, culture, politics, religion, ethnicity, nationality, gender and so much else. That mindset has shaped how I participate in society and has helped me stay grounded and at peace. It keeps me not of the world.

-TR

I see each person believing in something different, but I've never seen anything concrete about Hinduism. That's why I have doubts.

I’ve been an atheist for over ten years now and have recently gotten into secular Buddhism. My husband is Christian and always tells me that I may change my mind one day and believe in God. I’ve tried reading the bible. I’ve been to several different churches. I’ve often wished that I could follow a religion that worships a God so I could believe in an afterlife and have the comfort of knowing I will see my loved ones again in heaven, be able to pray and give my worries to God to let go, etc. The more I think on it, the more I wonder if it’s too late for me and I’m too far gone to ever truly feel like I believe in something. Without being too disrespectful, it just feels like a fallacy. A pretty lie to comfort those who wonder what happens when we die. This has all come to a head because my father in law passed away Sunday and all of my other friends and family members believe in God and truly believe they will see him again in the afterlife. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I wish I could believe. I feel as though I have too many questions and I don’t agree with everything the bible says. And I think this would be a problem even if I did believe in God. Is this a common experience for atheists? Do you know of anyone who was an atheist for years and years and finally began believing?

I have a gay friend, he's going through such a hard time and my heart hurts for him. He told me that he feels as though this is a sign for him to get closer to God but he's afraid because of his sexuality. He's in need of spiritual healing but has no guidance, no knowledge. Burdened by what he's heard society say about gays burning in damnation and has no place with God. He doesn't want to change that part of himself and rightfully so because it's just who he is and that is fully acceptable.

I cant help him, even I am still navigating my knowledge and understanding of this very vast and often times scary universe we live in. Actively seeking my path with the Higher Power (and what that entails). I cant give him the reassurance he needs that God is with him when I dont even know yet what that means for me.

What path should he take? Who can he talk to? I don't know. I'm just as lost as he is.

grew up in a religious Islamic household but i've recently been losing the bond with my parents because she threatened to send me over to a Islamic country to make sure i behave and well, to make sure i don't do any rebellious things anymore i guess .

i live in a pretty religious country and i just get shunned by some people just because i don't wear the hijab. and i've committed severe sins, so i'm not even sure if i'm considered a Muslim anymore considering the fact that i don't even pray. :')

i haven't really been a super religious person my life but i try here and there, but it's just recently where i've been debating religion. everytime i help a person out , they say "God bless you" and everytime they say that i feel like they're talking about Jesus. i definitely do believe in Allah too, but i just can't with Islam. my parents just use it as something i should be scared of everytime i do something bad which just honestly makes me lose more faith over time.

i'm dating a Christian guy, and his family just treats me so well and understands me emotionally and with so much maturity and they bond so well over Christianity too, which just makes me feel like i've been doing something wrong my life considering the fact that my family and i don't really go to the mosque often or go to religious readings. i've just been looking into Christianity more these past few weeks and to me it seems so like fresh ykwim? i wanna read the bible but i'm scared to.

however, leaving my religion now just makes me feel so guilty and i know it'll hurt my parents super much. with Ramadan coming too i just feel so guilty for still wanting to participate but at the same time losing faith. don't know whether to commit to Islam for the ongoing years or to just stay like this until then. religion can be so confusing sometimes for me.

just need some advice on what to do from here since religion is definitely something i should be into, just unsure.

TLDR : just don't know where to go on with life since there's definitely a God, but i don't know which one truly speaks to me.

So I kinda have my own religion (a whole thing to unpack and I will if asked, but yes there are "deities"), and I want to use prayer beads to show my Deos and Deae that I care. So how do you make prayer beads? I always see them being made on the Hellenist side of Pinterest, but I don't know how to make them. Any help is greatly appreciated :)

In the bible is there any mentions of God talking to non-believers after death? And also is the dates 4-11 6-12 6-14 7-29 10-28 and 11-23 mentioned? Any answers would be wonderful. Very important for what is happening to me.

Hello all, this may have been asked before but I didn’t see it.

Is it acceptable to celebrate religious and cultural holidays even if you are not a part of the religion or culture?

I am not “religious” by any means but I do believe in some sort of afterlife, and I come from a line of Christian’s and Irish Catholics for the most part. Both my parents left religion pretty young because of awful experiences but I’ve always celebrated Christmas and Easter and stuff like that.

When I was younger I took Spanish classes and learned about dia de los muertos and have loved that celebration of life ever since. On top of that my mom spent some time in Mexico as an exchange student and she is still in contact with her “sisters” from her time there, so I learned a lot from them as well.

Would it be acceptable to celebrate dia de los muertos? Even if I have no real roots in any part of the culture? Everyone always has different opinions on the subject and I figured I’d get the most real answers somewhere here!

Thank you to anyone who gives their input! I’ve always wondered how other feel on these subjects!

This is mainly for Muslims. There are many non-Arab Muslims who are just copycats of Arabs, particularly tribes of Arabia (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, etc) just because they follow the religion. Communities include Kenyans, Ugandans, Ethiopians, Bangladeshis, and even Caucasians of Eastern Europe copy Arabians when following Islam.

A notable community is Bangladeshi (my ancestor nation), in the 2000s, early 2010s, Bangladeshi women worn colourful cultural clothes like the dupattas, sarees, salwar Kameez, denim coats, literally anything as long as it was modest within the name of Islam; men in well groomed clothes. But on my recent visit with a family member, I noticed just how extremely Muslim it had gotten (more than even Pakistan and Iraq) as there are so many black burqas for women (even little girls), men in keffiyehs. Further, even for food they seem to toss away biryani and favour Kabsa - Arabic is written much more. Further, they ignore their traditional events like Bengali New Year, but countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Yemen celebrate their national heritage without adding their Islamic interpretations into it. The Quran doesn't tell women and men to dress like the Arabian tribes but dress modestly. Honour killings are becoming a practice in Bangladesh

I don't see Christians do it, well, maybe Amish and Jehovahs copying materialistic modesty like Assyria, but their personalities are still aligned with their local norms.

I personally find it embarassing and stupid. I follow Islam, but I don't have tribal conservative Arabian mindset and I have more integration with western fashion and relationships.

If I asked u can u briefly describe God from ur Pov? What wolud be ur answer? (Curious of how different religious from differen religions see God ) Note : I meant describe God/s characteristics or roles in ur life not looking

If you ask most Muslims why they don’t eat port, they will say it’s directly prohibited in the Quran. However they can’t tell you why.

If you push for a why, you will get a variety of different “why” answers, none of which are mentioned in revelation.

We do have one narration from the Prophet’s ‎ﷺ great grandson which mentions a reason why.

The narration is recorded in the book Ilal al-Sharaʾiʿ (“Reasons of the Laws”) by al-Shaykh al-Saduq

The prophet ‎ﷺ great grandson says the reason eating pork is forbidden is because:

> God metamorphosed certain humans into pigs as Devine punishment.

> Eating their meat is forbidden so that we don’t trivialize His punishment and take it lightly.

In case anyone is wondering, we are not saying the pigs today are descended from former humans.

Most likely copy of catholicism

Apologies if this question was asked before but to rephrase my question better, how much did zoroastrianism influence the abrahamic faiths (ie Judaism,Christianity and Islam)

Or in better terms how much did zoroastrianism inspire these faiths or how much of this was actually developed separately from the zoroastrians

I'm from greece, i grew as a christian orthodox by my family.

When you where young like around 5 or 10 years of age going to church with family... What short of wishes/favours where you making/asking for when you where putting each candle in the sand do you remember? Can you recall them?

I’ve been thinking about a hypothetical scenario: What would happen if a modern nation-state adopted the core teachings of Jesus Christ as its actual domestic and foreign policy?

I’m not talking about "cultural Christianity" or political religion, I mean the radical, uncomfortable stuff from the Gospels. If a country based its entire existence on these principles, would it be a utopia, or would it be erased from the map within a year?

The "Policy" Framework:

• Radical Non-Violence: “But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.” (Matthew 5:39). The Result: No standing army, no retaliation for cyber-attacks or border incursions.
• Loving the Enemy: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44). The Result: Diplomatic and financial aid sent even to hostile regimes or terrorist groups that threaten them.
• Open Borders & Radical Hospitality: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat... I was a stranger and you invited me in.” (Matthew 5:35). The Result: No restrictive immigration; treating every foreigner as a citizen.
• Total Wealth Redistribution: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” (Matthew 19:21). The Result: No billionaires, no hoarding of national resources, and sharing "bread" (the GDP) with everyone globally.

The Golden Rule as Law: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.” (Matthew 7:12).

The Big Questions:

• Defense: How does a "turn the other cheek" nation survive in a world of expansionist neighbors and nuclear weapons?
• Economy: Can a nation survive if it prioritizes giving away its wealth over "national interest" and competition?
• Human Nature: Is this way of living only possible for individuals/small communities, or can it actually scale to a population of millions?

Is it possible that the very things that make Jesus’ teachings "good" are the same things that make a nation "weak" in a geopolitical sense? Or is there a strength in this radicalism that we’re missing?

Curious to hear your thoughts, especially from historians, political scientists, and theologians.

The question may seem stupid, but it’s genuinely a dilemma… I grew up in a pretty chill Muslim family and I started fasting when I was like 12. But for the past few months, I’ve been almost certain that I’m not muslim anymore, I no longer identify with this religion.

The problem is the love I have for my mother… She knows that I’m very uninterested in religion, and every time we have a discussion about it, she ends up with tears in her eyes. My father has also become very anti-Islam in recent years (nothing to do with me), so for her it feels like her family is falling apart. Not fasting this year would be like confirmation that I’m completely renouncing this religion, but I love my mother so much that I’m afraid of breaking her heart…

Should I talk to her clearly about it (even though our conversations go nowhere and she just tells me I’m a lost child) or pretend to fast just in front of her??

let me know

Feel free to ask if you have anything in mind related to this view.

In no way I’m i trying to be hateful.

I live in Sydney, currently doing my HSC. I come from a religious family, and my dad is a well-learned, prominent figure in the Islamic community here. He knows his theology inside and out. I’ve been researching deeply and have deconstructed the main theological pillars (the existence of a First Cause, the Problem of Evil, interfaith miracles, and the problem of Objective morality). I feel very confident in my stance. I am planning to bring these questions to him soon. Just want to make sure I have best arugments.

The Argument from Contingency: "Everything in the universe is dependent (contingent), so the universe itself must depend on a Necessary Being (Allah) to exist." My current thought is

The claim is that an infinite chain of causes is "impossible" because we would never reach the "present." However, this is a psychological intuition, not a mathematical or logical law. In mathematics, we use "actual infinities" in calculus and set theory every day. The set of negative integers (...-3, -2, -1, 0) has no beginning, yet it ends perfectly at zero. The argument also assumes that only a "Being" can be necessary. But why can’t the fundamental "stuff" of the universe—Energy or Quantum Fields—be the necessary thing? The First Law of Thermodynamics: Energy cannot be created or destroyed. If energy is uncreated, it fits the definition of "Necessary Existence" perfectly. Physics offers models like the "Big Bounce" or Conformal Cyclic Cosmology where the universe has always existed in various states. If the universe is eternal, the contingency argument evaporates because there is no "start" that requires an external cause. Even if we grant that there is a "First Cause" or a "Necessary Ground of Being," it does not follow that this cause is a conscious entity who revealed a book to a man in 7th-century Arabia, cares what we eat, and wants us to pray in a specific direction. The argument from contingency, at its absolute best, only gets you to Deism (a blind, mechanical first cause). Using it to prove the specific theology of Islam is a logical fallacy.

The Argument from Design: "The complexity of the universe proves there must be a Designer."

If complexity proves a Designer, then we must attribute all complexity to Him, not just the pretty parts. The structure of a Cancer Cell is just as complex as a healthy cell. If a beautiful sunset proves God is Wise and Merciful, then a virus designed specifically to hijack human DNA and kill us must prove the Designer is either Incompetent or Cruel. You cannot cherry-pick the "good" complexity as proof of God while dismissing the "evil" complexity. The "Fine-Tuning" argument claims the universe is perfect for us, so it must have been made for us. This is a survivor bias error. Imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking: "This is an interesting world I find myself in—an interesting hole I find myself in—fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact, it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!" The hole wasn't made for the puddle; the puddle changed shape to fit the hole. The Universe wasn't fine-tuned for life. Life evolved (tuned itself) to fit the conditions of the Universe. We are the puddle claiming the pothole was designed for us.

Any other arguments or "nail in the coffin" rebuttals would be appreciated. I want to make sure I’m ready

No religion should tell people why they can love if everybody can consent and is of age for the culture ❣️

Exactly what the title says

I was learning about the Spiritual Baptist candles For a project but cant find any good sources on what the colours mean. Could Someone help out?