Must I Belong to One Faith?

If I choose what feels true to me from different traditions.....some from Buddhism, some from Christianity, some from Hinduism, some from Islam and some from pure logic.......can I still call myself religious? Or am I something else entirely? Who am I, if I do not fully commit to any one faith?

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CloudAngel80 · 41-45, F

RELIGION is man made in my opinion. If you want a RELATIONSHIP with God, and taking in faith, Jesus Christ is the ONLY WAY to heaven.
Religions, even parts of them from any religions, is good to take knowledge of, being informed, but ONLY JESUS is tge way to true heaven abd eternal salvation. I too have sone mantras and budist, hindu, etc. Thoughts, but my faith is TRULY joy in Jesus! Doesnt manner the church name or denominations, it matters whom your soul trusts in !

ThirstenHowl ·

@CloudAngel80 it's always remarkable to me how some people have the ability to form the conclusion that all other religions are made up, but then that cognitive ability suddenly shuts off once they turn their gaze to their own beliefs, and their own beliefs are suddenly NOT made up, or even better, NOT a religion at all (just everyone else's beliefs are religion).

It's remarkable that these people can never grasp why all those other people also think this person's beliefs are made up too. ALL of you think YOU are the ones who are actually right and everyone else is wrong. And NONE of you can recognize that you've ALL just made stuff up, or blindly followed someone else who made it all up, whether they made it up last week or 2000 years ago. And that's the BIGGEST problem that has always caused humans to kill each other for centuries, all this completely made up crap that doesn't solve any problem or answer any question of any kind, it only creates MORE problems. And in the particular case of your preferred religion, all the people who hilariously think JC would've been Caucasian or supported oligarchy or supported AR-15s or supported Trump have clearly never even really read your own holy book nor understood that the Levant was not populated by white people. And funnily enough, your own holy book doesn't even say when JC's birthday was, we'd have to wait another three centuries for a committee to choose a date.

Humanity will not be doomed by sin, humanity will be doomed by a lack of critical thinking combined with selfishness (evangelizing is one classic example of selfishness on a collective scale). But that will probably be a win for all other species (unless we finish destroying them too before we go extinct).

CloudAngel80 · 41-45, F

@ThirstenHowl to each his or her or their own..

peterlee · M

Pope Leo says he is here to build tables not walls. He is very much into interfaith dialogue.

A lot rests on where you see God. Within or without you, till we invite him in.
As a Christian, I see humankind as part of creation. Very much good, but subject to the Fall and we have sin. We need to be restored to God. This is achieved by God’s grace and the efficacy of the Cross. We thus have to let God into our lives. We cannot achieve this ourselves.

HowtoDestroyAngels · 46-50, M

I prefer to pick and choose the parts of different faiths that help my life. I consider myself spiritual.

Renkon · M

@HowtoDestroyAngels Exactly my thoughts.

CloudAngel80 · 41-45, F

@HowtoDestroyAngels same

H1raeth · 36-40, M

Those are ways, Jesus is the way.

Personally, I think most religions know something of God
but Christianity is the least diluted doctrine we have.

And of course you can call yourself religious.

CloudAngel80 · 41-45, F

@H1raeth best answer ever!!!

H1raeth · 36-40, M

@CloudAngel80 Thanks Honey. You go easy out there in the freezing weather.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

I don't see why not provided you are consistent and sincere.

ThirstenHowl ·

I think religions per se are mutually-exclusive, so no, I wouldn't think you'd be able to call yourself "religious" since none of them want to share you. At this point might as well just fall back to that old chestnut of "spiritual but not religious" to be technically correct.

For added amusement you can take the bits you cherry-pick from multiple religions and repackage them under your own personalized term, now you've just created your own new religion ... like every religion before you did. Which kind of shows the (lack of) value of organized religion, and basically exposes it as little more than a social club ("community").

So which bits are you cherry-picking, things that are really more akin to philosophy, or the actual supernatural, suspension-of-disbelief-necessitating and superfluous elements that more properly make the philosophy into a religion? If it's really just philosophy, and you don't live in a country where a lack of profusely verbalizing your adherence to a religion won't get you punished by the rabid fundamentalists, then the question becomes why do you even feel the need to wrap it up in religion at all, or "belong" or "commit" to any given "ism" just to have your own beliefs?

LadyShagw0rthy · 36-40, F

Gods are jealous things. Like cats if they pick up another scent in you they’ll go crazy.

BlueSkyKing · M

Faith is acceptance without evidence or contrary to evidence. If you are seeking truth, faith is poor methodology.

Renkon · M

@BlueSkyKing I agree there.

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