Why do you believe one religion over another?

I was christened as a child but ever since i was 14/15 i have questioned religion and choose to now be agonostic. So is your religion chosen by your parents? or do you freely choose to believe in a particular one? and why that religion?

p.s..please dont tell me i'm going to hell cos i dont believe A question to christians also..if god forgives alll then why is there a hell??

cat x

Because God only offers forgiveness. He doesn't force us to accept it.

My beliefs are the result of my own thoughts and decisions, based on a number of experiences in my life. My parents hold the same beliefs, but independantly of me, and I independantly of them.

And did you know that 'agnostic' is Greek? It means 'unenlightened.'

I respect your opinion as every1 choses there own way in life..
yeah i know that and maybe i am unenlightened but i find it hard to support a religion when so many bad things happen to good people...why would a god do that?

I was christened as a child but ever since i was 14/15 i have questioned religion and choose to now be agonostic. So is your religion chosen by your parents? or do you freely choose to believe in a particular one? and why that religion?

p.s..please dont tell me i'm going to hell cos i dont believe A question to christians also..if god forgives alll then why is there a hell??

cat x

God, or the Poetic Genius, is a creation of man and is mans fundamental soul. All religions are different cultures emanations of this Poetic Genius trying to codify the eternal nature of the human soul (the afterlife itself is a metaphorical construction to show the beauty of enlightenment and the horror of ignorance). Divinity ultimatley resides in the human heart. At an esoteric level all religions are the same, they have one key tenent that all hold in common: 'thou shalt not disfigure the soul'.

Basically read William Blake and the poetry of Rabia and Rumi and you get my basic beliefs.

By 'basic beliefs' do you mean a brief, pseudo-intellectual paragraph full of crap?

Yeah I've always thought that. I think its a bit weird that a god would choose to let people be born into appaling poverty in say India, and as a result they are brought up as Hindu's and therefore are damned to hell for eternity for not believing in Jesus, a man that they'd never even heard of.

welp sorry for using big words.

God is in man and man is the mind which is heaven and hell.

That better?

I don't mind people using 'big words' but not if they are using them to obscure the fact that their point of view makes no sense.

And no.

All Religions are One (William Blake, 1788)

The Voice of one crying in the Wilderness
The Argument. As the true method of knowledge is experiment, the true faculty of knowing must be the faculty which experiences. This faculty I treat of.

* Principle I. That the Poetic Genius is the true Man, and that the body or outward form of Man is derived from the Poetic Genius. Likewise that the forms of all things are derived from their Genius, which by the Ancients was call'd an Angel & Spirit & Demon.
* Principle II. As all men are alike in outward form, So (and with the same infinite variety) all are alike in the Poetic Genius.
* Principle III. No man can think, write or speak from his heart, but he must intend truth. thus all sects of Philosophy are from the Poetic Genius adapted to the weaknesses of every individual.
* Principle IV. As none by travelling over known lands can find out the unknown, So from already acquired knowledge Man could not acquire more; therefore an universal Poetic genius exists.
* Principle V. The Religions of all Nations are derived from each Nation's different reception of the Poetic Genius, which is every where call'd the Spirit of Prophecy.
* Principle VI. The Jewish & Christian Testaments are An original derivation from the Poetic Genius. This is necessary from the confined nature of bodily sensation.
* Principle VII. As all men are alike (tho' infinitely various), So all Religions , &, as all similars, have one source. The true Man is the source, he being the Poetic Genius.

That post makes almost no sense to me, if anyone can translate, please go ahead.

Agnostics are just Atheists without balls lol.

Oh give it a rest. Agnostics just admit that as simple humans we have no way of knowing if there is or isn't a God, while both atheists and theists alike seem to think that they can actually know whether God exists or not. I used to be atheist, then I realised that I don't know everything.

Depends how you define atheist. You seem to be of the opinion that to be an atheist you have to be a strong atheist. Most people who describe themselves as atheists disagree on that definition of atheist. Most "atheists" don't claim to know there is no god.

If atheist is defined as lack of belief in any gods, then most agnostics would be atheists. Sounds like you lack belief in god, so under that definition you are an atheist.

I don't lack a belief in a god though... I believe that the most likely explanation for the truth about the universe falls to "deism" (the belief in a non-interventionist, apathetic creator God), but I identify as agnostic because I believe that it's impossible for us humans, at this point in time, to understand the true nature of the universe. The only thing I believe for sure is that there is some huge truth behind the universe that us humans have no concept of (yet).

Anyway, I know what the technical definition of an atheist is, and if you count anyone that simply does not believe in God, that's about 98% of people at my school. However, atheist has a completely different meaning where I live! Since barely anyone at my school believes in God, "atheist" has come to mean someone who runs around telling people why God does not exist. And that is possibly the only stereotype I've seen that holds true, because ALL the people at my school who identify as atheists do exactly that. So despite me going to a school full of atheists, barely anyone actually calls themself an atheist.