Religion that appeals to you?

[Sea Skimmer]

The Quakers always seemed pretty cool to me. I just saw an editorial about some facets of Quaker ideology in the American Physical Society newsletter, of all places, and the ed rubbed me the wrong way, but at least "be extra extra nice to people" is much better than "you're going to hell". The religion is way too touchy-feely for me, but it's probably the best I can do.

I’m Quaker, or at least the attempt was made to raise me Quaker. Touchy feely is not how I would describe it. I guess the idea of people speaking to each other as a method of worship might be too open for some people, but you’re never under any obligation to say a thing, ever and a typical meeting shouldn’t have more then a handful of messages to begin with. Some Meeting Houses actually do have programed worship with sermons anyway; Quakers are not totally homogenous in beliefs.

[Guardsman Bass]

A kind of pantheism combined with deism has always appealed to me, for largely irrational reasons.

[anybody_mcc]

I would probably start worshipping Thor, Odin and all this bunch of Norse gods. I don't know why , but I like the mythology and they seem not to demand much, well nothing probably except to die honorably in battle ( which is kind of hard to do for me ). Even though I am an atheist I am considering worshipping them just for fun , but I probably won't since I am too lazy

[chitoryu12]

I don't know of any religions that appeal.
The whole supernatural business is anathema to me...

...let me know if there's a First Congregational Church of Naked Cowboy Crisco Twister, Reformed, and I'll get back to you.

Just do what I do: Found it.

[Zaia]

Off to SLAM with you.

[TithonusSyndrome]

That one religion that involves absolutely no appeal to supernatural forces whatsoever. You know, that one.

[Rye]

That one religion that involves absolutely no appeal to supernatural forces whatsoever. You know, that one.

Pantheism?

Anyway, yeah, I'd opt for pantheism. Buddhism isn't great when you get down to it, all that junk about material things holding you back and the ideal being the extinction of individuality is a pretty lousy teaching if you ask me. Also, in ww2, there was a lot of support from the buddhist councils regarding japanese imperial doctrine and the treatment of the emperor as an enlightened being. It was also the shinto and buddhist priests that indoctrinated the suciide bombers, i.e. the kamikaze "divine wind" pilots.

[TithonusSyndrome]

That one religion that involves absolutely no appeal to supernatural forces whatsoever. You know, that one.

Pantheism?

In all honesty, is pantheism a religious belief? I thought of mentioning it, but seeing as how it was a serious philosophical proposal that Spinoza forwarded and not some tribal mythology that adapted to meet the tastes of the each era since it's inception, I thought otherwise.

[Kitsune]

I certainly don't dispute that (Christianity is deplorable in that sense), what I meant was that religion tends to spawn extremism. But I agree, Buddhism is much, much more moderate and tolerant compared with any of the Abrahamic faiths.

I don't know of any religions out there that have the level of abuses that Christianity and Islam have against the Jewish faith.

Isn't it funny funny how related groups fight among themselves the most violently?

[Metatwaddle]

The Quakers always seemed pretty cool to me. I just saw an editorial about some facets of Quaker ideology in the American Physical Society newsletter, of all places, and the ed rubbed me the wrong way, but at least "be extra extra nice to people" is much better than "you're going to hell". The religion is way too touchy-feely for me, but it's probably the best I can do.

I’m Quaker, or at least the attempt was made to raise me Quaker. Touchy feely is not how I would describe it. I guess the idea of people speaking to each other as a method of worship might be too open for some people, but you’re never under any obligation to say a thing, ever and a typical meeting shouldn’t have more then a handful of messages to begin with. Some Meeting Houses actually do have programed worship with sermons anyway; Quakers are not totally homogenous in beliefs.

I suppose I got a distorted view of it from my aunt, who's Quaker and very... emotionally focused. I don't have any problem with people speaking to each other as a method of worship; in fact it sounds better than the conventional church services where you recite the same prayers every week and/or just listen to someone droning on and on.

One thing I would have trouble getting past, though, is the consensus-based method of making decisions. It sounds extremely hard to get anything done.

[Hillary]

Science - after all, we all know deep down that it is really a religion

[Ritterin Sophia]

Good reasons for Schatten not to want to be a Buddhist.

[Lord of the Abyss]

Plaugg the Mediocre from the Ebeneezum/Wuntvor humerous fantasy series. Why ? Because he's all about mediocrity and indifference. He wouldn't care about what I did, wouldn't demand impressive deeds or demand worship or much of anything. He sure wouldn't smite me for anything short of punching him in the face, and even then there's a good chance he'd dither over what to do about it and get distracted. It took an invasion form Hell ( rather, the Netherhells ) to get this guy moderately ( of course ! ) worked up; he's not gonna demand I get up from my computer and crusade against somebody.

[Rye]

That one religion that involves absolutely no appeal to supernatural forces whatsoever. You know, that one.

Pantheism?

In all honesty, is pantheism a religious belief? I thought of mentioning it, but seeing as how it was a serious philosophical proposal that Spinoza forwarded and not some tribal mythology that adapted to meet the tastes of the each era since it's inception, I thought otherwise.

Well, it's certainly not a tribal mythology and is more solidly based in naturalistic philosophy, it could be argued it's a religion since it covers the religious questions and experiences and values them to some extent.

There's also deism or Epicurus' polydeism "the gods exist but they don't interfere in human affairs."

[Dooey Jo]

That's a bit of a strange question. Arguably, there are several religions which have mostly good ideas, but I am not an adherent to them not because I don't believe in some god, but because I can make up my own mind about what I think a good life constitutes, and how to be moral. I don't need a religious authority to tell me that. That is what would have to change for me, not necessarily my atheism, and that's a rather enormous change. That said, Taoism seems pretty nice (though I have admittedly not studied it to any large degree, so it could actually well be horrible), or Zen (because, even though you'd probably be spouting a lot of bullshit, at least people will think it sounds cool, except when it gets annoying).

If I instead could choose a religion I'd want to be true, that would be a more interesting question.

[TithonusSyndrome]

Well, IIRC it was on the news some time ago that Buddhists burned down some churches in an Asian country (Cambodia or Bangladesh as well as churches in Sri Lanka).

Did they do it in the name of Buddhism, or did they just happen to be nominally Buddhist the way 90% of Americans are nominally Christian? You could replace pretty much any American crime story with "Christian does <insert crime here>" if you wanted to. It's different when you can actually tie the crime to the religion.

Would Hulagu Khan telling the Baghdad calphate in 1258 that they should surrender or "see what God has willed", and then massacring hundreds of thousands of Arabs and destroying the library in a fit of anti-intellectualism count?

[Turin]

I suppose I got a distorted view of it from my aunt, who's Quaker and very... emotionally focused. I don't have any problem with people speaking to each other as a method of worship; in fact it sounds better than the conventional church services where you recite the same prayers every week and/or just listen to someone droning on and on.

One thing I would have trouble getting past, though, is the consensus-based method of making decisions. It sounds extremely hard to get anything done.

In my college days I was fairly politically active in peace and anti-death-penalty activism (among other issues) in the Philadelphia area, where there is a small Quaker community. I generally found them to be really really nice, but also absolutely infuriating. Whenever we were trying to put coalitions together, they always insisted on consensus for everything, which is a trait they share with anarchists.

It does make things impossible as you'd guess. Not just because of the sheer amount of arguing you have to do, but because it's not enough to "mostly convince" someone. Because as soon as they start having doubts they end up wrecking the whole plan of action -- because the Quakers want to stop and discuss it again.

[Tanasinn]

I find the worship of Cthulhu appealing. Who wants to be around when he wrecks everything and then eats it all? Better to be pious and be eaten first.


Besides bits and pieces of Buddhism, I have no love for religion.

[Feil]

Animism / pantheism in an instant. It's an irrationality, but it's a compelling irrationality, for this godless infidel at least.

[Rye]

Gozer worship also appeals to me, a beautiful androgynous deity of destruction with a demonic entourage. Plus there's always the chance I'll get to choose how the world ends, which has lots of interesting possibilities.

[metavac]

Judaism.

[metavac]

Judaism. Southern Baptist and AME Zionist tie for second, if only for the Sunday afternoon spread.

[metavac]

What's Gozer?

[General Zod]

Judaism. Southern Baptist and AME Zionist tie for second, if only for the Sunday afternoon spread.

Judaism would be somewhat tolerable if they could get over their penis mutilation fetish.

[Rye]

What's Gozer?

To quote from Vinz Klortho: "During the rectification of the Vuldronaii, the Traveler came as a large, moving Torb. Then, during the third reconciliation of the last of the Meketrex supplicants, they chose a new form for him - that of a giant Sloar. Many Shubs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Sloar that day, I can tell you. ”

After World War I, an insane surgeon named Ivo Shandor, leader of a secret apocalyptic cult, designed a ziggurat disguised as a massive apartment building in New York City (55 Central Park West) for the specific purpose of gathering psychokinetic energy (PKE) that would power a portal that would allow Gozer and its minions to enter the world and destroy it.

By 1984, the building had gathered enough energy to pull Zuul and Vinz Clortho through. The two planned to possess suitable humans to open the portal on top of the building to let Gozer through. Because of this, the PKE level in the surrounding area was a few thousand times greater than normal. As a byproduct, numerous ghosts were 'revived' and became active throughout the city as they waited to join their new master.