Hello!

[Anonomous]

Hello World!

I was born and raised in an athiest household. At age 10, I created an imaginary island called Calaveigjia. I became attracted to Buddhism at around age 12. I became an Indophile at age 13 and leaned more towards hinduism. At 15, I realised that neither of these religions I felt comfortable conforming to. I thus designed a pantheist belief system that more resembled my religious tendencies. The religion is called "Alradjadu", a name meaning "humanity" in a language that I have made up called "Yangralngarlu". The language is that of an ethnic group in Galangurlu, an island in my alternate history (evolved from Calaveigjia) in which the Sahul shelf has been exposed since the holocene.

Alradjadu has some resemblencies with hinduism but a lot of it was indepedently thought about and created. It is a descriptive, rather than prescriptive religion, the major tenets of which are ontological rather than ethical. In the context of the alternate history, it arose from philosophical schools in the Yangralngarlu states during the formative to classic periods of Galangurlu history. Many of the minor deities are borrowed from local folk religions.

As Alradjadu has to conform to a realistic alternate history of a preindustrial people, some aspects of it are not scientifically correct. I generally do not believe in those aspects but everyone sees parts of their religions that they do not agree with.

 

[Devils' Advocate]

Hello and welcome. So you were born into an atheist household and found that to be insufficient to fulfill your being. The need for some type of religious foundation must have been very powerful for you to generate an entirely new religious doctrine - one that suited you better than one of the religions that exist today.

I am curious, can you explain at all what the need was that was so powerful that it became necessary to create all of this? What does it fulfill within you.

 

[Anonomous]

Sorry for responding so late!

In response to your inquiry, I quote Dawkins

"pantheism is sexed up atheism"

All I am doing by creating my own religion is creating a symbolic framework around my scientific beliefs with a devotional tint. When only my core beliefs are considered, I am still basically atheist. I quote Einstein:

"I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the kind that we experience in ourselves. Neither can I nor would I want to conceive of an individual that survives his physical death; let feeble souls, from fear or absurd egoism, cherish such thoughts. I am satisfied with the mystery of the eternity of life and with the awareness and a glimpse of the marvelous structure of the existing world, together with the devoted striving to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the Reason that manifests itself in nature."

My religion is just a metaphorical structure that reflects my religious awe of the natural world. As Einstein remarks, I also believe that the application of basically human attributes to nonhuman entities is anthropocentric. Thus all of my deities except for those that represent aspects of humanity are impersonal.

The culture to which Alradjadu is applied is a product of my deep and long established interest in anthropology. I did not create Yangralngarlu culture in order to create Alradjadu. Yangralngarlu, its predecessors, and my internet in them long preceded my creation of a separate belief system. They merged when I realised that it would be interesting if the culture's beliefs reflected mine own. It also allows me to put my religion in the context of a traditional society in which its community, institutionalisation, and rituals can be fully expressed as a major aspect of their culture. My purpose in joining this website was to be able to discuss my beliefs freely with a religious community and hopefully find someone that shares a few of my beliefs. If I were to explain them publicly, I would need to do so in a video as explaining a whole religion in textual format is not the most feasible thing to attempt.

In conclusion, my core beliefs have not changed since I became pantheist. I have just "sexed them up" as Dawkins would say. I feel uncomfortable saying that atheism was insufficient. I would be perfectly content saying that I am atheist. Pantheism is just my emotional response to the world and does not mean that I believe in anything additional. It is just a way of seeing things.

If I am to continue discussion of my religion, should I initiate it in another forum or keep writing in the introductions forum?