What do you each represent? Which religions do you feel you represent & may be knowledgeable about?

Also, what do you represent and what symbols seem to sort of surround you or represent you or do you link to yourselves or find spiritually significant as well?

Like an example is someone might say "I try to represent and practice the Baha'i faith, I feel I am knowledgeable on the Baha'i faith and Christianity. I seem to link myself to the image of an Owl and the symbol of a tree because of such and such, the number 7 is important to me and I give it such and such personal significance"

But hopefully more extensive than that. You can include things that are non organized or unofficial like if you're something that doesn't quite fit any particular mold but it can help to know what you might feel you are representing most closely or wishing to or which you prefer and also what you feel you have a good grasp of.

I may also like to know if any current symbols seem to be heavily influential on your mind or in your studies at this time, for me its the Big Dipper (Ursa Major) and the Pole Star or North Star as well as the Southern Cross. The number 7 and 6+1 are currently very much on my mind and in my thinking.

I'd also like to know how or to what degree your religious worldview is or "spiritual level" based on your ideas of the miraculous or magical in daily life and practice, when honestly assessed, is it pretty low level like not really believing in miracles, or on the other extreme level of believing in constant genuine interaction with God, Gods, or Spirits or Magical powers and Miracles or anything like that, even demons or whatever and described exactly since there are likely many individual nuances to your thinking and belief systems.

I'd love to know! I was inspired to ask about this because I am curious about everyone visiting this website but also by there being a local Baha'i representative here who is pretty outstanding as that, but I wanted to know what each person is standing for and showcasing mainly.

I am representing some sort of ecclectic magico-religious neo-heathen/pagan monotheism thing which I feel can encompass practically everything. Some people might be straight up Theravada Buddhists or mainly just some kind of Christian like Catholic or LDS/Mormon or whatever. Some straightforward mainstream Muslims, Hindus, etc.

 

Sometimes I think you are a stream of ai consciousness comment generator

 

I've actually been told that before or people have seemed to feel that way before when looking at my posts and post lengths. Its definitely stream of consciousness writing pretty much since I barely edit and there is almost no pause between my thinking and my writing so its very raw and immediate. I try to type like I think or like I talk, in a very casual sort of free style where I engage with people as if I know them and they know me which might encourage their own posts to increase in size and to become more intimately revealing of their thoughts. My interest in getting people to express themselves or to see their thoughts or have them flesh out their ideas a bit has no nefarious agenda behind it really and is just something I like to see and learn from. It kind of goes into a mental log of personal statistics of how people in general might think or what is common among certain demographics. Writing like this relaxes me quite a bit after a lot of built up tension after lots of daily activity as well, like just earlier I was at IKEA organizing a big order of furniture to better organize my home space, so thinking about and talking about religious stuff helps me take off my mind from some of the more irritating pragmatic things I deal with on various days. Somehow touching on this sort of subject matter really calms me, even if my writing sounds or looks angsty. I feel empowered by hearing about others religious experiences and comparing them to my own or reflecting back also on my own feelings or thoughts or trying to drive discussions towards opportunities or questions related back to my interests.

I went to a great restaurant afterwards and my budget after the big expenditure at the store was lower than I've ever let it be, and I turned on the internet while waiting briefly and I visited this website and saw the reply by the one member here which I mentioned above was a partial inspiration for making this thread, since he seemed like "The Baha'i Guy" and that was like what he seemed to pretty much embrace and want to project being. I actually find it totally fascinating. Like someone being the resident such and such or thats the one who sticks to Muslim topics and thats the Buddhist guy and there is our local Atheist etc.

I wonder about things like this and think about what I'd be or fit in as anywhere or how I present myself or wish to be seen. I never quite cut it anywhere as really anything, except maybe a bot as you noticed and mentioned as well. I don't mind that really, its sort of cool, and I even frequently use language like that, saying calculate and compute and process. I like to sort and sift through things and organize them sort of like a computer maybe, and simplify them if I can. Earlier it was said to me here or indicated that my difficulty understanding some things people say or claim may be due to being focused on analytical reading and technical analysis of processes rather than some other way of understanding things, some sort of way that I've not yet discovered because it requires maybe just intuitively agreeing without any sense or clear explanation or something? See, I'm still lost in that regard.

Even this thread is all about creating organizational categories and making it easier to figure out or predict what each member is all about or into.

I also wonder how? How do they stick to whatever? I know that I've been talking about the same sort of stuff for a very long time, but I tend to very broadly travel in subject matter and interests even if I boringly end up applying these new appearances to the same old framework or skeleton.

Its hard for me to imagine just being stuck on only one religion and narrow category and not expanding or including anything else.

I also don't fully grasp what the heck people are doing exactly and how they are satisfied by what they are doing or their lack of doing much of anything. Like most people I interviewed and examined seem to proclaim various religions but often seem to do very little, know very little, and experience very little, so I'm like what the heck is this? Also, how are they happy? How are they happy with that or not thinking like or living like or interacting with the world in a way familiar to me or similar to me? That stuff puzzles me to no end, and since I don't understand it, I guess the continuous mystery motivates my pursuit through posts and threads like these and remains exciting and stimulating as a mystery.

Human beings are like weird aliens that live around me, I really try to understand them in detail. Mostly I think I've gotten a good idea of their systems and general tendencies, but how they live their life day to day or what they do with their limited time fascinates and amazes me.

Human being have maybe roughly an expected amount of active time of 21,900 half days to 32,850 half days, since a lot of their time or days are also spent in helpless sleeping and innocent, passive dreaming.

Thats maybe 350,400 hours to 525,600 hours roughly of useable active battery power, which mainly, in theory or deep down inside is prioritized towards 1. Survival, 2. Increased Security, 3. Increased Comfort, 4. A General Pursuit of Desirable Stimulation and Enjoyment or Pleasure (at least as a sort of vague wish or basic reason for ultimately doing or pursuing anything "I want to because I think it will be something I will be pleased with or will lead to some desirable and enjoyable result).

What also fascinates me is how unmotivating the life expectancy numbers are in actually pursuing much of anything else than whatever we have grown to habitually do or practice anyway.

When I was in so much pain just recently, I didn't suddenly become very motivated, but rather became ever more indulgent and less mizerly, to the point of exhausting funds almost frivolously to dive deeply into self-soothing pleasurable stimulus. I became even less interested in doing practically anything in the service of others in almost any way. Pain didn't seem to make me a better person by the normal standards, but all the more childish and petulant and out for my self and my pleasure and my life.

Ow ow ow turned into mo mo mo, and ew ew ew turned into three cheers for me! All for One and One for All, and I was everything most precious and life was just some terrible tv show that I wanted to switch to something nicer for myself and which also somehow showcases me in a way I can also enjoy, a thing I call "self-glorification" which is all I can seem to conclude as a visible goal to pursue through daily efforts and activities. Self-Service.

So that is why I also wonder about other people a bit and what they are up to. Are they secretly just like me but not willing to really admit it or examine it in case it sounds bad to themselves or others? Is it all just varieties of self-glorification to present oneself in an image and pursue its personal manifestation as an ideal form of oneself as "The One Who Is This" thing that they like.

What comes to mind are also the titles given to members of organizations like the Free Masons and the KKK, I almost suspect everyone is just trying to feel good in general and what we are seeing are a variety of different efforts to cope with varying degrees of pain and fear.

Anyway, I'd love to see some interesting answers and discussion in this thread, but even if I don't, I say stuff that stimulates me anyway so I get a basic first use out of the writing I produce, even if it benefits no one else, but I hope it does get some wheels turning inside for some readers and maybe even make them re-organize their interests or priorities, and I'd love to hear about the whole thought process or stimulus-reaction set.

 

I'm atheist with some mystical experiences under my belt which I find can be discussed best using religious language, symbols, and frameworks. I know some things about Theravada Buddhism, Cristianity, and Western Occultism.

 

Thank you so much! Please tell me about these experiences and Atheism and your beliefs and all that, I want to compare and see how my own experiences or ideas might match up or why I ended up with whatever I think or do and how you ended up with yours. Also personally significant symbols, things you may sort of take as identity signs, even your display picture for example, or Gods even though you might not believe in them as real but sometimes one might feel like some form or image of Apollo suits them well or Shiva or other things, some might be more into Athena or Sophia even without believing in them as anything more than themes or symbols or attractive identities or forms one might relate to, animals can help as well.

I heavily connect with and am thought of by many in relation to the Fox, the Coyote, the Raven, the Crocodile, the Scorpion as some major animal associations that may have cropped up over the years.

I'll tell you some strange stories as well and get your take on them from the Atheist perspective, but I'd love to understand how you incorporate the mystical with the Atheistic outlook, that sounds really cool!

 

Well, there is not much to describe, as these experiences go, but my takeaway conversation piece was that I realized / saw / grokked / understood / was made to know that I had no gods, not many, not even one, and this satisfied my yearning in a complete fashion.

My profile picture is Cino, an Italian poet, and subject of a poem by Ezra Pound, good poet, regardless of the fascist fanboy that he was.

While I don't have any gods, I am interested in religions, and I like their display and representation of splendor and glory, mercy and abundance, trickery and deceit, unity and diversity, and all the other realms of this universe.

I don't have any particularly significant numbers, 24 is interesting in its combinatorics and application to writing and alphabets.

I like monkeys. I am of a monkey species, after all.

 

There is something about monkeys maybe that attracts you or which you feel a relation to. I've spoken to other atheists interested in or practicing an atheistic sort of Buddhism and they used to like monkeys as well, one was a monkey scientist and Zen priest, another had a monkey as their display picture. I think the monkey is a good symbol for humanity and humanism. I tend towards canines and felines maybe because of some kind of cynicism, even though the cynics were originally some sort of ascetic group maybe in some way. I think I like those animals because of their visual attractiveness though as an artist and their associations with being silly or funny while being good looking since comedy and humor is very much my prime feature or what I hold practically most sacred or important of all.

 

Simply put - I am a Shi’a Muslim following the Path of ‘Irfani

 

While in the past I've laid claim to nontheistic panentheist, I think I am essentially more of a follower of those worshipped than the religions created around them.

 

I call myself Christian. Former fundamentalist but now more of a wanderer than anything else. I'm mostly a reader here but also an occasional poster. Always on the lookout for that "next step" on the spiritual journey, not knowing how or in what form that step might appear, but remaining open to it.

 

I am a Reform Jew.

I am a rabbi.

That about says it all, except to add that at the moment I'm pretty banged up, having slipped and fallen with all kinds of resultant injuries, including an arm broken in 3 pieces, that will curtail my forum participation for several weeks.

 

Heal RabbiO... Having just regained the ability of getting up...my fear of slipping and falling has not abated!