What do your real life friends believe?

Cino

Cino

Big Love! (Atheist mystic)
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Do you have friends who share your beliefs? Do you socialize outside your religious group? What are the beliefs of your real-life friends?

My closest friends are mostly non-believers, one is a Buddhist, one a Christian, and my partner believes in keeping her Jewish heritage alive in a very secular way that works for her. I am however also part of a loose group of friends who practice, in very undogmatic ways, various forms of mysticism and esoteric teachings.

Who's next?
 
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Religious belief has never been a part of my social life. My main spiritual inspiration has been Buddhism and Modern Drudry. I am happy to identify as either or both.
Looking back over the beliefs of some close friends, it is a mixed bag. A Buddhist, a Quaker, and two lapsed Catholics. Others at various times have included Hindus, a Muslim and a Christadelphian.
 
I do not live in any kind of religious vacuum nor in one religion. Nor do inquire as toothed nature or variety of their belief unless they are overt about it.

I spent the last 4 days camping with musicians, artists, and creatives...it never came up.

On the other hand I have a friend who started an interfaith comedy group, and it always comes up, lol.

Amongst my juggling and performer friends I would say about 10% wear their beliefs on their sleeves, as they are part of their show, either basically proselytizing or reinforcing beliefs and stories in their show as they are hired for religious functions.

I would say in general my friends group is probably fairly similar to the US average. (Although I have not looked at that)
I would guess most are non practicing Christianesque variety. The next largest group would be non believers (agnostics and don't care), then Christians, followed by Jews (they are probably the largest participants among my Comedian, juggler, magic, mime, performance groups) I would guess atheist follow them, but I think it would be interesting where atheist and agnostics fall.

Next I believe would be Muslim, like my Jewish and Christian friends I would put less than 10% as devout, and probably 30% as seriously practicing. The majority are social, they may follow the dietary requirements, and holidays, festivals, (Ramadan, and high holy days, large gathering type functions) but daily prayer, ritual, or mosque (church, synagague) attendance is occasional or for family function.

Pagans might be next if I lump druids, witches, and folks that believe in the earth powers of crystals and nomes and fairies, luck and leprechauns, Gaia... I see paganism as sort of the woke word of 400 years ago. Of you don't believe in my savior I will make up a derogatory name for your groups and lump them all together to demean the collective and make me feel better.

Hindus and Buddhists they would be next i know there are many and if i group them together prolly more than the pagans (i have lumped together), although most of them I know are not of eastern decent or upbringing, they just found the tenants or ohilosophy more in their line of thought than whatever
they were indoctriated, I mean raised in.

I would put outright atheists below that although I am probably wrong, I think most atheists have their moments where they pray or talk to some imaginary friend or cosmic HGTVforce to help them out of a car accident, health crisis, love issue or jail. Ain't nothing like a crisis to bring out a god!

Then we would have the Bahai, Rosicrucians, Quakers, Mormons, etc.

That last bunch some would be under the Christian category but they are also distinctly different somehow in my mind.

I would not know how to further categorize those of Christian beliefs in percentages, definitely mostly protestant over catholic, but as far as AME, methodist, Episcopalian Lutheran, Baptist...I have no clue.
 
OK, I looked, I was wrong, (no surprise there!)

I have way to many Jews, Muslims, Pagans and Eastern religions among my friends and associates. And not near enough mormons to be average.

Religion in the United States
Protestantism (40%)
Catholicism (21%)
Mormonism (2%)
Other Christian (1%)
Unaffiliated (29%)
Judaism (2%)
Islam (1%)
Hinduism (1%)
 
For the most part I don't have normal friends. Seeing as I don't consider myself to be normal, that makes sense. While I do have a handful of friends who have similar religious beliefs, they are scattered all over the world. I don't get to travel as much so I don't see them as often. But a lot of my friends have no clue what my beliefs are. I don't bring up religion very often. Most of my friends are atheists or agnostics. But I'm friends with a lot of Pagans and for awhile was becoming friends with quite a few Satanists (Laveyan). I am really close with a few followers of Baha'i as well. I would say I'm friends with quite a few Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Jews, but I moved away from Chicago and haven't kept in touch (this being before social media became popular). I live in a smaller city and there just aren't many Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists or Jews here. The only people who I no longer am close friends with are the overly political people. Politics has become its own fanatical religion and is more absurd than practically any religion.
 
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moralorel said:
Politics has become its own fanatical religion and is more absurd than practically any religion.
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When I grew up the norm was never talk politics or religion...unless you were in your own clique (political party or religious group)

Sort of like our corrals here... within your clique or corral one can talk freely about your agreed upon beliefs in both arenas and simply discuss nuance, bolster each other's belief, create discussion points to hold against the other guys...or defenses to their claims...safely without anyone get too upset. (Of course then you encounter the schisms, splits, like the methodist church is going thru worldwide (over homosexuality and same sex marriages)


But me? I will discuss recipes to bake or cook something...but religion and politics is where things get really interesting to me...where people get so upset they draw lines in the sand and start wars...which seems inevitable if we refuse to discuss...so co fusing.
 
Cino said:
Do you have friends who share your beliefs? Do you socialize outside your religious group? What are the beliefs of your real-life friends?

My closest friends are mostly non-believers, one is a Buddhist, one a Christian, and my partner believes in keeping her Jewish heritage alive in a very secular way that works for her. I am however also part of a loose group of friends who practice, in very undogmatic ways, various forms of mysticism and esoteric teachings.

Who's next?
Click to expand...
Amongst my friends and even my family growing up -- I don't think most people have had the same beliefs as me or as one another. My closest friends have usually been nonreligious, with a few exceptions, a few Catholics. My husband is nominally Catholic as is his family, My family were all over the map, except hardly any Catholics. I am not a practitioner of any particular religion but have always been religiously inclined. I have attended various Protestant churches, Unitarian church, Quaker meeting for a short while, and a Unity (New Thought) church for many years.
 
I had a few Jewish friends in college, and some acquaintances of various other sundry faiths. When I was in the Unitarian and Unity churches, I was friendly with people who were into Buddhism or other varieties of Eastern spirituality. I was friendly with a professor who was Bahai and attended a few religious meetings at her home, years ago.
 
I live in the most secular country in the world, Sweden, so I don't have many religious friends, the few who actually stated their religion are either interfaith, new age, buddhist or christian. I can count the ones who actually told me their religion on one hand and that's really sad.
 
_Hermes_ said:
I live in the most secular country in the world, Sweden, so I don't have many religious friends, the few who actually stated their religion are either interfaith, new age, buddhist or christian. I can count the ones who actually told me their religion on one hand and that's really sad.
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This post says such a lot!
You are a brave person
You are very strong, to trust what you know is out there

Follow your instinct. If you follow it, you will not go wrong, imo -- regardless of what the 'humanist' society around you tells you to believe.

Hang in there @_Hermes_
You have lots of support here 🙏
 
I live in a community and have done so for many years, so all of my "socialising" (if that's the right word) is done with other members of the community.
 
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Daughters of Frya said:
Seven of us live here full time, and other members often visit and stay over.
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Ah! Now that size of group we have a plethora of! Group houses are common around here...groups of jugglers, burners, flow artists living together to collaborate and practice together while saving money on living expenses...common ground. (Non religious)
 
wil said:
I do not live in any kind of religious vacuum nor in one religion. Nor do inquire as toothed nature or variety of their belief unless they are overt about it.

I spent the last 4 days camping with musicians, artists, and creatives...it never came up.

On the other hand I have a friend who started an interfaith comedy group, and it always comes up, lol.

Amongst my juggling and performer friends I would say about 10% wear their beliefs on their sleeves, as they are part of their show, either basically proselytizing or reinforcing beliefs and stories in their show as they are hired for religious functions.

I would say in general my friends group is probably fairly similar to the US average. (Although I have not looked at that)
I would guess most are non practicing Christianesque variety. The next largest group would be non believers (agnostics and don't care), then Christians, followed by Jews (they are probably the largest participants among my Comedian, juggler, magic, mime, performance groups) I would guess atheist follow them, but I think it would be interesting where atheist and agnostics fall.

Next I believe would be Muslim, like my Jewish and Christian friends I would put less than 10% as devout, and probably 30% as seriously practicing. The majority are social, they may follow the dietary requirements, and holidays, festivals, (Ramadan, and high holy days, large gathering type functions) but daily prayer, ritual, or mosque (church, synagague) attendance is occasional or for family function.

Pagans might be next if I lump druids, witches, and folks that believe in the earth powers of crystals and nomes and fairies, luck and leprechauns, Gaia... I see paganism as sort of the woke word of 400 years ago. Of you don't believe in my savior I will make up a derogatory name for your groups and lump them all together to demean the collective and make me feel better.

Hindus and Buddhists they would be next i know there are many and if i group them together prolly more than the pagans (i have lumped together), although most of them I know are not of eastern decent or upbringing, they just found the tenants or ohilosophy more in their line of thought than whatever
they were indoctriated, I mean raised in.
Click to expand...

Wow, I wish I had such a diverse assortment of real life acquaintances!

wil said:
I would put outright atheists below that although I am probably wrong, I think most atheists have their moments where they pray or talk to some imaginary friend or cosmic HGTVforce to help them out of a car accident, health crisis, love issue or jail. Ain't nothing like a crisis to bring out a god!
Click to expand...
Isn't there some old saying about there being no atheists in a foxhole? ;)

wil said:
Then we would have the Bahai, Rosicrucians, Quakers, Mormons, etc.

That last bunch some would be under the Christian category but they are also distinctly different somehow in my mind.

I would not know how to further categorize those of Christian beliefs in percentages, definitely mostly protestant over catholic, but as far as AME, methodist, Episcopalian Lutheran, Baptist...I have no clue.
Click to expand...

Bahai, Rosicrucians, Quakers, Mormons... The last 3 are related to Christianity. I thought historically Bahai was a spin-off of Islam?
Quakers are an interesting category -- I always thought of them as a denomination of Christianity, but in addition to yourself, I've seen others categorize them differently, maybe not as Christians proper but -- different somehow, like Mormons, or Jehovah's Witnesses.

How did you manage to meet so many people of such diverse backgrounds and belief systems? I don't think I had quite as much contact with such a wide range even in college.

I should come and join your camp and meet all these people☺️

😇
 
TheLightWithin said:
How did you manage to meet so many people of such diverse backgrounds and belief systems? I don't think I had quite as much contact with such a wide range even in college.
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I was raised sort of convenient Christian. My dad did not go to church (he wanted to have a discussion after the sermon, later in life I learned UUs did that) we moved a lot, so my mom would befriend a coworker and ask where she went. I recall being Episcopalian, Methodist, Presbyterian and Lutheran. I quit church by 5th grade.(Sunday school teachers would not answer my questions)

In high school researched various religions questioned...that continued, visited Buddhism, Hindu temples, Baptist church. Found eckankar, ascended masters. Got married and just read till.we had kids, found unity and new thought....which our church had an annual interfaith service.and a.couple.months prior had weekly speakers from local places of worship giving a 2 hour lecture/discussion, culminating in a service where each religious leader told or sang a prayer chant for peace.

I live in the DC area and we have some of everything..
 
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