Religously, I am very much alone.

[Mina_Frostfall]

It's really been wearing on me lately, that I really seem alone when it comes to religion. I know there are other people out there, but they don't show themselves. I feel like I'm only in the company of dead people. Well, on some points anyway. I don't think there is anybody whose beliefs are really quite that close to mine (but I hope so). It's just so lonely, and I'm always on the defensive as there as I don't have anyone to help stand my ground. I'm not sure what my point was with all of this. I guess I just wanted to say it.

[Constance]

I can relate to the feeling of being religiously alone.

My own practice is an amalgamation of Christianity, Soto Zen Buddhism, Wicca, Asatru, and a touch of shamanism. I attend a Unitarian Unversalist church primarily because it's the closest thing to a religious community that I really fit with.

[Miniar]

Everyone is religiously alone. You can not find two mainstream christians out there that see god the exact same way even.

And history teaches us that agreement on religion doesn't guarantee piece between two parties.

[Nero]

I feel somewhat alone in religion too, Aelita. What's your religion, may we ask?

[GinaDouglas]

I highly recommend the Unitarian Universalist Church.  It is a gay/trans affirming community, with a humanist approach that is not religeous.  Many churches fly the rainbow flag, not because a great deal of congregants are gay, but as a matter of principle.  I've been to about a dozen services, and never heard the words Jesus or God.  I believe in God, but have never heard anything in a UU service I could disagree with.  I go to the service for community, and then pray to God on my own.

[Suzy]

I really seem alone when it comes to religion.

Sorry you feel that way.  I know I do too sometimes.  You may or may not be alone, hard to tell if we don't know where you are coming from.

Kristi

[Vexing]

Everyone is religiously alone.

There are plenty of us that do not have a religion.

[Ephilei]

Echo another religious trans person who's got a lonesome, unique set of beliefs. I'm sure there's a connection here: trans people are much more like than cis people to question and reject the norm. "Because I said so" isn't motivating for us. The same independent thought we apply to gender we also apply to religion.
Post Merge: May 15, 2009, 10:21:48 PM
Oh, my beliefs are entirely Christian, but they're a mix between (Eastern) Orthodox and (Western) Protestant. I wrote some of it here: transchristians.org/Home/about/liberal-orthodoxy

[V M]

Religion? Are you talking about the practice of preaching (talking allot) but not really being much of a help to anyone?

[Annwyn]

Religion isn't about community: it's about belief.

[Vexing]

Religion isn't about community: it's about belief.

And control.

[Annwyn]

And control.

Belief.

Unless you care to cite all the some odd 3 million current religions on the globe and prove that they all are about control.

[Vexing]

I'll let Mr. Cline do that for me:
http://atheism.about.com/b/2005/04/11/using-religion-to-control-others.htm

[V M]

OK you two...Punishment shall be delt. You both must say "I praise Goddess Virginia and wish her garden well" before and after speaking to anyone about anything. Oh, and send your monetary contributions to my P.O. Box 

[avmorgan]

It's really been wearing on me lately, that I really seem alone when it comes to religion. I know there are other people out there, but they don't show themselves. I feel like I'm only in the company of dead people. Well, on some points anyway. I don't think there is anybody whose beliefs are really quite that close to mine (but I hope so). It's just so lonely, and I'm always on the defensive as there as I don't have anyone to help stand my ground. I'm not sure what my point was with all of this. I guess I just wanted to say it.

Would you care to expand on your feelings? In what way are you alone when it comes to religion? Philosophically? Theologically? Socially? You mention that you feel your beliefs are different; are you able (or comfortable) expressing the nature of your beliefs? I am curious, because, well, the first person I discussed my need to be female with was a Christian Faith Healer (I was sincerely curious about the possibility of a miraculous transformation) and was told that my feelings were the result of demonic or satanic influence and that my soul would be damned if I did not deny my feelings and refrain from even contemplating being anything other than what God made me. There are only two ways I can think of for a male to truly be transformed into a female (I don't include science or technology that one day might work, on the grounds that it doesn't exist yet) and that would be a miracle or magic (the existence of which has not been proven one way or the other) which I have to believe in as a consequence of believing in God. I've gotten a lot of weird reactions, even from other transpeople, for stating this belief. I have a lot of experience in having a "unique" perspective when it comes to religion, philosophy and even science. Personally, I get the impression that the purpose of religion is to keep people from asking the really hard questions by requiring them to accept "on faith" answers that are not answers at all.

Being trans, we have the advantage of being forced to learn that we cannot take "who we are" for granted. We all know our lives would be much better if we could be what we appeared to be, but no matter how hard we try to conform to our birth sex, our bodies, we are unable to escape from the fact that our true gender, a key part of our identity, who we are, the proper expression of our souls, is the opposite--or something else entirely! The very fact that this conflict exists, and is so agonizing, ought to be proof enough (however subjective) of the existence of our souls. The belief we all have, that who we are matters more than what we are, is a powerful argument that there is indeed more to us than form and substance we possess in our short lives. Since we all go through a great deal of this alone, in our own minds, it is not surprising that we would tend to see things very differently from people who do take themselves for granted (and I don't mean that in a negative way).

[Vexing]

OK you two...Punishment shall be delt. You both must say "I praise Goddess Virginia and wish her garden well" before and after speaking to anyone about anything. Oh, and send your monetary contributions to my P.O. Box 

My loyalty to the FSM forbids me from such blasphemous actions.

[V M]

My loyalty to the FSM forbids me from such blasphemous actions.

Your right, the garden does better with happy spirits. You and Annwyn would probably kill the plants and then jump the fence to chase each other about and cat fight 'till you both got hit by a car 

[Annwyn]

I'll let Mr. Cline do that for me:
http://atheism.about.com/b/2005/04/11/using-religion-to-control-others.htm

He did not do that.  He wrote nothing more than an inflamed editorial.

I demand citation proving that every single religion on the globe prompts the believer to behave in a way that he/she wouldn't behave originally.

If you can't provide that, and I know you can't, then forfeit your statement and just admit that you can't do it, and therefore cannot back up the claim that all religion is about control, and therefore have no place challenging what is fact with what is proposition.

[ZoeB]

My loyalty to the FSM forbids me from such blasphemous actions.

I'm IPU myself.



"Invisible Pink Unicorns are beings of great spiritual power. We know this because they are capable of being invisible and pink at the same time. Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can't see them."

As an aside, my religious philosophy can be summed up as follows: I'm an agnostic, with only a tendency to commit Buddhism. I try to follow the example of Guan Yin, and the four Zen vows of the Bodhisattva.

In my own words:

There's too many sins not to commit some - but I'll try not to anyway.

There's too many people to help them all - but I'll try to help them anyway.

There's too many virtues to attain them all - but I'll try to attain them anyway.

Perfection is impossible - But I'll try to perfect everything anyway.

The core of Christian teaching is "Love God: Be Kind". In my philosophy, by doing the second, the first becomes either irrelevant, or an inescapable consequence.

And while a single person is drowning, how can one leave the pool?

I'm also as spiritual as a brick.

[Vexing]

If you can't provide that, and I know you can't,

Oh, I can. You know I can.
It's a matter of how much time I'm willing to devote to researching every branch of every whimsical belief in a supernatural entity - and debunking it into a control system.
The "I know you can't" comes from the fact that you know I couldn't be bothered investing that much time in such a worthless project.
But I have the ability.
Just not the will.

Point is moot, really.