Identify yourself

Johnny

New
Hello everybody,

I am fairly new here, and think I have found a great place to express and share my views, I love the approach of the Skeptiko show and find it a refreshing alternative to mainstream ideologies who think the materialistic approach is water tight and without opposition, Anything that opposes materialistic ideology seems to have it's voice drowned out by the relentless drive of materialism, so I find this a refreshing alternative to air views and perhaps draw conclusion.

Recently I have come to the conclusion that although I don't identify myself as having any religious affiliation, I don't decry them either, I believe the underlying principle of all faith's, is to bring each other closer together and closer to God. But saying this, How do I identify myself, what am I. I believe in God, but not religion, I am sympathetic to Vedic philosophy, and also the Tao, but yet I don't subscribe to neither fully, I just simply believe in God, but I should also mention, my views are not compatible with deism, I believe God is personal, as I think God is a person, who also has intelligence. Therefore God must also be personal.


So I think I would identify myself as SBNR, Spiritual But Not Religious.

How about you.

Thanks
 
I think that while we are experiencing this physical existence our ability to conceive of God is also limited and that we are not really capable of understanding the reality. However based on reports of near-death experiencers, and evidential mediums there is ample grounds for believing in a personal God. The fine-tuning of the universe to support life demonstrates that God (and our own consciousness) is transcendent, exists separate from the physical universe. The evidence that the origin of life and the evolution of species required the action of an intelligent designer is also strong evidence that God continues to play a role in the universe. The evidence for the afterlife is also an important part of my belief system. I am a Spiritualist and a Buddhist.
 
I've joined a UU church. Unitarian Universalist. They are the literal definition of SBNR. They have NO dogma and accept atheists.
 
Mostly Jungian approach to life these days. (Who knows this too could evolve for me or be wrong.) Have followed SPR for some time. Admire and have read considerable amount of literature by SPR. More recently been catching up on NDE research (Greyson, Sartori, Van Lommel, etc) Also exploring quantum physics including work by Stapp, Lanza, Radin, Manjit Kumar, etc.

A growing intense dislike for Skeptics and their organizations which I consider as a new kind of dangerous fundamentalism that increasingly reminds me of the church back in Bruno's time. Retired. On a small pension. Keeping hope alive that life is meaningful and not a nihilistic road to nowhere as this new breed of materialist - fundamentalists are insisting I and everyone else should believe.

My Best,
Bertha
 
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A growing intense dislike for Skeptics and their organizations which I consider as a new kind of dangerous fundamentalism that increasingly reminds me of the church back in Bruno's time.
This is the only bit I don't agree with. Many of these people are motivated by their exposure to conventional religion of various degrees of fundamentalism - and of course from watching the terrible actions of IS. I think they start sensibly enough, but then their minds become closed by cynicism.
Retired. On a small pension. Keeping hope alive that life is meaningful and not a nihilistic road to nowhere as this new breed of materialist - fundamentalists are insisting I and everyone else should believe.
I don't expect to have certainty about anything when my time comes. I'll be scared, but fairly sure that something interesting and important will happen after my death. I think it helps to retain uncertainty - because we can be certain at least of that - so from that position I don't feel scared to explore alternative explanations of reality.

David
 
This is the only bit I don't agree with. Many of these people are motivated by their exposure to conventional religion of various degrees of fundamentalism - and of course from watching the terrible actions of IS. I think they start sensibly enough, but then their minds become closed by cynicism.
Given what I've seen on Wikipedia, Ted Talks and other media outlets - these new Skeptics I find more dangerous than conventional religious types. Because they misuse the authority of science to spread their ideology of materialism/atheism, and misuse it in an unethical dishonest fashion. Note to: that ISIS did not invade Iraq based on a pack of manufactured lies. The US did. The US has blown the heads off of far more innocent human beings over the last few decades than IS. The US (and its industrial-military complex) has been the major cause for the destabilization of the middle east, not ISIS.

I don't expect to have certainty about anything when my time comes. I'll be scared, but fairly sure that something interesting and important will happen after my death. I think it helps to retain uncertainty - because we can be certain at least of that - so from that position I don't feel scared to explore alternative explanations of reality.
I hope you are right. I think there is good reason to believe it is possible. The NDE research. The research by the SPR. What is being discovered in physics regarding reality. What we know about consciousness regarding the study of the unconscious and psychoanalytical theory. Even my best friend related a Near Death Experience he had. So yes, I think you might be right.

But still, there is this small voice in my head that doubts. If the Skeptics really knew just how much part of me still believes in their nihilistic faith. heh

My Best,
Bertha
 
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But still, there is this small voice in my head that doubts.

Ditto. If only, I say to myself, I had had some of the experiences people report here and elsewhere: but sadly, I don't.

I've said here before that I don't possess any psychic gifts. That may not be entirely true: the other day, I drove my sister and my grand niece (her grand daughter) to a local supermarket. After we'd finished shopping, I asked them to wait with the groceries near the entrance whilst I collected my car and came back to pick them up. In the car, just before I started her up, I noticed a yellow car and idly thought that it's not often one sees one; lots of reds and blacks and blues, but not yellow.

After the groceries had been loaded up and we were just on our way out of the car park, my grand niece piped up: "yellow car!" in reference to a different car than I had spotted. Turns out that she and her sister often played this game whilst out on trips in their parent's car, and my sister knew about it, but had never mentioned it to me.

Telepathy? I like to think so, but I can never prove it, and it's at such a mundane level that it can't be said to signify anything. Nor can the many times that I've been thinking about something and found that apparently someone else here on Sceptiko has recently raised it, or commented on something by mentioning it. Could be me just noticing something because it relates to current interests of mine: I don't notice all the piles of stuff that has nothing to do with it.

Let's just say that in the final analysis, what sways me more in the direction of psi and spirituality is my amazement at being here at all: it seems so extraordinary, and I can't understand why there are people who take it all for granted. I'm still as entranced and intrigued by consciousness as I was when I was an infant. It's utterly, mind-bogglingly, miraculously amazing to be here to try to be making sense out of it all.
 
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