Changed my Faith Icon to Agnostic:Explanation

[Sister of Faith]

May I recommend a book for you to read?

 

[Eudaimonist]

I've decided that I was Agnostic about Jesus.

I wish you well on your new path. May you grow and find the wisdom you seek.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[ProScribe]

May I recommend a book for you to read?

Sure. I'm not going to purchase anymore books out-of-pocket so it has to be available in Adobe PDF format or online.

 

[Mythunderstood]

I've decided that I was Agnostic about Jesus. Many different people on the Internet have expressed different views and resulted in a wide variety of possible conclusions. I still have a traditional Christian background and studied the religion of Christianity for about 12 years (private study) before deciding that becoming Agnostic was the best conclusion.

I also became interested Buddhism and liked some of the stuff I read. I also became interested in Pyschology and Psychiatry as means of treatment for various kinds of mental illnesses, but I'm not attending Medical School or anything like that.

So, I have resources and libraries at my disposal to learn and study about pretty much anything outside of a school curriculum.

I'm pretty much my own boss and get to decide what I want to study.

So, do you currently believe in any god? I know you say you are agnostic, but that only addresses knowledge. I'm curious if you believe in a god or not.

 

[MattRose]

I've decided that I was Agnostic about Jesus. Many different people on the Internet have expressed different views and resulted in a wide variety of possible conclusions. I still have a traditional Christian background and studied the religion of Christianity for about 12 years (private study) before deciding that becoming Agnostic was the best conclusion.

I also became interested Buddhism and liked some of the stuff I read. I also became interested in Pyschology and Psychiatry as means of treatment for various kinds of mental illnesses, but I'm not attending Medical School or anything like that.

So, I have resources and libraries at my disposal to learn and study about pretty much anything outside of a school curriculum.

I'm pretty much my own boss and get to decide what I want to study.

I don't quite understand what Buddhism is about, but I'm aghast that you would turn to another religion. When I left christianity and had a few months to understand the world, I knew I would never follow any religion ever again. I'm concerned that you have turned to a different pacifier rather than broken the religion habit entirely. Why did you jump from one myth to another? Is Buddhism not what I think it is? Isn't it a religion created around a fat chinese guy?

 

[jpcedotal]

come on back if u don't find what you are looking for...seriously. God is only a 180 degree turn away no matter what path you are on.

Good Luck in life and your journey....

 

[Tinker Grey]

come on back if u don't find what you are looking for...seriously. God is only a 180 degree turn away no matter what path you are on.

Except, I assume, if you are on the right path.

 

[Booko]

Is Buddhism not what I think it is? Isn't it a religion created around a fat chinese guy?

Uh, no. You're thinking of Budai or Hotei.

Gautama Buddha was not Chinese nor fat. And he was born in India. The religion of Buddhism spread east from India.

 

[ProScribe]

So, do you currently believe in any god? I know you say you are agnostic, but that only addresses knowledge. I'm curious if you believe in a god or not.

I think its broken down two ways -

Monotheism - belief in one universal capital "G" God.

and Polytheism - belief in multiple lowercase "g" gods or deities.

Whether I believe in the one, universal God is an open-ended question. (All sorts of possibilities and assumptions are made about the one universal God)

 

[ProScribe]

I don't quite understand what Buddhism is about, but I'm aghast that you would turn to another religion. When I left christianity and had a few months to understand the world, I knew I would never follow any religion ever again. I'm concerned that you have turned to a different pacifier rather than broken the religion habit entirely. Why did you jump from one myth to another? Is Buddhism not what I think it is? Isn't it a religion created around a fat chinese guy?

You'll have to ask a Buddhist.

 

[Tenebrae]

Hi ProScribe, I am not Christian but I still attend church weekly. There is much more to religion than just belief. Religion provides morality and addresses psychological needs. I bet that if you did a study, you would find an inverse correlation between psychiatric disease and religious attendance. So don't let your skepticism turn you away from religion. Instead, you can just view religion from a different perspective, as I do.

Morality is bigger than just attending a church

Christians do not have the monopoly on morality

 

[Tenebrae]

All the bedt ProScribe

May you find what you seek

 

[fschmidt]

Morality is bigger than just attending a church

Christians do not have the monopoly on morality

I agree with you. But no society has ever maintained morality without a strong religion of some kind. And our society is a good example of how morality is lost as religion is lost.

 

[morningstar2651]

I don't quite understand what Buddhism is about, but I'm aghast that you would turn to another religion. When I left christianity and had a few months to understand the world, I knew I would never follow any religion ever again. I'm concerned that you have turned to a different pacifier rather than broken the religion habit entirely. Why did you jump from one myth to another? Is Buddhism not what I think it is? Isn't it a religion created around a fat chinese guy?

No...the fat Chinese Buddha is not the Buddha that founded Buddhism. Buddha is a title given to someone who has attained full enlightenment; there are multiple Buddhas.

Buddhism is a non-theistic religion - the Buddha generally isn't viewed as a god.

The basics of Buddhism are pretty simple - the four noble truths article on Wikipedia is a pretty good explanation.

 

[Mythunderstood]

I think its broken down two ways -

Monotheism - belief in one universal capital "G" God.

and Polytheism - belief in multiple lowercase "g" gods or deities.

Whether I believe in the one, universal God is an open-ended question. (All sorts of possibilities and assumptions are made about the one universal God)

If you did believe in a god (or many gods) I would think you would be clear in what it is you believe. Otherwise, if you have no idea about what it is you supposedly believe in, then how can you really say you believe?

Just giving my 2 cents: It sounds to me that you don't currently have an active belief in any particular god. This does not mean that you aren't open to the possibility of god(s) existing, just that you do not (yet?) have a belief in one. Am I warm? This would mean that you are an atheist. An agnostic atheist to be exact (like me!).

As an agnostic atheist, I don't know whether or not a god exists. For all I know, there could be hundreds out there! But I do know that if a god happens to exist, that I don't currently have a belief in it. That could change if I am provided with convincing evidence of its existence.

 

[ProScribe]

How are you supposed to confirm the existence of Jesus? . . .

 

[LittleLambofJesus]

I've decided that I was Agnostic about Jesus. Many different people on the Internet have expressed different views and resulted in a wide variety of possible conclusions. I still have a traditional Christian background and studied the religion of Christianity for about 12 years (private study) before deciding that becoming Agnostic was the best conclusion.
.

What can I say but WOW!

Jesus only calls us for so long, then He turns us over to a reprobate mind to save our souls. Don't push Him beyond your deliverance - eternity is a long, long, long time.

Oh really?
Why would Jesus call someone, then turn their mind reprobabe? [unless you are talking about "Judas"] Just curious


....

 

[sk8Joyful]

How are you supposed to confirm the existence of Jesus? . . .

Excellent! question

Certainly you can NOT confirm Jesus' existence, from atheists, or buddhists, or nonsense-psychiatry, or even other christians - as you've already found. No, none of the foregoing have got your answer. So now what?

The ONLY sure way of discovering God/Jesus is,
are you Ready via your own authentic Encounter with God.

In my case, I was Blessed with this encounter as a child. And I was fortunate,
because being raised in a communist country I had no clue the Bible even exists,
never heard someone pray, never spent any time in a church, &
NO-one was there to talk with me about Spiritual matters. But
yet,
I was on my own Quest... and God was just waiting for me, the same as God is waiting for you to enjoy your Conversions. But see,
He who stands ready to *Save* you, leaves your searching up to YOU. ~ And I will tell you this,
when you allow yourself to authentically have your own encounter with God, you will be Changed...
to such an amazing degree you will KNOW it is real...

 

[Mythunderstood]

Excellent! question

Certainly you can NOT confirm Jesus' existence, from atheists, or buddhists, or nonsense-psychiatry, or even other christians - as you've already found. No, none of the foregoing have got your answer. So now what?

The ONLY sure way of discovering God/Jesus is,
are you Ready via your own authentic Encounter with God.

In my case, I was Blessed with this encounter as a child. And I was fortunate,
because being raised in a communist country I had no clue the Bible even exists,
never heard someone pray, never spent any time in a church, &
NO-one was there to talk with me about Spiritual matters. But
yet,
I was on my own Quest... and God was just waiting for me, the same as God is waiting for you to enjoy your Conversions. But see,
He who stands ready to *Save* you, leaves your searching up to YOU. ~ And I will tell you this,
when you allow yourself to authentically have your own encounter with God, you will be Changed...
to such an amazing degree you will KNOW it is real...

But many of us HAVE genuinely searched for god and sincerely prayed....for decades! Why does your god like to play these childish games if he supposedly really wants to save us? With his omniscience, he already knows that we have been searching, but yet he is still a no-show. Many Christians try to explain this away by laying the blame on the seeker as if we have any control over what god does. They try to say that we have to be still and listen for that quiet voice, blah blah blah. If god knows we are searching for him why does he not respond in a way that would convince us unquestionably. Only he would know what it would take to do that for each individual person. If he really loved us as is posited, then he would stop with the silly games. That is not love.

 

[sk8Joyful]

But many of us HAVE genuinely searched for god and sincerely prayed....for decades! but yet he is still a no-show.
Many Christians try to explain this away
by laying the blame on the seeker as if we have any control over what god does.
They try to say that we have to be still and listen for that quiet voice, blah blah blah... That is not love.

Since God has already made Himself known to many, obviously means God IS REAL.

And the reason God speaks to you in your INNERMOST-part of you, is because this is How... God you created, starting with your soul.
And God did that, so that you could not deny Him, so easily.

If it's only a fire-cracker event, or the dead being raised,
people find a million excuses what that was.
so
God set it up in such a way that you CAN'T easily deny Him.

You gotta meet God on God's terms IF you wanna be Saved.