Posted by JLx on August 19, 2005, at 10:48:12
In reply to Re: Religious friends and my unease » JLx, posted by ClearSkies on August 17, 2005, at 14:24:28
> Thanks for this interesting post! I am like Deneb in being self-educated - or rather, un, in matters religious. I appreciate the links and your thoughts!!
> ClearSkiesOne thing I realized from being exposed to other NONChristian believers is how much my years of discussion with my Christian friend had influenced me into equating Christianty with God and faith. To many Christians that appears logical but then the problem for the nonChristian who accepts this is that no belief in God or faith in a higher power is possible if one rejects the beliefs of Christianity. Seeing that there are many other belief systems (as many as there are people, imo! :)) can be liberating and helpful in defining one's one sense of spirituality.
If you haven't already run across it, you might like to explore http://www.religioustolerance.org/ It's a huge site that tries to provide unbiased information about many various religions and/or both sides of religious controversies.
This is a fun quiz, although, wow, this site has almost become overrun with ads! http://www.selectsmart.com/RELIGION/ I've taken that quiz several times now over the years it's been available and I always come out the same with Unitarian at the top at 100% and Roman Catholic or Jehovah's Witness at the bottom. Ironically, the RCC is the only one I had exposure to when young. ;) Taoism, which is the religious tradition I consider myself most drawn to, is about midway. Not sure why that is. A great Taoism book, btw, is "The Tao of Pooh". It ingeniously uses the Winnie the Pooh characters to explain some major Taoist principles. It's a quick and often humorous read. (I don't recommend the follow up, however, "The Te of Piglet". Success apparently went to the author's head in that one and his personal biases crept in to an unacceptable level.)
JL
poster:JLx
thread:538674
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faith/20050811/msgs/543855.html