Discussion Do You Create Your Own Beliefs, And Find Your Own Answers, Or Do You Follow Whatever Religion You We

[BeyondAnother]

I have my own beliefs, I don't want to go by what a book says, I want to find/discover my own answers. The world would almost be a better place if people weren't at war with their own beliefs. All these different theories and concepts! It's so confusing, yet intruging. Is there anything more? Or maybe it's just our own minds trying to hence that deep down, we have our own beliefs. So, tell me honeslty.....? What do you think?

 

[Drmke]

Both, for everyone I'd assume. My mom and dad weren't particularly religious and neither am I, but there are numerous "beliefs" (if you want to call them that) that my parents taught me (sometimes by me just observing how they behaved) that I am still realizing. So if this is a general question then it has to be both. If you are simply talking about religion, I have essentially taken my parents and grandparents beliefs and shaped them around the life I've lived which has led me to different conclusions than their experiences let them to. So kind of both again lol

 

[M3J]

I don't necessarily create my own beliefs, I just arrive at my beliefs based on evidence, what I've experienced, and what I personally would prefer. There's no evidence that deities exist, and I've experienced that proof when bad stuff happens in the world. I also would prefer to eat meat and cows and not waste time praying and all that, so I decided to forsake all beliefs in a higher being and religion.

 

[kannazuki]

Similar to what was said by others above, I guess my beliefs and ethics are a synthesis of my own life experience, and influences from other people or cultures that made an impression on me at some point or another. In some cases, there might be patterns I believe I've noticed, or thinking I've done about various issues that lead me to develop certain convictions on a conscious level. For example, I don't believe in the supernatural aspects of any religion, but I firmly believe it's worthwhile to learn things from all cultures, including their religions.

 

[Etikp]

when i was a kid i would blindly follow my own religion but when i grew i came to realize what is right and what is wrong so based on that i just follow the truth.

 

[TitaniumOxide]

Screw what my folks think, 420 all day erry day! Yep. And NO. People like individualism. People like to be independent. But whether we like it or not, agree or not, the people we look up to which usually include our parents will affect who we turn out to be. I once called my dad hitler when I was younger...16? Because of his strict ways and the way he thinks. I think that really got to him and he changed somewhat over the years. Was I wrong? Maybe. Maybe not. However, the more I thought about it the more things made sense. His life shaped him and in turn he tried to teach me but I was too liberal as a kid. He seems so right right now when I think back yet I cannot share all of his views even though they seem so correct. So yeah, I can say some of my beliefs came from my parents and some from myself. But we need to see both sides.

We need to understand just how eady our beliefs can change day to day. For example, If you see a girl on facebook and she posts a bunch of skanky pictures of herself all the time, what will you think? Whore? Hoe? "I'd tap"? Or will you say oh it is her life, it is America, or maybe women's rights and feminism #freetheboobs!? Of course if you start by calling her a slut in front of your friends it'd be okay. But in front of a unique crowd of girls would you say the same beliefs when asked? You just might get slapped and a knee to your sack of gold. It isn't exactly lying but you may adopt the group's mentality so would you really say yeah, she is slutty (of course a group of girls can also think other girls as hoes, girls do it all the time but can somehow still be feminists...)? Most people's core beliefs are constant but everyone wants to fit in so depending on who is with who, "beliefs" can change. As for me, I would love to lie and say I believe what I believe but let me be honest here, depending on if it is a group of coworkers, or a group of college kids down in La Jolla in UCSD that I am chilling with my beliefs can be influenced...when I am faded....when we talk shit about a rival company...when making fun of a certain ethnicity with my dad and uncles...etc. As such, this seem to make me weak for being able to be altered so to speak but it is normal to kind of go with the flow, not to just "fit in" so simply, but that is just how most pepple work. In short, I have my core beliefs that will likely never be shaken but there are other lesser things that we can be more versatile in yet these smaller things add up to a big sum of our being. Very few can stick to everything they stand for forever. I'd like to say my beliefs are only my own but then I'd be a liar on too many levels. This is what I believe.

 

[M3J]

A lot of people follow whatever religion they were born with because of brainwashing and not being offered information to choose whatever they want. Even now as an atheist, my mom keeps telling me to believe in god and all that crap, while my uncle spent our reunion telling me to believe in god. People like them are why I abhor talking about religion with close minded religious people who have not been taught any different growing up.

I'm sure if more people were given the freedom to choose at a young age, there'd be less religious people with their own beliefs and more faith in science. It's why I prefer to create my own beliefs - beliefs based on evidence (which science coincidentally has a lot of). I don't see people as independent, they want to be dependent on something, which is why many believe a book and treat it as real (even though the Bible (dunno about Qu'ran and other books) was meant to be taken as teachings, not literal.

 

[KingEagle4]

I find my own beliefs, like any true person. Anyone that doesn't is simply making do with second-hand beliefs passed down to them.

Okay, now... take the above comment, and find a way to make it sound less mean, because I seriously can't think of a way to make it sound less mean.

 

[kannazuki]

I find my own beliefs, like any true person. Anyone that doesn't is simply making do with second-hand beliefs passed down to them.

Okay, now... take the above comment, and find a way to make it sound less mean, because I seriously can't think of a way to make it sound less mean.

So those who follow ready-made belief systems not "true" people. Are they false people? What's a "true" person? :')

 

[M3J]

So those who follow ready-made belief systems not "true" people. Are they false people? What's a "true" person? :')

He's banned, I don't think he'll reply.

I can see where he's coming from, though.

 

[kannazuki]

I know. He wasn't banned yet when I wrote that.

It's not hard to articulate a difference between people who have examined the ideas they were brought up with before settling on what they feel is right for them, and people who feel no need to question what they were told from the start, without flat out insulting the latter group. I just did so in my last sentence. Sure they look less favourable when you actually bother to draw the comparison, but I didn't say anything inflammatory there. I actually find it a lot harder not to say harsh things about people who think they've examined the beliefs that were handed to them as they were growing up, and get all high-and-mighty about it, but have only barely begun to scratch the surface.

 

[M3J]

I know, I was being a tryhard. el oh el

I agree that he could have found another way to articulate his thoughts without being rude, but I'm just saying that I understand why the harsh tone. A lot of people who believe with what they were raised with without questioning it can get annoying, especially when their answers aren't good. Biggest victims are the kids when their parents refuse medical treatment because they believe God or JEsus will cure their kids.

 

[kannazuki]

You said "I can see where he's coming from." I can see it too but I'm kind of over those sentiments from religious and nonreligious folks alike.

I was just hoping to see what would happen if he thought that wording through a bit more.

 

[M3J]

I'm pretty sure he did think how to word it, but went for being offensive without being offensive, if that makes sense.

Anyway, it used to be difficult to create one's own beliefs due to society and being raised to believe in something since birth, forced or otherwise.

 

[llamapie]

I was raised as a messianic jew and I married a wicken. That should answer your question. :P

 

[reesestl]

Why do you have to believe anything.

 

[kannazuki]

Technically we all start to form our own moral beliefs starting from early childhood. Words like "belief" and "faith" are not copyrighted or otherwise owned by religious interests alone. Even a word like "spiritual" can be another way of saying "emotional" (with an implication of cognitive stimulation) in which case it has nothing to do with the supernatural. The cultures we all grow up in (to me, religion is a part of culture even if to others it goes the other way around) offer a series of moral "combo meals," which a lot of people find easier to settle with than taking on the prospect of picking out every aspect of a several course meal and then shopping for it and preparing it yourself. Not only religion does that. Pretty much every cultural institution adds to the general ready-made morality. It's up to each individual to either take what they want from the à la carte menu, order the set meal, or figure something out on their own, but in the end each thinking person will still have personal beliefs.

 

[kaizen07]

I only believe in evidence. Even if I didn't grow up in a religious environment, I once tried to believe but that ain't for me.

 

[kannazuki]

I only believe in evidence. Even if I didn't grow up in a religious environment, I once tried to believe but that ain't for me.

Me too, but I think you mean you only accept evidence as fact? Every thinking person has "beliefs" as referenced in the title of this thread. I just want to drive home the point that beliefs and even faith are not inherently religious or supernatural, and are largely influenced by the wider culture around you.

 

[R0bE0]

I believe in myself. What I know, who I am, and what I feel.

I was raised in an orthodox home, though those beliefs were never really instilled in me. I find it too optimistic (and in a way, ego-eccentric) to believe there is an all power god (or gods) that has everything in the palm of his hand. The thought of death is not comforting - the mind rejects lack of existence as an antithesis to life. So it would make sense that people would be compelled to believe that there is something beyond.

For me it was never about the facts. I'm willing to wager that if humanity is still milling around in a thousand - ten thousand years our science, and our discoveries will seem primitive. They might prove some of our facts wrong, or might establish more onto them. Science is just a theory, and theories can be melded and broken when a better one comes around. Besides, even if we can disprove certain aspects of religion we cannot (and will not) be able to disprove the existence of a deity. Likewise we will not be able to prove the existence of one.

One thing that I do put some stake into is Everett's Interpretation/The Many Worlds theory. Though this isn't really a religious belief. It intrigues me to think and believe that all choices/options are valid, and in fact real.

To answer the original question: do I create my own beliefs? Not really. I merely go along with concepts that seem probable to me. And in a similar fashion tend to refuse concepts that seem improbable.