I meant it when I say NO BASHING. If you do want to have a calm, honest discussion, though, feel free to pm or im me.

What are your top 3 spiritual beliefs? I'm interested to see the religious diversity that we have on this site.

Mine:

1. There is one and only one God.
2. The Bible is God's Word.
3. Jesus Christ is my Savior and Lord.

Hi, Bro. I'll bite - what the heck!

1. There is one God/dess
2. The Deity encompasses all, we, the earth, the animals, the universe, and everything are all a part of Him/Her
3. Our function is to make the whole better by being forces for "good."

I believe in one Creator.
The Bible I believe is mans interpretation of the Creators word.
And I do believe Jesus was and is the light the truth and the way.

I don't believe you have to go to church to believe in God, and I don't think you will burn in hell if Jesus isn't your Saviour.

Jesus taught us to Love.. Love thy neighbor as thy self. To Love everyone no matter what! LOVE LOVE LOVE. Not if you don't do this or if you do that you're gonna burn in hell for eternity. I really get turned off by the fire and brimstone stuff and the scare tactics that most catholic churches use to keep you sending them money.

Like creatrix said, "Our function is to make the whole better by being forces for "good."
what a profound statement, and exactly what I believe.

I also like to take a little from Native American Beliefs since I have some running through my veins. I think this life is a test of sorts, you do good, you move forward, you do poorly, you re-do or move backwards depending. Again though, I don't think any one religion has it 'exactly' right. but the underlying tone for all of them is Be good to yourself and to others.

why not...

1. There's no God, higher power or some sort of thing like that.
2. Once we're done, we're done.
3. But while we are here, we might as well make the best of it .

Interesting...but potentially volatile...thread...But let's hope not.
I'm not an overtly "religious" person...more of a spiritual being...So I draw upon many, many, many different spiritual theories and practices...Not just one. Although, Buddhism is close to my heart...

Shaman, I agree that the brimstone, burn-in-hell stuff makes me pretty uncomfortable - not in the least because it may be directed at me! LOL...

I also believe that the Deity reaches people in the manner best suited to THEM. For some it may be yoga or for some it may be Church or Temple or Masque, or for some it may be candles under a moonlit sky, but it is the same single entity, I believe, that we are communing with. I tend to use the metapho of God/dess as a human body. God is the "brain," but without the rest, it would still be a brain, but what's a brain in a jar? The physical body - the universe and such - would be pretty pointless without the brain, too. But the "brain" tells the heart to beat and the hands to type and the eyes to blink and the stomache to digest. It would be stupid for the brain to try to get the eyes to digest, so if the stomache gets so certain that it knows exactly what the brain wants and goes telling everyone to digest, it actually isn't doing the whole any good. Does that make any sense?

well I have nothing against any religion, belief, following and so on

but I am along similar lines as Grefix

I am in need of proof I guess, and there are far to many contradictions and raise eyebrow moments throughout near enough every religious belief and text to even start me thinking about gods and the meaning of life I am afraid.

The main fact to me is why such peacful and well meaning movements are the cause of nearly every war known in human nature.

And before anyone says, I am not 'Bashing' religion, like I said, anyone can believe what they want through my eyes. This is just the way I see it.

Marco and Grefix, I do tend to agree with the "proof" thing on some level, yet I seem completely at peace with believing what I do without it. Go figure! Still, I think all religious education should begin with "this is just a theory, but....." simply because, despite what we THINK we know, we don't really know a dang thing.

oh true Trix, we think we know it all, but we do not, thats a human condition to learn more and soak up knowledge. example; earth was believed to be center of universe, example; earth is flat etc etc, you could go on for weeks with the progression of humans. We learn to make our existances mean more I suppose.

Talking about religious studies, which I passed with top marks you may be suprised to hear, as its was manditory at the shcool I went to.

Anyway, when I was in class once, I apposed the teachers creationist theory with my personal opinion of darwin's evolution and bone findings pre dating bible texts creation philosiphy's

and what happened..... I got 3 weeks detention. Now that is good teaching

I may add this is not an instance that has swayed my thinking on this matter, but it sure pissed me off towards a very closed viewed and old fashion teaching style.

Marco, that would have made me so steaming pissed that I think my primate lineage would have been apparent as I went ape-sh**! It's not that someone chooses to believe something different: by all means, who am I to say I'm right? But when someone decides that I'm wrong and then proceeds to punish me (by detention or by prosyletizing or telling me I'll burn) I get offended.

not to worry, bannana's in the old exhaust pipe worked a treat for me.... hey, another random link to primate evolution

It would sure suck to have made the wrong choice at judgement day.

Any religeon that requires you to be on your knees, chanting, confessing, tithing, or suicidal/homicidal is probably a scam and should be avoided.

I've got absolute respect for serpent handlers. Ever seen video of serpent handling in a nice well funded church? Seems like drafty old fire traps and tents are the temples for those believers. Amen!

Yeah... I'd sure hate to be the eyeball that blinded the body by secreting digestive fluids....

I've thought of that at times...