Alternative religions. Anyone follow one?

Can someone sort of explain to me what it means to be 'Spiritual'? I'm just generally confused and have always been. I just kind of always thought that was Hippies for some reason (sorry if that's wrong and offensive it's just always what I thought, the word just makes me think of freeness and openeness and things). Is being spiritual like being a wiccan? Or something along those lines?

To me, being spiritual means acknowledging there is a higher power or powers, with many names given by many peoples, that help guide us along our life journeys. I was raised a particular denomination and while I acknowledge my upbringing, I don't necessarily use the same names for powers or rituals that I did as a child but my intent is that of being the best person I can be to myself and others.

That really cleared things up. Kind of sounds how I feel about things. Thanks

Oh yeah, I always forget to mention on these threads. Even though I am an agnostic atheist (as has been discussed in this thread), I do still read about Buddhism, meditate and do yoga. As I said I was raised in "alternative religion". It is long and involved and I don't want to say I had a bad experience with it, but I did not have a good experience or feel that it benefited my life (I am well aware of the reasons why). But, during those younger years I read books by Thich Nhat Hanh. He is a Buddhist monk. He has been through trauma and he is very down to earth, compassionate and understanding. So, I did relate to him and found his writing and wisdom to be helpful. I ended up becoming agnostic atheist (or secular humanism). And still like Thich Nhat Hanh. And it turns out that Thich Nhat Hanh also does not believe in God, afterlife, reincarnation...etc. A lot of Buddhists don't. Sometimes Buddhism is a way of life, a philosophy, a type of psychology and not a religion. So I appreciate the writings of a lot of secular Buddhists. And just because I like them, does not mean I agree with everything. We are all still individuals and all still learning.

It is a real shame that you and I will likely never talk to each other in person Binary Pulsar.

NO........................................... THERES 1 GOD
CHRISTIANITY ..........................

I worship Spock. Live long and Prosper.

My silly question to the atheist community is if you don't believe in gods or godesses doe this mean you also don't believe in the concept of extraterrestrials(sp?) influenzing the development of early humans and taken as gods ? Does it also then follow do you believe human beings are the highest form of sentient beings in the universe - just asking to know

I kind of have the opposite question, if you believe in a God do you believe in Aliens???

I raised the question as there has been much written on the subject like "Chariots of the God"s that attempt to redefine and rationalize God as a being within this universe that is in actuality an Alien. Hence God is not in a "spiritual" world outside of this universe, but living in this universe and we as early humans with no other ways of explaining their nature, noted them as Gods or God. These interventions over time became embelissed and evovled into the modern day religions we have today. Whether I support this is something else, but attempts to rationalize why so many early and separated societies had a common theme that gods or Gods came from the sky or stars.

I am an atheist because I have not been convinced that a god or gods exist. That in and of itself does not mean that I don't believe in extraterrestrials.

If the question was put to me simply "Do you believe that there is life on another planet?"

I would say:

"I am not aware of any evidence of life on another planet but due to the immense size of the universe and the number of planets that there are it is entirely possible that life may have developed on another planet. That said I doubt very much that aliens have ever flown here."

Maybe one day we will discover life on another planet and it may even be sentient but I would be shocked if I learned one day that aliens had anything to do with life on this planet.

My silly question to the atheist community is if you don't believe in gods or godesses doe this mean you also don't believe in the concept of extraterrestrials(sp?) influenzing the development of early humans and taken as gods ? Does it also then follow do you believe human beings are the highest form of sentient beings in the universe - just asking to know

I kind of have the opposite question, if you believe in a God do you believe in Aliens???

I raised the question as there has been much written on the subject like "Chariots of the God"s that attempt to redefine and rationalize God as a being within this universe that is in actuality an Alien. Hence God is not in a "spiritual" world outside of this universe, but living in this universe and we as early humans with no other ways of explaining their nature, noted them as Gods or God. These interventions over time became embelissed and evovled into the modern day religions we have today. Whether I support this is something else, but attempts to rationalize why so many early and separated societies had a common theme that gods or Gods came from the sky or stars.

I am an atheist because I have not been convinced that a god or gods exist. That in and of itself does not mean that I don't believe in extraterrestrials.

If the question was put to me simply "Do you believe that there is life on another planet?"

I would say:

"I am not aware of any evidence of life on another planet but due to the immense size of the universe and the number of planets that there are it is entirely possible that life may have developed on another planet. That said I doubt very much that aliens have ever flown here."

Maybe one day we will discover life on another planet and it may even be sentient but I would be shocked if I learned one day that aliens had anything to do with life on this planet.

Hi Soldier, I always like it when you're on a topic !!. Time for me to come clean. I'm sort of on the opposite side...show me proof that God does not exist. I think maybe the jury is out...science has a long way to go, and in a prior post I was on my soap box about the dynamics of science. Science to me has not proven the non-existence. As science goes on we continue to re-evaluate prior conclusions. Aka the first law of thermodynamics...matter canot be created or destroyed...but yet here we are. The second regarding entropy puts holes into evolution. The big bang ? What came before it ? As we progress and open a layer several other countless layers of complexity appear. And with that more and more questions. To me, science does not have the answer, so I tend to prefer the other explanation of a greater mind that helped put it together.Perhaps both explantions are invalid, but to me it's the best I can go with. Take Care !!!!

My silly question to the atheist community is if you don't believe in gods or godesses doe this mean you also don't believe in the concept of extraterrestrials(sp?) influenzing the development of early humans and taken as gods ? Does it also then follow do you believe human beings are the highest form of sentient beings in the universe - just asking to know

I kind of have the opposite question, if you believe in a God do you believe in Aliens???

I raised the question as there has been much written on the subject like "Chariots of the God"s that attempt to redefine and rationalize God as a being within this universe that is in actuality an Alien. Hence God is not in a "spiritual" world outside of this universe, but living in this universe and we as early humans with no other ways of explaining their nature, noted them as Gods or God. These interventions over time became embelissed and evovled into the modern day religions we have today. Whether I support this is something else, but attempts to rationalize why so many early and separated societies had a common theme that gods or Gods came from the sky or stars.

I am an atheist because I have not been convinced that a god or gods exist. That in and of itself does not mean that I don't believe in extraterrestrials.

If the question was put to me simply "Do you believe that there is life on another planet?"

I would say:

"I am not aware of any evidence of life on another planet but due to the immense size of the universe and the number of planets that there are it is entirely possible that life may have developed on another planet. That said I doubt very much that aliens have ever flown here."

Maybe one day we will discover life on another planet and it may even be sentient but I would be shocked if I learned one day that aliens had anything to do with life on this planet.

Hi Soldier, I always like it when you're on a topic !!. Time for me to come clean. I'm sort of on the opposite side...show me proof that God does not exist. I think maybe the jury is out...science has a long way to go, and in a prior post I was on my soap box about the dynamics of science. Science to me has not proven the non-existence. As science goes on we continue to re-evaluate prior conclusions. Aka the first law of thermodynamics...matter canot be created or destroyed...but yet here we are. The second regarding entropy puts holes into evolution. The big bang ? What came before it ? As we progress and open a layer several other countless layers of complexity appear. And with that more and more questions. To me, science does not have the answer, so I tend to prefer the other explanation of a greater mind that helped put it together.Perhaps both explantions are invalid, but to me it's the best I can go with. Take Care !!!!

If your critique of science is that it doesn't have answers, you don't understand science to begin with. Science, by definition, can't do that.

Registered member (10 years) of the official Church of Satan, here.

I read that as "Official Church of Stan", I was like, who's Stan?! :laugh: