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6494699 No.6494699 [Reply] [Original]

Since this is now a Catholic board, I guess that it would be ok to ask the following here:

Just what is it like to believe? I live in an ex-communist now-orthodox country in which the population simply lost the ability to be religious, so we get this reverence towards tradition, but that's about it. You get a couple of people who take this stuff seriously, but they are considered odd by the others. So, what does a worldview of a religious person look like? This is a completely serious question, because I don't think that I know a single remotely seriously religious person.

>> No.6494704

Catholic board? Don't you mean Wahhabi? All I believe in is the form of memes tbh

>> No.6494706

Also what happened to Hellenismos?

>> No.6494707

>being a gnostic christian

>> No.6494716

>Since this is now a Catholic board

'no'

>> No.6495196

>>6494699
i am not religious, but it looks pretty empty without religion tbh

>> No.6495228

>>6494699
>Since this is now a Catholic board
People here don't even know jesus is literally bread.
but then again, i actually know catholics and they don't know either so carry on

>> No.6495232
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6495232

>>6494699
bring back the inquisition

>> No.6495248

i'm a practicing catholic, so i'll try to answer you the best i can.

everyone who actually believes is considered odd, even if they live in a country dominated by the nominal adherents of their faith.

what i've found is that our conditions shape our political coordinates for the most part, though we retain an agency with which to respond to these conditions and in turn shape them. a person whose politics shapes their faith is easy to identify. a person whose faith can alter their political coordinates and dramatically reorient their worldview is rare, but it happens. happened to me.

what is it like to believe? it's like doing something for the well being of another without the thought of reward. it's a focus on God rather than the self. that's what it's like

>> No.6495252

>>6494699
>catholic board
Protestant here
Claim debunked

>> No.6495258

>>6495252
Oh, nice, a Protestant.

Can you point me to where in scripture is says "Sola Scriptura?" Thanks in advance.

>> No.6495259

>>6495228
>jesus is literally bread

the paschal lamb, the bread of life, the good shepherd, the word of God, the Logos

>> No.6495268

I don't know what it is like for most religious Christians, but for me believing is a pretty sweet deal. I have confidence that many of the most important questions have answers edifying to humanity. Questions like the nature of the good, the existence of a loving God, the meaning of life, the destiny of the universe, and the immortality of the soul are given satisfying answers both intellectually and spiritually. The chief feature of this satisfaction is that you truly feel you belong in the world- that Being Itself is ultimately friendly to mankind, in fact desires personal relation with you.

Because I believe in nature and nature's God, I don't have the impossible task of conjuring the meaning of my existence ex nihilo, but neither do I have to swallow the crude reductionisms that afflict the modernist conception of man. Thus, I don't suffer existential angst. At the same time, this doesn't prevent me from critically reflecting on the nature of my last end- as a Christian, I am obliged in fact to consider my purpose as a human being, and reflect on it. In that sense I am both awake to the deep questions of human meaning and able to take joy in exploring the solutions.

Despite (or because of) this deep well of philosophical and spiritual peace, I am also well-equipped to deal with suffering. The lord of the universe and the traditions and practices of his church are available as an infinite resource in times of trial. My connection with real suffering via the community I love, the Church, also helps to put my petty worries in perspective.

Being part of a spiritual community means that I don't lack for social support, either. The church at its best is not merely an alliance of people with in a hobby, but people who are united through the deepest orientation of their lives, who therefore have the most important commitments in common, no matter what else may divide them. The sense of community as a believer doesn't end with the immediate church. Christianity is a belief which integrates so much of so many aspects of the lives of so many people across so many periods that there is a sense of a deep belonging to the world, to history and to wider society, even as we are not necessarily of that world. You can go anywhere in the world and find almost ready-made a community you can settle in and love.

Christianity provides the necessary context to seek holiness, for it frees my good intentions from the suspicion of mere egoism and gives me models to contemplate and emulate. The great tasks which my faith sets for me- to participate in the salvation of the world, to love my neighbour, to enjoy the beautiful and to fight evil- excite my highest sentiments and engage the best parts of my nature.

>> No.6495270

>>6495258
I'm a different anon, but give Galatians 1 a look-see:
>6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—
>7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.
>8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!
>9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!

>> No.6495273

>>6495259
Also literally bread and literally wine.

>> No.6495276

>>6494699
What country? That is really interesting.
I don't know, it's hard to answer beyond anything but my own personal experience. Not sure I'd consider myself Catholic, though I was raised as one. Would call myself a Christian of some kind, though, and it's a big part of my life. I guess my relationship with God is what makes my life feel like it's worth living, like I (and people generally) have a role in the universe and the universe is good.

On a cultural/societal level I don't know to the extent it would be all that different, a lot of things people talk about like "rights" seem like they're just a formalized/metaphysicized language for talking about something that a lot of people don't really believe exist. A lot of times people seem to use religious language the same way, as more rhetorical than anything, like people who aren't really religious might do that. I don't know, though, it could be they are genuine. Either way, it's different from what you described in that no one looks at them like they're weird, it's just part of the language.

>> No.6495290

Jesus Christ is the ergot fungus on bread. Pseudo-Dionysius talks about this. Fly agaric mushrooms were also used. These were also the keys to the Greco-Roman mystery cults. The secret of spirituality is the use of psychoactive drugs. All religions ultimately evolved from shamanism. Even the earliest philosophers east and west respected these substances and its use continues to the modern era. Secret societies seek a nooocracy ruled by the spiritual elite. LSD-25 is the atomic bomb of consciousness, the single greatest creation of science. Now I ask you: Are you experienced?

>> No.6495298

>>6495276
I'm this one, but also,
>>6495248
>what is it like to believe? it's a focus on God rather than the self. that's what it's like
That's definitely true in my life, too, once I really believed in God and had a relationship with Him and "God" ceased to just be a linguistic symbol, a lot of my thoughts/actions started to orient themselves differently. It wasn't just, "what's the best thing to do in this situation" or whatever, I really feel like trusting God and putting God first usually lets everything else fall into place.

>> No.6495446

>>6495298
>once I really believed in God and had a relationship with Him
what happened ?

>> No.6495610

>>6495446
he sacrified his son for me

>> No.6495634

>>6495268

Ignorance is bliss: The Post

>> No.6495638

>>6495290

Gnostic sects also did mushrooms as well as drink period blood.

>> No.6495649

>>6495276
not OP, but my guess is Serbia

>> No.6495815

>>6495446
I got very serious about "contemplative practice," I guess (praying and meditating, both). I had visions, I would feel a presence, it would stay with me throughout the day, I would feel "callings" and compelled to "answer." I mentioned that I am not a Catholic. The reason is that a relatively early calling was to be involved in a community of some kind, to have a group of people with which to worship and also serve the needy. Because I didn't know where else to start, I went to a Catholic church near where I was living at the time. It was spooky, everyone was elderly and kind of cold, the inside was very pretty and nice to pray in but it was really big and ornate and there was a huge abortion shrine (?) outside with the virgin Mary on it, with gold plates adorned with names. At first I thought the names were of the aborted spirits or something, but on closer inspection I found they were of donors who contributed a lot of money. It just felt weird.
Later while reading the Bible (something I started doing afterwards) a passage in the Sermon on the Mount (Jesus's injunction not to take oaths) reminded me of Quakers. I thought that would be a good fit and go to Quaker meetings when I can now, and I like it. I'm not like officially a Friend or part of our local community, we'll see over time how that plays out, or if I find somewhere I think is a better fit. It really doesn't matter that much to me. Frankly, I've had a lot of people try to explain my relationship as not having to be with God, like their just being numinous experiences or experiences of the Open or maybe even hallucinations. I got over that, too, it does not matter to me too much anymore. I'm just happy to have it.
>>6495610
wat

>> No.6496394

>>6495634
Lol, so bitter. I pray that one day you realise that the truth doesn't have to be inimical to our highest hopes and happiness.

>> No.6496406

>>6494699
I don't know, but I imagine it must be really spooky.

>> No.6496423

>>6496394
You're essentially intellectually arguing for traditionalism under the cause of religion, undermining your own inability to actually believe in a higher being. You attribute questions of meaning to some higher being because you simply want to escape, while not facing the reality that you're deceiving yourself.

>> No.6496430

>>6495290

Drug romanticism is stupid. Whatever you experience on drugs is just the contents of your own mind. People who revere psychedelics are literally magic pill believers, they think they can reach wisdom by mystic intuition without the effort of a well developed philosophy. Drug hippie mystics have nothing but my contempt.

>> No.6496442
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6496442

>Since this is now a Catholic board

>> No.6496444

>>6496430
>Whatever you experience on drugs is just the contents of your own mind.
So?

>> No.6496468

>>6496444
So it is literally masturbation. to become wise in my opinion you must read philosophy, ponder its implication and synthesize ideas from it.

This of course is not as easy as taking a tab of acid which is why lazy effete people prefer to do that instead of doing the real work of understanding and becoming wise.

That being said, drugs are fun as long as you don't create an identity out of taking them

>> No.6496501

>>6496468

Everything we experience is just the contents of our own minds, you dumb shit.

>> No.6496519

>>6496501
>MFW you deliberately miss the fucking point like a massive autist.

>> No.6496546

>>6496468
>So it is literally masturbation.
So?

>> No.6496558

>>6496546
>So?
So?

>> No.6496582

>>6496558
>>So?
>So?
So?

>> No.6496593

>>6496423

I wasn't making an argument, but describing what it is like to be an adult member of the Christian religion. It's a religion that embraces all dimensions of human existence and brings them at the foot of the Cross, including tradition so why should I not extol the tradition, to the degree that this is possible and appropriate? If one misses out on the corporate dimensions of belief in God, one does not believe as one ought.

I'm not undermining my inability to believe in God, since I have no such inability. It is because I believe in such a being that everything makes sense- without that belief, all proportion is lost, and Christianity becomes an ugly and odious thing, obviously not the kind of thing I would praise.

I say that the answers to questions of meaning are found in God (not "a higher being," but the metaphysically ultimate source of all reality) because it is true, not because of a desire to escape. Of course I did not present my arguments for this conclusion (which would require I write a redundant book), but the OP wasn't asking for arguments.

I hardly think that the results of this commitment show a desire to escape. Because of my faith, I am more engaged with the moral and spiritual dimension of man- indeed, because of that faith I cannot look away or explain away the moral and spiritual diseases of mankind or in myself, but must face them and oppose them with all my strength. Because of the demands of my faith, there is a spiritual urgency to the task of knowing the world as it truly is which is unavailable to the unbeliever- how indeed can it be called an "escape," if the result is to force me, on pain of sin, to know and love-to-know the world God has made?

It's question-begging to assume that the world is the soulless desert the modernist calls home, and that therefore all disagreement with this thesis must be mere escapism. That attitude is mere bigotry.

If I am self-deceived, that self-deception has survived the most exacting and meticulous inquiry into the grounds of my belief which I have been able to muster. If you understand something obvious that I have missed, please make it clear so I may consider it.

>> No.6496594

>>6496558
I guess I'm supposed to believe your assumption that masturbation is inherently valueless outside of it being "fun" and can't contribuite to the well being of your body and mind then.

>> No.6496748

>>6494706
That one poster stopped making threads.

>> No.6496765

>>6494699
Its exactly the same as those communists and fascists who believe the revolution is immanent.

>> No.6497594

>>6496593

>It's question-begging to assume that the world is the soulless desert the modernist calls home, and that therefore all disagreement with this thesis must be mere escapism. That attitude is mere bigotry.


Pot meet kettle.

>> No.6497604

>>6496593
>If you understand something obvious that I have missed, please make it clear so I may consider it.
Born and bre(a)d.

>> No.6497611

>>6494699
>in which the population simply lost the ability to be religious
Join the Catholics if you are in an Orthodox country, like I did. You should know that the slav diasporas in the USA are actually very tight and go to Church in a way they would never do in their own homeland.

>> No.6497750

>>6497594

Where's the begged question?

>> No.6499746

To all you Catholics, I finally came out of the closet and found my old books!

>> No.6499791

>>6494699
Hello from your oppressed neighbor.

>> No.6499815

>>6497611
That's possible only in Vojvodina, Serbia is really hostile to Catholicism since its related to Croats.

>> No.6499863

>>6495232
>this
time to kick out these kebabs. I bet they have the potential of raising their home countries with the knowledge they have perceived by living here in europe for a few decades.