Poll: What are your current beliefs?

[Buck Rogers]

As Larry the Cable Guy once said..." I believe, Britney Spears ought to be one of Baskin Robin's 31 flavors..."

lol that cat thing you have as an avatar is hypnotic.

OH and OT im an athiest, and the reasoning for my conclusion is ..... reason.

[TallulahB]

These are the things I believe in, in no particular order of importance:

Atheism.

Dogs and puppy breath.

Children, and their capacity to learn and love.

The redemptive powers of a good novel or movie or song or piece of art.

A properly cooked meal.

Sunshine.

Tomatoes.

Pot.

Good wine or beer or scotch (or list your alcohol of choice, as long as it doesn't include cheap malt liquor).

The occasional cigarette or cigar.

The sea.

Dancing my ass off.

Failing at, and then eventually achieving, a task or goal.

Hard work.

Friendship.

My grandparents, long gone now, but still ever present in my mind.

Laughter.

Amazement.

Being generally stupid and ignorant, because there are so many things to learn and to do, I have to assume that no matter what I think I know, there is so much more out there that I am stupid and ignorant about.

Being kinda bossy, because for everything I don't know, there's a ton of stuff that I do.

[OnceWasOne]

I used to be agnostic. Now I'm "spiritual". Which I'm not sure what that means to others, but for me it means I know I'm a spirit living in a body. (But just while typing that sentence, I may have to rethink that also.)

What I know for certain is that I'm a good person - I treat others kindly and with respect, I don't pass judgment (be who you want to be as long as you're not hurting others) and I'm trying to find my way in life.

[NCTuskie]

I could never buy into the Christianity thing after leaving the Watchtower. For a while I was Agnostic- borderline Atheist. Several years ago, I was introduced to the Native American Church (I won't go into detail about it, but you can google and get a pretty good idea as to what it is).

Growing up half Indian, I knew a little something about it, but never in a million years thought I would get involved. After my deployment to Iraq, I was taken to a meeting and became a fan. NAC does have a Christian overtone, which are for reasons I won't get into right now, but I became the member of a chapter and go to meetings several times a year. Now on top of that my wife is Navajo from the Rez in NM, and she was raised with her own beliefs and around the NAC too. Being a JW, and going through the "deprogramming process", it has been hard for me to buy into her ways despite the fact I genuinely want to believe in it, and I want our kids to follows those ways over Christianity.

I will say that for the past 5 years, since my involvement in the NAC, and both my wife and my own tribal ways, I have experienced more powerful things than my time as a JW.

[WhiteRabbit]

When I think about this question, I think that trying to describe what I believe isn't quite the right framework. I find it difficult to put into words and feel like I could express it better through art and music, or maybe through cooking a meal for you or sharing the experience of gazing at the sunset over the ocean.

As a JW, I believed in something that was unseen and existed outside myself and separate from myself. Now, I believe in something that is in me and around me and not separate from me. Not a separate "God", but simply the force of nature. And belief seems like not quite the right word either. To me belief implies some kind of blind faith, and I don't have any of that, so I don't "believe" in anything. I practice and I experience. And little by little, I gain some wisdom. And I don't hold my practice or experience as superior or inferior to the practice or experience of anyone else.

One phrase I keep in mind is: There is nothing greater than me and nothing lesser than me. I try to hold this principle when interacting with others, and apply it not only to people but animals, plants, and the rest of the world around me. I suppose that could be a sort of belief, but there's no component of blind faith in it. More of an operating principle. And I try not to beat myself up when I fail, because it's a guidepost to keep me oriented and not something I ever expect to become perfect at or to "arrive" at any destination. I try to stay amused at my clumsy attempts to juggle everything in life, and then amused at my failure to stay amused...

[OutNAbout]

Strictly speaking, if we're talking about current beliefs there may not be enough time to discuss them, because depending on how long the discussion is it may no longer be current - so much so that if you're keen on discussing them you may never get anything done!

It's funny that the ability to hold on (or be attached ) to beliefs is valued and respected, so much so that even when people disagree it's like the worse thing they believe they can say is "they don't believe in anything" - which is something a fundamentalist like JWs have said about Unitarian Universalists, for example. With that kind of mentality it's like even if they strongly disagree they have at least some respect if you believe in something, even if it is blind belief.

From a practical perspective it's easy to understand that beliefs are conditional, you can try on a set of ideas about things and see what works, but be ready to change if it doesn't. From this perspective that kind of attachment doesn't make sense, and yet we apply that kind of attachment not to practical matters (there may be immediate feedback to prove it wrong or dysfunctional) but with things like how we view ourselves and reality! When we honestly look at beliefs this way it is not only obvious that it concerns matters that is not likely to be tested, but often we find that the individual is rather insecure about those ideas.

Of course, what seems to happen is we forget that the view of ourself is a view, but actually take the thought as who we are rather than the mental activity that it is. Being that it is an activity, we can change it. So it really makes sense to pause when someone might be inclined to go from one identity to another: Doesn't the fact that you can change your beliefs make you question whether you can consider an idea what you are, regardless of what it is? It's like if you were able to change shape physically, you wouldn't seriously consider yourself the new shape that you took on, would you? You know that's just a form you've created, it'd be rather ridiculous to live like you're that form and get worked up when that identity is questioned, because it is by nature temporary. People speak in terms of re-creating themselves, and while I think that's great it's also just kind of silly to think of that as yourself. Not to dismiss the energy they put into getting an education and such, but clearly what people think is something they do rather than what they are.

[s6r10]

Let's see if we can get a snapshot that speaks to the diversity of beliefs after the Watchtower...

I believe in respecting others religious beliefs,military service, donating blood, vaccinations,respecting nature,not selling raffle tckets, bibles or magazines,jogging , exercise, loving my wife children and grandchildren, paying my taxes, playing guitar,playing my clarinet in a concert band . Jehovah's witnesses can take their watchtower and bible and use these articles for toilet paper. Free from watchtower for 42 years. s6r10

[TimeBandit]

These are the things I believe in, in no particular order of importance:

Atheism.

Dogs and puppy breath.

Children, and their capacity to learn and love.

The redemptive powers of a good novel or movie or song or piece of art.

A properly cooked meal.

Sunshine.

Tomatoes.

Pot.

Good wine or beer or scotch (or list your alcohol of choice, as long as it doesn't include cheap malt liquor).

The occasional cigarette or cigar.

The sea.

Dancing my ass off.

Failing at, and then eventually achieving, a task or goal.

Hard work.

Friendship.

My grandparents, long gone now, but still ever present in my mind.

Laughter.

Amazement.

Being generally stupid and ignorant, because there are so many things to learn and to do, I have to assume that no matter what I think I know, there is so much more out there that I am stupid and ignorant about.

Being kinda bossy, because for everything I don't know, there's a ton of stuff that I do.

I'd just like to add, AMEN Sister!

[Liberated]

Voted

Zero belief in gods or faeries. But I do like reading on mythology particularly the popular ones.

[Jah_El_Jah]

I believe in a higher power...but not the definition you might have as God.

I believe in the all-encompassing Universe, it created me for a purpose, and that purpose is clear in my mind. To carry on the creative nature of the Universe and beware of the Destructive nature.

It is the creative and cooperative nature that brought us about, perhaps out of a very chaotic destructive nature, but nonetheless brought us about by the cooperation of matter.

Which means we need to understand the balance of creative vs destructive...and live our lives according to the will of the Universe. I believe we are all manifestations of the Living Universe itself, and in this way the Universe is experiencing cognition and perception. The Universe has control systems and functions that make up the very fabric of existence.

Which means our chemical make-up and the properties of our cells were built upon by previous systems. These systems will continue to increase in infrastructure and will cause an inevitable heightening of Universal awareness and consciousness, until one day the Universe has Uniform awareness and all existence is merged together into the Super-Organism singularity. Then we can truly call the Universe a Single Organism.

This is the destiny of the Universe, to become uniform in awareness. And Self-realizing.... pretty deep stuff I know... Aren't you glad to be a part of it all? yay