Open Source Religion Options

[trojan_libido]

http://www.redefinegod.com/

This website is an attempt to create an open source religion, based on facts about our world and not giant leaps of faith like 'God did it'. It may interest some of our more religiously inclined. I've just found it myself, my username is the same as here.

[Lindsay]

http://www.redefinegod.com/

This website is an attempt to create an open source religion, based on facts about our world and not giant leaps of faith like 'God did it'. It may interest some of our more religiously inclined. I've just found it myself, my username is the same as here.

Interesting. TL, I take it that this site was set up by traditional Christians, right? As you are aware, I am interested in redefining the god-concept. Meanwhile, because I make no claim to being infallible, without prejudice or malice, I allow others to do the same.

[trojan_libido]

I'm not sure about the beliefs of the site creator, but I found the link for it in the topic Open Source Religion on Wiki. There was other sites doing similar things, which might be better candidates because this one doesn't have many users.

Welcome, trojan_libido! You are member #275 of Redefine God

I just saw you joined up too!

[Phi]

The atheists haven't hopped on yet? I'm all for a redefinition of God, so that both sides (atheists to born again christian) can just shut the hell up. Luckily, this is a great opportunity to bride that divide...but why does my gut tell me I'm not interested?

Religion is so exhausting! I was going to write more, but my head is tired of turning in circles.

I say the bridge is connected when the people who preach can live by example, and have something to show for it (I'm hoping it shows obvious well-being).

If religion shouldn't be discussed in a cocktail party, what makes a forum different? I like this place more than any cocktail party I've ever been to.

Just some random crap spewed from the unorganized(and exhausted) mind on religion.

[Lindsay]

... If religion shouldn't be discussed in a cocktail party, what makes a forum different? I like this place more than any cocktail party I've ever been to.

Just some random crap spewed from the unorganized(and exhausted) mind on religion.

OK Phi, give us your definition of god, God, or GOD. I think you already know mine, eh?

[Phi]

the singular form of the universe. just what is

[trojan_libido]

I agree about religion and the topic of God being tiring to the mind and body. Its been like this since the idea rose in our unevolved brains. I think any truly significant philisophical idea always has a touch of madness attached to it. Circular thought is common. But in this Universe of spheres, orbits and fractal evolution, it was bound to be exactly as it is. Looking God in the eye tends to make you feel uneasy and fearful. Staring at Sol is equally uncomfortable

[Phi]

I like the uneasiness...but I think that's what turns many people away from thinking about it. It's all a lot easier to accept when the whys you wanted answered are

[Phi]

Another way of saying it: people are turned away because it doesn't fit into their own linear thinking. It may seem as a paradox, but I believe there are ways to spark interest, while still keeping true to the idea...just takes a little extra effort to figure out where the line doesn't want to intersect the circle.

The only reason why I bring this aspect up is not to shoot down the idea of an open source religion...actually I'm all for it. My experience just tells me that while an idea can be great, it's only fulfilled when it is able to apply, and this only applies when people accept it.

I think while it is still fundamentally a religion, the word has been tainted as I believe Rick mentioned sometime ago. I don't claim to have THE answer, but I think the general direction toward mentioning the idea as a train of thought, or some kind of new term would help with momentum.

[trojan_libido]

Haha, nice analogy. I tend to be blunt and to the point. I like my consciousness free-flowing thanks, warts and all. I react in an equally distasteful way. If only I could control myself fully at the times that really matter, then that would have altered my life

You're probably right with the whole open-sourced thing. In software there is a measurable difference between a poor implementation and an excellent one. Therefore a board of programmers would take the most efficient and use that. How would that work in a religious debate? "Your point is poor, mine is excellent" - "The board disagrees, both points are poor and only ours will stay". Probably not going to happen.

Beliefs are just that, your own personal belief.
It is still important to wake people up from dangerous delusional belief though.

WAKE UP MORMONS, ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISTS AND SCIENTOLOGISTS?

[Phi]

I think that's exactly what goes on when all sides aren't considered in an idea such as this. Then people are opposed to it before it's even understood...stupid human nature, but still reality

[Rick]

Every belief should pass a plausibility test. That way, if one can't entirely avoid believing false things, at least what he believes will be plausible.

[Phi]

?

[Rick]

I come across implausible beliefs (in other people) all the time. For example, how plausible is it that Barack Obama is a Muslim and simultaneously has a problem with his emphatic Christian minister? Yet I hear that a lot of people seem not to have applied the plausibility filter before accepting this inherently contradictory belief.

It would be nice if people believed only true things, but I will take plausible things as a good starting point.

[Phi]

o ok. The person would at least have to be plausible to begin with...and I would rather only accept truth. Everything else is to be cross-referenced to see if it fits or not

[Joesus]

Looking God in the eye tends to make you feel uneasy and fearful.

Only from the intellect that is immersed in ego.
When the intellect is immersed in the absolute, fear cannot exist. It can be remembered, like childhood can be remembered in an adult, but the psychological experience is such that it has passed, and cannot return just as the ego accepts the child in form has evolved into something much larger and efficient.

If the awareness is being focused consistently within the relative definitions created from the experiences that fit definition, the mind becomes hypnotized into accepting reality in limited forms.
If the mind is expanded beyond definition without expanding definitions that include fear, the mind has nothing to attach itself to. For the ego this means a death of identity. It is like pulling the ground out from underneath and losing all ground of familiarity. This terrifies the mind that grips identity like the rung of a ladder while standing 300 ft. in the air. Without definition the ego saturated in relative identity has nothing to stand on.

The Subtle senses of Conscious awareness then have to be re-awakened to a greater awareness of the Self which is greater than the ego's sense of relative limits and mortality. This is not a belief and so it does not require one develop an acceptance of it, it only require you take the mind out of the confines of belief to reawaken that which has been put away for the loud stimulation of physical sensory attachment.

The heart of the Soul is always moving toward this even when the mind that is attached to identity is grasping onto the past and projecting the memories of the past into the future. To remove the ground of habit brings great joy to the heart for it unleashes the restraints of fear and expands the awareness beyond limitation.

[Rick]

... and I would rather only accept truth. Everything else is to be cross-referenced to see if it fits or not

If only everyone respected reason so well.

[trojan_libido]

I willing for you to apply the plausibility test to my own belief of a Fractal Universe. I'm not going to elaborate any more than I have in other threads, but its interesting to see how you apply this plausibility test.

Statements to apply plausibility test to:

1. The Universe is one Fractal Entity, e.g. like the Gaia hypothesis.
2. Humans are the current creators in the pattern unfolding through evolution.
3. The mind is capable of experiencing the sensation of Oneness with the Universe, because the mind is built fractally from the same process.

[Phi]

... and I would rather only accept truth. Everything else is to be cross-referenced to see if it fits or not

If only everyone respected reason so well.

Its unreasonable not to...

[Phi]

Looking God in the eye tends to make you feel uneasy and fearful.

This terrifies the mind that grips identity like the rung of a ladder while standing 300 ft. in the air. Without definition the ego saturated in relative identity has nothing to stand on.

They have to know what an ego is first.