Worship Attendance, Off or From?

[JamesMichael]

Thanks for all of your responses.

 

[brother josh]

When I joined freemasonry I leaned more to the -------- doctrines but did not attend church as I study more and more and go deeper down the rabbit hole and finding connections between other faiths and cultures I have this hungry and thirst for knowledge and I'm finding these truths and sacred virtues in every culture from Buddhism to Christianity to hermeticism to Islam


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[Blake Bowden]

About the same attendance but as a person I've become more connected with God.

 

[jjjjjggggg]

I stopped going to church and deconverted from Christianity in 2006. For a while I was an angry atheist until I began studying eastern religions. I use to practice zen and sit once a week in a group until moving away. I more or less settled into a philosophical taoist/monist. I've actually started to appreciate my time as a Christian again while studying freemasonry and Gnosticism/hermeticism. Last month I was initiated... I don't see myself going back to the church although I do believe in Deity.

Freemasonry isn't suppose to replace religion, but as brother Ernest Borgnine said, "it's enough religion for me."


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[jvarnell]

I stopped going to church and deconverted from Christianity in 2006. For a while I was an angry atheist until I began studying eastern religions. I use to practice zen and sit once a week in a group until moving away. I more or less settled into a philosophical taoist/monist. I've actually started to appreciate my time as a Christian again while studying freemasonry and Gnosticism/hermeticism. Last month I was initiated... I don't see myself going back to the church although I do believe in Deity.

Freemasonry isn't suppose to replace religion, but as brother Ernest Borgnine said, "it's enough religion for me."
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I understand what you said here but it is not religion you should be mad at but the Dogma of a certian religion. The Christianity you are probley railing against is the dogma man has put on that version. My dogma on christianity is that it is the ten commandments and that God sent Jesus to show he will take our sins if we only voice them to him. The easter religions are mostly you as your self deity. In my world this is selfish of me to only worry about the self and I want to always give to others. But this is me. At this point I want to say what document did you take the othe on?

 

[vangoedenaam]

Besides dogma, the organisations running the religion are the main problem, i think. And unfortunately we seem to need organisations


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[jjjjjggggg]

I wasn't so much angry at religion as much as not agreeing with the literalist interpretation of the Bible. I have serious issues with any Deity that would think it appropriate to murder innocent children... and the fundamentalist churches I was involved in believed that if you didn't accept their interpretation then you were not a "true believer".

As far as the eastern religions promoting self-deity, I didn't find that the case, at least with Buddhism. Though I can't claim to totally understand the teachings of the Buddha, I found the opposite to be the case, that his teachings were more about "no-self" not the deity of the self. What I found personally distasteful about Buddhism was the idea that to truly reach "enlightenment" one must give up all attachment... or as one Theravadan monk explained to me, I would have to leave my wife and daughter and become a monk to really reach the pinnacle of Buddhist practice.

I took my oath upon the Christian Bible. I do believe in Deity and hold a special sentimental value toward the Bible. It was my time in church as a teenager that kept me from making the kinds of mistakes that teenagers usually do, and I have a family Bible that has been in my family for generations, of also I hold great value for. There are also many teachings in the Bible I greatly appreciate and agree with. But, I am no longer a literalist, I don't worship Yahweh, Jesus is not my personal savior, and I'm not exactly sure what happens after death, though I don't believe in a literal heaven or hell. When I submitted my petition I was asked if I believed in a Supreme Deity... I do, and that was good enough for my lodge.

PS- I like your new avatar pic... digging the glasses!

 

[jvarnell]

I wasn't so much angry at religion as much as not agreeing with the literalist interpretation of the Bible. I have serious issues with any Deity that would think it appropriate to murder innocent children... and the fundamentalist churches I was involved in believed that if you didn't accept their interpretation then you were not a "true believer".

As far as the eastern religions promoting self-deity, I didn't find that the case, at least with Buddhism. Though I can't claim to totally understand the teachings of the Buddha, I found the opposite to be the case, that his teachings were more about "no-self" not the deity of the self. What I found personally distasteful about Buddhism was the idea that to truly reach "enlightenment" one must give up all attachment... or as one Theravadan monk explained to me, I would have to leave my wife and daughter and become a monk to really reach the pinnacle of Buddhist practice.

I took my oath upon the Christian Bible. I do believe in Deity and hold a special sentimental value toward the Bible. It was my time in church as a teenager that kept me from making the kinds of mistakes that teenagers usually do, and I have a family Bible that has been in my family for generations, of also I hold great value for. There are also many teachings in the Bible I greatly appreciate and agree with. But, I am no longer a literalist, I don't worship Yahweh, Jesus is not my personal savior, and I'm not exactly sure what happens after death, though I don't believe in a literal heaven or hell. When I submitted my petition I was asked if I believed in a Supreme Deity... I do, and that was good enough for my lodge.

That was not howI inturped what I read in some of the budist writings. It is what ishard not knowing enough of the lanaguage to inturpet it right.

 

[jvarnell]

I took my oath upon the Christian Bible. I do believe in Deity and hold a special sentimental value toward the Bible. It was my time in church as a teenager that kept me from making the kinds of mistakes that teenagers usually do, and I have a family Bible that has been in my family for generations, of also I hold great value for. There are also many teachings in the Bible I greatly appreciate and agree with. But, I am no longer a literalist, I don't worship Yahweh, Jesus is not my personal savior, and I'm not exactly sure what happens after death, though I don't believe in a literal heaven or hell. When I submitted my petition I was asked if I believed in a Supreme Deity... I do, and that was good enough for my lodge.

PS- I like your new avatar pic... digging the glasses!

This is what is hard about finding you own voice in life and how diety is invalved. Don't let anyone tell you what they think you think. look an analize you own feelings and see which religion most goes with your beleifs. I am a Christian with the denomations of "disciple of christ" and we say we have no creed so we don't try to force others to beleive the way we do we beleive everyone will come to Christ if they have enough information but that is up to them after the inital information.

 

[jvarnell]

PS- I like your new avatar pic... digging the glasses!

Ya this is me now that other pick was in my office taken by my assistant when I needed a pic for a Bio.