>>24120226
I believe in love, and that God IS love.
There’s so much that can demonstrate the interconnectedness of reality but I think the deciding factor is the similarity in feeling between experiencing: A) extremely beautiful art, particular literature but it applies to any work of art B) connection with God C) true and deep love, especially romantic love

>>24120247
This is straight-up Reddit-tier, new-age, feel-good garbage. "God is love"? Sure, keep spitting out cliches that sound nice on paper but mean absolutely nothing. It’s all just an emotional crutch, like wrapping your entire worldview around a bumper sticker. The whole "love is like looking at art" thing is about as deep as a puddle—it's just fluff to make people feel like they're part of some enlightened tribe without any real understanding. It’s not spirituality, it’s just wishful thinking dressed up as wisdom. Keep it in the realm of Pinterest quotes if that’s your vibe, but don’t act like you’re actually touching on anything meaningful.

>>24120261
This is cynicism described as rationality.
It’s especially ironic that you accuse it of being reddit while your reply is the most Reddit thing on this board right now, outside of a genre fiction or Marxism thread. The attitude of the miserable cynic is the most Godless thing imaginable, as is that of someone who doesn’t recognise the centrality of love to the human experience. “God is love” is literally a line from the bible, you illiterate retard, you should try actually reading some books rather than gleaning scraps from Wikipedia and YouTube pseuds.
This is 4chan, did you expect people to write paragraphs and paragraphs in response to this question? You asked people for some deeply held truths, you aren’t going to get their complete moral judgements on how to live.
You would know that God is love if you A) actually believed in the former or B) had ever actually experienced the latter

>>24120226
>What do you believe in
Leibniz was right
>what knowledge brought you to this conviction
Seeing millions of people every day getting exactly what they FUCKING deserve

>>24120261
what a sad, miserable being one must be to type out such an answer

>>24120269
Nice try, but you're just projecting your own emotional fluff as some kind of deep truth. The fact that you’re throwing around terms like "Godless" and "miserable cynic" just shows you can’t handle any critique of your vague, feel-good spirituality. Claiming my response is "Reddit" while you preach the most basic, cliché spiritual drivel just makes you look like you're stuck in a loop of regurgitating things you've heard instead of actually thinking for yourself.

And no, I don’t need your line from the Bible to validate anything. Maybe it’s time you realize that your personal beliefs about love and God don’t make everyone else’s experiences invalid. You’re not speaking truth, you’re just parroting what sounds good to you. Your argument is as weak as the "I’m right because I believe it" nonsense that doesn't hold up to actual scrutiny. Maybe take a step back and realize not everyone shares your views, and that doesn’t make them "illiterate" or "Godless." It just makes them not trapped in your delusional bubble.

>>24120247
why romantic love? what makes romantic love special? In my mind it is the most calculating form of love. Everything truly good about romantic love is found in deep friendship

>>24120226
I think that I am a weak and confused thing with no right or ability to actually believe in anything with true conviction. I think that I need to read more and purify my mind through physical training and relationships with strong people and then maybe I can believe something

>>24120314
I came to this by reading, lifting, noticing my thoughts, and talking to people

>>24120304
r/atheism tier. I believe Christ was picked apart by crows on the cross and your posts are so cringe that I may convert right now on the spot.

>>24120304
Sorry anon, but autistic THIIIIINKING isn't actually enough to experience the greatest truths of reality, you have to live it. Those of us who aren't miserable retches KNOW that community is vital to embolden the human spirit, we KNOW that God transcends material reality, we KNOW that true artists get to the goal before scientists even think to start looking (see how Joyce is still ahead of scientific theories of human consciousness).
Let's hear some deep truth from this enlightened rational genius, do you actually have anything, or is it just going to be some evopsych wank or political idealogue sophistry?
>acts like a 14 yo cynic redditor
>claims his response isn't reddit
>uses reddit spacing
pottery, every time

>>24120226
I believe in Sol Invictus.

>what knowledge brought you to this conviction
I looked up at the sky

>>24120310
It's the intensity of it that makes it special, and the fact that it involves the coming together of yourself with another person in literally every way, physically as well as otherwise, which I don't think can be discounted. I should clarify that I am just talking about actual love, not just lust or even romantic familiarity. I agree that deep friendship is like this too, it was a bad omission on my part, spending time with my dearest friends, one in particular, keeps this fire alive as well.

>>24120226
>What do you believe in
Jesus Christ
>what knowledge brought you to this conviction
The Holy Bible

>>24120326
kek, rationalism btfo

>>24120326
>see how Joyce is still ahead of scientific theories of human consciousness
NTA, but could you expand on this a bit more? I’m interested in getting into Joyce and this has piqued my interest.

>>24120340
Extremely based
>>24120261
Extraordinarily cringe

>>24120338
yes, I see what you mean. the physical coming together is important, but is that not necessarily 'of the flesh'. to attain true love, it seems to me that one would have to transcend the physical, not just bodily pleasure seems to be an impediment to actual love, but because the strength of physical attraction is dependent on the physical. also romantic love is corrupted by calculations regarding breeding. it seems like romance can be an intense beginning that can propel people towards a true love, but, if people do get to a true love, it would be just as much in spite of romance as because of it

>>24120340
Jesus Christ could only exist bodily because of Sol Invictus, the solar deity in our part of the universe. It’s also billions of years older than the Bible, the papyrus it was written on could only exist because photosynthesis. When certain solar deities die, they form black holes, inconceivable entities that probably produce new universes within their event horizons, inb4 Yahweh made the universe or whatever. No, Sol Invictus did you retard. The Divine Plato knew this 370 years before Christ was even a sperm in Mary’s fuckbuddy’s balls

that looks cozy af

I don't think I can explain love to people who have not themselves experienced it. My belief in love is rooted in profound personal experiences, which persist in my memory inspite of negative nancies who would try to talk me out of it.

>>24120360
>yes, I see what you mean. the physical coming together is important, but is that not necessarily 'of the flesh'. to attain true love,
I think a lot of people underrate the physical, we are physical beings as well as beings of spirit (in truth the two are modes of the same substance), so it isn't nothing that there is a physical side of it
> it seems to me that one would have to transcend the physical, not just bodily pleasure seems to be an impediment to actual love, but because the strength of physical attraction is dependent on the physical. also romantic love is corrupted by calculations regarding breeding.
This is an excellent point, romantic love is especially at risk of these corruptions, and indeed, things need to transcend the purely physical in order for the love to be real, but again, I don't think one can wholly discount the physical.
>it seems like romance can be an intense beginning that can propel people towards a true love, but, if people do get to a true love, it would be just as much in spite of romance as because of it
This is also a good point but taken too far you risk the situation that so many people misidentify as love that is actually just a kind of familiarity, a kind of social intertia, which works for raising families, but is not as deep or true. You may be right that the love of friendship is a more reliable source of this longterm than the love of romance, but there is nothing like the latter to remind you of how deep and true love goes.

>>24120382
>how deep and true love goes
Yes, I do feel like you have a important point here. perhaps the physical can generate a kind of love and understanding that words cannot. I have not experienced this, clearly, but it seems reasonable. I assume you have? Do you think marriage is necessary for this?

>>24120382
also, do you think that the fact that humans cannot love all humans deeply and truly is a reflection of a limitation on behalf of the human?

>>24120413
>Yes, I do feel like you have a important point here. perhaps the physical can generate a kind of love and understanding that words cannot. I have not experienced this, clearly, but it seems reasonable. I assume you have?
I have, but it is rare, with the right person it is always there though, even if you're angry at one another.
>Do you think marriage is necessary for this?
It isn't necessary to experience it but marriage is very good on a societal level for some of the more "functional" things it is related to (not that having children is a mere functional thing, it's a beautiful act of creation) and for protecting this love from the kinds of external factors that you brought up.
>>24120417
>also, do you think that the fact that humans cannot love all humans deeply and truly is a reflection of a limitation on behalf of the human?
I think it's a reflection of our limitations as finite beings with short lives, it takes time to know someone, and there are so many people in the world. I'm not fully christian myself but I think the most exemplary figure for love of all humans is Christ, that's what the passion truly is, and it's what sets christianity apart from other religions, including judaism and islam.

>>24120434
Yes anon, I see what you mean. I hope I get to experience that one day. Why are you not christian though? It seems like you very close to their beliefs? Is it because the church is corrupt? But you could be christian without denomination

>>24120441
>I hope I get to experience that one day.
I hope you do too, I hope everyone does.
>Why are you not christian though? It seems like you very close to their beliefs?
I'm not fully sure, I'm closer to christian than any other mainstream religion, but maybe closer to philosophical monotheism than that. Part of it is inertia from my mostly secular upbringing. Part of it is the lingering connection to judaism, I think prejudice on my part along with how mainstream talking heads falsely yoke them together makes it harder for me to make the leap. I think that I may well at some point
>Is it because the church is corrupt?
My initial reaction to that would be that it doesn't matter so much, man-made institutions will be corrupt but I live in England and the CoE is so bad that even its official head prefers to attend orthodox services
>But you could be christian without denomination
Maybe I'm already there, after all, it isn't Christ that I struggle to accept

>>24120465
>Part of it is the lingering connection to judaism
That is to say, Christianity's lingering connection in the mainstream, I'm not jewish afaik

>>24120247
>>24120261
The Bible says that God is love. But idiots proof text that to mean God is ONLT love. They leave out His justice and wisdom and instead think God is some big ball of love energy.

>>24120481
I think you need to give people here some credit, this isn't a west coast commune 50 years ago, focusing on the experience of one central aspect doesn't discount the others, especially given that God's justice and wisdom are an expression of his love. Actually it would require insanity (and cryptoatheism) to try to put something like God's justice on the same level as God as love or God as that which is rather than as a practical expression of that what God truly is.

>>24120492
>focusing on the experience of one central aspect doesn't discount the others,
They aren't just focusing on it, they exclude the others in favor of it. They can't fathom that God's love means that He will judge the wicked, which is justice.

>>24120542
>They aren't just focusing on it, they exclude the others in favor of it. They can't fathom that God's love means that He will judge the wicked, which is justice.
I'm not talking about hippies in california, I'm talking about people on this site, yes anon, we know God judges and deals out justice, you aren't special for pointing this out and needing to point it out any time someone brings up any other aspect of God makes you seem either psychotic or conceited. You'd do well to remember that Pride is a cardinal sin.

>>24120226
total jihad
doesnt work out i switch to catholicism
i read rumi once

>>24120549
>You'd do well to remember that Pride is a cardinal sin.
Pot calling the kettle black.

>>24120567
>called out for being a prideful conceited sperg
>n-no it's y-you who's prideful
embarassing, come back when you're over 18

>>24120465
NTA but I feel like we’re very similar in views and upbringing. I too grew up secular, no real religious teaching but never hated Christianity.
I have a love for Christ the man but I too am put off by the application of his teachings by others. I.e. churches.
Tolstoy has helped me come to this point. Christianity removed of the mystical aspects which I know some will consider blasphemous but it makes the most sense to me to follow what he said, not what others around him want to believe he meant.
I’m also in England. CofE is a total joke as you said and I’ve become disillusioned with Calvin Robinson who was probably the best they had. I’ve also been to an Antiochian Orthodox Church and even though the pastor was friendly I just didn’t feel it…whatever it is.

>>24120465
i see, i wish you well anon

File: 玄門十子圖_莊子.jpg (199 KB, 800x1152)

199 KB JPG

>>24120226
>What I believe
nothing
everything
same thing really
like fish believing in water
while swimming in it
does fish need conviction?
>Knowledge that brought me here
saw butcher cut meat
blade never stuck
flows through spaces between
realized whole universe like this
just flowing through spaces

File: 1708793261521703.jpg (1.4 MB, 2000x2000)

1.4 MB JPG

>>24120226
Solve et Coagula

https://youtu.be/6_HroTxaZe0

https://youtu.be/oxVVm75k_8Q

https://youtu.be/CUosSQZSw5c

https://youtu.be/rWnA4XLrMWA

Change is the nature of all things, and the nature of change - the primordial alchemy of existence - is expressed mathematically as the fundamental theorem of calculus

File: Aeon.png (271 KB, 971x1401)

271 KB PNG

>>24120643
https://pastebin.com/kcPLQwGh

Did you know that you can engage with life as a series of creative experiments in the infinite creative medium of creative mediums, the tapestry of existence?

It is to become a universal artist, to treat every aspect of your life as art. And it is to have the most profound romance with The Cosmos.

I have only one thing to teach: follow the divine call of Curiosity towards the greatest depths of beauty that you can reach. The will to learn, create, explore, and discover is the will to love.

File: arnenaess.jpg (75 KB, 640x480)

75 KB JPG

>>24120226
>Buddhadharma
>Three teachings
>Naessian deep ecology

File: OWG.jpg (617 KB, 2000x750)

617 KB JPG

>>24120836
>Naessian deep ecology
Outstanding based

>>24120836
And what led me to it, I studied religion in college, which led me to reading scriptures from various traditions. I've read the Bible, part of the Quran, some of the Rigveda, the Upanishads, etc. The Mahayana sutras, particularly the Vimalakirti, Prajnaparamita sutras, as well as the philosophical underpinnings of Huayan led me to Buddhism. However, I greatly respect the teachings of Confucianism and Daoism, especially the latter. As for deep ecology, I read Naess a few years ago and fell in love with his positive, living philosophy. I appreciate his joyous look at environmentalism, especially in a time when environmentalists are increasingly depressed, anxious, etc.

>>24120226
I basically believe that everything is nothing. Things are what they aren’t, and by knowing a single thing you can know everything.

>>24120226
Women's sexual freedom will kill the human race in sure of it. By reading philosophy, psychology and history basically and making connections and drawing insights in my written works and my old YouTube channel (which got taken down last month for hate speech, which isn't a real thing)

You have a soul, but it's underdeveloped. It's like a vestigial remnant from when you were created, kind of like the sparks that emanate from a bonfire (this is the true meaning of "god created man in his image"). It's there but not really functional. Instead people function through a sort of animalistic lower-self, driven by the various impulses which originate in their physical body. Through certain processes you can learn to dominate these various impulses and cultivate your soul instead, "fanning" the spark into a proper flame. When you do this you essentially become that creative fire that created you in the first place becoming a creative force (a god essentially) in your own right.
If you refuse and allow yourself to be dominated by the animalistic self, not taking care to fan the flame, the spark simply fizzles out and that's that.
I know this because I've been nourishing this spark and trying to turn it into a flame for many lifetimes, so that now the knowledge is so intimate to me that I'm aware of it wherever I go.

>>24121109
how do you nourish the spark

>>24121118
I once read a book on magic where the author said something along the lines of "when flesh acts on the spirit, you are heading in the wrong direction; when the spirit acts on flesh, you're on the right path". I wish I would have come up with that, because he's quite right and it's a very succinct way to describe essentially the entire path. I have to go to bed now, but maybe tomorrow if the thread is still up I'll elaborate (and I'm not being quirky here and putting on a mystical LARP, by the way. I'm completely serious about this stuff and I think it's important to share this knowledge every once in a while).

>>24120326
You are very dumb.
I think thats the problem.
You are so dumb you confuse your willingless to tolerate delusions with Faith.

File: soyjak 15.png (94 KB, 551x962)

94 KB PNG

>faith is a dumb delusion

File: atheist.jpg (175 KB, 548x618)

175 KB JPG

>>24121245
>You are very dumb
ah, the pinnacle of atheist rhetorical capability, it must truly be magnificent to have such a rich enquiring mind

>>24120226
>What do you believe in
Death is just a transformation. The word "death" carries too much unnecessary baggage due to tis dual meaning.
>and what knowledge brought you to this conviction?
The Tibetan Book of the Dead, the Egyptian Book of the Dead, and the Bhagavad Gita

>>24120326
You don't know any of those things. Maybe try studying some philosophy instead of claiming to be normal in 4chan.

File: naessbooks.jpg (490 KB, 3024x4032)

490 KB JPG

>>24120845
Nothing compares to the comfy mountain man

>>24121258
The world is built on the suffering and torment of countless creatures.
A loving God or God who is love or whatever hippy dippuy bullshit you use to cope would not construct the world in such a manner.

I have several big beliefs which govern my worldview:

1. Nothing is real. Everything is perception. What we are perceiving is what our senses tell us is there. We’ll never be able to view the world objectively

2. Our brain is hard-wired in such a way as to understand the world, and that’s why we invent language and concepts. We’ve tricked ourselves, though, into thinking that these things actually real. The argument for God that goes like “well, if God isn’t real, why is everything so perfect?” therefore doesn’t make a lot of sense, since “perfect” is a human concept.

3. This doesn’t mean that trying science or philosophy or whatever is pointless: Some of these models hold up pretty well, like mathematics or chemistry. This is just a way of measuring reality though, and nothing more. We conflate these things as actually existing

4. The future is a fiction of the mind. We can only imagine what the future is going to be like based on things that have already happened.

5. Our enjoyment of aesthetics is something inherent to consciousness.

6. All of human history moves toward security and sufficient freedom. People want their needs met, and if a government or country fails to do that, the government or country fails.

7. We exist under different “regimes.” Concepts and things hold power over us. The limits of my language are the limits of my world. We often can’t conceive of our world outside of “regimes.”

(Hobbes, Wittgenstein, Deleuze, Nietzsche, Hegel, and Andre Breton are my primary influences in writing all of these out)

>>24120226
I don't believe in nothing.
I believed in so many things in the past that I can't take beliefs seriously anymore.
Any belief I adopt will eventually feel like some kind of pernicious poison in my mind due to some kind of schizotypy. Anything that I single out somewhere along the line starts to feel wrong and a source of evil.
also, I don't know the meaning of words anymore and I can't even understand what it means to believe in something because consciousness and language are social phenomena and I spent so long asocial that there is atrophy there

>>24121747
if nothing is real then it doesn't mean anything to say that things aren't real. you are attached to one sided views

>>24120226
I believe in everything and was taught by life

>>24121769
"Nothing is real" is kind of hyperbolic for what I was trying to say here, but I think that it captures the general idea --- beyond our senses, we can't truly know the world.

>>24121800
if we can't truly know the world beyond our senses, then what is the world beyond our senses that you are talking about? according to you we know nothing about it. so what exactly are you denying us knowledge of?

>>24120226
The All is within the all as the all is within the All. I am not kidding.

>>24121807
He is speaking of subjective idealism I think.