Are there any based religions?
>be me
>exploring different religions
>enjoy a lot of what many have to offer
>narrow it down to becoming protestant or mormon
>"oh but you have to literally believe that thing about jesus dying for your sins because that makes sense"
>can't get past it
>can't fully join these religions
What's the deal? Believing that God isn't a pinpointed deity who literally speaks to us in structured language and exists outside the laws of physics isn't allowed. The main point of these religions is that God impregnated a virgin (nohymennomiracle, had her give birth to himself, and set himself up in a situation that he knew would get him killed. How does this part of the story make any sense? Why is it considered sacrifice and suffering if he knows for a fact that earthly pain is meaningless?
Have you looked into taoism or Buddhism? I'm not religious myself but I find the point of Buddha being a human just like us who learned how to maneuver through life harmoniously without forcing him as a deity (though some do) to be an excellent example of something similar to what you're looking for
>>17957832
Those can coexist with the religions I mentioned, and likely will with me.
I'm looking for something otherworldly, something more of a religion than a philosophy. Maybe my understanding of those religions you mentioned is insufficient
>>17957821
I think you're taking it too literally. This is the part of the story that makes the most sense, it's the crux of the whole Jesus thing, and the Jesus narrative plays out again and again throughout history.
Jesus was killed because he was a preachy troublemaker, because he made people confront their own sins. For people that do Christianity right, attempting to be "Christlike" means standing up and speaking up for what you believe is right, even when it makes you wildly unpopular or hated.
>>17957845
What do you mean other worldly? If you don't believe all the mystical stuff about Jesus then what kind of other worldly things are you looking for ?
Pol recently memed a god of chaos into existence so you could always head over there and try
>>17957852
But they take it literally. I've been talking to some people in the church, missionaries, and they believe it very literally and tell me that its essentially to believe so.
I can dig the metaphor of Jesus. I even believe in some divination that can be experienced with Christianity, but I cannot believe it literally.
Since I was little, I remember being told that God will test us, and since then thought that there must be aspects of the Bible that god WANTS us to ignore, aspects that are tests. This is the only way I can justify joining one of these religions to myself.
>>17957867
I don't really understand how you can study several different religions with the expectation that you're just gonna pick one and suddenly "believe" all the dogma. I honestly think a lot of this stuff was intended as metaphor when it was written. Read the books, remember the parts you like, and if you wanna join a church, pick the one where you like the people the best.
>>17957870
From what I remember being told by a good friend, all the unpopular quotes from the Bible consistently come from the Old Testament, in which people had to follow strict guidelines to remain "pure", until Jesus came along, died for our sins, and made salvation a lot more feasible. Along with that, I also remember reading somewhere that the Old Testament in a lot of ways was a crude "survival" guide, in regards to the things you could and could not do. Not eating pigs (big risk of parasites), not eating anything in the ocean that did not have both scales and fins, separating those with skin infections from the general population, etc. Essentially, even though the Old Testament can seem excessive and harsh, it probably was important for people in those times without todays luxuries or modern medicine.
>>17957845
Buddhism has multiple heavens, hells, mythical creatures, and God like entities if you're looking for something otherworldly.
Everything you know as philosophy came out of christian tradition. Eastern "philosophy" is really just ascientific mysticism that is completely different from the western search for truth that came out of the Mediterranean and developed into modern literature, science, and what is now known as philosophy
>>17957821
God doesn't exist.