msganda

one that isn't made in our image.

TheBig3

I think thats Buddhism.

Like a goat maybe?

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Inuzuka Skysword

Buddhism believes in selflessness.

TheBig3

I'm smashing my head against the desk here.

Its also positives. Or are you saying we need a religion that tells us to plunder and take for ourselves, because the Church of Satan has taken those virtues.

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Inuzuka Skysword

You fall under the category of people who look at selfishness only in its extreme forms, which aren't even truly selfishness. Plundering villages won't make one happy. What would make one happy would be working in that village and eventually owning all the businesses there. See the difference. Work makes one happy. (Also, do not take the scenarios literally. I am not implying that being a rich business man is the only way to be happy.)

I am personally content with atheism. The thing is, people will tell me that believing in the divine will allow one to appreciate things more. When I am sitting out in the woods, I really question if believing in a creator god can make the woods any more beautiful.

Still, if there is a positive aspect of believing in the divine, how can be retain that in a type of theism without giving up the positives that being an atheist has.

EDIT: I thought the Church of Satan was more of an atheist movement.

TheBig3

No, the Church of Satan has a ridiculous almost anti-commandment thing going. They very much attempt to live up to the christian devil's charactaristics...dopes.

Honestly, it sounds like what you're after is good Civics. I'm way over the line, but I treat the 44 Presidents we've had as examples to follow, and treat thier words as a little more than just speeches by elected people.

Americanism, practiced in its purest sense, is not such a bad religion after all.

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SATCHMO

The answer to that is in looking past fundamentalism and the quest to reconcile science with a literal interpretation of religious truths and seeing the true nature and purpose of a relationship with that which we would call divine.
Of all the spiritual questions that are on my list of important things to consider the question of who or what created the universe ranks pretty low. Science and spirituality are not mutually exclusive, on the contrary, they compliment each other quite well. It's science and religious literalism that are at odds with each other, and religious literalism is born out of the fear that what one believes will be eradicated by empirical fact.
I am at once an atheist and a theist. I understand that objective science will never find God. I also understand that neither will creationists or any other narrow minded fundamentalists who seek to fortify their own agenda. God lies within, and it is their that every individual must look for God, but only if they choose to do so.