Does believing in something different effect the way your life turns out?

Henry.

Henry.

New member
Thought I'd post something compelling for my first thread. :)

So I was thinking, Lets say for example, Somebody believes in karma. They think of the bad things they have done, they start to focus on the bad things that happen to them and attribute it to having bad karma because of whatever they did. Then they might either start trying to live a certain way to avoid "bad karma" or become obsessive about it and constantly live their life in a way which they normally would not, Would it become like a penance maybe? Sort of like "oh I got attacked in the street, That's what I get for..."

What about religion? People might live a certain way to avoid afterlife consequences or in order to gain entry to "heaven" etc.

I'm not specifically relating to karma or religion, It just seemed like a good example of the point i was trying to make. You could attribute this to believing in anything.
Do you think people's life's are put on a different course because of believing in something?

Would you be a different person if you believed in different things? The things you think are obvious, The things you could not imagine living without thinking they were right, or true.
 
The mind is a powerful thing.
Believing in something changes everything.
Forinstance workers who believe they don't have time to get sick are much less likely to.
 
"Thought is the basis of all reality."

-The Traveler

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Would this be a self-developed belief (perspective based on personal, observed or related experiences) or something you are indoctrinated into, such as a religious upbringing?
 
I don't think a good person would turn bad if they stopped believing in karma/religion and I don't think a bad person would become a good person because of religion or learning about karma... BUT.. There are a lot of people on the fence that can probably be swayed with such stories.
 
I absolutely believe how I live, who I am is shaped by what I believe.
I believe for example my husband adores me, on good evidence :) and I believe he is gorgeous, fascinating sexy, wise and sweet, which makes my decisions almost always build him into them.
I believe that humans are not the only important forms of life, which means I make decisions which involve animals and trees and plants not regarding them as mere tools.

Henry. said:
What about religion? People might live a certain way to avoid afterlife consequences or in order to gain entry to "heaven" etc.
I'm not specifically relating to karma or religion, It just seemed like a good example
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It is a good example. But some people living under hell/ heaven pressure rebel. They'll say to hell with it (sic) I'll just live to the full and pay later. I guess the belief is still shaping their journey just backwards to the intention of the manipulators of that hell/ heaven idea.
Henry. said:
Do you think people's life's are put on a different course because of believing in something?
Would you be a different person if you believed in different things? The things you think are obvious, The things you could not imagine living without thinking they were right, or true.
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Certainly. I cannot see how it could be argued otherwise.
What becomes very interesting is where our beliefs come from. There is plenty of evidence that violent criminality for example, is genetic, contrary to the Enlightenment tradition in the West over 250 years. This makes many legal punishments cruel and insane.
Much else is largely but not entirely beyond our control - some people have an ingrained pessimism for example.
 
Shelley said:
Very well said. (y) I couldn't agree with you more.
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Thank you Shelley. But I'm very surprised.
You've quite often made it clear you disapprove of my spirituality. Yet this is its fundamental basis. Anything else is addons the individual practitioner chooses for themselves eg practice of meditation, or a liking for myths. Only the faith in different forms of life as persons, is required (not seeing life beings as tools but as a kind of extended life family).
Perhaps there has been a misunderstanding here.
 
Morgain said:
Thank you Shelley. But I'm very surprised.
You've quite often made it clear you disapprove of my spirituality. Yet this is its fundamental basis. Anything else is addons the individual practitioner chooses for themselves eg practice of meditation, or a liking for myths. Only the faith in different forms of life as persons, is required (not seeing life beings as tools but as a kind of extended life family).
Perhaps there has been a misunderstanding here.
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Now don't confuse spirituality with the way I agreed with that one statement. I am agreeing with this totally based on a scientific mindset. Other lifeforms have allowed us to be here on this earth and without them we wouldn't exist or our loved ones.
 
Shelley said:
Now don't confuse spirituality with the way I agreed with that one statement. I am agreeing with this totally based on a scientific mindset. Other lifeforms have allowed us to be here on this earth and without them we wouldn't exist or our loved ones.
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Difficult to ignore that that mindset is a spirituality which extends worldwide under different names.
Many of our leading scientists such as Einstein held it. It is both scientific and spiritual.

It is the Judaeo Christian Islamic theologies which have taught that humanity (Man in their language) rules the Earth and may use any part of it as tools.
This is also a secular philosophy (see Descartes) where no deity need be invoked, but the world/ universe is seen as something like a machine, including us as components in it. Not implying 'anyone' made the machine, just that it has parts that work together, or also don't, and we can hack it around and use it as we wish.
The neo liberal economic theory is based on this, and the result is corporate markets rule the world. Whether you approve of that is a separate matter but it belongs with the idea of human domination.

Arguably to look beyond the concept of machine world, is spirituality. The web of connected life is one version of that. Another is a deity system. But spirituality needs no separate deity.
 
Morgain said:
Thank you Shelley. But I'm very surprised.
You've quite often made it clear you disapprove of my spirituality. Yet this is its fundamental basis. Anything else is addons the individual practitioner chooses for themselves eg practice of meditation, or a liking for myths. Only the faith in different forms of life as persons, is required (not seeing life beings as tools but as a kind of extended life family).
Perhaps there has been a misunderstanding here.
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I don't think Shelley has ever disapproved of your spirituality, but only with how over the top and in your face you are about it? You do have a tendency to shove it into peoples faces which will almost always get on peoples nerves.
 
Forsaken said:
I don't think Shelley has ever disapproved of your spirituality, but only with how over the top and in your face you are about it? You do have a tendency to shove it into peoples faces which will almost always get on peoples nerves.
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Thank you. I really appreciate the explanation. But horrified at what it suggests. At risk of committing the sin suggested I want to say my horror is because we are forbidden to preach, attempt to convert, rather the reverse as applicants must be pushed away. To discuss beliefs unless invited is also forbidden.
However checking my memory, and lacking any examples of my being "in your face and over the top," and not knowing of any myself, I am not really any wiser.
I have rarely if ever referred to my beliefs by name, and never described my beliefs except as a standalone concept where relevant. This thread is an example where the thread positively invited talk of beliefs. I stated I do not hold humans as superior to other lives. Certainly I was being "in your face" here, unusually upfront for me; but the thread invited it, and one of my greatest critics, Shelley, even liked it!

I did once and once only object to someone who quite innocently made a casual remark which insulted my people. He obviously didn't know that, so I didn't see it as personal or blameworthy: just a point to clear up.
I think I once about 2 years ago posted a story here, memory fails me.
I have also made the occasional jokey remark referring to my beliefs, making the joke at the expense of my people. A bit of fun only, a quickie, and not "over the top."

Clearly I am missing something enormous. Perhaps so as not to trash this debate you or anyone else could PC me examples of my crimes in this way

Within the remit of this thread beliefs are part of how we think and feel. So they will obviously 'leak' or 'peep out.' But we cannot totally censor ourselves to prevent that happening. Values like kindness, arrogance, community, proud isolation, ecology, feminism, market economics ... these will betray themselves here and there.
 
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