Taliah's Eclectic Musings

[Taliah]

Hello, you have come to Tia Broadway's attempt to write down her religious views.

This is by no means a definitive statement of how I believe. My beliefs, morals, and values have changed drastically several times already, and are likely to continue to do so.

Biography:
I live in the Southern United States, down in Arkansas. I've grown up in this state my entire life, and much of my religious beliefs until the age of 17 stemmed from Christianity. One of my major reasons for drifting away was the feeling of guilt and shame, and I did not want to be baptized to God solely out of fear and guilt. So I have dubbed this my experimental stage in life, and am in the process of researching and looking into many different religions to find what best fulfills my spiritual needs.

I started out in the fluffy bunny stage by reading Scott Cunningham's Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner and Living Wicca and The Wicca Bible: The Definitive Guide to Magic and the Craft by Ann-Marie Gallagher. I didn't get far with them, as I felt like I was simply making up my own Gods, rather than actually finding true ones and connecting with them spiritually. TeaDidikai soon found me on Gaia, and I've been a member here ever since, though mainly as a lurker. I've sifted through a lot of misinformation about Wicca, enough to know that I am no Seeker for it.

Until here you see me as I am now. Just call me an Agnostic Theist for the time being.


Table of Contents
1. Intro and Biography
2. The Main Course
3. Speculations
4. Ethics, Morals, and Values
5. Hospitality
6. Reading Material
7. Reserved
8. Reserved
9. Reserved
10. Reserved  

[Taliah]

The Main Course

Agnostic-
I do not adhere to Christianity mainly because I did not feel enlightened, nor did I feel close to God for any of the right reasons, like the ones stated up in my bio. I do not believe in the concept of Original Sin, nor the concept of Salvation. I do not believe that humans are inherently evil, nor inherently good either. Humans are just that, humans, and are subject to innumerable morals, values, cultures, ethics, and very few of them agree with one another.

Hedonist-
I believe the world is filled with many wondrous places, things, and people. I want to be able to travel and learn and experience as many things as I can in my life. However, I know there is also suffering in the world, and that it shouldn't be ignored. It stems from a dichotomous belief that without pain, one would not truly understand, nor enjoy the many pleasures of life.

Nature of Souls-
A soul is an individual entity that makes up the whole of the universe. My common metaphor for it like threads in a woven tapestry. There are millions of individual threads, all of differing lengths, colors, and styles, but all are needed/used in the whole tapestry. Most often they are housed in vessels like human bodies, but they can be housed in other things, though I have very limited experience with those other vessels. I believe that souls have the ability to change, to grow or to revert spiritually, and they also can be partially passed on to inanimate things like arts or crafts by people.

Nature of Spirits-
These are souls without a vessel, and can be malignant or benign. I have very s limited understanding of spirits, and most of it stems from my boyfriend's knowledge and experiences. We both believe he is sensitive to spirits, and can sometimes see and interact with them (with varying degrees of understanding). A few episodes have left us scared to death afterword, others just simply unexpectedly saddened. I suppose you could call some of these spirits akin to Ghosts, but that does not mean all fall under that category. Other than this information, I'm not really sure what else to put.

Balance-
Most of my feel for balance comes from the Yin and Yang Chinese symbol. I admit I know very little of all the applications for this. I do believe in the equilibrium of the Yin and Yang, and how each must balance the other, but also are not wholly one aspect. If one aspect becomes more dominant, the other will seek to balance it, and will have a constant ebb and flow. (Will finish this later, I think...)

More will be added as I come to understand myself better.  

[Taliah]

Speculations

Panentheist-
I found this via Wikipedia, and the basic gist of it is that "The whole is God, and God is the whole, and yet is transcendent at the same time". While this interests me, I'm not sure just how much of it rings true yet. A good question for it is, how exactly do deities work in this?

Animist-
At times I feel presences around me while outside, mostly by trees or out in meadows or various rarely-visited-by-people places. There was a tree in particular I thought may have a spirit, or maybe a genus loci, but I've moved and do not see it anymore like before. I need to experiment with this more to understand it better.

Deities-
Perhaps Hard Polytheistic?

Afterlife-
This is very hard to answer while being agnostic. It will probably become more clear later as I find out more about the rest of this. Though I am inclined to believe in a Greek-esque afterlife, one where it is simply the underworld, and that is where the dead souls rest.  

[Taliah]

Ethics, Morals, and Values

A lot of my morals are based from my early years attending Bible School with my paternal grandmother, my Mimi. The morals are good ones, and I don't mind I got them from Christianity.

-Murder is wrong in most cases, except in self-defense and such
-I do my best to be as honest as possible
-I try to treat others with the same courtesy and respect in which I would like to be treated
-I try to forgive those who have done me wrong
-I do my best to respect and honor my Parents
-I find stealing wrong, though I admit to some exceptions to this

However, do I have a few more liberal values as well.

-I am for Gay Rights and Marriage
-I am for the legalization of Marijuana
-I am for the legalization of brothels for controlled prostitution
-I am iffy on the issue of abortion, mainly because I can empathize with both sides
-I am also iffy on the issue of cloning, for the same reason as abortion

That's all that I can think of for now. I'll be sure to add more later.  

[Taliah]

Hospitality

Mine's less religious and more of a cultural good manners type of thing ("Southern Hospitality" if you will).

If it's a stranger, an offer inside and to sit, but probably just the living room. Offer of a drink is pretty common too. But they most likely won't see the rest of the house, with only a few exceptions.

First time over friends get good treatment. Offer to see the whole house, offers of drinks, food, snack... whatever, depending on how long they are staying. Older friends who have been over before are welcome to help themselves in the kitchen, TV, spend the night, and so on. We also own a boat, and so having friends and family over to ride around, ski, and wake board is very common during the summer months.

Family members are welcomed to meals, offers to stay over, anything to help really. However, we've had a cousin who was having a problem with my aunt live with us for a year or so. After a while she began stealing money and jewelry from us and then lying to us about it. She was told that if it continued, we would not tolerate this and she would not live here anymore. She didn't listen and we promptly expelled her from our house for such mistreatment to our kindness, and we didn't have much contact with her (or her mother either) for some time. But she is family, and while we still love and talk to her now, she does not stay at our house anymore.

Enemies... well, they aren't really invited, nor particularly welcome, but they're treated nicely until they give a reason to be asked (or told) to leave.  

[Taliah]

Reading Material

Many of these books I have not read in their entirety, and were read in sections during a college course. It is my goal to read many of them in their entirety someday. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

My Religious and/or Sacred Texts Section

-Epic of Gilgamesh
-Sections of the Bible
-Most of The Inferno by Dante Alighieri*
-Most of Paradise Lost by Milton*
-Sections of the Qu'ran
-Sections of the Theogony by Hesiod
-Sections of Metamorphoses by Ovid
-The Orestia by Aeschylus
-Agamemnon by Aeschylus
-The Libation Bearers by Aeschylus
-The Eumenides by Aeschylus
-Oedipus the King by Sophocles
-Antigone by Sophocles
-Medea by Euripides
-Most of the Odyssey by Homer (Robert Fitzgerald Translation)
-Most of the Iliad by Homer (Robert Fitzgerald Translation)
-Most of the Aeneid by Virgil
-Sections of the Poetic Edda by Snorri Sturluson

My Would-be Philosophy Section

-Begun Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Nietzsche


*I see where these shouldn't be in that section, as they are interpretations(?) and aren't actual sources of scripture, but they were helpful in understanding other people's views of Christianity.  

[Taliah]

Reserved for Future Use  

[Taliah]

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[Taliah]

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[Taliah]

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[TeaDidikai]

Taliah

This is by no means a definitive statement of how I believe. My beliefs, morals, and values have changed drastically several times already, and is likely to continue to do so.

Good attitude to have.

Quote:

TeaDidikai soon found me on Gaia, and I've been a member here ever since, though mainly as a lurker.

ninja

Taliah

I do not believe in the concept of Original Sin, nor the concept of Salvation.

Why?

Quote:

It stems from a dichotomous belief that without pain, one would not truly understand, nor enjoy the many pleasures of life.

How accurate is this dichotomy? How have you tested it?

Taliah

A good question for it is, how exactly do deities work in this?

Depends on if it is a monotheistic or polytheistic understanding.

Within some of the Panentheistic traditions, deities are personalities outside of corporeal reality, but manifest within corporeal reality as concepts, individuals and places.  

[Gho the Girl]

Wow, we have alot to talk about. I really like what I see here, and, if I may, will make a few comments and suggest some reading material. Take from them what you will, and that will be enough.

Taliah

Pagan-
I do not adhere to Christianity mainly for these reasons. I do not believe in the concept of Original Sin, nor the concept of Salvation. I do not believe that humans are inherently evil, nor inherently good either. Humans are just that, humans, and are subject to innumerable morals, values, cultures, ethics, and very few of them agree with one another.

Have you heard of the Gospel of Thomas? It offers a peak of Jesus's teachings before those concepts became official doctrine.

Quote:

Hedonist-
I believe the world is filled with many wondrous places, things, and people. I want to be able to travel and learn and experience as many things as I can in my life. However, I know there is also suffering in the world, and that it shouldn't be ignored. It stems from a dichotomous belief that without pain, one would not truly understand, nor enjoy the many pleasures of life.

And why is this? What brought you to this conclusion?  

[Taliah]

TeaDidikai

Taliah

I do not believe in the concept of Original Sin, nor the concept of Salvation.

Why?

Mainly because of the forbidden fruit. It may just be my own curiosity, but I really wish it was clarified just exactly why the fruit was forbidden. Yes, I know God is God, and doesn't have to explain I suppose, but it sure would help. They didn't die, but became aware... what exactly was wrong with that, other than God did not want that to happen? Disobedience, sure, but while I suppose this is a statement from ignorance, I don't think life this way is so bad.

And the Salvation bit stems from the feeling that if Original Sin is negligible, then what purpose do I have asking to be cleansed of something I don't believe in. Or was Jesus cleansing all sins in general? I should probably look into that more.

TeaDidikai

Taliah

It stems from a dichotomous belief that without pain, one would not truly understand, nor enjoy the many pleasures of life.

How accurate is this dichotomy? How have you tested it?

I've found it fairly accurate. I've had severe vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, and abdominal pains during each of my menstrual periods from around the time I was... 13 or so. Nowdays I don't do that so much, mainly from working in more protein in my diet, as well as a mulit-vitamin to help the worst of it. But each time my period rolls around, I can remember those pains, and I feel so overjoyed and thankful for all the time not spent in pain. Without that knowledge, I wouldn't be nearly as empathetic to others in pain (or even in general, I think), nor could I even begin to know how to help without having my own understanding to work from. It's helped build some character, that's for sure.

TeaDidikai

Taliah

A good question for it is, how exactly do deities work in this?

Depends on if it is a monotheistic or polytheistic understanding.

Within some of the Panentheistic traditions, deities are personalities outside of corporeal reality, but manifest within corporeal reality as concepts, individuals and places.

That's really interesting. I'll be looking into that a lot more, I think. Are the personalities as personal a relationship as say, Nuri is with Apollo? Or is it different than that?  

[Taliah]

Gho the Girl

Wow, we have alot to talk about. I really like what I see here, and, if I may, will make a few comments and suggest some reading material. Take from them what you will, and that will be enough.

Thanks for the feedback to begin with. 3nodding

Gho the Girl

Have you heard of the Gospel of Thomas? It offers a peak of Jesus's teachings before those concepts became official doctrine.

Actually I haven't heard of that, and it does sound really interesting. Do you know of a good source over the internet I might could find?

Gho the Girl

And why is this? What brought you to this conclusion?

It's mostly what I told Tea, I think. The part about travel is both from my love of history and foreign cultures, and my extreme lack of location changes. While I loved my home, and before I started college, I absolutely loathed the fact that my family moved during my senior year of high school (I stubbornly drove the extra 50 minutes to stay at that school instead of transferring)... I've also come to realize how little I really know about the world. I hate the idea (now) of staying in one spot forever. I want to see places of historic value, to be in those areas where our ancestors lived, fought, and built magnificent things that we might still see today. I want my knowledge to stem not just from books, but from actual experiences and events. In this way, I still have my book knowledge, but I will have my own personal knowledge to add and reinforce the book information.  

[TeaDidikai]

Taliah

Mainly because of the forbidden fruit. It may just be my own curiosity, but I really wish it was clarified just exactly why the fruit was forbidden.

It was a choice. In essence, if you do not have the ability to comprehend sin, you cannot be under it.
That said, it's a metaphor in most of Christendom, and shouldn't be taken literally. In essence, Baptism basically acknowledges and cleanses you of the initial sins of humanity that have brought forth humanity.

Quote:

what exactly was wrong with that, other than God did not want that to happen? Disobedience, sure, but while I suppose this is a statement from ignorance, I don't think life this way is so bad.

Why do you think YHVH didn't want this to happen?

Quote:

And the Salvation bit stems from the feeling that if Original Sin is negligible, then what purpose do I have asking to be cleansed of something I don't believe in. Or was Jesus cleansing all sins in general? I should probably look into that more.

All sins.

Not only that, but Yeshua instituted Agape.

Quote:

Without that knowledge, I wouldn't be nearly as empathetic to others in pain (or even in general, I think), nor could I even begin to know how to help without having my own understanding to work from. It's helped build some character, that's for sure.

Here's the thing though- you don't know for sure how you would have developed without that suffering.

My menses isn't nearly as bad as yours was, but it was pretty bad. That being said, empathy never came from that. There are other sources of empathy, and a lot of this learning depends on how you process your world.

Quote:

That's really interesting. I'll be looking into that a lot more, I think. Are the personalities as personal a relationship as say, Nuri is with Apollo? Or is it different than that?

That's a fine example actually.

Taliah

Actually I haven't heard of that, and it does sound really interesting. Do you know of a good source over the internet I might could find?

Want a soft copy, or do you want to buy a copy for cheep?