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SavageSoto started the topic The thing about the term "atheist" in the forum Atheism, Agnosticism & Science 1 year, 8 months ago
“Atheist” is defined in the dictionary as “someone who does not believe in the existence of God or gods“. However, I don’t think this is often how the word is used. For example, I’m constantly a bit confused why I get called an atheist, either by family or friends when I have never expressed a disbelief in God. I have questioned inside and out the…[Read more]
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SavageSoto started the topic I've finally given up in the forum Personal Spirituality 1 year, 8 months ago
The road from fundamentalist Christianity to where I’m at now has been a pretty long road filled with times of spiritual peace and spiritual angst. Currently, I feel like I’ve entered another period of peace and I’m not entirely sure why. However, one thought that I had today is that perhaps it’s because I have truly given up on Christianity a…[Read more]
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SavageSoto started the topic Pantheism/Panentheism in the forum Theology & Philosophy 1 year, 8 months ago
All this searching for God that goes on in the world…what if perhaps what we search for is really just ourselves — our true selves that manifests physically as the universe? What if we are the dog chasing it’s own tail? Is it such a crazy idea when stacked up alongside the invisible cosmic ruler perception of God?
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SavageSoto started the topic A thought on Psalm 46:10 in the forum Theology & Philosophy 1 year, 9 months ago
”Be still and know that I am God”…I always percieved this to mean that one should meditate on God being God, but that seems a bit redundant. Perhaps it means to become quietly aware that I, in a sense, am God as well as the whole of existence and that nothing is truly separate? Maybe not what David intended but perhaps a deeper, divine truth no…[Read more]
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SavageSoto started the topic The need for a religious path in the forum Personal Spirituality 1 year, 9 months ago
What is your opinion on this quote by Marcus Borg?”We need a [religious] path. We are lost without one. Community and tradition articulate, embody, and nurture a path. They provide practical means of undertaking the path, not as a requirement for entering the next world, but as a path of reconnection and transformation in this life.”
I have…[Read more]
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SavageSoto started the topic Content in all situations? in the forum Theology & Philosophy 1 year, 9 months ago
I don’t read the Bible much anymore. I went from almost daily indepth study to practically never reading it and not really wanting to either, but yet there’s is a passage that I’ve been thinking about a lot over the past year and it’s Phillipians 4:11-13
” I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the…[Read more]
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SavageSoto started the topic Blog: A relationship with God in the forum Laugh Links & Ideas 1 year, 10 months ago
A blog I did today on relationship with God
http://savagesoto.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-relationship-with-god.html
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SavageSoto started the topic Does one's theology really matter? in the forum Theology & Philosophy 1 year, 10 months ago
What do you think?
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SavageSoto started the topic vegetarianism/veganism in the forum Leftovers 1 year, 10 months ago
How do you feel about it?
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SavageSoto started the topic the authority question in the forum Theology & Philosophy 1 year, 10 months ago
I think my questioning of all religious theology can essentially be boiled down to the ‘authority question’, as I call it:
if God exists, who or what has the authority to speak for him/her/it and on what criteria is that authority based upon?Despite still resonating with some of the concepts, I think that underlying question is essentially…[Read more]
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SavageSoto started the topic Overcoming religious conditioning in the forum Personal Spirituality 1 year, 10 months ago
I’ve recently concluded that organized religion conditions us (or at least conditioned me) to always seek outside sources for validation of truths. In Christianity, I was conditioned to seek out the guidance of those I felt were more “spiritual” than me, my pastor and the Bible. I also sought the guidance of the “spirit” but I was told this spirit…[Read more]
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SavageSoto started the topic A desire for ministry in the forum Personal Spirituality 1 year, 10 months ago
There was a time, after getting my degree in graphic design and before joining the Navy, that I genuinely thought God was calling me to be a pastor. I even enrolled in an ordination course through something called The Christian Universalist Association, but just barely began it before leaving for bootcamp. And though I’m not sure about being a…[Read more]
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SavageSoto started the topic Labels? in the forum Personal Spirituality 1 year, 11 months ago
Labels…to use or not to use them? When I first dropped the “Christian” label about 8 months ago, it felt very strange being that that is what I’ve called myself pretty much my whole life prior. Now, I feel more comfortable with not having that label, or any label for that matter because people have so many preconceived notions about them that m…[Read more]
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SavageSoto started the topic SavageSoto: A departure from fundamentalist Christianity… in the forum Meet & Greet 1 year, 11 months ago
I had questions.
Questions not so easily answered. Questions about salvation, Hell, Heaven, divine revelation, the trinity, the Bible being a perfect divine product, etc.
I spent a good amount of time reading the best of what Christian apologetics had to offer over the last couple of years to deal with the questions…but u…[Read more]
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SavageSoto started the topic What do you currently believe? in the forum Personal Spirituality 1 year, 11 months ago
I’ve noticed this community consists of a wide range of people with a wide range of beliefs and disbeliefs, which I think is fantastic. So I thought it’d be cool to get more of a handle on what exactly each person believes (or doesn’t believe) to foster understanding between us.
Personally speaking, this always feels like a difficult…[Read more]
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SavageSoto started the topic I'm a social mess in the forum Sexuality & Relationships 1 year, 12 months ago
I’m not sure why I’m posting this here, I guess I just need to vent briefly:
My whole life I have struggled to “fit in”, even when I was heavily active in church, I was kind of the out-of-place kid…though I usually had at least 1-3 friends (usually non-church friends, go figure) that I could consistently hang with and confide in. I also had …[Read more]
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SavageSoto started the topic Contentment? in the forum Personal Spirituality 2 years ago
What does it mean to be truly content “in all circumstances”, to use a phrase from the Apostle Paul and how does one reach that point?
I guess I know the “christian”
answer to this but now that I am something on the fringes of that, it’s hard to answer. -
SavageSoto started the topic Vocalizing doubt in the forum Atheism, Agnosticism & Science 2 years ago
When I first started having major doubts about my beliefs a few years ago, I was extremely vocal about it for some reason. I created a blog and used my facebook as megaphones to everyone I knew about my doubts and how my beliefs were changing (which at the time could be easily categorized as Christian Universalism). Everyday I was saying something…[Read more]
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SavageSoto started the topic The Future of Spiritual community in the forum Personal Spirituality 2 years ago
It’s been close to a year since I regularly attended church and even longer since I was involved in one beyond just sunday morning attendance (mostly for the sake of my family, I might add). At first, I really enjoyed not going to one and was able to attend some Unitarian Universalist and Buddhist services for a short while. As time goes on…[Read more]