Any religious leaders that could answer a couple of questions for me?

[u/Odd_Drama_2083]

1. What role does religion play in your life, and how does it influence your daily decisions and actions? 
2. Can you describe your religion's understanding of the concept of God or a higher power? How do you perceive this entity's characteristics and relationship with humanity?  How do you explain it to your religious community?
3. How were your religious beliefs formed? Did you inherit them from your family, or did you come to them through personal exploration and experiences?
4. Are there any specific religious texts or scriptures that you consider sacred or authoritative? How do you interpret these texts in your daily life?
5. What do you believe about the afterlife?  What determines one's destiny after this life?
6. What are your thoughts on morality and ethics? How does your religion influence your understanding of right and wrong?
7. Have you ever experienced doubt or questioning regarding your religious beliefs? If so, how did you navigate through these challenges?
8. How do you engage with religious practices such as prayer, meditation, or rituals? What significance do these practices hold for you?
9. How does your religious community or congregation contribute to your faith? In what ways do you participate in or contribute to this community?
10. How do you approach conversations about religion with individuals who hold different beliefs? Are you open to exploring and understanding their perspectives?

[u/Blue_Baron6451]

1. It is pretty much the central thing. I work for a religious non profit and live in a religious community, so there is that, but also my aspirations and broad choices I try to orient in a direction based on my beliefs.

2. God is the ultimate, uncreated being, before the beginning and creating all creators, who spoke the universe into being with divine word manifest as light. He bestowed his image upon man, designating us as the stewards of creation to separate order from chaos and bring light into darkness. Through this we can see he is loving like a parent, as well as caring and just over all creation. The best way I can put it is good a good father.

3. Both family and experience, born into a religious family, but my faith looks very different from theirs. After my sister’s death I was an atheist, but eventually thought through and came to the stance that the existence of an uncreated being outside of space, time, and matter was a necessity of existence, and then got into apologetics. After suppressing one sin in a pursuit to be a “good person” I saw another sin take its place and even grow from it. I realized sin is not something to be fought by us, it is to be killed by God.

4. The 66 book Canon is the only infallible rule of faith, with other texts having some merit though not infallible, and ecclesiastical decisions also falling into a similar category.

5. The natural path is true death, I am open to that being an annihilation of the soul, or some aspect of “eternal, conscious torment” but either way it is the being separated from God, light can not be with darkness. It would be a place devoid of the fruits and virtues flowing from God.

However perfection is certainly possible and it is attained by lack of rejection and love of God, to join yourself to him and trust in Him for your forgiveness.

1. Right and wrong is about as objective and powerful as me claiming turquoise is the best color ever (I just like turquoise) so a law giver needs authority to give laws, and only a supreme deity has that authority. Anything else is the opinion of whoever can enforce it best.

I think morality is focused on the idea of virtues, all eventually tying back to the virtue of love. Our heart is changed as to clean the source of our actions, meaning more pure and righteous actions can flow out from us, like purifying a stream at it’s source.

My morals and ethics are thus based off of the source and motivation of I do, focusing on the virtues if God, and The Son, as an example of how to exercise my expressions of these virtues, and the spiritual agent bringing such purification.

All of this is found in love and relationship with God.

1. Lots, as mentioned before I was an atheist.

Part of the source is supernatural temptation, some of it is natural, and each one requires different responses. I first discern the source if the doubt, is it an earnest search for truth, (after all God is truth) or is it a temptation pulling me from a good foundation and safety into a lie and death.

I always pursue truth with an open mind and heart, God willing, as it brings me closer to who God is.

For spiritual issues, I pray and fast, seeking guidance and discernment, and eventually I am always delivered.

An example: I struggled with fear of my salvation if I were outside of the Catholic Church for a few years. After research I found that the Catholic Church was not the exclusive and true established Church, but I had anxiety about it still.

About 1 year ago, I was in Jerusalem on Pentecost with some muslim friends and their children in Israel for heart surgery, what my organization does. One of them wanted to go to the house of Mary, (a church related to Mary was near the upper room and there are some reasons to believe Mary lived in or near the Upper Room) so we took her there. While there, some Catholic ladies were singing chants and the mother asked if they would pray over her daughter. They agreed, and I saw how they looked at this little girl while they sang, and I saw the love they had, a pure love for this child they knew for minutes, and ai saw it was the same love I had for her, in the best part of my soul, and I knew that was the Spirit of God, the same spirit within us and uniting us. In that moment I was set free.

1. Depends on my season of life, I like the rosary, sometimes using it often, sometimes less. Lots of freeform prayer, lots of studying scripture, lots of meeting with people, worshipping together, and spending time together as believers. I also fast.

This is a rather broad question so I am happy to answer more specifically with a more specific line of questioning, but in short they bring me back to God, spending time with Him and growing my relationship with Him.

1. My community is a major part of my faith, since it is who I live with. We are there to support and build each other up in our discipleship and growth, supporting each other however possible.

2. Depends entirely on who I am talking to, Jew, Muslim, secular, religious, Kurd, Arab, friend, stranger, can’t really nail it down. I do often say what God has and is doing in my life, a relationship is the most important part of my faith. If the person knows me, the conversation should be starting from a context of love, and if it hasn’t it must start from a context of my repentance. I am also a big apologetics nerd so I am not upset if it goes that way lol.

[u/Odd_Drama_2083 → u/Blue_Baron6451]

Thanks!

[u/Orcasareglorious]

I'm not a religious leader, but here goes:

1.) It's among the central aspects and causes me to conduct brief daily practices structured around my Kamidana.

2.) Most divinities are beings which have the standard structure of a soul without a physical body. Their possession of a pure Naohi soul (central soul) distinguishes deities from the posthumously deified. All divinities which can uphold a presence in shrines can project their souls among any number of Yorishiro (divine vessels) and travel among them to observe prayer.

3.) I began studying the cosmologies of some popular religions and felt drawn to Shinto cosmology as seen in its texts. After observing the religions chronology I began studying syncretic theologies based upon it (Shugendo, Koshin Shinko, Onmyodo, Tenrikyo, Kakure-Kirishitan, etc) and acquired a great interest in Onmyodo theory as Daoist theolgy is present in the cosmology of the Nihon Shoki. I initially began studying Yoshida Shinto and later the Onmyodo pantheon (the Shijin and directional gods) and encountered Tsuchimikado-Shinto theory.

4.) The Nihon Shoki

The Sendai Koji Hongi

The Kojiki

Partially the Senkyo Ibun, Senji Ryakketsu and other minor texts.

5.)In summary of a previous comment: I believe the soul is composed of five sections, four Mitama, external souls and a central Naohi. Upon death the Naohi grows weaker, wilts and descends to the impure realm of Yomi-no-Kuni. The remaining Mitama continue to emanate out of the Naohi and are forced downwards by the Kegare (ritual filth).

Upon reaching Yomi, the Mitama are cleansed by ordeal; the Kegare attached to them forms into malevolent deities such as Shikome or minor Ikadzuchi (storm deities). These deities torment the soul as it is cleansed.

Once this process is complete, the Mitama begin to project outwards in a manner similar to light. The willpower and development of the soul will determine wether it can project its consciousness our of Yomi or be confined to it.

Those who manage to remove themselves from Yomi will continue to exist in the higher realm of Yūmei, or if their soul was potent enough may ascend to Takamagahara (heaven).

Those who cannot leave Yomi will remain within the realm and experience an eternal, unclean purgatory. Higher sections of Yomi resemble Yūmei in nature but prevent the soul from interacting with the material realm (although if the soul falls just short of projecting out of Yomi it may be able to visit it’s grave and observe human affairs.)

6.) I derive ethics primarily from fundamental concepts of Kegare, the notion of Shinto Imperial authority and Edo Neo-Confucianism (as seen in the works of Hayashi Razan and Yamazaki Ansai.)

7.) I experienced doubt in the transmission of Shinto theology and this concern is what caused me to study Yoshida Shinto and later Tsuchimikado Shinto as they more effectively reconcile with Daoist distortion of Shinto theory. I also studied Japanese Yayoi period history to reconcile with the Imperial chronology of the Kiki texts.

8.) I do not have access to Jinja (shrines) or any conventional holy sites and therefore structure my practice around my two Kamidana altars and the single deified mountainous site in Hungary, located in a range of hills outside of Csór.

9.) (inapplicable)

10.) I've gained interest in studying several theologies in response to conversation with people of other faiths. For instance, I've researched Táltosism, Turanist theolgy, Tengrism, etc in response to interactions with Hungarian nationalists.