Religion and Spirituality

This sub doesn't permit polls, but given how JRRT's personal religiosity is linked to his works, curious anecdotally how enjoyers of Tolkien lean? Religious-Christian, religious-non-Christian, agnostic/spiritual, atheist, something else? One of the things I enjoy most about his stories is that while his religion is inseparable from his writing, the messages remain universalist at the same time. Suppose if a comment gets upvoted we can interpret that as a very unscientific proxy poll mechanism

... raised Catholic, altar boy, Catholic elementary, public HS. Jesuit college...when the Catholic priest rape issues all appeared, everything changed, see Spotlight, although I worked in two catholic institutions, now big public, I still celebrate the holidays. Always a religious/spiritual book on side of bed. I practice Zen with a community near where I live.

So I've started to watch Voyager and I was a bit surprised with the emphasis on commander Chakotay's religion and spiritual beliefs. I've binged TNG and DS9 before Voyager and never saw a mention to any Earth religion. Even though DS9's main themes is religion, it's always in Bajor's context but the crew from Earth seems to be past/above religion.
I'm not sure why it's the way it is - maybe there's an assumption that in the future, people will discard religion, or maybe it was a production decision not to mention religions because it may cause viewers objections.
So, my question is - why showing native-americans religion but not Christianity/Judaism/Islam?
My feeling is that it has to do with some soft 90's racism, that native-americans don't have an actual religion, just some "cool folklore" and it would be interesting to show it without offending viewers.

BTW, I think that the show will benefit from having some of characters religious but that's another topic

I feel like atheism is just us knowing that there is no god or anything magical in the universe. But what if you’re completely against religion entirely, including spirituality? I’ve seen the word Irreligion thrown around, but is this the official term, or is it just anti-religious?

EDIT: This is blowing up way more than I thought. Appreciate everyone’s jokes that make me laugh, but I’m deciding antitheism is what I’m going with. Thank you all.

Edit 2: I’m probably gonna stop responding to everyone. I see that some of my definitions may be wrong, and everyone seems to have their own idea on the spirituality aspect. You can view below on my replies about this. I also keep having my notifications box just be filled with the same answer over and over again. Seriously not really helpful. I already said I got my answer in the previous edit. Not trying to sound rude, but waking up to 50+ messages all saying the same exact thing this morning was… unnecessary

I don’t believe certain types are more inclined to different religions exactly, but is there any correlation between cognitive functions and how we view spirituality and religion?

I’m an INFP, and I’m a former Catholic currently using Agnostic as my religious label. I’ve grown up solely going to Catholic education, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve felt that I don’t particularly have any strong belief in a deity. I do acknowledge that people can use faith as a tool for getting through their lives or as a source of stability and enlightenment, but I see it more as part of a person’s culture. I also don’t identify with the church’s teachings anymore, as my personal beliefs and my identity don’t align with the church.

I’d be really curious to see how others view their religion!

Edit: Thanks for the silver, kind stranger! It’s so fascinating seeing so many different perspectives and backgrounds related to religion, and I’ve enjoyed reading through all of them. I haven’t been able to make out any trends related to MBTI types, but people of all sorts of types were sharing varying views, even people of the same type having different takes!

I'd love to hear your opinions. I'm mainly asking the profoundly gifted here because I've read that profoundly gifted children have a natural understanding of the spiritual world. That makes me want to pick their brains a little.

I’m curious how other fans understand Tool’s music, lyrics, and aesthetic in relation to spirituality and religion.

I’m a practicing Christian, but grew up in an environment which considered bands like Tool to be a threat to faith (and especially Christianity). I can’t tell you how many times I had to throw away copies of Tool’s albums because my parents made me (don’t worry, I kept listening!). But as I grew older and eventually left to make my own life, my personal understanding of faith has been strengthened and broadened through listening to bands like Tool.

If you consider yourself spiritual or religious in any form, how has Tool shaped your understanding of it all? What connections have you made between their art and your own sense of spirituality?

I’ll try to remain brief, but I would love advice.

I grew up Protestant and left when I felt that the religion was invalidated due to errancy in the Bible as well as historical developments of biblical religions out of a polytheistic context. Since then, my thoughts on morality, life, purpose and reality have changed quite drastically. I now would characterize myself as fairly left leaning, empiricist and fairly materialist with the spiritual label of agnostic atheist.

That being said, I cannot shake the desire for religion for the life of me. Maybe it’s because I was raised in it, maybe it’s because humans inherently need it, I have no idea. I feel super tired and drained of the search because I already struggle to accept anything supernatural anymore, but I can’t rationalize my desire in it.

I recognize that what I miss most is the feeling of communion with a power larger than myself. I missed the feeling of mystery and wonder. I miss mysticism and exploration and connect ness. I really would love to be part of a spiritual practice and community that values ritual, history and mysticism. I’ve tried finding that in academics, science, and political organizing and none of it brought me what I wanted or needed.

I find bits in pieces of it. Sufi poets, Eastern Orthodox chants and iconography, eastern meditation. I find all of these beautiful. I can’t deny that on some level there is an aesthetic appeal as well.

A big thing for me is I don’t want to be part of a system that requires me to condemn things I don’t believe should be condemned: LGBT rights being a central part of this.

Has anyone been in a similar position? Does anyone have advice?

No other native people agree with me that I’ve met and I haven’t seen any other posts like this in this sub, so I just thought I would share something that pisses me off about being forced into this culture of spirituality from the time I was born.

I’ve actually seen some posts/comments on here praising Indigenous spirituality, which I understand since it’s maybe slightly more based in reality than other religions.

But one thing I have always hated is how othered I am made to feel when I’m on my period. I think this is a common theme with pretty much every religion. I’m not allowed to participate in stuff when I’m on my period, and I have to be taken to a place to “rest”.

When we enter a tipi, we sit in a circle and have to enter in a very specific way. The circle is supposed to be sacred as it represents the continuous pattern of life and death. When a girl is on her period, she is not allowed to sit in this circle. Everyone says it’s because women are ‘sacred’ and need to be pampered while they are menstruating. But are periods not a part of life and death? The menstrual cycle and the uterus is essential to that whole process. So what the fuck.

The excuse they use today is that women need to be taken care of, but I’m almost 100% sure that was not the original reason. It’s because we were seen as dirty, just like in every other religion.

Where I live in Canada, we had to do this all throughout school too, so when I was in like fifth grade before we would do anything they started asking if anyone was on their period.

And yeah, I have never disclosed that I’m on my period even if I am, because anyone who asks that so I can sit in a circle with them can get fucked.

In my opinion, every religion, even the “good ones” that they had us participate in school, have practices that are rooted in misogyny.

I know that this crowd probably leans more atheist/agnostic than religious but I was wondering for fellow religious Cortexans, how/if you incorporate spiritual growth into your themes?

It seems like most ancient civilisations had their own religions in one way or another, have there been any non-religious ones?

Feels like all it took was one person to say 'hey maybe these higher being made us and control what happens to us, got no evidence but sounds cool right?' and then boom, everyone else was like 'sounds legit' and started following their teachings? And that person just started to make shit up or something?

Trying to turn a new page in my book. I’m looking for a group that deals with substance use (more alcohol than anything else) that’s not the 12 step program, I’ve tried that program and am struggling to get behind believing in a higher power. Ideally I’d like to get to the point where I can drink in moderation and safely again.

Anything helps!

True spirituality liberates, while religion keeps you in fear.

Spirituality is all about recognising and discovering your true higher nature while religion keeps you grounded in rituals.

In religion you do the rituals and you feel you have done your part to god.

You only calm your subconscious mind but not create any substantial change.

In religion, you do the rituals and you feel you have done your part to god.ge.deep self.

Spirituality tells us to find a direct connection to the Source, the Creator, while religion talks about reward and punishment paradise and non-existent Hell.

Just humans coping with the idea of a soul vs nihilistic determinism aka humans aren’t some eternal beings but just really intelligent primates

Most if not all major theologies and religions try to sell you the idea that you can achieve eternal afterlife of some variety, for instance.

Our ability to contemplate the eternalness of the universe and where all this came from naturally gives rise to things like inventing god(s) and afterlife narratives.

That’s probably why there hasn’t been a new religion invented in thousands of years. Science and empirical deduction refuse to allow

I’m mostly referring to new age type stuff , and meditation and western yoga, eastern philosophy, hippies , etc. Any countries where none of this is common at all?