Summary of your religious beliefs

[Associate Justice PiT]

Religion: Christian
Denomination: Eastern Orthodox

Why do you follow this religion (or lack thereof)? I began pondering the question when I was persuaded that human efforts were insufficient to reach the objective truth at the core of reality, and that we could only attain truth by the grace of God, if He were to exist. I investigated the question with an open mind, and realized that theism is so much stronger and more logical than I had been led to believe before. A friend of mine converted to Orthodoxy and invited me to attend a Divine Liturgy around that time, which solidified for me that this is what I wanted to do with my life.

God: I believe in one God in three persons, who is omniscient, omnipotent, and timeless. He works all things according to His plan, and sometimes that involves speaking directly to us. I have never heard Him myself, but I have seen His works made manifest in my life. In particular He manifests Himself and His sacrifice in the chalice of Holy Communion, where we partake of that sacrifice as a royal priesthood and obtain remission of sins.

Afterlife: We go to Heaven or Hell depending on the state of our soul, where we will experience a foretaste of what awaits us after the Day of Judgment.

Prayer: I pray morning and night, every day. Mostly from a book, but I also mix in personal petitions. I pray to God, and I also pray to the saints to intercede before God for me, but much less often. I would estimate it at 90% God, 9% Mary, 1% other saints

Worship: I go to church every Sunday morning. I also go Saturday evenings as possible, and we also have weekday liturgies that I go to when work permits it. I assist the priest in serving at the altar during the liturgy.

Ghosts, spirits, angels, and demons: Angels and demons are very real, with angels being immaterial servants of God and demons being fallen angels. Ghosts and spirits do exist in a sense, but not as they are presented to us. They are generally demons seeking to lead people astray.

One True Path: Jesus is the way and the truth and the life, and His body is the Eastern Orthodox Church. Other Christian sects have flaws in their teaching, but I believe that they broadly lead to salvation. Non-Christian sects have more serious problems, reflecting the distance that exists between them and the Gospel message, but I have faith that God will judge their adherents justly and that there are virtuous non-Christians who will join the faithful in the Heavenly Kingdom. We have a saying that we know where the Church is, but not where it isn't. Thus, there are certainly members of the Church out there who are known only to God.

Spiritual objects: God sanctifies inanimate matter as He does human souls, and can fill them with grace. We see this with churches, icons, holy water, chrism oil, and more.

Religious law: I strive to avoid sin, which is not a law in the strict sense but has the effect of being such. Along these lines, acts such as fornication are strictly forbidden to us. Fasting is important as a means of turning towards God and letting go of material things, which have the effect of separating us from Him and therefore from Salvation. Not fasting isn't necessarily a sin, but it does make one unfit to receive Holy Communion.

Spreading the word: Evangelizing people to the faith is important, yes. But contrary to what people think of when they hear that, we don't favor the practice of knocking on doors or street preaching. Active evangelism has its place, but what matters most is bearing witness of Christ by being lights in the world, showing people what He has done for us.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Why do you follow this religion (or lack thereof)? A series of ~experiences~ in my late teens and early twenties. All stuff very specific to me individually. Life got a lot sweeter when I stopped trying to reverse-engineer arguments from first principles.

Interesting. For me it was quite the opposite and life was "sweeter" when I could look to first principles in the manner of Descartes. In a college class on the Early Middle Ages I found Augustine's view that religion should not contradict science or reason to be particularly enlightening.

I certainly don't disagree with Augustine on that point. But there's little support for the idea that any one particular religion is more or less consonant with scientific observation or generally-agreed-upon philosophical axioms than others.

     There's also the issue of determining what the proper conclusions are of science and reason. There are opinions that are commonly accepted in biblical scholarship that subtly presuppose the falsity of traditional Christian beliefs. Thus I see many Christians unknowingly deny important teachings as part of "not contradicting science or reason". I won't go into detail about these points since I don't want to derail this topic, but this presents a substantial epistemological problem.