Introduction

[Ogar]

I am a musician and a thinker. I can't call myself educated because I dropped out of high school and have not pursued even my GED, simply because I find learning things on my own more enjoyable and also more useful than learning arbitrary knowledge to get a piece of paper.

Regardless of my lack of a formal education, I've almost always been able to understand complex concepts and formulate thorough opinions. One thing I enjoy immensely is being proven wrong, especially when it comes to opinions I've held for a long time and based other opinions off of. The best part of being proven wrong like that, for me, is seeing things I previously didn't understand fall into place with other understandings I have, forming a more complete view of the reality we live in.

Now for my spiritual and religious stance. To give a bit of background, I'll just briefly mention that I was raised Christian, in my teen years I explored many different forms of religion from LaVeyan Satanism to Buddhism and different things in between, then when I was about 17 I actually started thinking for myself instead of subscribing to the virtues and values espoused in one book or another. With the help of a few friends, one in particular, I was able to piece together my own understanding of philosophy, religion, and the questions they deal with. Having just recently turned 23, I feel I'm finally shedding the last of my immaturity and am ready to discuss these weighty matters with the types of highly intellectual people I see posting on this site. As far as my current beliefs on religion, I really couldn't say conclusively. I'm an atheist when it comes to any god worshiped now or in the past, but I do think there is a non-material aspect to life. Whatever it is, it's most certainly not what's told to us by today's organized religions. I believe the only way to find out what, if anything, lies beyond this reality, is to eradicate faith from intellectual discourse and speak openly, honestly and rationally of "spiritual" experiences.

My goal for myself, pertaining to these discussions and debates, is to express my beliefs and convictions to the best of my ability so as to be corrected by someone with more knowledge. I have no delusions of having "better" knowledge or opinions than anyone else and feel no need to make others share my opinions. I realize it's possible every single one of my opinions is wrong, and I don't want to close myself off to any learning possibilities.

[msmcneal]

Hello Ogar, it's good to meet you and have you here. I'll start off by saying that lacking a formal eduction is never by any means eqated with ignorance. I graduated high school, but have no formal college education, yet, due mostly to my Asperger's, spend every moment I can studying religion and philosophy, to the point where, I probably know more about certain aspects, at least, than some who have college experience in these areas. It's a personal obsession. Now, a little about me. I was a Christian most of my life. I spent every moment I could learning everything I could about Christianity. This is one ofthe main reasons I eventually left it. There were too many contradictions that I could no longer accept on their own merits. I began to look more in depth at other religions and philosophies. I'm particularly fond of Buddhism, Wicca and Neopaganism, Islam, Neoplatonism, and Stoicism. However, I am an agnostic. I don't ever really plan on following any specific religion or philosophy. The only thing I really believe in is Fate. Anyway, that's me. Have fun.

[Ogar]

Thanks for the kind welcome!

I have to say the end of my Christian faith happened very similarly. I thought too much. As a Christian I thought to myself, "since Jesus is 'the Truth', any independent search for truth will lead directly to his feet." Much to my surprise, the more searching for truth I did the further from Jesus I was lead, and my course hasn't shown any change in his direction since then. I haven't moved in the direction of any specific religion or philosophy either, really.

The only thing I really believe in is Fate.

That's seemed to really be the one thing that's stuck out to me as well. Maybe a better word for me, however, would be serendipity. The best things that have happened to me in my life, the crazy things, the unbelievable things, have been surround by serendipitous events, fairly consistently. I don't know what conclusion to draw so I haven't done so yet, but I hope to have enough information to be able to some day.