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Aromanticism and Religion


Emerald Cheetah

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So I know this community isn't super big which is why this post is not about a specific religion. But that's okay! Because I'd love to see what Religion most members of the community identify with. Comment down below your religion and how it has impacted your life. If it has had any effect whatsoever on your aromanticsm, comment that too (I don't really expect Religion to have much of an effect on it but if there is prove me wrong, by all means)! I'll start. I am an atheist (agnostic atheist if you want to be specific) but I grew up going to a Methodist Church. I didn't become an atheist until around 7th grade though it could have been earlier. I honestly don't remember when I became one as it was more of a slow transition. I don't think my atheism has had an effect on my aromanticism because being an atheist doesn't really come with any strings attached. Being an atheist is just a descriptor of what I'm not and nothing more. What about all of you? 

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I'm eclectic pagan. I was more or less raised that way, although I was never forced into the religion and my mom wanted to make sure I was exposed to multiple religions in order to make my own choice, so I went to a UU church as a kid. But I wound up feeling most drawn to paganism anyway, lmao.

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I'm a Protestant Christian and have been one for most of my life. Truthfully, finding out I was aroace was a little bit tough because of my parents always looking down upon the LGBT+ community. I kept thinking stuff like... ''what if God hates me for being like this?'' or ''what if me being aroace is a sin?'' But since I go to a catholic school, they've been a lot more accepting, and have made it easier to accept who I am, since I can't change it.

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20 hours ago, Jot-Aro Kujo said:

I'm eclectic pagan. I was more or less raised that way, although I was never forced into the religion and my mom wanted to make sure I was exposed to multiple religions in order to make my own choice, so I went to a UU church as a kid. But I wound up feeling most drawn to paganism anyway, lmao.

 

Nice. I've never met an eclectic pagan before! It's cool that your parents didn't force anything on you. I really wish more parents did that nowadays. Before I got confirmed (yup, there was no escaping it), my Youth Group took us to multiple churches and temples nearby. I got to see a hindu temple, a Sikh temple, etc. It was really cool. Awareness of other religions and cultures is super important and I like that Religions aren't being so exclusive anymore. Though the United States (where I live) still has a long way to go towards complete acceptance.

 

4 hours ago, mythlady said:

I'm not religious/spiritual at all, but I don't think that's really had an effect on my questioning if I'm aro-spec.

 

Hello fellow atheist ?

 

3 hours ago, Nikola said:

I'm a Protestant Christian and have been one for most of my life. Truthfully, finding out I was aroace was a little bit tough because of my parents always looking down upon the LGBT+ community. I kept thinking stuff like... ''what if God hates me for being like this?'' or ''what if me being aroace is a sin?'' But since I go to a catholic school, they've been a lot more accepting, and have made it easier to accept who I am, since I can't change it.

 

I'm glad you're Catholic school is accepting of who you are. It gives me a little more hope for humanity when we can accept those who are different. 

 

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I'm Catholic and it never really had an affect on anything except maybe that my whole family really sticks to the whole idea of "you'll find someone eventually" and I've while I've thought I'm ace for a long time I've never fully said it to my parents because they'd think it was silly. They just don't get asexual stuff because like I said, I just haven't met the right person. Which is funny to me because I disagree but whatever haha. 

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i go to estonian lutheran church on holidays.  my mom taught me to pray every night, and for a while i did, of my own accord; now i do it occasionally.  i declined the opportunity for confirmation because i believe in God more than i believe in organized religion and i don't need to prove anything.  for me, a relationship with God is natural and wonderful; i don't identify with the sentiment some Christians share (or my interpretation of it), that they worship God because He gives them strength.  I mean, He does, but that's not why i turn to Him--He's just there, in good times and bad, and while i of course can't confirm his presence, i certainly can't deny it.

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6 hours ago, mythlady said:

I wasn't all that clear earlier,  I'm not so much atheist as agnostic and repulsed by some aspects of organized religion (not going into details, I'll just end up hurting or offending someone).

 

Yeah I understand. Perhaps we could talk about this privately instead?

 

I know a lot of the non-religious aren't all the same when it comes to their lack of belief. Some are repulsed, some aren't. Though I tend to use the description of atheist more, because I see it as an umbrella term that a lot of people can understand better than other terms like agnostic, humanist, etc. etc. I include agnostic in there because it's not well understood that agnostic defines knowledge, but not belief. That's why I'm an agnostic atheist, because both labels convey two different meanings. I'm agnostic because I feel there's no verifiable way to prove that a god or gods exist. But I'm also an atheist because I choose not to believe in any particular god. 

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On 10/30/2018 at 2:13 PM, mythlady said:

I wasn't all that clear earlier,  I'm not so much atheist as agnostic and repulsed by some aspects of organized religion (not going into details, I'll just end up hurting or offending someone). 

Well, we already had a thread like this. Which turned nasty, because I said that I find it very weird that people genuinely worship Loki. That much should be allowed, right? ? Oh no… O.o what did I say? Nothing, I said nothing, haha. :$

On 10/30/2018 at 8:22 PM, Emerald Cheetah said:

I know a lot of the non-religious aren't all the same when it comes to their lack of belief. Some are repulsed, some aren't.

I mean, in a way it's kind of cute: @Jot-Aro Kujo believes in many gods, @aro_elise in exactly one, @mythlady in none and we accept each other, very nice.:arolove:

 

The one thing that bugs me though is: the moment all those very different and hard-incompatible world views and religions do not boil down to (roughly) the same ethics… it's all over.

 

So how does that work? Is it like “Yeah, maybe Loki listens to your prayers. Who can prove you wrong? But we damn sure know that Aquinas was wrong with his ethics!” ……

 

Really? :/

 

/ hopefully that doesn't result in another flame-war. I tried to be very diplomatic! xD

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wow. Either there are a lot of nonreligious people in Arocolypse, or the nonreligious just realllly gravitate towards religion-themed posts. I'm willing to wager it's a little bit of both. 

 

@DeltaV There was another thread like this? awwww I wish I could've been there to see the flames spread. But yeah it's understandable that religion is one of those topics that can get out of hand really fast. As long as people don't put too much opinion into their posts, it should be fine! However it's very hard, if not impossible, to keep opinions out as most people feel very strongly on such a topic (including me). So yeah, the conditions are very good for this thread to become a fire-y one. Let's hope it doesn't! I'm almost thinking of making an individual thread for atheists since there's more here than I originally thought.

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I identify with no religion. I see it as limiting to have a label because anything not fitting into that label one might reject. One should not reject any of their experiences. Rather, I see religions and labels as "channels" with which you can gather information. You don't want to limit yourself to just one channel, right? Not all your experiences will be accepted that way! What I do is I try to live in the I AM, the present moment, with acceptance of all my experiences, no matter what they are. PM me if you have questions.

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To answer the original post, I don't identify with a religion and I didn't really grew up in a religion. Aside from a few formalities of a Protestant Christian denomination. Confirmation was boring and it seems the pastor himself was either an atheist or sublimated his faith to the point it became evanescent. It felt more like an odd cultural thing to me.

 

I agree with Aleister Crowley's last words “I'm perplexed” … so I'm probably a hard agnostic. IMHO reality is beyond human comprehension and the idea that the universe is fundamentally a mechanistic-materialistic entity is probably just another dead end (but at least it's useful xD).

On 11/1/2018 at 2:32 AM, Emerald Cheetah said:

@DeltaV There was another thread like this? awwww I wish I could've been there to see the flames spread. But yeah it's understandable that religion is one of those topics that can get out of hand really fast.

Here is the other religion thread. :)

On 11/1/2018 at 2:32 AM, Emerald Cheetah said:

But yeah it's understandable that religion is one of those topics that can get out of hand really fast. As long as people don't put too much opinion into their posts, it should be fine! However it's very hard, if not impossible, to keep opinions out as most people feel very strongly on such a topic (including me).

Yes, I agree. Still, at least in my view, it's very normal for humans to believe things without evidence (whatever ‘evidence’ means anyway…e.g. is there ‘evidence’ that there are only five platonic solids?… ‘evidence’ for other minds?). They do it all the time. So I don't suffer from “moralized rationality”. It was mainly just genuine curiosity what motivates people to accept beliefs for which there isn't even a living tradition, as in neopaganism.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm a Reform Jew. Was born and raised that way. My mom was Jewish ('was' because she passed away 6 years ago), and my other parent was raised Catholic. However, that other parent isn't Catholic, feels closer to Judaism, but feels she's Buddhist. Her family did not approve of her marrying a Jew, and my mom's Ultra Orthodox sister refused to go to the wedding or talk to her for 7 years. My parent's side occasionally tries to convert me...Makes for an odd mix of things when I meet either side in person. In that way, it's good I don't live near any of my other relatives besides my parent. There is quite a bit of amatonormitivity and heteronormitivity going on in Jewish communities. Even though I'm not orthodox, I've known congregants from synagogues (I'm not a member of either of the local ones anymore) try to set me up with someone. There's also a 'responsibility' of men to 'fulfill' the duty of satisfying their women sexually. Women are considered sexual beings. We're also told to be fruitful and multiply. There's a prayer that's beautiful, but it's referring to G-d as their 'beloved'. For us, G-d is referred to as a man and a woman. Typically a woman on Shabbat, or our Day of Rest. The interesting thing is we also feel that G-d is beyond gender. Everything and nothing at the same time. Interesting growing up with that when you're agender. Also, since we 'wrestle with G-d', many are atheist. I'm not, but even Ultra Orthodox Jews can be. We don't have a blind 'devotion' or something to G-d. We're told to question everything. I've thought about being more observant (like Modern Orthodox), but just can't right now. I can't go to a synagogue as much as I'd like, because I have an autoimmune disease. It would cost more to be fully kosher. Plus, I live with someone who doesn't eat kosher at all. Just lots of circumstantial stuff.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I'm an eclectic Pagan. My parents run a nondenominational Pagan church so I've always been very involved with that community, and honestly church is the only place I've ever met other aro spec people (which is surprising cus you wouldn't think aspec and pagan would be a huge vendiagram). And the really cool thing is, it's not just younger folks. One of the clergy members who helped found the organization recently came out as a bi aro, and it's very neat to have an older aro as one of my religious community leaders. Having her around always helps the rest of us feel less worried about not incorporating romance into our lives and it's really nice to have someone like that to look up to.

 

I don't think I'd have any of the aro friends or mentorship I have today without the Pagan community, so I think my aroness and my Paganism interact in some really positive ways.

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On surveys like these I always put atheist or non religious, because that's what I am. It always feels a little bit weird though since my family is conservative Christian, and I go to a Baptist private school. I've been an atheist for about a year and no one knows that so I still have to go to church and all of that. So when I answer these kind of questions, I wonder if I should answer what I really believe or what I practice, if that makes sense. Oh well, it won't be an issue for much longer. I move out in August.

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My family is protestant so I've been to church a lot growing up, but it was never a huge part of my life. I don't believe in anything supernatural and I now identify as an atheist, something my family doesn't know about and don't need to know about (although I don't think my immediate family would mind particularly much). I don't hate religion, I just don't believe it to be the truth.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 11/25/2018 at 12:20 PM, anzu2snow said:

I'm a Reform Jew. Was born and raised that way. My mom was Jewish ('was' because she passed away 6 years ago), and my other parent was raised Catholic. However, that other parent isn't Catholic, feels closer to Judaism, but feels she's Buddhist. Her family did not approve of her marrying a Jew, and my mom's Ultra Orthodox sister refused to go to the wedding or talk to her for 7 years. My parent's side occasionally tries to convert me...Makes for an odd mix of things when I meet either side in person. In that way, it's good I don't live near any of my other relatives besides my parent. There is quite a bit of amatonormitivity and heteronormitivity going on in Jewish communities. Even though I'm not orthodox, I've known congregants from synagogues (I'm not a member of either of the local ones anymore) try to set me up with someone. There's also a 'responsibility' of men to 'fulfill' the duty of satisfying their women sexually. Women are considered sexual beings. We're also told to be fruitful and multiply. There's a prayer that's beautiful, but it's referring to G-d as their 'beloved'. For us, G-d is referred to as a man and a woman. Typically a woman on Shabbat, or our Day of Rest. The interesting thing is we also feel that G-d is beyond gender. Everything and nothing at the same time. Interesting growing up with that when you're agender. Also, since we 'wrestle with G-d', many are atheist. I'm not, but even Ultra Orthodox Jews can be. We don't have a blind 'devotion' or something to G-d. We're told to question everything. I've thought about being more observant (like Modern Orthodox), but just can't right now. I can't go to a synagogue as much as I'd like, because I have an autoimmune disease. It would cost more to be fully kosher. Plus, I live with someone who doesn't eat kosher at all. Just lots of circumstantial stuff.

I'm a Conservative (capital C not lowercase ?) Jew and I agree with a lot of what you say. I appreciate the questioning nature of Judaism and I feel like that has allowed me to come to conclusions about my aroaceness and my religious beliefs that I may not have otherwise. I am very culturally Jewish and pretty religiously Jewish (although I see God as more of a concept or idea than most). All my Jewish friends are very allo and rather preppy so spending time with them is always interesting. Anyway it's cool that there are other Jews like you out here since we are what .5% of 2% (at least in the US)? 

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I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (you may have heard people refer to it as the Mormon church, but we would like to keep the name Jesus Christ in the title when refering to it). My religion is very family-oriented, and it very much encourages dating and marriage. However, while the people of the church can be judgmental, I have never felt like the teachings of the Church in any way exclude or condemn me for being aromantic. I know that God made me the way I am, and his plan for me just doesn't include romance. The Lord has spoken to me a lot through prayer and revelation about my ability to influence friends and roommates and family, etc. and to strengthen relationships with them. He has not told me to date or get married, and I think his plan for me takes into account the fact that I'm aro. The best way I can influence the world is through platonic love, familial love, and Christ's love.

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I am Atheist and Jewish. Judaism is more of my culture rather than my religion. The rest of my family is Jewish. It really depends what religion, but I think most encourage romantic love and marriage but don't exclude people who are not married or something like that. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

My mother is Protestant, my father Catholic.
On paper, I'm member of the Protestant church too. My father is in actuality an atheist, my mother believes in God.
I had many conflicting emotions regarding church and don't think the happenings in the Bible are true.
Still, I do believe in something higher. I often find myself feeling sheltered and like something is just there. And if I do pray, it'll be heard.
Through the (early) deaths of people I knew and loved, I experienced things I'd call supernatural - though they can also be viewed rationally.
It's because I like to believe there is more to our world than what meets the eye. Even if the explanation lies somewhere in quantum physics (which is extremly fascinating).
I classified myself as nonrelegious/agnostic. I'm understanding of people who do believe and people who don't believe in anything equally.

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