Atheists, is there anything religious that sticks with you to this day?
I am Ganesh, an Indian atheist and I don't eat beef. It's not like that I have a religious reason to do that, but after all those years seeing cows as peaceful animals and playing and growing up with them in a village, I doubt if I ever will be able to eat beef. I wasn't raised very religious, I didn't go to temple everyday and read Gita every evening unlike most muslims who are somewhat serious about their religion, my family has this watered down religion (which has it's advantages).
But yeah, not eating beef is a moral issue I deal with. I mean, I don't care that I don't eat beef, but the fact that I eat pork and chicken but not beef seems to me to be weird. So, is there any religious practice that you guys follow to this day?
edit: I like religious music, religious temples (Churches, Gurudwara's, Temples & Mosques in Iran), religious paintings and art sometimes. I know for a fact that the only art you could produce is those days was indeed religious and the greatest artists needed to make something religious to be funded, that we will never know what those artists would have produced in the absence of religion, but yeah, religious art is good nonetheless.
I'm scared of reincarnation. I don't want to live a second life no matter how good it would be.
many people come back from near death experiences with insight about the whole structure of the universe. one common theme they report is that we all chose the lives we're living because these lives offered the best opportunity to learn and grow. they say we come back many times until we learn everything we need to.
so, if true, the downside is that you and I will probably be back. but, the upside is that we won't keep coming back forever and that we can curtail the number of times we will return by being the best people we can and by learning as much as we can.
Then I can assure you, I've learned nothing. If all of this is true, then I've chosen this life, because there MAY be good opportunities, but I'm lacking knowledge and courage to achieve them. Nevertheless, this is a failure.
I wouldn't want to be reincarnated to earth, but reincarnated to a fantasy world with magic might be nice to try out. My biggest hangup with reincarnation is not bringing the wisdom of hard learned lessons with.
I also would wish that, if I had confidence that I could do something useful with it.
I appreciate the Zen Buddhist (with a mild leftist slant) take on reincarnation. Questioning the existence of reincarnation is asking the wrong question.
If it's real, you have nothing to worry about—you're living the best life you can given your material conditions. So it'll work out.
If it isn't real, you also have nothing to worry about—you're feeding trees now.
The right question is what you can do better, right here and now. The only life that matters is this one.