u/Calanais-guy

Earlier today I visited a Tibetan Buddhist Center of Karma Kagyu lineage for the first time, though it was not my first visit to a Tibetan Buddhist center. But this was one of my most meaningful, friendly experiences in a Buddhist sangha, so I thought I'd share it. The activity for the session was Chenrezig Sadhana, which mostly involved chanting prayers and mantras, some meditation, and community announcements.

I enjoyed asking questions about Bodhisattvas, the Rinpoche, merit, holy places, and karma. I appreciated that they are welcoming to the community, including non-Dharma practitioners.

I meditated with them and recited "Om Mani Padme Hum" a few times, and only chanted for part of the chants since it was all new to me and I didn't intend to become a Dharma practitioner, I'm more of a visitor and friend of the Sangha. During the Sadhana I felt much peace and something resonated with me, such that I even felt connected with Chenrezig, Amitabha, and the gods of my own Pagan tradition.

To what extent does your religion approve of or support interfaith dialogue and cooperation? If you do not belong to an organized religion, what do you think of interfaith events according to your spirituality or worldview?

I am curious whether some religions and philosophies are more positive toward multifaith cooperation than others. Or perhaps it varies by specific group or sect?

I'd like to ask a general question here about how mainstream Islam would view the existence of other religions, worldviews, and philosophies, and secondly, their adherents. Is it that most belief systems have some wisdom or merit, but Islam is "the best" for all time?

Would adherents of other perspectives be thought of as sincere and doing their best? How does Islam think that God will judge them at the end of time?

This is my first time commenting on here and I also wish to gauge how tolerant Islam is of other perspectives. Thanks.

What are the different varieties of pantheism? I have a feeling that Spinoza's substance monism is not the only one. I'm aware that naturalism and idealism can both fit into pantheism.

I sometimes call part of my theology "pantheist-leaning" since I am not sure if it fits entirely. I believe the total creative and sustaining forces that shape the Universe are Divine. Also the total energy of all things in existence. Subjectively I also feel a divine presence in Nature sometimes (especially sky, sun, trees, landscape). I am also a polytheist.

What are the main differences between the Workers Family Party and the Democratic Socialists of America in the United States? Is the DSA also close to social democracy, or not? My impression is that WFP is less far left than DSA, but I do not know much about WFP this year.

If you could design any type of afterlife you wish, what would that look and feel like for you? Especially if it's even slightly different from what your religion teaches?

This question is for both theists and non-theists alike.

I don't hear this term used that often anymore in the U.S., but it still does come up from time to time. Did it belong more to the twentieth century? Is it a general approach to Christian faith, instead of being a denomination of its own? What makes it distinct? Specific beliefs and practices?

I hear terms like "Evangelical" and Pentecostal more frequently than "born again" as it pertains to Christianity now. I know that mainline and Restorationist are also branches.

How do you conceptualize the main Goddess and God, and other deities from specific pantheons like Celtic, Germanic, Hellenic, etc.? Are the Divine Pair more abstract, impersonal, or personal?

I'm a follower of Druidry rather than a Wiccan but recently feel interested in this religion's approach to bitheism or duotheism.

Does Wicca also have a creation myth or some story of how the Universe came into being?

What are your thoughts on how most LDRs begin? With the couple meeting and falling in love in-person first, then one or both move apart and continue?

Or instead with the couple finding each other remotely (online), talking and perhaps becoming friends, or falling in love quickly, before they meet in-person and continue that way? Regardless of when they close the gap?

Not everyone believes that two people can fall in love without meeting physically first, so that is interesting. My experience is that it is possible, but less traditional.

I'm using "virtuous pagans" in the historical sense from the Christian perspective, not a modern Pagan or general pagan sense. How would modern Christian thinkers view pagan philosophers and pagans who followed their own ethical systems (usually virtue ethics), such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Zeno of Citium, Epicurus, Marcus Aurelius, Cicero, Plotinus, Confucius, as well as various Hindu and Buddhist philosophers and spiritual persons? Even Gandhi and Thich Nhat Hanh in the 20th century.

Part of my question includes, "would these persons get a shot at salvation" from the Christian perspective as well?

I would guess that most ordinary Western Christians would not condemn virtuous pagans. Apparently even Justin Martyr, a Church Father, wrote:

>We have been taught that Christ is the First-born of God, and we have suggested above that He is the logos of whom every race of men and women were partakers. And they who lived with the logos are Christians, even though they have been thought atheists; as, among the Greeks, Socrates and Heraclitus, and people like them.

Rarely but occasionally, I run into the claim that authentic Druidism (or maybe Celtic Paganism or "Paganachd") has been passed down family lines in Scotland or Ireland, is not the same as Revival or modern Druidry, and they find the more common type of Druidry to be offensive. Even that the word "Druid" is improper and offensive...that it's a closed tradition that one cannot convert into or join, one must be raised in it. In the most recent case I'm not sure if it's trolling or an attempt at gate-keeping. The few people with this view would find all revived Druidism inauthentic.

This is not my view and of course they can just be ignored, but have others encountered this? What do you make of such claims?

How common is the belief across religions that a God or metaphysical system rewards good deeds while punishing bad ones? This could be extended to include rewarding faith in the "right" deity or religion while punishing faith in the "wrong" one, either in this life or an afterlife. It seems to me this is found most readily in Christianity, Islam, and Zoroastrianism.

If a religion explicitly teaches such a system of reward and punishment, I think it's doing a disservice to the opposite concept that goodness should be self-motivated and altruistic, not motivated by a desire for a God's favor, Heaven, or fear of Hell. It becomes different from the ideal that "virtue is its own reward" or that vice is its own suffering.

This also reminds me of some of the words of Albert Einstein: "I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own — a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty."

I'd like to get an idea of the range of beliefs people have about Deity on here, though it won't be a scientific survey. Soft and hard polytheism, pantheism, animism, agnosticism/atheism, deism, monotheism, or other?
How many of these fit within Paganism?

I've long leaned toward some form of polytheism and pantheism, but lately also feel inclined to think that there may have been a first or ultimate cause for even a cyclic Universe. I don't interpret that Source as a personal god, so it's more like deism. This would help me to explain an origin for Awen, Nwyfre, souls, consciousness, and the Otherworld.

I know there is much variation even within each large religion, so I'll take that into account. But how do most mainstream and conservative Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and Sikhs (and Jews) think about this in religious terms?

How common is it for them to view non-believers as spiritually "less than" themselves and destined for a worse afterlife than in-group members of their religions?

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of visiting a small local Zen Buddhist temple, and I think it was my first visit to a fully Zen Sangha--not a subgroup of a UU church or any other org. The session consisted mostly of sitting meditation, kinhin (walking meditation), and chanting certain gathas and sutras. (I wasn't sure if some of these were prayers, but they invoked Buddhas and ancestral teachers). Bowing was very common for etiquette.

I would have been thrilled to visit such a place decades ago when I was more actively interested in Buddhism, but still appreciated visiting even in 2026. The long-time members were friendly and welcoming, and there was even time to share personal thoughts. There was some time for one-on-one learning from the Sensei.

Overall, I felt that it involved too much meditation at one time for me, and the service was too formal and rigid compared to Buddhist Churches of America and other religions. But I appreciated their contemplative, sometimes solemn, sometimes humorous approach and think positively of Zen Dharma.

It's funny how the term "Zen" has become a pop culture term in American English, but it rarely refers to actual Buddhism.

I just noticed that a rule #13 was created for the sub that I didn't see before. I think it's good to limit apologetics and polemical debate since they lead to the most conflict and breaking of other rules on the sub 👍🏽

Are there certain religions, philosophies, or spiritual approaches (including "spiritual not religious", agnosticism, deism, etc.) that you would not respect for some reason?

I actually thought of Jediism when I made this post. There's a good documentary about real-life religious Jedi called American Jedi (2017) that I enjoyed watching years ago. Most people around the world, I suspect, would treat Jediism as a joke and not want to take it seriously, yet it can serve as religious guidance for its adherents. The same probably applies to Dudeism.

If people decide to just not respect a relatively new religion like Jediism that seems mostly harmless--not a cult or violent--would that make that attitude a form of bigotry?

Are there any discussions, exchanges, or debates between (for example) converts to __ religion and ex-members of that religion? Such as between Christian converts and ex-Christians.

I also wonder how the perspective of an ex-Christian --> Muslim convert would differ from an ex-Muslim --> Christian, or other combination of religions, like ex-Muslim --> Hindu, or ex-Hindu--> Christian.

I suspect that these are opposite perspectives, so they would not get along easily, perhaps seeing each other as misguided?

For those Druids who belong to local groups or orders, what is your experience with theology? Are most members of the group polytheists, just animists without deities, pantheists, panentheists, monotheists, agnostics, or something else?

I associate my path in Druidry with polytheism and pantheism (or perhaps panentheism) together, but also take much from an animist worldview.