hindu

uh, i guess i should admit that i'm not an atheist. i don't believe in a single god, however, and i'm not a moralist or a dualist.

i am a vedantic hindu.

this is an older form of the pagan religion today known as hinduism.

the original people who put together hindu assembled a great civilization that is the root of our language and philosophy and religion, at least until christianity became popular.

in my religion, there are eternal values. they exist in all times, and they never change. they are what is closest to the ways of honoring and improving upon nature, and their existence is natural for any thinking being, no matter what planet it is on. these values are irrefutable, but often are not observable because it may take over 10,000 years to see why things are as they are. thus philosophy and a reading of history is our only guide to understanding them.

in my religion, there are no prohibitions, only goals.

one of the major goals is to appreciate nature and to nurture its order on this earth.

this means both emulating and improving upon, but without supplanting that which is working and natural with lots of concrete.

really, for me, religion comes down to a few simple concepts:

i trust in whatever brought me here, and will therefore not worry about "after death"

i believe in this world, most notably the forest, and from it derive my inspiration

i perceive reality as the ultimate state of all things, and have no desire to create alternate realities

i behave ethically because my behavior reflects on myself

it might make more sense to refer to myself as an emersonian hindu, or vedantic idealist, for this reason.

all the world's a computer, and we're but electrons