Personal religion

[Vanadium Gryllz]

Personal religion or the evolution of me.

So one of the greatest things my parents ever did for me was bring me up in a strictly religion-free household. I wouldn't even say we were 'atheist'. It just wasn't a topic that came up. As I got a little older and started going to (Church of England) schools I was introduced to Christianity, mostly through singing hymns and saying the Lord's Prayer once a week during assembly. This was all pretty outside of anything my 5-11 year old mind cared about though so I didn't think of it.

Right then, at this point i'm getting a little bit older and more self-aware. From somewhere (probably books) I had been hearing about the sort of fancy-pants religion that most tribal people have in books - you know the type, a god of rocks and a god of the trees and the sun god etc etc. I thought this was a pretty cool idea and made up gods for all kinds of things. The God of Sheds, God of Exams, God of Pianos... the list goes on. Aaanyway so i'd heard that if you pray to God then they basically do what you want them to, right? So I pray away to the God of Exams and lo and behold the outcome doesn't differ from what i'd expected sans prayer. My whole belief system comes crumbling down around me! To be honest it was more like religion slash pokemon - just making up gods because it was fun at the time.

So that wasn't such a big deal. But I got a little older and start crashing blindly into puberty. The internet comes along!  What a wonderful combination that is. SOMEhow I end up reading these weird new-age occulty forums that talk about stuff like crystals and the mayan calendar and dreams and all kinds of shit. I was big into this for quite a while (although less the crystals, i've never understood that one). I'd make a dream diary and learn what my birthdate was in the Mayan Calendar and do lucid dreaming trying to find a spirit guide and all that schtick. I can't remember anything particular that turned me off this path, mostly just reading the forums and thinking how sickeningly nice and accepting all the people were. It made my skin crawl.

Pass a few years, i'm probably.. 17. I'm playing some DnD online and some crazy is yammering on about being a Pope. He points me to POEE and I lurk for a while, eventually getting a copy of the Principia. "This book makes no sense!" I think. But for some reason I leave it nearby. A few days later I read it again. And again.

So i'm starting to think that maybe there's some sense in the crazy ramblings and decide to check out Illuminatus! (not an Official(TM) Discordian work, I know) This book is even crazier! But I read it again anyway. To this day it's my go-to book for long journeys because I find that each read brings some new bubble of thought to the forefront of my mind.

Then university starts and I am too busy drinking and working to be thinking too hard about some kind of religion. Anyway, I am now four years into my degree now and i've started reading what you guys spew because sometimes it makes my brain tingle like it did the first time I read the Principia. I've realised that throughout my life I was looking for some point in life - somewhat like the way Christians say to atheists "Well if you don't follow God's teachings how do you have morals/why don't you just jump off that building right now if there is no point to life?" <--- that actually happened.

I've realised though that Discordia - or my interpretation of it - stuck with me for these most recent years of my life and evolved into a personal creed. Nothing is true, everything is permitted. Sort of. I take the viewpoint that life is one clusterfuck of people that don't have a damn clue what's going on so you may as well sit back, smile and enjoy the show.

In the first few pages of Illuminatus! we hear FUCKUP(or Leviathan?) narrating the introduction of the book whereupon the world is described as a travelling, millenia-old circus. That is a fairly close representation of the way I see the world right now. And this thought has brought me more happiness than any other belief system I have dabbled in. If you can look at the world and laugh it makes you feel like a fucking zen master.

So.. yeah.

[Oysters Rockefeller]

      That's pretty cool. Religion is a timelessly tricky subject, but any belief system I've encountered that challenges you to accept life as it is has made the whole thing easier to swallow. Ultimately, that's what things like atheism, agnosticism, (some) buddhism, and (my interpretation) of discordianism is.
So, yeah. I agree with your conclusion. Good read.

[The Rev]

I was never able to read the PD.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

The good thing about discordia is that you dont need to read the pd. Kinda like catholicism and the bible

[The Rev]

The good thing about discordia is that you dont need to read the pd. Kinda like catholicism and the bible

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I always knew everything was screwed up...Like this was the test-run, prototype universe that was never actually intended for actual use, but the funding for the finished product ran out, and we got stuck here.

Then I found The Book of the Subgenius in the early 80s, and I liked what I saw...But it wasn't QUITE what fit the bill.  Then I came across the PD a year or so later, and IT wasn't really what I needed.  But taken together, they made a hell of a lot of sense.  In fact, the only thing I've ever added to it in my head is some of Warren Ellis and HST's weirder stuff.

I don't worry about what the atheists say, or the Christians, or even the Buddhists.  They're not my people.  My people are on PD and in the pervert bars and the low streets of the Holy City™ of Eris.  I may holler, I may rant and screech obscenities at you, but that's not necessarily because I think you're wrong or you're a bad person, it's because I am a very, very angry monkey who feels better when he roars, because it reduces the pressure of the endless hate & rage that is in my head.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Is true though every catholic and former catholic has a bible they never read. I have two (one i got for confirmation classes that has neat little footnotes to try and make sense of the whole thing and the family bible that i still have to add my nephews name to)

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Is true though every catholic and former catholic has a bible they never read.

That's because it's nothing but sex & violence.  Every Christian needs a bible.  No good Christian would read it, though.

[The Rev]

Is true though every catholic and former catholic has a bible they never read. I have two (one i got for confirmation classes that has neat little footnotes to try and make sense of the whole thing and the family bible that i still have to add my nephews name to)

I've read the bible three or 4 times.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Is true though every catholic and former catholic has a bible they never read. I have two (one i got for confirmation classes that has neat little footnotes to try and make sense of the whole thing and the family bible that i still have to add my nephews name to)

I've read the bible three or 4 times.

How the hell do you get through it? I swear to god that is THE most boring book I have ever read. And I've read some Tom Robbins.

[The Rev]

Is true though every catholic and former catholic has a bible they never read. I have two (one i got for confirmation classes that has neat little footnotes to try and make sense of the whole thing and the family bible that i still have to add my nephews name to)

I've read the bible three or 4 times.

How the hell do you get through it? I swear to god that is THE most boring book I have ever read. And I've read some Tom Robbins.

Simple, sweaty determination. 

[Nephew Twiddleton]

The bible is really good for some weird shit. I read it here and there but only in certain spots. Ill always have a soft spot for prophetic books like daniel and revelation (and ezekiels good if you want to laugh about bread cooked over poop). It does weird thing to your head though and i was one of those hard core catholics in my early teenage years. Which is odd because i was never raised particularly devout. We were the average new englander catholic family. Dad always struggled with it a bit more but he was going to be a priest and hes from that perpetually cloudy island in the atlantic. Then there was wicca, then i heard about discordia and thoguht it was funny, then just plainpaganism and then i wanted to get more into discordia and drunkenly stumbled on in here. Oh and i read i3! On the way here too

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Is true though every catholic and former catholic has a bible they never read. I have two (one i got for confirmation classes that has neat little footnotes to try and make sense of the whole thing and the family bible that i still have to add my nephews name to)

I've read the bible three or 4 times.

How the hell do you get through it? I swear to god that is THE most boring book I have ever read. And I've read some Tom Robbins.

How can you be bored by the Book of Samuel?  It reads like Cecil B Demille meets Thomas Harris.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Is true though every catholic and former catholic has a bible they never read. I have two (one i got for confirmation classes that has neat little footnotes to try and make sense of the whole thing and the family bible that i still have to add my nephews name to)

I've read the bible three or 4 times.

How the hell do you get through it? I swear to god that is THE most boring book I have ever read. And I've read some Tom Robbins.

Simple, sweaty determination. 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Is true though every catholic and former catholic has a bible they never read. I have two (one i got for confirmation classes that has neat little footnotes to try and make sense of the whole thing and the family bible that i still have to add my nephews name to)

I've read the bible three or 4 times.

How the hell do you get through it? I swear to god that is THE most boring book I have ever read. And I've read some Tom Robbins.

How can you be bored by the Book of Samuel?  It reads like Cecil B Demille meets Thomas Harris.

I named my son after it. Some of the Bible's contributors were better writers than others. All of the  parts with Moses were pretty fucking good.