"Life is my church"…well put, LM!  Mine also and, as Joan states, most often find spiritual peace and communion in nature.  I was raised in the church until I pulled away at around 14yrs. of age because of, even then, finding a certain hypocrisy.  Even growing up in a country which basically adhered to Catholicism or Presbyterianism (with a tiny trace of Episcopalian) in my youthful, limited, knowledge it didn’t seem right that while all believed in the Good Book each were so much at odds with how they practised OR treated each other because of their differing tenets.  When I chose to learn about world religions it became even more difficult, finding that not only did there seem nuggets of ‘truth’ (for me, at least) in each but it seemed to emerge that every one had one thing in common…the Golden Rule or a close version of it.  That rule has remained the core of my personal belief and, again like LM, living my life according to my own core I do respect the beliefs of others.  During early adulthood, raising a daughter she too was raised to believe in a higher power, just not with dogma but encouraged to find whichever way her life wanted or needed.  She would go to church and I was happy for her that she found a certain fulfillment in the practise.  I will say that the things by which I live my life, while without church or organized religion…such as the Golden Rule, ‘loving my brother as myself’ still hark back to childhood biblical reading but for me that has little to do with religious affiliation or attending a specific edifice one day a week.  

i really like your beliefs. mine are very similar, except i’m a buddhist with a small temple in my home. but i believe that belief is what is important and i go by that faith everyday. 

You put into words what I also feel.  Nature, family, friends- my church.

Joan — As usual I am drawn to your posts.  I am a Roman Catholic.  I attend Mass each morning on my way to work.  I find peace and warmth there.  For many years I felt that I should go because I was raised a catholic.   And, then I found, through a personal expwerience, that prayer and circumstance were the answer.  Also, that there was a God who was merciful and kind.

My husband was severly injured during the Vietnam war.  When he was finally sent back to the U.S. and in an army hospital, I will never forget the shock I felt when I first saw him.  There was little hope that he would survive his wounds.  I can’t tell you how many times I talked with the Chaplin and the trips I made to the chapel.  I truly felt my life with this wonderful man was over.  When I held his hand and there was no response, my heart almost stopped beating.  I spoke to his doctor who informed me that it was now in the hands of a "higher being" and to "pray for a miracle".  I never really believed in miracles but I did believe in prayer.  And, praying I did.  For the rest of the month I badgered God all of my waking hours.  I made promises (some of which I kept) :) But mainly I just wanted this man around for the rest of my life.  Good Lord, when I think of it now, I even prayed in the bathroom.  Then I found a park not far from the hospital and, each day, I would go there, sit and pray.  Finally after, several weeks, I found that I would be more at peace when I made my daily journey.  I left his recovery in the hands of God.  And, finally, after many weeks,he responded when I squeezed his hand.  To me, it was nothing short of a miracle.  I continued making my trips to the park and to the chapel through the many weeks of therapy.  And, finally he was allowed to leave the hospital to stay in the apartment with me.  His recovery was complete and after almost 2 years we were able to return to our life. 

He stayed in the military until he retired after 20 years.  Through all these years I’ve always wondered if there would lingering effects - none have ever been noted by any doctor.  After all of this, I never dropped my faith.  If nothing else it made me stronger in my faith.  My husband kids me, "You pray for everything".  In our years in Florida, during a couple of hurricanes he said, "you’d better get out your prayer beads, this is gonna be a lulu". 

Over the years I find that I can pray anywhere.  I really believe that my experience made me a better Catholic.  And, I truly believe that without prayer and belief, I wouldn’t have this wonderful life and the opportunity for dancing in the kitchen. 

"One can feel their need for the glittering things, for all the light and color which is so completely lacking in the smoky cabins and bleak fields, and which the Church, and the Church alone, is in a position to give them. They do not understand the service, but they see the gilt and the roses and the candles; they hear the chanting and the singing; and they go away with the comforting feeling of there being a world…somewhere and somehow…less ugly than their own."

A perfect quotation, Phyllis, which explains the power of religion both historically and at the present time.  However, just because people feel a need to believe in a better place and a benevolent God (and most Christians ignore the fact that the God of the Old Testament was frequently far from benevolent), that doesn’t mean that a God (or many Gods) exists. 

People with fervent beliefs in one particular religious system should give some thought to what they would believe if they had been brought up in another.  A fundamentalist Christian, born, instead, into a Hindu family?  An Orthodox Jew, born, instead, into a Shinto family.  A Muslim, born, instead, into a Jain family.

A friend told me, when I suggested this to her, that "Jesus walks with me in my mind."  When I responded that she sounded like a five-year-old child with an imaginary friend, she was unable to disagree.

The only "religious" precept that we need was, however, explained by a Jewish prophet some 2000 years ago, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."  Everything else that is important for a moral life follows naturally and doesn’t require any belief in the supernatural or the divine.