What does your religion offer?

This may seem like a presumptuous or odd question, but...

How does your religion benefit you? What do you get out of it? Is there an ultimate purpose to it? A reward at the "end of the tunnel"? A more immediate reward? Some punishment? Other?

My religion offers me a way to further my connection and relationship with the Gods. It also helps me deepen my connection to and appreciation of the natural world and the spiritual one, too. It helps me to see the patterns and it encourages me to develop my will.

My faith opens my eyes to the connections between myself and others, between all of us and the world, between the living and the dead. My gods and the spirits that they taught me to hear teach me where my duty lies, where my strength comes from, and how to know joy. Odin has gifted me with poetry that I be able to understand what my unconscious knows, and interpret the messages that come to me from beyond.

Asatru offers me the iron demands of duty, the limitless joy and fury of the storm to renew me, the peace and serenity of the ocean to drink my pain and worry.

I still attend Catholic mass, not for the ritual but for the opportunity to find a quiet space away from everything in life. When I go to church I become very relaxed, I don't pay attention to anything around me. It's just me and my God. But I also find Him when I'm in the great outdoors.

I don't see any reward, punishment or other since I view the Bible as a story strongly edited by greedy men.

All I see is the opportunity to love and do my best everyday.

Awesome question, Gorm! Tough one to answer, too. My religion provides me with a foundation from which to build my faith and discover my true spiritual path. My religion introduced me to my God and taught me to ask questions. It also introduced me to the concept of unconditional love, which is what I believe Jesus' true message was.

I also agree with Mintie in that "I view the Bible as a story" written by power-hungry men.

"How does your religion benefit you?"
It helps me in my everyday life to interact with others and deal with the issues of life.

"What do you get out of it?"
A sense of peace, calmness, and a perspective on how to best interact harmoniously with others. It helps me stay centered, focused, and aware of my own thoughts and feelings and helps me deal with those directly rather than blaming others.

"Is there an ultimate purpose to it? A reward at the "end of the tunnel"? A more immediate reward? Some punishment? Other?"
The ultimate goal of Hinduism is to return to one's source...God. To awaken ourselves up to the reality that God is the source of all things and that we are eternally connected to God. It is only the illusion of our ego that causes us to believe that we are seperate from the eternal source. The reward is immediate if you can awaken yourself to the reality. Moksha, liberation, can occur in this lifetime right now. You do not have to wait until death to achieve this awareness and reality. Death is merely the end of the body's existence, not the soul's existence. The soul is eternal because the soul is a part of God (the Supreme Soul) and it longs to merge back into that Oneness. That is the ultimate purpose, to achieve moksha. The purpose of life is 4-fold: Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha. Dharma is doing one's duty...doing the tasts that God places before you to do. There are atleast 5 duties that all people must do: 1) remember God through prayer, meditation, reflection, rituals, ceremonies, atc 2) honor ones parents and teachers...this is done by helping parents and perhaps having children. We honor our teachers by sharing knowledge with others rather than keeping it locked up inside of us 3) honor one's ancesters and guests in one's home. One's ancestors should be remembered....just as we remember our parents we should remember other family members as well. We must also always honor a guest in our home as we honor God. 4) living in harmony with all humanity...to strive, to the best of our ability, to live harmoniously with others and to remember to see God in all people and treat them with the same respect and dignity that we treat God with 5) to live in harmony with all living beings and the world around us...to strive, to the best of our ability, to live harmoniously with other living beings, with the Earth, and the environments we exist in and to remember to see God in it all (as God manifested it all from God's own self) and to treat it all with the same respect and dignity we treat God with.
Artha is prospering...succeeding in life. We are allowed to succeed in life, but not at the expense of dharma. We must never sacrifice dharma, our duty/responsibilities, in order to prosper in life.
Kama is enjoyment of life. We are to enjoy life, to experience life..but not at the expense of Dharma or Artha.
Moksha...the ultimate goal of liberation...this is done through one's dharma, artha, and kama. When one follows Dharma, their mind is awakened through the processes and challenges of doing ones duty. By Artha, we succeed, but through Dharma we know to share our success. By Kama we enjoy life and so as we do this we have no reason to be detached to our bodily life, but instead our able to be ready for moksha when it comes.

Hope that helps answer your question. Great question!!!

Good answers so far...

My religion offers me many different ways to become Self Realized (or understand that nothing, including me is separate from God).

It offers me complete freedom in how I seek this knowledge and it offers many ways to communicate with God until I truly understand the truth.

It offers me meditation and understanding of what my meditations means and how it can lead to knowledge of God.

Maya

Another way of saying much the same as Maya and a few others.
It allows me to know I am never really alone. I am loved, (Nothing means more to me) But it is not mindless and generic it is very specific and personal. I can feel those who love me and it keeps me going.

I can communicate with beings, that are special and sacred to me.

I mentioned dying alone the other day to someone, and she gave the standard answer we all die alone. I do not believe that. I do not believe we are ever alone. Not like a stalker, but by beings that love us dearly.

We are cared about and aided, we are never separate or abandoned.

Oh gods. I never know how to answer these questions. It's kind of like trying to answer the question of "what does being tall offer you?". I don't know, I've never not been a bit on the tall side. It's something that I just am.

I haven't always claimed Asatru, but looking back, I can see the influences of it in my life, before I even considered it. If anything, it has offered to still the cognitive dissonance and turmoil of a mind that knew it should hold to a certain set of ideals, but trying to do so in a corrupt and honor-less world.

all

Mine still offers cookies and Ice Cream and the relative assurance that [as believers] Magic Bears will kill us last

Vorrin wrote:Mine still offers cookies and Ice Cream and the relative assurance that [as believers] Magic Bears will kill us last

That sounds an awful lot like Necromoniconism... maybe they are related?

A tangible connection to everything and everyone.