What religion/belief to i most closely affiliate with?
Question:
The most basic tenet of my beliefs is that God is the universe, in all dimensions, throughout time. The air, trees, stars, people, we are all God, like cells running through a body. I think God is a being so great that it willed itself into being.
Does anybody know anything like this? I thought it was Buddhism, but Buddhism apparently believes in the great Nothingness, whereas i'm more like the great All.
Answers:
I think the key "sidetrack" you may have gone down is the difference between "emptiness" and "nothingness." Buddhists do not believe in nothingness -- they acknowledge the conventional realities and law of physics. I would highly recommend "The Universe in a Single Atom" by His Holiness the Dalai Lama for a wonderful understanding of how Buddhism interprets and accepts the physical world. Emptiness -- which fundamentally says that everything is a manifestation of elements (everything on your periodic chart of the elements, though usually simplified to earth, wind, water and fire), causes (either the laws of physics or the actions of living beings) and conditions (the way things are). Everything, down to a single atom, has parts and they are all in motion and this extends across the entire universe. So, Buddhism does encompass the great all, but not in the sense of calling it God. To call something God conveys a permanence and inherent, unchanging nature . . . which exists no where.
Some of the other answers have touched upon possible religions and belief systems that may be closer to the answers and comfort zones you seek. And to the degree they all lead to ethical conduct that harms none -- Buddhists are good with that!
That is pantheism.
This test will allow you to answer a few questions and it will tell you which religion your beliefs most closely resemble.
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/76/story_...
Some schools of Hinduism are probably pretty close to what you believe.
Dunno, try this thing though.
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/76/story_...
Mine says Orthodox Jew 100%, with Sikhism and Pagan following respectively.
Probably some kind of Catholic/Christian faith. I'm sure if you look up different religions online you can find one that is most similar to yours.
Pantheistic Monotheism. This isn't a religion, it's a theistic belief.
Pantheistic - God is everything and everywhere. All is god, and god is all.
Monotheism - One god.
To further elaborate, a religion isn't just what you think about god, it also offers explanations of morals, and ideal lifestyles. What you have described only offers your beliefs about god, i.e. your theistic beliefs, so the original question is kinda unanswerable, except with people guessing monotheistic, pantheistic religions. More information is necessary.
Pantheism believes that God is in nature. This sounds closest to what you are saying. The are some Quakers who will say "there is that of God in everyone" but these are the liberal Quakers, not the conservative Quakers.
Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist, explains independent co-arising, a Buddhist teaching, as "Interbeing." The idea is that everything in the universe requires everything else in order to exist. Paper is made up entirely of "non-paper" elements, such as air, water, trees, and so on. So in this sense, rather than the great "nothingness" we are talking about the great "Interbeing" of which we are all a part. Buddhists do not usually use the word "God," or think of this as a 'great entity' so this part may not be compatible.
I think Pantheism is the closest. There is a fun (although not necessarily extremely accurate) tool called the Belief-o-Matic, that asks you a bunch of questions and tells you what systems you are most compatible with. Link below.
More Affiliate Questions and Answers...