# What is your Surrogate to Religion ?



## DeniseAfterAll (Jul 28, 2012)

For me , currently .. it's Led Zeppelin .

.. and Robert Plant's pants .


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## Nanuki (Dec 1, 2013)

.


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## Gas Raid (Feb 19, 2014)

Easy, music. Rhythm, tone and dissonance are my holy trinity.


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## nullptr (Sep 21, 2012)




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## Just Lurking (Feb 8, 2007)




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## Raeden (Feb 8, 2013)

galacticsenator said:


>


Wrong! Repent or burn in Hell!


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## AceEmoKid (Apr 27, 2012)

diverse philosophies, exercising my individualism, and a relatively open mind.


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## Spindrift (Mar 3, 2011)




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## Aminath (Apr 13, 2014)

Simple wonder and awe @ the cosmos. If I was specifically looking to replace a lost feeling of spirituality, I'd say that's a fairly close 1:1 surrogate experience/feeling. It's also some of the rare occasions I still can feel happy, just pondering the universe! 

Led Zeppelin is cool too of course. Rock on


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## svejk (Apr 15, 2014)

My surrogate is to practice quite a bit of what most world religions preach. 

The emotional and mental rewards for moral, ethical, and contributive behavior, as one within my species, are for me unmitigated by any conformance to an angry god. My "moral compass" is likewise stronger and better understood to me for the freedom from any stasis imposed by a centuries old collection of moral apocrypha.

Bad, even awfully bad, behavior has never been demonstrated to me to be any less the consequence of membership in any of the world's religions, or any less common to my friends who profess faith. 

Lacking any definition of or actuarial table for good behavior, it just makes me feel good to be good. I'm a better man for it, within and without. Lovely irony for a recovering Catholic.


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## Mikebissle (Oct 24, 2011)

Psychology and Self-Improvement, for sure. One day, I was listening to a podcast on building self-esteem, and it hit me that this must be the same feeling my mother gets from watching televangelists.


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## Arthur Dent (Jan 15, 2013)

Motorsports satisfy the ritualistic needs of my primitive brain.


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## Isabel24 (Aug 13, 2012)

music, books and tea


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## Scootaloo (May 8, 2014)

Reading, music, and keeping my hands busy with hobbies. I read a lot of history and science fiction, some science, like astronomy and popular astrophysics.

I was astounded last year to learn that we now know what a Quasar is. I was reading Sagan's "Demon Haunted World" published in the mid 90's, and he mentioned the mystery of Quasars. So I looked it up on Wikipedia, an lo! As of 2013 the entry explained it:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasar

I think it's awesome to discover things like this.


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## SociallyAnxiousCoffee (Sep 8, 2012)

Quiet, rigorous study  Immersing myself in history, philosophy, literature, art. The finer things in life. I find those things to be immensely fulfilling and absorbing, and they seem to serve in the place inside me where religion would be if I had it.


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## danberado (Apr 22, 2010)

Is Sagan/De Grasse Tyson Cosmos too obvious and answer?


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## WanderingMind001 (May 4, 2014)

For the moral aspect: philosophy and wisdom quotes
"Emotional" aspect(substitute for praying): writing down in honesty how i feel or venting and seeking advice from older friends
Worshiping aspect: lol! No worshiping, but I really admire some awesome people who made history: Bruce Lee, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa(for her humanitarian/charity acts)


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## Ignopius (Mar 19, 2013)

Philosophy such as people like John Rawls and Emanuel Kant. And of course League of Legends....


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## Azazello (May 12, 2013)

Doesn't _surrogate _imply a substitute for/replacement of something necessarily present in your life? I would imagine there are plenty of irreligious people for whom there is simply nothing to substitute.



WanderingMind001 said:


> I really admire some awesome people who made history: Bruce Lee, Martin Luther King Jr., *Mother Teresa(for her humanitarian/charity acts)*


It's old news when it comes to Mother Theresa but you may find this interesting - http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/uom-mta022813.php. The study by Serge Larivée has already been published and is called _Les côtés ténébreux de Mère Teresa_ (The dark side of Mother Theresa). Otherwise, there is an article published by Christopher Hitchens that deals with the same subject.


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## CatTheMinion (May 14, 2014)

string theory! 

no but seriously, i don't need any diet religion or religion substitute. The strangeness of reality is plenty nice.


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## HarryStanluv25 (Jan 26, 2012)

Harry Potter is my religion. If it were to become something of such in the real life I'd join in a heartbeat.  South Park/Stan Marsh is right behind. Oh, and cat worshiping. Gotta worship felines as well. :wink


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## cosmicslop (Nov 24, 2012)

Music obv










Any kind of art is great. books, poetry, film, etc/ It really connects you to a shared human experience where you thought you were the only one who felt that way.


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## Stinefeller (Jun 30, 2013)

Why would we atheists need a surrogate for religion? I don't believe in God, so I don't feel his absence in my life. I have no hole to fill, as it were.


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## thecrazy88 (Feb 27, 2013)

tumblr. I need a life, it seems every so often I become obsessed with something like that.


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## jdrubnitz (Jan 26, 2013)

Stinefeller said:


> Why would we atheists need a surrogate for religion? I don't believe in God, so I don't feel his absence in my life. I have no hole to fill, as it were.


"religion" isn't just about believing in god. it's about becoming accustomed to ritually performing, thinking, and feeling things that establish a sense of identity within yourself.


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## Keenaz (May 21, 2014)

Surrogate to religion? do you mean the spiritual feeling that religion gives you? I guess just being curious about the universe works for me, it's quite a spiritual feeling being able to understand how the stars, planets, life and everything around you came to be. The human brain is hard-wired to try and understand what is going on around us, some people look at facts and evidence and piece it together that way, while others choose to believe that a man in the sky put it all here. That feeling of "spirituality" is pretty much our minds finding a sense of comfort in not being able to understand ourselves


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## probably offline (Oct 8, 2012)

I don't need a surrogate for something that has never played a role in my life.


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## lintu (Apr 20, 2014)

probably offline said:


> I don't need a surrogate for something that has never played a role in my life.


Exactly what I was going to say.


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## jdrubnitz (Jan 26, 2013)

probably offline said:


> I don't need a surrogate for something that has never played a role in my life.


Lol..that works very well with your signature:

"I don't need a surrogate for something that has never played a role in my life. That's what she said." HAHAH


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## Caterpillar13 (Nov 10, 2013)

DeniseAfterAll said:


> For me , currently .. it's Led Zeppelin .
> 
> .. and Robert Plant's pants .


I doubt you've ever noticed me lol (I'm not very interesting) but gotta say I'm a big fan of your posts


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## JennieStrife (May 23, 2014)

I don't need a surrogate or a replacement cos you can't miss something you never had.


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## WanderingMind001 (May 4, 2014)

Azazello said:


> Doesn't _surrogate _imply a substitute for/replacement of something necessarily present in your life? I would imagine there are plenty of irreligious people for whom there is simply nothing to substitute.
> 
> It's old news when it comes to Mother Theresa but you may find this interesting - http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/uom-mta022813.php. The study by Serge Larivée has already been published and is called _Les côtés ténébreux de Mère Teresa_ (The dark side of Mother Theresa). Otherwise, there is an article published by Christopher Hitchens that deals with the same subject.


Late reply I know, so this might not matter anymore, but anyways:

For your 1st point(I know it's not directed at me, but I just wanted to point out): I think OP might have meant this question for either people who used to be religious but no longer are and started focusing on other things with the same amount of passion, or people who never were religious but dedicate themselves to something with the same amount of passion as a religious person to their religion. Like how more secular people put focus on politics/a movement or just like how people listed here shows,video games, etc.

For your 2nd point: Wow, I did not know about that of Mother Theresa. I know she's Catholic and I would have said despite having different views from me, I liked how she had drawn inspiration from her views to help people in need. But I can see from the article she wasn't 100% non-discriminating and helpful as I thought. I'll just replace her with Sister Carmen who started the Sister Carmen Community Center in Colorado. lol That Community Center though has no more religious affiliation though anyway.


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## Folded Edge (Mar 4, 2014)

Music and intoxicants. The former since I was 3 or 4, the latter since I was 14, I'm now 37. 

Also Physical Graffiti is the greatest 'Double Album' of all time. :yes


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## RelativelyMe (Dec 11, 2013)

Music, Continental Philosophy (Especially Nietzsche), Psychology, Literature, Relationships/friendships, and Therapy


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## Wren611 (Oct 19, 2012)

Music, science... Doctor Who!


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## andy1984 (Aug 18, 2006)

RelativelyMe said:


> Music, Continental Philosophy (Especially Nietzsche), Psychology, Literature, Relationships/friendships, and Therapy


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## RelativelyMe (Dec 11, 2013)

andy1984 said:


>


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## kageri (Oct 2, 2014)

Why do I need anything in place of religion? I never understood that. I'm not replacing anything because it was never there. I am just doing what interests me. Religion or not.


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## ShadowWraith (Dec 17, 2014)

Don't have one. Clearly, this means I am far more likely to become violent and kill random people.


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