I've been thinking a lot lately about being a good person and how being in a community of people who have the same goal to be good people can help one stay on track. I've been feeling quite alone and feel there's a lack in my life of the community part of that. The obvious fit would be a church of some sort but I don't subscribe to a particular religious belief. I personally believe that what people think of as God is a force that's made up of our actions in life, what we send out. So if we send out good and do good then that's a kind of prayer asking the universe to help out a little when we need good done to us in return. It's kind of like paying it forward all the time and having faith that when we need the help we give out then it will come back to us. I know that's probably a little too mercenary a take on it for most people but for me I have trouble accepting help unless I think I truly deserve it by having earned it in some way. So it's not quite the selfless good that it seems most religions aim for.
Does that make me a bad person? It's not that I only do good with the expectation that it results in me receiving in return later but more that I think if you are a good person then you will draw more good to you. Does that distinction make a difference to anyone else? I guess it's also that I feel it is unfair to expect good to be done toward you if you don't make the effort to do good to others.
Anyhow back to my original point - how likely is it do you think that there is a community of like-minded people out there that I could find and join. I don't like all the fanfare and trappings and tradition of the organized religions I've come across, but I feel the lack of something, a desire to be a part of a bigger something, I need to feel more connected to something I think. But what? I can't go to church as I don't believe in the Bible as such, just some of its general messages and teachings on what it means to be moral and good. I couldn't call myself a Christian as my beliefs stand. I also believe in a kind of karma but I'm not sure about all the rest of the stuff that goes along with it... I am very suspicious of stories about religious origins that claim to be fact and where you have to learn a set history in order to be part of that religion.
Is there no religion of being good just because you should be? Not because God says so, or some other deity, or because you won't move forward to a goal of enlightenment or reincarnation or something else? Just being good for the sake of making the world a better place to be in?
Am I missing it because I'm trying to give it the wrong name by calling it a religion?
What am I looking for??