Poll: Are you religious?
- Thread starter Kilroy17
- Start date
Recommended Videos
No, man, that's just grammar. Titles of creative works are written in italics (e.g Hamlet, Catch 22, Fallout, etc.) in the English language.orangeban said:
Moving on, how do you decide which parts of The Bible are false? Are they the parts that conflict with your modern sensibilities? How can you be sure that anything that you decide is wrong is truly wrong? Remember if you're wrong about what's wrong, you go to Hell.
Wouldn't the safest option (if you want to be religious, anyway) be to follow The Bible as much as you possibly can instead of rewriting The Bible to suit your own beliefs?
I'm religious, I mean, why not? I don't shout down science, it makes sense, but could there be a higher power orchestrating what happens when and why? I logically can not see how it COULDN'T work. In fact it just makes sense. I believe in a life after death, do I go rushing to said death, even though eternal bliss lies beyond? No, no I do not, because I'm not done here. There's still people to talk to and get to know and to inspire. Be it inspiring them to become religious or inspiring them to simple be better people. At the core of it I want peace in the world, I want love in the world, and I want happiness in the world. Because those are the core tenets of my faith. To discredit ALL religions is to discredit the founding of the Red Cross and many other charities. I do not force my opinions on anyone though I will speak on it if asked or if asked to do something that directly conflicts with my beliefs, just like I expect of every other person. Call me "Lawful Good", never call me "Lawful Stupid".
Like Grif, I have joined every religion just to take advantage of all the days of rest...except Mondays... Mondays just universally suck.
I answered the poll but I've learned not to discuss my beliefs, or lack thereof, in public. I think religious belief, or lack of it, is something best kept to oneself. I have a pretty large main group of friends which has never disagreed over religion because we simply don't discuss it. I don't know the beliefs of many of my friends because I don't think it reflects anything on who they are as a person while ranting and raving about someone else's beliefs certainly does.
Polytheistic Pagan here.
(And yeah, there kind of is a middle ground between "gods exist" and gods don't exist", and it might be along the lines of Lon Milo DuQuette's quote "yes it's all in your head, but your head is bigger than you think it is". I'll leave interpretation of that up to you.
(And yeah, there kind of is a middle ground between "gods exist" and gods don't exist", and it might be along the lines of Lon Milo DuQuette's quote "yes it's all in your head, but your head is bigger than you think it is". I'll leave interpretation of that up to you.
I no more believe in God than I do aliens, the illuminati, bigfoot, ghosts, alternative medicine or psychics.
I have many strong opinions about why all of them are liable to not exist, but when it comes down to it, they're all little more than unproven claims that make people feel better about not understanding how reality works.
So though I voted no, I have to claim agnosticism as well.
To paraphrase one of my favourite musicians, one Tim Minchin: If anyone can show me one example in the history of the world of a single spiritual person who's been able to show either empirically or logically the existence of a higher power with any sort of consciousness or interest in the human race, or ability to punish or reward humans for their moral choices, or that there is any reason other than fear to believe in any version of an afterlife, I'll absolutely believe it 100%.
Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that hasn't happened once in the entire history of human civilization, so I remain unconvinced.
I have many strong opinions about why all of them are liable to not exist, but when it comes down to it, they're all little more than unproven claims that make people feel better about not understanding how reality works.
So though I voted no, I have to claim agnosticism as well.
To paraphrase one of my favourite musicians, one Tim Minchin: If anyone can show me one example in the history of the world of a single spiritual person who's been able to show either empirically or logically the existence of a higher power with any sort of consciousness or interest in the human race, or ability to punish or reward humans for their moral choices, or that there is any reason other than fear to believe in any version of an afterlife, I'll absolutely believe it 100%.
Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that hasn't happened once in the entire history of human civilization, so I remain unconvinced.
Well there is the thing in the Bible with the commandment "thou shalt not kill" and then the story of Abraham where God tells Abraham to go to the top of the mountain and kill his son, before Ashton Kutcher jumped out at the last minute shouting "Punk'd!!!!!" Oh and the fact that God himself destroyed several cities and murdered the entire population of the planet (minues a couple) at least once (the Flood)Iron Lightning said:
Also there's the thing that there's two different stories of Genesis, and they contradict each other.
Honestly, what did you expect asking this question here? The majority of people on this forum are no different than the religious extremists they love to criticize, except in the other direction - instead of hating and insulting anyone who doesn't believe, the hate and insult anyone who does. To all of you who do this, I'm going to kindly ask you to knock it off and grow up. When you go around insulting other people's beliefs, you're making yourself look just as bad as Fox News. In fact, probably worse. Stop it.
As for me, I consider myself a bit of a spiritualist - religious, but strictly non-denominational. I'm not a fan of organized religion (though I'm not going to judge anyone who practices it). While I believe that having intimate knowledge of any one particular deity's will is foolish (at best), the possibility of some kind of existence beyond our physical universe/multiverse isn't at all illogical.
Indeed, the whole history of Earth has been one long retreat of Earth from the center of the universe. First Earth was everything, then it was part of a tiny cosmic sphere, then a single solar system, then a single galaxy, then a whole universe of galaxies. Now, we're discovering that our universe may be only one of an infinite number of universes. Is it really totally implausible that that rabbit hole goes even deeper, into other "planes" of existence entirely? While we of course don't know that it does, I'll remind you that we also don't know that it doesn't.
It's completely idiotic to claim definitively that there is or isn't a god, or some other power. Frankly, you don't know that, and neither do I. That is a FACT. Beliefs are one thing, but they should taken as beliefs and not scientific knowledge.
As for me, I consider myself a bit of a spiritualist - religious, but strictly non-denominational. I'm not a fan of organized religion (though I'm not going to judge anyone who practices it). While I believe that having intimate knowledge of any one particular deity's will is foolish (at best), the possibility of some kind of existence beyond our physical universe/multiverse isn't at all illogical.
Indeed, the whole history of Earth has been one long retreat of Earth from the center of the universe. First Earth was everything, then it was part of a tiny cosmic sphere, then a single solar system, then a single galaxy, then a whole universe of galaxies. Now, we're discovering that our universe may be only one of an infinite number of universes. Is it really totally implausible that that rabbit hole goes even deeper, into other "planes" of existence entirely? While we of course don't know that it does, I'll remind you that we also don't know that it doesn't.
It's completely idiotic to claim definitively that there is or isn't a god, or some other power. Frankly, you don't know that, and neither do I. That is a FACT. Beliefs are one thing, but they should taken as beliefs and not scientific knowledge.
So then what's the point of following any part of The Bible if it's all suspect? If the parts of The Bible about how homosexuality, divorce, and mixing fabrics could be wrong then why can't the parts of The Bible about God, miracles, and the afterlife be wrong? Why would you believe such extraordinary claims from an imperfect book? If God does exist then how could you possibly follow him through a book that's been edited and rewritten? It'd be like trying to build a clock using instructions that tell you how to build a rocking chair. The only positions without cognitive dissonance are fundamentalism or atheism. Of course no holy book is true, but if you believe that they are true then the least you can do is obey them fully and not rewrite them to suit your tastes.Madara XIII said:
I might be wrong, but I do believe that agnosticism is covered by "no". From what I know agnosticism is essentially "the universe could have been created by a giant banana for all I know".
I used to be religious because I was a devout Satanist (church of Anton LaVey) but I'm just Atheist now.
Maybe God's a hypocrite but if he was a hypocrite then he wouldn't be perfect and if he wasn't perfect then he wouldn't be God. Yeah, religion doesn't make any fucking sense, that's why I'm not religious. All I'm trying to say here is that if I was crazy enough to be religious then I would certainly try my best to follow whatever religion I chose. Being a fundamentalist seems to be a less intellectually untenable position than being a moderate. At least fundamentalists try to stick to their holy books instead of rewriting them.lotr rocks 0 said:
Well, I for one put a lot of faith in science. I love science and always will. I like knowing what the four fundamental forces of the universe are, that energy equals mass times the speed of light squared, and that an object in it's current state will remain in that state until acted on by an outside force.
But in fact it is my utter trust in science that makes me continue to believe that something beyond our understanding could exist and have an influence on the universe. To put it simply, I don't know and probably never will know whether or not something "spiritual," be it a deity or the Force or whatever, exists. I don't have all the facts, and without all the facts, how can I simply outright deny that such a thing could exist? To do so would discredit my belief in science, because to do so would be utterly un-scientific. Atheism/anti-theism/whatever the proper term is is just as much a matter of faith as any religion in my eyes.
Long story short: I never put all my eggs in one basket. But I stopped going to church years ago, not because of a crisis of faith, but because it's just SO BORING!! It's like a lecture class with lame songs every 15 minutes.
But in fact it is my utter trust in science that makes me continue to believe that something beyond our understanding could exist and have an influence on the universe. To put it simply, I don't know and probably never will know whether or not something "spiritual," be it a deity or the Force or whatever, exists. I don't have all the facts, and without all the facts, how can I simply outright deny that such a thing could exist? To do so would discredit my belief in science, because to do so would be utterly un-scientific. Atheism/anti-theism/whatever the proper term is is just as much a matter of faith as any religion in my eyes.
Long story short: I never put all my eggs in one basket. But I stopped going to church years ago, not because of a crisis of faith, but because it's just SO BORING!! It's like a lecture class with lame songs every 15 minutes.
Yes. I feel many of us are misrepresented by loudmouths and r-tards though. Not all of us think being gay is autohell, for example. Indoctrination is a more accurate term for zealots that are what make up mainstream religion.
I am pretty amazed at the growth in atheism though (lol I misspelled that and my spell checker tried correcting it to Wheaties). I realize it's tres chic to call theories, speculation, and unproven scientific ideas factual even though again they're unproven, kind of like god to many of us, but to believe in god and to know god are no more the same than the theory of evolution and the FACT of evolution.
Aside from which who's to say evolution and creationism really must be mutually exclusive.
I'll stop here...
lol Wheaties
I am pretty amazed at the growth in atheism though (lol I misspelled that and my spell checker tried correcting it to Wheaties). I realize it's tres chic to call theories, speculation, and unproven scientific ideas factual even though again they're unproven, kind of like god to many of us, but to believe in god and to know god are no more the same than the theory of evolution and the FACT of evolution.
Aside from which who's to say evolution and creationism really must be mutually exclusive.
I'll stop here...
lol Wheaties
