Poll: Are you religious?

[ImperialSunlight]

Why are "No" and "Agnostic" separate choices?
I happen to be an agnostic atheist...
I believe that not everything in this world can be understood, but there is no God, as described in any religion...

Why are "Yes" and agnostic separate choices? I happen to be a spiritual agnostic...
While I believe that we cannot know what greater power exists, I believe that it does exist.

 

[The Random One]

I'm not religious, I don't believe in religions.

I do believe in God. Entirely different things.

 

[TheDist]

Yup, I'm christian. But not protestant, or catholic. I'm not sure what it's called, or even if it has a name, but I belong to that branch of christianity that don't believe in heaven or hell but still believe in god.

Would that be Universalist? I might be wrong but I think universalists belive in god, that said god is "love" and wouldn't send anyone to hell, thus all are saved. Sound about right?

Eh, kind of. Except for the whole everybody is saved thing. I believe that there is no hell, and if you die, you're dead. And if you live in sin you stay dead. It would be quite a lot to write, but it's definately not what you just described. But thanks for trying though.
The search for a name continues!

Ooooh ok, wait you mean annihilationism?

Sorry for all the questions like that, I do find it interesting to see what people do belive.

 

[Legion IV]

You know there's a "Religion and Politics" forum right? It's there for a reason. These things tend to go badly in Off-Topic.

Nope. I went to a Church of England Primary school, where they force religion onto you from your first year onwards. I just thought it sounded weird. Then I read up on science. And it explained everything a lot better than the vicar did.

I was religious as child until I spent a year in CoE primary school. I slipped, without noticing, from mildly religious to hardcore atheist.

His Dark Materials might have had something to do with it.

Kinda shames me that while a few of my friends actually thought it was bullshit, for every one of them, three went full on religious-whackjob.

That school claimed my little sister to their numbers as well.

Yes because religion makes people crazy /sarcasm Give me a break, then again my sister was claimed by atheism and hate that as well.

OP: I was not religious i grew up in an atheist household that never pushed anything, was in public school all my life, then when i was around 14? I found the lord Jesus Christ, on my own.

Theres so many atheists where i live and man its annoying, always so hateful for no reason. I've met people who refuse to even be friends or talk with religious people.

I guess in a nutshell i became to believe because at the time i was depressed and lost you could say, the atheist viewpoint was so depressing. I still think it is, i really pitty some viewpoints.

Like it seems in my city theres two things happening, i always see the atheists complaining if there Christian billboards or people going door to door, they hate and try to disprove religion.

It seems when they don't understand is we all do this out of love, imagine you found the most amazing thing or feeling on earth wouldn't you want to share? We do this out of love. The atheists are just doing this to bing us down and out of hate.

Maybe your cities different but myns like this. Just I've never had to deal with a more hateful group of people, not all are like this i know.

The most depressing thing i see is, something will come up in the news or something or some news on science that can be questionable, We go, well thats a little unmoral, atheists:Shut up your halting progress! Morales only get in the way of scientific progress.

I don't want to live in a world where thats accepted by everyone that if you we throw our morales aside we'll progress.

Lol also i HATE how people say "you should say happy holidays" Me and my buddy now say "Merry Christ....mas.

 

[darthmason0719]

I'm gonna be that guy and say "I'm not religious, but I'm spiritual".

Meaning, I don't like religion as an organization, but I follow a religious faith to an extent.

This basically

 

[ImperialSunlight]

. What if when you die you meet Buddha or Vishnu instead of God?

You don't really "meet" Buddha in Buddhism, you're reincarnated until achieving Nirvana. Buddha was a real person.

 

[Matt Oliver]

i myself tend to take certain things from different religions and use them to my benefit I don't know if there is one god or many gods or whatever the deal is.

 

[ninetails593]

Proof that most people on the internet are atheists.

 

[Bento Box]

"Are you religious?"

- Yes
- No
- I'm agnostic? Really? I thought we were over this.

I appreciate that you're trying to be diplomatic. I really do, but we've got to straighten out some terms here.

When you're talking about religiosity, you're talking about what people believe. These beliefs are always based on faith, and almost always based on nothing more than that. Even if there is some kind of argument from personal experience, it's still nothing that we can test objectively, and therefore still bust fall into the realm of belief.

When you're talking about gnosticism vs agnosticism you're talking about what people know. Even a devout follower of a faith can typically be cornered into saying that they don't really, really, really, REALLY know, for instance, that they are saved, or even that there's anyone or anything around to do the saving. Insofar as someone is able to say that absolute certainty is impossible, they are necessarily an agnostic, but let's get a little more practical, and a little less proximal to the topic of the thread.

I know, with every meaningful amount of certainty that there are faith claims. From what I've seen of them, none of the ones that have been tested have held any water to my estimation, and so I remain unconvinced. At the same time, I can't be completely certain that they're all wrong, even if I suspect they are. In that sense I am agnostic, since I don't know.

But just calling myself agnostic doesn't do, or even mean, anything. I certainly do know whether or not I am religious, and I can say, again with every meaningful certainty, that I am an apostate. I am definitely not religious, and I'd argue, strongly, that if you don't know if you're religious or not, you pretty plainly aren't.

 

[JokerCrowe]

I stay away from everything that has anything to do with religion. I guess you could say I'm agnostic, but I don't believe in any religion, so it's still a "No". I put my trust in Science, the things you can prove.

 

[enzilewulf]

Only on Tuesdays.

What he said ^

You know there's a "Religion and Politics" forum right? It's there for a reason. These things tend to go badly in Off-Topic.

Nope. I went to a Church of England Primary school, where they force religion onto you from your first year onwards. I just thought it sounded weird. Then I read up on science. And it explained everything a lot better than the vicar did.

I was religious as child until I spent a year in CoE primary school. I slipped, without noticing, from mildly religious to hardcore atheist.

His Dark Materials might have had something to do with it.

Kinda shames me that while a few of my friends actually thought it was bullshit, for every one of them, three went full on religious-whackjob.

That school claimed my little sister to their numbers as well.

Yes because religion makes people crazy /sarcasm Give me a break, then again my sister was claimed by atheism and hate that as well.

OP: I was not religious i grew up in an atheist household that never pushed anything, was in public school all my life, then when i was around 14? I found the lord Jesus Christ, on my own.

Theres so many atheists where i live and man its annoying, always so hateful for no reason. I've met people who refuse to even be friends or talk with religious people.

I guess in a nutshell i became to believe because at the time i was depressed and lost you could say, the atheist viewpoint was so depressing. I still think it is, i really pitty some viewpoints.

Like it seems in my city theres two things happening, i always see the atheists complaining if there Christian billboards or people going door to door, they hate and try to disprove religion.

It seems when they don't understand is we all do this out of love, imagine you found the most amazing thing or feeling on earth wouldn't you want to share? We do this out of love. The atheists are just doing this to bing us down and out of hate.

Maybe your cities different but myns like this. Just I've never had to deal with a more hateful group of people, not all are like this i know.

The most depressing thing i see is, something will come up in the news or something or some news on science that can be questionable, We go, well thats a little unmoral, atheists:Shut up your halting progress! Morales only get in the way of scientific progress.

I don't want to live in a world where thats accepted by everyone that if you we throw our morales aside we'll progress.

Lol also i HATE how people say "you should say happy holidays" Me and my buddy now say "Merry Christ....mas.

I believe this guy has a big point. Atheist are right up there on my shit list with Grammar nazis and religious wack jobs. I have spiritual followings but refuse to be in the church. Atheist are way to smug about themselves. Then again this whole website is smug about themselves. Why can't the two groups just live in peace. I say the church needs to stop trying to convert us and stop causing such stupid arguments and the Atheist need to stop bitching at the Church because of their believes. We are all free so why do we continue to have this crusader like mind set? Just shut the fuck up and believe what you want and stop provoking one another.

 

[Lucem712]

Not very religious, non practicing catholic as one would say. I see God, or whatever you would call it, more as a RTS game then a Sims game, there, maybe directing some crap but mostly sitting back. I don't know, it changes every day.

 

[Bento Box]

I am not religious but I am also agnostic (also an atheist). I also am friends with several people who are religious but are also agnostic. I think you need to brush up on what that term actually means.

If you knew what the words agnostic and atheist meant you would know its impossible to be both. How about YOU go brush up on what that term actually means.

See? Here we go. God damn it. Theism and atheism have to do with the belief of whether a god exists or not. I believe there are no gods. I don't know that there are no gods. That means that I am 1: A strong atheist, and 2: agnostic in my atheism. I posted five paragraphs about the meanings of these words two posts above yours. How dare you launch such a careless and uninformed assault on him.

EDIT: OK, so I didn't actually post anything about atheism in my previous post, but it falls into the same category as religiosity, if only in the sense that it is about belief, and not about knowledge.

 

[flamingjimmy]

I am not religious but I am also agnostic (also an atheist). I also am friends with several people who are religious but are also agnostic. I think you need to brush up on what that term actually means.

If you knew what the words agnostic and atheist meant you would know its impossible to be both. How about YOU go brush up on what that term actually means.

Actually I know very well what the words mean. You are mistaken, it is entirely possible, and extremely common, for people to be agnostics as well as atheists.

I do not believe in the existence of any gods, therefore I am an atheist.

I'm aware that I cannot know for an absolute certainty that there is no god/s, therefore I am agnostic.

They are not mutually exclusive, one is about belief, the other about knowledge.

 

[Andothul]

Liberal Catholic here.

I'm almost embarrassed to be Catholic outside of my state now because of the priest Stigma

I honestly find most atheists to be the ultimate pessimists but that is just my opinion.

To quote the great Trey Parker "Yeah ... there's this big giant universe and it's expanding, it's all gonna collapse on itself and we're all just here just 'cause ... just 'cause'. That, to me, is the most ridiculous explanation ever"

 

[martin's a madman]

Why isn't this in the religion and politics section? I mean... that's sort of what it's for.

 

[sergnb]

I always said agnostics are just atheists without balls.

Anyway, atheist here, and yes, I'm one of those guys that thinks religion is a fairy tale and it's stupid to believe in it.

However, I respect people so I won't laugh at you if you say you are christian. I will try to point out how your faith was only influenced by your environment and you were brainwashed when you were a kid, tho.

I was raised in a completely christian environment, and I think this helped me more to become an atheist than it did to make me a christian. Looking back to it, it's just mind-blogging the amount of maneuvers religious people try to pull to make you believe in God. Camps, prayers in school, rituals... It just looks freaky to me now, but just seemed normal back then. I'm glad I awake from the brainwashing machine that environment was and I do not regret taking that decision the slightest, even with the amount of "enemies" that has earned me and people that wish me eternal suffering for no good reason.


I'll always think mankind would be better without any kind of religion. Morals and ethics should be enough to keep us stable and civilized, not the fear of eternal punishment