Poll: Are you religious?

[dfphetteplace]

Wait, why is agnosticism a third option? Surely it's covered by "No"?

Because it means that even though you are not religious you are open to the idea that there may be something to it you just can't prove or disprove it.

Agnostic is not a 3rd option. Either you believe or you don't. An agnostic is just unsure why they feel the way they do.

Although you're right about it not being a third option, it's got nothing to do with uncertainty. Agnosticism refers to knowledge, you can be a gnostic atheist (I know God isn't real and I don't believe in Him) or an agnostic atheist (I don't know that God is real, but don't believe in Him) and you can also be a gnostic theist and an agnostic theist.

Most atheists will be in the agnostic atheist category, because they can't really prove a negative (you cannot prove that something does not exist) and most atheists are honest enough to admit that there is no real way of proving or disproving something like a god the same way that there's no way to disprove invisible pink unicorns or the celestial teapot, but since the evidence is lacking, it's just more logical to assume that there is no such thing until it can be proven to be real.

It's also completely possible to be an atheist creationist, you don't have to believe in any kind of god to believe that the universe was created by something.

I'll use my Booism example, which basically states that the universe was created by a giant space hamster named Boo after a celestial binge on his favourite food; quark-gluon plasma. Boo sneezed and the plasma formed the proto-universe. At which point he buggered off to another dimension to sleep. He's still monitoring us with miniature giant space hamsters, which are exactly the same size and shape as regular hamsters, except they can communicate with Boo through inter-dimensional super-strings.

OT: I'm an atheist and I don't really have a religion, but if anyone asks, I'll tell them I'm a Booist because it amuses me.

While I don't agree with all your points, and on a topic like this, how could we? But I thoroughly enjoyed this post.

 

[TheDist]

Indeed I am, Lutheran here and proud to be one. I also find it fun that for some reason the internet seems to have no idea what a Lutheran is, even if they could recite the life of Martin Luther like it was the Hungry Caterpillar.

I've tried to be an atheist, just doesn't sit right with me. A mix of personal experiences and an outlook on the world makes me simply unable to accept that a world this beautiful and with so much potential is as pointless and mundane as people like Richard Dawkins (whom I do not consider to be the average atheist, mind you.) would insist on me believing.

I'm not a fan of heavy-handed preaching on either side, but with atheists it bothers me more. When religious people are trying to convert you at least they have the motivation (in most cases) of wanting you to have eternal joy/peace/etc. When an atheist does it, it feels to me like their sole goal is to suck all the magic out of the world for you.

Really? Let me quote Carl Sagan:

"It is sometimes said that scientists are unromantic, that their passion to figure out robs the world of beauty and mystery. But is it not stirring to understand how the world actually works ? that white light is made of colors, that color is the way we perceive the wavelengths of light, that transparent air reflects light, that in so doing it discriminates among the waves, and that the sky is blue for the same reason that the sunset is red? It does no harm to the romance of the sunset to know a little bit about it."

Pointlessness and mundanity aren't something held back by the world. They are something put into the world by the observer. If you see the world as pointless without a unseeable, unprovable, unspeakably hypocritical father figure, than that is fine with me.

But this small, weird little world in this massive, weird universe of ours is an incredible place full of beauty and purpose. Just because I don't believe in the supernatural doesn't take that beauty or amazement away.

Looking at the world around me, I don't see it as pointless and mundane.

Or, as Dawkins put it:

Matter flows from place to place, and momentarily comes together to be you. Some people find that thought disturbing. I find the reality thrilling.

Ahh good ol' Carl.

I'd like to add this youtube vid here of Richard Feynman, to do with seeing the beauty in things.

 

[Zaverexus]

Nope, I don't believe that God exists.

 

[Imp_Emissary]

People complain that God doesn't exist because the world isn't perfect, it's annoying. A perfect world would without suffering would be without purpose, and not worth living. Just as a world with only suffering would also have no point.

To have the good in life we need the bad as well. That is not some "rule" "God" made up, that is how things in existence works. To have the positive we need the negative. Otherwise we can never obtain balance.

There is no meaning to life without those to live it. If we want to have meaning in live we must create a meaning, and if you wish that meaning to make live better for all then you have to do it. God helps those who help themselves, but even then God can only do so little. Do to much, and people become dependent on you. Do to little and people lose faith. The best way is to use a light touch, so people won't know if you have done anything at all. That way we as the people can rightfully take ownership of what we have done good or evil.
You need not believe. Just do.

 

[ShindoL Shill]

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.

To quote Doug Stanhope:
"They shouldn't teach you religion until you're eighteen years old, it'd be a whole different world. If they weren't pushing it into your head while it was still soft you'd never buy it."

If you really believe death leads to eternal bliss, why are you wearing a seatbelt?

i just went to a scottish primary school and we had a priest in every two fucking months, plus we had to GO TO CHURCH.
my friend actually asked his dad to tell the school he was pagan and against his beliefs to go on holy ground. his dad thought this was a brilliant idea.
it didnt work though.

and pretty much all of my friends are atheist, like me.

 

[Uszi]

Wait, why is agnosticism a third option? Surely it's covered by "No"?

Because it means that even though you are not religious you are open to the idea that there may be something to it you just can't prove or disprove it.

Agnostic is not a 3rd option. Either you believe or you don't. An agnostic is just unsure why they feel the way they do.

Although you're right about it not being a third option, it's got nothing to do with uncertainty. Agnosticism refers to knowledge, you can be a gnostic atheist (I know God isn't real and I don't believe in Him) or an agnostic atheist (I don't know that God is real, but don't believe in Him) and you can also be a gnostic theist and an agnostic theist.

*SNIP*

I figure the OP was talking about "cultural Christians."

People who might practice a religion without believing in the religion might be the Agnostics the poll was created for?

Though I am inclined to agree with the people quoted above that it seems to be a yes/no question.

 

[Xooiid]

Indeed I am, Lutheran here and proud to be one. I also find it fun that for some reason the internet seems to have no idea what a Lutheran is, even if they could recite the life of Martin Luther like it was the Hungry Caterpillar.

I've tried to be an atheist, just doesn't sit right with me. A mix of personal experiences and an outlook on the world makes me simply unable to accept that a world this beautiful and with so much potential is as pointless and mundane as people like Richard Dawkins (whom I do not consider to be the average atheist, mind you.) would insist on me believing.

I'm not a fan of heavy-handed preaching on either side, but with atheists it bothers me more. When religious people are trying to convert you at least they have the motivation (in most cases) of wanting you to have eternal joy/peace/etc. When an atheist does it, it feels to me like their sole goal is to suck all the magic out of the world for you.

Really? Let me quote Carl Sagan:

"It is sometimes said that scientists are unromantic, that their passion to figure out robs the world of beauty and mystery. But is it not stirring to understand how the world actually works ? that white light is made of colors, that color is the way we perceive the wavelengths of light, that transparent air reflects light, that in so doing it discriminates among the waves, and that the sky is blue for the same reason that the sunset is red? It does no harm to the romance of the sunset to know a little bit about it."

Pointlessness and mundanity aren't something held back by the world. They are something put into the world by the observer. If you see the world as pointless without a unseeable, unprovable, unspeakably hypocritical father figure, than that is fine with me.

But this small, weird little world in this massive, weird universe of ours is an incredible place full of beauty and purpose. Just because I don't believe in the supernatural doesn't take that beauty or amazement away.

Looking at the world around me, I don't see it as pointless and mundane.

Or, as Dawkins put it:

Matter flows from place to place, and momentarily comes together to be you. Some people find that thought disturbing. I find the reality thrilling.

Ahh good ol' Carl.

I'd like to add this youtube vid here of Richard Feynman, to do with seeing the beauty in things.

FEYNMAN!

http://xkcd.com/182/

"Maybe someday science will get over it's big collective crush with Richard Feynman. But I doubt it."

 

[Raika]

I believe that there's something. I don't know if it's God, or Allah, or Jehovah, or Jenova, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or that big celestial body from Futurama, but I think that something beyond the realm of human understanding exists. I've seen and experienced things that were a little too perfect to be coincidences, and I've prayed to something and seen those prayers answered.

So I guess you could call me agnostic or spiritual. I believe that there's something out there that people can't quite understand. I don't know what it is, but I think that eventually, people might know.

 

[Turigamot]

I'm a Deist. Ala Thomas Jefferson.

 

[k-ossuburb]

SNERP

Become a Booist, we have ice cream and boobs (why do you think they're called Boobs? Because they're awesome and they were invented by the great inter-dimensional hamster himself, who is king of all awesome).

ALL HAIL HIS GREAT FLUFFINESS!

 

[major_chaos]

I stared out somewhat skeptical of the whole "divine being crated the universe from nothing on a whim" but then the fact that most of the science types I've asked about the origin of the universe can never come up with anything any more reasonable for the origin of matter or the origin of life has (among other things) caused me to follow the same path as my parents and be a christian, plus I figure there's always Pascal's Wager so its a win-win for me. The irony is that so many people here say that they don't like religion because its followers are pushy I have only ever had the opposite experience, I had several atheists rant at me and tell me i'm a moron if I don't agree with them but the church types have never been anything but nice.

 

[koriantor]

Yes. Yes I am. I am LDS for the record.

And I'm not surprised at all that most forum-goers here aren't religious XD. It just seems to make sense considering their posting style.

 

[RobCoxxy]

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.

To quote Doug Stanhope:
"They shouldn't teach you religion until you're eighteen years old, it'd be a whole different world. If they weren't pushing it into your head while it was still soft you'd never buy it."

If you really believe death leads to eternal bliss, why are you wearing a seatbelt?

i just went to a scottish primary school and we had a priest in every two fucking months, plus we had to GO TO CHURCH.
my friend actually asked his dad to tell the school he was pagan and against his beliefs to go on holy ground. his dad thought this was a brilliant idea.
it didnt work though.

and pretty much all of my friends are atheist, like me.

According to my mum, as an infant; as soon as I was taken into a church I began kicking and screaming until I was taken outside.

I think that's brilliant.

 

[Davih]

I went to a catholic school, and the Religious Educations teachers are hypocrites. They ask students to respect the religion of the school whilst disrespecting every other religion or atheism.
I'm an atheist and they forced me to go to mass etc. and it made me lose a lot of respect for religion. I don't mind people following religions,everyone to their own I guess, but I don't agree with anyone trying to force a religion onto someone. It's just wrong.

 

[weker]

I am an atheist through and through. I actively hate religion, but I don't do anything about it until evangelists tell me I am going to hell or what have you.

Speaking as an agnostic, an atheistic worldview doesn't prevent any of the shit that atheists seem to think only religion causes. Stalin, Mao... those names ring a bell?

They also had/have extreme hybris and maybe even Megalomania(or the non-clinical equivalent of a god complex). I am also not sure what you are trying to get at. I have never heard people say "if there was no religion, people wouldn't war/die/create a hierarchy/genocide/etc".

While I will personally believe that the removal of many religions would help avoid many wars and such I certainly don't think all war, murder and hatred would stop in anyway.

 

[massaffect123]

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!

But seriously, not really that religious. I don't need a reward in order to convince me to be good. As Abraham Lincoln said: "I do good, I feel good. I do bad, I feel bad."

 

[koriantor]

The irony is that so many people here say that they don't like religion because its followers are pushy I have only ever had the opposite experience, I had several atheists rant at me and tell me i'm a moron if I don't agree with them but the church types have never been anything but nice.

This! This 1000 times. Thank you human nature.

 

[Verlander]

In the native language of my home country (England:English), the question "Are you religious?" is not the same as "Are you spiritual?" or "Do you believe in a deity/the supernatural?", which is how the question is being posed. You can believe in God but not be religious. Jus' sayin'...

OT: I'm not just agnostic, but apathetic too. If one definite answer has come from all this bellyaching between Theist and Atheist hotheads, it's that the world will carry on regardless of your own opinion. It's an unanswerable question, one which has no impact on the universe as it is now. So let's just forget about this and move on...

 

[fenrizz]

I do not hold any religious belief.

I'd love to add some more, but I don't want to start a flamewar.

 

[Duncan Terry]

I'm Atheist, and I usually don't hesitate to tell people that.

Then there are... those people... and I say I'm Agnostic to avoid them losing control of themselves in public.