Poll: Are you religious?

[Madara XIII]

Not at all
I often get called "strange" for what I believe to be true after watching a programme called "Ancient Aliens" on YouTube (Originally on the History Channel but they are all on YouTube for those interested).
Basically, there's mentions of UFOs in The Bible, on cave drawings, the Nasca Lines, religious paintings.
The most famous religious mention is something to do with Ezekiel in The Bible...Taken to the heavens (heaven is never referred to as a place, but merely the skies) by a light and what-not)

Also, people back then would have trouble explaining things they saw, so a light from out which steps a humanoid figure would probably become this:
"Man came from the skies but man can't fly"
The story of a man coming from the skies could therefore be mistaken for a man with wings
Perfect angel explanation.......Hard to verbalise it though :S

Fuck it, I'm rambling a bit

Hmm If I do remember, a few religions mentioned these angels coming down in flying machines of sorts.

Also the most famous one was how Elijah was carried off to heaven in a Chariot of Fire.
Interesting indeed. You may be on to something

It also explains the missing link too. "God" created us in his own image by the "ancient alien" theory means we were created by E.Ts. Ever wondered why we made such a huge evolutionary leap? Well, there you have it. Possibility of interplanetary breeding
We won't find the "missing link" on this planet, I guarantee you

Another religious example:
The Virgin Mary...Only way pregnancy is possible without intercourse is artificial insemination. Look at the "gifts" the resulting child had.....

Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh

Gold symbolized that he was the God of this World
Frankincense symbolized that he would be Resurrected
and Myrrh symbolized him to be God above as well.

 

[YourMom]

Nope. Science makes a lot more sense to me then saying ''it's some dude who's looking down upon us''. I just don't buy it.

Atheism has nothing to do with science, its just not believing in a god.

 

[RickRoll]

I think going to either extreme (Religious or Atheist) is incorrect, because both views are rooted in a person having a definite and certain belief about the afterlife and meaning of life and such without any legitimate evidence backing up said beliefs. The bottom-line is, and this is unarguable, we simply DON'T KNOW! I'm Agnostic because I don't want to jump to either extreme conclusion without any truly legitimate evidence to back up either side; instead I'd rather just keep an open mind to either possibility that there either could be a higher power behind our existence or that everything could just be a bizarre product of scientific wonderment and evolution.

 

[RickRoll]

Im against organized religion, it's inherently harmful to children and damages humanity as a whole the longer it's allowed to go on.

I agree. I have no problem with BELIEF/FAITH, no matter how dumb it may be, but I do have a major problem when it becomes a RELIGION. Whatever a person's views are on the meaning of our existence should remain personal to the individual and to those who share their views willingly and should never be forced upon others unwillingly, nor should it be formed into the harmful and twisted organizations that most major religions tend to often become.

 

[Doclector]

No. I feel the very concept of having faith in something becomes flawed when we have organisations dedicated to "spreading the word". Having faith means you have to believe in something, not something someone else told you to believe in. Feel free to seek out a religion and research it, but never bow to preachers yelling about hell on a street corner, although that's practically a given.

As for me, I believe religions have witnessed the same events and interpreted differently. The truth lies somewhere between them all. One wonders whether we might already have found the "truth" if they didn't spend so much time killing each other.

 

[Madara XIII]

Pinkie Pie Snip

Cupcakes. That is all.

HA!! You're talking to a guy who ravaged through all of H.P. Lovecrafts works, did extensive study on his horrifying monsters for 3 years straight and developed a serious case of Paranoia after delving a bit too deep into the genre of horror.

Whatever innocence shattering methods you have in store for me, will do no good. NO GOOD!!! MWahahahahaha. Plus I found cupcakes to be a bit anti-climactic. Really did well at building suspense, but the end result was just meh for me.

 

[RickRoll]

I don't know what agnostic is so I just clicked no, assuming that it will be the correct answer. I hope I didn't fail the test.

Agnostic is the belief that there could possibly be some form of a higher power out there, but without definite certainty of what said higher power is or even if it exists at all. In other words, it's just basically being religiously open-minded without actually conforming to any religion.

 

[Madara XIII]

No. I feel the very concept of having faith in something becomes flawed when we have organisations dedicated to "spreading the word". Having faith means you have to believe in something, not something someone else told you to believe in. Feel free to seek out a religion and research it, but never bow to preachers yelling about hell on a street corner, although that's practically a given.

As for me, I believe religions have witnessed the same events and interpreted differently. The truth lies somewhere between them all. One wonders whether we might already have found the "truth" if they didn't spend so much time killing each other.

I like you sir. You are smart and have conveyed my beliefs on religion in a much better wording than my twisted mind could formulate at the moment

 

[Hides His Eyes]

Nope. Although I might technically be called an agnostic by some more pedantic definitions, I put myself firmly in the atheist camp.

Yeah, this.

I don't like to say I'm agnostic because I don't want religious people to think I'm totally chilled out and friendly on the topic of religion. I'd rather call myself an atheist so the negative connotations kick in in their minds, even though I'm not dead certain that there's no creator or afterlife or whatever.

 

[Madara XIII]

I don't know what agnostic is so I just clicked no, assuming that it will be the correct answer. I hope I didn't fail the test.

You're only failing if you become a mindless follower of a religion you were told to believe in because the leader of their church said so.

Faith I like.
Forced Religion = No Me Gusta

 

[Macgyvercas]

Nah, that whole idiotic money scam and testament to the gullibility of humanity isn't for me.

Sort of. I'm Catholic, but I don't blindly accept everything. If there is a policy or teaching I think is stupid or makes no sense, I will call them on it.

I don't understand this position. If you believe that The Bible is the word of God then what right do you have to disagree with it. If it's the work of a perfect divine being then it isn't wrong on anything. If The Bible's true then you'll be damned to Hell for having the audacity to put yourself before God and rewriting his most holy book to suit your whims.

I'm not a religious man, but if I was I'd be a fundamentalist. If I was a Christian I'd be in the WBC, if I was a Buddhist I'd be a monk, because those are the only intellectually tenable positions for a religious person. I don't see how you can disobey your God while still thinking that you follow Him and are in his good graces.

I think he takes that position because the Bible was written by man who was told to write down Gods word. Well after a few thousand years, that word could easily be misinterpreted, changed around and even have some books edited out of the current version of whatever religious texts there are.
He's not going against God, but merely his religions interpretation of his sacred text.

Well, that and I do not think that the Bible is at all meant to be taken literally. I'm a Chem major, and in any science course, they will tell you to question everything because asking questions is the best way to learn. Why are these things here and not there? Why did this happen and not this? What happens if I add this instead of this?

Fundimentalism is not something I can get behind because it usually, if not always, inhibits one's ability and right to ask questions. I go to church on Sundays, I try to be a good person (unless someone REALLY pisses me off), and I try to be fairly tolerant of everyone. That said, I don't believe that my entire existance should be based around something that isn't tangible.

Do I believe God exists? Yes.
Do I believe I can prove that? No.
Do I believe he intervienes in everyday affairs? No.

 

[JackyG]

I think i'm agnostic but the truth is I just don't care, i'm open to the teachings of every religion and I take what values I want from them like any other work.
For example I enjoyed The Passion of the Christ because the story of Jesus is inspirational and powerful, Do I believe it really happened? I could never prove or disprove but i'm probably more likely to say it didn't than it did.

I am not opinionated. I just like stories; ones with meaning and morals. whether they be true or not. its irrelevant.

And i'm only intolerant to the intolerant haha so what if someone believes in god? that's their business and its NOT mine to try and take that belief away from them. how fucking dare I? you know? I cant think of anything more wrong than trying to remove a person's faith. and that's a two way street.

 

[Joey Cole]

should have added an atheist option.

 

[Sight Unseen]

Woah, woah wait. Hold up here. I followed you completely up until your last paragraph. I respect your right to believe in your religion, and really respect your liberal perspective of religion, but are you suggesting that atheists and agnostics are immoral or inhuman?

I'm an atheist and I have never been indoctrinated into any religion, but I think I'm a very moral person. I try to do what I think is the right thing to do. I obey the rules and the laws and I think that most of the time I'm a kind and caring human being. This also applies to most of my atheist friends. Sure there are some immoral douchebag atheists around, but there are more immoral douchebag religious people than immoral douchebag atheists (not saying that religion breeds immoral douchebags, just that statistically you are a much larger group so there are a higher number of said douchebags.)

I think that morality comes primarily as a societal factor and not so much as a religious one. Yes religion tends to reflect current societal morals, but no, they are not the source of them. At all. In fact, they tend to be slower at adopting societal morals than most of society. Morality, in my opinion, comes out of the necessity of living with other people, and if you treated every other human being like dirt, then society as a whole would not function. We need a certain level of respect to function as a society and these are taught to children by society, independentely of religion.

anyway, I respect your right to believe what you want about your religion, but I strongly disagree that religion is crucial to developing morality.

I'm posting again because it looks like my previous post didn't show up.

Anyways, you misunderstand what I'm trying to say, I don't think Athiests and agnostics are "Inhuman" or "Immoral", my own father is an agnostic, what I'm against is a "Total Reason" society, where choices are made not based off of how moral they are, but how logical, the most Logical choice isn't always the most moral one, for example, The U.S. could probably beat China production wise if we legalized slave labor, but that doesn't make it right or humane. I'm fine with Athiests, and think they provide a healthy opposition to some rather crazy conservative religious policies, such as "Gay marriage is a SIN! MAKE IT ILLEGAL!", however I don't believe that a society based totally on reason is a good thing, just like a society based entirely on religion wouldn't be a good one, you need a healthy balance of both in my opinion, too much of either can be a terrible thing.

Okay well this is less offensive to me, but I still disagree with your idea that an atheist society would become a society that relies solely on the most logical choice.

I completely agree with you that the most "effective" choice is not always moral, and for the majority of cases, I would still choose the moral choice over the logical choice, as I believe in human rights and equality more than complete efficiency and logic at all costs. Granted I'm a very liberal-minded person, so that's a given.

The only area that I think I might have conflict with you over this is the matter of abortions and stem cell research, because I am in favor of stem cell research and that might be one example for you of logic beating out morality. I won't get into a debate about that here though as it is off topic and not worth debating over here.

 

[Madara XIII]

Nah, that whole idiotic money scam and testament to the gullibility of humanity isn't for me.

Sort of. I'm Catholic, but I don't blindly accept everything. If there is a policy or teaching I think is stupid or makes no sense, I will call them on it.

I don't understand this position. If you believe that The Bible is the word of God then what right do you have to disagree with it. If it's the work of a perfect divine being then it isn't wrong on anything. If The Bible's true then you'll be damned to Hell for having the audacity to put yourself before God and rewriting his most holy book to suit your whims.

I'm not a religious man, but if I was I'd be a fundamentalist. If I was a Christian I'd be in the WBC, if I was a Buddhist I'd be a monk, because those are the only intellectually tenable positions for a religious person. I don't see how you can disobey your God while still thinking that you follow Him and are in his good graces.

I think he takes that position because the Bible was written by man who was told to write down Gods word. Well after a few thousand years, that word could easily be misinterpreted, changed around and even have some books edited out of the current version of whatever religious texts there are.
He's not going against God, but merely his religions interpretation of his sacred text.

Well, that and I do not think that the Bible is at all meant to be taken literally. I'm a Chem major, and in any science course, they will tell you to question everything because asking questions is the best way to learn. Why are these things here and not there? Why did this happen and not this? What happens if I add this instead of this?

Fundimentalism is not something I can get behind because it usually, if not always, inhibits one's ability and right to ask questions. I go to church on Sundays, I try to be a good person (unless someone REALLY pisses me off), and I try to be fairly tolerant of everyone. That said, I don't believe that my entire existance should be based around something that isn't tangible.

Do I believe God exists? Yes.
Do I believe I can prove that? No.
Do I believe he intervienes in everyday affairs? No.

Agreed. Pretty interesting point of view and one that I can definitely get behind.
If I remember the Gospel of John, then it was noted that Jesus spoke in Parables when preaching. Easy enough to get the message that a good majority was not to be taken literally.
Secondly concerning the God intervening in everyday life (AKA Miracle). I believe the last time that happened was Jesus' existence.
If you've heard of C.S. Lewis I suggest looking up his book Miracles. Its his elaborate explanation of the exact definition and dissection of what a miracle truly is and why such a thing happening now would be completely preposterous.
Good Read

 

[Madara XIII]

Pinkie Pie Snip

Cupcakes. That is all.

HA!! You're talking to a guy who ravaged through all of H.P. Lovecrafts works, did extensive study on his horrifying monsters for 3 years straight and developed a serious case of Paranoia after delving a bit too deep into the genre of horror.

Whatever innocence shattering methods you have in store for me, will do no good. NO GOOD!!! MWahahahahaha. Plus I found cupcakes to be a bit anti-climactic. Really did well at building suspense, but the end result was just meh for me.

She really needs to find some new friends. [http://askpinkaminadianepie.tumblr.com/]

I honestly didn't see what all the hoopblah was about. It was a cookie-cutter SAW story.

Hehehe well that was quite a funny and cute read. Thanks for the lulz

"I for one prefer cannibalism"
"I like rape"

XD

 

[renegade7]

My parents made me follow their religion when I was little. I hated it. Mostly, what I hated was how so many of the religious people I know were always trying to force their beliefs on others. That's basically what built up to me saying that he could stick his faith where the sun don't shine, I'm staying in bed Sunday morning.

And besides, don't you think God wouldn't like being woken up on a Sunday? Like imagine you're sleeping, and it's 6 AM, right? And then some teenager calls you and says "Hello God? I masturbated yesterday. Please forgive my sin of lust." Like, TMI much?

 

[Theswweet]

Religion is like a penis.

Its ok to have one.
Its fine if you're proud of it.

BUT

Don't fling it out in public, and for f***ing sake...

DON'T SHOVE IT DOWN MY CHILDRENS THROATS!

 

[Comieman]

I am religious but "Higher Criticism" religious, rather than "Literal" one.
Aka I treat Bible like any Greek philosophy book.

 

[[The]Rock]

Does being Deist count?