Poll: Are you religious?

[RGman]

I'm an atheist by definition. I don't believe in a "theist" god, or in other words, a god that is a conscient, interviening and simpathetic beeing. Sure, you can join Einstein and say that god is the laws of physics, but that's just poetry for me.
Oh, and I'm an anti-theist too.

 

[Marik2]

Holy crap this thread STILL hasnt been moved to the R&P forum?

 

[lazinesslord]

Yes I am.
I am a Muslim.

 

[Artina89]

Not really. I went to a Catholic sixth form college to do my A-levels and my mums side of the family didn't talk to me for two years as they are firmly in the protestant camp. I don't personally care what religion someone is in, but don't look down on someone else because it doesn't conform with your sensibilities. As long as it gives someone a little bit of comfort and security, who are you to try and undermine it?

 

[JasonBurnout16]

Yes, I am. I'm a christian. Shocking isn't it?

Waiting for all the other people posting in this topic to now tell me I support a mass murdering, homosexual society.

It's amazing how many people don't raise the GOOD points of religion, and just focus on the negative. But I have learnt not to expect much from the escapist community.

Not really. I went to a Catholic sixth form college to do my A-levels and my mums side of the family didn't talk to me for two years as they are firmly in the protestant camp. I don't personally care what religion someone is in, but don't look down on someone else because it doesn't conform with your sensibilities. As long as it gives someone a little bit of comfort and security, who are you to try and undermine it?

This is the sort of thing I want to hear more of! Thankyou! Just because something does not conform to your beliefs, does not give you the right to look down on people. Well said!

 

[matoasters]

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?

The God Delusion? Ring a bell? Oh, that's because you haven't read it. Read it before mentioning redundant arguments like Stalin and Mao.

My point is simply that religion isn't the only thing that causes people to oppress other people, and a god isn't necessary to drive people to hate each other. Just because someone is an atheist doesn't make them any less capable of committing the same acts that have been committed by people of pretty much every belief system throughout history.

So your point is we should stop picking on religion, because there are plenty of other causes for genocide, murder, etc. Why single out religion. Is that your argument?

Religion isn't the only one, and God isn't necessary. That is entirely beside the point. Religion allows people to do crazy, unjustified things in the name of God - whichever one they happen to believe in. It isn't a defense of this to say 'oh but there are other beliefs that do this too!'.

As for atheism, why does everyone expect atheism to PREVENT things, or PROVE that things don't exist? You have it all backwards. Atheists don't have to prove a goddamn thing.

What atheists do need to prove is that atheism doesn't allow people to do the exact same shit as theism does, otherwise they should stop complaining about the fact that some people think differently than they do, and criticize religion based on genuine logic, as it should be, instead of pretending that not believing in a god makes you a better person. Most atheists I know don't do this, but the ones who do annoy me to no end.

No part of Atheism says that you can't go on a crazy genocide. What it doesn't let you do is find a justification for your war/atrocity/genocide in itself.

Yes it does. The whole view of religion as the root of all evil, can and has been used as a reason to attempt to wipe out religion in several countries, for the sake of cleansing the "evils" of religion from the nation. And I'm not saying religion is any better. It's just that neither is atheism, in that regard.

There are no commandments in Atheism, and no where does it say that to be an atheist you must think that religion is the root of all evil. That line of thought varies from person to person, independent of atheism. There are many deists, agnostics, and other spiritual people who feel the same way while believing in a higher power.

I know that most atheists don't believe religion is the root of all evil, it just irks me when the ones who do try to say that getting rid of religion would immediately make the world a much better place. People will be people, and people are generally asshats, whether they think they're being guided by a god or not.

 

[DYin01]

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?

The God Delusion? Ring a bell? Oh, that's because you haven't read it. Read it before mentioning redundant arguments like Stalin and Mao.

My point is simply that religion isn't the only thing that causes people to oppress other people, and a god isn't necessary to drive people to hate each other. Just because someone is an atheist doesn't make them any less capable of committing the same acts that have been committed by people of pretty much every belief system throughout history.

So your point is we should stop picking on religion, because there are plenty of other causes for genocide, murder, etc. Why single out religion. Is that your argument?

Religion isn't the only one, and God isn't necessary. That is entirely beside the point. Religion allows people to do crazy, unjustified things in the name of God - whichever one they happen to believe in. It isn't a defense of this to say 'oh but there are other beliefs that do this too!'.

As for atheism, why does everyone expect atheism to PREVENT things, or PROVE that things don't exist? You have it all backwards. Atheists don't have to prove a goddamn thing.

so why do you never shut up about it.

Because apparently he has to defend his points. Wouldn't you if you were misunderstood? This comment was completely uncalled for.

 

[CaptainKoala]

I am a non-denominational Christian.

 

[Dresos]

Nope and I kind of think people that are religious are anoying and stupied but I don't say it in public

 

[Arif_Sohaib]

This thread is going to breed a lot of animosity in the Escapist forums so I will just quote a translation of Surah Kafiroon(translated by Marmaduke Pickthall) from the Quran and politely request the moderators to close this thread.

"Say: O disbelievers!
I worship not that which ye worship;
Nor worship ye that which I worship.
And I shall not worship that which ye worship.
Nor will ye worship that which I worship.
Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion."

This thread will not change anyone's opinion. Atheists will not become theists and theists will not become atheists by reading this thread and Agnostics will continue to respect people's right to religion. So lets all stop arguing and close this pointless thread.

 

[Grandpappyduplenty]

No religion. Endlessly silly books put me off, and i dislike the whole notion of 'oh, I don't believe in A god of X religion, just that there's a higher power out there'. I don't think so. The world is far more beautiful when you look at it as billions of years of sometimes gradual, sometimes explosive progress, leading to the present day. The idea that humanity is small (as if that word even begins to describe it) is just the beginning of my wonder at the universe from a scientific perspective.

 

[Doug Marttila]

Yes, I am.

 

[Zyxx]

Well, I was raised Catholic and still practice, but I consider my churchgoing to be about the least part of my spiritual life. I find the rituals and practices familiar and comforting, but I would never dream of forcing, pressuring or coercing someone else into adopting them. At most, once or twice a year I'll mention to my friends that if they ever WANT to come to Mass with me, they just have to say so.

I have my mental model of God, Heaven, Hell and all that stuff. I'm also completely comfortable with the knowledge that my model is probably wrong in several important respects.

The way I see it, all human philosophies, religions and methods - science and mathematics included - are lenses, filters through which we perceive the greater Truth-with-a-capital-T. All of them are to some degree distorted and flawed, none of them permit truly unbiased perception. Whatever the Truth is, each of us is only capable of perceiving a small part of it. It is through earnest, peaceful discussion and learning from one another that we refine our lenses and grow closer to the Truth. I have been told that this is a somewhat Gnostic notion, but I've never really studied Gnosticism - I'll get around to it sometime.

I trust that the answers will come, in time. Until then, I try to do what I think is right: love others, do good, give freely to those in need. I don't always succeed. But I continue to live in the hope that, even if I'm wrong and nothing but oblivion awaits us all, I can have at least made some other insignificant life a little bit more bearable.

 

[zehydra]

No religion. Endlessly silly books put me off, and i dislike the whole notion of 'oh, I don't believe in A god of X religion, just that there's a higher power out there'. I don't think so. The world is far more beautiful when you look at it as billions of years of sometimes gradual, sometimes explosive progress, leading to the present day. The idea that humanity is small (as if that word even begins to describe it) is just the beginning of my wonder at the universe from a scientific perspective.

that view is not in conflict with the idea of a deity, although it may conflict with some conventional ones.

 

[Kuroneko97]

After going to a Catholic school for 1[small]1/2[/small] years, I'm nearly an atheist, just hanging on the edge of agnostic. Religion just doesn't really make sense, when you think about it. A bunch of false promises and guarantee that you can't really verify. It's the perfect scandal, because supposedly YOU CAN'T PROVE GOD DOESN'T EXIST, CAN YOU?! SO HE MUST EXIST!!!!!11!!!!!111!1!11!!

Wait a minutes, never mind. I'm an atheist. At least, there's a God that couldn't care less what you do.

 

[Samurai Silhouette]

I'm an agnostic Unitarian Universalist. I'll believe in whatever I want to believe in, and you should too if it gets you through the day. Just don't shove your beliefs down other people's throats. That's how wars start.

 

[James Crook]

My own mother tried to push religion on me. I vomited that shit all out and did not give a care about religion anymore. It's vain and illogical to me.
The idea of a supernatural being controlling, knowing, hearing and seeing everything is just plain silly. The only existing thing closest to that is the U.S. government.
Oh, and after all those history classes I'm still pretty fucking pissed about the 1000 years of obscurantism. WE PROBABLY COULD HAVE HAD FLYING SPACE CARS WITH ANIMATED RAINBOW-COLOURED PAINT BY NOW!

 

[CJ1145]

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.

Now, I'm not going to call what I'm about to say rational, but please don't quote Dawkins to me. I would go at that man with a tire iron if I ever got the chance, without hesitation.

Your Sagan quote has little effect on me either, as I think you've misunderstood what I meant by "magic" and all related matters in my post. I have nothing against knowing how the world works. Finding out the other day that parrots name their children is probably the most thrilling thing I've ever read. And whatever your beliefs are on what the world really is or how we got here, go ahead and keep believing them.

My point was, there are people out there that see the world as crafted down to most minute detail, all those little points your quote covered, by a loving and attentive almighty father figure who knows you by name and cares for you, even when nothing else does. For some people, life has shit on them so hard that it is one of the only comforts they can have, that knowledge that they are still loved by him despite all their faults and their problems. To try and rob them of that is one of the most evil things I can imagine.

 

[axeman157]

My mom always forced me to go to church and some magical sky-wizard didn't seem to add up in my mind.

 

[evilneko]

Nope, not religious. There is no evidence for a deity of any sort. I find the Judeo-christian religions distasteful (Yahweh's a massive twit, for one) at best and outright dangerous at worst. Other religions, I'll admit I know little about but I see no use for religion in general anyway.

Thus, atheist.