Religion?

[VoOs]

Once again, I'm curious to see some Forum statistics.

Vote anonymously or share your views in the comments below, whichever you're comfortable with.

[purpleninja]

I am very devout, but I'm also not a "be-freaking-perfect-and-act-like-a-saint-24/7" type of person. Still very deeply in love with my religion, though

[thesneeze123]

Yeah, for me it's basically what purpleninja said.

[VoOs]

I don't belong to any religion. I believe the truth behind the universe, life, the human existence, laws of nature and everything is much more complex, meaningful and beautiful than humans can understand. We can NOT know if we matter, if there is a higher power, if there is meaning behind coincidence, what happens after death. We can NOT know. We can only speculate and question, do primitive experiments and test ideas, take what we can from each and every religion known to man. Its important, above all else, to embrace and bask in the smallness and insignificance of human existence.

So basically in a nutshell, I believe very strongly in human ignorance.

Beautifully put, spoider.

I am an atheist in the sense that I do not believe that there is a "personal god" or any kind of higher power that concerns itself with us humans whatsoever. I've never seen the need to put the "super" in "supernatural". The natural universe that we can observe is wondrous and wonderful enough for me.

And sometimes I feel so humbled and grateful to be a part of it that I don't know what to do with myself.

[tma]

It's hard for me to answer this worded this way. I guess that it is just the way that the term "religious" gets used. I have a spiritual path (mine happens to be Christianity- and the particular "flavour" within that flavour is Protestant). I don't think that my path is the *Only* way to the Divine/ the Other. In fact, I've known people who are athetists who have a "spiritual" component to them- for some it is music. Something that is "bigger" and more transcendent than the mundane.

Maybe I'm a total nut- but I Really enjoy discussing what people believe and why. When I have shared what I happen to believe I don't do it with an intention to "convert"- just to share something important in my life that helps me. When I discuss beliefs with other people it opens my eyes to how the other person thinks, feels, and acts; as well as opening my mind to new ideas or confirming my own beliefs.

My beliefs are an important part of my life. They guide my principles. I see to love and to show light. I seek to encourage others and build up, and live in community. I don't always live up to my beliefs but I keep trying.

[Professor_s]

I have faith...and I have friends that don't. Believe what you want; live and let live. I don't have a problem with that.

It's when someone calls someone else a fool for their beliefs that I have a problem with.

[Blah!?]

I'm very much agnostic. I kind of want to believe there's something more out there, but I want to meet it first before I definitely say yes, and I want to see it absolutely disproved before I definitely say no. I feel like I'll probably never have my answers, but that's fine with me.

[megacycle]

I am somewhat religious. I do believe in God and that he created us in his image, but I don't go to church or read the Bible like I should. Does that make me a terrible person?

I pray every day and every night and sometimes more, telling him what I can't tell anyone else. The problems in my life. Thanking him daily for the strength he gives me to make it through the day.

[Bluebird]

I'm Jewish, and I'm working on trying to be just the slightest bit more religious. I pray when I pray, I had my Bat Mitzvah, and I'll go to services. I believe He created the world and such, but I've never actually read the Bible all through, never mind the Torah. Sometimes my faith flickers, but I'm trying to be a better Jew.

[SusieQusie]

Okay, I'm a bit confused with this poll. I've never thought that agnostics were ever any more or less religious than atheists. It's just that atheists are certain, and agnostics don't know.

I used to consider myself agnostic...and now I'm not too sure.

I'm a lot more religious now than I used to be. I can't explain it. I don't know which church I would go to if I went to church, but I'm guessing my best bet would probably have to be Methodist.

[LeadaAlexys52]

I'm not exactly religious but more spiritual. I believe in God. I was raised Christian but I don't identify as Christian anymore.

[Chanel_no5]

I do believe in a higher power and that all living things are part of this power. I do believe in fate but I believe that it's flexible. I do believe there are more to the world than what we can see, hear, taste, touch or measure. I am convinced in my belief, but I don't need or want any organized religion surrounding it. My spiritual belief is between me and the universe.

So, I don't know, since I am convinced, I suppose that makes me "deeply religious", although I consider myself "spiritual" rather than "religious".

[tma]

So, I don't know, since I am convinced, I suppose that makes me "deeply religious", although I consider myself "spiritual" rather than "religious".

I love how you said this! This is what I was thinking. And I honestly feel like regardless of the path, or where a person "worships"/connects, that they can be deeply spiritual. And if people *want* to connect more and feel like they can accomplish this for themselves by committing to certain practices- then they should go for it.

Don't know if I made sense- but I'm loving reading this. :)

[March Hare]

I have a certain conception of the divine, but am wary of any organised religion. Any dogma, in my (and Tom Robbins's!) opinion, kills a true perception of the divine, whatever 'the divine' entails. The latter is something everyone needs to figure out for him- or herself. If you agree with what a Holy Book says, in heart and mind and spirit, then that is your religion. If you make up your own spiritual rules and mythology, then that is nothing more or less legitimate as a religion than Christianity or Islam or Judaism or Buddhism or Hinduism or whatever other "established" religion.

In short, I think there can be no spirituality without freedom of belief and freedom of religious practice. And obviously, with this freedom comes a responsibility to keep it to yourself as much as you keep all highly personal things to yourself, to the extent that you choose.

So megacycle, just in case yours was not a rhetorical question: no, no it does not make you a terrible person. Also: there is no "should" about reading the Bible or going to church. If, in your interaction with God, you yourself feel that you should, then you probably will. If you think someone else thinks that you should, then that is not enough. It's only your business how you practice your religion.

[smooshi]

I am a Roman Catholic and I believe in God and pray to Him a lot, but I am horribly unnerved with the fact Catholic Church judges everything that isn't "normal" in their way of thinking.

[Heavy-Chevy]

I'm not exactly religious but more spiritual. I believe in God. I was raised Christian but I don't identify as Christian anymore.

That's my position to. I was raised Christian but I don't identify as that anymore. I left the church because I didn't like all the negative dogmas associated with being overly religious, especially the folks who think the world is coming to an end in December. Then again, I don't agree with any of the 3 major religions because of how they're always fighting with each other, saying that their way is the only true spiritual path. There are many paths to God and no single religion ever has all the answers. But I do find the cultures & religions of the far East to be interesting, like Buddhism, because they teach how to be humble and they don't have extremists trying to force their views on others.

I do believe in a higher power, though I would say I'm kind of agnostic. I'm definitely open to the idea of higher powers but I would need to see proof in order to believe, or disbelieve. Just remember, one does not need to be religious in order to have a sense of purpose or to have morals. I can be friends with anyone of any kind of faith, as long as they don't try to force their opinions on me.

[Mash]

I view 'God' as I view anything that I have yet to be presented overwhelming proof of.

I am atheist in the sense that I do not hold a belief in a God, though I am open to the possibility of one existing, though evidence for such a thing has so far been 100% based on speculation in my eyes.

What I do not, and will not believe in is a 'God' that cares about us. For every 'miracle' you see in the natural world, I can direct your attention to a thousand tragedies. In that respect, I will never worship a sadistic, or ultimately apathetic being.

[Healer]

Definitely an atheist (I MAY have mentioned it before on here ) I have a lot of reasons, one of the main ones is that I'm an empiricist, so without any empirical evidence of a god, I can't believe in a God.

I also find the universe a lot more interesting, when you think of it as a whole process of events that led to how things are now, which are still developing. We're probably never going to understand the universe, and how a lot of it works, and came to be, but that's what makes it interesting. I find that if you just say 'God did it' and leave it at that, it takes a whole lot of the spectacle out.

Mostly the whole empirical evidence thing, though - I find that almost all the 'gaps' in our knowledge that we used 'god' to fill, have been filled with plenty of theories and ideas, that personally, I don't see how god can fit into the whole thing, anymore.

Just my opinion, though.

[tma]

We're probably never going to understand the universe, and how a lot of it works, and came to be, but that's what makes it interesting.

I find this really interesting, because it shows to me how people can take the same thing and view it differently. I see this and I agree that some people do use religion in a fatalistic way, or in a way that is non-questioning. But... I look at the mystery and how we can never understand everything and this strangely enough adds to my personal belief in something Other. But I can see what you are saying.

[Chanel_no5]

Side question; has any of you ever had a moment when it feels as if you suddenly are being "opened" like a channel, and all knowledge in the universe just washes through you? I'm not talking about when you understand some math problem or get an idea, this is much, much bigger, and it feels as if you just KNOW everything there is to know, but you can't put your finger on one single thing? It's like... sort of when you swim in a lake and get into one of those cold water pockets; it's just there one moment, and the next it's gone, and you can remember what it felt like but you can't actually feel it again? I've had that happen to me twice, and afterwards, I was completely calm. I couldn't tell what knowledge I gained for those moments, because it just passed through me, but it was like for a split second seeing the pattern and know that there is a reason for everything, the good and the bad.

I don't usually talk much about this, because it usually make people look at me weird, but the feeling is undeniably strong. My mother has felt that too, three times. I read somewhere about one astronaut who described the exact same feeling and who said that everyone who has been in space has felt it, but they don't want to talk about it much because they're afraid what people will think. He was convinced there were "information flows" that contains all the information in the universe, like in codes, and that they just float around in space. I don't think that belief is any more weird than any "religious" view.

[March Hare]

I've heard of people having exactly that particular experience while under the influence of psychedelics. Basically, that's what those are for: opening your mind to let the Universe in. I think this is why they're used in certain religious rites on the South-American continent.

@TheMorpher: could you tell us what your exact definition of empirical evidence is? (Not threadjacking, I think - I want to go somewhere with this that's definitely related to the subject matter in hand.)

[Chanel_no5]

I've heard of people having exactly that particular experience while under the influence of psychedelics. Basically, that's what those are for: opening your mind to let the Universe in. I think this is why they're used in certain religious rites on the South-American continent.

Oh, yes, right... that being said, I must stress that both I and my mother were completely sober when it happened to us. I hadn't even taken painkillers or a glass of wine or anything. Just for the record.

ETA: And I for one hadn't even been meditating or "trying" to get that to happen. It just... did.

[Joal 555]

I was brought up in a religious (Jewish) family. I'm not religious myself, but I do a small number of things out of respect for my family. For example, I have just fasted for a day for Yom Kippur (Jewish day of atonement).

I have no real belief in anything but respect those that do.

[vote_for_pedro]

Straight. Up. ATHEIST.

Regarding the mysteries of the universe, I acknowledge that there are many things that can't be explained. But with those things, I take an agnostic approach. I'd rather say "I don't know." Making massive leaps in logic (god/spirits/guiding forces with a plan) to explain the unknown is intellectually dishonest, in my opinion. Not to mention extremely limiting. When there could be billions of possibilities, some more logical than others, I'd rather keep an open mind and continue to search for conclusive truth.

[Smokey]

I would say i'm about a 3 on the poll.

Personally speaking i haven't had very good experience with 'religion' & i'm sad to say it left me feeling pretty negative over the whole thing ( which i'm pretty much over now), i really wanted to believe in something & i really admire people who have faith in any religion- but i just could never fully accept it & throw myself into it, the doubts where just to strong.

It does scare me when some people talk about how those who do not believe will either be cast out or sent to hell when they die.... That's what i was told by a teacher a long time ago (when i lived in Australia for a few years) & it frightened the life out of me & made me feel that i had to be a christian & convert my family or we'd all go to hell...

I hope no one who's Christian reads this & gets offended- i do understand that the vast majority aren't like that particular teacher of mine