Poll: What is your religion?

[meghatronic]

In my experiences the people I know who follow a religion tend to be the ones who seem to be closed-minded and herd-following, especially when they seem to get most irate and offended that I dont believe in their god.

I would say, I've only experienced this from atheists, Dawkins, for instance.. I've even known a few people turn aggressive at deistic believers.

I mean things like evolution, mavity, that part of science I believe in. I reject the idea of Adam and Eve and the earth is only a few thousand years old.

I don't however reject the entire idea of Jesus, not as the person, I think there was a guy like him around, except through story telling from one person to another, lack of a written record and chinese whispers and whatnot. Facts get muddled and exggerated and from walking on a shallow stream made out to walk on water. Jesus probably existed but was he a son of God? I doubt it. Alexander the Great and Genkis Khan achieved more in comparision and there was proof to their achievements.

As for destiny and karma, I do like the idea, hence i don't reject it, and some things I've experienced in my life time suggest that it might exist. Then again, i know it is purely coindental, i just like the idea of it thats all.

Ah. I agree on all counts.

Funnily enough up until the age of 19 I had more of an open mind than Magick & Teki put together.
I met my wife in Church, I had a paperback book collection on every phenomena going and believed them at the time.
I constantly watched the sky because I firmly believed ET was out there and already here.
I then grew up.

This reminded me, somewhat humorously of 1 Corinthians 13:11: "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."

 

[Amnesia]

I must say I find the poll results very surprising.

me too, there was me thinking i'd be the only Jedi...the only cool one .
now i just feel like an idiot for picking it.....i guess i'll think of myself as Darth Vader and the rest of them as stormtroops.

yes yes there is a massive flaw there

 

[Tombstone]

I've even known a few people turn aggressive at deistic believers.

Yeah we've just had different experiences, there is a Catholic woman in my office who becomes hugely irate and will rant at me for hours if the subject of religious beliefs comes up. Drives me nuts, why she cant just be happy to believe what she believes in and leave others to believe what they want to believe in I dont know. Dont know why such people must always try to persuade others to think the same way as them. Bit like the folks I get knocking on my front door handing me pamphlets to "enlighten" me to the "right" path.

 

[Lysander]

I must say I find the poll results very surprising.

You must be new here.

I'm an Atheist. I'm very glad to be, as well.

This doesn't make sense to me. I can see how someone can be glad to be a Satanist, but not "glad" to be an atheist. As an atheist you are not renouncing God, but completely denying any such existence.

It's like saying "I refuse to believe in sausages - and I'm really glad I do!" If you don't believe in something, I don't see how you can hold feelings on that thing.

 

[Warbie]

Then you're agnostic.

Depends on your definition. It seems the line between agnosticism and atheism is blurring. I just discovered i'm an agnostic atheist! (which, according to something else I just read, sounds very similar to Weak (implicit) atheism. By Richard Dawkins scale Weak atheism seems to mean something slightly different. So De facto atheism it is! Or not). Whatever the definition - for simplicities sake i'll stick with atheist -this seems to be the most common type: someone who doesn't believe in a god and lives their life under the assumption there isn't one, but who is open minded and would change their mind given evidence to the contrary.

 

[Bleek]

What is religion?

Atheist to the core.

 

[Lysander]

Richard Dawkins

No no no no! Not this man again!

Look kiddies, it's simple.

Agnostic = accepts that something does or can exist.

Atheist = no God or gods exist.

 

[Warbie]

No no no no! Not this man again!

I knew I shouldn't have brought him up (hence hiding him away in brackets as a second additonal point). It's almost a misquote to quote me simply saying 'Richard Dawkins'

The definitions are obviously not that simple, though.

 

[Tombstone]

Agnostic = accepts that something does or can exist.

Atheist = no God or gods exist.

Originally in this thread I said I was an Atheist.

However, given your definitions above, I may need to look again at my response.

One question before I do though...how are we defining a "god"? What is required for the thing in question to be a "god"?

 

[Tefal]

No no no no! Not this man again!

Look kiddies, it's simple.

Agnostic = accepts that something does or can exist.

No,

Agnostic = Does not know whether a god exists as it is currently unprovable either way.

 

[Dolph]

No no no no! Not this man again!

Look kiddies, it's simple.

Agnostic = accepts that something does or can exist.

Atheist = no God or gods exist.

It isn't quite that simple.

All being an atheist (by most definitions) is disbelief in the existence of god, it is not just limited to denial of the existence of god. (Note that disbelief and lack of belief are not quite the same thing).

Someone who has looked at all the evidence and consciously rejects the idea due to lack of evidence (as opposed to taking the stance that they neither accept nor reject the idea) is an atheist, even though their mind can be changed should the evidence change.

 

[Hatter The Mad]

Good to see the number of rational-minded people here far outnumber the irrational.

 

[Warbie]

Originally in this thread I said I was an Atheist

Might be worth a read:

http://www.investigatingatheism.info/definition.html

The part highlighted on that page ..

“...the exact meaning of 'atheist' varies between thinkers and caution must always be shown to make sure that discussions of atheism are not working at cross purposes.”

.. seems quite adapt to the way this thread is going.

 

[Tombstone]

Might be worth a read:

http://www.investigatingatheism.info/definition.html

The part highlighted on that page ..

“...the exact meaning of 'atheist' varies between thinkers and caution must always be shown to make sure that discussions of atheism are not working at cross purposes.”

.. seems quite adapt to the way this thread is going.

That is a look at the definition of Atheism, I am happy with the definition of Atheism, my post was what is the definition of a god. Before I can decide whether or not I believe that there may or may not be a god, I need to understand what we are defining a god as. What attributes would be required to be defined as a god.

 

[Warbie]

My bad. I suspect god won't be the easiest thing to define either

 

[apatia77]

Atheist now but I was raised as a Christian.

 

[Tombstone]

My bad. I suspect god won't be the easiest thing to define either

Indeed, kind of tough to say what standpoint a person might be towards something if the something isnt defined

 

[V4NT0M]

You missed off 'none'.

 

[meghatronic]

Yeah we've just had different experiences, there is a Catholic woman in my office who becomes hugely irate and will rant at me for hours if the subject of religious beliefs comes up. Drives me nuts, why she cant just be happy to believe what she believes in and leave others to believe what they want to believe in I dont know. Dont know why such people must always try to persuade others to think the same way as them. Bit like the folks I get knocking on my front door handing me pamphlets to "enlighten" me to the "right" path.

I'm agnostic, so I don't take offence at anyone talking to me/others about their faith, or my/their faith, until they cross the line and try to 'correct' me/others. It is a very fine line, though.

 

[Tombstone]

I'm agnostic, so I don't take offence at anyone talking to me/others about their faith, or my/their faith, until they cross the line and try to 'correct' me/others. It is a very fine line, though.

Yeah I dont mind people talking to me about it, its when they start ranting and getting bothered about my thoughts that annoys me. I always end up feeling like they are trying to push their beliefs onto me and that I am somehow wrong if I dont agree with them