What is your religion/belief?

[Jangalomph]

I'm back to make another serious discussion thread!

My old thread said what do you think happens after death? Which half way falls in to religion, but soon derailed.

This thread is asking.. what is your religion/belief? Serious discussion is encouraged.

Explain if you want to, or how you came to believe what you do.

I'm a free thinker. People in this days society tend to hateful against "atheists" So i decided to be a free-thinker.. I'm basically an atheist with a good outlook on life! I'm pretty much happy where I am.. But I'm forced to go to church and I get God shoved down my throat every single day.

Its pretty difficult to tell some one that I'm an atheist because they immediately think that I'm a monster?

None the less. Vote on your belief!

[LordDz]

I'm actually against religion, I accept it, but I don't believe in it.
To me it's a way of controlling other people to do what you want. I think that instead of believing that there is an old man up in the sky/hell/around us/blue elephants, we should just believe in ourselves. God didn't create any of our inventions, we did. God didn't make the earthquakes in Japan, nature did.

So yeah, I'm pretty much a free-thinker. We should start believing in ourselves instead of something that someone wrote a thousand years ago. (This applies to all religions, not just Jesus etc).

EDIT: What's the difference between free-thinker and atheist?

[cheesemoo0]

Wait, why do you assume atheists have a bad outlook on life? This makes me think of how people think existentialist thinkers are all doom and gloom as well.

[Smurftyours]

By saying Catholic I am assuming that you mean Roman Catholic since you also listed Christian, anyways.... I am a Roman Catholic.

[no00dylan]

Other... like a modified diest.

[ad_hominem]

You seem to be mixing up Atheism and Nihilism. It's possible to be positive and not believe in a big bearded fellow in the sky, without having to create a new definition for yourself.

[no00dylan]

I know very lively athiests. The way I see it, if you don't believe in an afterlife you might as well have as much fun while you can. This should be the same for all religions, in my opinion.

[Jangalomph]

Wait, why do you assume atheists have a bad outlook on life? This makes me think of how people think existentialist thinkers are all doom and gloom as well.

Nah.. I'm an atheist and have a GOOD outlook on life!

I just wanted to point out that alot of people make them seem unhappy.

@ lordDz

The difference in an atheist and a free thinker is.. I really don't know. I'd say more along the lines of karma and just literally.. free thinking.

Atheist is pretty much There is no god bam. As a free thinker i think there isn't any god.. but I guess free-thinking just helps explain myself better?

[cheesemoo0]

When you use the world freethinker you are getting more into philosophy and out of theology. Freethinkers seem more like agnostics than anything.

[Plague]

I find it hard to slap a label on my particular ideals.
It comes closest to an Agnostic style of thinking.


I personally don't believe in god(s), but I recognize all the aspects of different religions.
I don't make it my active duty to go and hunt down everybody because I think their being illogical.
Along with this I also don't openly deny the existence of God(s) or otherwise supreme being(s).

I generally don't like open atheists.
Not because of their belief, but because of their single minded actions at times.
Same reason I don't like open Feminists, Vegans/Vegetarians, black movements and Gay Pride whatevers.

I'm all for everyone having their opinion, but when I hear harsh contrasted examples and sometimes zealous behavior on the(or any) topic it really bothers me.


I also dislike the extreme ends of religious groups
(below rant-ish part which I left in but is not really needed if you would rather skip it)

One thing I absolutely hate is those who take advantage of a religion and then have the balls to go and preach it as a truer branch of its parent.
Often times these people bring out the original words of said religion but also the same aspects that religions drop as they evolve in the modern world.

The (whatever that town was) Baptist Church (you know who I'm talking about) may have some points, in that a long time ago in Europe the Pope would have been preaching against gays also.
But they take it to the extreme.

These people end up being some type of proof to more extreme people that religion is evil and hateful.
These cults end up being a way of humanizing Radical Islam.

Radical Islam being the next example, with these old underfed bastards who go out of their caves and convince people that the general populace is being led into a false example of Islam.

Again, the Qur'an has some harsh words on false believers and infidels.
But Modern Islam has moved on past those days

.


In general I just leave religion alone, but I don't go out of my way to not believe in it.
A simple, "No I don't believe in god" is good enough for me.

[thefight]

My parents are Catholic and I have been going to church weekly for my entire life, have had First Communion and all that stuff, but I don't consider myself Catholic. Honestly I don't know what I believe. I am a very methodical and fact based thinker, are there too many holes that prove God and those that prove God doesn't exist. I think that Religion and God were all created, but I think they do people good. They teach them good values and (for the most part) and gives them a mental friend, someone they can rely on when no one else is around. I think religion forces people to question what they do and who they are much more than people who do not believe in a God or religions. Religious people tend to be more aware and questioning than atheists.

I think religion is a good thing for this world, it allows for unity and hope and can bring people together. It is when peoples religion becomes out of control (Middle East, killing in the name of God) that it is no longer good.

I find religion to be a very interesting subject to learn about, since you will always be learning something as you study it.

I could go on and on, but I'll stop here.

[stoopdapoop]

I'm an atheist. I come from a muslim family (my dad is an Iranian Immigrant) and my mom converted from Christianity.

When I was younger I did believe in god (as he was described) but always had doubt, sometimes the doubt was a lot stronger than other times, but still considered myself a believer.

I remember that I really wondered about Imams, and Cardinals, and other people that supposedly had more direct relations with god. Never in my life had I ever felt like god, or a higher power had definitively answered my prayers. But I would hear stories about people being spoken to by god, or being the beneficiaries of miracles , and thinking "there's no way all these people are just lying their asses off" and then I'd wonder why I'd never been so privileged to communicate with the big man himself, or even some lowly angel or someshit. As I got older I became more and more disturbed by the fact that so many people became so chummy with god that they felt that he was really effecting their lives, whereas I was stuck in this hell-world where only the actions of myself, or the actions of the people that immediately surround me, would affect my life. I guess the fact that I seemed to be "ignored" by god, is one of the biggest reasons I decided to reconsider my faith, but there were definitely many others.

My dad used to be a full blown Muslim, prayed 5 times a day, we used to only eat Halal meat, and we were a practicing family until about 4 years ago. Not sure what changed, but he stopped praying as frequently then stopped all together. Now he doesn't even fast during Ramadan. I really really want to ask him what changed. Did he stop believing? Is he convinced that he's going to hell, so there's no point in trying anymore? Did his beliefs change? Is my (and my sister's) apparent lack of interest in religion partially to blame? I'd really like to know, but I think it'd be a bit of an awkward conversation.

One thing that I've discovered over the years is that it's really really hard to make generalizations about people based on their religious beliefs. (this is doubly true for atheists, considering that the ONLY requirement for being an atheist is the lack of believe in god(s)) I'm constantly being surprised by the levels of tolerance/reasoned thought (being any thought other than "cause the [holy book] says so" or "faith doesn't need reason") about about religion exhibited by people who're devoutly religious. And I often find myself sickened by the the behavior of a minority of atheists. So I think it's important to not try to generalize or play into stereotypes when discussing religion, because by projecting the bad qualities of some members of a group onto the whole group, you make it very difficult to have a good, respectful discussion.

Like thefight, I could go on and on about this subject, but I guess I'll stop here as well.

But about the poll, I don't think that "free thinker" should be up there, it's not really a religious belief and based on the way you describe yourself, Jangalomph, it seems like you're an atheist who's trying to assign another name to himself to avoid stereotypes. An atheist is an Atheist, no need to muddy the waters. And considering that you can only pick one option it makes it seem that you can't be a 'free thinker' if you pick a different option, like other, agnostic, or atheist.

[The Giblets of Jesus]

Was Christian until I reached the age of reason and now a profound Atheist.

This mainly stemmed from my own thoughts, my parents never even bought up the subject around me. But once I began to question religion, I found that they were all also Atheist, along with my grandparents, of whom when I asked them, laughed and replied "Religion is the greatest hoax the world has ever known".

ANECDOTE TIME!

It was only when I started questioning religion around some of my secondary school teachers (the majority of which being Christian) that I began to see their almost aggressive defence of their beliefs, most interesting of all, being my philosophy teacher.

This I found especially hard to swallow as he was largely a very intelligent man, but as soon as the subject of god arose he would constantly fall back on the age old arguments such as;

"Well, thing is with science, it's all just theory"
"How can disprove against something thousands of years old"
And other such shit.

Anyway, my general attitude towards theists and the like is normally rather outspoken, shall we say. I simply can't grasp how the mind and logic of some people must work, not to say that everyone who believes in god is illogical, just the the majority tend to act on blind faith.

Blind being the operative word there.

[MayheM]

I was raised Roman Catholic and still go to mass on holidays, to be honest I want to go more often I just have not found a church near me, since I walk everywhere.

I know many people see religion as people following blindly. I for one can see how people would get that impression. It is like telling a story about a past event that you find funny. When you tell it you are all excited because you think everyone else will enjoy it. Then everyone looks at you and does not laugh. You response is often... "Guess you had to be there" With religion, it is hard to see what another person sees.

I for one have on countless occasions felt as though someone was looking out for me. Sure there are times that things do not go my way, or my prayers do not get answered, but that often goes more on me. For instance, I can pray all day long "God please let me ace this test" but if I don't study or learn the chances are slim that I will ace anything. But I do find people often blame God for all the bad and never thank him for the good. I lost count of the times I heard people talking about God after the tsunami in Japan. "Where was God?" kind of talk. That kind of talk bothers me, not because of the lack of belief in God but how disrespectful they are to those who do believe. I was out for drinks with some people after work and this girl I work with was talking about a marathon she ran. She was down in Texas and apparently there were signs saying "God is your strength" on the rout they ran. Now, she could have left them out of the story because she does not believe in God. She could have mentioned them as part of an accurate depiction of the scene, but she chose to mock them. Going on about as she was running she thought "where is he? He is not helping me now!" Because I work with her and I was enjoying myself too much I did not say anything, but I could not help to think. Maybe God would help you if you didn't spit in his face.

It is not my mission to make people believe in God. We all have our own beliefs and that is what makes the world go-round. But keep in mind, not everyone feels the same as you and some people do choose to believe in God. We all need to be respectful of each others beliefs. In the end, the conflicts that stem in the name of religion are caused by the inability or unwillingness to respect other peoples beliefs.

[Spike]

I hate religion, and I think it should be banned.


Atheism shouldn't be on that list, since atheism is just the default position when you're born. It's not a way to belive.

Also you're separating 4 different groups of "not belivingin god". Merge them into a single one.