What religion are you?

My brothers and sister and I recently had a very long and very drunk conversion with our parents about this subject. I felt bad afterwards because we kind-of ganged up on them with the whole "Why did you make us do that" thing. They were really just trying to raise us the best way they knew how. Keep in mind that the body of knowledge available to parents has changed greatly in the last couple decades.

I plan on teaching my children about many different religions. If they want to pursue any or none of them, it will be their choice. I'll probably give them Christmas presets anyway.

 

That's an interesting point, most of the Muslims at our school also send and receive Christmas presents, as well as people from other religions.

- Sam

 

I'm not religious at all but if I were to be I'd be an Atheist.

 

I'm not religious, but I think religion is a very important part of bringing up a child - it teaches kids the basics of being a good person at a very impressionable time in their lives.

I attended sunday school as a toddler and I don't see any negatives to the experience. It's only when adults get hold of religion that the trouble starts.

 

I don't really understand the difference? Don't see the point in why people always have the urge to label stuff all the time, like everything from this, to the specific type of music we listen to etc. It gets kinda annoying and pointless in the end if you ask me

Edit: Oh i'm orthodox christian btw Not that religious or anything really.

I always say believe in what you want, do what you want, say what you want, as long as you don't hurt nobody emotionally or physically...that's what i believe in

 

In the general definition of religion, I'm an agnostic - not sure whether or not there's a god, and I'm not a huge fan of organized religion as a concept.

In my personal definition of religion - beliefs by which I model my life and make choices - I take bits and pieces from Christianity and Buddhism.

 

Because as much as you'd like to think so, you're not unique and neither is anyone else.

 

Im a roman catholic, nad here is little song about my religion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0kJHQpvgB8

 

As for where my atheism comes from:
My parents were both Baptist Christians, but from sub-denominations worlds apart.
My mom was a Free Will Baptist. She believed everyone has a choice to come to Christ or not.
My dad was a Primitive Baptist. He believed everyone is predestined in every aspect of their life, to act according to God's intricately laid out plan.

Therefor, I was faced with a logical dilemma; am I free to come and go as I please, or is every footfall numbered and orchestrated since before time began? Quite a lot to think about from the outset, and quite a giant divide in the midst of one religion, Christianity. So I went with mom's, because I liked to believe myself to be free. Dad's religion held my logical mind though, since it only made sense that an omniscient God would have knowledge of all events, and thus all events were predestined.

So I was torn, and thought about it a lot growing up. Who was right? As I posed more questions and answered them by reading the Bible, the one steadfastly common link between my parents' disparate philosophies, I started to notice something. What I noticed as I engulfed the Bible looking for answers, was that there were multiple answers to any given question, many of them conflicting. I was taught that the Bible was inerrant, so I read everything in context, not just the verses pointed out in the concordance, but everything around them. This brought me to another conclusion; if the Bible was supposed to be a moral guidebook (as I had been taught it was,) then I don't want any part of it. The cruelty was mind-jarring. How could a loving God allow Job to suffer on a bet, or send bears to devour children because they made fun of a bald prophet, ask Abraham to kill his son, allow Jezebel to be fed to wild dogs, ask Joshua to destroy everything and everybody in a whole city, wipe out entire civilizations, condone rape, murder, torture.

It just didn't make sense.

It must not be true, at least I certainly hoped it wasn't. So I looked elsewhere, and everywhere I looked I found the same foundations, the same devilish mess. The eastern religions were more conducive to how I viewed life, but even they eventually asked me to believe something or another that I felt no rational person could. The closest I got to anything remotely resembling truth was Zen Buddhism, and I confess that I understood very little of it. So I decided to drop it all, and not worry about it anymore, and I'm glad I did. It was hard at first, very hard, but the comfort that religion gave me was far outweighed by the discomfort of trying to believe in things that I knew in my brain and heart, were just plain wrong.


It's funny how when I tell people I'm an atheist, they try to tell me I'm an agnostic. They say "Are you saying that there is no God?", and I say "That's not for me to say." and they say "Then you don't deny that there might be a God." and I say "There might be." then they say "You sir, are an agnostic!"

..but no, I'm an atheist. There may be a God, a great designer of the universe, and he might be a purple yak, with twenty horns, and a rocket pack, that wears a suit of multi-colored mushrooms, and he might be one inch tall, and live in my basement under a stack of old newspapers.

I mean, I can't DIS-prove it... so it's possible... though not bloody likely.

I'm willing to concede that there may be any number of wierd and wonderful things in the universe, including a God, but I'm not betting on it until somebody gives me something a little more tangible to work with.

Sorry that took so long, hope I didn't bore you. Have a nice day. Hell, take two, they're small!

 

I'm seeing a trend. My main problem with religion has always been at the extremes of belief simply because they all think everyone else is wrong. It's much more probable that they are all wrong if you think of how many possibilities actually exist in our seemingly infinite universe

 

Agnostic.... and how I came to that conclusion?

I grew up pretty much taking care of myself since age 9 or so I had no religion pushed at me.

At the age of 17 I was burdened with my "horrible" life and began to seek answers.

Also I started having strange dreams which also made me start to do research and studying different religions and going to different churches

Finally at 20 I found god. Between the ages of 17-20 people would spread the word of god to me... I'd be at a party and someone... a Christian... would be like Jesus this and Jesus that...Jesus hit me with a whiffle ball bat...and for 3 years they would TRY to pursue me and I would fight back then at church one day it hit me like a ton of bricks

*god saved me from the motorcycle accident
*god saved me from the pneumonia when I was homeless and sleeping on park benches in the snow
*god saved me from the suicidal attempts
*god saved me from getting HIV
*god saved me from when I got into the jeep accident
*god spared me and killed Marvin when he got hit by that car

and you see all this time I was mad AT god cause I blamed him for the crashing my motorcycle...I blamed him cause I was homeless....but it could have been much MUCH worse...and it was cause of god it didn't get MUCH worse and god had sent these people to send me the message that HE loves me.

LOL You think the fact that a boy starts raising himself at 9... well he might want a fatherly figure that loves him?

Okay so as time goes on... nothing gets better... only my triumph over disaster time and time again. I was disappointed that even in death I did not see the main who had saved me from things getting "much worse".

It didn't matter... at 20 years old I had a MILLION unanswered questions that defied logic but when someone loves you and protects you ... who gives a flying fuck right?

Then in 2004 HE went to far and took something from me that totally crossed the line... My whole reason for living and wanting to live was taken away from me with the inability to every achieve it. You know what if the logic was it could be much worse... then by all means I kinda wished he would have offed me a long time ago. He took the one thing that kept me going on and on and on ... and he squashed it. Again I fully realize it could have been much worse...I said that line so many times .... it wasn't even funny...

"Dude your 15 thousand dollar bike has been stolen!!!"
"No worries...it could have been much worse ... God did it probably cause I was gonna die today. "

Shit like that ... no matter how bad the situation was... I would take my beating and say "Thank you sir may I have another"

But then in 2004... the line was drawn and my eyes reopened ... but I was a bit wiser... a journey that was interesting to take to say the least. Even though I had no miracles... I felt something in that church that day when god spoke to me... I saw my life flash before my very eyes...

Of course science has shown euphoric states...extreme moments of happiness can trigger hallucinations? So maybe there is no god? The IDEA of someone loving me triggered a hallucination to make me believe I saw god? And the whole... godly people speaking the word of god to me? Well it wasn't until I was IN the club did I realize I wasn't special ... god was not sending ME a personal message ... These people have an agenda... go out and save someone. You have any idea when your homeless how many people cross your path ... so the odds of a drive by saving are astronomical. But even though I have been in the club and read the handbook... even though I have seen the science proven on TV ... I can't deny what I feel inside ... The WANT for something greater ... I have lived an extraordinary life and I have to believe that their is some reason out there I am still alive.

Sure some have pondered Karma... mom used me as an astray at the age of 3 so Karma kicked in and prevented my bones from braking on a parachute malfunction?

I am not a nice guy...not by choice but out of survival so Karma is out... well unless my childhood was so shitty that all the bad things I have done still doesn't counter what happened to me growing up? Bit of a stretch though I mean I've done some pretty messed up shit...

So back to the glorious all mighty... I now believe either
A) he does not exist and I am just one unlucky dude
or
B) He does exist and likes to seriously fuck with me

I want to say A...I really do... its the most logical...however as I grow older and closer to death every day... I want there to be something more... I definitely don't believe any religion and if there is a god he isn't any form that I will be able to kick in the nuts...when I die I am pretty sure I will be worm food... I'm just not doubting that their may be some sort of higher power

My name is WeaponXxX and that is more story of how I became an agnostic. Sorry this was so long but the original answer was 74 pages long...so this is the best shortened version I could come up with

 

Atheist, but raised Catholic

 

Agnostic, but raised Catholic :\

 

Why does it seem like the USA is mostly catholic, yet this is suppose to be primarily a protestant country? Just speaking about percentage of people I've seen that are christian... of course there are lots of baptists too.

 

Other Christian Denomonation
i think that i'm that one.
atleast it's other christian thing. i'm not sure what it is in english. probably something with luther in the name.

 

Roman Catholic here, as most Portuguese people are.

 

Roman Catholic

 

there is a surprisingly high percentage of atheism on the internet, it seems. We atheists are in a vast minority in the world, but look, nearly 1/3 of people who voted in this poll are atheist. I know two-three other atheists and they are all nerds like me. I see a connection here

 

actually the big 5 are:

Islam
Christianity (this includes Catholicism, Protestantism and Eastern Orthodox)
Chinese Traditional
Hinduism
Buddhism