What are your religious beliefs?

[joshnotgood]

Raised Lutheran and still believe. Although I haven't been to church in years and I'm pretty bad at following the Christian lifestyle. I might not be a great Christian, but at the end of the day, if asked seriously what I believe, I'd say I believe in Jesus and the Bible.

[danthemjfan23]

[Guest adam526]

Atheist. The only time I've been in a church in my adult life was to vote. It felt like I was in someone's home uninvited.

yeah, I've never been to church before and everyone I talk to is shocked.

Same

[thedavidescapeplan]

I went to Catholic school from pre-school until I graduated high school. I actually used to be an altar boy and the same year I became one was when I realized it was all a sham. Seeing the behind the scenes aspect of it made me realize it was all a big production with no sound foundation.

I think it's great if people are religious, but it's just not for me.

I really try to be tolerant and like to say that if people believe, so what, but sometimes I get really annoyed when people cite their religion as a reason for some belief, stance, or decision. I also tend to think less of people when they are crazy-religious, which is probably a bad thing.

ie If you go to Church once a week and pray now and then, fine, you're covering your ass. But if you breathe religion, and do little else... I don't know... I feel like you have to be dumb for spending so much time on something that if you take any objective look at, it has a ton of holes.

*quoted the wrong person at first

I agree with you completely. It's a tricky issue. I like to call the people you describe as "breathing religion" as being hopelessly addicted to Christ as that is most often the case.

[kirbypuckett]

Patafarian

[kirbypuckett]

The fastest way to turn on religion is to be sent to Catholic school.

[Just Another Tom]

I don't subscribe to any organised religion or believe in gods or deities. There are several reasons why i dislike organised religion all of which is probably going to pop up in this thread so i feel it a bit redundant to go on about it.

People have said that some of my beliefs are very Zen in nature, and i think a lot of Zen teaching or at least the things i have read make a lot of sense, the only difference is that i am not looking for enlightenment.

Like is said i don't really want to go in to why i dislike religion, however i strongly believe that no child should be forced in to a religion until they are at an age to decide for themselves. Like wise i don't think religion has a place in schools outside of the religious study's class.

[xjustinxschwierx]

Man is an animal.

Man was cursed with a brain developed enough to be aware of his own imminent demise so he creates stories to ease the pain and fear of the unknown.

People are too scared to believe there is any other way and follow blindly.

All religions were created by unintelligent, uncivilized, underdeveloped bigmouths from a forgotten time.

It's sad that so much of the world just goes along with it to this day, no matter how many terrible things are caused by ancient myth.

perfectly said, +1

[patron]

i worship the sun, but pray to joe pesci

+1

[benchwarmer]

Man is an animal.

Man was cursed with a brain developed enough to be aware of his own imminent demise so he creates stories to ease the pain and fear of the unknown.

People are too scared to believe there is any other way and follow blindly.

All religions were created by unintelligent, uncivilized, underdeveloped bigmouths from a forgotten time.

It's sad that so much of the world just goes along with it to this day, no matter how many terrible things are caused by ancient myth.

perfectly said, +1

agreed.

[mcm1610]

Even as a non-believer, I strongly disagree with the 4th line of that.

Unintelligent how? Uncivilized in what aspect? Underdeveloped by whose standards?

[xxmartinxx]

I, too, went to Catholic school from kindergarten until I graduated high school, then I even went to a Catholic college (albeit accidentally).

I went through my high school years being very much an atheist. I had a few eye opening moments that made me rethink that and came to the logical conclusion we will never fully understand the expansiveness of the universe and that everything could not have come from an infinite amount of random occurrences.

I'm always very offended by anyone who adamantly professes to "know" the truth to God, let them be religious or atheistic. Anyone who claims that they know with any certainty other than "we don't know" are both ignorant and assholes.

[controlthebleeding]

i believe in this guy:

[Guest naytoid]

+1

& I enjoy Apatheism.

[smashingpimp01]

lol there are ZERO religious people in this thread. I am actually very religious but after seeing other people in this thread, I won't even get started with that lol

[flood]

9 years of catholic primary school

4 years of jesuit high school

4 years of catholic college

2 years of catholic grad school.

now i believe in swordfish.

[rocknroll76]

Even as a non-believer, I strongly disagree with the 4th line of that.

Unintelligent how? Uncivilized in what aspect?Underdeveloped by whose standards?

Unintelligent how?

Believe they can talk to an invisible giant in the sky....among other things.

Uncivilized in what aspect?

Well, what religion do you want to dissect? Christianity? Islam? Catholicism? These people still kill on a mass scale in the name of "their god" If not in a never-ending war, then how about the mother who drowns her five children (including a newborn) just because "god told her to", "Jesus will take care of her"

Underdeveloped by whose standards?

Today's standards, you know, 2,000 or 5,000 or 10,000 years after they were first thought up. Why did we stop believing in Zeus? Chac? Ra? Odin? Did it seem too stupid? Unrealistic?

[themean]

lol there are ZERO religious people in this thread. I am actually very religious but after seeing other people in this thread, I won't even get started with that lol

lol

[themean]

now i believe in swordfish.

He believes in swordfish.

[flood]

now i believe in swordfish.

He believes in swordfish.

+1

[xfedaykinx]

ignostic humanist

[drabley]

I was not raised in any religious manner at all, simply because my parents had the foresight to consider the fact that when I am capable of forming my own thoughts, beliefs and opinions, what I believed may not be what they believe. They gave me that freedom to choose for myself. I know right from wrong. I am a moral person, I'm just not a religious one. That said, I think the element that is being missed in this discussion is the fact that there is a place for all religion and all beliefs in our world. In fact, I believe it to be necessary.

The problem is that religion is and has always been a political wing. We in this country live under the guise of separation of church and state, and that seems to have lulled us for a while. But think about it. Is that really the case?

The church is the single biggest lobbiest group that I can think of. Almost all of our hot-button controversial social issues -- legalized gambling, abortion, GLTT rights, stem cell/bio-med research, etc -- have very strong voices of opposition coming from the church and those that follow that belief system. I have absolutely no problem with people being strongly opposed to these topics, regardless of how that conclusion was drawn. What I do have a problem with is that this system of belief can be legally imposed on me through political maneuverings.

This is wrong. It should be, and is supposed to be, illegal. But it seems to be pretty much ubiquitous. How can that be?

I have no problem with Christians or Catholics or Mormons or Jehovahs or Muslims or Scientologists knocking on my door to try and convert me to their beliefs. I think this is a constructive activity. Like I said, I have a huge problem with those beliefs being imposed through ballot measures and other political shenanigans.

A good many of our founding fathers and early statesmen shared this belief as well. As did some of the most brilliant minds this country (and in some instances our entire species) has ever seen.

"Lighthouses are more helpful than churches." Benjamin Franklin

"I cannot conceive otherwise than that He, the Infinite Father, expects or requires no worship or praise from us, but that He is even infinitely above it." Benjamin Franklin

"That God cannot lie, is no advantage to your argument, because it is no proof that priests can not, or that the Bible does not." Thomas Paine

"In those parts of the world where learning and science have prevailed, miracles have ceased; but in those parts of it as are barbarous and ignorant, miracles are still in vogue." Ethan Allen

"I am for liberty of conscience in its noblest, broadest, and highest sense. But I cannot give liberty of conscience to the pope and his followers, the papists, so long as they tell me, through all their councils, theologians, and canon laws that their conscience orders them to burn my wife, strangle my children, and cut my throat when they find their opportunity." Abraham Lincoln

"I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute- where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishoners for whom to vote--where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference--and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the president who might appoint him or the people who might elect him." JFK

"I would suggest the taxation of all property equally whether church or corporation." Ulysses S. Grant

"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." Thomas Jefferson

"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just." Thomas Jefferson

"Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man." Thomas Paine

"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." Susan B. Anthony

"[in regard to the Trinity]; "Tom, had you and I been 40 days with Moses, and beheld the great God, and even if God himself had tried to tell us that three was one . . . and one equals three, you and I would never have believed it. We would never fall victims to such lies." John Adams (in a letter to Thomas Jefferson)

"The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries." James Madison

"To those seaching for truth - not the truth of dogma and darkness but the truth brought by reason, search, examination, and inquiry, discipline is required. For faith, as well intentioned as it may be, must be built on facts, not fiction - faith in fiction is a damnable false hope." Thomas Edision

"If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed." Albert Einstein

I could go on, but will spare you the length.

[mcm1610]

Even as a non-believer, I strongly disagree with the 4th line of that.

Unintelligent how? Uncivilized in what aspect?Underdeveloped by whose standards?

Unintelligent how?

Believe they can talk to an invisible giant in the sky....among other things.

Uncivilized in what aspect?

Well, what religion do you want to dissect? Christianity? Islam? Catholicism? These people still kill on a mass scale in the name of "their god" If not in a never-ending war, then how about the mother who drowns her five children (including a newborn) just because "god told her to", "Jesus will take care of her"

Underdeveloped by whose standards?

Today's standards, you know, 2,000 or 5,000 or 10,000 years after they were first thought up. Why did we stop believing in Zeus? Chac? Ra? Odin? Did it seem too stupid? Unrealistic?

Definition: Intelligence is an umbrella term describing a property of the mind comprehending related abilities, such as the capacities for abstract thought, reasoning, planning and problem solving, the use of language, and to learn.

Pretty sure they meet that one. They're not neanderthals.. they thought up a myth as you call it, and here "we" are are thousands of years later still following it. That's unintelligent?

Definition: civilization - a society in an advanced state of social development

Pretty sure they meet that one. Hell, many of these religions have a stricter hierarchy than the US does. At the very least, what they created civilization out of potentially "uncivilized" people - but if you're being anything but Euro-centric, who is to say what civilized really is? All those "natives" around the world that were "civilized" by the white man... they didn't have any social structure or rules?

Being underdeveloped by your definition isn't their problem for living thousands of years ago... no one was just going to think up the automobile and the internet from fire. That's just grabbing for more attacks to throw at them because you disagree. We haven't advanced evolutionarily in any real significant ways since then, either, since 2,000 or 10,000 years is still a fraction of a blink of an eye. If you're going to cut them down because of technology, that's kind of ridiculous in my opinion. They were explaining what they could with what they knew, which simply wasn't as much as we know now.

Look, I don't like religion either, but be somewhat academic in your claims.

Edit: I should add this.. Be careful of Chronocentrism, too, which I read as your serious bias here.

[pjaicomo]

9 years of catholic primary school

4 years of jesuit high school

4 years of catholic college

2 years of catholic grad school.

now i believe in swordfish.

Where'd you go to college?

[smashingpimp01]

without getting into a heated debate, I can agree that 99% of religions are mostly corrupt, political or have their own agendas. I personally feel I'm in one of the very few organized religions that aren't trying to get something from someone and that doesn't have a personal agenda. Just my opinion