Of what religion are you?

[FUCK THE POLICE]

"Agnostic" is such an odd catchall, don't you think? It encompasses a whole range of beliefs, all the way from people who think about the issue often but can't really decide one way or another to people who really just don't care one way or the other.

You could certainly call me agnostic or atheist. There is really no reason it would be completely impossible for a supernatural force to exist. The probability is just so statistically insignifigant that I consider it somewhat too absurd too consider. So, I guess, technically you could say I'm "agnostic", since I believe there is a small possiblity. I just believe labeling myself so would be borderline pedantism.

I don't have "faith" that there is no God. If presented with any sort of formal and quantifiable evidence that there was a God I could easily go over to the other side. So I guess you could call me agnostic again on that. But atheism obviously doesn't really require faith, either.

I often think we humans spend way too much of our time trying to pointlessly argue things and people into meaningless categories. Just let it be.

 

[Cancel5]

You could certainly call me agnostic or atheist. There is really no reason it would be completely impossible for a supernatural force to exist. The probability is just so statistically insignifigant that I consider it somewhat too absurd too consider. So, I guess, technically you could say I'm "agnostic", since I believe there is a small possiblity. I just believe labeling myself so would be borderline pedantism.

I don't have "faith" that there is no God. If presented with any sort of formal and quantifiable evidence that there was a God I could easily go over to the other side. So I guess you could call me agnostic again on that.

But I often think we humans spend way too much of our time trying to pointlessly argue things and people into meaningless categories. Just let it be.

Irish DeMente puts it nicely to song...

I'll Let the Mystery Be


Iris Dement, Let the Mystery Be Lyrics
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Artist: Dement Iris
Song: Let the Mystery Be
Album: Infamous Angel
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Everybody's wonderin' what and where they all came from.
Everybody's worryin' 'bout where they're gonna go when the whole thing's done.
But no one knows for certain and so it's all the same to me.
I think I'll just let the mystery be.

Some say once you're gone you're gone forever, and some say you're gonna come back.
Some say you rest in the arms of the Saviour if in sinful ways you lack.
Some say that they're comin' back in a garden, bunch of carrots and little sweet peas.
I think I'll just let the mystery be.

Everybody's wonderin' what and where they all came from.
Everybody's worryin' 'bout where they're gonna go when the whole thing's done.
But no one knows for certain and so it's all the same to me.
I think I'll just let the mystery be.

Some say they're goin' to a place called Glory and I ain't saying it ain't a fact.
But I've heard that I'm on the road to purgatory and I don't like the sound of that.
Well, I believe in love and I live my life accordingly.
But I choose to let the mystery be.

Everybody's wonderin' what and where they all came from.
Everybody's worryin' 'bout where they're gonna go when the whole thing's done.
But no one knows for certain and so it's all the same to me.
I think I'll just let the mystery be.
I think I'll just let the mystery be.

 

[Damocles]

those are very real and tangible. There is evidence that cars and guns and swimming pools kill.

There is no evidence of hell, nor the eating of meat on Friday to send you there!

I know my parents did it because they believed, also and still do. It works for them, but I think children should be given a choice.

What does evidence have to do with the fact that she really believes it? The point is understanding where she was coming from, not to decide on the validity of her beliefs.

The assumption is I should denigrate her for her beliefs, call her actions "abuse" when they were not. They were the very same to her as telling your kid about a gun. If you believe that the danger is very real it would be abhorrent to disregard that education.

Children do decide for themselves though. I don't believe that stuff about what you are taught as a child you believe forever.

 

[uscitizen]

Yes damo but there are limits. every year a few cases of parents starving or beating the devil out of their kid comes up.
Just because someone believe it is best does not make it all right. take brent for instance....

 

[Damocles]

Yes damo but there are limits. every year a few cases of parents starving or beating the devil out of their kid comes up.
Just because someone believe it is best does not make it all right. take brent for instance....

There is nothing in their belief system that says that they should starve their kids. In fact, it uses a parent's love to describe why God would never "starve" you.

There is always an 'overboard'. Such as people who refuse doctor's care for their children.

 

[Cancel 2016.2]

Saying "there might be a God" is a bit like saying "Gravity may very well stop working at some point" to me, though. It's not really that I think there might be a God - I believe the chances are statistically insignifigant to the point of ignoring the possiblity - I just don't really care if there is or not.

I understand what you are saying. I agree with you. But an atheist believes that God does not exist. An agnostic is someone like you that just doesn't really care one way or another and doesn't make it an absolute. Meaning you don't say that "God does/does not exist".

 

[Cancel 2016.2]

What we have here is yet another instance of people using the words "faith" and "religion" with (at least) two distinct meanings.

Naturally, there is a "leap of faith" -- in the strictly literal sense -- involved when one states "there is no God." Atheists -- and, I submit, many others -- don't use the word "faith" in the strictly literal sense, however.

Atheism is NOT a religion in one very important respect. Unlike any other belief system, mine included, there is no supernatural component of Atheism. In fact, Atheism explicitly excludes the existence of anything supernatural at all.

Although I'm neither an Atheist nor an atheist I completely understand what could drive one to such a belief. An author on whose work I'm currently keen often uses the phrase "the psychosis of faith" to explain really stupid, self-destructive behavior in his characters. I like that phrase because it's evocative of exactly what I observe in many people of (too much) faith.

One should, I think, resort to the supernatural only when all else fails. Many people today, however, resort to supernatural explanations in preference to any other. That is a psychotic reaction and a supremely destructive one.

I disagree to an extent. It is religious in its involvement of the supernatural. To me it is silly (AGAIN... MY OPINION) to eliminate a possibility without evidence to support doing so. Since God's existence/the afterlife/the supernatural cannot be proven or disproven those that accept an absolute on faith whether pro or con are irrational to me. (speaking only on the subject of God etc... not irrational on the whole)

I do agree that many of the ills of the world are created by those who hold their beliefs to be above others beliefs. Whether it is a Muslim/Jew/Christian/Atheist that is condeming/mocking others beliefs is irrelevant. Each of these groups has extremists who simply cannot tolerate people having a different set of beliefs.

 

[Beefy]

God does exist. Even if only in the minds of beleivers, or in a case like mine, that god is not some seperate entity, some independent soul judging everything, but rather everything in this universe. I believe in god, as god is everything. Not some seperate entity that judges but everything there is.

There are no athiests.

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

I mean, I believe there is a slight possibility for just about everything to happen. But to consider all of those possiblities at once would be a bit ridiculous - we must narrow.

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

Well, with this poll I was just trying to see how secular this site was. It's only 25% Christian, apparently, which is very low statistically compared to the rest of the population. Weird how that turned out.

 

[Damocles]

Less than half the active members of the board voted in your poll.

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

And if all of the rest of them came in and hit the "Christian" button it would still be a bit lower, Damo. I knew that not everyone voted, but if you take half of something it's usually indicative of the other half.

 

[Socrtease]

I am an athiest. But that is NOT a religious belief. It is a lack of religious belief. I lack belief in a higher being.

 

[Socrtease]

If she did she might be really suprised when he told her he did not believe either....
You never know. It is suicidal in many areas of life in america to admit you do not believe in God.

My dad was catholic and my mom was Episcopal (sp). I have been an athiest since at least 3rd grade. I remember 3rd grade because I told a friend of mine that I did not believe in god and the next day her mom waited for me outside of my third grade class and screamed at me that I was going to hell, that I was evil and that I was NEVER to play with her daughter again. Gotta love them Christians. Anyway, hers was the first in a long line of christians that reacted that way to one extreme or another.

 

[OrnotBitwise]

I am an athiest. But that is NOT a religious belief. It is a lack of religious belief. I lack belief in a higher being.

Actually, if you lack belief then you're an agnostic. If you have the belief that there is no God then you're an atheist.

Not to be pedantic or anything.

 

[OrnotBitwise]

Saying "there might be a God" is a bit like saying "Gravity may very well stop working at some point" to me, though. It's not really that I think there might be a God - I believe the chances are statistically insignifigant to the point of ignoring the possiblity - I just don't really care if there is or not.

Technically -- and we really need AnyOldIron to step in and do this properly -- gravity may very well stop working at some point. We conclude that it will not, based on experience, but that conclusion is just the result of inductive reasoning. I accept the validity of inductive logic myself but it's still not empirical fact, as such.

 

[Battleborne]

Liar..........

I am an athiest. But that is NOT a religious belief. It is a lack of religious belief. I lack belief in a higher being.

all attorneys worship the US Supreme Court!

 

[uscitizen]

Technically -- and we really need AnyOldIron to step in and do this properly -- gravity may very well stop working at some point. We conclude that it will not, based on experience, but that conclusion is just the result of inductive reasoning. I accept the validity of inductive logic myself but it's still not empirical fact, as such.

Umm I have no evidence that God or an afterlife exists, therfore it takes no faith to believe they do not exist.
to believe in something you cannot prove exists however does take faith. this is the difference in it being a religion and not to me. the faith angle.

 

[Socrtease]

Actually, if you lack belief then you're an agnostic. If you have the belief that there is no God then you're an atheist.

Not to be pedantic or anything.

Ok then let me be clearer. I do not believe in the existence of a higher power. I have seen no evidence to contradict me. All the miricles of the bible quit after the advent of news reporting agencies. No parting of the red sea, no walls of jericho falling at the sound of a trumpet, no earth stopping its rotation so gods chosen army could win the battle with daylight to spare. Matter of fact, the guy is reported to have visited plagues on Egypt when they held about 200,000 of his people in bondage but when Hitler was busy killing 6 million of them the guy took a vacation. If there really was a god, he has been an absentee landlord for quite some time.

 

[uscitizen]

Lets not forget which religion wrote the bible either.