Did you change your religious views during your life?

[Cakes]

Similarly, we should not be obliged to take Christians, Muslims, Hindus, or members of any other religion seriously or treat their beliefs with respect unless they have good evidence to back up their claims.

The less sheep-like among them do have some pretty valid arguments, actually.
And yeah, you should give them respect. It sort of falls under common courtesy.

"Pretty valid"? Is that like you can almost have a piece of cake?

Yeah, probably something like that.

 

[Cakes]

actually no. <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Israel#Religious_self-definition>Only 7% of Israeli Jews identify as Haredi. though they likely have a disproportionate amount of influence in the government thanks to the parliamentary coalition.

Aye, that's what I was getting at when I said Haredi "dominated". Not in numbers, but from what I understand they have quite a bit of power over there.

I actually toyed with the idea of becoming a Jew (gasp!). It seems much more reasonable to me than other religions, but something about old Jews snipping my junk is sort of a turn-off for me.

I'm sure most reform temples wouldn't make a big fuss over circumcision. i don't know about the more conservative denominations, but i doubt they'll make you drop trou and check.

Yeah, I think Reform places are pretty lax about that sort of thing, and I think it might fly in a Conservative place (not sure about that), but you definitely need to get snipped for Orthodox.

 

[Tdc2182]

The proof is in the Bible, and the only thing the Bible is, is an authority on is Christianity

The proof is all around us, we're all just to stubborn to see it.

Not sure what you took out of that quote, I meant that since the Bible is the holy text for Christianity, it is the end all be all for resource on that religion.

I thought that you were saying something else, but yes that is true. I haven't been following christianity for a while though, but that religion helped me get through hard times.

 

[Ninja_X]

Used to be Christian, but I abandoned that faith pretty quickly.

 

[similar.squirrel]

I was baptised, for some reason. My parents are fairly atheistic.
I have felt that it'd be nice to believe when times get tough, but decided that I'd rather feel like crap.

 

[Jackson - Deathclaw]

i was born in a fairly lenient catholic family, reall just going through the motions
i still go to a christian high school where i mainly sleep through all the religious stuff
i dont believe in any specific god or gods even though i have been seen to have conversations with the roof, im probably more into the idea of a force rather than a being, kinda like karma

 

[Buschmaki]

My religous beliefs and my families was like the $5 buffet at Cici's pick and choose from all of the options in a huge hodgepodge you call a dinner/religion so no not really.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

Kind of. I was christian up until like, second grade. Then again I was never really devout and my parents where just like "you're christian" and I was like "k." Then I learned that "Christian" meant you believed the bible, and at that age I was sort of mature enough to where I knew that snakes can't talk, you can't walk on water, praying has no physical effect, I had never seen god, and superman and spiderman weren't real, so I just used basic reasoning to figure out that the bible was by no stretch of the imagination realistic and wrote it off as fake. So I stopped believing in everything except god and then I was like "Wait, that's the same fucking thing" so I stopped believing that too. The further I looked into it the more unrealistic it became. though this is all before the end of grade school. By 6th grade I was full blown Atheist.

 

[NotAProdigy]

Similarly, we should not be obliged to take Christians, Muslims, Hindus, or members of any other religion seriously or treat their beliefs with respect unless they have good evidence to back up their claims.

Hindus have a good outlook on religion, and are probably the most open-minded as a group.

What is a god? Does god exist? Are there multiple gods? If so, do they have a sex? Does god know WE exist? Does god care? Is he malevolent? Is he benevolent? Is he apathetic? Or perhaps god is an extension of ourselves. Is god self aware? etcetc.

My only beef with them is that they focus too much on objectivism in part of reaching enlightenment.

The point is that don't try to completely reject all notions of a religion you don't understand. Sure they -have- gods but they're not necessarily forced to believe it. I personally am an atheist buddhist, btw.

 

[leprecron]

I dropped Christianity because i found the religion way to judgmental and hypocritical.

 

[theultimateend]

No, as we are all atheists. By we I mean my family.

I've become more and more atheistic as I've gotten older.

As time has progress I have seen less and less evidence suggesting any sort of forethought in life or the universe as a whole.

Interestingly the world has gotten a lot more interesting and far more beautiful over the years as I strayed further and further from any form of faith.

Might be why I enjoy it so much, for the exception of some physical problems, I find that the more I dig into the science of things the more I enjoy life.

 

[ix_tab]

My aunt is the only person in my entire family that has any religion (she's a Protestant), and I kind of feel sorry for her in that respect. She gets left out a little.

Niether of my parents are religious, and I wasn't raised with any religious awareness, which probably led to my fascination with it.

I am essentially an athiest, but I love mythology, juedo-christian and otherwise.

 

[Aardvark Soup]

Well, I haven't been fed up religious and have never seen any reason to become it, so no. I did change my political views during my life though.

 

[Evilbunny]

I was raised Jewish, and even though all my friends were atheists, I still believed in God. I was just so grateful for everything I had in my life. I had a family that loved me, I lived in a beautiful town, and had really awesome friends. I observed the sabbath on friday nights and went to temple on the high holy days. I prayed along with everyone else and I imagined God hearing my prayers and smiling, knowing that his children loved him as much as he loved us. Then, when I was 19, I was diagnosed with cancer. I never once blamed him for it, or even questioned why he had done it. I would say "I don't know why you're making me and my family go through this, but I know you will give me strength."

The months of painful chemotherapy dragged on, but still I kept my faith. On days I was feeling better, I even thanked him for not making me feel so sick that day. I thanked him, escapist. After all that had happened to me I thanked him. I wonder if abused children do this. If on days their parents don't beat them they go up to their tormentors and say thank you. It makes me sick to think about.

After my last treatment, the doctor told me that although I was done with the initial chemo, I would still need to come in for tests every month, as the cancer could come back. That was the first night I had asked God for anything in over ten years. I asked him, begged him, pleaded with him to make this the end. Every day I prayed. Every day I asked him to spare my family from the anguish that they went through when I first got diagnosed. When I got sick, my parents had to quit their jobs, my sister had to put her engagement on hold, and my friends would send me cards telling me they were thinking of me and hope I got better. I didn't even care about me, I wanted to stay healthy for them.

But then, three months later, I was informed that they had found another tumor in my lungs, and that I would require immediate surgery to have it removed...I didn't understand. I had prayed. I had followed his commandments. I had been a good person my whole life and did nothing to deserve this. It was then that I realized that God doesn't care about anyone else. He doesn't care about me, or my family or my friends or anyone that could ever mean anything to me. And why would he? He's made trillions of living creatures on this planet alone and he kills all of them on a daily basis. Hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children die every day. Why would I even think that he cares about us any more than he would care about a dog or a cat, or an insect? They are all alive and they all die eventually. I still think he's there, but he just doesn't care about us. That's what I believe now.

 

[Jedoro]

I was raised Southern Baptist, going to church as much as possible, but since I graduated high school, I've just strayed away from the denomination. I'm still Christian, still have all those morals, still talk to God, but I don't much care for attending church anymore. I'm not opposed to it, I just haven't wanted to. Honestly, my faith kinda melded with Fight Club and it's a little weird.

I need to stop reading/watching that book/movie so much...

...Nah