Poll: Are you religious?

[Arif_Sohaib]

This thread is going to breed a lot of animosity in the Escapist forums so I will just quote a translation of Surah Kafiroon(translated by Marmaduke Pickthall) from the Quran and politely request the moderators to close this thread.

"Say: O disbelievers!
I worship not that which ye worship;
Nor worship ye that which I worship.
And I shall not worship that which ye worship.
Nor will ye worship that which I worship.
Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion."

This thread will not change anyone's opinion. Atheists will not become theists and theists will not become atheists by reading this thread and Agnostics will continue to respect people's right to religion. So lets all stop arguing and close this pointless thread.

Here's a quote:

I say to you that it is our duty as free-thinking people of this planet to encourage and participate in debate and discussion no matter where it arises on such topics of great importance such as this one. To dismiss such discussion because of stubbornness of some of its participators would be a mistake. I counterbalance your request to moderators to close this thread with a request of my own, namely to keep open this thread in order that all people who look upon it may have their thinking challenged and their minds expanded. So sayeth the great Yosharian on these matters.

Frankly, I think that the only people who gain by stopping discussion on this matter are the theists.

Then let me start a PC vs Xbox 360 vs PS3 vs Wii discussion on the Escapist or better yet on Youtube comments.
The thing is all sides will have their fanboys and all will be stubborn and the the discussion will just waste everyone's time and lead nowhere.
Religion is extremely important to those who believe in it and extremely hurtful to those who think they have been betrayed by it.
This discussion will lead nowhere and I stand by my stance that that this stupid time wasting thread be closed and I will try my best not to reply to the next person who quotes me on this thread.

Sure, I will post in that thread!

All sides have their stubborn fanboys, yes. But not all are like this. In any case, the free exchange of ideas should not be shut down just because a few people disagree with each other.

Religion is extremely important - does this mean that important topics should not be discussed?

Not sure what you mean by the comment on betrayal.

I really do not want to post here again but what I meant by betrayal is people like Movie Bob who were forced into Church and Catholic Schools and religion was shoved down their throats instead of being taught properly.These people will probably always hate religion and will jump at any chance to criticize it even if it is not the one that was shoved down their throats. Just look at his whiny Book of Eli review or his review of Splice. These people have a perpetual hatred of religion and some of them are on this thread (and after seeing some of your other comments, I think you are one of them).

About important topics, I mean topics of very personal importance that one can simply not change their minds about. You can discuss it but you are definitely not going to make any difference.

 

[Iron Lightning]

Nah, that whole idiotic money scam and testament to the gullibility of humanity isn't for me.

Sort of. I'm Catholic, but I don't blindly accept everything. If there is a policy or teaching I think is stupid or makes no sense, I will call them on it.

I don't understand this position. If you believe that The Bible is the word of God then what right do you have to disagree with it. If it's the work of a perfect divine being then it isn't wrong on anything. If The Bible's true then you'll be damned to Hell for having the audacity to put yourself before God and rewriting his most holy book to suit your whims.

I'm not a religious man, but if I was I'd be a fundamentalist. If I was a Christian I'd be in the WBC, if I was a Buddhist I'd be a monk, because those are the only intellectually tenable positions for a religious person. I don't see how you can disobey your God while still thinking that you follow Him and are in his good graces.

I think he takes that position because the Bible was written by man who was told to write down Gods word. Well after a few thousand years, that word could easily be misinterpreted, changed around and even have some books edited out of the current version of whatever religious texts there are.
He's not going against God, but merely his religions interpretation of his sacred text.

So then what's the point of following any part of The Bible if it's all suspect? If the parts of The Bible about how homosexuality, divorce, and mixing fabrics could be wrong then why can't the parts of The Bible about God, miracles, and the afterlife be wrong? Why would you believe such extraordinary claims from an imperfect book? If God does exist then how could you possibly follow him through a book that's been edited and rewritten? It'd be like trying to build a clock using instructions that tell you how to build a rocking chair. The only positions without cognitive dissonance are fundamentalism or atheism. Of course no holy book is true, but if you believe that they are true then the least you can do is obey them fully and not rewrite them to suit your tastes.

That's the oh so ironic part. Many fundamentalists have rephrased the bible to suit their own tastes so as to get people to believe unquestionably. Why is theirs right and why should I follow it like a rabid zealot?
This is why I analyze very unclear and metaphorical parts of religious texts so as to best interpret exactly what the hell they were trying to say. You see my faith is one that needs skepticism otherwise I'd be just another mindless sheep in the choir. And as my physics professor said "question everything". I know I may not find the absolute correct answers, just like everyone else, but I will do what I can to better understand what I believe and why.
Studies like that for me usually require analyzing other religious texts. Not just the bible

So why not apply that same skepticism to the other parts of The Bible? I think that the supernatural claims of The Bible are as facetious as The Bible's claims that volcanoes are God dropping fire on a mountain, bats are birds, and the world rests on pillars. God is a metaphor for then unknown natural forces that shaped the universe. Miracles are an invention to give supernatural credence to Jesus' teachings so that people would take them more seriously. The afterlife is a combination of positive and negative reinforcement to persuade people to believe. Think for yourself, do question everything, ask yourself does this stuff make sense? Why would a loving God not manifest himself when doing so would convert almost everyone to Christianity and save most people from his Hell?

Consider the riddle of Epicurus:
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?

 

[DeltaEdge]

Yes I am religious. I am a non-denominational Christian and I firmly believe in God. But I also know that God gave us freedom of choice instead of making us into puppets to do what we will on earth so I do not force my religion on to other people and only talk to them about it if they are open and willing to listen, not just debate me for every thing I say with no intention of actually listening. It is no exaggeration to say that it is your God-given right to choose not to believe in God and no one in the world has the right to force you to believe if you choose not to do so. Oh, and since were not puppets, we are responsible for our own actions and though people say that God must be evil for not stepping in and solving all the worlds problems you must remember that we were the ones that betrayed God in the beginning and chose evil over God's warnings which left him with no choice but to distance himself from us and leave us to fend for ourselves with him being with us in spirit and through prayer (see Genesis). We are the one's who set ourselves up for all the bad things that happen in the world. And other than natural disasters, every bad thing that happens to people is caused by none other than we the people. Trying to make God take the blame for our self-destructiveness is just silly. (i.e say there are some parents and a child. This child frequently steals and lies to his parents. The child grows up and becomes a drug-abusing war-mongering sex-crazed, murderer and eventually gets to a point where he is being targeted by a gang for let's say not paying for his 100k loan that he supposedly took for starting a business when he really just blew it all on crack cocaine. This child is already a mature adult and responsible for his own actions. The parents are still alive and the child kind of needs the parents who he probably hasn't talked to in decades to suddenly loan him 100k plus interest on a moment's notice. He kicked his parents out of his life and led an insane and sinful lifestyle while ignoring the wisdom and warnings of his parents for probably his whole life. Suddenly he need them and they are hesitant to give it to him after all of the betrayal? Shocker! The man then has the nerve to blame the parents for not intervening to make everything better. Is this fair? Blaming the person that gave birth to them and raised them and was betrayed by them?) This is from my christian view point and so don't assume that I am forcing you to believe in God or that I am saying that I am correct and every opposing opinion is wrong. I am simply addressing the people who question why God doesn't just step in and fix everything. It's not his job to fix the messes that we have made. He does not owe us anything. It's quite the opposite.

 

[NinjaRock]

Atheist all the way,
And to anyone who thinks that openly abusing or making fun of religion or doing anything else in that matter means that you are Atheist, you are wrong.

If you have done any of this then you are an Anti-theist. Atheist, don't really care, respect others beliefs, Anti-theists oppose everything to do with religion (not just Christianity).

 

[Ganath]

Ehm. I suppose the short answer would be yes for me. But I'm hardly the kind of guy who even goes to church or anything like that. I just like to think god exists *Shrugs* Neither would I judge people if they didn't believe in anything. I do consider myself a christian though, just not radically so.

 

[Use_Imagination_here]

Wait, why is agnosticism a third option? Surely it's covered by "No"?

Because it means that even though you are not religious you are open to the idea that there may be something to it you just can't prove or disprove it.

The question wasn't do you believe in god(s) or the possibility of god(s). It was do you follow a religion or not.

OT: No, not really. The concept of an all powerful entity is inherently flawed to me. Took a look at buddhism for a while once and thought it made much more sense. But still I firmly believe that you should let people have their beliefs as long as they aren't harming anyone because of them (yes I am aware that terrorists exist but those people shouldn't be converted they should be locked up). And I must say I don't really understand all these claims of religious people being oppressive dickheads. I mean maybe It's just the area that I live in or my family or my country or whatever but I don't recall ever seeing or hearing about any discrimination based on religious prefrence. I mean we just had a family civilian wedding were a quarter of the people attending were fundamentalist christians and religion never even came up!

 

[Bobzer77]

I'm always impressed by how much more aggressive the average atheist is compared to the average theist.

Live and let live guys.

Also seeing as a lot of people are making the religion vs science argument, it is very naive to believe that religion and science are mutually exclusive. There are theists who are driven to understand their faith and the world around them and others who are happy to use their religion as an answer.

 

[Zinaxos]

I'm a Pastafarian. I believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

 

[tsb247]

I am religious - and I also find myself wondering why this isn't in the section of the forum that's dedicated to threads like this.

 

[tsb247]

I'm always impressed by how much more aggressive the average atheist is compared to the average theist.

Live and let live guys.

Also seeing as a lot of people are making the religion vs science argument, it is very naive to believe that religion and science are mutually exclusive. There are theists who are driven to understand their faith and the world around them and others who are happy to use their religion as an answer.

I'm glad I am not the only one who noticed this. In fact, I have noticed that many athiests are more, "Preachy," than deeply religious people I know. Irony is funny isn't it?

Either way, I too have a, "Live and let live," policy. If someone isn't religious, that's their own business not mine.

 

[LokiSuaveHP]

Born and raised practicing Catholic. I come from a large family, and about half of us are still practicing after age twenty.

When someone states that they are atheist and free, I can only think that I am religious and free. We all have obligations, so we are never free in the way we like to think about it. You feel that I am trapped by a God who doesn't exist, and his set of arbitrary rules interpreted by men in white robes. The other side of that coin is that I am not trapped completely in this fragile world. I am an active player in it, but, having something comforting and real that is outside this world allows me to live a happy and peaceful life.

That's a short answer that probably will get blasted looking at the poll results.

 

[ssgt splatter]

I don't believe in the whole heaven/hell thing but I do believe in an afterlife.

 

[Marik2]

I used to be a priestess at one of the shinto shrines in japan. When i came back to england my family tried to force me into being a christian. my nan even forced me to go to sunday school. one thing I learnt from the preist guy is "God does not have an appearance as it is against the commandments to reperesent him with a statue or a picture." I got kicked out when I told him that my gods have statues everywhere and are therfore much more reliable.

My RE teacher told me that my religion wasnt as good as theres because it wasnt one of the 'main religions'... she then preceded with the 'candle time' part of the lesson.

Now im pretty much an atheist although I would list myself as Shinto in a questionarre or whatever.

Interesting, I always thought that Shintoism was exclusive to Japanese culture and they really dont let other people from different ethnicity's to become priests and priestesses.

Unless you are ethnically Japanese

 

[The Mighty Pepper]

Yup, Happened by magic always seemed more viable than happened by accident to me.

 

[snagli]

Religion is the craziest, silliest, and most retarded invention in history, I figured that out at a young age.

That doesn't mean it's bad. I am a Christian, and even though I know that there is no logic in God, I still choose to believe in it, because logic is irrelevant when you have unconditional faith.

 

[AnkaraTheFallen]

Used to be very Catholic along with my whole family, lost my faith a while back now and my family with it.

 

[AnkaraTheFallen]

Religion is the craziest, silliest, and most retarded invention in history, I figured that out at a young age.

That doesn't mean it's bad. I am a Christian, and even though I know that there is no logic in God, I still choose to believe in it, because logic is irrelevant when you have unconditional faith.

Religion itself is not a stupid invention. It makes people feel safe, the idea we have an all powerful being watching over us is rather comforting to many, I found that out the hard way when I suddenly found myself not believing in that anymore.

But, that said, I think organised religion is a bad idea, it places some people in power that corrupts them. (Maybe not relevant nowadays, but back when Christianity was beginning to emerge as a powerful faith, the main leader the pope had control over vast armies and money, and would use that power to further their own gains under the guise of the work of god.

This wont be the case all the time, and nowadays the pope has less power, but they are still an important figure in politics and can influence decisions made by governments.

(Side note, I only use the pope and Christianity as these will be the most widely known, there will be examples from other religions)