What Religion are You and Why?

So, I've been doing a lot of thinking about things lately...and it just makes me curious.

What religion are you? and why? Have you ever changed from one religion to another? why did you do that?

I grew up Methodist and now I'm not religious. I changed because I just don't really believe any of it. I harbor no bitterness towards the Methodist church.

Non-denominational Christian, because I believe in the way God runs things, and as far as logic has taken me, it makes the most sense.

I grew up in a very strict roman catholic setting, but for the last decade or so have embraced Asatru. Odin instead of jesus.

I grew up in a Pentecostal family, they later became Non-Denom, as I grew up I accepted Non Denominational and became an ordained Minister of the Non Denominational sect of Christianity. I am now an atheist.

J.

I usually describe myself as an eclectic agnostic. I sort of mix and match various ideas, morals, and beliefs from a variety of different faiths (especially Eastern faiths) but I basically have my own ideas about God and the universe but can't really verify or confirm any of it. So I just try to be a good person regardless of what supernatural or higher beings may or may not be out there...

that's a long answer but I hate being lumped some category or group that I'm not really affiliated with.

Satan.

lol, I'm not actually a satanist . Actually I was raised weakly Roman Catholic, then my mom and I joined some little religion when I was 10, but I dropped that when I was 14. I am now an apathetic agnostic. Summed up on Wikipedia as:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apatheism

I'll probably end up fully atheist in a few years. As my depression continues, I get closer and closer to atheism. Why would a deity cause such pain and suffering in the world? It just doesn't make sense.

Devout atheist.

Yesterday evening I praised Bacchus. Does this count?

Seriously: I was raised Catholic, tried out some stuff (Buddhism, Gnosticism, Thelema, etc...) but came do the conclusion that I really don't believe in anything other than in the "I don't give a flying fuck anymore"-gods. Still worship the gods of heavy metal, though. And I have a Captain Kirk shrine.

None of the above.

Religion has no credibility with me, and I refuse to indulge in a crutch to help me deal with tragedy or uncertainty.

I have been touched by the noodley appendage of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

No, but seriously . . . my family are all Methodist, but mostly non-practicing. I myself could probably be best described as a Deist, tho I reckon if I actually participated in a particular religion I'd likely be Buddhist.

I believe that there is a plan, and a Maker, but that the scope of both are so far beyond human comprehension that the best we can do is pay attention and try to figure out what bits we can. I believe organized religion has been the source of so much strife throughout human history that it's lost any moral authority it might have ever had. I also believe that religion is what you wind up with once faith has been fossilized into ritual.

Then why do you drink and toke?

To stop the voices in my head.


And if religiousity packed a wicked buzz, I might suddenly get all pious and devout.

<checks again and sees that this is the Green Room>

Albert, you may well be the most unfailingly honest man on this board.

Is it a "family tradition"?

This.

I call myself agnostic just 'cause I can't think of another word that fits. I'd go full atheist, but church scared me enough when I was a kid that I'm afraid to be wrong.

My wife was brought up full-out Roman Catholic in a 2nd generation Italian family. Somewhere in her teens she realized it was mostly bullshit. I don't think she's gone agnostic like me (we really never talk about it), but she got totally disgusted with "The Church."

I love this!

Well, yes. Now that you mention it.

I was raised Roman Catholic, and was pretty hardcore about it when I ended highschool. Now I guess you'd call me an Agnostic; maybe there's a god, but he is of little relevance to my life. I'm concerned only with the material world and making the most of this life on Earth.

I don't know... Polytheism came first, ok, (not thinking of Hinduism, which is not polytheistic in the core) but it is more logical to concentrate spirituality and make it "simple". The thought of a personal god with human qualities is absurd to me, but the idea of a single, all-penetrating force makes a little sense to me... I said "a little sense", not that I take SW seriously...

Why is polytheism more believable? The male, omnipotent Christian God is a logical evolutionary step in the development of religion, IMO. However, He is sooo 4'000 BC! Todays pictures of God are far more complex, even those of devout Christians.

Yeah, Hinduism and Modern Christianity are both Henotheistic religions (separate gods as one) and share many similarities.

J.

John, I missed the details of your transition to atheism. Is there a WF thread link or is this a good place to give that story? If not, can I bug you for a PM?

Apatheist. Why not?

No. I've always rooted for NFC teams.

It was in TNZ over at TBBS. Here, I pulled out everyone else's posts and just put my answers when they asked. Keep in mind, I was only about a week into realizing that I was an atheist, so things were freshly spoken:

And this one:

That last post was about three weeks ago. Chaos Descending actually hit the nail on the head, too, that I have probably been an atheist for a while, but didn't actually realize it. I truly, honestly believed right up until the moment that things changed. I would like to say that there was no deception on my part to anyone, what I said I really believed. Finally, however, my reconciliation with the faith could no longer hold, and so it was gone. Does that help at all in explaining the transition. Believe it or not, there are times when I'm not sure how to frame something to explain how I feel and how I arrived at those feelings.

J.

I appreciate you going to the trouble for me. I haven't been over to TBBS in quite a while. It's just seemed kind of pointless even as just a diversion. I had noticed some things had changed but this kind of puts a finer point on perhaps why. I don't know whether this is a cart leading the horse or vice versa for you but it certainly does make clearer some posts of yours as I remember them.

In my early twenties, I came to the conclusion that (to paraphrase a folk philosopher), "Religions, like governments, are there to get in a man's way." The center of most Christian religions is supposed to be "the sermon", but I always found that sermons were, at least most of the time, the requisite positives that offset the volumes of thou-shalt-nots.

Religions can have their uses and merits. I suppose they're an adequate delivery system. There are bits of wisdom that can be learned through them. And if they lead people to a "god", so long as they're not imposing that belief, that path on those around them who don't want to hear about it, more power to them.

Curiously, there was something in that piece of crap Star Trek V that I found kind of relevant. When Kirk is faced with the entity at Sha Ka Ree, he asks, "What does God need with a starship?" A silly question in a dubious situation, and yet, there's a bit of truth in it. If "god" is everything which we've been told that he is by the keepers of "the revelation", it begs the question, "What does God need with a delivery system?"

It seems to me that, for an omnipotent being, all that a human would need to know about belief would be a pretty zippy download. It would also have the benefit of removing all the politics and infighting and little power plays which so often occur in churches. And with the 'basics' of the belief made manifest in such a way, the need for faith remains intact.

Also in keeping consistent with all of the positive attributes taught about "god", ya gotta figure he'd be kind of pissed off at what's been done in his name throughout the ages, carried out under the guise and with the blessing of Religion.

This isn't a declaration or denial of the existence of a "god". But the church really doesn't have a stellar history, all things considered, and I'd be hard pressed to believe that god would put his thumbscan on the collected works of organized religion.

Having said all that, my Pop was an atheist, but felt it important that I learn about religion straight from the horse's mouth. I have a little GARB, Presby, and Methodist, and after that, I came to about the same conclusions in regard to religion as did he. When I got to college, and had a few philosophy courses under my belt, I asked my dad why he felt it necessary that I get that kind of religious training. He told me that it would teach me a lot about "how not to", and that if I decided that religion wasn't for me, that I wouldn't be an atheist counterpart to the obnoxious evangelical.

So I left religion, and haven't looked back. I've maintained an enduring academic interest in them, particularly Eastern and Pagan traditions, but still have no interest in signing on with any of them.