Religion?

Gnostic. I go to Mass (sometimes) and everything. See-> http://gnosis.org/gnostsoc/ecclesia.htm Not everything in L.A is shallow, it was part of the reason I was so excited to move back here from Iowa.
 
My religion....hmm, I'd have to say liberal Christianity. My view is that our ancestors have screwed up all knoweledge resources (king james, catholics, anyone?) that we'll probably never get a strait truth of these things. Its been proven that catholics have....changed certain aspects of the Bible (among other holy script) to better fit their views. Adam and Eve, for example. It's sad, but true. I guess I'll just have to run on blind faith, and try to listen to my internal barometer of good and evil instead of following what others (who are no better than I) want me to do.
 
Solitary Wiccan. Rather difficult to describe; Monotheistic, cyclical, oneness with earth and universe. Belief that what you put out there comes back to you. Positive thoughts/efforts bring positive results eventually. Negative thoughts/efforts bring negative results tenfold. Reincarnation a possibility,but no one really knows what the afterlife is like, nor should it matter. The important thing is to lead a life of service and love.
 
I don't believe in any deities so I am an atheist, plain and simple. I kind of dislike this trend of atheists calling themselves nontheists and humanists and brights and whatever. It seems deceptive and unnescessary.
 
I was raised as a Christian. I poked around the edges of several religions, looking for something that fit. Nothing did. I haven't found an actual name for what I believe, because I don't think there is one.
 
Marc said:
I don't believe in any deities so I am an atheist, plain and simple. I kind of dislike this trend of atheists calling themselves nontheists and humanists and brights and whatever. It seems deceptive and unnescessary.
Click to expand...

I really dislike the "non-theists" label because atheism is not the same as non-theism. Humanist is fine as long as it is not meant to imply that theistic people cannot be humanists too. I have no clue what a bright is.
 
Agnostic to show that I'm open minded.

But lately I've been tempted to just start calling myself a Discordian. I recently discovered the religion and it's brought me a big ball of laughter.
 
Marc said:
I don't believe in any deities so I am an atheist, plain and simple. I kind of dislike this trend of atheists calling themselves nontheists and humanists and brights and whatever. It seems deceptive and unnescessary.
Click to expand...

I can give a reason why the label "nontheist" is quite relevant and not "deceptive," as the labels "atheist" and "agnostic" are, for reasons I can give if asked, useless and irrelevant. Nontheism fits because it designates that the individual in question does not worship any deity or follow any religious tradition, but doesn't claim an all out atheism or agnosticism.
 
chaotic_lion said:
My religion....hmm, I'd have to say liberal Christianity. My view is that our ancestors have screwed up all knoweledge resources (king james, catholics, anyone?) that we'll probably never get a strait truth of these things. Its been proven that catholics have....changed certain aspects of the Bible (among other holy script) to better fit their views. Adam and Eve, for example. It's sad, but true. I guess I'll just have to run on blind faith, and try to listen to my internal barometer of good and evil instead of following what others (who are no better than I) want me to do.
Click to expand...

I have you agree with you, Chaotic Lion. Especially once I found out that everything Jesus did was to affirm a relationship with God and simultaneously attack the established religion. Our ancestors went and made a religion out of the guy who came to end religion! Makes no sense... :rant:
 
I don't know what to label my religion as...

I suppose its composed of simply the belief in a higher order which I have not found yet. Agnostic would imply that I dont know whether to believe in god and I am searching for it, but I believe in god, as much as god is order. I simply do not understand this order. My interest in time and my dabbling in science is simply the direction that my intuition is telling me to look in so that I may find out what god is.
 
Last edited:
Integral.

or, if you don't know that word, Buddhism will do.

despite atheism or ignorant agnosticism in my past, I always lived in samsara, that is to say: reality is the human condition, and how you explain matter doesn't mean anything to anyone, its just a deflection. samsara, or the human condition is a world in which nothing is, what it seems to be, initially. it's a crime scene. the murderer of the true self must be found. besides the reasoning of integral theory, enthogens had an important part in convincing me, to let go of a materialistic (deflective) worldview.
 
chaotic_lion said:
My religion....hmm, I'd have to say liberal Christianity. My view is that our ancestors have screwed up all knoweledge resources (king james, catholics, anyone?) that we'll probably never get a strait truth of these things. Its been proven that catholics have....changed certain aspects of the Bible (among other holy script) to better fit their views. Adam and Eve, for example. It's sad, but true. I guess I'll just have to run on blind faith, and try to listen to my internal barometer of good and evil instead of following what others (who are no better than I) want me to do.
Click to expand...

Milon said:
I have you agree with you, Chaotic Lion. Especially once I found out that everything Jesus did was to affirm a relationship with God and simultaneously attack the established religion. Our ancestors went and made a religion out of the guy who came to end religion! Makes no sense... :rant:
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

I agree with chaotic lion and Milon. I do have some conservative values, but I think my personal beliefs are closest to Progressive Christianity.
 
I am not any peticular but according to this quiz posted by vindurr

1. New Thought (100%)
2. Unitarian Universalism (99%)
3. Neo-Pagan (98%)
4. Hinduism (91%)
5. Mahayana Buddhism (91%)
6. Reform Judaism (91%)

I agree with the results, I do believe heavily in each of the ideas presents in those 6 religions, however I myself donot believe in anyone specifically.

That being said I do believe in a god, although I'd be the first to admit I don't know much about this "god".
 
Last edited:
Duty said:
I can give a reason why the label "nontheist" is quite relevant and not "deceptive," as the labels "atheist" and "agnostic" are, for reasons I can give if asked, useless and irrelevant. Nontheism fits because it designates that the individual in question does not worship any deity or follow any religious tradition, but doesn't claim an all out atheism or agnosticism.
Click to expand...

Nontheism doesn't claim an all out atheism? So you do believe in deities? Or you partly believe in them? You know, you can agree that there is a possibility of something existing and still not believe in it. You can't escape the stigma fundamentalists like to put on atheists by changing the name of it.

But really, this is a tired semantic argument that is not going anywhere, so let's just drop it and say we are not religious.
 
Marc said:
Nontheism doesn't claim an all out atheism? So you do believe in deities? Or you partly believe in them? You know, you can agree that there is a possibility of something existing and still not believe in it. You can't escape the stigma fundamentalists like to put on atheists by changing the name of it.

But really, this is a tired semantic argument that is not going anywhere, so let's just drop it and say we are not religious.
Click to expand...

No, "nontheism" doesn't claim an all-out atheism. Nontheism is a category that includes the set of beliefs that do not affirm the belief in the supernatural. Sometimes in sociological studies it includes those people that have no religious preference...we often call those "apatheists." Atheism is just a type of nontheism. Agnosticism is a type of nontheism. Nontheism itself is the broader category. An atheist is always a nontheist, but a nontheist is not necessarily an atheist.

Next, I don't care what fundamentalists like to claim about atheists. Nontheism isn't a different name for atheism anyways. This has nothing to do with the term.

And I can't claim I "believe in a deity, or partially believe in a deity, or believe they don't exist." My point of view is that the word "God," as well as definitions for such terms as "omnipotence" and "benevolence" are WAAAAY too vague to correctly form an opinion on. Therefore, the only way to settle the God debate in my mind is to take the individual definitions of God, even with their subtle differences or obvious ones, and make an judgment on each definition.

It's pointless to say, "I believe God doesn't exist" because the term God is just so vague. There are people that think that "God" is just the universe...that they're the same thing. In that case I could be a theist, but such a definition is quite uninteresting, unless you mean to assert that the universe has supernatural properties (and then with that definition I'd claim agnosticism).

So nontheism is just the best term for someone like me. I'm not an atheist because there are some definitions of God that I just don't have enough evidence to make a judgment (and often enough it's impossible to obtain evidence depending on the definition). I'm not an agnostic because there are some definitions that I claim atheism...because the evidence is contrary to the definition or because the definition is inconsistent with itself. So, I claim the broader term: nontheism.
 
I will pray to the gentle giants of the forest, may their love, understanding and abnormally large feet be with you always.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top