Your Religion

Hey,

I'm new to the forums, and I think a good way to get things rolling here would be to ask something personal about you.

What is your religious affiliation, why, and what conclusions have you come to about your own religion. Do you accept other ones? If not why...


I myself was baptized catholic, but I find myself in a state of disbelief. I tend to keep an open mind, and believe that I do not know enough about my surroundings to judge them yet. I hold an attitude of "if there's a God I've been a good guy, but I'm not going to drink the Kool-Aide" if you get my drift.


so...how about you?

[John]

I am also a babtised catholic however, i do not want to be centered on one belief and one belief only, i am sort of like you i guess, i like to keep it all open, no one really knows what death holds for us and therefore no real conclusions can be drawn until you die.

[Jay]

I'm a confirmed protestant. However I don't consider myself religious or a strong believer and I wasn't raised religious. On the other hand I have no antipathy against christianity. I just don't think you need to go to church and pray regularly to show you're a believer. To me believing is a very personal thing and that's why there is no reason to show to the public how much you believe.

I'm also interested in buddhism and it's ideals. And by buddhism I mean the pure form of buddhism which existed before buddha became an icon and a symbol and something you look up to.

I was raised in a southern baptist church and went to an episcopal school, but even at an early age never really felt comfortable with Christianity. I do not consider myself Christian because I disagree with certain beliefs (example: everyone non-christian goes to Hell) and have found myself becoming closer to Buddhism. Unlike many Christians (not all) I keep an open mind and do not rely on material goods to make me happy.

[GreatWyrm of Babylon]

Well, I have my own beliefs, so lets just say I belong the the Church of GreatWyrm.

[[ÄK]LËGÖLÄS]

I'm a non-denominational christian
I've been a christian since i was 13
I'm at a stage in my life right now..where i'm questioning alot of my beliefs
I still beleive in the bible (sorta shaky) so therefore i beleive you have to be a christian to be saved....but i also beleive God is just and fair...and takes each person as an individual case. We will all be judged individually not by what church or religion you belong to

[Down]

I am agnostic. I am very science and logic oriented, and since there is (as far as I can tell) no way to prove the existance or the non-existance of a god, I choose to stand in the middle. I do not like comiting my beliefs to something that has a good chance of being completely wrong, so I wont. I also dont believe that we will ever find any absolute, whether it be in science, religion, philosophy, or anything. I believe that there is an absolute somewhere, but that we will never know it.

I am also a relativist, which sort of goes along with the whole no absolute thing. Seeing as how I dont believe in that absolute, or right answer, I see everyone's belief systems as being equally valid, or invalid for that matter. Nobody is more correct than anybody else, seeing as how Religion (imo) is generally a lot of speculation and estimating.

[Poetic Oddity]

I am a very angry, explicit atheist. I was Catholic until I realized that there was no real reason to be Catholic, or christian or anything else. I gave Buddhism a shot durring my freshman year of high schoo and, other than driving me to break up a few fights, it didn't do me any good. So, like so many other angsty (I love that word) teenagers, I handed all of my old religious paraphanelia (which should be thought of in a way similar to drug paraphanelia) back to my bewildered parents and found that, while I wasn't any happier, I felt better.

I know that many religions have this "love your neighbor" bullshit but, I hate just about everyone, including myself. There are a meger handful of people on this earth who, somehow, have managed to redeme their species to a degree so I continue onward with my quest to kill off those who don't.

A part of me wants to start my own religion but, at the same time, a part of me would have to kick myself in the sack for that.

[An Infinite Number Of Monkeys]

I definitely have no religion and never will have - although my spirituality is evolving

[Downwiththestereotype]

Originally posted by Down@Aug 29 2003, 03:43 PM I am agnostic. I am very science and logic oriented, and since there is (as far as I can tell) no way to prove the existance or the non-existance of a god, I choose to stand in the middle. I do not like comiting my beliefs to something that has a good chance of being completely wrong, so I wont. I also dont believe that we will ever find any absolute, whether it be in science, religion, philosophy, or anything. I believe that there is an absolute somewhere, but that we will never know it. I am also a relativist, which sort of goes along with the whole no absolute thing. Seeing as how I dont believe in that absolute, or right answer, I see everyone's belief systems as being equally valid, or invalid for that matter. Nobody is more correct than anybody else, seeing as how Religion (imo) is generally a lot of speculation and estimating.

Here here

I share your opinions of logic and reason and I doubt the existance of a deity of any form.

The Idea of a god to me seems just to convinient, But I almost word for word share your opinion here.

[oXiSfAa]

I don't identify myself as a theist, atheist, or agnostic. Essentially, I don't absolutely believe or disbelieve in anything, so I don't wish to be tagged with a name to represent me.

[Dislogic]

i am a baptised catholic and a confirmed catholic however i am now aethist... pure and true

God.

I am a non-denominational Christian, baptised at the age of 11.

[Fenix]

I'm a baptized Roman Catholic. I'm Vietnamese, majority of the vietnamese population are either buddhist or roman catholic, due to french influence. I was raised catholic, went through all my sacraments (reconciliation, communion, confirmation, etc.). I follow Christian beliefs nd at times (usually edsperate times) I find myself talking to "God". I'm sketpical of all faiths, but I'm willing and open to learn about them. I hold no grudges towards any path of fath or belief. Thats how I live life though, question everything, there's no right answer to anything. But what I do find funny is how Religion is supposed to bind and unite people when all I see it it doing is separating us.

[KaizerKa]

I myself am a somewhat non-traditional atheist. My beliefs are not virulent, I do not believe that religion is that which it strives to destroy or any of that other activist trash. I simply do not follow any sort of organized religion, I do not believe in any sort of higher deity, I do not worship in any church.
My ideas about creation and existence lean somewhat towards the scientific side in that I cannot bring myself to believe something without any empirical evidence. I don't deny the existence of god, I simply do not acknowledge it. I do not know.
To me, organized religion seems like a human defense mechanism; we do not understand even an infinitesimal part of the universe's workings so we seek to explain it away with something that we can comprehend. I acknowledge the power of belief and religion, and I'm completely open to all forms of it as it is an integral part of the human mind.
Religion doesn't have to involve going to church or reading a book or performing a ritual, religion is simply what you believe in and in what fashion you percieve the world around you and your own existence. Mine is the view of a scientist, another's may be an entirely different view and belief system. There is no reason to disavow a religion, it is really no one else's business but your own.

[Sodfather]

Uh, I'm sad to say I'm Catholic. Not really sad, but, well, you'll see...

It's quite difficult to keep your faith when the figures that are supposed to represent God here on Earth are having sex with eight-year-old boys. :( What is that shit about? I'm supposed to brush that off? That's a real problem for me, religious leaders that I used to have great reverence for now get almost no respect from me.

Recently I've kind of accepted the fact that religion was simply created to ease the fear of the unknown. I went to Catholic gradeschool and am now at a Jesuit college preparatory school, and it's kind of funny because in one class you are being taught about all these miracles and supernatural events contained in the Bible, and in another you're having all the reasons why those events are impossible explained to you. It's harder for educated people to accept Catholic doctrine as true.

And if you really wanna put it into prespective, the majority of beliefs of Jesus' and Abraham's time have been disproved. The Earth is round, and allowing the stars to dictate which vain to cut to let the "bad blood" out of a sick person unfortunately doesn't work. Why would religious beliefs be affected any differently?

[Johnson]

baptist

[uitmokum]

I'm also known as Reverend Ferre, at the ministry here in Amsterdam.

[greendeath]

I believe religion is a load of garbage. A bunch of lies carried on for ages is bound to make someone believe in them.

[Fallen Angel]

I am Roman Catholic, I was born one and so I will die one.
Religon doesn't own me ,I own it because I choose to believe.