The Religion Wars begin here

[Bob McNamee]

Since I hold the belief that to accept the followings of one organized religion is to deny the others... I'm am not  part of any organized religion.

[Christopher Weeks]

Neato thread.

I have never experienced any event or circumstance that has even mildly suggested that there might be any kind of supernatural phenomena out there.  Lacking any evidence to believe in anything of the sort, I find myself a pure atheist.  I'm open to revelation, but agnosticism is too wishy-washy for me.

But I think there's good stuff to be had from all the religions I've poked at.  I particularly respect Jesus' communitarian bent and the social constructs of the Mormon church, particularly those accomplishments of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

And like one previous poster, I firmly consider myself transhumanist, but wouldn't call it religion since it's not at all based on faith.  Oh, and I don't eat meat because I don't like the idea of causing pain.  But that's not religion either.

Chris

[Asrogoth]

I was raised in Tulsa, OK (The Charismatic Buckle of the Bible Belt) as an Episcopalian.  I am a firm believer in the Scripture (i.e. Bible) as the Word of God.  I believe the tenets of the Nicene, Apostles' and Augustinian Creeds.  I believe in the continuing reformation of the Holy Church and the active participation of Christians as the Body of Christ through the ministration of the Holy Spirit.  I became disenchanted with the Episcopal Church's "liberality" about 15 years ago and have been in the "continuing" Anglican movement for about 14 of those years.

Furthermore, I am priest in the Episcopal Missionary Church http://www.emchome.org.  I  serve a small parish in Montgomery, Alabama http://www.anglicanx.com/stjoes.html.

I really enjoy role-playing and feel that it can be an aid to growth for all people -- especially "Bible-believing" Christians.

It's kind of interesting being involved with role-playing as there are not many "conservative" Christians amongst us -- at least not who admit it.

Anyway, that's my rambling for this topic....  Bon soir.

[Anonymous]

Hmm, I'd come under militant atheist.  I regard all religions, bar none, as huge advertising schemes for moving truly industrial quantities of snake-oil.  And thats the good side; the bad side is when its used primarily to create soldiers who are willing to take a bullet secure in the confidence of their immortal reward.  Religion is the vermiform appendix of the body politic, a redundant and rancid self-imposed mental impairment that has crippled us for thousands of years.  The sooner we flush it down toilet of history the better off we'll all be.

[herrmess]

Secular Humanist, although I would not define it as a religion but rather as a system of ethics. As far as any supreme or supernatural beings are concerned, I'm an Atheist. Once I came close to Agnosticism but somehow it didn't "feel" right to me.

While I was born in the USSR, I have lived since age 7 in a society pervaded by religion (Israel; here I'm defined socially as a Secular/Non-observing [Orthodox] Jew). Most people here do believe in God in some way. As far as I'm concerned, however, I do not remember believing in any God or Gods. Ever. Was quite the talk at elementary school, surrounded by kids, all asking me again and again if it's true. The weirdest experience I ever had, bar none.

MarK.

[Rich Forest]

This is a public service announcement:

You have stumbled across a thread that was resurrected from last year. It's clever. It just won't stay dead. But it should. If you accidentally posted here, it's no big deal. I'm just here to point out that this is last year's thread.

Together I think we can beat it.

This year's religion thread is here.

Please help it to live and grow.

Rich

[greyorm]

And yet, even after I ranted about this same phenomena last year...

I regard all religions, bar none...

"Hey, look, I'm talking about particular Western Judeo-Christian religious practices! But I'm going to attribute the same thing to every other religion that has ever existed! Everyone look at how utterly ignorant I am regarding global religious beliefs past and present!"

In other words, it may be your opinion, but that doesn't mean it's logical, studied, or even reasonable. Be reasonable, and educate yourself.

(And go use this year's religion thread!)