Some people, (including me) mentioned their religious beliefs in the social profiling. So I thought I'd ask it straight out. I'll restate mine:

I was raised a christian (protestant), turned into an atheist and then slowly evolved into what I'd call a Goddess worshipping pagan with more than a small dose of Chen(Zen) Buddhism thrown in and a pinch of Taoism to spice things up. For some reason I really don't like going into churches anymore.

Eclectic wiccan, and Discordian. Google either of 'em.

I tried being Baptist in junior high school, and was pushed out by the sheer hypocracy of the supposedly-Christian kids... Seems it's okay to pick on the loser, even hit him, even if you're Christian.

Okay, to be fair, I know (now) that real Christians aren't like that... But it certainly began my search outside the mainstream.

Read the Illuminatus! trilogy, checked out Discordianism, and then checked out more "serious" pagan religions from there. I always thought there wasn't enough actual laughter, or joy, in Christian congregations...

I was raised a devout Roman Catholic, turned towards fundamentalist Christianity for a period where I preached the Word to the unsaved, then had a quiet-but-powerful religious experience and came home to Wicca and paganism. Interestingly, like Christoffer, I'm a Goddess-worshipping pagan influenced a great deal by Bhuddism and Zen, but add a healthy dose of Asatru into that as well. I'm also a legally ordained minister.

...Now where's the religious flamewar the topic promised?!

Eccumenical Abrahamist. My background is strictly in the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), but I don't believe that any particular prophet (including Moses, Jesus, Mohammad) was greater than any other. I also don't believe in an afterlife, which makes it difficult for me to wholly adopt some parts of Abrahamic theology. But the tradition is SO rich and the prophets are such interesting people. I would argue that most people who fall into one of the mainstream Abrahamic branches are missing the larger picture and message of monotheism that all of these "religions" come out of. They're all branches of the same tree.

Get this: Abraham was neither a Jew, or a Christian, or a Muslim. I think we should all strive towards that example.

I was raised in the Roman Catholic church. It wasn't particularly fun per se, but neither was it the sort of nightmare that people want other people to believe it must be for everyone. Actually, most of the nicest people I've met were as a result of my time with the Catholic church. All that guilt that people mention? Never encountered any of it. Basically it was all about love and joy, and being good. I like the religion.

I just have philosophical problems with it. So I'm not the cliche "recovering" Catholic; I despise that idea. I'm just thinking about it a lot, and don't participate much in the meanwhile.

People sometimes assume that because I don't practice, that I won't be offended by slurs against the church. But these I see as attacks on people like my mother who teaches catechism, and who I think is the most virtuous person I know. So please, watch the Catholic bashing around me.

It's funny, but I've always felt bad for Jewish people, because I understand religious prejudice. I've never personally heard a Catholic say anything derrogatory about anyone Jewish. This stereotype along with most others about the Catholic faith just amaze me. Because I've been involved with the religion all my life, either peripherially, or directly, and I've never encountered a one of them. Nun's are universally nice for all I know, even the one's I had as teachers in my two years of parochial school, for example. They're just people like anyone else.

I also think it's interesting that eveyone thinks of the Catholic church as being about demonic possession, gothica, and other stuff like that in relation to gaming. The religion does seem to lend itself to mysticism and sorta bizzarre behaviour in some cases. But the church itself, as an organized religion, says that possession doesn't occur, and that most "miracles" and other such stuff, are fraud or at least misguided.

Given that the church doesn't buy into demons and magic and whatnot, it's never had any problems with RPGs. That comes from other Christian denominations, a fact which seems to surprise some folks. My very Catholic mother encouraged my gaming hobby.

Philosophically, I'm attracted to almost any deep thought. I like the different mindset of Eastern philosophy, and I even like some sorts of Islam quite a bit. Especially Sufi and it's associated mysticism. I don't understand isolating the "bad guys" of todays world in terms of Islam. There might be cultural problems, but to me they're not automatically part of what Islam must be. To wit, all the Muslim persons that I've met have been wonderful people. American culture and Islam seem to work fine together. We'll see the reaction when they collide in Iraq, soon.

Um, Christoffer, you know, there are two subjects that you aren't supposed to bring up at parties, Religion and Politics (at least that's a saying here in the US). Now that I've just ranted a bit, maybe this isn't such a great idea.

Mike

A frustrated, but not confused Christian who would like to have faith, but it doesn't work out very well. I realize that this post is not as articulate as the others here, but I think the other people have more articulate beliefs.

Conversative Presbyterian all my life, and loving it. (started in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and am currently in the Presbyterian Church in America, for those who know what those are.) And, as I mentioned, I'm also a PK (Pastor's Kid).

There is nothing more important in my life than my relationship with Jesus. Nothing. And I would hope that this is obvious and apparent in the way that I live, write, create, and game. And if it isn't, I'd like to know about it so that I continue striving towards that goal.*

Seth Ben-Ezra
Great Wolf

*Although probably not in this thread. :-)

Mom was a Methodist, Pop was an unpracticing Catholic from a family of home practicing but rare mass attending Catholics. Mom won...I got baptised Methodist.

I believe strongly in God and Jesus, and have little use for dogma. I think Paul was the absolute worst thing to happen to Christianity ever, turning a religion about peace and love into one about fear and condemnation. My girlfriend who grew up fundamentalist protestant (from a sect that traces its ancestry back to being branded heretics and persecuted by the Catholics, and which still hates the pope to this day for that reason) thinks Paul is 1 step removed from Christ himself and gets really irritated when I tell her that Christ was the original hippy (as in long haired, living hand to mouth, traveling around, talking about peace and love).

My personal theory on religion starts with the Tower of Babel. If God decided he wanted all of the worlds people to speak a different language its more than likely to me that he wanted them all to have their own way of worshipping too. After all the whole point to Babel was to divide man up so we lacked the ability to challenge Him...what in history is more divisive than language barriers and religious dogma.

I happen to hold Gerald Schroeder in the highest esteem, and while his science isn't always completely accurate his books are the best melding of science and theology I've ever read. Rather than contradicting each other he explains how modern science is only now beginning to prove the things which Medieval Jewish Theologans and Scholars already knew from studying the original texts.

I was raised agnostic.

I dabbled in atheism for a bit.

When I was 15, I decided that Jesus was cool, and throughout my teens I had a bunch of profound religious experiences, so now I'm a non-demoninational Christian.

hmm.. I like this thread.

Christian with unshakable faith reading Zen on the side. Went to church when I was younger, family stopped going as a whole after some point, don't knwo whole reason, part was dad's work schedule. Thoguht in college that I was agnostic, and aethiest despite talking to heavens when alone and asking why. While playing raquetball and thinking philosophical thoughts I came to the personal conclusion that God exists. My wife introduced me back into the church where I am beginning to enjoy youth ministry. A short story with a happy ending.

JOE--

Note: I'm not a dirty hippie, I'm not a flake, and I'm not a "thinker, not doer".

Having said that, I'm in training to be a Tendai Buddhist Priest, baiscally a Japanese offshoot of Theravada ("small vessel") Buddhism. The sect is an offshoot of Mikkyo, or "Esoteric Buddhism" (Buddhism with close ties to Taoism and the funky spiritual/magic stuff) that few people know of (but surprisingly has a strong representation in my hometown in Japan).

I expect I'll be a full-blown priest within 5-8 years.

-Andy

I'm a nihilist. No, scratch that...I don't even believe in nihilism.

- J

I have a significant size rant (just under 2000 word) on my web site that pretty much covers my entire religious belief structure. You're more than welcome to check it out

HERE

Feel free to comment, point out inconsistencies, poke fun or throw stones :-)

,Matt G.

I was raised by a Pentecostal fundamentalist, and some of my formative years were spent learning how to speak in tongues. Perhaps this is why I'm such a language geek.

Early on (around 12 or so) I started to recognize hyposcrisy in the Christianity I was exposed to, and began my own spiritual search. I travelled through Satanism, Hinduism/ISKCON, Asatru, Druidism, Hellenic Paganiasm, and finally settled on Aidanism. I've been involved with Wicca historically, but it's not for me. Now I lead a small group with my husband developing a neo-pagan wisdom tradition with Celtic/Norse influences

I got my Bachelor's in Religious Studies. I've got a greater appreciation for other religions now.

Aidan

I am going to assume that Christoffer means 'organized religious institutions', to wit: Greek Orthodox. Which is essentially the same as the Eastern Orthodox Church. If you're wondering why you don't seem to ever hear much from us folks it's because we don't proselytize thus it's one of those faiths you pretty much have to be born into. (viz. Russian Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, etc.)

Anyone else?

I remain firmly agnostic.

I've got a fascination with the historical evolution of religions (ancestor worship -> tribal gods -> monotheism). Joseph Campbell rocks my lame ass.

I'm also very interested in the evil side of a religion - where I think the true nature of its followers may be found. All this talk of love and peace is nice and all, but when it comes down to it how vile their hell is and how cruel their evil spirits are will tell you what those people are capable of.

cruciel wrote: Joseph Campbell rocks my lame ass.

Andy Kitkowski wrote: He is indeed one of the most biting, critical, and cynical writers I've ever known (at least in his earlier works, before the whole "grandfatherly" image started coming out). I LOVE him!

I should really pick up more of his works than the Power of Myth and The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

I'm having trouble remembering the last time I read something that wasn't software documentation, and rpg, or a frickin' online forum (damn addictive things).

Ahem, well, not trying to antagonise anyone or start any flame wars, but you asked...

I think religion is wrong.

I do not believe in God (/Gods), and I think the concept that we were created by a divine being is laughable.

I think that the world would be a far more tolerant and peaceful place if it were not for religion(s). I think that priests and nuns et al are wasting their lives in the pursuit of absolutely nothing.

Every time I see people killed because they didn't share the beliefs of others, I weep. Every time I see poor families living in poverty because they tithe over large percentages of their income of the local Church, where the vicar/priest/whatever is a fat and wealthy man living in luxury, I weep. Every time I see the pope on TV denouncing birth control in an overpopulated world that is bursting at the seams, I weep. Every time I see parents dragging their children off to Church and forcing their religion on them so that there's no chance they'll get the opportunity to make their own decision in later life, I weep. Every time the bible is used as an excuse for intolerance of women, homosexuals or people of different races, I weep. Every time a man at the side of the road accosts me and tells me I'm going to hell because I don't believe in God, I want to punch him, but I just weep. Every time I see religious shows on TV where people are encouraged to send in their money so the evalgalist can buy another house, I weep. Every time I see sick people conned into believing that a "faith healer" can cure their cancer or make them walk again by laying hands on them, I weep. Every time progress is halted because it's an "affront to god" or people are not allowed to teach science in school because the bible says different, I weep.

Yeah, I weep a lot. But so do the billions of people whose lives are ruined daily by belief in deities who conveniently provide no proof of their existance, and to ask for that proof is showing that you don't have faith. What a beautiful catch-22. God doesn't help out ther worlds woes because he's "the freedom that allows other freedoms to exist", that's great, it means you can preach God but use that line to shut up anyone who has an original thought or question. Everything in the bible that makes sense is gospel, anything that is obviously rubbish (the bible says the earth is flat, square, and held up at the corners by angels, for example) is merely allegory. There's an answer for everything.

So I say no to religion. I'm not merely athiest, I'm against religion itself in all its forms. Are good things done in the name of religion? Sure, probably a lot of the time. But they're outweighed by the bad things done in it's name (IMO) and the world would be better off without it.

Having said all that, I don't feel any less of someone because they believe in whatever they believe in. That's their right. By don't use it as a crutch to excuse your intolerance or indifference towards others, and don't try to "convert" me, and we'll get along just fine :-)

I'm truly sorry if I have pissed anyone off. God will smite me down, I'm sure.

Brian.

I've got a sure fire solution to any religious disagreement...

I'll wrestle you over it.

I am regularly amazed at the lack of religious education displayed in terms of the variety and types of religious institutions, beliefs and practices that actually exist in the world, and the hate and rebellion directed towards "the standard atheist myth(tm)" of what religion is.

It's intellectually and scientifically dishonest to proclaim "how bad religion is" and then refer to through multiple examples to one specific religion as the definitive "thing" that is religion: Hells and evil spirits? Popes and vicars? Divine creation?

I've long known that most self-proclaimed atheists know (and regularly prove they know) precisely squat about the actualities of any religion outside of a very narrow brand of Western Monotheistic tradition so prevalent in mainstream Western culture.

So when someone says, "I hate all religions, all of it is utter crap" and then refers to something that is totally unlike half the religions I am aware of, I find it all very indecipherable and annoying.

Thank you. Nothing more to see here, move along, everyone.
Now let's all shut-up about it before we're moderated, or worse...we all have to wrestle Jason!

Well, do religions without a place to be sent for post-life torture (such as hell) exist. Yeppers, even including christian denominations. If a being of pure love can sentence you to eternal torment, why can't a judge? If the judge can't, who's more moral? How dark and twisted is your view of the unseen? If that's how you see reality, what does that say about you? From my understanding the middle ages picked up the concept of hell as a place of torture, before that it was simply a place absent from the light of God (sorta like a timeout, I guess).

I think all those cruel people where cruel to begin with - doesn't matter much to me whether they use God, Quake, or Alice Cooper as an excuse.

But, I'll wrestle you over that too ;).

Hey, that's got me thinking...

Is christianity abashed? Do you have to drift it to fit your priorities? I think God is love, gimme that do unto others stuff. I think God is vengence, gimme that flood thingy again.

Just a wierd little thought.

(I think I'm gonna hafta get my spandex out any second, I just noticed I didn't add the 'just my narrow little opinion' cause to my last post)

I'm on the cusp of atheism, except for the fact that I can't stand dogma of any sort. However, my unwillingness to commit may come from my decades-long pathological fear of Jesus.

My folks are good AME/Baptist types. My dad was stationed in Germany from my birth until I was about three or four. When I was a wee slip of a lad, we went to a church which had a remarkably realistic, elaborately carved Gothic crucifixion over the altar. I took one look at that thing and ran, screaming, out of the place. It literally took years for me to be willing to enter a church under any circumstance, since I'd been told that church was "where Jesus lived." No way was I going to tangle with that fella.

[Incidentally, I still have recurring nightmares about being chased through my house by Jesus on the cross. Yep.]

So, combine the pathological fear of Jesus with the fact that my folks kept all of the Buddhist/Taoist literature at child's eye level and you get me. I've read a good chunk of religious source material since then, and I appreciate the merits of religion in general... faith creates good stuff, it helps people when they need help and it's been a significant motive force for good and ill. At one level, I'm very much of the "Whatever gets you through" school of thought, and have never felt that I've had the right to declare an according-to-Hoyle view of how the universe works.

Jesus still wigs the hell out of me, though. Probably explains a whole lot about Le Mon Mouri.

Atheist. Would love to be simply agnostic, but I don't even have enough evidence that there is something out there beyond the scope of life and death.

Right now, my only 'faith' is in Transhumanism, that humanity will pull it's collective head out of it's collective ass, take control of it's evolution, and start treating education and science like they actually matter. No more wars, no more prying into other people's lives to enforce orthodoxy, no more time wasted on universal imponderables until we get control of the here and now.

This is why I roleplay; atheism is a very scary place to be.

Well, it's probably no secret that I'm not a big proponent of organized religion. This doesn't stem from bitterness or disapproval of any particular religion or the actions of any religion's followers. Mankind doesn't seem to need much reason to be wicked. I don't see removal of religion changing that, one way or the other, to any noticeable degree.

This is a complex issue so I'll just touch upon a couple aspects. The first being the tendancy of religion to over anthropomorphize the workings of the universe. My particular paradigm rests on a bed of scientific thought. Gods, totems, and to a degree even ancestor spirits just add an unnecessary layer of complexity and obsfucation to what I view as the integrated mechanics of all the constituent parts of the universe. The only leniency I grant in this area is for far flung peoples who still live primitive lifestyles and rely on their religion for the cohesiveness of the prevaling social structure. I think modern man is more than capable of leaving, what I view as, outdated religious institutions behind.

The second aspect I want to touch on is one of personal freedoms. Not all, but many, religions have built in limitations to the amount of personal freedom allowed to a particular segment of people. Examples being women in Islam, homesexuals in Catholicism, and the caste structure of Hinduism. Maybe it's just my modern mindset again but I find such restrictions completely unacceptable, even if individuals who follow those religions and fall under those restrictions do not.

My own beliefs? Well, they're more along the lines of suspicions than spiritual belief. The following quote sums up my "suspicions" much more succinctly than I ever could...

"As a result of a thousand million years of evolution, the universe is becoming conscious of itself.” -Julian Huxley

I was Lutheren, I was raised as Lutheran I think even though my dad was Catholic.

I used to like being Lutheren, all ya gotta do is accept Jesus as your savior and you go to heaven. Easy enough.

Last time I went to church (which is once a year, Christmas Eve) I felt nothing at all from the sermon. That's when I decided that I'm a kinda Christian.

I believe in God. I believe Jesus exists, and did cool stuff and taught cool lessons. I really do not put much stock in the Bible.

Oh, and I know more about Judeo-Christian mythology than any of my heavily religious friends do. I thank my obessions for biblical themed campaigns for that.

-Joshua

Religion robbed me at a young age of my sense of humor. I've had to replace it as best I can with what I can find. Swearing, mostly.

-Vincent

I guess this has already been said here but:

Almost everything done in the name of religions have nothing to do with religion at all, it's just a convenient excuse.

(That said, some brands [sects] of religion lends itself to more xenophobia than others.)

An interesting deal which ought to be familiar to a lot of you is the evolution of the christian theology. Catholicism with it's offsprings (including protestantism) was far from the only christian sect, it just managed to be run by merciless enough people.
My favorite was that "heretical" (heretical means that it didn't win the power-struggle) sect that said the sacraments wasn't effective unless the priest was free of sin. Considering that at the time priests were about the most corrupt people you could find, that scared the living shit out of the people of the Vatican. And as usual it was declared heretical and people believing in it killed as heretics. Yeah, the good old days.

Instutionalized religion is a way to keep people from deep religious experiences and contain them. Organized religions have always feared mystics. (Jesus being an example)

I started a devout Roman Catholic (altar boy and choir singer) but stopped walking that path right before I was Confirmed. After that I studied some Wiccan groups, some non-organized Earth Goddess faiths, and a few others. Became agnostic for a long time. Studied some Eastern belief systems such as Zen Buddhism and Shinto. Finally, decided that the closest system which fit my beliefs is the Tao.

In the end I believe everyone should follow whatever belief system they want so long as they don't bother other people with it.

I'm a Jesusian, which means I believe in what Jesus said and did. I believe the term "christian" carries way too many negative connotations with it to be a useful term anymore.

Is that unclear? Would you like to know more? Don't make assumptions. Ask me.

I'm an "orthodox" Mormon. I believe in modern prophecy, revelation from got through both indivdual prayer and through ordained prophets and apostles who walk the earth today. I believe that God appeard to Joseph Smith in 1820 and Christ several times after. I believe that there really were golden plates.

I thing that quozl's quote "Instutionalized religion is a way to keep people from deep religious experiences and contain them. Organized religions have always feared mystics. (Jesus being an example)" is very poigniant (dangit...I can't spell that). I agree that organized religion is a very easy way to hide from real spirituality, because it's easier. That's the primary flaw I see in believing people of any religion, including my own (though I know more people that have had deep personal experiences as a Mormon than any other western religion). The core of religion, IMO, *must be* personal and private, based on deep personal, spiritual experience. Not everything makes sense, but there's things in my life I certainly can't deny. And for the record I'm not afraid of Jesus, unless "letting him down" counts, meaning I fear him the same way I fear my dad, my wife, or eventually my children...the only thing to fear is one's self.

I spent 2 years proseletyzing in Poland as an ordained Missionary. For the record I always steered clear of people that "weren't interested," as I never saw any point in trying to tell people about my faith if it would make them like mormons less... I did see a great deal of lives changed through the teachings of the church, though, and I know at least 50 or 100 people who wouldn't trade in what we taught them for the world.

I'm very moderate when it comes to discussing anything (religious doctrine and swordplay--two dangerous subjects--included), so if you're ever around me in person expect me to be open but not pushy about what I believe, and I dont' offend as long as none is intended.

Jake

Aw, hell. Religion?

I was raised without a religion for most of my life. It turns out my parents decided to not force religion on my brother and I,...at first. I had heard about god. My aunt read a bit of Genesis to me when babysitting once. For reason unknown to me, I pictured god as looking like the Wizard of Id from the comic strip. It must have been the only thing I could relate it to. That and Enchanter Timothy from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. This is my early vision of god.

What happened later is my father, for some unknown reason, suddenly became religious. Around when I was 7-8 years old. We "church shopped" for a little while. I was either too young or too dense to see what was going on, but the stories my mother tells me about it now are pretty scary, especially some of the crap that went down at the pentecostal church we were test driving. This was fairly close to the whole Jonestown thing. (Timewise, that is)

Long story short, this eventually wrecked my parents' marriage. My father eventually settled on the Church of Christ denomination and then got involved with the International Churches of Christ where he remains today.

At this time, I'm sort of at a crisis of faith. I no longer believe in Christianity. Since this is the faith I had mostly been raised with and my faith in it has been irrevokably shaken, I do not see how or why I could believe in another faith or form of god (note how I have been using the small 'g' the entire time).

That said, I do seem to still believe in something. Fate, perhaps, or destiny. Call it what you will. I think it may just be a matter of time before something hits me and I find faith in something again.

I blab about myself an here a lot. So I'll address some side issues:

Gotta agree that if you vaporized religion as a human phenomenon, we would not suddenly all stop acting wicked. I'm not certain that the hardcore atheists here and elsewhere necessarily mean to imply that, however.

My pet peeve as a Buddhist: people who point out that I'm a Buddhist when I get riled about something enough to, perhaps, say something uncharitable, or maybe, just for example, curse like a sailor. (Buddhism, and many other religions, teach that one should regard enemies as friends, since they're honest about one's faults. So I refer to this type of people as my "dharma friends" on occasion.) As I put it recently to some other Unitarians, I didn't become a Buddhist because I'm perfect--I became Buddhist because I need the medicine it offers.

By the same token, Buddhism's reputation as being somehow extra-pure and good as a world religion is pretty funny. Hang out on a Buddhist bulletin board (hurry before it implodes, as so far they all have) for a while and you will see that there is, ahem, quite a bit of variety in terms of moral turptitude, standards of discourse, and so on. Oh, and we have some really great hells, like some sort of amazing amusement park, some of them easily as inventive and twice as nasty as Dante's vision, with the main benefit being that they aren't eternal--the usual stay is a few hundred thousand years, minimum. (That bit in Big Trouble in Little China about the "hell of being cut to pieces" is perfectly orthodox. Also called the "black line hell," because you're repeatedly born there with black lines all over your body--these lines are where you know for certain you will be chopped, sawn, and variously severed along by demons.)

I have a movie script sitting around unfinished that does somewhat for Buddhism what so many movies have done "for" Catholicism over the last thirty years--show a secret, weirdo conspiracy within the church that holds Terrible Things at bay, or perhaps even harbors them.

In movies and RPGs, I have a real weakness for "kickass priest" characters. (Nope, never played a paladin--I mean I like guys with shotguns who go after zombies, vampires and the such, preferably with cool kung fu moves.)

--JB

I'm an unorthodox-in-every-way Christian. I temper that immediately with the following beliefs:

- Religion is a construct needed to form civilization, as base animal instincts don't allow for much beyond tribalism. It's one of the most enabling ideas that the human mind has come up with, and the idea that there's something better that we can become may be hard-wired into our brains.
- Cultural outlooks influence this need tremendously. For example, modern American Christianity is uniquely American, and nothing like the tenets set forth by Jesus or other Jewish prophets.

I attend a Quaker church, and basically believe truth and kindness equal good, and lies and inflicting suffering on others is evil, and that's about it. I also am a huge fan of the Gospel of Thomas, which is Jesus gettin' all sorts of Buddhist.

I am an Atheist tending towards Agnostic or perhaps the other way around? Either which way, I don't care much for religion, except as an interest in these things, because they are intersting, especialy from a role-players point of view.

Incidentally, despite my A/A tendencies, somehow I attract religious types. Used to go out with a 'Born-Again' type, lived with an ex- Jehova's Witness for thee years and been seeing an ex-Mormon for two years.

Funny old world.

Gideon (look at my name for a start!)

Secular humanist, I guess ("people should be nice to each other. Especially because there is no God"). Atheist non-observant orthodox Jew, like most Israelis I know.

I used to sort-of believe in a God that was (a) more infinite, wise and compassionate than any religion does describe and (b) had a huge sense of irony. I outgrew that.

- Dotan

I'm a secular humanist. Basically atheist. I like Buddhism when looked at as a psychological/philosophical system and stripped of its mythical or superstitious ideas. I generally think it is better to not believe in things there is no real evidence for and that faith is a bad habit to get into. It is good to be OK with the fact you just don't know something and not need to fill the void with a pleasing (or displeasing) religous version. I'd personally prefer that religous wisdom was extracted and recompiled into philosophical frameworks instead of being tangled up with stories that are variously interprted as historical fact, morality tale, symbolic, real, etc. I like a lot of the stories though...

So, this only my 3rd post or so, but this is one of those topics that is always good for drawing people out of the woodwork.

As I said before, Secular Humanist. I did the soul seaching and went from Agnostic ("I dunno") to Atheist ("I don't believe in gods") to Devout Atheist ("I believe there are no gods") and finally discoved that I'd actually been following the Humanist Manifesto the whole time. Being a socialist helps there too. The bible would be great if you edited out all that stuff about God.

90% of people are basically nice, but easily lead. They'll either be lead by a religious zealot or they'll get pushed into a political regime that acts the same way. Religion isn't the only cause of nastiness.

Jake Norwood wrote: I thing that quozl's quote "Instutionalized religion is a way to keep people from deep religious experiences and contain them. Organized religions have always feared mystics. (Jesus being an example)" is very poigniant (dangit...I can't spell that).

Jake

I call myself an agnostic with Taoist leanings.

It turns out that I have some Secular Humanist tendencies, too, at least according to some people I've spoken to, but I don't know enough about the attitude to say anything conclusive about it.

I was raised Liberal Presbyterian, but at this point I am more of a Christian Deist than any organized sect. I am often at odds with people I know over Christianity, mainly over vastly different experience. I went with my church group to see "The Last Temptation of Christ" and discuss it afterwards. The church where I grew up had among the most thoughtful people I knew, and has been a huge influence on my life. Still, I am very suspicious of organized religion in general, and I can see a lot of horrible tendencies in other churches.

Still, as far as I see, the track record of atheist societies is at least as horrendous as the religious ones -- consider Communist Russia and China, for example.

I don't believe the existence of gods, supernatural, fate, karma or even luck really. Actually, I don't believe in a great many things people tell me, like isms. I'd like to, in a way.

I was raised in a variety of Christian variants, Mormon for a few years, then Pentacostal for several more. While a Pentacostal, I developed the annoying habit of challenging everything. You see, I strongly believed in, and still do, St. Paul's admonition to "Prove all things. Hold fast that which is true." My challenges caused a Sunday School teacher to say "Paul, you're such a sinner." He laughed as he was saying it, but I don't believe he was entirely kidding.

Anyways, it got to the point where I had a set of questions, challenges to what I had been taught, that I couldn't find adequate answers to. Eventually I concluded that there were no answers within Christianity. I began to look elsewhere. I wandered through a variety of faiths before finally winding up Asatru (basically, Norse heathnism).

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Anonymous wrote: I regard all religions, bar none...