Religion

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I don't want this to be a debate thread
I want this to be a -you say what religion you are
and maybe why you are that religion.
Hence why I put it here and not the chaotic religion forum
I am a neo-pagan (or a wiccan-iIl use the term interchangeably)
Have been so since I was 15
had 14 different conversion attempts

No religion (Atheist)
I'm a skeptic; I can't believe in god(s) that have been made up to explain unexplainable phenomenon
I was agnostic since 6 or 7
Became atheist when I was 14
I've researched many religions, none of them were believable to me
At best/worst, I follow positivism/scientism


Maybe we can collect data from here to see what religion WP users belong to.

As organized religions go, I identify most strongly with Unitarian Universalism.

The church defines itself as a "non-dogmatic" church.

They have two basic beliefs:

1) there is no hell (or satan / devil, etc)

2) there is no separation between your practical life and your spiritual life -- so in other words, there's nothing particularly special about the time or place or event of attending church, except whatever value you place on these things, because a day at the office or a walk in the park are equally as "spiritual" events as is church - all experiences are inherently spiritual experiences

It's the only church I know of that's had a fair number of atheists as members... casual atheists generally I believe, not the missionary kind of atheists. And based on the above stated beliefs, they would equally welcome Mormons or Muslims (and here's the key), withOUT trying to convert them away from their established religion (because that would be antithetical to their previously stated beliefs). Generally speaking however, members of the more stringent religions like Mormons and Muslims aren't attracted to UU churches, and so although they would never be turned away from a UU church (or discouraged by UU people), they're generally not found their by their own preference. A lot of identified pagan / wiccan people are also members (they have a sub-group called CUUPS).

I identify with UU more than any other church because they actually do encourage diversity at least in theory, even if individual congregations or even the church as a whole tend to fall into a sort of natural conformity (meaning that no one enforces conformity). Heck, you could believe in Satan if you like and be a member and even if they were annoyed by your ideas they would still accept you, respect you and allow you to hold those beliefs. It's just that people who believe in Satan don't generally choose spend time at UU churches.

The thing is that their philosophy imo is good, whether or not it turns out quite the way they want or expect. So in my experience actually attending UU churches has typically been somewhat similar to interaction with people here on WP. There is a diversity of ideas, although there are certain trends in our beliefs as well.

And I will admit that I'm fairly biased. My first experience with a UU church was one of the happiest moments of my life. One of the rare occasions on which I was genuinely accepted. :D

No beliefs.

Promethean.

No, I made that up. But I think he makes a better martyr thn Jesus.

What is my religion? Good question ... no answer ...

Conservative Christian at your service.

I'll wait and see how this thread goes before I incriminate myself

Atheist since the age of 12

I am a Christian. I am a Protestant. The denomination to which I belong is the United Methodist Church. I am also the church organist at our church.

I was brought up in the Methodist church. I used to be in a southern gospel quartet and I got to see many different types of churches, but the Methodist always seemed to suit me the best. I appreciate other religions too. My wife and I even attended a Jewish synagogue with a couple Jewish friends once.

My wife and I were married in a Methodist church by a Pentecostal minister.

A liberal Roman Catholic who doesn't fit in at the church he patrons at your service.
{Too many cliques, just like high school!}

I was Baptised at the age of 3, had First Communion at 6,
and was Confirmed at 14.

During my First Communion in 1996, I cried.

I cried when the church by my house* was closed by the Archdiosese of Portland
in 1998 {I'm not sure.} for renovation and to make way
for a retirement center. It was re-opened in 2003 only for the people
living at the retirement center as a chapel. {I'm not sure again.}

*My family were members of the church that was closed. The church was by my house.*

I cried again in the summer of 2007 when the pastor who
was assigned to my new church in 1998 was re-assigned.
During his goodbye party, I ran to the bathroom and
was tempted to bang my head on the wall, but given
my epilepsy, I would have single handley crashed his party.

When I go to Mass alone, there is a fun ministry after.
It's called Coffee & Donuts.
I always stand to the side, eating my donut
and drinking an alternative to coffee, such as juice or water.

I am a Christian, and a creationist, and I have been to several churches of various denominations. I was once an evolutionary atheist but God knocked me off my evolutionary donkey on that one. This is not to say that all Christians are creationists nor that all evolutionists are atheists.

One of the things that got me to thinking about God and His creation was the discovery of the DNA molecule. That discovery has led me to believe that because organic life starts off with such a complex design that life itself could have been created only by a Master Designer somewhere in His cosmic laboratory.

And I believe that the Master Designer, called God by many, came to earth in the form of Jesus to reveal Himself to us in a way that our souls could easily understand.

Boy I must be an odd duck...

I believe in evolution, but I'm not an atheist.
I believe in religion, but I don't subscribe to any particularly specific religion.

I don't believe that jesus was a flesh and blood person -- nor for that matter buddha or any of the other claimed to be physical manifestations of deity from various religions. The reason for this is that I don't believe an omnipotent God would need a physical manifestation of them to communicate to us, regardless of whatever other people think about how "small and fail" our minds are or how much we might "reject the message" if it weren't delivered in "just such a way" that we could understand it.

I can't really get with the idea that it needed to be delivered in "just such a way" that only Jesus would work because I largely view the message of Jesus as having been a failure in that it's failed to capture the imagination of most of the world. It's too unconvincing for people who aren't already Christian and for those who are, too many of them just don't bother to pay attention to what was supposed to have been his message of peace anyway.

I realize that K-Pax is basically an interesting interpretation of the same Christ myth archetype told about Jesus in the bible, but this remains one of my favorite movie quotes: "You humans. Most of you subscribe to this policy of an eye for an eye, a life for a life, which is known throughout the Universe for its stupidity. Even your Buddha and your Christ had quite a different vision but nobody has paid much attention to them, not even the Buddhists or the Christians."

But, being unable to get with the "a way we could understand" idea, what I could get with is an idea that maybe the trappings of religion are only important on a personal or cultural level -- and that actual knowledge is merely available to those who choose to be in a receptive state. This theoretical model would not require any Jesus or Buddha (which may just as well be trappings themselves). But moreover, even if I did subscribe to the "a way we could understand" idea, that still doesn't require his having been physical. Do you realize the effect something like the Matrix has had on people? The only thing that would be required is for someone to have penned the story.

The religion itself can have its own merit or value -- we can imbue it with whatever value we like, including being okay for people to believe in physical manifestations of Jesus, irrespective of what I might believe. And I believe that the value we imbue our religions with is inherently worthwhile. (Why I say I believe in religion in spite of not subscribing to a specific religion.)

And after it's all said and done, even if Jesus was a flesh and blood person, I think what the Bible says about him is maybe at most 2% accurate at a conservative estimate, after all the well known facts about the bible like the fact that any given story in the bible had a multitude of written versions prior to the Bible's creation.

I think Spanky the Ham said it best for me: "the Bible says a lot of things... and not very clearly."

Perhaps these are just all the reasons why I found the UU church so personally compelling.

And oddly enough, I'd never heard of Chris Langan until today but I stumbled across a wikipedia article about him while looking at some information about eye-contact... and discovered his theory of a Cognitive Theoretical Model of the Universe (CTMU).

http://megafoundation.org/CTMU/Q&A/Archive.html#CTMU

I'm actually not a huge fan of people splicing religion together with quantum mechanics because a) it's totally impractical and b) it's far too easy to misinterpret what quantum mechanics actually says because almost nobody understands it to begin with (see impractical). Having said that, in spite of the fact that he did that, a lot of the things he describes on that page with very jargoned speech are perfect equivalencies of pet ideas I've had about the nature of God and the universe for a long time. I won't call them "theories", I'll leave that to Chris. They're ideas. I don't claim that they have any special merit merely because some proclaimed super-genius found some way to tie them into quantum mechanics. I believe them because I choose to believe them because I find that they bring me that much sought after "inner peace".

At the end of the day, I think that's the only legitimate criteria for a person's religious affiliation. And I can't predict what will bring someone else inner peace, which is why I generally reject any notion of religious evangelism or missionary practices.

Sorry if this is a little off the topic of my religion and why I choose to identify as UU.

Also sorry that it probably sounds a bit preachy... I realize it probably does, just not sure how to express these ideas without sounding that way.

Im a sunni muslim.

Well to begin with I would like to say that I have been baptised and christend in two different religeons, I like to belive I dont realy follow a single religeon, but run my own spin on a bunch of different things. For one I dont realy follow things like the bible, as A) too much stuff not makeing sense and B) I think it was made by men and not realy any god. Some of the things that turn me off the big ones is that they are realy small minded, in demonising anything they dont like, and they can be big hipocrits in not following in their own teachings of peace. I would like to belive in things like Jesus, but I cant stand it when they say his name every 5 seconds, use him as an excuse for doing bad things, and how it just feels like they put words in their mouths, man I hate most of the people in those stupid god shows.