Atheist or Religious?

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This is what I have said for a LONG time. I actually played with christianity a decade ago. I'M THROUGH! I don't even know if I'll go to church again. Maybe I SHOULD just go to atheist!

BESIDES, there is something WRONG about a religion that teaches you can't be nice or decent without it.

Steve

I'm an atheist and have been so since I was 11 because I find many of the concepts relating to god to be illogical. Although I'm not the sort pick a fight with someone or insult them because they believe in god because I find that illogical, aswell (the opposite has been done to me).

I don't believe in Darwin’s theory. Science has actually moved on from there believe it or not. Evolution is a lot more complicated than first thought. I respect Darwin for his achievements though in the face of a lot of mockery.

Technically, one can be both atheist and religious. Buddhism is a non-theistic religion, and many would call it an atheist religion. You can read more about Buddhism here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism

I believe in God, and am religious in a quiet sense. I don't go to church, because it seems that it is just one more place where people go to socialize.

Technically maybe. But I disagree with people call it just philosophy. It is clearly a religion with belief systems. It is generally a lot more palatable many of the other religions. But it is not totally immune to some of the problems other religions have such as fundamentalism such has happened in Sri Lanka. Granted it is small. But I think secular non-religious societies are more equipped to deal with problems such as that.

I am neither. I suppose I would categorize myself as an secular agnostic. This doesn't mean that I don't have an interest in spirituality, morality and society however. Also worth noting is that I am also just as against extreme forms of atheism as I am against extreme forms of religeon. I also can't stand Richard Dawkins and his 'church' of followers as his evangalicising of agnosticism leaning towards atheism not only weakens and trivialises his message but also makes him as bad as the people he criticises.

The thing I have never understood about religeon is people who view it as culture, birthright and tradition. They identify themselves as part of a religeous group yet often show little sign of believing in their religeons philosophy and/or rules. For me, either you believe in something and follow it or you don't. For example, my family are completely non-religeous yet consider themselves to be aligned with a religeon and seek out friends based on having that 'faith' in common yet rarely worship or believe in any of it. They treat it as a social club.

Agnostic. How can one be otherwise after reading Spinoza?

I think NTs very much need religion as they are too fuzzy in their thinking to develop moral codes without an outside authority. Religious NTs tend to be superficially more kind and tolerant of others. I grew up in the Bible Belt and there simply was no bullying of the kind I read about here. It was not tolerated.

I'm not sure if I could agree to that as I just finished reading Jesus Land, http://www.juliascheeres.com/

The severe bullying described in the book about the author's childhood in rural Indiana brought me to tears.

That was NOT my experience in the South. The only religion I was exposed to was Methodism which is very accepting of differences, not a Calvanistic religion. The elementary school I attended was at least 50% Jewish and the kids were nice. The school buses here are driven by middle-aged black women who have 7 kids of their own and do not tolerate bad behavior. They will pull the bus over and set the kids straight on what they can and cannot do to each other. Maybe my environment was more tolerant because we had a lot of diversity?

I find most religions incompatible with my morals. I find the idea of an "immortal soul" redundant and implausible. I don't think that "create the universe" is a logically viable statement when time is held to be an inseparable moiety of the universe's existence. I really don't understand how being religious has anything to do with one's moral character, and I haven't noticed any positive correlation between the two.

I suppose this makes me an atheist.

I'm agnostic.

Solipsism is the belief that only your own mind and thoughts are real, and that the rest of the universe is not.

I recently discovered that "atheism" actually means you KNOW that there is no God. How can one KNOW...until one has searched every corner of the universe, and then searched all the dimensions above the 3rd? Since it is technically impossible to prove that something does not exist, the atheist therefore claims omniscience -- that he/she knows absolutely everything.

True. That was Spinoza's point and what Einstein wrestled with. Atheism is a belief.

Many atheists here.

I'm Christian but I'm not sure which denomination is right for me, although for now I'll just stick with Episcopalianism. Does that make me semi-Agnostic?