What's your religious affiliation?

[Bossy Monkey]

Return of the son of beneath "What's your religious affiliation?" Here's the one I did in May, in case anybody's curious: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=3269084
As before, it's probably best just to vote in the poll rather than reply in a flamethrowing manner towards religion and the religious. As before, full disclosure: I'm a lapsed Catholic, now apparently all secular humanist.

Apologize that I couldn't put frisbeeterian on there (you know somebody's going to say it).:)

[LiberalVoice]

1. Former Muslim turned Atheist. nt

[iconoclastic cat]

4. So, how did you arrive at atheism?

[LiberalVoice]

45. From years and years of experience...

My father El-Sayed Nosair was found guilty of being one of two "masterminds" behind the bombings of the WTC's in '93.

Growing up the son of a terrorist and watching entire Islamic communities turning their backs on my family, because of who my father was sort of shattered the impression my father tried instilling me about muslims and Islam.

I have a million stories of how supposedly "religious" people of all faiths fucked my family over because of who my father was. And that basically destroyed the idea that there is only one true god and those that follow him/her/it are better then anyone else.

:shrug:

[iconoclastic cat]

47. Holy crap! (no pun intended)

You should write a freakin' book! Wow. I had no idea.

[LiberalVoice]

50. Well I am a Journalism major.

I have thought about it for a long time....A really long time. I've seriously got a million stories of shit that has gone down because of who my father is.

He initially went to prison in 1990 on charges related to the assasination of Rabbi Meir Kahane(Leader of the largest terrorist organization in the US at the time). Needless to say it all went down hill from there.

[iconoclastic cat]

2. Agnostic, but my daughter will be baptised as a Pastafarian.

[davidinalameda]

5. do you worship Chef Boyardee?

:shrug:

[iconoclastic cat]

10. No, I worship only the Universe. We intend to bring IconBaby up in the

loving tendrils of the Flying Spagetti Monster.
Here's the site: http://www.venganza.org/

[davidinalameda]

62. great site

makes me hungry

[Arugula Latte]

7. Finally! A religion I can believe in!

n/t

All hail the great gods Alfredo, Putanesca, Pesto, and Marinara!

[iconoclastic cat]

Here is rare photographic documentation of the Pastafarian baptism ritual:

[LiberalVoice]

55. lol nt

[Lady Effingbroke]

28. Ah, a future Pastafarian!

I, too, have been touched by His Noodly Appendage!

[MercutioATC]

29. May she be touched by His Noodly Appendage...

Damn, that didn't come out right....


:)

[Arugula Latte]

37. My soul was hardened, but after being immersed in boiling baptismal water,

I am now pliable and al dente and ready to be drained, sauced, and tossed.

[iconoclastic cat]

48. Wow, you would get a "4" for that, if Skinner let us rate comments.

[Arugula Latte]

67. Thanks!

:hi:

Now, let us bow our heads and eat.

[ordinaryaveragegirl]

3. Spritual...but not religious.

[caty]

6. I am a Hunanist Buddhist.

I believe in ethics, compassion, science, and nature.

[khashka]

8. Wiccan, pagan, Discordian

Religion has been the coolest toy this boy ever got.


Really scary thing? I'm a minister, a pastor, a preacher. WTF were they thinking when they gave me my credentials?

Khash.

[Initech]

9. Not religious.

[Shredr]

11. I consider myself a DEIST.

Which is what many of our Founding Fathers were.

I was studying Thomas Paine and really loved his thoughts on creation, religion and life.

Deism is basically: "One who believes in the existence of a God or supreme being but denies revealed religion, basing his belief on the light of nature and reason."

I believe in God but I just don't think he cares who wins the Grammys.

I think the most powerful prayer is gratitude.

[iconoclastic cat]

14. I could go that way, but I don't necessarily buy the idea that "God"

is either interested or aware of us as individuals.

[Shredr]

17. That's basically how I feel, too.

I struggle with the question of whether or not "God" is even aware of us, like you said. I do believe that we are all a part of some bigger spiritual entity. I just don't know if it can control us about as well as we can control the cells in our liver.

I do believe there's a lot out there we don't know or understand.

[Roland99]

12. Formerly Catholic, now Atheist

[iconoclastic cat]

20. I'm interested to know how you got from point A to point B.

[Roland99]

31. Reading, mostly. Esp. on the internet.

Getting into conversations along with some deep soul-searching and shedding of deep, long-held superstitious beliefs.

[goddess40]

65. raised in a Catholic house but always Atheist

I don't ever remember buying into the whole god thing - I believed more in Santa, at least until I was 5 when I saw my dad dressed up as santa.

I went through the whole spiel, baptism, first communion and confirmation because I was forced to. Now my Mother the enforcer is an Atheist. They lost her because the Catholic church deplores women.

[tjwmason]

13. Hmmm - not quite as easy as it sounds.

Technically - I'm a member of the Scottish Episcopal Church, however I only really go there for Easter (as I'm in England for the rest of the year). I was raised Church of England (which along with the S.E.C. is part of the Anglican Communion), and if I found a C.ofE. parish which I liked and attended regularly I'd join it - indeed if forced to tick a box (such as the census) I say C.ofE.

On the otherhand - I'm of distinctly Catholic views, and indeed most Sundays attend Mass at a Roman Catholic church. Pottering to my local parish (C.ofE.) in the evening. I'm in a sort of grey area between the C.ofE. and R.C.

[LaurenG]

15. Some of each

It's all good as far as I'm concerned.:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[no name no slogan]

16. "I was born a snake handler, and I'll die a snakehandler"

No, i suppose i'm some sort of unitarian-universalist, although according to that survey at beliefnet I came out 100% as a liberal quaker. i've never been to a Friends meeting, though, although I'd like to go someday...

[iconoclastic cat]

19. But when that sweet, sweet beer touched my lips, I was BORN AGAIN!

[no name no slogan]

25. LOL!!!

:rofl:

"Yeah, i won't be in today. Religious holiday. The Feast of, uh, Maximum Occupancy."

[Trillo]

18. Would have voted for "none", except for

"secular humanist, atheist, agnostic, etc."
which for me would be inaccurate.

Edit: I voted "other".

[CaliforniaPeggy]

21. I voted "other"....

I was raised Roman Catholic, got married in the Unitarian Church, and now consider that I'm spiritual...instead of religious...

Works for me...

:)

[Wapsie B]

22. ELCA Lutheran

who was baptized LCMS & Roman Catholic. So that's why I hate myself. *rimshot*

:rofl:

[JVS]

42. Did you hear that you're getting a new hymnal?

http://www.renewingworship.org/

[Wapsie B]

46. No I didn't.

But it's been quite some time since I've been at a traditional Lutheran service. I'm more a fan of what's called aternative worship rather than all that long-winded liturgy.

[hyphenate]

23. What we need is a post

to ask those of us who are agnostic/atheists what background we come from. I'm a lapsed catholic.

[Bossy Monkey]

24. I did one of those too, but it was a lonnnnnnnnnng time ago

I'll add the link on edit if I can find it.
Edit: Apparently it was so long ago it was on DU1 and thus is unsearchable, but here's one I did quite recently on how folks got to their current religion/ worldview:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=3762298

[jonnyblitz]

26. i am an atheist and my background was congregationalist.

i basically was suspicious at an early age when i found out they lied to me about santa claus. i figured everything else that sounded farfetched must have been lies also.

[RandomKoolzip]

53. My background was anarchist.

My family never had religion in our lives; my father was an anarchist who told me from an early age that religion was just a ruling class tool to control the population (he was right).

I'm still an atheist.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

27. Kind of a mixture

I like many ideas in Taoism and Buddhism and have bought many books about these two religions. On the other hand, I was raised Catholic and still love the majesty of a Sunday morning Mass and love reading the Gospels.

[CatholicEdHead]

30. Secular Humanist Catholic

I have not jumped ship yet becuase I want to try to hold back the changes on a local level.

[MissMarple]

32. Deist.

I hate dogma.

[Maddy McCall]

33. I belong to the Church of Nature of My Beautiful Back Yard.

I'm not much on any kind of institutionalized religion. I feel most spiritual when I am enjoying the nature in which my cabin is nestled.

[youthere]

34. I'm Presbyterian officially...

but more and more I've been leaning towards Gnostic Christian.

[ghostsofgiants]

35. Secular humanist/agnostic

I was raised Pentecostal, but it wasn't really a strict upbringing. Some of my friends from school (I went to a Pentecostal school until grade 8) weren't even allowed to listen to rock music. My dad pretty much raised me on classic rock. Neither of my parents are overly religious, it was more of an influence from my grandparents that had me going to church and stuff. When I turned 13 my parents decided to let me choose whether or not to go to church and at that point I chose not to simply because I found it boring. But as I got older it all just started to seem pretty silly to me, so I drifted towards agnosticism.

[SoCalifer]

36. Not religious

n/t

[Blue_In_AK]

38. Self-defined melange...

I don't go to church, but I consider myself spiritual.

[jus_the_facts]

39. other....and get extremely offended having to be catagorized..

...by religion or lack thereof. :rant:

[Kathleen04]

40. Voted mainstream protestant, but

I don't really "identify" with a denomination within that and I don't even really think that there should be denominations..and I'm not "religious" but spiritual, I guess you could say, w/ a liberal Christian belief-system. :)

[JVS]

41. LCMS Lutheran

The ELCA was just too comfortable.

[Mr Rabble]

43. Atheist

[UrbScotty]

44. Liberal, Kerry-loving, Kucinich-loving Catholiic. (nt)

[Secular Agent Man]

49. Atheist...

:party:

Hello peeps, my first post!

[WhollyHeretic]

51. Welcome to DU

:toast:

[Secular Agent Man]

54. Thanks. /eom

[AlleyCat123]

52. Liberal, yellow-dog-Democrat Roman Catholic.

I've never voted for a Republican in a partisan election is 32 years, or knowingly voted for one in a NON-partisan election in the same time frame.

[LiberalVoice]

56. You mean "Yellow-Cat"?

:P

[AlleyCat123]

64. Ya got me there!

I have both cats and dogs, though.

:)

[GoddessOfGuinness]

57. I'm an unlabeled, undefined melange of spirituality.

Labels get us into too much trouble.

They ask us to put boundaries on truth which is profoundly infinite. They encourage us to dismiss as irrelevant people who subscribe to beliefs and non-beliefs that differ from ours.

I don't care if anyone believes the same things I do. I only hope that we seek peace with ourselves and each other.

[BikeWriter]

58. None

[Seabiscuit]

59. "self-defined melange" - closest I could find to lost and confused.

[LastKnight]

60. ive been asking myself that question for years now

well, its more along the lines of questioning what i believe in rather than waht to call it.

just wish someone could tell me all the right answers.

[enigmatic]

61. Mahayana Buddhist

Since I was 25 or so.

http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/BUDDHISM/MAHAYANA.HTM

[LuCifer]

63. I'm pretttttttty sure I fall into OTHER!

http://www.ChurchOfSatan.com anyone!

[The Animator]

66. Was Baptized Catholic

gradualy moved toward Atheism. Read the DaVinci Code and that pretty much sealed it.

Spent several years living among nerds, accepted my nerdhood and became a Jedi.

[mvd]

68. In name, Catholic

But I said melange, because I practice an alternate Christianity - one with some UU elements.

[William Bloode]

69. I had to go with...

Pagan/nature centered. I stick with the spirituality of my Tsalangi ancestors as much as possible.

[catbert836]

70. Don't really have a name for it.

But I believe in the social ideas of Jesus, the meditation of Buddha, the Tao of the Taoists, and the Great Spirit of the Native Americans. I also consider myself a pantheist.