Which best describes your views?

[redqueen]

I'm curious to know how many fellow agnostics are around these parts.


edit to add... sorry for the overly simplistic terms I've used here... I wouldn't have if I didn't think it was necessary. If you haven't read this article, you might be interested in it:

http://www.salon.com/books/int/2006/05/30/armstrong/print.html

Perhaps we can have a discussion about the 'infantile' belief in god/religion described in that interview? I'd like that. :)

[SteppingRazor]

1. Apparently, there's a lot of your fellow agnostics

I'm one of them, for what it's worth. I just don't see the point in debating the existance of something that can't be proven either way. :shrug:

On a more personal level, I don't think I need some higher being to tell me what's right or wrong — I think humans can come up with their own morality and ethics — so I suppose I lean toward atheism. But I wouldn't be so presumptious as to scream "there is no God!!" I just don't think it's worth the effort.

[redqueen]

4. I'm close to that.

However I think I lean more towards "belief" but since I'm not there... well... there's no gray area is there? I was raised Catholic, and I was definitely taught there's no gray... not at all. Believe or burn in hell!

[SteppingRazor]

6. 10 years of Catholic school here...

plus a stint as an altar boy. You have my deepest sympathy.

[redqueen]

8. haha noooo...

I liked it! It made life interesting. :)

[BOSSHOG]

2. Thanks to religious buffoons in this country

I have questioned my beliefs and then considered that stupid on my part. We stopped going to Mass years ago because we were tired of being told who was the hatedujour. Over the past few years I am of the mind that religion most definitely is a great part of what is wrong on this planet. This coming from an altar boy and one who considered the priesthood at an early age.

Its tough living in the land of the free and watching the religious community being the leader of movements to take away freedoms all in the name of God. That really pisses me off but I have discovered that I can remain somewhat steadfast in my belief without incense and an altar.

I did not vote in your poll. I'm so confused.

[redqueen]

7. I'm sorry...

I was raised Catholic, and I still have a fondness for all the rituals and the traditions. I don't see the dogma as fact, though, so... that makes me an agnostic, I think.

I see myself as more spiritual than aspiritual, though I'm definitely not willing to declare that I am certain that there is some interventionist deity that we can label as "god".

[BOSSHOG]

19. But the beautiful thing about

our relationship is that we are not making efforts to force whatever we "believe" on each other. Its what makes the land of the free so wonderful and such a threat to zealots. You and I can "believe" whatever we choose and live in perfect harmony under the protection of the constitution and that really pisses off those who don't like us doing that.

[rainy]

3. Other, explaining.......

I believe that God is energy. Energy is everywhere, within us, around us. When we die, I think our energy joins the mass of energy. Our energy may keep returning as a living being. Maybe! Sounds good anyway. We should treat each and every living animal with respect as we are all one with man and nature.

[redqueen]

17. I like that theory re: energy.

And I certainly agree with that thing about respect. MUCH too little of that going around.

[GeorgeGist]

5. It so sad that people, even agnostics and atheists...

equate religion with belief in God.

[redqueen]

10. *sigh*

I hear you!

But to more easily communicate with others, we have to communicate using terms that most are familiar with.

[Fresh_Start]

9. Believe there's something more than chance at work

may not be responsible for creation
may not be responsible for events
but rather inspires (some of us) to be our best for the sake of all of us

despair at religion because of its divisiveness

[CJCRANE]

11. Agnostic here.

The whole James Cameron thing sparked my curiosity to have a peep in the Religion forum.

[redqueen]

14. Well nice to see you.

I haven't come here too often before just recently.

It was my pondering on 'the void' that got me to come searching around this place.

[unpossibles]

12. I am on the atheistic side of agnosticism

I don't believe in god, but I also cannot say for sure one does not exist. The same can be said for fairies. And aliens, except they are more likely to exist.

All that said, I have experienced things which seem to be outside of our ken, but I just think we don't understand those things yet.

[redqueen]

15. Yes, exactly!

There are things we don't get yet... but we can, someday, maybe, I think.

I'd rather try to figure them out than dismiss them out of hand, though... I guess that's what puts me more in the leaning towards spiritualism column than leaning towards atheism. Well... I dunno... because spirituality doesn't necessarily mean I believe in an interventionist "god".

Argh, it's so confusing, this topic.

[Double T]

13. Pagan

Pagan:

(a) a person who follows a religion other than the Judaeo-Christian Monotheistic faith of Islam, Judaism, or Christianity.

(b) faiths including but not limited to Druidry, Witchcraft, Hindi, Native American Spirituality, and the belief in the mono/polytheistic religions of our ancestors.

(c) modern day spirituality based on a reverence of nature and a connection to the cosmos through oneself.

[redqueen]

16. Dammit.

I should have remembered and included Pagan. Sorry! :blush:

[Double T]

18. Not Mainstream. No Problem.

Great thread redqueen! Thank you!

[MedleyMisty]

20. I answered atheist

But I do think I am spiritual and I'm interested in spirituality.

I just don't believe in anything supernatural. I don't need a god to give me a reason to be moral and compassionate and loving towards all life.

I wasn't raised in any religious tradition or anything. In fact I escaped pretty much any sort of indoctrination as a kid. My mother let me read anything I wanted to read and do anything I wanted to do. She did teach me some things, or perhaps maybe she just reinforced them - one of my happiest Christmas memories as a kid is buying stuff for the kid whose angel we'd taken from the Salvation Army Christmas tree. And my father died when I had just turned seven and my mother was a sock-boarder, so it wasn't like it was noblesse oblige or the sort of pity that looks down its nose or anything like that.

So I just sort of made up my own moral system, and it doesn't depend on conformity or fear of punishment or desire of a reward or blindly following the words of someone else. It's just...love. Love and compassion for the whole universe. For no real reason other than that the universe exists and needs someone to love it. Everybody needs love.

My father might have taught me some things before he died. I don't remember many specifics about him, but I do remember that he was a great man.

I do have my mother's word that he taught me chess when I was two, with a picture to back it up. :)

[redqueen]

21. I really like your answer.

I don't believe in anything supernatural, either. It's all natural.

Thanks for chiming in. :)

[BlueDissenter]

22. Discordian

I'm a proud member of the religion disguised as a joke disguised as a religion.

[toddaa]

23. I'm an agnostic atheist, which one do you want me to pick

Hey, let's have the definition argument again!!!

I'll bring a coffee cake.

[Evoman]

24. I'm a scientismist.

Science is my god, and I pray to it everyday.

"Help me with this infection. "

"Help heal my sores"

"Help me communicate with my loved ones far away"

"Please science, help me find answers to the questions in my mind."

Science is the one true god, and google is his messenger. I like that my science god beats the living shit out of all the other gods on a daily basis.

[cosmik debris]

25. Other: Ignostic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignostic

[varkam]

26. Atheist AND Agnostic

They are not mutually exclusive terms. If anyone cares, I'll be happy to explain but I'm not going to go through the pain of typing out a delicate explanation if no one's going to read it (not that anyone reads what I have to say anyway) :)

[NAO]

27. I don't believe in Zeus, Wotan, Thor, Yahweh, Apollo, Baal, John Frum, etc.

all of those beings are fictions created by human imaginations gone wild.

"All of us are atheists with respect to most of the gods humans have invented. Some of us just go one god further" - Richard Dawkins