The "religion" thread..

[GeertSamuel]

Please don't this thread be hi-jacked with discussion or fights about religion. Or bashing eachothers religion. Let's respect eachother on here!

You sometims see a thread appear on here about a certain following or religion. And now I'm curious what would be the main "religion" on this forum.

Me: Christianity (Evangelic)

 

[Nebulous]

Have a feeling you may have to add some options, possibly restart it for it.

I'm "undecided".....whatever that may mean to others haha.

 

[drew_drummer]

What a silly poll. First of all..... your poll question is:

What "religion" do you follow, or not?

Why the hell put "or not" if you're not even going to create a poll option for "none of the above" or something similar? More to the point; why do you care? Furthermore... Atheism is NOT a religion.

 

[STINNETT]

Yes, how do we answer if we are not religious?

 

[lilhermiejobo]

I consider Atheism a type of religion because it is a belief system even if the philosophies shared by atheists differ. Compared to Christianity, while being divided into multiple denominations revolving around a central theme, Atheism also is divided into multiple philosophies revolving around a central theme.
While Christianity and Atheism are on opposite ends of the religious spectrum, they each have a core belief and to accomodate the vast population increase they each have grown and adpated according to personal conviction.

From the article on Atheism on Wikipedia:

In the broadest sense, it is the absence of belief in the existence of deities............
Although some atheists tend toward secular philosophies such as humanism,[9] rationalism, and naturalism,[10] there is no one ideology or set of behaviors to which all atheists adhere.

From the article on Religion on Wikipedia:

A religion is a system of human thought which usually includes a set of narratives, symbols, beliefs and practices that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power, deity or deities, or ultimate truth...................Moral codes, practices, values, institutions, tradition, rituals, and scriptures are often traditionally associated with the core belief, and these may have some overlap with concepts in secular philosophy. Religion is also often described as a "way of life" or a life stance.

 

[drew_drummer]

My take on it:

Atheism is not a religion. If you think it is, you're misunderstanding it. Does NOT collecting stamps mean that your hobby is not collecting stamps? No. It means you don't have a hobby of collecting stamps.

The reason there is so much conjecture about atheism is because people do not understand it. Atheism is simply the lack of a belief in the existence of a supernatural God. God is a perquisite for religion. If there is no god, then it is philosophy.

Atheism is a philosophy, and can help to be a free person with a connection to their environment, without any of the spiritual shackles imposed by religion.

 

[STINNETT]

Being an atheist simply means that you don't believe in a god or gods. The rest of how you live your life really has nothing to do with that.

Atheism is not a religion.

 

[STINNETT]

I don't believe in leprechauns, and nobody is calling that a religion.

 

[lilhermiejobo]

I guess if there are a group of people who genuinely believe in leprechauns as higher beings, that would still point towards Atheism being that you dont believe in them.

 

[SocialNumb]

Atheism is not a religion!

Like Agnosticism is not a religion.

Fail.

 

[STINNETT]

That still doesn't make it a religion. I'm not even setting the terms in that case, I'm an uninvolved bystander that the Leprechaun believers would feel the need to label.

The only reason the term "atheist" exists is so we can be differentiated when required. It really has no significance outside of that.
Everything else about how we live our lives is completely separate. Sure, we may be influenced somewhat by atheism, and the point of view which led us to atheism may be visible in other aspects of our personal philosophies - but the point is that atheism has no central doctrine, it has no dogma, it espouses nothing. It is only a label to differentiate us from those who have adopted a particular belief.

And sure, we don't believe there is a god - but that doesn't involve faith or acceptance of anything. It's just like anything else - if there is no evidence for it, the default position should be that it doesn't exist and you shouldn't modify your life to make allowances for it. Dragons, Unicorns, Leprechauns, and Deities all fall into this category.

Atheism is not a religion.

 

[FIXXXER]

i am born as a muslim but i am surely NOT going to choose "Islam" here...

first of all i need to say that the basic idea (faith, love, hope, charity IMHO) of religion surely
is a good thing and i respect everyone who follows this idea!

"today's" religion* has nothing to do with this anymore.
it's all about separation, competition, oppression...violence!

so the big problem and the problem of everything else what's happening in the world
is just the infinite idiocy of the human race!

so i just give a fuck about it!!!

...what should i choose now!?

 

[drew_drummer]

Interesting. Would you say you've rejected Islam, and would you say you've received any backlash for doing so? Curious, like.

 

[GarethSE]

Interesting. Would you say you've rejected Islam, and would you say you've received any backlash for doing so? Curious, like.

Yeah, +1 to this. Without meaning to pry of course

Also, I'm a hardcore athiest.
edit: and as far as whether it is or is not a religion, i don't think it's a religion either, but if i have a form that asks my religion, i usually put "athiest." why? i dunno.

 

[FIXXXER]

Interesting. Would you say you've rejected Islam, and would you say you've received any backlash for doing so? Curious, like.

actually i was never into it fortunately.
my parents did not want to educate me that way

 

[drew_drummer]

Right. I ask because as a Western white person, it seems that we are inundated with horror stories about honour killings and all that kind of gubbins. It is hard to know what to believe when it comes to the practices of societal Islam. I think a lot of people are afraid of Islam because they just don't understand it; hence the bias towards reporting on Islam being from a fearful perspective a lot of the time.

 

[GarethSE]

actually i was never into it fortunately.
my parents did not want to educate me that way

good on them
my primary school was fairly christian
had to sing all that "allll thiiings briiight and beaaautiiifullll" song, im sure most of you here know the one.. D: in assemblys and shit haha
but yeah i was always given the option to choose and she always supported me whatever
i used to believe in god when i was a little kid but it was mostly due to the influence from the school and mum supported that, bought me a book of bible stories (one a day, for all 365 days of the year )
the moment puberty hit and my ability to think more rationally kicked in, i pretty much immediately decided that religion and the beliefs that come with it weren't for me and she totally respects my beliefs just the same as when i was a kid, which is cool

 

[FIXXXER]

"not understanding it", which affects most western people but eastern islamic people also,
is the main problem of islam and religion in general...

also the whole middle east problem is a result of desperation and non education,
it has nothing to do with islam but with the "stupidity" of the people, and politics...

@Gareth
same thing here.
as i said i was not educated religious but i used to "pray to god to protect me and my familiy, friends etc."
as a kid, when going to bed, for example. all this dissaperared when i started to grow
up and think about things...i managed to turn the corner!

 

[SocialNumb]

I pretty much talked my mom out of being religious on accident. She always held the Bible "holy" but never read much of it. So being someone who has read the bible a LOT of times, I quoted a few of the lovely lines in it.
She freaked out and couldn't believe that such things came out of the bible. So I showed her. She hates the book now. She is not religious but believes there must be some kind of "God". As for me, she always gave me the freedom to choose my own path in whatever.

 

[drew_drummer]

My mum sat me down at the kitchen table one day, and told me religion was basically bullshit, and introduced me to the big bang.

But with age, she has come to loosen up and now even visits spiritualist churches for some consolation at times. I've not really made my mind up about religion. I have severe atheistic tendencies, but every now and then something will happen that sparks my interest in other things.