Are You Religious?

[Firefly]

Curious to see if there are any Religious folks out there....

 

[sisterofmercy]

Nope, proud atheist here. There should really be an option for agnostics though on the poll.

 

[Kemy]

Nope, proud atheist here. There should really be an option for agnostics though on the poll.

Ditto and yes, there should be.

 

[Kean]

I'm in a complicated relationship with Catholicism.

I'm trying very hard to figure out where I stand within Catholicism and discern what is "The Church" (which I have oceans of issues with, if not down right disdain) and what constitutes my Faith, which I feel is where my real spirituality resides. I'd love to find the Josiah Bartlet balance of it all. I'm not capable of blind devotion, nor can I renounce my religion all together.

 

[Nix]

I put no as your original question was am I religious but I do believe in a higher power of some kind...

 

[woogirl]

I am officially a Catholic. But really I don't go to church. Maybe 3, 4 times a year. I want to believe in all of these stuff, to feel connection between me and God. I know he's somewhere, maybe he's looking at us and has a reason for everything.

 

[Username]

I was raised in a agnostic Jewish home, and I'm very much an atheist.
I still celebrate some Jewish traditions with my family, but it's a cultural thing and not religious. I don't think anyone in my family believes in a higher power.

 

[kittenpoker]

I absolutely have to believe in a higher power...I have no idea what that is, but all I know is, I am so not running the show! 🙂

I feel like my life is a spiritual journey.... and it's not so much that I have a soul, but that I *am* a soul and I have a body....

but you know, life for me is about experiencing what those words really mean.

But... I'm not sure I'd call myself religious.

 

[PrincessBuffy16]

Yes, but I'm not a fanatic. I believe in God, but I'm not sure I believe in everything that's in the Bible. I think the Bible is strongly metaphorically written and that people fail to see it. I go to church every Christmas and Easter, but Sunday masses are not on my list.. I lost my faith in church, because they don't act like that's house of God anymore.

 

[Goby]

Many Buddhists don't believe in a "higher power."

 

[wickedtiger86]

Many Buddhists don't believe in a "higher power."

Seemed strange to me that this was the last post before I got here.

If I am anything it's probably Buddhist. But I'm not completely comfortable with ruling out a higher power either. It's something I think a lot about.

I have a journal solely dedicated to my spiritual growth. And a lot of it focuses on whether or not there is a higher power.

I am a very spiritual person though. I spend a lot of time thinking about my soul and what it's for.

 

[arabella]

This poll was confusing to me. I answered yes to "do you believe in a higher power?" But I wouldn't call myself religious. Being religious always seemed to have such a negative connotation to me.

 

[VisionGirl]

Yeah, the thread title and the actual poll question are two different things: I know a lot of people who aren't religious (as in the actual institution) but who would say they believe in a Higher Power. As for me, I'm both, but I struggle with both. I'm Catholic, and we're fairly regular attendees (although don't ask about this summer! I've hardly gone since my nephew's Eagle Scout Mass in May! That's pure laziness though). I am a member of a 12-step program and spirituality is emphasized and talked about a lot, but what that specifically means is up to the individual person. Although I have doubts (& like Kean, often have problems with the institutition itself, particularly some of its sociopolitical teachings) & sometimes think I could easily be an agnostic, there's a big part of me that just plain believes...in something. Some kind of underlying force. Sometimes it's more personal than that for me (I do pray) and sometimes it's more nebulous.

 

[Flannen]

Yep, I am. Over the last few years it has become something very personal to me. I haven't been to church for quite a while but that's more of a time/laziness issue! The fact that my faith has become something very personal to me has helped me to become a much better who is inspired and compassionate and wanting to be a better person. I don't let myself get bogged down by what people would tell me I should be doing, or how I'm being a Christian "wrong". I have my faith, that continues to be strengthened by incidents that feel like a slap in the face to remind me that, like others have said, I can't deny it.

I have my issues with religion and Christianity all over the place, much like anyone does but I no longer let that leave me questioning or doubting my faith and I'm really happy with that.

As for a higher power? Yessum, I think there is. I've had people ridicule me for how stupid it is to think someone or something made the world happen but on a personal level, our world (in terms of like oxygen/CO2 and trees etc) works way too well to have just happened. I don't think God or whatever form he/she takes has much to do with this world any more though. But I'm still working through that so I don't want to elaborate any further lol

 

[BuffyElevated]

I voted yes, since I do believe in a higher power, but I think the better title for this thread would be "Are you spiritual" because there is a big difference between being spiritual and being religious.
I believe in God and I do pray, but I do not go to church. I consider myself to be very spiritual but not deeply religious anymore.

 

[zobothehobo]

I do not believe in a higher power... I do not believe in any organized religion. I respect that this is a need some people have, but I just don't feel it. Religion isn't for me. I'm agnostic with atheist tendencies. The closest I come to a religion is paganism... but even then, I don't like rituals of any kind.

 

[Kean]

Yeah, the thread title and the actual poll question are two different things: I know a lot of people who aren't religious (as in the actual institution) but who would say they believe in a Higher Power. As for me, I'm both, but I struggle with both. I'm Catholic, and we're fairly regular attendees (although don't ask about this summer! I've hardly gone since my nephew's Eagle Scout Mass in May! That's pure laziness though). I am a member of a 12-step program and spirituality is emphasized and talked about a lot, but what that specifically means is up to the individual person. Although I have doubts (& like Kean, often have problems with the institutition itself, particularly some of its sociopolitical teachings) & sometimes think I could easily be an agnostic, there's a big part of me that just plain believes...in something. Some kind of underlying force. Sometimes it's more personal than that for me (I do pray) and sometimes it's more nebulous.

I agree. I can't say that I believe in God as the creator, nor do I think my life and the path I take is pre-determined or that I am just a part of a plan. This may sound blasphemous, but I don't give God that kind of credit. And that actually works really well for me. When something goes wrong in the world or my life I don't immediately turn to the Heavens and curse at the "appalling strangeness of the mercy of God" because to me it is just life. Not a vengeful God smiting down his creations. And so I don't struggle with "How could that have happened or "How God a benevolent God like the one I worship do this". To me, he doesn't and hasn't done anything. It has nothing to do with him.

I think that is why I like the Prayer of Serenity, because when I pray I don't ask for anything tangible, just the serenity to do what ever I need to do, or survive whatever I need to survive.

How the Hell I make that work in terms of Catholicism is a whole other mess. 😛

 

[Flannen]

I voted yes, since I do believe in a higher power, but I think the better title for this thread would be "Are you spiritual" because there is a big difference between being spiritual and being religious.
I believe in God and I do pray, but I do not go to church. I consider myself to be very spiritual but not deeply religious anymore.

I like this distinction between religious and spiritual. I think your distinction would also describe me. But I'd still feel strange saying I'm not religious any more y'know?

I do not believe in a higher power... I do not believe in any organized religion. I respect that this is a need some people have, but I just don't feel it. Religion isn't for me. I'm agnostic with atheist tendencies. The closest I come to a religion is paganism... but even then, I don't like rituals of any kind.

Lol, the word "need" rubs me up the wrong way. It makes people with a faith sound so desperate and dependent. I'm not saying that is what you think but it's a word I see a lot in this kinds of discussions and I don't know it just, makes it all seem so pathetic.

Another thing: what's already so interesting about this thread, is that it kind of exemplifies what I find myself having to say over and over again: religion and people's faiths are NOT black and white. They have moved on so far from that traditional, negative, institutionalised "thing" called religion. So I find it really uplifting to see lots of people talking about where they stand with their own faith. 🙂

 

[Chosen Enemy]

In my world, Joss is my God. But in the real world, the real higher power, no I don't believe in. I don't believe in religion, I don't like it. It causes wars and hate, even death of innocent.

But other than that, the higher power that I can say I believe in is not God or something like that. But an alien civilization. By alien civilization I don't mean that they control us and cause all the things on earth, or even created us. Watching a lot of History channel, I came to really realize things. Like about the Bible. All the stories there might have happened. But not in the way it was written. The God the people heard, the angels that came down from heaven, weren't but visitors from out of space. Not only in the bible, but also through the entire history of humanity. It all makes sense to me much more than the God aspect. I believe in the big bang, not in the history that was claimed to begin only thousands of years ago with Adam and Eve.

That doesn't mean I'm not a spiritual person. I kinda am, just not with the higher power idea. I am very interested in the mystery of the world. I want to know things. But I came to realize that all the things we face here have a more logical power. There are supernatural things I believe in. Things that have nothing to do with God or religion, because I'm pretty much against it, it causes so many troubles, we've seen it throughout our history. And I cannot believe in something that seems bad to me.

 

[zobothehobo]

Lol, the word "need" rubs me up the wrong way. It makes people with a faith sound so desperate and dependent. I'm not saying that is what you think but it's a word I see a lot in this kinds of discussions and I don't know it just, makes it all seem so pathetic.

Oh goodness, no. I didn't mean that at all... I just meant religion is a big part in a lot of people's lives and it serves many purposes... the biggest of which would be giving some sort of meaning to life, a sense of belongingness and community (both in the sense of "I am never alone because God is always with me" and the actual community of the institution), and an explanation of things that would otherwise be unexplainable. When you talk to a religious person, chances are, they could never NOT be religious because they need religion to fill these things I've just listed. We all need these things in some way shape or form, I just don't get them from religion while some people do. I have my own odd twisted meaning of life definition I've made over the years (subject to change). As odd and to some, pathetic, as it sounds... I often turn to television when I feel alone in life. I feel very much in a group when I watch an amazing TV show... even if I'm alone in my room. And as for the questions I cannot explain, I just don't think about them to be honest. I mean I do... but then the answer I always come up with is "it just is."

So I get all of the fundamental things religion does for people elsewhere... Religion isn't a desperate thing or a pathetic thing and neither are religious people... religious people are just people who find something in religion that I, personally, don't.

I'd also like to add that to me, everyone has their own personal religion. You can be such an active member of an incredibly organized institution of religion, you can be the poster child of what that institution represents... but that doesn't mean that your personal beliefs are identical to another person who might also be considered the poster child of what that institution represents. I don't believe anyone's personal religious beliefs are identical... in large part because I think each person is looking for something slightly different in their religion. They might have the same fundamental needs for their faith (the ones I've listed before), but that doesn't mean what they're looking for and why they believe and what they believe is the same. We're all different, and so is everyone's personal religion.