Are You Religious?

[Flannen]

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."

Honestly I didn't mean to accuse you! It was more me reading the word "need" and wincing, thinking "goodness, do people think I'm desperate?" LOL. It made me chuckle so I wanted to comment on it.

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.

YES! I really love this, largely because its come from someone who isn't religious! It's so refreshing for me because like I said, it's something I find myself trying to explain ALL the time. And you actually said it SO much better than I ever could have done. So much so, I'm going to memorise it and use it 😉 😛

 

[PassionBecoming]

Yup, pretty religious. Born and raised Catholic, was confirmed, married a Catholic, go to Mass every weekend, baptize my children. My faith is always a work in progress, and like many, I have some issues with The Church. (Ah, human fallibility, how you screw things up.) I pray often and put a lot of trust in God.

 

[OhWow]

Non-practicing Christian. 🙂

 

[VisionGirl]

A few have made reference to the negative influence of institutional religion on society, and I agree, I won't whitewash that. But I think we have to remember that institutional religion has also done a lot of good as well: primary education, higher education, hospitals- a lot of those in the Western world were started and run by religious institutions. In the U.S. there were an awful lot of religious folks involved in both the abolitionist and Civil Rights movements (sure, there were some on the other side as well). In the United States, before there was the thought that children with disabilities deserved the same free and appropriate public education that non-disabled children did (with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in the '70s), who was educating disabled children? Catholic schools. A lot of aid worldwide comes from religious organizations (now we can talk about how well a lot of that works in 3rd world countries, but that's a different discussion). I just don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater here. 😉

 

[Cast No Shadow]

Agnostic, can't really vote one way or the other.
I don't think I believe, but I really want to. I'd love to be religious.

 

[sk]

No, I don't believe in god, a higher being or whatever you want to call it.

Just as I don't believe in ghosts, spirits, demons, fairies, bigfoot, etc, etc...
Most of these things can make for great stories though.

/SK

 

[sisterofmercy]

I think it's wrong to say that religion is 100% good or bad because as long as humans are involved in it it can never really be either. We're all flawed and although we can try to be good and pious, it doesn't make us impervious to 'sin' and acts of evil- hence there are religious wars and the such. Some use religion as a tool of evil, much the same as some use money or oil or anything else. That shouldn't say anything about the religion as such but more about the person themselves. If religion didn't exist I doubt wars would suddenly stop, we'd just find something else to argue and destroy each other over.

 

[Tome]

I am a mix of atheist and agnostic. I don't believe in any religious organizations. I don't believe in *God* or whatever deity humans created. But I do think there might be something out there, just not sure what.

 

[Taake]

I voted no because I'm neither religious nor spiritual. I think that religion/church seems to have some nice traditions and may be helpful/supportive in some ways but I've just never felt connected to it.

My grandmother did use to force me to read the Bible a lot when I was young though which gave me a rather negative stance towards religion as a whole (I would have terrible nightmares about the Crucifixion :S).

I find religion fascinating though and I read all 'holy books' I can get my hands on, be it smaller religions or old-world religions it doesn't matter, I like to learn about the different views in order to compare and contrast. I've recently re-read the Old testament (together with some companions of higher criticism) and half of the New and soon I'm moving on to the Qu'ran.

 

[peaches71]

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.

Nicely put, Zoe! :wink3:

I voted yes. I am a Christian. As a matter of fact my dad was a pastor! Resident PK here! LOL! 😀 My spiritual beliefs are very personal, and important to me. I go to church, pray a lot, however I believe PassionBecoming said it best...my faith, like hers, is a work in progress! Awesome thread, by the way! 🙂

 

[WileyDairyGnome]

I'm not super religious. I don't go to church or read the Bible, but I do believe in God, Heaven and Hell. Although I do struggle with it sometimes.

 

[Ianigsy]

I have been, but I'm not currently. Between roughly 1993-6 and 1998-2005 I was an evangelical Christian, but at the moment I don't really understand what I thought I was doing or what I expected from it.

As things stand today, I don't have any particular faith- in fact, I think that what undid me in the end was finding it very difficult to believe in something I can't touch or see. So I tend to avoid the issue these days because I don't have any strong beliefs or convictions, and I'm not sure that what I took to be a relationship with God wasn't me trying to make something happen to fit in with the church I belonged to.

 

[WileyDairyGnome]

Although I believe in God, but I question him a lot. Like how being gay is apparently a sin, but people are born gay, so if it were a sin, why would He create gay people?

Or how swearing is a sin, but probably almost every single person has cussed. Or how masturbating is a sin, sex before marriage is a sin, using a condom is a sin, and so many more. If these are all true, then it seems like everyone is going to Hell.

Like a said before, I believe in God, but I do struggle with it.

 

[caritas08]

Although I believe in God, but I question him a lot. Like how being gay is apparently a sin, but people are born gay, so if it were a sin, why would He create gay people?

Or how swearing is a sin, but probably almost every single person has cussed. Or how masturbating is a sin, sex before marriage is a sin, using a condom is a sin, and so many more. If these are all true, then it seems like everyone is going to Hell.

Like a said before, I believe in God, but I do struggle with it.

Well, Jesus had about thirty years or so to say that being gay was a sin and he never did so I don't think being gay and a Christian contradicts itself at all. I have all the Gospels basically memorized and he never says one thing against gays (although he certainly had a thing or two to say about people who judge and condemn others). I just think organized religion has corrupted a lot of what Jesus taught and tried to warp it into their own agenda (but that's another discussion).

I definitely believe in Jesus and everything he stood for but I agree with a lot of what Buddhism says too as well as aspects of other religions. That's kind of why I'm not real crazy about organized religion. I think it too often gets warped and twisted into saying something it's not.

 

[LoveLoveLovix]

Very spiritual, a bit religious. I'm a religious eclectic, and take bits and pieces from almost everything that makes sense. I identify a bit more with paganism than other sort of religious blankets, but I do have many beliefs that don't fit with that either.

It's really based in my family: my mother is a Buddhist/Christian minister (she believes in God, but worships as a Buddhist). My father is agnostic, but leans towards atheism. My stepmom is Baptist, and my stepdad goes back and forth. I really learned just to believe what you believe, and not to worry about labeling it.

So if anyone asks, I'm eclectic, and I move on. My beliefs really are just my own to me. I don't want to push them on anyone else, and so I usually leave them alone.

 

[xfivebyfive]

I'm catholic. I consider myself religious. I pray and I go to church. I even sing in the choir. I don't necessarily agree with the church on everything but that doesn't impact my own religious beliefs.

 

[WileyDairyGnome]

Well, Jesus had about thirty years or so to say that being gay was a sin and he never did so I don't think being gay and a Christian contradicts itself at all. I have all the Gospels basically memorized and he never says one thing against gays (although he certainly had a thing or two to say about people who judge and condemn others). I just think organized religion has corrupted a lot of what Jesus taught and tried to warp it into their own agenda (but that's another discussion).

I definitely believe in Jesus and everything he stood for but I agree with a lot of what Buddhism says too as well as aspects of other religions. That's kind of why I'm not real crazy about organized religion. I think it too often gets warped and twisted into saying something it's not.

You're probably right. I consider myself a Christian because I was raised to believe in Jesus and God, but I don't even know much about the religion. I don't believe in a lot of the sins as I've stated, and I don't judge people for who they are and I think it's wrong to judge people. Maybe I'm a bad Christian, but I just don't know much about religion anyways. I'm more spiritual.

 

[VisionGirl]

For those of you more liberal/progressive Catholics, do you read the National Catholic Reporter? I read it online, love it! http://ncronline.org/

 

[FetalPig]

Raised catholic by my Mum. My Dad was agnostic. Got kicked out of Sunday School for asking awkward questions ...

I'm not religious, and follow no particular method of sustaining my faith. I do have a faith though. it doesn't particularly solve any problems or answer any questions for me. Or maybe it does. that's the funny thing about faith. It makes some of those 'what why when' type questions irrelevant. My faith is that we are not isolated individuals. That there is more to Life than these mundane physical bodies and circumstances. We are all part of something and we interact. We get happier when we work together (not just in the same room on the same task), and i wonder what we might do if we ALL worked together. That seems a long way off but it makes me curious.

I like the idea of being ignostic, that we can't talk about G-d until we realise that we each mean something different by the word.

I suspect that everything alive is in some way conscious, and the more we work together, the more inclusive we are, then the more we're all on the same side.

i don't believe in a higher power as a separate individual consciousness, but i'm open to the idea that there are living things that are much much clearer than me/us about how the whole 'Life/reality' thing works.

---------- Post added at 12:44 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:43 AM ----------

so yeah ... the poll isn't nearly cosmic enough lol

 

[ILLYRIAN]

Do I believe in God, no. I believe in several Gods. Do I follow a church, no.
Have countless millions of people died in wars, battles, conflicts over God/ Gods name, yes. But those wars, battles, conflicts have been started by a church not by God/Gods.
I keep hearing about a heaven on earth, well, it is an impossibility. Nearly all of the churches want to cause harm to people of other churches. Belief in a God or several Gods is okay, but following what a man says only brings problems.