What's your religion?

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Atheist.

I'm a pantheist. Specificly, I'm a celtic pagan.

I follow no ideologies, religious, political, or otherwise, 100%. I have my own philosophy, I am not above borrowing pieces I agree with from various other religions though. I don't believe in a god or goddess (atheist), but I do believe in "love thy neighbor" to an extent, but one shouldn't be a pushover or a doormat either (christian), I believe in "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" (buddhist, I probably borrow more from buddhism than anything else), something about aiding lost souls, to an extent (islam, but I forgot the exact words), and some of my theories are totally left field and completely non-conventional down to the smallest detail. I really don't follow anything.

i follow my own philosophy....i'm an agnostic

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," is also Christian, though there is a similar quotation in the Analects of Kong zi/Kong Fu Zi/K'ung tse or Confucius, and the basic principle would probably be agreed to by most Buddhists. Actually, while it was Jesus who first declared "Love thy neighbour as thyself," to be the second of the two great commandments (the first is, "Hear o Israel the LORD our God, the Lord is one. Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, all thy soul and all thy strength, also in the Old Testament, the opening is the Shma', an important Jewish prayer originating in Deuteronomy) Love thy neighbour originally occurs in Leviticus/Vayiqra' and is therefore both Jewish and Christian. Jesus was not being unoriginal here; he was specifically asked which was the greatest commandment in the Law (Torah). He did originate, as well as the "Do unto others," admonishment (often known as the Golden Rule, though not called this in the Bible) "Love thy enemies, bless those that curse you, do good to those that despitefully use you," (possibly getting to sound a trifle doormattish to you) "Love one another as I have loved you. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples."

Are you predominantly Theravadan, Mahayana Zen or Tantric Buddhist in your influence? Good to hear from you.

agnostic

Yeah I know this, it's funny that all the major religions teach the exact same message. The only difference is in the ways they delivered it. Also if you notice, it seems kinda strange that certain names keep reappearing throughout the bible (1st verse being the jewish talmud), koran, and a few of them were even in pagan mythologies... It's like the same characters jumping from faith to faith to faith, have you realised this? In fact muslims respect Jesus Christ as a prophet, just not THE prophet according to their religion.
This is partly why I believe all religions are UFO coverups.

I have my own godless religion.
Ive stolen bits from Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism.

The main question to this thread doesn't make any sense to me. I guess if you're asking what religion I participate in. Well the answer is none.

I came to believe in a higher power after years of doubt. The etheric nature of this power is beyond my current understanding, but I believe in one on the basis of complexity starting with my own life and then the world around me.

As I grow, my experiences continue to culminate and shape me into the being you hear today. Simply put: the atheist that was, is no longer. Now that is evolution in a nutshell.

I'm new age. I don't think anyone's said that yet.

I was raised Southern Baptist Christian, and was very active in the church and lived my life by its teachings until I was about 20. During most of that time, there were little things I did not like about the churches I was part of, especially the way others in the church said one thing and did another, or manipulated people by quoting scripture and trying to place guilt trips on people. I went to other churches, first within the Baptist community and then other denominations, but it was just as bad elsewhere, so I just stopped going. I lost faith in the Church, but not in God.

Then met a girl and went to college and studied world literature, and theatre and world history. The girl had been raised catholic but her family stopped attending church when she was 8 and she was basically agnostic. She challenged my views, and between her and my studies, and learning of all the atrocities commitied in the name of religion, I realised I could not call myself "Christian" anymore, for the meaning had been perverted. I feel it originally meant "one who tries to be Christ-like or follows the teachings of Christ" whereas now it simply means "one who is a member of the Christian Church and may or may not follow its teachings." Seeing how other "Christians" acted made me not want to be associated with them in any way.

I have many reasons for not liking any of the big 4 world religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, & Hinduism), which I will eventually post on another thread. I thought for a while I might like Shintoism, but it doesn't feel right to me.

Here's one that was left off the poll:
Deism: the belief that God exists and created the world but thereafter assumed no control ofver it. I read that Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson both were deists, but i have to confirm that. I lean toward it, though.

However, I like the "natural" religions, like celtic and wicca, because they worship the earth and the environment (and are not male-dominated) and make more sense to me. Philosophically I follow Zen, but I can't bring myself to be a Buddhist (yet). So I guess that makes me a Zen Pagan.

Personally, I believe that religion is between him/her and whatever god or gods he/she believes in, and is also a journey of enlightenment, meant to be discovered and not forced upon him/her by other people.

Last edited by Tanz on 30 Jan 2007, 10:09 am, edited 1 time in total.

I could say Agnostic, but I dig Zen Buddhism and Taoism, especially the mystics of Yin and Yang incorporated by Taoism.

It is funny all religions preach the same thing which means they most likely derived from the same thing (*cough* meditation *cough*)

Religions state that their "God" gave us "morals." "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" is not a religious quote but one that most humans would agree is "good." If you dont like being hurt, don't hurt others. If you dont like people stealing from you, dont steal. Its not a hard concept, yet, many people are puzzled when they break it.

I went to a Christian school for seven years, and yet, I am an atheist. Not sure what else to say about it.

Note that atheism is an absence of belief, not a belief in no god. Agnosticism is the absence of an assertion that the existence of a god is knowable. Agnosticism is not an assertion (or lack thereof) of belief, but of provability (both positive and negative).