For People Who Do Not Need Religion

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I never found a need for religion; I have found inquisitive faith to be an endearing characteristic as I have grown older.



Baptized as an Episcopalian with Lutheran and Mormon offshoots on both sides of the family.



When I observed religion being used as a tool to control instead of a means to discovery, when I found it making excuses instead of finding truth.



Faith is integral to me; I find my own more in the Taoist vein, but it remains a faith nonetheless. Chaos intrigues me. I cannot claim any knowledge beyond that which I possess... but curiosity persists.



No.



Define 'need'. *chuckle* It was a worthwhile moment spent thinking this evening.


M.

I am metaphysically not only a naturalist, but a materialist. I believe everything is matter and energy in space-time. Demokritos and Lukippus were right.

All matters of the "spirit" are in fact the burping of neurons.

ruveyn

Last edited by ruveyn on 19 Aug 2009, 10:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

I never felt I had a need for religion.

No

I don't really have any reasons; it's just never occurred to me. Of course I speak solely on a personal level here, I'm not telling the more religious among us that religion is unnecessary for them (though I probably will never understand why it is necessary).

I'm not quite sure what you mean by that, but I generally don't find phenomena which are outside the possible scope of scientific inquiry to be worthy of discussion and hopefully that answers your question.

No

I'm a little unclear on the question. I'll say that since childhood, I haven't had a need of religion, but it took me the remainder of my childhood to shed the religious trappings I'd carried over from childhood teachings. If the second part is asking if I lost faith -- I suppose so, but what I had essentially was a relic of childhood. One could as easily say I lost faith in the tooth fairy. Oddly, I've run across people who believed in the question literally asked here ... they had faith in the need for religion. They were convinced that I needed it, and any protestations to the contrary were a matter of self-deception. I was unable to convince them otherwise, and ended the conversation shortly thereafter.


Yes, I tongue-in-cheek refer to myself as a "recovering Catholic."


Frankly, I find the complementary question to be more valid. It's not as if religion fulfills a survival need. In the broader picture, if you consider that religion fulfills the need of some for moral clarity, answers about the universe, and reassurance, I suppose the answer would be that education and philosophy have filled that niche rather nicely while more fitting with a modern rationalistic worldview.


I think it largely fulfills the same need as the previous question, regardless of its form.


I'm a little unclear on the meaning of this question. I'm a rationalist, if that's what's being asked.

My parents always brought me to a United Methodist church, which seemed pretty innocuous at the time.

Then, in college, I met some fundamentalist Christians, who thoroughly convinced that all religions, including especially theirs, was rubbish.

Later in life, I came to realize that I really did not like going to church, because going to church involves dealing with people. I was exhausted from dealing with people at work all week, and absolutely didn't need to be dealing with a different set of people on Sunday mornings.

I can think of a lot of ways to occupy my Sunday mornings other than going to church.

Also, churches can get along just fine without me and without my money. I have other uses for my money.

Churches, I think, are especially necessary for realtors and car salesmen, because they need to mingle with people in order to make contacts to enlarge their businesses.

I used to believe as a kid, but then I grew up and saw how BS it was.

Yeah, I was raised Catholic.

Well aside from the fact that it's obviously BS, the mentality it encourages (blind conformity, gullibility, dogma accepting, sucking the cock of people who have unwarranted self-importance) is just as BS. I could write a book about religion.

The rules that they impose are some BS unnecessary restrictions to me. I don't give a f**k about some cocky douchebag's unwarranted thoughts about condom use or what foods I eat.

Well I'm not much of a spiritual person. I'm not the imaginative type, so I only believe what I see.

Uhh, what the hell is a metaphysical naturalist?

I never found a need to do it, nor do I believe in it.

Yes I have.

I never really got to the idea of having a higher power observe and judge all of my moves.
It's stupendous.

Nope, that neither.

I don't understand the question sorry

I was raised in a semi-religious home. My mom always described herself as more spiritual and that we can never really know the true nature of God. Yet, we still considered ourselves Christians. It's because of this that I became very religious and into church. But I've always been a seeker of the Truth and so I decided that I would investigate as much as I can about Christianity and prove to myself that it was the one true religion. I read and listened to a lot of atheist claims because I understood that if Christianity was the Truth then it would stand up to anything. However as I searched and searched I found so many holes in it that I eventually renounced it. Definitely the best decision I ever made and my life is a lot happier because of it.

Religion is unnecessary and should be gotten rid of mostly because of the wars of religion that have been fought throughout the ages.

I'm fine with spirituality. There are no dogmas in it, so no mass harm can come from it. I truthfully don't care whether anybody is religious either, but I wish there was no religion because of the detrimental effects it has had on humanity as a whole.

I wouldn't consider myself metaphysically naturalist just because I wouldn't consider myself anything. I am Tyler. My thoughts and ideas of the cosmos are continually changing as I am constantly searching for answers and wisdom. Therefore it's impossible to label me as anything.

I am committed to the materialist-naturalist view. So far, it is the only one that has produced positive results for the human race. It sometimes produces negative results though. It is like fire; a useful servant and a dreadful master.

ruveyn

1 - I've never found a need for religion.
2 - Nope, weren't raised as anything.
3 - Religion is stupid and incredibly evil. Just read the bible or the Quran.
4 - That I have no problem with, but it's still irrational.
5 - Yep, seems like it.