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How religious are you?
Poll ended at 26 Oct 2007, 3:33 pm
I live my life to serve God as He wants me to 7%  7%  [ 5 ]
I'm very religious and try to follow the precepts of my religion/church/sect/cult/etc. 12%  12%  [ 8 ]
I believe in God but don't belong to an organized belief group 13%  13%  [ 9 ]
I'm an atheist but believe in a Higher Power 7%  7%  [ 5 ]
Organized belief groups (churches, etc.) are corporations, just like McDonald's - there to make money and keep the sheep manageable. 60%  60%  [ 40 ]
Total votes : 67

EvilKimEvil
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29 Sep 2007, 5:24 pm

I think that organized religion appeals to people for primarily social and emotional reasons. A lot of religious leaders and organizations take advantage of people financially and psychologically. I come from a Christian family and was forced to go to church when I was younger, but I did not enjoy it, most likely because I don't have those social and emotional motivations that NTs do. I had a serious problem with being told what to think. I don't believe in any higher power, but I don't think I'm completely devoid of any spirituality . . . or maybe I am.

Jesus was an anarchist. I'm an athiest.



IdahoRose
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29 Sep 2007, 5:32 pm

I'm Roman Catholic and I'm very devoted to the one and only and definitely real God.



Brian003
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29 Sep 2007, 6:30 pm

I am 100% atheist. I believe that God is something people made up thousands of years ago.



makelifehappen
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29 Sep 2007, 6:35 pm

I will have a very difficult time sharing my viewpoints here, as I get far too wrapped up in the debate in my own personal life. I am far too skeptical and have absolutely no censorship!

I walk to the beat of my own heart.


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The_Disco
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29 Sep 2007, 6:37 pm

i'm catholic. :)



username88
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29 Sep 2007, 6:38 pm

The McDonalds joke is :lol: :lol:
I cant really lable my spiritual beliefs as a "religion", but it does include multiple entities. Sadly Im not nearly as involved as I was years ago.. Hopefully I can get back on my feet soon.


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Icarus_Falling
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29 Sep 2007, 6:48 pm

So, I just stopped by Christian heaven to have yet another chat with Jehovah about a few things... Even though I don't follow Him, Jehovah’s been gracious enough to grant me an open invitation to stop by and talk to Him; as He put it, He appreciates someone with the gumption to challenge His ideas, as His own followers are too meek to do so.

We started into a discussion involving the merits of monotheism vs. polytheism vs. atheism vs. agnosticism vs. general spiritualism. Jesus happened to wander by, and I invited Him over to take place in the chat; His takes on things tend to be subtly different than Jehovah’s, and He always adds an interesting element to our conversations. In fact, in an act of devine irony, Jesus tends to play the role of so-named "devil's advocate" when Jehovah and I get into a particularly heated discussion about things.

Christian heaven is a bit bland and white and bright for my tastes, but I do like watching the angels (some of them are rather cute!), and I must admit that the puffy white clouds make for some very comfortable seats. Anyway, the three of us are sitting on the clouds, in a semi-circle, having a most pleasant philosophical conversation, as well as tea; and I must admit, they've got awesome tea in Christian heaven. Then I notice this cloud is slowly drifting up behind Jehovah. For a moment I thought I saw the cloud smirk and wink at me, but I quickly decided that it was just my mind playing tricks on me, and let it slide; one can see many things while looking at clouds, after all. The cloud drifts right up behind Jehovah, and before I realize what is going on, the cloud transforms... It's Loki! Loki then flicks Jehovah’s left ear really hard and then vanishes without making a sound... Jehovah bellows, "What the...?" and turns around, only to see nothing there. And as I'm sitting there in a state of shocked silence - I swear I'm not making this up - Jesus, who also saw Loki, actually snickered! Jehovah quickly shot Jesus a rather blistering look, then activated His Eyes of Omniscience(tm), which actually have a rather striking blue glow to them. He then immediately saw an invisible Loki trying to sneak off, at which point Jehovah bellowed, "I see you! Get back here!", transformed into an ethereal lightning ball and went streaking off after Loki. Loki saw that the jig was up, let out a loud laugh, and transformed into a ray of light, which the ethereal ball of lighting proceeded to chase; in about two seconds, the both of them were out of sight...

So Jesus and I were left alone. And, being a bit puzzled over this, I asked Him why he snickered when Loki flicked His Dad's ear. He said, "I just couldn't help Myself; the irony of my Dad getting ear-flicked by a god who His followers devoutly try to believe out of existence was just too much for Me to take. In essence, we both just witnessed a divine paradox". Jesus and I differ on quite a few things, but we do share a love of irony. Jesus then said He needed to take off to take care of a few things, so we shook hands and bid each other farewell. And just before I transcended back to this plane, He reminded me of our standing agreement: That I leave the judgment of His and his Dad's followers to Them; if they do not abide by the tenets of the faith (e.g. going around condemning and judging whence it is not their place to), there will be a reckoning for them in the afterlife, and it is not my place to interfere in that. I told him I'd remember, and headed off...

Anyway, since we're all discussing the various flavours of religiosity and not-so-much-religiosity, I just thought I'd share this with the rest of you. The universe is indeed a wondrous place.

Good fortune,

- Icarus is stopping by hell to share this amusing anecdote with Satan


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Last edited by Icarus_Falling on 29 Sep 2007, 9:14 pm, edited 3 times in total.

username88
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29 Sep 2007, 6:52 pm

Icarus_Falling wrote:
I do like watching the angels (some of them are rather cute!)

*Sodomy* :twisted:


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Mindtear
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29 Sep 2007, 7:04 pm

hi, i find the question one dimensional, sorry.

if im normally asked this question id answer agnostic over athiest. this would be believing there is a god or gods but i reserve the right to not know what there is if anything "upthere" is there.

i am Ásatrú though, however i rarely bother telling people this because of the explaination that is needed afterwards.



frankwah
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29 Sep 2007, 7:23 pm

Nope... I don't know when I first became an atheist, but I realized it when I was 16. Lots of atheist aspies, huh. This reveals different figures from the poll I made a while back.
http://www.wrongplanet.net/modules.php? ... highlight=
According to my poll a while ago, 50% of the people here replied as being atheists.

In this poll, so far, it indicates about 64% atheists... that is, if you count the last option as being an atheist. The last option doesn't explicitly say anything about atheism.



BlueMax
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29 Sep 2007, 7:47 pm

The problem with organized religion is that a lot of bad ones have ruined it for the good ones. One particular religion is the richest institution in the world - several were founded entirely for the purpose of becoming rich and powerful. Now the uninformed masses lump them all together and consider 'em all equally worthless. I was mostly agnostic until I got into some real research, and found a Christian church based on the same ideal; heavy biblical research to get to know God better without so much human error. :)

I was going to say much more but I don't think it'd be appropriate here. :)



affengeil
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29 Sep 2007, 7:49 pm

you forgot to add "agnostic"

others might also consider themselves "spiritual," though not "religious," and definitely not atheist, while believing in something not unlike yet not exactly "God"



Danielismyname
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29 Sep 2007, 8:01 pm

Theology ain't my thing.



siuan
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29 Sep 2007, 10:51 pm

I'm odd. I'm basically a Buddhist who also believes in God.

I believe that we will be reborn. I believe in Karma (instant is my favorite, lol). I believe in the power of prayer because I've seen it work, but I believe that it is the...um...good vibes? that are sent toward a person more than any divine intervention. I don't wholly discount divine intervention, but I believe that God is more a creator who set things in motion, with certain laws like Karma, with the notion of we'll reap what we sow.


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Helsinger
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29 Sep 2007, 10:54 pm

I chose the second option.



criss
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30 Sep 2007, 2:26 am

I ve always like that one Ed, still do in fact, however I feel that capitalism has now replaced religion as the opiate. The early Christians would be thrown to the lions, rather than put a pinch of incense on the alter of the empire, whilst the modern day Christian seem to delight in joining the 'lions club'.

Hey, Greentea, I wish i could just pop on a train to Jerusalem, how great is that. Have you ever read of Dorothy Day?, if you google her name you will find some great stuff.


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