What are your religious beliefs?

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What are your religious beliefs?
Christian 11%  11%  [ 61 ]
Christian 14%  14%  [ 76 ]
Muslim 0%  0%  [ 1 ]
Muslim 0%  0%  [ 1 ]
Buddhist 3%  3%  [ 16 ]
Buddhist 3%  3%  [ 16 ]
Hinduism 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
Hinduism 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
Jewish 1%  1%  [ 5 ]
Jewish 1%  1%  [ 6 ]
No Religion 31%  31%  [ 170 ]
No Religion 36%  36%  [ 194 ]
Total votes : 546

Aniihya
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03 Feb 2015, 4:54 am

I am an animist. I do not necessarily believe in deities, however I do not deny they couldn't exist. I tend to view all things having somewhat of a metaphysical essence.



Boo Radley
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06 Mar 2015, 11:46 am

Buddhism. Theravada and a bit of Zen.



ToughDiamond
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02 Apr 2015, 9:59 am

Boo Radley wrote:
......and a bit of Zen.

Good! I've always had a soft spot for Zen, the "religion of no religion" as Alan Watts used to call it, though I'm not really wanting to become a Zen student, I'm just interested and feel friendly towards Zen. From what I can gather, Zen is the only "way" that's happy with my having such a loose connection with it, the standard religions seem to expect more, and I'm not willing to give more.

I'm essentially atheist. I don't want to hurt anybody who believes there are gods, and I accept that religions can do a certain amount of good, but that doesn't make what their devotees say and do above criticism. It's hard to know what's healthy skepticism and what's disrespectful. Best rule of thumb I've found is that if the believers don't insinuate that there is a god, I won't insinuate that there isn't, though even that isn't perfect.



B19
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02 Apr 2015, 4:20 pm

ToughDiamond wrote:
Boo Radley wrote:
......and a bit of Zen.

Good! I've always had a soft spot for Zen, the "religion of no religion" as Alan Watts used to call it, though I'm not really wanting to become a Zen student, I'm just interested and feel friendly towards Zen.

I've always had a soft spot for Alan Watts.



Adamantium
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03 Apr 2015, 10:31 am

B19 wrote:
I've always had a soft spot for Alan Watts.

He has a great voice. ]

It's got a dry high end with rich midtones and a smooth noise in the bass reminiscent of tobacco smoke and whiskey.



ToughDiamond
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03 Apr 2015, 11:50 am

Adamantium wrote:
B19 wrote:
I've always had a soft spot for Alan Watts.

He has a great voice. ]

It's got a dry high end with rich midtones and a smooth noise in the bass reminiscent of tobacco smoke and whiskey.

Yes, nice voice. I've heard that it was the whisky that killed him. He was somewhat hedonistic, and I think it was his love of life that made me like him. And his knack of standing every bit of received conventional "wisdom" on its head, his ability to be so playful and original with words and ideas. It's very hard to put my finger on the exact reason why I feel better for hearing his stuff - frankly a lot of it seems like gobbledegook to me, but somehow it works. His style seems somehow very feminine, e.g. he knew about the folly of thinking too much and trying to push real life into geometric pigeon-holes, if you know what I mean. Apparently Zen is somewhat akin to psychotherapy, so maybe that's why I find him so helpful.



Feyokien
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02 Sep 2015, 2:44 pm

Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism

It's more of a philosophy and culture than a religion to me. Maybe JRR Tolkiens Cosmology and Taoism as well. I'm basically an agnostic/deist. I don't know what actually exists, but there's some things I wish did exist and I sometimes pretend that they do.



amymarie.
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07 Sep 2015, 11:13 am

i was a christian until i turned 12. now im an atheist. the funny part is it was private school that turned me atheist.


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CryingTears15
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28 Apr 2016, 9:16 pm

I am first and foremost a proud member of the Unitarian Universalist church.

I was raised UU by two ex-Christian, basic atheists and have a brother who rejects the concept of religion to the point where he doesn't call himself an atheist, ("It's like defining myself by not playing tennis".)

I sometimes wish I could join a religion simply for the rituals. I identify as a secular pantheist, but I have sympathies with Judaism, which I would choose should I be forced into monotheism, (that I won't). I can derive happiness from the idea of God in an equal manner that I derive happiness from the idea of no God. It's like choosing between French toast and waffles.

That being said, while my family respects faith, no one I am close to has faith in anything. They are happy being them, but I feel as though I cannot truly understand what it means to have faith in God, gods, or an afterlife. I plan on exploring religions more deeply in time.



CryingTears15
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28 Apr 2016, 9:26 pm

Hi_Im_B0B wrote:
there was no selection for "other" :shameonyou:

i'm a panentheist (please note - that is NOT pantheist). panentheism is the belief that everything, the sum total of the universe, is god. the closest philosophy most have heard of would be taoism.


Oh, interesting. I was under the impression that panentheism was the belief in God being in everything.

I believe that the culmination of existence is God, yes, though I oddly feel like we are a shattered half of a locket, and a sentient "God" is the other half, so we are equal to God should we be whole, but we are not.

And this God is like a loving older sibling that gives us guidance. Odd because no one ever told me this, and I don't think there's a word for it.

I suppose that I don't know if I intuitively believe in a God, but if I do, I believe that the culmination of existence is equal to that God, but we individually are not.



Novac96
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21 May 2016, 9:11 pm

Raised Roman Catholic, but I now consider myself to be a pantheist. I do have respect for the World's various religions and for religious people, yet I do not particularly like those who attempt forcing me to believe in their religion, whether I know them personally or not. Organized religion just isn't for me.


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