[POLL]Your religion? - Page 2

On August 08 2012 11:06 Graisseux wrote: Atheists think there is no god Agnostics think we can't know

This is probably the best way to distinguish the terms as a starting point, but as taco pointed out, it can be argued that they aren't mutually exclusive.

agnostic is a dumb choice to have in this poll since it actually has nothing to do with believing in a god or not. it has to do with with whether or not you could know a certain knowledge.

for example: you can be an agnostic atheist, gnostic polytheist, agnostic theist, etc etc etc.

many people have the wrong idea about what an atheist actually is. to be an atheist doesn't mean that you 100% undoubtedly believe there is no god. it just means that there is not enough evidence to sway you in that direction therefore you lack the belief. Alot of the time, those who are atheists will say they are agnostics because they feel it's a more reasonable and less dogmatic position. (which is untrue) That or they are afraid of the implications of being labeled an atheist due to the negative stereotypes associated with the word.

As for me, i'd consider myself a gnostic (strong) atheist. For me, to be an agnostic atheist is giving too much credit to the idea of god. its like if i told you im agnostic toward leprechauns. Therefore, i would consider myself gnostic about god, the same way i am gnostic about the belief in unicorns. After all, they have the same amount of evidence.

this article does a great job of explaining the difference:
http://atheism.about.com/od/aboutagnosticism/a/atheism.htm

On August 08 2012 07:25 dnagardi wrote: btw i think christian and atheist is the same, they both strongly believe in something and call each other dumb

Atheists don't claim to know for certain whether or not there is a god, while theists usually, in fact, do. Contrary to popular belief, usually reinforced by theists, atheists are not dogmatic toward anything, they simply lack the belief. Atheists and theists are two separate types of people and imo usually the religious ones tend to be dumber because, for the most part, they lack the investigative capacity to break down the fallacious and circular logic inherent within their religion. it's pretty easy to realize that religion is false. so maybe one side has more reason to call the other dumb?

On August 08 2012 07:14 MiPwnYa wrote: how about jewish

thats a disease

i remember the exact moment i became athiest. i grew up a protestant, but after learning about religion in history class in 9th grade i became more of a deist. thought it was the most logical at the time.

my first year of college every student was forced to take this class with the same exact syllabus where we read ~20 books about the human experience and every professor was required to teach it at some point in their career. unluckily for me I got an english teacher as my professor so it was a lot more rigorous than if I had been given a math teacher.

Anyway we were reading one of Plato's famous writings, I believe the symposium. He briefly talked about the soul and the body and I remember asking my professor a question after class about it and after her answer it dawned on me that I didnt believe in a soul and just believed our bodies were just matter and chemistry and blurted out loud "i think i just became an athiest". the look on her face after I said that made the entire year long boring tough class worthwhile.

I'm illumizardian :D

i start believing in god when i think a ghost is around or some shit

I believe the universe is constantly being created by the minds inhabiting it. So we are all demi-gods in a sense, seeking and accumulating different qualia (which is infinite) through the eternity. This "religion" is called idealism in the philosophy.

On August 08 2012 13:09 RaiNKhAN wrote: i start believing in god when i think a ghost is around or some shit

LMAO

my religon is money

I will give religion a try after i see my FTP funds available.

On August 08 2012 14:51 cariadon wrote: I will give religion a try after i see my FTP funds available.

lol

haha cariadon

I grew a up Roman Catholic and also attended Catholic School where you have to take Religion Classes so I spent like 13yrs actually studying it and while a lot of it is mostly "silly" tradition I think most Atheist miss the actual point of religion and actually most people that do believe in some kinda religion or something also miss this as well. Most people are introduced to religion at a young age and this does give you some kind of idea what is right and what is wrong regardless of what religion you practice they all have an underling message that you should do good things. All the major religions have a message help people out, don't be a dick and in the end you will be rewarded in the long run of things. Obviously the message gets twisted as fuck and a lot of times most major religions are corrupt as fuck but that's not to be blamed on the specific religion more so that specific person. The other thing with being part of religion is it gives you a greater sense of community, being part of a community is important for every human being, weather you go to an online forum or sit in a church once a week for an hour it fullfils this need that humans have to be part of and establish communities. Its nice to think that I can go to a Catholic church anywhere in the world and be welcomed in to that community. A lot of atheist act like recent ex smokers trying to convince of how enlightened they are because they believe in nothing.

On August 08 2012 13:09 RaiNKhAN wrote: i start believing in god when i think a ghost is around or some shit

Funny because it's true!

On August 08 2012 12:12 Daut wrote: i remember the exact moment i became athiest. i grew up a protestant, but after learning about religion in history class in 9th grade i became more of a deist. thought it was the most logical at the time. my first year of college every student was forced to take this class with the same exact syllabus where we read ~20 books about the human experience and every professor was required to teach it at some point in their career. unluckily for me I got an english teacher as my professor so it was a lot more rigorous than if I had been given a math teacher. Anyway we were reading one of Plato's famous writings, I believe the symposium. He briefly talked about the soul and the body and I remember asking my professor a question after class about it and after her answer it dawned on me that I didnt believe in a soul and just believed our bodies were just matter and chemistry and blurted out loud "i think i just became an athiest". the look on her face after I said that made the entire year long boring tough class worthwhile.

lol nice

I don't remember an exact moment, but it was at a much younger age that I recognized myself to be an atheist.

--- Nuked ---

if by god you mean god as defined by any organized religion, then atheist. By that I basically mean that I think the probability of any of them having it right is less than 0.00000001% or whatever number CERN considered a requirement for determining whether something was proven.;p Further, the concept of afterlife seems like wishful thinking that has manifested itself as a delusion, and the concept of a soul seems incomprehensible and in conflict with everything I think I know about how humans learn and develop and behave.

However, if you extend the meaning of "god" to include like, "thing that created the laws of physics", or "supreme alien planting the seed of life on earth and other planets deemed suitable", then I'd prolly have to consider myself a more full-fledged agnostic- there's just no way to know. If you remove all the dogma from organized religion, then you're not really left with much. But if you trust in science, then you're essentially answering most of humanity's grand questions with "I don't know". Basically, science explains "when" we are here. I think with time, it'll also be able to explain how we are here. But it can't answer why.

And personally, I'm fine with not knowing, and not deluding myself into thinking that I know. However, I can also understand why this uncertainty is less appealing than thinking that you know, and that for many religious people, they just choose the path of less resistance.. And thus, as an "atheist-agnostic" or whatever, I really wish we, as a group, could actually act as reasonably as we proclaim that we are, realize that when you insult someone, they disregard the content of your message, and realize that our derision creates more division.

But then again, that's also probably easy for me to say, living in a country where religion has honestly never had the slightest actual impact on my life. If my gay friend couldn't marry, or if school was teaching creationism alongside evolution, or if my wife couldn't abort the baby we didn't want, if every politician aspiring to power had to declare that their religious beliefs were stronger than those of their compeditors, it'd prolly be harder for me to have such a reconsiliatory attitude towards it all. Still though, I think Sagan is a much better rolemodel in this aspect than say, Dawkins, and I think it'd be much better for everyone if we could show the same amount of respect that we demand, regardless of how moronic we find a particular point of view.

like many, somewhere between atheist and agnostic.

was christian for a very long time, biggest hurdle for me was understanding just how arrogant it is to see coincidence and dumb luck as anything more than it really is.

You can't be between atheist and agnostic as i attempted to explain in my previous post. Agnosticism has to do with whether or not something could be known. The idea of agnosticism is on an entirely different plain than whether or not you hold a belief in a god or not. Agnosticism has to do with KNOWLEDGE which is not in the same realm as BELIEF. (or lack thereof) So for example, you'd be an agnostic-atheist, Keanu. Which means you lack the belief in a god, but also assert that one can not possibly know for certain.

Agnosticism is not a middle ground between belief and unbelief.

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