RELIGION POLL

[Dob Bole]

We haven't done this one in a while. Flames and corrections are sure to follow!

(If other, please post below.)

WHAT ARE YOU???

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Liberal Protestant, but only nominally 'Christian'.

[SPKrazy]

20. That's Me Too!

:toast:

[TahitiNut]

2. Other.

:shrug: :eyes:

[BuyingThyme]

3. Intelligent.

[XboxWarrior]

5. I just like to Vote...

[NC_Nurse]

8. LOL!

good answer....:D

[SaveElmer]

4. Unitarian Universalist...nt

[Mr_Spock]

12. That's the one Jefferson thought everyone in the US would convert to

If only!

[LiberalEsto]

21. Unitarian Universalist also nt

[HockeyMom]

6. 12 years of Catholic school made me an agnostic

[Dob Bole]

7. I forgot Mormons. Oops.

Confucianist? C'mon, what was I thinking? ;)

[daveskilt]

19. 1 vote for mormon here

[upi402]

33. Confusionist maybe? Anyhow, Mormon people are always cool

but the religion is a non-starter for me.

[Warren DeMontague]

9. While I find these polls and questions interesting, many of us don't fit into neat categories.

For instance, I voted "Agnostic/Atheist" which are not the same thing. Also, I categorize myself as "Atheist" because a) For purposes of the lowest-chakra political debate in this country, that's where I identify and b) I don't believe in anything resembling the "God" of the big three monotheistic religions.

However, depending on definitions, it can be argued that everyone is an "atheist" because I'm sure there's some God, somewhere, that most people don't believe in. Christians don't believe in Pan, for the most part. Apollo worshipers probably don't believe in the Yanomamo pelican god. Etc. etc. Or you can define "atheist" as "believing in NO gods", which is a legitimate definition, but again you have the issue of defining what, precisely, is not being believed in. And if there's one word in the English language that can mean just about whatever someone wants it to mean, it's "God".

Also, for instance, Buddhism and Atheism are not mutually exclusive. Most Buddhists do not believe in anything like the western "God", either.

Personally, if I had to stick a label on myself, it would be "Atheist/Taoist/Zen Buddhist/Discordian Spiritual Free Agent."

But that is subject to change. :hippie:

[porphyrian]

16. Hail Eris! - n/t

[WillyT]

10. I Was Once Told I Was A Secular-Humanist...

don't ya just love it when somebody defines you... TO YOU???

Must make their achy-quakey brains a little calmer to be able to sort us all into their ticky-tack "organizational" charts.

:shrug:

[struggle4progress]

41. I consider myself a secular humanist. The wingnuts tried to make it ..

.. into a dirty label, but it simply decribes my views towards the civic structures, which I think should remain secular and should serve humanist ends. I'm also a Protestant, though certain Fundies will call me an atheist, in which case I generally agree, since I don't worship their vengeful deity.

[Dob Bole]

11. 200 views in 7 minutes? OH MY SCIENCE!!! nt

[many a good man]

13. Eternal Blue Sky

OK, I'm not really a Tengriist, but thought it might be cool to throw into the discussion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengri

[Dob Bole]

14. I'd never heard of it. Thanks for the enlightenment.....nt

[Chulanowa]

57. Between Tengri and Hanuman...

I can say "I've found god". Dependoing on my mood, he was either there all along, or he was hiding udner the sofa.

[Mythsaje]

15. Pantheist/humanist

with philosophical Taoist influences.

I had to vote "Agnostic/non-atheist."

Boy, does THAT not cover it.

[Hidden Stillness]

17. Modern Protestant

Liberal, modern Protestant. By the way, Orthodox, (or Eastern Orthodox) is not the same as Catholic. Eastern Orthodox, called "the Syrian Church" during the earliest days of Christianity, was the original, not Catholicism, with its "Pope." Also, Protestants, (Erasmus, etc.), invented Humanism, during the Rennaisance.

[Catchawave]

18. As my mother once called me:

Heathen

Though I voted for Catholic/non-practicing.

[flvegan]

22. Congregationalist/buddhist

Yeah, it's a neat mix.

[Kiouni]

94. hey!

there are such few buddhist here on DU I thought I would say hi!

[Alleycat]

23. A La Carte Catholic

[and-justice-for-all]

24. Non-Theistic....Religion Free.....aka: Atheist.

[PassingFair]

30. I like your answer.

Should have been the last two catagories.....

I HATE the ongoing debates on
atheism/agnostisism....

to me, non-belief is non-belief.

Religion-Free sums it up nicely!

Whowouldathunkit!

Thanks!

[and-justice-for-all]

42. Stating your an Atheist...

...seems to be like hitting someone with a blunt object, it doesnt kill them, it just knocks'em stupid for a few minutes with starry eyes.

Saying "Im non-theistic" is like handing a person a random act of kindness; Their a little stund but they flash you a smile and say thank you..

"ATHEIST" is like saying "FUCK" for some, but those are the ones that truely do not deserve any mercy. Fundies are pathetic asshats with no since of intellect or rationale, mostly conjested with Jeebus, flying nuns and pedophile Preachers and Priest wearing hypocrisy. Got Meth?

Meanwhile, Reality called me yesterday and told me get "The End of Faith". Its very transcending as was "The God Delusion" by Mr. Dawkins. In mAnn Coulters wettest dreams (of as wet as a sandbox can get) she wishes she could write as great as Dennet, Dawkins and Harris has and does.

Please remember, Religion is a cancer upon society that can be cured with heavy doses of reality and reason. It will come to pass that we shelf those dogmatic ideologies and subscribe to progress through science as well as reason and remove the chains of religion from societies wrist for good.

"Faith is believing what you know isnt so" - Mark Twain

[Dob Bole]

25. Hmm...evangelicals post here!

I'm not sure how many of us there are on DU.

[Perky]

38. one democratic evangelical chiming in

[133724]

26. Voted Catholic/Orthodox.

but as a lutheran I'm probibly a Christian/Zen hybred.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

27. I elected myself God. It was a landslide. 1-0.

1st (and only) Commandment: Thou shalt not be chaste and pure of thought.

The punishment for breaking the commandment is contained in the sin.

[New Earth]

29. LOL

:wtf:

[New Earth]

28. very spiritual

with no specific religious affiliation :hi:

so i chose the last option...

[VeggieTart]

31. I consider myself an agnostic

I was raised Jewish, but rejected organized religion in my late teens. Granted, I go to synagogue when a cousin has a bar/bat mitzvah, and I went to say Kaddish for my grandmother, but otherwise, I don't go. I don't believe it is possible to know if a higher power exists or the true nature of that higher power. But hey, I could say a hurricane is a higher power than myself.

[immoderate]

45. I'm a Jewish atheist.

But I will attend any religious observance where the food is good. A lot of my journal is about recognizing cultural ties to the tribal identity of Judaism, but maintaining the rational view that nothing like the biblical god makes sense in reality.

Have some coffee and a bagel!:donut:

--IMM

[Clarkie1]

32. I don't feel comfortable voting for one and excluding all the others.

I grew up Protestant (Presbyterian), but have in later life investigated religious traditions of the East, mainly Buddism, which I find has wisdom. I find my spirituality in nature and the wonders of the natural world, which includes a scientific frame of mind.

If I were to join a church, it would be Unitarian Universalist.

[NJ Democrats]

34. I'm a Jew

[Goblinmonger]

67. ...a stylin' Jew. On Christmas"

You'll never guess what I listened to in the car on the way to work today.

[shanti]

35. other....

why isn't there an "other" category..(or new age, for that matter)?

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

36. Praise The Lord For All That Is Good.

[Evoman]

47. And curse the motherfucker for all that is bad...YEEE HAWWWW

just kidding.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

50. You are very naughty today!

[Evoman]

55. I'm very naughty everday...its just another facet of my boyish charm.

;)

[LWolf]

37. Other:

All and none. All in the sense of including wisdom and spiritual enlightenment from every source. None in the sense of organized religion, or even using the term religion.

I'm an intensely spiritual person with a deeply held aversion to organized dogma, ritual, and practice.

[Blue_In_AK]

39. Raised Protestant...

...(Quaker, Brethren, Methodist) but I was never convinced of the divinity of Jesus. I believe he is one of several great teachers who have given us a blueprint for how humans should interact with each other. I don't call myself Christian anymore since that term has been co-opted by the fundies.

[Dervill Crow]

40. I said Wiccan, but I'm actually more of a garden variety Pagan. n/t

[skyblue]

43. Other religions are hellbound if they don't belong to mine??? WTF

I think that the God who says "you don't believe in me, thus I will send you to eternal hellfire" is just way too cruel.

[TechBear_Seattle]

44. None of the above

:hi:

[moobu2]

46. Christian (Southern Baptist) atheist, with no doubts whatsoever.

[Evoman]

48. Get thee away, paradox....we have no need for your contradictory statements here.

;)

[Evoman]

49. I'm a Samharrisian.

I worship the great and powerful Sam Harris, blessed be his un-blessedness

[TallahasseeGrannie]

51. Episcopalian

Love the smells, bells, flowers, music, prayers.

We are God's frozen people.

[JerseygirlCT]

52. That cracks me up everytime I hear it, Grannie

We are a funny bunch, aren't we?

[TallahasseeGrannie]

53. I've told this story before here, but it is a "killer"

about five or ten years ago (more like ten, now that I think about it) at my parents' very traditional ECUSA church, some poor soul had a heart attack in the narthex and we could all hear the "clear!" and the CPR. We didn't miss a beat in the service. Just kept going. We didn't even TURN AROUND AND LOOK! That would have been just bad form, you know? Just NOT DONE!

hehehehe

[JerseygirlCT]

54. We're quite a bit more relaxed than that

have to be, with all the kids. Our priest has a wonderful ability to stop, take in whatever disturbance has happened, have a laugh, make a comment, and then move right on. Bugs some of the older people, I suspect. But it's handy!

[Chulanowa]

56. I gotta echo the "not enough choices" posters

I'm Pagan - but not Wiccan. I squeeze together a blend of North European and southeast Native American beliefs - gotta honor both sets of ancestors, after all :)

[nickinSTL]

58. Other...

Do you think Wiccans are the only pagans?

[hunter]

59. Whack Catholic/Orthodox

Mostly Catholic these days.

[SangamonTaylor]

60. Born and raised Presbyterian. Explored other religions during colleges,

and returned back to my roots.

Now I'm a member at First Presbyterian Church in Houston. :)

[Crunchy Frog]

61. None of the above.

Non-religious secularist, but don't consider myself to be either atheist or agnostic. Just don't buy into organized religion, though I do enjoy some of the mythological aspects, and I like Christmas.:)

[TRYPHO]

62. Well, aren't we all a mixed bag

Before I bore you with my answer, I want to question the stereotypes of others. To be in the age of the www, satellite TV and mobile phones, makes people living inside the information loop so confidant of their authority, their presumed knowledge, they are far more likely NOT to want a basic model of theology to be bottled inside, but demand an exclusiveness, a personalized option, to take home and keep as their own. We are all too clever for our own good in this sense, since we have come far enough to discover the great DU, with all its intrinsic assumptions fortified, stratified and compressed even before we've donated. In essence, barring those of you who are deeply satisfied with your label, I wouldn't expect the rest of you to want bottling up.

Now, me, I'm a very happy Jew for one reason - my Judaism has nothing to do with my theology, and everything to do with my race, my heritage, my culture - which I don't deny, which I in-fact relish as a pleasure. I cannot fault it for its pleasures in practice, its modus operandi of meeting, greeting and eating. The prayer element is spoken by rote and by ritual, but the thought processes do not (in my case) need to pedantically relate God to the God of my forefathers, just to MY God, which satisfied ME.

I have my reasons for MY beliefs, which perhaps I'll raise in new threads shortly, but I just think the diversity of DU demographics is heightened by the relatively unorthodox requirements prior to membership - namely you hate Bush, have US interests, have internet access, probably a credit card, enough leisure time to read this shit, and probably enough attitude to burn others for theirs!

TRYPHO

Hmmm.....I must get me a good signature

[greyl]

63. Artist

That's closer to my religion than the Agnostic/Atheist choice. ;) (i chose it anyway)

[cosmik debris]

64. Ignostic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignosticism

[Meshuga]

65. For the most part...

on this board I'm also ignostic. In the discussions here in R/T I usually fall under the "I don't know what you're talking about when you talk about God."

I guess the formal religious training I received was to be ignostic. I was taught to think about thinking about God.

Most here have a concept of what God might be whether they are denying the existence of a deity or whether they are trying to convey why they believe in God.

Perhaps lot of the fighting here is due to the lack of understanding of each other's concept of God. One might be denying the existence of apples when one believes in oranges. But I recognize that a lot of the fighting is due to the believer not accepting the fact that their idea of God might sound childish to others.

I'm not an atheist since I don't deny that a God exists. Nor do I care if people believe there is a God or not.

For the most part I believe in something (something which I most of the time refer to as God) but the concept of that something changes a lot from time to time.

[cosmik debris]

68. One thing you said doesn't make sense.

"I'm not an atheist since I don't deny that a God exists."

Many atheists do not deny that god exists. We only deny that there is evidence that god exists. Why should we deny the existence of something for which there is no evidence. It seems like a waste of time to me.

[Meshuga]

69. I'm just using the dictionary definition of the word

Not your definition. I also deny that there is evidence that God exists. I still don't consider myself an atheist.

[cosmik debris]

71. The dictionary definition of the word

Is not welcomed with open arms around here because it is so blatantly false. If you intend to use it to discuss the position of others, you should be prepared for some serious flak.

[Meshuga]

74. Are you actually serious?

So making up new definitions for words will protect me from some serious flak? LOL

It might be "blatantly false" just because you don't seem to know one of the definitions of the word "deny".

To "deny" also means: to state that (something declared or believed to be true) is not true.

Example: Someone declares or believes that there is a God. You will state that is not true. By that dictionary definition of the verb "deny" it shows that you are denying that God exists. You might not be denying it in the sense of "refusing to agree". But you are denying in the form of "stating something is not true".

So can you see how it comes together with the dictionary definition of "atheist" and that it is not the end of the world to use the word "deny" in its definition or to say that you deny that God exists?

Or are you in denial? :-)

[cosmik debris]

75. Most atheists here don't bother to deny the existence of god

because there is no evidence that needs to be denied. Most atheists in this forum simply say that they do not believe. Atheism is a lack of belief, not a lack of god. But don't let me stop you, go right ahead and tell trotsky or BMUS that they have to deny the existence of god to be an atheist. I dare you.

[Meshuga]

81. Please explain "not a lack of god" in atheism

This is confusing. :-)

[cosmik debris]

83. the majority of atheists in this forum

make no statements about god except for the statement that they do not believe. The existence of god is not the issue. The issue for most atheists is belief. I have seen nothing to make me believe the existence of god, so I don't believe. Lack of god is not an issue any more than lack of unicorns is an issue.

If you want to talk to an atheist about god you need to start by defining god and giving evidence that god exists. It would be nice if you could also show the relevance of god, but I don't want to ask too much right off the bat.

[Meshuga]

85. Obviously we would...

...have to define the deity we are going to discuss. Being that a god or a magical unicorn.

So you are trying to say that most atheists here are actually ignostics?

[cosmik debris]

86. I don't know that

But I suspect that it is the case.

What I do know is that we go through this definition argument every couple of months or so. I am pleased to say this is about the most civil discussion I have been able to have on the subject since most people are wedded to their dictionary. I find it odd that so many people want to define atheists and are totally unwilling to allow atheist to define themselves.

Atheism is not a belief system, it is a lack of belief.
The only thing all atheist have in common is that theists disagree with us. Everything else is stereotype.

[Meshuga]

90. I understand it is not a belief system

If you are an atheist that's what you are. I would not know what is a stereotype of an atheist.

But you cannot blame people for being confused at the very least when a person label him or herself as atheist when in fact his/her characteristics are not of an atheists by definition. The term "ignostic" might be closer to what you are perhaps. Or maybe something else.

Rabbi Wine coined the term "ignostic" for a reason. Perhaps it helps with clearing up some of the confusion if a person can identify with that label.

Once that confusion is out of the way we avoid the apples and oranges discussions that go nowhere.

We all want to speak the same language and be on the same page at least on the terminology. Otherwise we might end up with unnecessary chaos and a lot of hurt feelings. :-)

[beam me up scottie]

91. Oh, we've already danced.

Anyone who posts regularly in this forum knows the accurate definition of the word and anyone with access to the internet can do their own research.

Many pretend to be ignorant of all but the narrowest of definitions for some reason.

They're so cute.

[greyl]

66. I like that one. nt

[cosmik debris]

73. credit where credit is due

Odin2005 caught that and posted in another thread. I stole it, but it was not my original ideology. I'm just a run of the mill atheist.

[cain_7777]

70. Agnostic and Atheist are completely seperate

Why does everyone group them together all the time. Would you ever group Jewish and Christian religions together becuase they're close enough?

[jgraz]

76. Thank you! I was gonna say...

Actually, people DO group Jews and Christians together (e.g. Judeochristian values). This is far more supportable given these religions' common sources. Agnosticism and Atheism are rooted in different philosophies and should not be casually lumped together.

You might as well just call us "Infidels" and be done with it.

[toddaa]

77. Not necessarily

Atheistic - without belief in God
Agnostic = without knowledge of God

I'm both.

[jgraz]

78. That's not how many Atheists would define it

Atheism: Belief that there is no God or supernatural being of any kind.
Agnosticism: Belief that the existence of God can never be known.

[toddaa]

79. Not again

-sigh-

How many times do we have to play the stupid definition game?

MOST atheists, as in everyone I know, define atheism as an absence of belief in God. Belief that there is no God relates to only a subset of all atheists. Do I need to bring out the Venn diagrams?

[cosmik debris]

80. That's twice just today!

It never ends.

[jgraz]

84. Logically how is agnosticism closer to atheism than theism?

Maybe a venn diagram can help you out here.

[toddaa]

87. One more time

Theism relates to belief and Gnosticism relates to knowledge. For instance, an agnostic theist has no knowledge of god, yet believes. A gnostic atheist has knowledge of god, yet does not believe (apparently, bloom is one of these).

Most people who play the definition game with the word agnosticism tend to do so without fully comprehending what gnosticism means. That's why both gnostics and atheists roll their eyes when people misuse the word agnostic.

[jgraz]

88. OK, we're just talking literal/historical vs. vernacular/practical

I understand the roots of the words, but that isn't how they've been applied in my experience. When I tell people I'm an atheist, they generally take that to be a much stronger rejection of religion than saying one is agnostic (a popular synonym for non-religious). Practically this seems to be a more accurate representation of modern world views, especially since pure Gnosticism of any stripe is decidedly rare.

[TRYPHO]

89. What is religion anyway?

Can I chuck this one in to the pot:

A religion vs B religion are methods of THINKING about "the divine whateverness", and often comes with lots of important "words" and "actions", absolutely none of which are particularly mystical, magical or meaningful in reality. What is important is the THINKING bit.

So any religion (if you "believe" or want to believe or want to think about believing or....) is just the thinking process in some active form - either alone, or in a group, but ultimately (if done honestly) is ONLY DONE IN YOUR MIND.

So, to stop be boring myself, if you are of the might, do and ardently do group, then WHICH religion should be (almost) irrelevent, and if you are of the dont, wont, cant, or dont understand the question group, then it makes no difference what name you give to the NOT group.

In my opinion.

TRYPHO

[beam me up scottie]

93. Why bother?

It's a waste of time.

If people are too lazy to do their homework they obviously don't care about how ignorant and offensive defining others is.

Hence, my sig line.

[beam me up scottie]

92. I am both an implicit and an explicit atheist.

Blows your mind, doesn't it?

[Zhade]

82. And they're also NOT RELIGIONS.

Atheism is the LACK of religion due to the lack of belief in gods.

[More Than A Feeling]

72. Secular Agnostic Protestant (Baptist) here!

Yup, I'm a SAP! :D

"I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance."

- Socrates, from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers

[Cobalt Violet]

95. Atheist.

WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! :toast: