Just how religious are you?

Alright, before you cry out "not another religious poll by Mike the Atheist" ... let me explain why I created this poll.

I've been very impressed with Sam Harris' book The End of Faith. If you are familiar with the other authors who have been lumped together under the moniker "New Atheists", you'll know that they all differ to a certain degree, and Sam Harris differs from the others, too. He rejects the notion of an "Atheist movement" and is not at all happy with the label "Atheist". Today I watched a video from 2007's AAI convention, where he explains this criticism and proposes some alternative ways of dealing with the situation. Here's the video ... watch it if you're interested in an unusually critical view on "Atheism".



So: what do you think? Could we somehow manage to discuss religion without using words like "Theism", "Atheism", "Deism" etc. and respect each other? I'm willing to give it a try, and - like Sam Harris - I'll have to say this:

Not all religions, or religious people, are necessarily equally bad from the perspective of a non believer. In return, I hope that not all non-religious people are necessarily equally bad from the perspective of a believer. In the end it depends on our individual actions.

Poll choices explanations:

Fundamentalism is meant to include the notion of "giving the religion absolute precedence over any other norm", in the case of #2 with the exclusion of violence. This in essence means that a fundamentalist believes that his religious laws are more important than the secular laws.
By "violence" I mean religiously motivated violence against unbelievers or heretics or to protect the belief.
By "spirituality and mysticism" I mean non-metaphysical, introspective techniques of meditation or contemplation.



Edited by Mr ProgFreak - January 04 2010 at 19:23

Oh FFS. No offence intended Mike, but seriously, most people have had enough of these polls/threads. And I'm a non-religious person myself.


Edited by Any Colour You Like - January 04 2010 at 15:46

^^ I had already asked Dean to close the other one that I had created in December about the "Brights" and "Supers" last week. People evolve ... and I don't think another poll will be necessary. I'm just curious what people think about this different approach, avoiding the pitfalls of the word "Atheism".

Edited by Mr ProgFreak - January 04 2010 at 15:33

Mr ProgFreak wrote: Alright, before you cry out "not another religious poll by Mike the Atheist" ... let me explain why I created this poll.

 

Mr ProgFreak wrote: Not all religions, or religious people, are necessarily equally bad from the perspective of a non believer. In return, I hope that not all non-religious people are necessarily equally bad from the perspective of a believer. In the end it depends on our individual actions.

Everyone is bad.  That is the biblical doctrine of total depravity (Romans 3:23).

That's all I have to say about that.

I said "I'm religious by tradition and general message" because it seemed like the most correct answer for me.

I had been planning to make a poll that uses the "Dawkins scale" from 1 to 7 between Theism and Atheism. But it occurred to me that this idea would bias people against the concept of Atheism even more. I'm inclined to prefer the label "Not religious" to "Atheist", since it avoids the "ring" of dogma or fundamentalism

BTW: In fact this is a totally different poll than the one that I just described ... it also has seven choices, but that is merely coincidental.


Edited by Mr ProgFreak - January 04 2010 at 15:44

Mr ProgFreak wrote: ^ I can live with being bad if everyone else is, too. That pretty much removes any meaning from the word anyway.

Actually, no you can't. 

But carry on. 

A Person wrote: Vompatti wrote: My religion prevents me from answering this question. Wouldn't sayiing that be an answer in and of itself?

I believe it would.

The Doctor wrote: What about the belief that I am in fact the creator of all and you are all just a part of my deranged imagination?

I guess that would be choice #2, and you're the only member of your religion.