Religion Poll

My father is Catholic and my mother is Jewish, and since my parents got a divorce when i was three I was raised as a Jew. I went to Jewish parochial school from kindergarten to sixth grade, from where I transferred to a different school after my mother and I became dissatisfied with the former school's administration. In roughly eight grade, I began to get a hold of Ayn Rand's literature, and I found that I agreed with her ideas far more than those held in the religious doctrine I had been exposed to. I briefly went through a period of having interest in Buddhist teachings, having read the Dhammapada, but eventually found most satisfaction in Rand's philosophy, Objectivism. So, I'm putting down my vote for atheist, since that best describes it.

I have a fear that this thread has the potential of being riddled with proselytizing and arguing, but I kindly ask all of you to refrain from that. I made this poll more with the intention of seeing what the religious spread is here on the board and hearing other people's stories about how they came to believe what they do.

Perhaps you should have separated Atheism and Agnostic - the two have different meanings and very different connotations.

I am an agnostic, in the sense that I feel there is not sufficient evidence to believe either that there is or isn't a god.

Atheists, on the other hand, are confident that there is no god. I think it should be important for people to specify which they belong to, and why.

Oh, and I know little about Humanism. Could someone care to tell me more?

I´ll probably shock everyone by saying that I´m 99% Atheist and 1 % Humanist 

I am a protestant christian.. but I also take what I feel is relevant from the Bible... and leave the rest.  The Bible was written by men, other than the 10 Commandments which was supposedly written by God.. so I try to abide by the 10 big ones... but that one on not coveting someone else's spouse generally gets me into a lot of trouble...

Jim Garten wrote: even the most devout atheist will call on a deity when a 20 ton truck is rolling toward him/her Good thread, by the way, but I totally agree with your caveat: Sweetnighter wrote: I have a fear that this thread has the potential of being riddled with proselytizing and arguing, but I kindly ask all of you to refrain from that Let's keep this civil, people

How can you agree with the let's keep this civil tag after making that contentious statement:

even the most devout atheist will call on a deity when a 20 ton truck is rolling toward him/her

That statement sums up religion for me.
I will never, even in my darkest hour, attempt to invoke the mercy of any deity.
I wouldnt shout for Superman, Batman or International Rescue, so why would I shout for God's help?

define humanist

 

Humanism: A philosophy asserting human dignity and man's capacity for fulfillment through reason and scientific method, hereby often rejecting religion. A humanist beliefs in continuous emergent evolution.

Philosophy and science are the keywords for understanding ones behaviour and relation with the world. some quotations from famous humanists.

Humanists recognize that it is only when people feel free to think for themselves, using reason as their guide, that they are best capable of developing values that succeed in satisfying human needs and serving human interests. • ISAAC ASIMOV - scientist, author, and past president of the American Humanist Association.

It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously. I also cannot imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere.... Science has been charged with undermining morality, but the charge is unjust. A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death. • ALBERT EINSTEIN - scientist, Nobel Prizewinner in physics, originator of the theory of relativity.

When we speak of equality, of women and men, of Blacks and Whites, of all the world's people, we are talking about humanism. • GLORIA STEINEM - founder of Ms.magazine, Humanist Pioneer Awardee.

joyous service for the greater good of all humanity, of application of new ideas of scientific progress for the benefit of all. • LINUS PAULING - scientist, Humanist of the Year in 1961, Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1954, Nobel Peace Prize in 1962.

I was christened a Catholic, but when my Irish mother moved to England she stopped going to mass. Therefore I was not raised a Catholic. My father was Protestant, but seemed uninterested inmworship altogether. He died when I was sixteen so I never had the opportunity to discuss his take on such things.

I was an Athiest, and I'm pretty cynical about organised religion as a whole.

I had thought for sometime that the ten commandments formed the basis of how we conduct ourselves in Christian societies. Regardless of whether we practice a religion or not, all mentally stable people with a conciense know its wrong to kill, steel etc. Now, however, I feel the natural world plays a more significant role in how we organise our societies. All species will, naturally over time, organise their 'kind' in a way most conducive to survival. We have done this, without Gods help. Our aversion to killing - with some obvious exceptions - has come about through our natural evolution as a species; as both our emotional and intellectual intelligence evolved. To credit our values to the 10 commandments is barely touching the surface IMO.

There was a history class on deism. I'm not sure that exists in English though, so here I am talking out of my ... where the sun doesn't shine.

I believe in a superior force, that we are all part of something that something/someone else created, that everything exists and happens for a reason, that we all have a reason for being alive.

I'm not too sure which one that is, so atheist has my vote.
It's funny, up until the age of 9 my dad had me going to Sunday School every, well, Sunday... learning verses by heart, "Jesus is your friend" -- the moment we moved from Southern US, I threw that out the window.

Far Far closer, half of the new testament was written long after Jesus past away due to prolonged and intimate exposion to a crusifix. the other half was written even after that.