Hi! I was just wondering what the breakdown of religious faith (or lack thereof) was on this forum, and also how it relates to anyone's geographical location. If anyone selects 'Other', please feel free to elaborate! EDIT: I slightly screwed up while adding the poll, so I'll just put the options I was going to add here: 1. Atheist/agnostic 2. Christian 3. Jewish 4. Muslim 5. Hindu 6. Buddhist 7. Other
My family isnt religious but I wouldnt say I'm an atheist. I do believe in god, just not some of the beliefs and things in holy books. After all the bible was written by people not god. I think some of it is true we can just never be truly sure but I deffo believe in god.
I'm a mix between Christian and Deist. There isn't exactly a term for me. The closest one is Christian Deist but that isn't accurate either. If you call me a Christian you aren't incorrect but if you call me a Deist you aren't incorrect either. I'm so happy to see that someone knows that Catholic is a type of Christian. It was always a pet peeve of mine.
i guess i would fall under muslim, although i don't practice. But i was raised as one so i guess in the spirit of the quiz i will say it. I have never practices, but being gay drives another wedge between me and islam. Islam says its okay to be homosexual (after all, god created everythign about you), but how you act on it is entirely your choice. The qu'ran does imply that gay acts are bad (although less so for lesbians) and does recommend some punishments for it. The hadith (sort of the islamic equivalent of the christian gospels) is very strict on the issue. So for that issue, i cannot reconcile religion and my sexuality. I still respect a number of islam's teachings, but i have in limbo when it comes to gay. I am still deciding. Coming out to my parents and home friends will be hard because many of them are muslim and i doubt thye would react well...This has been plaguing my mind for the past 3 years now. I think at the end of it all, i will come out. Just don't knwo when or how. Probably when i have a place of my own and maybe even someone to come out for...
After a lot of time and careful consideration, I've landed squarely in the 'atheist' camp. Not a whole lot of 'out' atheists where I'm from. Pretty much all I hear about is conservative christians.
My parents a sooooo religious that they're paying to have a stool to promote jehova's witnesses, giving away all the printed material and what not. I don't have a problem with what someone believes, or has faith in, BUT i DO get annoyed when they knock on doors and try to sell their beliefs to someone else, regardless of if they can prove it's right one way or the other. I honestly can't see that there can be a 'god' or whatever you call him or her, when there are young children with cancer, brain tumors, or any other terminal diseases - a god wouldn't allow that to happen. There are many other reasons I don't do religion, but it's probably best to stay calm and walk away from this thread
Other. In the past I would've identified as agnostic, as I don't follow nor was raised in a specific faith, however on reflection I don't feel comfortable with that anymore. Couldn't really go into much more detail right now, it's an area about myself I haven't explored much, but suffice to say that I consider myself a very spiritual person even if I don't follow any religion.
There is also a good support group at Imaan - Home Did you read my article about the Muslim MPs that supported Gay Marriage
I totally get it if you don't respond but I have a question. I'm not trying to start an argument at all. I just see people say this a lot and I was always puzzled by it. You say that a god wouldn't allow that to happen but how do you know that? It seems like your argument is making the assumption that a god must be benevolent and must rectify or not allow terrible things to happen. Wouldn't you have to prove that god is benevolent and so on to say that tragedies mean that gods cannot exist? How do we know that God didn't start the universe and then walk away? What if God created something else that needed His attention more than humans? A lot of people seem to make the assumption that a god must behave in a certain way. Why do we think that these assumptions are automatically correct? If you follow a religion, then I understand that but, if you don't, why do you use these assumptions in your argument to disprove the existence of any God? Disclaimer: I am not saying that I believe that God is not benevolent or that he doesn't care about humans
I might as well add myself to the tally, so I'll say 99.9% atheist. The 0.1% of doubt is due to the fact that assuming certainty of anything can be dangerous, and also that there are still innumerable unexplained phenomena in the world.
When someone says "if there's a god, why do children get cancer?", they are pointing out three things. Either: -children get cancer because the god doesn't exist, meaning it is silly to worship this god -children get cancer because the god can't do anything about it, meaning it is silly to worship this god because they don't have any power -children get cancer because the god gives them cancer, meaning it is silly to worship this god because it is malicious You can substitute children getting cancer with anything bad that happens (e.g. natural disasters).
According to what I remember from GCSE religious studies, the Bible claims that God is omnibenevolent, omniscient and omnipotent. I can't remember where it says this or how it is justified - only that it is a standard part of Christian dogma. This has been called the inconsistent triad, as it is impossible for any potential deity to be more than 2 of those things at a time. If they are all-knowing and all-loving, they must not have the power to act against terrible disasters. If they are all-powerful and all-loving, they cannot know what awful things will happen in advance, thus cannot be all-knowing. If they are all-knowing and all-powerful, they cannot feel kindly towards everything or else they would use their power and knowledge to prevent tragedies. ---------- Post added 7th Mar 2013 at 10:11 PM ---------- This is a much more concise way of explaining what I meant. Thanks!