What religion do you identify with?

I'm a proud Atheist. I have no religion, and I am glad personally, to be free of my old religion, which was Eastern Orthodox Christian. I can respect if you have a religion, but don't expect me to not be offended when you say I'm "sinning" I'm "going to Hell" or if you just preach to me regardless. Not to be rude, but I don't need any God's love, since I don't believe in any in the first place!

 

I'm an atheist.

I've been a non believer since about 14.

There was a strong conflict between my sexuality and what the religion I was raised on said. I knew I had to choose one or the other. I made my choice and I never looked back. I don't have any regrets about it. Occassionally I have a fear of hell panic attack, but I also get panic attacks about the concept of dying in general so it's w/e ( not sure they're legit panic attacks, but that's the only word that really sums it up very well )

When I first left religion it was for a more simple reason, but as I've gotten older I've learned more and more things, and I've found that even if I wanted to go back to religion now I couldn't. I couldn't bring myself to go through the mental gymnastics necessary to be religious.

 

Atheist since preschool!
(No, seriously I told my Christian preschool teacher I knew the Bible was just fairy tales XD)
I have respect for those who choose religion, so long as their freedom of religion don't step into my freedom from religion. I have friends with many religious backgrounds and the majority are extremely nice

 

Atheist

 

I know the feeling. I was raised a J. Witness and I used to wonder (and this was when I was still in the religion) if I was being a good enough Witness to make it to the "New Order". I'd be terrified of the thought of "Armageddon".

I was twelve, and wondering if I'd survive the "End of Days" or if I'd be killed in Armageddon with the "rest of the world". How's that for screwed up?

That's what I tell my mother when she tries to talk me into coming back. She'll be like "You're remembering the religion through the eyes of a child" or "You don't remember enough of it to make a decision about the religion", and I have to tell her, "No, I know too much about your religion to ever go back" or "The problem isn't that I don't remember your religion, the problem for you is that I remember everything about it".

My opinion of the Witness religion is pretty abysmal, to say the least. I'm going to leave off here before I start ranting.

 

I remember I used to have nightmares about armeggedon at like 14 that was right around the time I stopped remembering my dreams altogether for awhile. When I first started remembering dreams again they were all pretty awful, but then lately the ones I remember have been pretty decent. Some were even kinda funny x3

Anyways...


to your "Like a Cult" comment.

If you really break down the structure of a cult and the structure of an organized religion they're not really all that different. In fact in a lot of cases you see organized religions devolve into cults. I mean go watch "Jesus Camp" there is no avoiding the fact that was a cult.


I was raised on all that hellfire stuff and it burns into your memory when you have that drilled into your head at such a young age.

I used to smoke weed, but I don't anymore because it makes me think abotu stuff like that.

 

I dreamt of it, too. Thankfully I haven't had one of those dreams in years.

Yeah, I actually went back and cut out the "cult" comment because I was starting to come off way too rant-y. I do think that the Witnesses are one of the worst religions, though. If I had to accuse any religion of being a cult, the Witnesses would be #1 on my list. I mean, they discourage questioning of any part of their doctrine, they leave all the decisions about their religion to a group of old farts in Brooklyn (Bethel, they call it) and revere these "governing body" members and nobody would dare question them, they "disfellowship" people who question them or do anything that they consider immoral, and have been known to actually stake out the houses of people they suspect of committing said "immoral acts" so they can catch them in the act. You get busted, you get disfellowshipped, you get shunned by your own family and friends until you come back bowing and scraping for forgiveness. And sometimes it can take years for them to let you back in.

And I'm ranting again. :bang: Sorry. That religion just makes my blood boil.

It does, though. I remember being eleven and my mother threatening to leave me home from a meeting because she thought I was "misbehaving". I remember begging to go because I wanted to "survive the New Order".

I have to point out, though, before I come off like an absolute ass, that I do actually have a really good mom. She's always been supportive of everything I do (aside from the whole "being an atheist" thing). She's just had her mind warped by this cult and it's a damn shame, but it does that to people.

 

Yeah religion is a big mess.

I hate saying bad things about it, because people always assume I mean religion as a whole or take it as a personal attack.

The problem is though that religion has problems, problems that someone needs to point out and talk about. Ignoring problems, or refusing to accept your religion as anything other than perfect at all times forever is not a good way to go about things.


Sucks about your experience. I don't have much experience with Witness', but I give them credit for realizing God's name isn't actually God.

 

I'm an atheist, but I'm ok with religious people as long as they're accepting & don't try to force their beliefs on others.

 

I'm Buddhist. There doesn't seem to be any other Buddhists here though Well, it's more of a philosophy than a religion...

 

Im somewhat of a Christian

 

Eh, kind of exploring again.

I'm thinking Humanistic/Naturalistic Paganism is something that might be a good path for me. I still uphold some of the values and beliefs of Bokononism, Buddhism, and Satanism, and they will always be important to me, but I feel like this might be for me.

I feel a lot of this new exploration helps me in that my partner is exploring Wicca and considers himself to be an eclectic witch, and has been very open minded about new things and helping me get in touch with old roots of mine (since I explored the idea of Wicca and Paganism in my preteen/early teen years).

After much digging around, I was reminded of a moment of spirituality I had when I was going through an intense battle with depression when I was in high school after seeing the "Symphony of Science" videos (I highly recommend that everyone sees them at least once in their lifetime because they're life changing), which just washed over me with this intense sense of awe and wonder about the natural world around me, something which has honestly been with me since I was very young now that I think about it more (especially with my love for chemistry and astronomy as young as five). To quote Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Carl Sagan (respectively):

While I don't believe the gods are actual entities, their myths/stories/legends, their importance in history (and meaning to others) and what they symbolized are. While I don't see literal deity worship in my future, I do see the potential for poetic honoring; such as Prometheus and Apollo for knowledge and the arts, even as muses for inspiration.

In case anyone is interested, here's a website on more about this branch of Paganism. I'm so glad I was directed to this, because this is so insightful and fantastic:

What’s this? | Humanistic Paganism

 

Atheist here.

 

When will the results be shown? I'm so interested to see them, haha~

And I'm Catholic/Christian, but really leading more to going back to Christianity, haha~ sorry, Pope Francis XD;;;

 

I am agnostic and a bit spiritual

 

I've said it before; I'll say it again.

If you're going to hide the results of a poll, nobody has an incentive to participate.

I certainly won't.

 

Atheist.

 

Not sure. I don't practice any religion specifically, but I do have some beliefs/customs tied into my culture. I suppose sort of agnostic?

 

Why isn't there an option of "several"? One doesn't need to follow one religion only Q__Q I follow Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism... a lot of stuff

 

Atheist since birth