A Religion Thread

[Gautama]

Which religion do you follow? What's your strongest justification (even if it's just cause and effect) for believing in it? Similarly, if you are irreligious, why?

[EDIT: if you wish, and have a favourite passage from your religion's texts, feel free to share it.[

[Discipline]

inb4 flame war and this thread becoming atheists versus Christianity

[Eastep]

Worship Serj!
Serj Tankian is teh awesomeness! You canot resist the urge to fall to your knees and worship him!

SERJ IS GOD!

I have nothing further to add to this thread.

[Gautama]

inb4 flame war and this thread becoming atheists versus Christianity

Let's assume that everyone has been in a thread like you've described. That should give them some motive to be civil. There are more religions than Christianity, and more merit to Christianity than it often gets credit for. I'm giving everyone the benefit of the doubt starting a thread like this.

[hunterXgirl]

Im a muslim not a terrorist nor a taliban XD I believe in the Koran because what I see in the world is just what wroten there

[PanzerJedi]

As my name implies, I'm LDS, short for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, also known as Mormons. I'm a member one, because I was raised in this church and two, because I sincerely believe it to be true.

[Saarai]

All I have to say is...

Give me more proof for any religion, get rid of some of the hypocrisy in some of them. I mean the ten commandents didn't say: "Thou shall not kill... Unless you do it in the name of god or in war." It said people shouldn't kill, period.

Islam is the only religon, I think, that says they can kill and attack in justifiable self-defense. Which would explain some of the hate towards their Christian rivals and the Christian dominated western world.

Going to stop now so I can watch the flaming that may happen. I don't have a religion, so I'm the neutral factor

[Eastep]

A neutral?!
That's the stupidest position of all... at least if you take a joking position on religion, you seem less like a dude with a stick jammed up his ass and more like a carefree dude.

Join Serj under his banner one and all, he'll give you System of a Down to listen to and... well, System of a Down.

Oh, if you guys haven't figured it out yet, I'd be joking this whole while, your petty religious debates don't attract any attention from me.

[Discipline]

Well, in good faith, and as previously disclosed, I'm playing my card.
I'm an atheist.

[Gautama]

Oh, if you guys haven't figured it out yet, I'd be joking this whole while, your petty religious debates don't attract any attention from me.

I can make it less of a petty debate, and more a civil discussion, if you wish. Just a second while edit in something to the OP that shows that I'm not interested in bickering.

[Matthias]

To be honest, I'm against this thread because all others have ended in "Flames", but I'll give this one benefit of the doubt.

Anyways, I'm not sure what I am. I cannot prove or disprove that God and Satan exist. However, I've always found it rather appealing to stick up for both, rather than to disclose just one. I see it as both are hand-in-hand with one another and help each other out. Generally, when someone starts discussing (where I live it's more like preaching) why God is so great and then wails on Satan, I jump in to defend our "Devil". One cannot say the other is great while its counterpart is not. If anything, I find we are our own "Satan" and God left us the choice to determine our choices, ideals, and beliefs.

Mother and Grandmother on both sides of the family tried raising me as a Christian, but could never do so properly. Most consider me "Atheist", but I don't believe that either.

[rayeine]

Well, I tend to switch between solid existential atheism and mythological polytheism. I just don't like or believe in the idea of a single omnipotent god. Many gods, all with stories and personalities of their own, really interest me. I think my atheism has, somehow, allowed me to view mythology more openly than most.
That being said, I was raised in a Catholic church. My mother's side of the family is composed of devout Catholics, as far as I can tell, and my father's family is Jewish. My dad himself is a Buddhist and teaches philosophy and world religions. My mom still retains theological traces of her upbringing, but, unlike her twin, who has all three of her children enrolled in Catholic school, she also has some Buddhist ideology.

The extent of my own aversion to organized religion might stem from my experience of Sunday school as a young child - I was the one who asked questions and was reprimanded for questioning all that crap about sheep.
Church was exhausting, too. All that sitting and standing and kneeling and walking slowly in processions...eventually I was just going for the donuts. Then I stopped completely, and I feel more secure about my identity now.

For the record, Vikings and 'heathens' in general, and witchy Earth-worshiping beliefs like Wicca also interest me...again, the influence of the church combined with rebellion, I suppose.

The thing is, I have a strong feeling I would still be religious and believe in God, in the Christian sense, if I had been raised in a Gospel church.

[Village Alchemist]

I am an atheist. I believe in logic, evidence, and science. If you can prove to me that your religious beliefs are true, I'll most certainly convert to them--but thus far, no one has done so.

Now, I don't think we can rule out the existance of God. However, at this point, we have no understanding of such a thing other than simple guesswork and fables. Perhaps that will change in the future.

[Mid]

Keep the negative comments out of the thread before I hurt you.

[Oran Tarlin]

I believe religion is the creation of the human mind. Quite honestly... it's all bunk, but how does that make it any less real? Isn't it incredible enough to think that the human mind... which we use but a feeble percentage would even TRY to fathom the infinite expanses of the world. I love religion, it brings people together, it rips them apart. I think that just HOW symbolic one wishes to be is up to them. Baptism, ritual fasting, it's all a beautiful way to show that you have hope for the world, that people are still capable, in this pampered time, to believe!

When it comes to the creation of the world... quite honestly, I DON'T CARE! If it took a minute, if it took 7 days, if it took, trillions of years! I don't care. I'm so glad it happened! What benefit is there to knowing how the world was created... are we going to attempt to recreate it? It would be like the moon landing... ya! we did it... now what? Just relish that it's all here! All of it is ours,

That's the only part of religion I dislike, that it takes away from peoples singular soul. Every person has this... god given, naturally selected, whatever the hell you want to call it, spark. Ambition sets us apart from everything else, a bee merely tries to live as best it can, but we want more, so we expect more. Everything else in the world exists just to exist, so really, why would a god be any different? But we humans! We think, we know, we want what we can't have, and make sure we get it anyway. It's miraculous!

Every religion is right, absolutely right. In life, you go wherever you are headed, religion, I think, is for the people who know about something beyond,this things which makes humans so special, but wants it to have a face, or to acknowledge it in whatever way they desire. The power of humanity is enough to create whatever they wish! Oh brave new world, that has such people in it...

[Ylanne]

I have written extensively on the topic of religion and faith, and consider myself very open-minded. While I believe in a God, I also believe that Christianity is not the only way to God. At the same time, however, I'm not a pluralist. I believe that JESUS is the only way to God, and that He transcends Christianity, which is one religion that developed around his teachings. Seriously. The term Christian wasn't even used until decades after Jesus' death, and the people he was harshest toward were the religious (conservative) leaders.

I don't believe in forced conversion. I also don't believe in evolution. By Charles Darwin's own standard, which said that his theory was not true if no transitional species could be found. It is not true if every variation cannot be accounted for. And both those statements, insofar as I am aware, are true.

ANYWAYS, moving on from THAT particular debate, I do believe in faith. I believe in proof (wow, first time I typed that I spelled it proff, ha ha). I also believe in logical inferences. Take for example the eye. Or the peacock feather. Or how every heavenly body whirls, from whole galaxies down to subatomic particles. (Subatomic, what an oxymoron, ha ha, anyways. . . )

I refute those who say I believe in a God because I want to go to heaven or because I think I'm better than everyone else. Not so. I think we are all equal. Equal in value, in worth, in good and in evil. Equal in potential. Equal in need to be loved.

And as for the accusation that I believe in a God because I want to go to a heaven and be better than everyone who doesn't end up there. . . I say read (a translation of) the Spanish sonnet "Soneto a Cristo Crucificado", Sonnet to the Crucified Christ, part of which says something like "I love you Lord that if there were no hell to fear, I would still love you, and if there were no paradise to expect, I would love you; I love you simply for who you are."

I'm very willing to discuss matters of faith (or lack thereof ) and comparative religion. It's one of my passions. I will not, however, tolerate anyone making assumptions of me based on the statement "I believe in a God", or who are simply antagonistic and want to start a fight. I'm open to listening to (reading) your views and statements for them. I'm not open to listening to (reading) insults and provocations.

[Saxious]

Karma, 'What goes around comes around' (if I got it right).
Why?
Cause it is so true, it happens all the time for me. I share 95% of my happiness with the people around me, help whenever i can, and do my best to be a good friend to as many people as possible. My reward has often been 'you make my day better' or 'he makes me smile every time' and that makes me fell better.

I know people can take advantage of people who behaves like this, so for those of you who might be a little too over concerned for others (even strangers), I can say 'no' when i feel that people are taking advantage of me.

[Gautama]

I'm very willing to discuss matters of faith (or lack thereof ) and comparative religion. It's one of my passions. I will not, however, tolerate anyone making assumptions of me based on the statement "I believe in a God", or who are simply antagonistic and want to start a fight. I'm open to listening to (reading) your views and statements for them. I'm not open to listening to (reading) insults and provocations.

Is there any religion outside of Christianity that treats Jesus' teachings as wise? Why are they the only way to God?

[Troublemaker]

I believe in Spinoza's god.

That is; a "god" that is nature; that cannot process thoughts as an individual and is insusceptible to petty human emotions. That has no capacity to intervene or judge anyone or anything. I think pantheism was referred to once as, "sexed-up atheism" - and I think it bears some truth. I guess I'd largely consider myself an atheist with a nicer-sounding outlook on life and existence.

The only other religion I've really studied enough to even be remotely comfortable making a statement about would have to be Christianity. I think it's truly a bastardized system of what it should be; and I wish that Christians (as their name might suggest) merely followed the teachings of Christ as a philosopher instead of immortalizing him as anything more than just that: a philosopher.

I think Ghandi summed it up best with his; "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ."

I'd also strongly disagree with anyone who claims that you need a belief in "God" as something with the capacity to think, hate, judge, and love; in order to act well as a human being, or appreciate the beauty of life.

[Kronos]

Buddhism. I came to the same conclusions via secular means, those conclusions being: everything is an illusion of the mind.