What religion do you believe in

[blahblahblah]

who pissed in your cornflakes this morning? who the effing cares? What were they called before their was catholicsim? all christianity is an offshoot of judaism which is an offshoot of various religions. I dont want to break it down to specifics (frankly I dont care who was first) but catholicism is generally seen as the first organised version of christianity

If you are going to act like that, why did you create this poll? To some people what denomination they are a part of is very important. Who are you to decide what and what isn't important? Granted, I am a Christian who goes to church, and I don't mind being lumped together with most other Christians. Just show some respect and sensitivity once in a while. Thank-you.

To be specific, I am a non-denominational Christian.

 

[Lil' Timmy]

agnostic. functionally an atheist.

 

[Direwolf]

Actually I don't think his remark about it being derived from Roman Catholicism is all that off base. Certainly there were other christian faiths prior to that (I've actually always found their takes particularly interesting), but they were all eventually either merged into or wiped out by the Christian Church. For a time that was the only widely known form of chrisitianity in the western world, and it is from it that most of the off shoots (Lutheran, Protestant, Anglican, etc) were derived.

 

[Rupertvdb]

when people say they are agnostic they often don't mean it, i forget who said they were agnostic but some scholar did, what's interesting was that he was a genuine agnostic, he had literally studied religious branches and arguments for years and come to the conclusion that we could never know....interesting

 

[Bad^Hat]

I believe in the religion where everyone just stops caring and comes together as one earth instead of countries/colours/religions.

Although having said that I don't judge you if you are a part of any religion That'd be hypocritical.

 

[Rupertvdb]

Actually I don't think his remark about it being derived from Roman Catholicism is all that off base. Certainly there were other christian faiths prior to that (I've actually always found their takes particularly interesting), but they were all eventually either merged into or wiped out by the Christian Church. For a time that was the only widely known form of chrisitianity in the western world, and it is from it that most of the off shoots (Lutheran, Protestant, Anglican, etc) were derived.

Christianity:

a monotheistic system of beliefs and practices based on the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus as embodied in the New Testament and emphasizing the role of Jesus as savior
www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn

the collective body of Christians throughout the world and history (found predominantly in Europe and the Americas and Australia); "for a thousand years the Roman Catholic Church was the principal church of Christendom"
www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn

a religion based on the teachings of Jesus Christ. Originally a Jewish sect believing that Jesus was the prophesied Hebrew Messiah, Christianity grew into one of the world’s most popular religions.
www.nmsu.edu/~artdept/retablo-web/zarured/zarured.glossary.htm

, various syncretic religions that follow interpreted teachings of the figure Jesus of Nazareth, as expressed in the New Testament of the Bible, and the various versions and interpretations thereof.
www10.brinkster.com/atheismfile/glossary.html

flavour of religion which developed on Earth at the beginning of its self-referential calendar. ironically, its founding namesake advanced the importance of deemphasis of rules in decision making, while many followers even have tended to create more rules (usually for consumption by others). At some times it was viewed as superstition, at other times it was used to subjugate its followers and to excuse various wars. Because of its historical baggage, and because of the deemphasis of its mysticism by church authorities, it lost many followers in the late second and early third milliennia. later it was discovered to embody as much mysticism as any other religion and it regained a large following. but surely there must be more
ajewell.sytes.net/www/gloss.html

The faith of the Christians.
www.geocities.com/brentwoodursuline/dictionary.htm


Just because Roman Catholicism was the main branch doesn't mean it was the source (its growth was highly related to politicial leverage and wealth).

Saying it came before Christianity is ignorant and dumb, there is no two ways about it. It is an impossible statment, it's like saying 3 sides sticking together came from triangles....it's just ****ing wrong!

 

[Apos]

when people say they are agnostic they often don't mean it, i forget who said they were agnostic but some scholar did, what's interesting was that he was a genuine agnostic, he had literally studied religious branches and arguments for years and come to the conclusion that we could never know....interesting

Well agnostic, when originally coined as a term by Huxley, used to have this stronger meaning. It wasn't just that you DIDN'T know if there was a God, you actually thought it was IMPOSSIBLE to know. Nowadays, the usage of the word has weakened so that it commonly is used with the "I just dunno" meaning.

Technically, agnostics still have to either be atheists or theists (since whether or not you think you know there is a god or not, it's still an open question whether you believe there is or not)

 

[Direwolf]

Saying it came before Christianity is ignorant and dumb, there is no two ways about it. It is an impossible statment, it's like saying 3 sides sticking together came from triangles....it's just ****ing wrong!

no ..all christian faiths are an offshoot of roman catholicism.

To play Devil's Advocate: you just inferred that he meant Roman Catholicism was the first. It may be over analyzing, but I just think he meant modern Christian faiths, and then its easy to see what he was talking about.

 

[Lil' Timmy]

when people say they are agnostic they often don't mean it, i forget who said they were agnostic but some scholar did, what's interesting was that he was a genuine agnostic, he had literally studied religious branches and arguments for years and come to the conclusion that we could never know....interesting

well, in that case, let me qualify. i don't believe or not believe in god(s). in general, i don't care whther there is a god or not.. it doesn't really affect me. don't know what you'd call that.. a non-scholarly agnostic? whatever.. i'm sure it has an -ism somehwere..

@stern: catholicism is a form of christianity. check the dictionary, christianity is the generic name for people who revere christ as the son of god. all catholics are christians, but not all christians are catholics and whatnot.

@whoever asked: kosher is just a set of laws that tell jews what foods are ok to eat (kashrut) and which are not ok (trefah). it's similar to halal for muslims, except halal is more of an encompasing life-style, not just about what foods are ok to eat. both systems also describe proper ways to raise and slaughter animals.

 

[Apos]

Actually I don't think his remark about it being derived from Roman Catholicism is all that off base.

You're missing the point. It isn't the idea that Catholicism was the mainstream sect for centuries that anyone has a problem with. It's the idea that "Christianity" is something separate that broke off of Catholicism, which is itself somehow separate from "Christianity" or pre-dating it. In fact, Catholicism, Protestantism, gnosticism, Greek-Orthodox: they are all just forms of Christianity, none with any inherent claim to the name.

 

[Direwolf]

Oi >_<
Now its just debating semantics. I don't think a big deal should be made out of simple bad word usage.

 

[Rupertvdb]

i knew that bit...

You sure it was Huxley? I recall someone writing about how the 'a' in agnostic was similar to the 'a' in atheist as in meaning anti, but then it means anti-gnostic, which is somehow a stem for this belief that knowledge of God's existence is impossible. It has been a while since i learnt, i'm on my gap year and i am losing knowledge swiftly.

 

[Lil' Timmy]

Oi >_<
Now its just debating semantics. I don't think a big deal should be made out of simple bad word usage.

here here :cheers:

 

[Rupertvdb]

God forbid we should be accurate in our use of language.

 

[CptStern]

If you are going to act like that, why did you create this poll? To some people what denomination they are a part of is very important. Who are you to decide what and what isn't important? Granted, I am a Christian who goes to church, and I don't mind being lumped together with most other Christians. Just show some respect and sensitivity once in a while. Thank-you.

To be specific, I am a non-denominational Christian.

I just created a Directory of World Faiths for work, and there was a total of 218 offshoots of christianity...a poll in this forum only allows 10 choices...so that's why I lumped all christianity together

no one said anything about the various kinds of buddhism, native american religions, judaism etc

 

[Lil' Timmy]

God forbid we should be accurate in our use of language.

the point is that making 150,000 posts harping on the subtlties of the semantics is much worse than a little inaccuracy, especially when basically everyone knows what was trying to be said. :cheers:

 

[craig]

I'm was Christened as a child, but I'm not an active Christian. I do have faith however, because I find it very unlikley we just die and thats the end of that.

 

[Rupertvdb]

hey that's cool dude, just wait for your hour in court.

Lawyer: So you RAPED her????
Lil' Timmy: No, she said yes.
Lawyer: Hear that Judge, little bastard over there said that she said 'No' and then he said 'Yes'
Lil' Timmy: No! You're lying, stop mis-hearing me!
Lawyer: Hell it's all semantics anyways! Right Judge???
Judge: Castration!

 

[CptStern]

splitting hairs

 

[crabcakes66]

I voted other/cult by accident.

Im agnostic.

 

[Apos]

I recall someone writing about how the 'a' in agnostic was similar to the 'a' in atheist as in meaning anti, but then it means anti-gnostic, which is somehow a stem for this belief that knowledge of God's existence is impossible.

I think the "a" means "without." "Anti" mean "anti"

Amoral means "without morals" not "opposed to morals" (immoral is closer to THAt)
Asymetric means "with symetry" not "against symetry"
etc.

 

[Rupertvdb]

dammit now i'm getting reamed by semantics...yeah it literally means 'without'.

 

[poseyjmac]

my belief is not listed. doh

i believe that there are important truths about the world to be known out there, and that i should search for it while im here. i have no proof of a god, but i also have no proof that god doesn't exist.

now time for my bashing of other beliefs, which i have good reasons for.

i think atheists are illogical and closeminded because they believe there is no god, but without proof! what if god is hiding behind the moon right now? see you can never know for sure which is why someone should never be convinced that something like a celestial being doesn't exist, because there is always a possibility that it can. so atheists are in essence closeminded and illogical.

agnostics on the other hand are more lazy than illogical. yet still they are illogical and closeminded. heres why. they believe its unknowable as to the existence of god, but the problem is how do they know its unknowable? right, its just a guess based off no evidence and its an illogical and closeminded belief. for all they know it could be very knowable, but if they stop searching for truth, they may never find it.

agnostics and atheists i think are illogical and closeminded, because they want their minds to be at rest, they cant stand being restless with many open avenues of truth, so they belive what they want to believe so they can sleep better at night, not unlike SOME christians.

 

[Apos]

i think atheists are illogical and closeminded because they believe there is no god, but without proof!

I don't believe IN god. Not the same thing as believing THAT there is no god. It is precisely a lack of compelling evidence that is the reason that I don't believe.

I think you have a rather small-minded view of what an atheist is. Even those that believe that there is no god think that because of arguments against the SPECIFIC concepts of God that people are preaching, not that there couldn't be some giant Zeus hiding behind the moon.

agnostics on the other hand are more lazy than illogical. yet still they are illogical and closeminded. heres why. they believe its unknowable as to the existence of god, but the problem is how do they know its unknowable? right, its just a guess based off no evidence and its an illogical and closeminded belief. for all they know it could be very knowable, but if they stop searching for truth, they may never find it.

I agree that it's illogical to believe that something is unknowlable, because how could you know whether or not it is? Even THAT would have be unknowlable! Hence, you can't know it.

 

[Rupertvdb]

it is fundamentally flawed yes...but then an awful lot of philosophy seems to be, agnostics can argue fairly firmly there cause if they want to...

Atheists aren't all illogical and closeminded, that stament could be perceived as these things though, their argument is that there is no proof for the existence, yours is just the reverse.

Apos if you are an atheist then strictly speaking then you do believe that there is no god. A theist = one who believes in the existence of a god or gods

you being an atheist means 'without' that or if we use my slightly off key 'anti' then you are 'anti'' one who believes in the existence of a god or gods'.#

But heyyyy, otherwise all spot on.

 

[Adidajs]

Which is, itself, a Christian faith.

Also, you're wrong. First of all, there were plenty of Christian sects before the Catholic Church became dominant, like the gnostics, the Paulites, etc. And not too many centuries after that, the church split into two churches, both of which claimed to be the true Catholic Chruch (Catholic, by the way, means "One" as in, the one true Christian Chruch). Then Martin Luther split from Catholicism, and all sorts of new Protestant sects cropped up in hsi wake, like Calvinism. In addition, the English church broke off so that it's current king could divorce his wives and so infect as many women with syphilis as possible before he died.

Catholic means universal, not one. In our creed we say, "We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church" in which catholic doesn't refer to Catholicism, but universality.

wow, some of those earlier threads certainly had their ideas about Catholicism and Christianity mixed up. Glad to see posters here have set them straight. It seems like some of you are agnostic or atheistic because (1)it's easy; you don't have to do anything and you don't care to know about other faiths demonstrated by such statements like

you're catholic not christian. Christianity is an off-shoot of catholicism

, or (2) you're not apathetic, you actually looked at other faiths and decided it wasn't for you. Personally i think most atheists/agnostics people fall into the first category, but i could be mistaken. In my humble/provincial experience I have found that most people who are atheist/agnostic have dysfunctional families (btw, this ISN'T a blanket statement, just an observation).

Personally i think it takes a certain faith to believe that God doesn't exist (a la atheists). Us theists cannot prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that God exists, nor can atheists prove otherwise. That's why faith is beautiful. I'm into science and I'd compare it to a hypothesis in an experiment. You proceed in your experiment believing in a certain outcome(most do). Only until you get to the end do you find out what the answer is. For us, we won't truly know until we die. We just have to proceed with our experiment(life). For the more poetically inclined, faith is like love. Does love really exist? Well, it could be argued no. It's basically two compatible people who have a biological connection. I think if you believe in Love that you have to believe in God. I just won't get into that now.

 

[CptStern]

In my humble/provincial experience I have found that most people who are atheist/agnostic have dysfunctional families (btw, this ISN'T a blanket statement, just an observation).

I cant begin to tell you how absurd that statement is. I was born into a catholic family, I chose not to believe, had nothing to do with my family.

 

[DreamThrall]

same here :cheers:

I'm a "high-holidays and channukah" jew...

that and i LOVE bagels and lox!

 

[Adidajs]

I cant begin to tell you how absurd that statement is. I was born into a catholic family, I chose not to believe, had nothing to do with my family.

I just said it was an observation based off one person. I didn't say it covered the entire spectrum of society. I allowed for normal people to come to the same conclusion about God not existing (aka option 2). It's not an absurd statement. I just have found many people with personal problems in their family move away from organized religion (it can go the other way - people with problems turning to God - You can find plenty examples either way).

 

[DEATH eVADER]

I'm an agnostic, even though I do think a lot about the spiritual side of things. I was born a christian, but I don't hold their beliefs entirely, and have my own views on the old and new testement.

 

[Rupertvdb]

In my humble/provincial experience I have found that most people who are atheist/agnostic have dysfunctional families (btw, this ISN'T a blanket statement, just an observation).

It certainly sounds like a blanket statement, a fairly offensive one too, you could curse the shit out me all day long but start suggesting religion can make or brake my family with regards it being functional or dysfunctional family is ridiculous.




With regards dude saying he is agnostic but relates to some of the OT and NT, in what way do you relate? Genuine inquiry not bashing in any way.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

who put their religion down as a jedi in the UK census

 

[Rupertvdb]

Enough for it now to be a recognised religion.

 

[CptStern]

I just said it was an observation based off one person. I didn't say it covered the entire spectrum of society. I allowed for normal people to come to the same conclusion about God not existing (aka option 2). It's not an absurd statement. I just have found many people with personal problems in their family move away from organized religion (it can go the other way - people with problems turning to God - You can find plenty examples either way).

you're generalizing a bit, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. It may be that those in your circle are the way you say they are. The majority of the people I come into contact with are not religious and many are aetheist/agnostic; it's the openly religious that are in the minority.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Homer- "Oh Great, Mormans"

Kang- "Actually, we are Quantum-Mesmitarians"

 

[Lil' Timmy]

damnit guys.. it's "their" not "there".. at least 2 of you have done that already.. *cough*.. rupert.. *cough.. evader.. *cough*

it's very annoying, stop thx. (although i do appreciate the opportunity to lord my grammar nazism over you children).

 

[dura]

I have a fairly dysfunctional family and I uphold the Christian faith.

 

[Apos]

Apos if you are an atheist then strictly speaking then you do believe that there is no god. A theist = one who believes in the existence of a god or gods

Right, and an "a"theist is one WITHOUT such a belief. Not necessarily having a belief that there is no god (though that is one TYPE of non-belief in gods)

you being an atheist means 'without' that or if we use my slightly off key 'anti' then you are 'anti'' one who believes in the existence of a god or gods'.#

But it doesn't mean anti, it means "without" "Without theism" describes not only me, but a rock. Neither of us has any god beliefs. I don't need to believe THAT there is no god anymore than the rock CAN believe that, or believe anything.

Catholic means universal, not one.

You're right, I stand corrected.

In my humble/provincial experience I have found that most people who are atheist/agnostic have dysfunctional families (btw, this ISN'T a blanket statement, just an observation).

In my case, I've got the most functional family of anyone I know, and my non-belief has nothing to do with any sort of trauma or problems, because I've never really believed in the first place (hey, even babies don't start out believing: they can't believe anything!). If you define dysfunctional as having high rates of divorce or spending time in jail, then religious beliefs are far more dysfunctional: they have much higher rates of divorce and jailtime than non-believers do.

Personally i think it takes a certain faith to believe that God doesn't exist (a la atheists).

Maybe, but it takes no faith at all to just not have faith that there is a God. It's the LACK of theist faith that makes me an atheist, not faith in some anti-theist ideology.

Does love really exist? Well, it could be argued no.

How? Of course love exists. It's an experience that everyone but anti-socials have, it's accompanied by all sorts of predictable psyiological changes, has obvious biolgical purposes, and it can be studied like any other psycology subject. In fact, they recently discovered that love really DOES make you stupid: it disables the parts of you brain that handle things like judgements of trustworthiness and critical assetment. And it has similar affects to some drugs.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connecte...conn.html&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=34826

It's basically two compatible people who have a biological connection. I think if you believe in Love that you have to believe in God. I just won't get into that now.

Nonsense. I believe in and, more importantly, FEEL, love, and it has nothing to do with a belief in God, because I don't have that.

 

[Lil' Timmy]

what if god is an atheist? now that would be a dysfunctional family..

 

[ComradeBadger]

I was Christian, now I'm not, for my own selfish reasons.