Religion Thread

[DannyFenton123]

So this thread coming from an atheist is arguably rather strange, but a small incident this morning got me thinking about religion and I felt like starting a topic on Arocalypse. This isn't an atheist thread; everyone is welcome to share their beliefs and things pertaining to it on here

[Louis On Air]

I think everyone is entitled to their own beliefs so long as they don't hurt or manipulate others and here's a somewhat edgy analogy my cousin came up with:

Spoiler

Religion is like a great big penis/vagina... It's perfectly fine to look at it in private and celebrate it with people who share that shlong/VJ, but for god sake don't wave it about in public for everyone to see because if they want to see your religion they'll do it in their own time but out on the street it's really awkward which is why everyone tries to look away without you noticing as to not hurt your feelings. Battles and Wars have been fought over the supreme private part despite the fact that we should all be able to enjoy our own personal plugs or sockets in well... private! And when you let your penis/vagina get too big you start to think you're better than others and you discover new races of people and at gunpoint you rub your big sweaty religion in their faces so your religion can get even mightier. And in short... why do we care so much about other people's sex organs, maybe we should focus on other more important things instead.

 

[owl]

I hope you don't mind I added Pastafarianism

It's mainly a "joke" religion, but I quite like it (it brings some interesting points about religious freedom, especially in America). I wouldn't really describe myself as a Pastafarian, though, I generally refer to myself as atheist.

I grew up kind of believing in a god, but that was only really because I thought I had to after learning about it in school. Neither my parents are religious so I've never really been exposed to it, honestly. And very few of my friends have been religious, as well.. Pretty much everyone I know is an atheist  

[Kojote]

Blessed be the FSM. May everybody be touched by it's noodly appendage. Ramen. (I'm agnostic xD)

My parents are catholic, so I grew up with the whole church business. I was always pretty indifferent/borderline annoyed by it, though. It didn't impact me much.

 

 

[DannyFenton123]

Nice! I grew up with two atheist parents, but pretty much all of my life I've lived in very Christian areas. I used to live in a place that gave us a lot of crap for our beliefs but we live in a better place now

[timidcat]

I'm an atheist living in a Christian town. I don't have a good relationship with my parents even though we live under the same roof. My dad's a Christian but he doesn't talk much about the topic. I'm pretty sure my mum's an atheist. We all go to church on Sundays to keep up appearances and because both sets of grandparents would hate it if we didn't. I think my grandma suspects that I'm an atheist but I'm certain it would shock her if I actually said the words. My  best friend doesn't understand why I'm an atheist and keeps trying to convert me, so annoying! The worst experience I've had related to my atheism is always when the priests say that they need guidance to find god again and that they can never be happy if they don't.

[DannyFenton123]

58 minutes ago, timidcat said:

I'm an atheist living in a Christian town. I don't have a good relationship with my parents even though we live under the same roof. My dad's a Christian but he doesn't talk much about the topic. I'm pretty sure my mum's an atheist. We all go to church on Sundays to keep up appearances and because both sets of grandparents would hate it if we didn't. I think my grandma suspects that I'm an atheist but I'm certain it would shock her if I actually said the words. My  best friend doesn't understand why I'm an atheist and keeps trying to convert me, so annoying! The worst experience I've had related to my atheism is always when the priests say that they need guidance to find god again and that they can never be happy if they don't.

That's awful, timidcat. I've also experienced that kind of attitude from people and it sucks  

[PerformativeSurprise]

Another atheist here, but I was raised in a devout Christian Evangelical home, and I grew up in the Bible Belt.  I got myself out of the church when I was a teenager.  Everyone from my hometown thinks I'm a heathen now  .

[Zema]

I'm agnostic with a slight lean towards atheism. My mum is catholic and I went to catholic schools throughout my entire school life, so I'm fairly well versed in catholic teachings. That being said, even from a as young as 5, I can remember questioning the existence of God. I think that some of the teachings of Catholicism are good, but even just opening the bible to a random page and reading it leads to some... rather questionable things. I also hate going to church; it's an absolute waste of time. Luckily I only have to go once a year on Christmas eve. My dad doesn't follow any religion. I wouldn't call him an atheist because I don't think he cares enough to even think about this kind of stuff. Both of his parents are the same as him.

 

I'd just like to say that those atheists who act all high and mighty about their beliefs have more in common with fundamentalist theists (i.e. of any religion) than they'll have you believe. In other words, I despise them as much as fundamentalist Christians and radical Muslims.

[DannyFenton123]

32 minutes ago, PerformativeSurprise said:

Another atheist here, but I was raised in a devout Christian Evangelical home, and I grew up in the Bible Belt.  I got myself out of the church when I was a teenager.  Everyone from my hometown thinks I'm a heathen now  .

Haha, wow. I think the worst reaction I got was somebody saying I was going to hell like my mother (in a concerned tone, they were trying to convert me) but I never lived anywhere in the Bible Belt. I'm glad you got out of there

 

12 minutes ago, Zemaddog said:

I'd just like to say that those atheists who act all high and mighty about their beliefs have more in common with fundamentalist theists (i.e. of any religion) than they'll have you believe. In other words, I despise them as much as fundamentalist Christians and radical Muslims.

 

So true  

[Louis On Air]

Where I live most people I spend time around are Athiest but a fair proportion are Christian/Muslim but out of this cultural mix, 0% of people go on about their superior belief (or lack there of) because trying to convert others through fearmongering and arguments that only make sense if you already share their belief just tends to never work ever.

In short, we see people by their actions because that makes more sense than who you thank before bed time.

[Dodecahedron314]

Atheist who grew up in a Mormon town in Arizona here. Surprisingly, I never really got much crap for it when I was living there, mostly because all the kids who weren't part of the Mormon founding families of the town kind of banded together socially and didn't really care much about religion

I actually ran into my first super fundamentalist in high school in Florida, when I debated with one of my friends on a weekly basis over evolution (I kid you not) I wound up going to a pretty progressive and diverse college, so everybody just kinda does their own thing and doesn't try to convert anyone or even really persuade them too much (aside from a certain lecture which will remain nameless and which was advertised as MUCH more balanced than it actually was...)

[deltaX]

I'm Christian.  The branch of Christianity I am closest to is Catholicism and I attend mass weekly at Catholic churches, but I hesitate to call myself fully Catholic because my beliefs don't line up exactly with all the beliefs of the Catholic church.  To me religion is a very personal thing, and it's important to form beliefs on your own.  The church can guide me, but I will never be the type of person to blindly follow what religious leader tell me.

[timidcat]

I was just looking at the survey of this thread. How is not following any organised religion different from atheism? Someone care to explain?

[Tal Shi'ar]

I was doing the whole Christian/going to church thing from my late teens til my early 20's, and then started getting lazy with it and slowly started drifting away from it. Now I'm pretty much non affiliated with any sort of religion/belief system.

[Nightnurse]

I consider myself Christian, but I haven't really practiced it for about 10 years. It's hard getting into a new community when you are alone.... I plan on getting into a community soon though. Problem is I live in a place with fairly conservative christians, and I'm pretty liberal when it comes to gay marriage and such (I'm all for it). I'm also planning to going to a clinic next year to use a sperm donor, and I'm a bit scared of being rejected for not following the norm here. 

[owl]

3 hours ago, timidcat said:

I was just looking at the survey of this thread. How is not following any organised religion different from atheism? Someone care to explain?

Some people may have spiritual/religious beliefs of their own which don't follow an organised religion, but still believe in some sort of god (I guess?)

[Ugh...]

I made the personal choice of being atheist against my family's support. My mother is the kind of religious person that calls "satan" whatever she considers evil but always rely on God to get anything good from the life. No need to say that this wasn't the best model of religion I could get...
So I decided to be atheist because I wanted to believe in humans capable of doing great things, in a beautiful organized material univers existing of itself (which I am a part of), and most of all, I wanted to believe in my own capacity to make good and achieve happiness.

In the end, it doesn't matter what one believe in or not. As long as it motivates one to do good.

[Louis On Air]

I think acting as if good and bad see set in stone allows people to justify bad things on the basis that they must be good because religion. I'd much rather accept that good and bad are entirely subjective and respect other people's opinions especially if they differ from mine. I guess this is because I believe no one is better than the crowd and unity is key but I won't shove socialism in your face if you don't shove your belief in people's faces either.

[PerformativeSurprise]

3 hours ago, Simowl said:

Some people may have spiritual/religious beliefs of their own which don't follow an organised religion, but still believe in some sort of god (I guess?)

 

This is true. It's certainly possible to believe there is a spiritual component to the universe without being religious.  I've known people who are are theistic or spiritual, but don't follow any particular religious doctrine.

[UncommonNonsense]

I'm atheist, but in my area, the only people who have ever given me any flak about it were family members... my mother and grandmother.  Nan especially.  And Mum has come to accept my unbelief over the years.  She doesn't understand it, but I don't understand how she can believe things that seem so nonsensical to me, so I guess we're even.

 

I'm quite open about my unbelief, I even have a few atheist stickers on my car, laptop, and iPad case.  No one has ever given me any trouble over it.  My laptop gets a lot of use in coffee shops and other public places that have wifi, so there'd be a lot of potential for people to get nutsy and stupid if they were so inclined, but it has never happened yet... hope it doesn't - I'd hate to be up for assault just for slapping a moron who deserved it, yaknow?  I have never felt nervous as an open atheist here, but times that I have travelled to other countries, I've been far more careful - especially in the southern United States, where I felt *very* nervous, as an NB person who is often mistaken for a butch lesbian due to the way I dress, speak, walk, etc, and as an unbeliever.  I don't think I'll be voluntarily returning the US any time soon, especially if Trump is elected.  Ick.

 

In my province, about a quarter of the population are atheist/non-religious, meaning that there are almost 3 million of us who have declared unbelief... and likely many more who are unbelievers but felt pressured to answer as something else on the census due to family members being around at the time they answered the census questions.  So I would estimate that we're likely somewhere around 30% of the population in Ontario.  We just had a census a few months ago... we'll see what the new numbers say, as the last time there was a census was 2011.  

[EveryZig]

Atheist here, though I generally only talk about religion things with people I am sure won't get offended or with people who are actively evangelizing.

 

On 7/15/2016 at 8:26 PM, Zemaddog said:

I'd just like to say that those atheists who act all high and mighty about their beliefs have more in common with fundamentalist theists (i.e. of any religion) than they'll have you believe. In other words, I despise them as much as fundamentalist Christians and radical Muslims.

For a minute I wanted to say that nasty atheists don't get up to nearly the kind of shit that the fundamentalist theists do where I live (North Carolina), but then I remembered the stuff certain youtube atheists have been saying recently and the fact that its very easy to not draft hate laws when you lack the political power to draft any laws.

[Will]

Hm.

 

Religion is always an interesting topic.

 

I've been through quite a few religions in my younger years.

 

Satanism and Judaism to name two of the more interesting ones.

 

I've learned , it doesn't really matter in my opinion. From my perspective, if there's a god, who cares? it doesn't obviously micromanage nor do anything out of the ordinary anymore , if it did anything at all in the first place. If there's a heaven, great, woo, if there's a hell in the christian sense, i'd rather not go there but be quite angry it exists in the first place. If there's nothingness, woo, no hell.

[SoulWolf]

I don't identify with any religion whatsoever. I think they're all kind of the same thing, tbh... same source, different interpretations, different culture...

 

I found it amusing to see atheism listed up there under "what is your religion?"... it is a belief system too: a belief in a lack of a certain thing.

 

My parents are relatively devout Christians, so that was an interesting contrast to grow up in. According to them, everything that's not in the bible is from the devil, etc. They were always warning me to be careful of the "new agey" people or something. Turns out I quite like a lot of those 'new agey' ideas, even if some of those people sound like nutjobs sometimes. I guess there are nutjobs in any belief system.

[EveryZig]

4 hours ago, SoulWolf said:

I found it amusing to see atheism listed up there under "what is your religion?"... it is a belief system too: a belief in a lack of a certain thing.

Atheism in itself isn't a belief system in the same way that "believing there is at least one god" isn't a belief system. It doesn't exist on its own but in the context of (and generally as a result of) some other belief system such as philosophical naturalism or some forms of Buddhism. So rather than Atheism being a belief system, there are atheist (as an adjective) belief systems.

It is however sometimes socially useful to treat Atheism as a cohesive thing, in the same way that it can be useful to treat LGBTQ+ as a cohesive thing.