Many people 'are not religious', suggests survey
Although I believe in a christian values, I think I would be a hypocrite if I said I was a Christian. I do not believe Jesus Christ was a real person who died, came back to life and was the son of GodAmong respondents who identified themselves as Christian, fewer than half said they believed Jesus Christ was a real person who died, came back to life and was the son of God.
I think this has been discussed on this forum before but then most thing have
I really would like to find a religion that is not based on something I cannot believe in
Humanists...
...are atheists and agnostics who make sense of the world using reason, experience and shared human values. We take responsibility for our actions and base our ethics on the goals of human welfare, happiness and fulfilment. We seek to make the best of the one life we have by creating meaning and purpose for ourselves, individually and together.
http://www.humanism.org.uk/home
IMO, Christianity is a concept rather than a set of rigid rules and accurate histories. The Catholics, Roman Catholics, Protestants etc have chosen to interpret Christianity in their own way and enforce their particular ways and rules, but that's their choice; It's not a mandate from Jesus or God, but an interpretation by man.
So, IMO, you can be a Christian without believing that the stories in the bible are actually true.
Only when I or someone I love is in trouble.
You either believe or you don't. Someone believing in something doesn't make it true - equally someone not believing in something doesn't mean it isn't true. So you can't 'pick and choose' - you can only search for truth.
I do believe this and yes I am a Christian. That's not the same as being religious. Faith is from God - religion is from man.
And I know others might choose not to believe - but either Jesus was real and the Bible is true or it isn't.
So either I'm wrong, or those who don't believe are - we'll all find out at some point.
I have no idea if the story behind this is true, but, worryingly, my prejudices, my "faith" tells me it might be.
Or Jesus was real and the bible isn't. Or Jesus was real and the Bible is sometimes true, sometimes false, and where it may be true perhaps it is sometimes metaphorical, sometimes literal...etc...
Theres no evidence to suggest any of us will find out, we can assume we might - but if we die and are simply no more, at least no one will be dissappointed
I was born into the Jewish faith and although I am not religious and struggle with the concept of god, I still consider myself Jewish. Perhaps it’s more of a cultural thing with myself but I do think it has had an influence on the person I am today.
I'm probably one of those "Dogmatic" atheists but I'm not anti-God, if there was any evidence of any God, or if a God came down to earth tomorrow, I would be quite happy to accept his / her existence, but might not be so happy if it turned out it was the 'God of the Old Testament' or the Koran... That would be very scary indeed.
I am however, very much against, the influence that religions have over government, society, scientific research, social acceptance of different individuals, and many other areas.
As long as people will continue claiming their prejudice or crazy / dangerous ideas are inspired by whatever (untestable) god, then any action can be performed "in the name of god". Since nobody can prove any religious person is deluded, anything goes. Which I think is ironic, since it is often atheists who are accused of being amoral.
In answer to the thread, no, I am not religious, as Dreadful Scathe says, the Bible might have some true bits, some made up bits, some useful stuff, some dangerous stuff...
Most of the claims made by religions (not just judeo-Christians ones) have long been shown to be total nonsense, few people believe in Poseidon, or Zeus these days. Gods have now retreated to an abstract concept of vague spirituality, and the idea of a personal (intervening) god is truly abhorrent when you consider tragedies that are inflicted on this world.
To quote Sam Harris on the recent earthquake in Japan:
Originally Posted by Sam Harris
Franck.
There's an A.P.P. for that!
Myself I am an athiest - I certainly think religions are interesting ideas from a philosophical or historical perspective, but nothing more. Religion, to me, is a concept made by humans to try to explain the ineffability of the world around us.
That's not to say anyone is wrong for believing in religion but it is not, in any way, a provider of definitive answers that I could ever believe in. My faith is in science and empirical fact. I have no need in my life for anything else. That I can't explain everything about the world around me with logic is not at all discomforting - I simply don't need or care to know in order to live my life happily and with complete fulfilment.
Last edited by DJ Mike; 21st-March-2011 at 02:30 PM.
I expect a lot of people would identify with your views. Religion has had an influence on most of us, our culture and education (indoctrination?) have been shaped by the religion of our family, neighbours, teachers, etc.
Culturally that would make me a Christian / Catholic, but in reality, I never believed in any God, even when I was following the doctrine of the Catholic church for a brief period of my life in France.
I am sure it has an influence on who I am today as well, sadly not all in a good way. Some of the hang-ups of religion are difficult to shake off.
This week-end most of us will be filling in the census forms and from the previous census results, it appears many people took the 'religion question' to be about cultural identity, rather than about genuine faith or practised religion. This has led to a disproportionate level of funding, lobbying in government for religious groups and views. Would be great if the question allowed everyone to separate cultural roots from current belief.
Franck.
There's an A.P.P. for that!
The identification of being 'Protestant' or 'Catholic' in cultural terms has caused a lot of problems here in NI. Its a 'community' identity and many in each community have no personal belief in God.
Agree in one way - but also feel that in NI its important to have some idea of distribution of the two main communities to ensure fairness all round in education and employment provision.
I agree with you, but it's not only in Northern Ireland, similar 'community' divisions have been exacerbated in the rest of the UK, with 'Faith schools' claiming a clear mandate / demand from those same 'community identities' to the point where the option to have a secular school locally is not available.
Indeed it might be useful, and I wasn't arguing for removing questions, it would be good to have an answer to both questions:
- What socio-religious identity were you raised under (which could be Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Humanist, Atheist, Wiccan, Pagan, etc.)?
- What religion or Faith (if any) do you currently espouse and practise?
The answer to both those questions would be interesting and useful to a degree.
As things stand, with only one question, the best way to ensure a secularist government where no religion can dictate to society, is to answer honestly the second question, rather than a vague feeling of identity and common history.
Franck.
There's an A.P.P. for that!
Any good theologian will be able to point out which parts of the Bible are written as fact and which are written in metaphor, poetry, song, parable and so on. I'm not a good theologian so I'm not going to attempt it!
Cultural upbringing and faith/religion are two entirely separate things, even when the latter is part of the former - see Lynn's example of the community problems in NI which are really nothing to do with religion at all. I have a Jewish friend who after years of being a "cultural Jew" has recently become more involved in Jewish religion.
Franck - it may or may not answer your arguments, which I understand, but I believe that we live in a messed-up world and poo happens to people who don't necessarily deserve it. The amazing thing is that God keeps loving us despite the evil that humans do day after day, and if you asked me where God was when the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, I would answer that He's there with the people who are suffering, and has been since the beginning, equally close to 'good' and 'evil' people without partiality. I don't believe there is an easy answer to "why do bad things happen" and I'm not going to try and answer that question because honestly I don't know.
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