View Poll Results: What is your belief system?
- Voters
- 283. You may not vote on this poll
-
Christianity
129 45.58% -
Islam
3 1.06% -
Atheist
51 18.02% -
Agnostic
36 12.72% -
Satanist
2 0.71% -
Buddhist
13 4.59% -
Hinduism
1 0.35% -
Other
41 14.49% -
Judaism
7 2.47%
Results 41 to 50 of 216
Thread: What do you believe in?
-
02-15-2008, 02:46 PM #41
- Join Date
- Sep 2007
- Posts
- 711
Thanked: 22Your quite right. As a child it feels like torture, or that that is your penance for being a child.
1 priest got it right when he saw my mother dragging me into the church kicking and screaming (literally). He said "Do not force your child to go to church if he does not wish to go, otherwise he will grow a hatred and never come. If you leave him be, God shall bring him back to church in time."
I don't see it as an issue anymore.
We are each different of course.
-
02-15-2008, 02:46 PM #42
There are many protestant denominations that have far more in common with the Roman Catholic mass than they do with other protestant; for example the Church of England/Anglican/Episcopalians and the Lutherans would be completely lost in a baptist or pentecostal service but would be quite familiar with almost every aspect of the modern mass. Additionally I believe that JMS did a wonderful job of splitting his list up into different large scale ideologies rather than trying to delineate every possible branch off a theme.
Fragmentation, suspicion, and hatred among Christians is a sad thing and I believe it is oddly un-Christian if that makes any sense.
I am a Roman Catholic with some radical (for a Catholic) if not heretical (good thing the Vatican isn't burning people at the stake anymore) views on spirituality and the nature of God. I gladly consider all people who commit themselves to peace, charity, and 'goodness' to be "on the same side" weather they are Christian or otherwise (even those peskily logical atheists). The only belief system I truly consider myself to be opposed to are the very few who actually value selfishness, hatred, or evil.Last edited by w12code3; 02-15-2008 at 02:49 PM.
-
02-15-2008, 05:08 PM #43
- Join Date
- Feb 2007
- Location
- Ireland
- Posts
- 351
Thanked: 1It looks like monotheism is on the way out.
-
02-15-2008, 05:12 PM #44
-
02-15-2008, 06:19 PM #45
I was reared in a strict fundamentalist Christian home. My Church attendance in the last 18 months, has been 'spotty' at best.
However, during that period, I have had some time to examine things and reflect on them. I am beginning to see that I no longer 'buy' the teachings I was raised with, wholesale.
This may be a facet of maturing, or it may not. I cannot say. But I can see that there is definitely merit to some other belief systems.
I know I will have to contemplate a lot of things, at a much deeper level than I have to date.
I'll have to revisit this thread in another year, or two.
"Curmudgeons need love, too."
-
02-15-2008, 06:40 PM #46
I was born with infinite possibilities, baptised protestant, educated catholic, and haven't set foot in any place of worship for years (with the exception of weddings, funerals and baptisms). I currently consider my belief system to be buddhist with bits and pieces of suplemental material from other faiths. Buddhism, like other faiths, does not have all the answers and encourages you to find the missing pieces where you can. I'll leave my post at that, since it's very difficult to say anything about religion without offending someone.
-
02-15-2008, 06:46 PM #47
I must say...I'm utterly amazed at two things about and within this thread:
1. The diversity of the faiths and belief systems we have represented.
2. How well everyone seems to be getting along! Usually there are fights and bickering about these things, but I haven't seen that here.
This community is awesome. You guys kick ass. It seems that everyone here has the proper "whatever works for you" mentality, regardless of their belief system. I am truly delightfully surprised.
-
02-15-2008, 07:20 PM #48
- Join Date
- Nov 2005
- Location
- Columbia Pacific, Pacific North Wet
- Posts
- 702
Thanked: 90Don't kid yourself. Many of the atheists I've met in my life have demonstrated a very clear lack of reasoning ability. Honestly, the reason I remained with the Church for for as long as I did was because I met so few rational atheists. There's a stereotype about atheists; that they're nothing but a bunch of psuedo-intellectual, loud-mouthed, Christian-haters. The stereotype isn't true, but I find that the most vocal atheists often fit that mold .
-
02-16-2008, 02:00 AM #49
I got to wondering what "other" would encompass when looking at the poll results, but I couldn't decide how anyone in other could explain w/o exposing their religion. So I googled for a list of the most popular religions... here's what I got, and the bonus is the estimate membership numbers worldwide.
1. Christianity: 2.1 billion
2. Islam: 1.5 billion
3. Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion
4. Hinduism: 900 million
5. Chinese traditional religion: 394 million
6. Buddhism: 376 million
7. primal-indigenous: 300 million
8. African Traditional & Diasporic: 100 million
9. Sikhism: 23 million
10. Juche: 19 million
11. Spiritism: 15 million
12. Judaism: 14 million
13. Baha'i: 7 million
14. Jainism: 4.2 million
15. Shinto: 4 million
16. Cao Dai: 4 million
17. Zoroastrianism: 2.6 million
18. Tenrikyo: 2 million
19. Neo-Paganism: 1 million
20. Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand
21. Rastafarianism: 600 thousand
22. Scientology: 500 thousand
-
02-16-2008, 02:34 AM #50
I'm a practicing Roman Catholic. I was raised that way, but unlike many others like me that were raised that way but abandon the belief, I'm the opposite in that I utterly and vehemently abandoned the belief from age 15 through age 30 but have strongly and happily embraced it ever since.