180 replies to this topic

[Sheik]

Alright, second attempt.

To clarify the terms:
You are religious if you adhere to one or more of the following:

• Regularly attend a church or other place of worship.
• Hold beliefs that conform to a specific religion (e.g. the belief that Jesus is the son of God).

You are theistic if you:

• Believe in the existence of one or more gods, regardless of whether or not you worship them. This includes deists.

I attend a church about once a month. Or maybe once every second month. Sometimes more regulary, sometimes less. But I don't do that to worship, I do it because my mum is rather strongly religious and she doesn't have a driving license. However, it is a joy for her to go to church and I don't die off it either. There's these two or three hours every once in a while I feel I can spend at a place I don't want to be at from my own motivation but to do my mum a favor.
So I do, more or less, regulary attend a church, but I don't worship. Anyways, I think that with "you attend a place of worship" you also ment that you actually worship at the place. Thus, I'll give this a "no".

I hold beliefs that don't disconform any religion at all. I guess that makes a "no" for that second point, eventhough I feel that it doesn't quite discribe what I think.

The theistic point has been already clarified, I'll answer this with "no", than.

Non-religious and non-theistic. I don't really feel that's right but by the definitions given and by lack of the option of neither believing nor disbelieving (again, there's more than black and white, people!) I'll vote this option.

Edited by Sheik91, 24 July 2011 - 03:58 PM.

[NoeL]

Non-religious and non-theistic. I don't really feel that's right but by the definitions given and by lack of the option of neither believing nor disbelieving (again, there's more than black and white, people!) I'll vote this option.

You were given that option - non-theistic. The choice wasn't between believing and disbelieving, it was between believing and not believing. If you neither believe nor disbelieve, then you're in the "not believing" category, because you don't believe.

[Sheik]

I would've liked three options: "believing", "not believing" and "neither believing nor not believing" (i.e. being mostly indifferent about the concept of religious belief). That's what I was getting at, as I consider myself classsified best in that third alternative best.
Edit: A fifth option in the poll would've been nice. "Indifferent about religious believe". But maybe you are right and it would've been too many options.

Edited by Sheik91, 24 July 2011 - 07:05 AM.

[NoeL]

I would've liked three options: "believing", "not believing" and "neither believing nor not believing" (i.e. being mostly indifferent about the concept of religious belief). That's what I was getting at, as I consider myself classsified best in that third alternative best.

If you don't not believe something then you believe it. It's impossible to neither believe nor not believe any single claim. There's a difference between rejecting a claim and accepting its counter-claim.

You're getting confused because you're conflating two separate claims. Regarding the existence of gods there's only two possible truth values - either they exist or they don't. Despite only being two truth values, their are three different beliefs one can hold on the issue - they exist, they don't exist, or I'm unsure. Two of those beliefs are affirmative answers to two separate questions - "Do you believe gods exist?" and "Do you believe gods do NOT exist". The position of "I'm unsure" is a negative answer to both those questions - you do not believe gods exist, and you do not believe gods do not exist.

I only asked the first question - do you believe gods exist (i.e. are you theistic)? There's only two possibilities - either you do or you don't. Whether or not you also believe gods DON'T exist is irrelevant to that question.

Edited by NoeL, 24 July 2011 - 07:06 AM.

[Sheik]

Well, than my answer would be "I'm unsure.".
But I wouldn't even ask the question, because the thing fails for me a step further "Can we know wether god(s) exist(s) or not?". And here my answer is leaning towards "no", making any other thought that comes after that not very attractive for me to think about.
But I understand what you are talking about and I get your logic.

[trudatman]

non, non.

[Adem]

...I accidentally voted for the wrong thing. Oops.

Using your statements as standards, in a religious person. I believe in God. I go to church when I can. I do my best to keep on the straight and narrow path. However--for better or for worse--I'm not one of those people that runs around preaching, passing out flyers and quoting the Bible up the wazoo.

Basically, I believe in God, but I'm not a fanatic. Though I guess that really isn't pertinent here.

EDIT: For clarification, I voted for "Religious, but non-theistic," when, if my understanding is proper, I should have voted or "Religious, and theistic."

Edited by Rem, 24 July 2011 - 08:05 AM.

[Moosh]

Yeah, that's a toughy... though you DID refer to Christianity as "my (whole) religion". I'd say you're still religious, even if you have an unconventional view of Christianity. Even if your views are significantly departed from Christianity that doesn't make them non-religious, just non-Christian.

Yeah, that's kind of a force of habit, identifying myself with it...I guess I'd be theistic but non religious or something. I believe, but I don't follow.

[Koh]

I chose Religious and Theistic, because it seemed to work best with me:

I'm a Christian, but I'm not a full-on, strict Christian. The main things I believe in are Jesus is the Son of God, God created the earth, and the basic stuff like that. I believe to get into Heaven, it's not about going to church every Sunday (which I don't, I haven't been there in years...I just don't like going), but just about living life right, and treating others with kindness and not doing anything that could obviously get you put in hell, like murdering someone or something. I'm not a violent person anyway.

But I also believe in a lot of the Greek mythological gods of the Elements and War Gods, like Leviathan and Athena. I may not worship them, but I believe they have existed at their points of time.

[Ventus]

i believe in some gods. but i find it hard to believe the Bible
it just makes no sense..

[Nathaniel]

Technically, the answer that best reflects me would be non-religious and non-theistic. I was never raised by my parents to be any bit religious, most likely because of the differences in religion on each side of my family. My mother's side, the side I am closer to, is Jewish. My father's side is Christian. My parents simply never cared, so I would not ever be sent to Temple or Church. They didn't attend either. I have been to both on rare occasions, but those were only for stuff like bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs (I obviously never had one for myself) and weddings. When I was a boy scout, we also had our meetings in the basement of a church, but we kept things completely secular in our troop. For religious events like bar mitzvahs, I see it simply as a means to keep in touch with the more extended parts of my family, but I don't practice any sort of worship.

[Daemon]

I voted Non-Religious and Theistic.

I don't attend any form of church, nor do I really worship gods. I do, however, acknowledge that they could very well exist... I'm simply not sure about if it's specific gods like Jesus, Buddha, etc. I very much believe that every religion (and science) are just different ways of looking at the same thing. For example, the story of the Blind Men and an Elephant explains this well. Anyhow... Those are my views on the subject.

[Sheik]

Neither Jesus nor Buddah are gods, actually. Jesus is the son of the christian god and Buddah is more or less a "teacher"/rolemodel for buddhists.

[DarkFlameWolf]

I am a Christian. I don't adhere to any form of religion in your definition. I do attend Baptist churches, because I feel comfortable there, but I do not call myself Baptist. To do so would be to conform to a religion. There is a huge difference between faith and religion. Faith is a relationship with Jesus, the Son of God, religion is the set of rules and doctrines build up around that faith. There is a huge difference.
So yes, I am Christian, I have a faith and relationship. But I am not theist nor am I overly religious. People think faith and religion go hand in hand when they are two different things. Faith is God made, religion is human made. Religion is our way of making sense of what God has giving us through faith. That's my views on the matter and that's why I'm sticking to it. Not sure if any of your choices apply unless it says: non-religious, non-theists, pro-relationship. So I null'd.

[NoeL]

I am a Christian. I don't adhere to any form of religion in your definition. I do attend Baptist churches, because I feel comfortable there, but I do not call myself Baptist. To do so would be to conform to a religion. There is a huge difference between faith and religion. Faith is a relationship with Jesus, the Son of God, religion is the set of rules and doctrines build up around that faith. There is a huge difference.
So yes, I am Christian, I have a faith and relationship. But I am not theist nor am I overly religious. People think faith and religion go hand in hand when they are two different things. Faith is God made, religion is human made. Religion is our way of making sense of what God has giving us through faith. That's my views on the matter and that's why I'm sticking to it. Not sure if any of your choices apply unless it says: non-religious, non-theists, pro-relationship. So I null'd.

In other words, you're a religious theist. Gotcha.

EDIT: I don't mean to be disrespectful there, but you're a theist (you saying otherwise makes me wonder if you even know what a theist is) with beliefs that adhere to Christianity. You are, as far as this census is concerned, a religious theist.

Edited by NoeL, 24 July 2011 - 10:19 AM.