What are your religious views?

[FoxtrotZero]

This is one of those share-your-opinion type threads, and has less to do with actual debate. I don't really want to discuss things here, there is already a long running thread for that.

The idea here is to share your personal beliefs, and you'll probably learn something along the way.

Personally, I am devoutly atheist. I do not believe in a god or an afterlife. There are a number of reasons for this, namely because most religions are very old, and have their roots in a time where recordkeeping wasn't very good. They were also filtered through the medieval ages, where the church tried to control the people, and likely weren't above altering their texts. There is also so much uncertainty, I can't possibly side with any one religion. Why would any god who loves us infinitely but condemns nonbelievers to hell let their be so much uncertainty.

However, while that is what I BELIEVE to be true, I honestly HOPE i'm wrong. I do HOPE there is a god. From there, I believe that anyone or anything that created me understands why I don't believe. My stance is that no god could condemn a good person to hell, because any atheist I know would be converted before they dropped to their knees should they appear at heaven's gate.

[Qwerty]

I'm an atheist and I find religion rather silly. I generally agree with Fox that I hope I'm wrong, but I've seen too much evidence to the contrary.

[GGoodie]

Agnostic Atheist. Also, I'm a Nihilist in many respects, but that may or may not fit in with religious views.

[priok]

other people's religions do not bother me, they can always become good if their religion is a bad one, so it doesnt matter. i do not really have a religion, it doesnt matter to me

[Vertigo]

Agnostic existentialist. I was a nihlist for some time, but I realized that I didn't agree with it. Humans made the concept of meaning, so why should losing religion negate all meaning?

[GGoodie]

Apr 16, 2011 15:59:54 GMT Vertigo said:

Agnostic existentialist. I was a nihlist for some time, but I realized that I didn't agree with it. Humans made the concept of meaning, so why should losing religion negate all meaning?

Life/Existence cannot have a meaning, it isn't a code or a message of some kind. We can feel good about it, but that doesn't mean it has any, especially inherent, meaning to it.

[Rock]

Well, I'm a Christian. And as to hoping there is a god, why not just follow one, no matter how ridiculous it may seem to you. Because if there is a God, well, um...yeah. I mean, all you have to lose is time if, God forbid, you're wrong.

[Fringe Pioneer]

...but what if there is a deity, but not the one you believe in? Does Matthew 25 reign (i.e. you can't do good and not be serving the good deity, regardless of whether you claimed your service in the name of a false/evil deity), or does the existing deity punish you for believing in a false deity?

[GGoodie]

Apr 24, 2011 3:39:41 GMT Rock said:

Well, I'm a Christian. And as to hoping there is a god, why not just follow one, no matter how ridiculous it may seem to you. Because if there is a God, well, um...yeah. I mean, all you have to lose is time if, God forbid, you're wrong.

In addition to what General Veers said, your God would obviously notice that I only "believed" or at least said that I did to win favor, which isn't actual belief. Ergo, that wouldn't change a thing.

[GloveParty]

Guys, this isn't the debate thread... Anyway, I'm a Christian. Protestant. Presbyterian to be exact.

[GGoodie]

...which is why we weren't debating a god's existence.

[Fringe Pioneer]

It is, however, in the Serious Debate board, albeit with a warning in the first post of this thread to limit actual debating...

[Qwerty]

Presbyterian? I never could tell the difference between Christian sects, what are the major ones?

[GGoodie]

Catholic, Protestant (Lutheran), Mormon, and Orthodox. All the little 'sub-sects' are just different types of Protestant if I'm not mistaken. These include Presbyterian, Baptists, Evangelical, Methodist and a few others I think.