23 replies to this topic

[greatwhite]

I was born Roman Catholic, but I hated the religion. I felt that it concerned itself more with traditional than moral values. I questioned the random rules and why women can't have an equal role within the church. As soon as I was confirmed I left the church ashamed to be considered a Catholic. Sorry Catholics, but after I thought about the sexism within the church it's how I feel. For a short while I was an atheist, because that was the easy way to look at things, but now I don't know what I am. Now I feel that I would be ignorant to be either an atheist or believe in God, because I simply feel that I'm not able to make the decision based upon the evidence given. I don't understand how so many others make that decision. The way I see it we can all be in some sort of crystal ball controlled by much bigger things than us. Almost anything is possible.
What am I?

[jmkiser]

What am I?

A human being?

A female... if I read that right :-P

you don't need a label and it's perfectly fine not to be sure

agnostic if you really want one?

[LongLiveYorke]

Agnostic, I guess...

Who cares, really, though. As long as you keep thinking about the issues and looking for answers, it doesn't matter what label you fall into.

[greatwhite]

A human being?

A female... if I read that right :-P

you don't need a label and it's perfectly fine not to be sure

agnostic if you really want one?

No, I'm a dude. I just believe in equal rights for women. As for the label I was just curious as to what my beliefs were called. I also wonder how many people have similar beliefs as me.

[iowahawk09]

You don't need to be associated with a denomination to be a good Christian, to believe in God, or to choose not to believe in God for that matter. I consider myself a Christian who believes in God and that Jesus died for our sins. I am a flawed human being and accept him as my savior and repent my sins.

That being said, I never belonged to a denomination. My parents worked on the weekends, and therefore I was never introduced to church. But I don't need to be a Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, etc. to be a good human being or tell me how to live my life. All you need is faith and reason. As long as your willing to be open and judge things for yourself, then you are fine. Dont worry about classifying yourself.

[iowahawk09]

You don't need to be associated with a denomination to be a good Christian, to believe in God, or to choose not to believe in God for that matter. I consider myself a Christian who believes in God and that Jesus died for our sins. I am a flawed human being and accept him as my savior and repent my sins.

That being said, I never belonged to a denomination. My parents worked on the weekends, and therefore I was never introduced to church. But I don't need to be a Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, etc. to be a good human being or tell me how to live my life. All you need is faith and reason. As long as your willing to be open and judge things for yourself, then you are fine. Dont worry about classifying yourself.

I shouldn't have said that. That is all I need. Everyone is different and if you choose not to believe in God then that is your choice and you obviously wouldn't need faith. But like I said, as long as you feel comfortable with yourself and you think you are living a noble life, then thats all that matters.

[jmkiser]

No, I'm a dude. I just believe in equal rights for women. As for the label I was just curious as to what my beliefs were called. I also wonder how many people have similar beliefs as me.

To be honest, I think most of the country is where you are.

The difference is that you are here talking and probably thinking about it.

The majority of the country couldn't give a crap. Polls make this country seem much more religious then it actually is. The concept of God or a "higher power" without any thought or care would probably top the charts of every realistic poll that existed for this country with more activist Christians coming in at number two.

lol strictly speculating, though

[PlayingPossum]

I was born Roman Catholic, but I hated the religion. I felt that it concerned itself more with traditional than moral values. I questioned the random rules and why women can't have an equal role within the church. As soon as I was confirmed I left the church ashamed to be considered a Catholic. Sorry Catholics, but after I thought about the sexism within the church it's how I feel. For a short while I was an atheist, because that was the easy way to look at things, but now I don't know what I am. Now I feel that I would be ignorant to be either an atheist or believe in God, because I simply feel that I'm not able to make the decision based upon the evidence given. I don't understand how so many others make that decision. The way I see it we can all be in some sort of crystal ball controlled by much bigger things than us. Almost anything is possible.
What am I?

Atheist - someone who denies the existence of God, a non-believer in a divinity, literally "without theism"

Sounds right. Do you just not like the stigma that comes with it?

Most atheists are honest that they aren't "sure" with 100% certainty that no God exists, however, given the lack of evidence it's reasonable to say that it doesn't exist.

How do you feel about Bigfoot? There's not much evidence given, do you hold open the possibility that he exists? I do. It's possible, however, it's not probable that we wouldn't have found him yet. So I feel fairly comfortable believing he doesn't exist, until I am presented with some compelling evidence. God is no different for me.

The Christian doctrine is an extraordinary claim, and in the face of the lack of extraordinary evidence, I'll have to believe that it's not true until otherwise shown.

And I say this only a little bit facetiously, because I know it couldn't happen, but with the story we've been given of their God, they should be able to make it happen - Get all the Christians to pray for one single amputee that believes in the divinity of Christ, pray for as long as they need to. Have them all ask God for the same thing, get this man a new limb! Regenerate it. It would be a small deed for a man as accomplished as the Christian God, and I swear on all that is not holy, I will be a believer if the leg/arm is regenerated. That would be extraordinary, and I would be compelled to believe.

[David_Nicoson]

And I say this only a little bit facetiously, because I know it couldn't happen, but with the story we've been given of their God, they should be able to make it happen - Get all the Christians to pray for one single amputee that believes in the divinity of Christ, pray for as long as they need to. Have them all ask God for the same thing, get this man a new limb! Regenerate it. It would be a small deed for a man as accomplished as the Christian God, and I swear on all that is not holy, I will be a believer if the leg/arm is regenerated. That would be extraordinary, and I would be compelled to believe.

The stock religious answer is that God answered the prayer but He said no. He said no to test us, or bring someone closer to God through adversity, or the reason is simply beyond our comprehension. This is an internally consistent answer.

Why do we have religions without testable attributes? I suspect because any religion that makes a specific claim takes a risk of embarrassment. Which is safer, predicting something specific or vague? Look at the interest level in Nostradamus, who is completely incomprehensible. Surely there are tons of other supernatural belief systems that come and then quickly wink out of existence when they turn out to be demonstrably false.

[WrongWay]

The way I see it we can all be in some sort of crystal ball controlled by much bigger things than us. Almost anything is possible.
What am I?

I'd call you an atheist.
a = without
theist = belief in a specific God.


Christians have worked hard to turn atheism into some counter-religion with just as much faith as them, but faith in being sure there is not God.

No.. We just think it highly likely that they (each and every defined religion) have it wrong.

[WrongWay]

Why do we have religions without testable attributes? I suspect because any religion that makes a specific claim takes a risk of embarrassment.

But the Bible does have testable attributes and it makes specific predictions.

The Bible says the earth is a flat disk covered with a sky dome, that the skydome has windows in it, that when opened, the windows allow the water above the sky dome to fall to earth. God is a physical being, and lives on top of the physical sky dome.

It also says that the God will take all of his followers up to the top of the skydome before releasing his army of heaven to come down and do battle with the evil on earth.... and that this would happen within the lifetime of the people that were alive in about 50AD.


Religions have a marvelous way of just "reinterpriting" whenever they are shown to be wrong. Firmament changes from dome to vast expanse. Disk becomes ball. Water above the sky becomes figurative, open for interpritation. Windows of heaven become figurative. Four corners of the earth, edges of the earth, sky made firm, sky streatched out like a tent, fountains of the earth... it all becomes figurative.

Jesus being physically resurected to be physically raised up to the physical heaven sky dome, becomes a spiritual. Within our lifetime becomes a spiritual lifetime, with crap like purgitary invented as a "waiting place". Then the whole waiting place is tossed, and the rightious all get to go to heaven when they die, not having to the end of days as described in the Bible.


The reality is, religion morphs to take on the beliefs of the members. If it refuses to, then the members switch to a religion that does reflect their views. Religion is an evolving construct, just like life, governed by the same survival of the fittest. The one that works best, survives.

[Zeatrix]

I'd call you a human being. Spend less time contemplating your labels and try to live a good life, for your own sake as well as those around you (including those you don't know). That's what I try to do.

[The President]

I swear on all that is not holy, I will be a believer if the leg/arm is regenerated. That would be extraordinary, and I would be compelled to believe.

I can almost guarantee that you wouldnt. why is someone's leg regrowing any more amazing than someone's back being glued back together when it has been snapped in half? i dont think it is, yet i can tell you i know someone who was in a car accident and his spine was snapped at the bottom and God healed him overnight and he could walk normally the next day. but this wont have any effect on you whatsover, your eyes are just so closed to the idea that God might exist that you will just be too stubborn to believe it. witnessing a miracle is really not that life changing!

of course i could simply just be making that story up. that would be a good waste of everyones time. i might feel so satisfied that i could have tricked some random person on the internet into believing a made up story (even though i'm sure you wont believe it). i also like to trick myself into believing just so that i am happier living a big fat lie.

so if im not making it up, would that change whether you believe in God or not? im am 100% sure the answer is NO!

[The President]

but this wont have any effect on you whatsover, your eyes are just so closed to the idea that God might exist that you will just be too stubborn to believe it.

this isnt meant to come off nearly as harsh as it sounds! i'm in no way criticising you for not believing and saying "you're too ignorant" or anything like that.

[jmkiser]

yeah... back snapped in half

and god regrew it

wtf are our scientists doing wasting time with splitting atoms?!?!

and why again is this not a medical miracle famous around the world?

oh yeah, because nothing like this is as special as you make it out to me. His back literally snapped in half. And he walked the next day... and nobody knows about it, too... weird, huh?

[fighter]

yeah... back snapped in half

and god regrew it

wtf are our scientists doing wasting time with splitting atoms?!?!

and why again is this not a medical miracle famous around the world?

oh yeah, because nothing like this is as special as you make it out to me. His back literally snapped in half. And he walked the next day... and nobody knows about it, too... weird, huh?

Come on did he really need to give you a (sw). The WHOLE post says it isn't serious.

I can just assume that your post also need a (sw).

[The President]

I said you wouldnt believe me. frankly i couldnt care less if you did so im not trying to convince you of anything.

by the way the story is true. and to be honest it has been heard all around the world. he goes round preaching on the subject. but like i said you will all be too stubborn to believe it so there is no point in me trying to convince any of you.

i was just proving the point that the thing holding people back from believing is not the fact that they havent seen any miracles. miracles can be incredibly faith building for someone who already has a faith but personally i have never seen anyone be converted by witnessing a miracle.

[chrisuk_sw]

Presumably, the God that re-joined the dude's spine was a different God to the one that caused the car accident and snapped it in half in the first place

[brvheart]

I was born Roman Catholic, but I hated the religion. I felt that it concerned itself more with traditional than moral values. I questioned the random rules and why women can't have an equal role within the church. As soon as I was confirmed I left the church ashamed to be considered a Catholic. Sorry Catholics, but after I thought about the sexism within the church it's how I feel. For a short while I was an atheist, because that was the easy way to look at things, but now I don't know what I am. Now I feel that I would be ignorant to be either an atheist or believe in God, because I simply feel that I'm not able to make the decision based upon the evidence given. I don't understand how so many others make that decision. The way I see it we can all be in some sort of crystal ball controlled by much bigger things than us. Almost anything is possible.
What am I?

You are an agnostic.

[brvheart]

who believes in God and that Jesus died for our sins. I am a flawed human being and accept him as my savior and repent my sins.

According to Lois, you'll be in hell someday, even though you are doing everything the Bible tells you to do in order to go to heaven.

Sorry.