Are You Religious?

[AdrenalinDragon]

So, I guess it was tikme to make a thread about it. Do you follow Religion? I currently do not, but I've met a few at my University.

What about you?

[BitBuster]

Although I'll participate in the discussion, I can't vote, because I really don't know. Ask me if I believe in God and I'll say "yes," but I don't know if that's because I was taught since birth to believe that there was a God, or because I actually believe it.

I'd like to be religious, but I can't.

[PB_guy]

Whether they admit it or not, everyone is religious. Religion is separate from Faith. Faith is what you believe; atheism, christianity, buddhism, shintoism, hinduism, islam, ... On the other hand, Religion is what you do because of your Faith. Whether it is works of charity, or strapping a bomb to yourself and blowing up children.

In this sense, the christian new testament mentions religion in only one passage; James 1:26,27 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

ian

[ManipulatorGeneral]

Honestly, it depends on what somebody means by "religion" that could influence my answer. Christianity is not defined as a religion at all by numbers of its most passionate adherents, as it does not require any man-made constructs to practice; salvation in Christianity is not meritable by any good deeds, but is a gift entirely provided by God through the atoning sacrifice for sin offered by Christ, and this exclusive focus on God's effort to reach man, rather than the opposite, is the main difference between my faith and all others. Many historical critics and theologians argue that Christ came to make religion unnecessary (it certainly wouldn't be necessary in the Christian heaven), and that is why the excessively pious, upright Jews of the time hated Him so much and ultimately sought to kill Him, because they paranoidly persuaded themselves that Christ was challenging their authority and power. I believe modern Christianity is a religion to a degree, because it does follow particular manners of organization and other man-made guidelines, and it always will be as long as we live on this imperfect Earth, but the pure form in which God intended it to be, direct fellowship with Him without any barriers as shown in the Garden of Eden story, is not. (This is certainly a possible point of contention.) I couldn't say I'm capable of explaining this concept perfectly or in complete detail, so I would recommend further research, especially for the non-religious here.

Though my personal relationship with God the Creator is the number one priority, I still consider myself religious to a degree, as I attend church every Sunday and practice customs of the church. Although religiosity can certainly be of assistance to many adherents of any faith, a wholehearted belief that Jesus' death paid for your sins to enable you to inherit eternal life (John 3:16, basically) equals Christianity, regardless of degree of religiosity. That thought actually formed a new perspective in my head recently (so many profound thoughts have started appearing ex nihilo recently...it's odd, and it certainly makes me think I'm not inventing them), and it might clear up BitBuster's confusion: "You don’t have to be Christian to be religious, but neither do you have to be religious to be Christian." I hope this small piece is at least somewhat informative and/or provocative of further thought.

[Flareon350]

I really don't know to be honest. There's a difference between being religious and believing in a religion. I myself am Christian.

I believe in God but I don't go to church and I don't really pray that often. I'm happy with the life I have right now, which is why I don't pray as much as a normal believer.

You should add a I don't know option Tom for these reasons, as well as some of the previous posters ^^

[jblewis]

I too consider myself a Christian and agree with much of what Andrew wrote above, particularly with what differentiates true Christianity from other religions and the politically-charged version of the faith that seems to be prevalent in American culture today.

[BitBuster]

I know a lot of people who no longer consider themselves "religious" because they disagreed with the manner in which their church was being run. While I entirely sympathize with those who felt disenchanted by the whole Catholic priests scandal, I also think that it's not the best reason for rejecting a certain faith/denomination. But anyway.

[BigOto2]

I am 100% atheist, and proud to be. I believe the laws of physics govern our universe, that time is just an illusion of changing energy, and that "time" and space as we know them extend infinitely in every dimension we know of and possibly some others we don't know of. When one dies, their energy is transferred to the world around them; what then allows it to transfer to "heaven" or some other parallel universe? This is one reason why I really want to go to space before I die.

My mother is Buddhist, and thus she believes in hundreds of gods as well as karma. This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to me, as I don't see how there could possibly be a higher power for everyone which jinxes one for sinning or makes good things happen for good actions. What this really is is reputation, when doing bad things causes people naturally to realize you are a bad person, but it doesn't mean killing someone will cause a meteor to land on and set fire to your house. Thank goodness Buddhism isn't like Judaism which transfers down from family.

While I may seem to bash religion, I have full tolerance for those who choose to believe as that's their choice and I have no reason to try and change that. Feel free to disagree with me, just don't flame me.

[geodave]

You have every right to believe (or not believe) whatever you want. That's SUPPOSED to be one of the freedoms guaranteed in this country. I know that what I believe is a combination of upbringing and experience.

Am I religious? That really depends on your definition (as mentioned above.) I attend church semi-regularly and I have a couple habits I find useful. But that does not describe my belief system at all.

And I don't really care if the atheists are right. That's just Pascal's gambit. Now, if the Muslims are right, I'm in big trouble....

[BigOto2]

I hope we can all agree on that Islam ≠ Terrorist. I actually think quite a lot of beliefs from all religions, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism, are correct, but no one totally nails it (all of the religions have gods or a God which I don't believe, obviously). For example, Muslims usually say that once a sin is forgiven, it's done for (which I totally agree with), whereas often in Christianity everyone starts out with original sin from mistakes made by the first humans which makes absolutely no sense.