I'm a Protestant.
What religion are you?
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Protestant
9 vote(s)16.7% -
catholic
7 vote(s)13.0% -
Mormon/Jehovah Witness/etc
1 vote(s)1.9% -
Judaism
2 vote(s)3.7% -
Hinduism/Bhuddist
2 vote(s)3.7% -
Athiest/Agnostic
24 vote(s)44.4% -
Other
8 vote(s)14.8% -
Islam
1 vote(s)1.9%
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Religion has never been a big part of my life. Never took an interest. So I guess atheist agnostic.
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I've read a lot about religion and others religious beliefs. I'd go so far as to wager I've read about some that most people haven't heard of other than the ones that are listed here, which fall under the "other" category.
As for myself, I'm agnostic with a bigger appreciation for the lesser known religions and taoism / buddhism, but I couldn't really quite say I'm a practicing Buddhist I just enjoy the mentality.
I could say I'm a practicing Daoist, but then again I'm not...Dol-Fan Dupree likes this. -
Ohiophinphan Chaplain Staff Member Luxury Box
I am a "professional" Christian :wink2: What I mean is I am an ordained Lutheran pastor, thus for this survey: Protestant.
dolphindebby likes this. -
"Other" as a Christian who eschews denominations there was no category for me.
"Protestant" basically is a Roman Catholic term for anyone not a RC congregant.
Pardon me if I reject such a construct. -
Ohiophinphan Chaplain Staff Member Luxury Box
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I'm a baptist, I just decided with the traditional split for the poll
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Ohiophinphan Chaplain Staff Member Luxury Box
Out of curiosity what is the point/purpose of this poll? We have one every year or two.
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Basically, you are what you do, not what someone denominates you as being.Ohiophinphan likes this. -
Ohiophinphan Chaplain Staff Member Luxury Box
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Quick question: why are Mormon/Jehovah Witness/etc listed like that?
Those 2 aren't similar, what does etc. represent, wouldnt it be other?FleaFlicker and cuchulainn like this. -
Ohio Fanatic, Starry31 and cuchulainn like this.
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There is no category for "heretic," so I can't participate.
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We need more Muslim posters on here, just to see if a few people lose their ****.
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shula_guy Well-Known Member
Atheist and agnostic should be two different answers. I am an atheist and its different than someone who is agnostic.
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Pantheist.
Alan Watts pretty much covers it:
[video=youtube;mMRrCYPxD0I]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMRrCYPxD0I[/video] -
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2 -
MrClean Inglourious Basterd Club Member
shula_guy likes this. -
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shula_guy Well-Known Member
If you are asked if there is a God and your answer is"I do not know" Then you are Agnostic.
If you are asked if you believe in a god and your answer is "No" then you are an Atheist.FleaFlicker and cdz12250 like this. -
MrClean Inglourious Basterd Club Member
Agnostic is defined as "without knowledge" basically. Opposite is gnostic, which means "enlightened" or having knowledge.
Atheists are sometimes divided into two groups. Agnostic atheists, and Gnostic Atheists. Gnostic Atheists are convinced beyond any doubt that no supreme being exists. They are probably outnumbered by agnostic atheists who believe the existence or non existence of a supreme being is unknown and not provable either way. I am in that camp. Many agnostics disregard the atheist suffix and just use the word agnostic alone. I do that. The hard core atheists, the Gnostic Atheists, are IMO often just as annoying as Evangelical Christians with their cocksure attitudes of knowing beyond a doubt that their beliefs are definitely facts.
Hard core Gnostic atheists often try to paint me into a corner with their question of "do you believe in God?" There can only be one of two answers to them, yes or no. I hate that attitude. I answer the question with either "I don't know if there is a god and neither do you", or there is not enough evidence to accurately answer that question either way. They are usually as persistent and annoying as the Born Again types in trying to get a committed yes or no response.
I say religion is like a *****. It is fine to have one. If it fine to be proud of it. But, don't take it out in public and start waving it around, and don't try to shove it down anyone else's throat.ToddPhin likes this. -
MrClean Inglourious Basterd Club Member
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Atomist.
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Actually, if you dig deep enough in to the lexicon of theology, the Gnostics in church history are associated with a group of 'christian sects' that did not believe in the Christ depicted in the Scripture - or the God either, for that matter, but they did have some form of a faith which included a 'Jesus' who was at best a form of flesh animated by a spirit. What he was depended on the particular branch of Gnosticism.
An agnostic today is more like a "I don't know" as in "I have questions about everything" form of belief/existence.
I am a conservative/evangelical/sacramental disciple of Jesus Christ who is firmly in the "I don't think we really know much of anything about God/Trinity" camp, but who has experienced the gift of faith in a way I can only describe as by being 'touched by the Holy Spirit.'
By the way, the term "evangelical" really applies to all Christians... but some of the more rabidly zealous amongst the brethren have absconded with that word and given it a meaning more like "I'm agonna beat you over the head with the Bible (usually the KJV) until I scare the Hell out of you and you get saved" category. The trouble is that virtually all Christians, it seems, get painted with that insufferably arrogant label. In fact, as an ordained minister I have been accosted by some of that flavor of "Christians" and told I am going to hell because I don't belong to their church, preach their beliefs, and was not baptized by submersion - I prefer that term since I am ex-Navy. They are not as bad as The Westboro Baptist Church, but some don't fall very far from that tree.
At the other end of the Conservative Christian Protestant continuum are the Anglicans, and maybe some Presbyterians and Lutherans. I am only familiar with the Anglican branch - from which the Methodist's arose. The Anglicans are conservative in their worship, polity, and praxis (How they structure themselves and how they work!)
The Roman Catholic Church is one of the two which arose from the original split in 1054 AD. The other is the Orthodox branches (Greek, leading to Eastern, Russian, etc., I believe... Both of them are highly conservative in virtually everything - save that Pope Francis may have some lasting impact on the RCC. Both of them are highly conservative, and usually attract attention when their leader speaks ex cathedra! Or, when somebody gets through the system and does something horribly wrong, and usually perverts the entire system of faith.
All that is to say that I believe firmly in God, but don't have any idea that I can tell you what God thinks about what we do save that which comes from Scripture - and I don't think anyone else can either, which I why I laugh (inwardly) at those who think that they can hear God talking to them telling them to do things that Scripture says is wrong. People were doing those things back in the days Scripture was recorded/written, and are still doing them today... So!!!! What's New?
I also laugh at those who limit God to what is in the book - and say that God is not more than any book! But, I don't think God changes minds with the shift in human/mortal trains of thought or philosophy. That sounds more like wishful thinking meeting fear of being wrong.
As far as God and Science - Science is trying to penetrate the mechanisms by which "How" everything happens. That is find, good, and I love reading and hearing and looking into things like the Higgs Boson, Quarks and String theory, even the idea of multiverses is interesting, but there is a whole lot of physics which has to be explained and accepted before they can be considered more then hypotheses. And that is not the Theological question. The theological question is 'Why!"
That is the final question - is it "'How?' or 'Why?' I am here!?" If you push far and deep enough into each discipline, you wind up with one or the other being the preferred answer - and the score is still tied 0-0 at the end of the 13 Billionth or so inning. One answer is leads to an accident. The other leads to a purpose. I don't think I am an accident - but don't ask my wife or my remaining sister. They might not agree. And I don't know. I simply have faith!MrClean likes this. -
Ohiophinphan Chaplain Staff Member Luxury Box
We in the Lutheran tradition generally prefer the word "orthodox" (as in adhering to an historic understanding, not the Eastern Christian wing {btw Rick, you meant 1054 AD not BC for the date of the Great Schism}) to conservative. Evangelical was a phrase from the German (which got it from the Greek) meaning Gospel-centered. Originally used by anti-reformationists as a slur such as Bible-thumper might be used today, it was assumed as a badge of honor by the early followers of Luther. Out denomination is still known as the "Evangelical Lutheran Church in America" (ELCA).
I think Rick hit the mainline Christian view fairly well. I am a disciple of Jesus. With the guidance of the Holy Spirit in my life, I try to surrender my will to what I understand God is asking of me in life. I do this not out of obligation but in gratitude for what God has already done for me in Christ. Since this relationship with God gives me great joy, I honestly and (I hope) lovingly desire others to share that joy. That is at the core of the way I do proclamation and evangelism. I share Rick's loathing of "in your face" fear tactics because (1) they fail to portray the joy, I understand, God offers and (2) they turn so many people away who I believe would benefit from "authentic Christianity".dolphindebby likes this. -
The only way any religious teachings make any sense whatsoever is if you take them at an "interpretive" value. Such as Moses living hundreds of years, and based on modern knowledge of half-lives of molecules, that is just simply impossible. Not to mention snakes once walking/talking. The tower of Babel. REALLY!?? WHAT WERE THEY GOING TO DO?! BUILD IT UNTIL THEY DIED FROM OXYGEN DEPRIVATION?! Not to mention dating of items that existed far beyond the "cradle of life" section of the earth referred to in the history of the bible.
Im sorry, you would have a hard time taking score and ending up 0-0. -
I've never been religious. I stopped believing in god before I quit believing in Santa Claus. For a long time, I referred to myself as an Atheist. I was pretty strong headed about it. My parents gave me the option of getting confirmed as a Catholic or quitting church when I was 13, and I gladly took the chance to never go back. They weren't very happy, but they lived.
In my early 20's, I had a bit of a realization that if people who were so sure that their relief was the right one, and were forceful about it made me so angry, then who was I to be so absolute in my beliefs either. I started calling myself an agnostic, and while I didn't believe in any god, I couldn't prove that there wasn't either, so it seemed to go with my general scheme of things. The problem became that there are people who see "agnostic" and think that means you are undecided, and its their chance to convert you to their side. After a while, that go really annoying, and I started just saying that I was non religious.
More recently, I've started saying the truest thing of all. I don't care. I really don't. If someone could somehow prove without question that one religion was true, or that there truely was no god, it wouldn't how I live my life one little bit, other than how it effected others and I then had to deal with that.
Suprising to see how many are non-religious though. Living in "The South", surrounded by people who truely hate that anyone could not be a Prodestant Christian, I don't meet many people who are openly non-religious. Even my LGBT friends are all Christian.BlameItOnTheHenne likes this. -
I voted Buddhist because ita the closest thing to whatI believe. I basically am Buddhist with belief in a Buddha or other entities.
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MrClean Inglourious Basterd Club Member
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MrClean Inglourious Basterd Club Member
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A lot of people don't realize but there are actually a lot of dieties, evil deities, and heavens/hells in Buddhism. I don't deny the Buddha as a historic person, I deny him as what he is portrayed as.
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