What's your religious affiliation?

[Yazata]

Affiliation and belief are two different things. It's possible to be a religious believer but not be affiliated with any organized religious tradition. That happens a lot. And equally, it's possible to be affiliated with a particular religious tradition without believing in its doctrines. I suspect that many Muslims would fit that description. So would the many Jews for whom Judaism is an ethnic identifier and the many Irish Catholics for whom the same is true.

As for me, I'm not affiliated with any religious organization. So I'm a 'none' in that regard.

As far as beliefs go, I don't believe in the truth of any of the (supposedly) revealed scriptural traditions. I basically think that all of them are false. So I approach atheism in that regard.

But then there are the big questions - why is there something rather than nothing?, why is there cosmic order?, what is reality at its most fundamental level?and so on. I don't have the answers, though the questions fascinate me. This is where I part company with the atheists, I guess.

 

[RealBigOleDummy]

New guy here. (Nice site btw wish I had found it earlier)
I'm an Atheist and have been since I was 13. 65 now and have seen no evidence to make me change my way of thinking. Have studied the christian religion fairly "deeply" and have read their holy book "the Bible" front to back multiple times. Well, I always skipped Numbers lol.

My Grandfather and Great-grandfather were both preachers. Methodist. My family is filled with "men of god" back to the late 1800's. One was hanged by the traitorous confederates as a Union spy. He was a circuit riding preacher. Anyway, it was always assumed by most of my extended family that I would continue the "tradition". Well, all hell broke loose (lol) when I informed them at a family reunion that I thought that stuff (their beliefs) were a joke and that I wanted no part of it. Only one cousin would speak to me after that.

Yes, I believe in my heart that (1), there is no god or gods (2) there is no "point" in us being here, no grand design.

 

[RainbowSingularity]

"point"

Hi
Welcome

Only one cousin would speak to me after that.

a close friend i grew up with(i realize some info you should not publicize on the net)
his father was a pastor
so he effectively grew up inside or beside the christian church
he as a teenager was an atheist & incredibly smart A+ kinda student without trying too hard.

another girl i spent some time with
her father was also a pastor
she grew up very well connected & inside the christian church
she was what might be considered todays modern christian(secular ideology)
fabulous woman, a mind sharper than a blade & non judgemental.

 

[James R]

Affiliation and belief are two different things. It's possible to be a religious believer but not be affiliated with any organized religious tradition. That happens a lot. And equally, it's possible to be affiliated with a particular religious tradition without believing in its doctrines.

Yes. That's one reason I started two separate threads. This one asks about affiliation - self-identification. The other one attempts to measure religious orientation, based on one's actual beliefs. It is here:

http://www.sciforums.com/threads/wh...religious-spiritual-beliefs-2021-poll.164029/

But then there are the big questions - why is there something rather than nothing?, why is there cosmic order?, what is reality at its most fundamental level?and so on. I don't have the answers, though the questions fascinate me. This is where I part company with the atheists, I guess.

I'm not sure why you assume atheists think they have answers to those questions, but that's a discussion for a different thread.

 

[geordief]

Pantheism?
Never studied this but etymologically it suggests to me that all things ,both animate and inanimate are alive with something.

It seems to me to be an uncontroversial belief as no consequences flow from it (we know the natural environment can be variously kind or harsh ,warm or cold meaningful or senseless).

As with other belief systems though my skin crawls when/if it is institutionalized (although I think that that institutionalization is meat and drink to others of different sensibilities)

Against pantheism is its all pervasiveness so that it loses any real significance.(just as well since life is at once too short for tomfoolery as well as too insignificant for anything else)

 

[Changeling]

Could you add Neoism? Thanks!

 

[RainbowSingularity]

Could you add Neoism? Thanks!

i like your avatar picture thats really awesome

 

[psikeyhackr]

Transcendental Agnostic:

I presume that if there is a God then He/She/It has a lower opinion of religion than I do.

 

[O. W. Grant]

"All people believe. Some believe that God exist. Other believe that there isn't God. Neither of those can be proved."
(source is not in English)
= = =

God does God's work.

King does king's work.

Boss does boss' work.

I do my work.

= = =

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made. In him was life; ..."

The Gospel of John

- - -

In the thread "of - with" there are event and observer, and word (word as word and word as meaning, and word as connection (Equiv.)).

Word in the gospel stands also for knowledge (Logos = meaning).

 

[Michael 345]

Don't know

Don't think I was baptised

Did go to Sunday School but no idea which denomination

Not sure when I switched to non beliver in any religion (atheists?) but think during Sunday School time between age 9 to 12

Was very dubious about having daughter baptised but it happened

Next 3 t didn't

When I married in Bali they only allow certain religions to marry. When I said I was atheists I had to go through a cleansing ceremony which I think turned me to follower of Hindu

Never done any Hindu stuff so put me down as Hindu by ceremony and non believer in any religion by choice

 

[Hapsburg]

I'm not sure whether we have directly polled our membership about this before.

I'm a Pagan, or what might be described as a Modern/Contemporary Pagan or Neopagan.
Getting more specific: I'm a devotional polytheist practising a largely Hellenistic or Graeco-Roman-based religion, with a reconstructionist methodology. That is to say, my religion is composed primarily of devotional practices and is focused on the gods I worship, and I use historical methods to reconstruct the practices of ancient Greek and Roman peoples to inform my own practices and beliefs. My theological views tend towards those of the Orphic and Bacchic mysteries, though I am also strongly influenced by Roman animist beliefs and wider European and Near Eastern folklore.

I sometimes describe myself as a "syncretic reconstructionist" because while my hearth cult (that is, the main religion at my household altar) is Roman, I also worship gods who were historically worshipped by other cultures, such as those associated with Greek, Celtic, Germanic, and Slavic people (thus being syncretic, as I'm not operating solely within one tradition) ; and I similarly employ a reconstructionist method when it comes to my practices relating to those gods. But this might be a bit deep in the weeds, and getting that nitty-gritty with it isn't always useful. To most people, I just say that I'm a Pagan, and if I need to get more granular, I usually say that I'm a Roman/Hellenic reconstructionist.

 

[Michael 345]

I'm a Pagan, or what might be described as a Modern/Contemporary Pagan or Neopagan.
Getting more specific: I'm a devotional polytheist practising a largely Hellenistic or Graeco-Roman-based religion, with a reconstructionist methodology. That is to say, my religion is composed primarily of devotional practices and is focused on the gods I worship, and I use historical methods to reconstruct the practices of ancient Greek and Roman peoples to inform my own practices and beliefs. My theological views tend towards those of the Orphic and Bacchic mysteries, though I am also strongly influenced by Roman animist beliefs and wider European and Near Eastern folklore.

I sometimes describe myself as a "syncretic reconstructionist" because while my hearth cult (that is, the main religion at my household altar) is Roman, I also worship gods who were historically worshipped by other cultures, such as those associated with Greek, Celtic, Germanic, and Slavic people (thus being syncretic, as I'm not operating solely within one tradition) ; and I similarly employ a reconstructionist method when it comes to my practices relating to those gods. But this might be a bit deep in the weeds, and getting that nitty-gritty with it isn't always useful. To most people, I just say that I'm a Pagan, and if I need to get more granular, I usually say that I'm a Roman/Hellenic reconstructionist.

Sounds like you have found variety of methods of being religious and each religion having numerous rituals and you are content with picking (cherry ?) a mix of rituals from your mix of religions to engage with

 

[Hapsburg]

...and you are content with picking (cherry ?) a mix of rituals from your mix of religions to engage with

You say that like it's a bad things? Pagan religions aren't about orthodoxy. Ancient Greek and Roman religion was notably syncretic, adopting gods and practices from surrounding cultures pretty actively. Many forms of neopaganism are eclectic.
As I said, I do most of my household rituals in the Roman fashion. When I interact solely with Celtic gods, I try to conduct my rituals based on what we know about ancient Celtic rituals. When I interact with Germanic gods, I try to hew to what we know about ancient Germanic rituals. But there are commonalities, which is only natural as all of those are Indo-European speaking cultures and their religions originate from a Proto-Indo-European religion from the early Bronze Age.

 

[Michael 345]

You say that like it's a bad things?

Did I?

Didn't know I was so expressive in so few words

Personally would not label bad

My characterisation would be window shopping

Not ready to make a purchase

Hope you find lT (whatever your IT is)

 

[Hapsburg]

Personally would not label bad

You said "cherry picking", that concept usually has negative connotations.

My characterisation would be window shopping
Not ready to make a purchase

That assessment relies on thinking of religion as exclusivist towards other religions. With paganism and polytheism, that's really not the case.

 

[ThazzarBaal]

Christian, albeit not the type that is openly expressed in modern years. I guess I would need to state my luciferian ties, which are connected to my faith, although I don't claim a luciferian title.

Morning stars and the whole descending and ascending reference association. Falling down and getting back up born again stuff