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Religious Beliefs

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What are your Religious Beliefs
Conservative Christian
  
12% [ 6 ]
Liberal Christian
  
18% [ 9 ]
Hindu
  
0% [ 0 ]
Buddhist
  
0% [ 0 ]
Sikh
  
0% [ 0 ]
Islamic
  
0% [ 0 ]
Jewish
  
6% [ 3 ]
Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist
  
50% [ 25 ]
Other (please clarify)
  
14% [ 7 ]
Total votes: 50
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jewelsong
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Posted: Sat 12 Mar , 2005 11:07 pm
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Lord_Morningstar wrote:
Of course, we’re limited by our sample size here, but ideally we’d have ‘Liberal Protestant Christian’, ‘Conservative Protestant Christian’ and ‘Catholic Christian’. For the numbers we’re dealing with, I think 2 Christian categories are enough though.
I think those 3 cover it better than "fundamentalist" and "mainstream"

Maybe the poll could be changed to reflect this?


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Alatar
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Posted: Sat 12 Mar , 2005 11:10 pm
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I've just checked. Unfortunately I can't alter the poll once it's started. We can either restart the thread, or just takes the definitions as read:

Fundamental = Conservative

Mainstream = Liberal

I don't mind either way. I was just trying to facilitate the discussion.

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Estel
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Posted: Sat 12 Mar , 2005 11:16 pm
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I'll go ahead and edit it for you :)


Forgot one *very* differenct sect - Coptic Christianity ;) (don't know if I spelling that right :oops: )


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Teremia
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Posted: Sat 12 Mar , 2005 11:28 pm
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I'm a Quaker. My heart responds to George Fox's old motto: "walk cheerfully over the world, answering to that of God in every one; whereby in them ye may be a blessing, and make the witness of God in them to bless you."

However, Fox might find me a pretty strange Quaker since I'm not very precisely "Christian." I've never done very well at believing in human-like gods, though of course there have been times I have longed to do so.

I do however feel that there is "that of God" in everyone, a seed of divine light or however you want to characterize it. And in Meeting I have felt on occasion "moved to speak" out of the silence, and it does feel like a different thing entirely from having a witty idea of one's own that one decides to share.

I also read a fair amount of Buddhist writing and respect what I see there.

My extended family is mostly Jewish.

My best friend is an Episcopalian priest. My other best friend hovers between Buddhism and Christianity. Other dear friends are resolutely atheist, Mormon, Muslim (not all three in the same package, however).

And when I go backpacking, we sing a lot of hymns from Taizé, so in the mountains I guess I head in the super-liberal-Catholic direction!


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Lord_Morningstar
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Posted: Sat 12 Mar , 2005 11:34 pm
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Alassante_Estel wrote:
Forgot one *very* differenct sect - Coptic Christianity ;) (don't know if I spelling that right :oops: )
IIRC the Coptic Church, along with the Armenian, Syrian, Chaldean, Egyptian, Greek and Russian Churches, can be considered Catholic. The Roman Catholic Church isn't the only Catholic Church.


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jewelsong
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Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 12:02 am
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Teremia wrote:
I'm a Quaker. My heart responds to George Fox's old motto: "walk cheerfully over the world, answering to that of God in every one; whereby in them ye may be a blessing, and make the witness of God in them to bless you."
I love that saying. I was a member of a Quaker Meeting for more than 10 years. I love the mind-set and the process of coming to consensus. And the meeting where I shared worship became like a family to me and was incredibly supportive during my horrendous divorce.

When I moved to Boston, I could not find a Meeting that "felt" right. So I ended up at the little Presbyterian church down the street...partly because my Dad had moved up here to live with me and he'd been a Presbyterian for 60+ years. I was raised in the Presbyterian Church.

Now that little church has become "family" to me. I think maybe, that is what a church community should be - like a family. People you love, warts and all. And in spite of the small size (less than 75 people) it is the most diverse group I have ever belonged to. We have all races, ages, life-styles and I daresay we have everything from "humanists" to "fundamentalists." Somehow it just works. We are all there because we believe in Jesus' message...and try to bring a bit of heaven here to this sorry earth.


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Sassafras
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Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 12:53 am
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Actually folks, I made this comment on page 2 of the "Expectations of b77 thread". It's something I've been thinking about for a long time. I was quite suprised to discover that atheism/agnosticism appeared to be a minority held view on TORC. At least among those posters with whom I was the most familiar ... and even when I lurked in Manwe, I was amazed at the number who claimed to be Christian. I even started a thread there once about a new study by a geneticist who claimed that he had discovered a "religious" gene. Nobody took me seriously (maybe it was my Viggo sig pic :D ) and the thread died a hasty death.
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You know, I think there are more of you (Christians) than there are of us (agnostics/atheists). And frankly, I find that suprising.

I'd like to delve into the reasons for that. One of these fine days I'll start a thread. But not yet. Like Lally I'm not yet ready for serious subjects.


I call myself an agnostic -tending-towards-atheism. It has taken me several decades to arrive at this point. I like to think that I got here by reasoning. A creator simply makes no sense to me. I find the concept illogical in the extreme. There is no reason for anything ... life simply IS.
And homo sapiens is most certainly NOT the apex of evolution, creation or superior to any other form of life on this planet or indeed, any part of the known or unknown universe.

We are born. We live. We die. End of story.

I hasten to add that from my perspective those immutable facts are not negative.

Btw, Lord M. Is this sort of thinking an INTP thing?


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Whistler
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Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 12:55 am
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Well, I see that the poll has been changed anyway and I admit that I feel more comfortable with the revised terminology.


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enchantress
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Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 5:17 am
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I chose "Other".

I grew up liberal Roman Catholic, and I still hold a high respect for the faith, but not really the Church itself.
In my mid teens I started "seeking" and heavily researching different spiritual traditions... for about seven years now, I term myself "Pagan" for lack of a better term. That path appeals to me most, for its emphasis on the Feminine Divine, the nature-based direction, the practice of ritual and magic, as well as the ecclectic approach to traditions. I also like its disorganized nature. Im a solitary practicioner and I dont see myself formally entering any of the more solidfied Pagan or Wiccan paths. Organized religion is not really for me I think, though I would describe myself as a very spiritual person. I think Paganism also jibes with my Jungian leanings... Im finishing my Psychology degree this year ;)
I have strong leanings in the Taoist and Buddhist (especially Tibetan) directions. I also hold on to some of my Roman Catholic traditions. Yet I am certain that I no longer define myself as "Christian".

I felt at home in the Pagan world mostly because it recognized an almost inherent quality I have always had, of seeing the feminine side of divinity. I grew up in Poland, where our Roman Catholicism is very much concerend with the Virgin Mary. She is held in very high esteem and emphasized in Polish Catholic culture.
The earliest image of divinity for me was a picture of Mary and a boy Jesus that hung above my bed since birth ( I still have the picture and its still above my bed :)). When I was a little kid, thats who I prayed to and expressed any early religious feelings towards.
One of my earliest memories ( I am told I was around 4 years old) involves going to church at Easter, seeing the set up "tomb" and Jesus on the cross. I was genuinely confused when the priest during his homily would motion to Jesus whenever he said the word "God". I asked my mother if the man on the cross was God. My mom thought for a bit and said that yes he is, but he is also a man. I looked up at her and with genuine confusion stated "I thought the lady on the picture above my bed was God..." :oops: :D
I still sorta stick by that :)

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Lord_Morningstar
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Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 5:51 am
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I hate to keep sounding critical of the poll options, but a Pagan/Wiccan option wouldn't go astray.


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Dindraug
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Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 3:45 pm
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Yes, I am with that as well. Two breeds of Christians but only a catch all for everything else.

Can you add Wiccan, Shaman, Druid and Jedi Knight please, in the case of fairness ;)

And Gnostic :devil:

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MariaHobbit
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Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 4:24 pm
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I chose "other", because I was raised atheist, mellowed to agnostic over the years, and then started exploring the ideas behind lots of other religions.

Most of the one's I've read about seem to have one or two interesting concepts that ring true for me, and when that happens I add the idea to my own personal, developing theory about the nature of life, the universe and everything.

I tend to respect more the religions that offer explanations and methods of dealing with "chi" flow and usage, and more dismissive of those that decry such things as evil. :roll: Energy/self healing is real, and suppressing information regarding it is wrong and harmful in my opinion.

It seems to me that throughout the ages, there occasionally pops up a person who correctly intuits some part of the nature of reality and has the charisma to pass on that knowledge sucessfully to interested parties. And then a lot of other, extraneous stuff is slapped onto the original idea, and people muck up the original message with their own interpretations and ideas, and pretty soon you have a belief system with a core of Truth and a halo of not so good ideas hitching a ride along with it. And then later, the whole package of ideas is accepted as Truth, and that causes all the problems.

Every religion I've read about so far has a core of "truth" that rings true for me. (Except Satanism, that was just icky!) It's just that people get so bound up in the small print added afterwards that they can't get along with others that have different small print.

At this point in my life, I could no more choose a single religion and stick to it than I could stick to a single food and eat it for the rest of my life. All religions are nourishing, but the flavors and nutritional content vary. ;)

I probably lean more towards Paganism and various Oriental philosophies than anything else, simply because some of their premises are easily tested and provable, which lends credence to the other ideas held by those belief systems.

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Dave_LF
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Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 8:48 pm
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I am an ex-conservative Christian turned Secular Humanist. I think "former Christian" almost deserves its own category because, no matter what you do with your beliefs, you can never really leave old habits behind. The fact is, despite my eagerness to defend nontraditional lifestyles and behaviors, in real life I probably behave more like a conservative Christian than a lot of conservative Christians. But that's fine; I still believe there is a lot of value in Matthew-5 ethics; I just can't deal with all the doctrine/faith/power structure etc.


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Lidless
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Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 10:55 pm
Als u het leven te ernstig neemt, mist u de betekenis.
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Logic and probability tell me that there isn't a god. But I refuse to say that a god doesn't exist because that in itself is a belief. I cannot prove it either way, and I have words with people, on either sides of the fence, who think they can.

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Faramond
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Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 11:12 pm
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Yeah, but can you prove that it can't be proved either way?

A belief is not the same as a logical certainty.


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MaidenOfTheShieldarm
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Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 11:18 pm
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I'm an agnostic Jew. Judiasm is my culture, angosticism my belief. I believe (that is, I would like to believe) that there is some kind of Power/Deity/etc, but I don't know what it is. Thus, I chose "Other", and now I'm clarifying.

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Sassafras
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Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 11:19 pm
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Quote:
Yeah, but can you prove that it can't be proved either way?
No, Faramond. You cannot.
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A belief is not the same as a logical certainty
Yeah. Try telling that to some of the people I deal with on a daily basis.
It's an excercise in :bang: :bang: :bang:


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jewelsong
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Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 11:21 pm
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I cannot prove the existence of God...or a higher power. But I am certain of it, nevertheless. It sings through my soul.


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Ethel
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Posted: Mon 14 Mar , 2005 12:08 am
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jewelsong wrote:
I cannot prove the existence of God...or a higher power. But I am certain of it, nevertheless. It sings through my soul.
Ah, see, that's what I don't understand, though it sounds wonderful. It's like I'm missing the gene for it or something.


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yovargas
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Posted: Mon 14 Mar , 2005 12:31 am
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Any theory on why the so-called "Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist" is dominating this poll? We did this poll on Manwe a couple of times and it was usually a good deal more even then this. Don't like to think that this place is to become too one-sided in it's perspective (a la Manwe becoming anti-Republican).


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