Topic: What are your religious views?

And some need to prove how wrong they are... just like others were going to ever get convinced

That's an interesting point... but is it that frequent to get offended in non-religious conversations? Why should it happen anyway? If one is atheistic/agnostic/"others", why to care about other beliefs? and if one' has a religious orientation strong enough, why would be offended by other points of view?

I intended to say the same thing, darn you Chatty Ham!

Religious differences are offensive because many religious institutions demand that you believe they are right and no one else is, which means you are saying the other person is wrong, which is offensive because that person believes he can only be right.

If I believe there are aliens and you don't, there is no pope telling me that I'll go to hell if I'm wrong. The stakes are raised when you imagine an eternal soul at hazard.

And it gets much, much worse when someone involved is concerned about the other's wrong beliefs and tries to change his mind.

A few centuries ago it was widely believed that crop failure was due to someone in the local vicinity being immoral. It's this sort of thinking that leads to some religious people to care about other people's beliefs, they think it has wider ramifications than an individual's mental well being.

I'm surprised this topic is seen as rarely occuring in the 'real world'. It's a typical conversation that comes up with drunken gatherings almost to the point of tedium. At least in my experience.

Does religion really have any meaning if you believe it's only one of many "right" ones, though? It doesn't really make any sense to me. I am concerned about the beliefs of people around here, but I'm not stupid enough to think I can actually change your minds, much as I might want to.

I'm an agnostic.

I don't think one could say a higher power does or does not exist.

I'm not going to believe in something that you cannot prove. I try to look at things with an open unbiased view. Getting you morality out of book thats been around for many centuries is just downright silly to me.

What I strongly oppose is organized religion that tries to impose their own religious views on others by political means. Laws that abolish or prevent things like gay marriages and abortions are horrific violations of our western secular system.

Apathetic.

Whether God exists or not, I'm still going to get up in the morning and go about my usual routine.

While I don't believe in god myself, I always loved the idea of a prankster god, the kind that hid dinosaur fossils for nothing more than a practical joke, just imagining a god going around burying bones giggling to itself as it goes, awesome.

I'm a Baptist.

Seriously though, I'm not religious at all. I hate the idea of it.

I am a born-again Christian. I believe that there is only one God. He created this world, this universe, and everything in it. The way I see it, everything couldn't have come from nothing. People tend to divide themselves into groups - good people and bad people. But God says that every person who has ever lived is a sinner, and that any sin separates us from God. No matter how we might classify ourselves, this includes you and me. We are all sinners(Romans 3:23 see sig) That means we all deserve eternal punishment in hell.

But I also believe that God does not find enjoyment in that, and that He is sad because of it. God loves the everyone on the earth, more than anyone could imagine. So around 2000 years ago, He sent His only son to live a perfect live on earth, to die for our sins("God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8). He died so we don't have to. He 'payed the price' for our sins, so that no one on earth has to go to hell, and we can live with Him in Heaven(Romans 6:23 see sig). He was the only one that could, having lived a perfect life. Jesus didn't stay dead though, He rose from death 3 days after he was crucified, and He is alive now.

It's God's grace that allows you to come to Him - not your efforts to 'clean up your life' or work your way to Heaven. You can't earn it. It's a free gift("For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast." Ephesians 2:8-9)

And all you have to do to become a Christian is accept His gift. The gift He is holding out in His hand right now("If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved." Romans 10:9-10)

Christianity shouldn't be about religion, and following all these rules and telling you how you should live your life. But that's what many people make it out to be. Once you do become a Christian, you'll want to do what is right, and follow rules. Sure, Christians make mistakes. I'm sure that I have sinned today already, and that I'm going to again, but that's what's amazing about it - Jesus died for all of your sins, the ones you have done, and the ones you will do. All you have to do is accept Him into your life.

This short time here on earth is only a blink of an eye compared to an eternity spent where you choose. Sorry if I sound kinda strong here, but this is just to the point: You either choose hell, which is an eternal place of turmoil, pain, and suffering, and is our deserving punishment, or you can choose Heaven, the place God wants us to be, and the place anyone can go. A place with no tears, and no pain. Forever. Oh, I just can't wait! Especially after reading descriptions in the Bible.

I guess i'm pantheist, but i also believe that God who resides in everything that exists, is able concentrate it's consciousness in a single point, therefore being one personality.

@Adam: While I can't say my beliefs match up with most of the users on here, I despise the idea of trying to force my religion onto someone else, and I, likewise, find it offensive. Where I differ, though, is in a deep respect I have for those who with love and humility do seek to show others their own religion in order to win them to their cause. As I've seen someone speak on before, if there were a truck barreling towards you at 100 miles per hour, and you were standing in the middle of the road, and no matter how much I yelled to you, you wouldn't look, and din't believe me, there would come a certain point when I would tackle you out of the way. This is more important than that. If someone believes there is a heaven and a hell-- a place of everlasting joy and a place of eternal horror and punishment-- and they believed you could be going to that hell, would you not want them to tell you? No, they should not try to forcibly change your persuasions. But the way I see it, how much do you have to hate another human being too think they could be going to hell, and not tell them about it? People often speak of proselytizing as being close-minded, offensive, or "holier-than-thou," but does if done genuinely, does it not show more human compassion to seek to save those who know no better from an unimaginable fate?

That said, I (as I'm sure a lot of you have gathered from my sig) am a Christian, and while I'll not be bringing up such topics in the forums, if anyone were to ever want to know more as to why I would claim that title, I'd be happy to share with you. For now, though I'm enjoying seeing all the different belief sets represented. We are a diverse bunch, no?

"Religious Faith is a virtue of simple/weak minded people."

I'm paraphrasing but I read that somewhere when I was really young and it always stuck with me. Thoughts?

@JayArr I think you'd enjoy reading Nietzsche!

@JayArr: Good thought. My only opposition would be that, really, when boiled down, to believe in anything requires a measure of faith, according to modern philosophy. What makes faith in a god any different from faith in anything else? Granted, I'm not the brightest guy stalking these forums, so being called weak-minded myself is something I'll take no offense to. But to say such about the vast majority of the world (the percentages of human beings who claim no religion at all is dwarfed by the numbers of those who cling to some form of deity) seems a bit ungrounded. Those are merely my thoughts, though. No one to say they're right, either, huh?

I was born into a Christian family and indoctrinated as such from early childhood, I had faith in the Bible as the word of God, believed in Jesus as the savior, and that through him I would find my place in heaven. However, as I got older I started getting interested in science, and as I learned about the burden of proof I realized that, while well meaning, my family had indoctrinated me into an ideology yet hadn't provided any compelling evidence that their extraordinary claims were actually true. This wasn't a quick or easy process, and it caused me a lot of emotional pain and anguish in my young adulthood. I eventually decided that I could no longer honestly consider myself a Christian, I decided that I would continue investigating with an open mind, and if there was a god, then I would find it, for the truth has nothing to fear from honest inquiry.

Once I had come to terms with that decision I had begun seeing my former religion, and all religions for that matter, from an outside perspective. I saw little difference between them and all the other ancient mythologies, where people invented stories to fill their gaps in knowledge and to comfort themselves in the face of an uncomfortable reality. And I saw how having faith in the truth of ancient fables led people to close their mind to genuine inquiry into the true nature of the universe, and led good people to support terrible ideas or even commit heinous acts themselves. I have since become involved in the skeptics movement, and I also engage in counter-apologetics from time to time.

I can honestly say that, since accepting my atheism, I have learned far more about my former religion than I ever did while still practicing it. I now absolutely love to discuss religion, especially with people who disagree with me, provided the conversation remains relatively civil, however, I have yet to find a single compelling reason to believe in the existence of any gods, souls or afterlife.

If you're wondering, I created my screen name as a tongue-in-cheek reference to the ridiculous idea that some people have that atheists somehow worship Charles Darwin.

I'm your standard science-minded aetheist who believes in logic and reason and that which can be seen with my own two eyes.

@ByDarwinsBeard: I find that very interesting. I also grew up in a family professing to be Christian and going to church, but I would hesitate to say I was a very good Christian at the time, or even that I had any real faith at all. That all changed when I visited a friend's church, now my home church. Now I can combine the knowledge I built up over the years with real faith.

I'm going to strongly disagree that a scientific view could possibly point to anything BUT the existence of a Creator, though. Everything I see in the world, plus the mere fact that I CAN see it, is simply too wildly improbable to explain any other way. The wonder of creation is a means to increase the awe at God's majesty and power...it's Satan who wants to deceive people into thinking it came about any other way; a dangerous road indeed.