I've been doing an essay on religion and the way it effects the world (yes, hard), and thats basically what inspired this thread. So, what religion do you follow, why, or what opinion do you have on it?

While I'm an atheist, I'm more or less neutral to how other people think about religion. Although I do speak up when religion, of any kind, gets forced onto to other people.

(Or get annoyed when precocious people say they were "inspired by God" to do things :P)

Hey look its the Link! Good to see you dude! :)

Im christian. My opinion? Its great, its the truth!

(Please dont start a debate from this people...we have had enough of them)

If religion doesn't infringe on my life and my values then I'm neutral towards it. Shit that goes on in America annoys me, using the bible to justify discrimination.

Utterly object to it in all forms. So that makes me an Athiest I suppose.

A member of team Nietzsche,

Pazuzu.

I'm an athiest. I utterly detest religions that try to force their beliefs on other people - ie trying to ban gay marriges etc.

I also hate fundamentalism - especially fundamentalist christianity. I find it very hard to be tolerant of people who believe that the bible is the word of god.

I quite like budhism (although it's debatable if this is a religion or not) and I don't mind islam (so long as it's not fundamentalist).

Why, whats the problem with that?

ive been brought up as catholic although dont practice it personally at all, so im not really religious at all but i find certain views in other religions very appealing ( mainly buddhism).

I hate religion in all it's form, an ugly thing it is. However, I do have my own personal beliefs and ideas about all things that centre religion such as G(g)od(s), life, death ect, ect. I don't need someone to tell me what to believe.

I don't mind people being religious, but one thing I cannot tolerate is how in a country with no established religion, governments try to pass law based on religion (such as banning gay marriage). I'm an Agnostic though, and indifferent to most religions.

This really is hyper version 2.0!
I believe in the Christian God, but I don't follow the Christian bible religiously (pun intended) neither do I attend church on a regular basis. My family has been burned by churches in the past, so I'm hesitant to attach myself to organised/institutional religion. Things might change, as I grow up a bit, but right now I couldn't be bothered dealing with all the extra shit/pressure.

i don't really give a damn about religions, i just don't want to have to think about it and get on with my life ^_^.

Religion can be a good guide to one's life. It's often 'saved' people from going down paths that may not have been so advantageous to them. Religion has its place in society, and as much as it shouldn't come into policies a lot of our basic laws come from our history of being a religious group of people. Religion can be a good thing, however it can also be a bad thing. When people start using it to judge others and allow it to create deep-seated morals incapable of budging then there's a problem.

I'm not a religious person myself, I wouldn't be surprised if when I die I discover that there's some form of afterlife, however I also wouldn't be surprised if death was it - Once you're gone you're gone.

Don't get the wrong idea about churches from that. That really sucks about your family though, churches definitely shouldnt be like that.

However most churches I've been to/heard about aren't anything to worry or be pressured about. They've been an excellent base of support and a great group of friends, who you can talk to about different stuff than most of your other friends.

If you find a friend who goes to a good church, you should go along with them, its good!

Are you talking literally or figuratively?


I'm an atheist. That's because I see no evidence for there being a God and if you can excuse my un PCness for a second. I think that religion is for people that don't have the mental capacity to accept how things really are or to question their beliefs (which is an essential part of believing something) (or they're just ignorant).

Religion is like Crab Juice, it's smells, it tastes like Crab (which is yucky) and looks like Crab (one thats been processed through the body already).

I'm not too keen on religion. I respect it, and those who follow it, but I just don't buy it. I believe more in the Budduhst beliefs. I mean, I was Christened Church of England, but I don't really believe their teachings. I believe there was a great (wo)man who did great things for people and the world, and that he set an example we should all follow, although I can't believe there is a higher power creating us and shaping our lives.

Another reason I'm not ken on religion is the fact it has been the cause of almost every war in history.

People cause war, not Religion..

That I disagree with. For starters, a lot of wars have had nothing to do with religion. Peloponnesian Wars, Persian wars in ancient Greek times had nothing to do with religion. Flash forward to Rome and they made war based on a need for wealth, power and land. Then you move forward to chrstian times. Charlemagne made war to increase the size of his empire. He claimed to be holy but his wars had nothing to do with Religion. The crusades were based on religion it is true, but also based on fear of muslim people gaining influence. Then my history gets a little hazy. Napolean made war with little to no religious influence, he too was just power hungry. The French and English fought for power. America went to war with england to gain freedom and then fought each other based on racism. The Russian-Japanese war was based on the fact that Russia was suffering from poor economy etc, so the leaders of Russia thought an easy drubbing of Japan would take the citizens minds off've it. Of course, they then proceeded to lose, which kinda didn't help them at all :P World War 1 was based on Germany under the Keiser....Wilhelm was it?... wanting more power. WWII was based on Hitler wanting more power, manipulating racism and poverty to his own advantage. The Vietnam war was based on Western fear of the spread of communism. The Cold war, if you call it war, had no religious background. The gulf war arguably contains religious factors but there are other political and economic factors you can't ignore also. I know little about Korea but I can't really remember any religious connotations. The so called War on Terror is based on religious differences, but that's not REAAALLLY a war.

*pants* Ok, now the more historically minded people can come and discredit some of my statements. But saying religion causes war thus you don't like religion is an extremely flawed statement in my opinion. People start wars and presumably you still like people. I don't see why anyone would look down on someone for believing in a higher power either, that's just ridiculous. For all you know, they are right and you are wrong. Just because you can't see the logic in it, it doesn't give yout he right to knock it. Of course, you have the right to free speech, so you can, but I still think it's wrong.

Religion has done a lot of good things for the world.

Almighty Bean, I said almost every, not every. :P At the end of the day Religious differences play a great part in most wars. WWII came down to racial/religious differences, as did the wars in Iraq and Afganistahn, and almost every middle eastern war.
The ancient wars such as Romen and Greek wars were also greatly based around religion as it was done in the name of their God's, among other reasons.
I know a lot of wars are caused other wise, but when you take into consideration how many wars plauge the Middle East year to year almost all are based on religion.

What I meant was, if people could just accept that others have their own views and opinions and leave them be, those wars would never have started. It's human's fault, not religion.

No....no they weren't. You're wrong.

Ancient Greeks fought based on power. The Peloponnesian League shared gods with the Athenian Empire and yet they fought based on power. Persia invaded Greece for burning down one of their towns. Rome invaded Gaul because Julius Caesar was greedy and they invaded all those other places because there was money to be had. That they destroyed those cultures religions and replaced it with it's on was merely a side issue. World War 2 came down to racist/religious issues you say, but that is incorrect. The war started because Hitler invaded Poland. This was not done for religious reasons. The Allies entered the war to defend their allies. At the time the war started, the persecution of the Jew's wasn't a driving factor. It was only later that the horror that was the Holocaust came out. And even the Holocause wasn't based on religion. Hitler needed a scapegoat to control the German people. The Jews were that scapegoat. And even IF he hated them, that's racism, not religious differences.

Yes the wars in the middle east are often caused by religion, but a huge amount of wars throughout history have little to no Religious cause. Saying "almost every war was caused by religion" is factually incorrect. So NYER!

And I say again, people start wars and you still like people. When people go to war over religion, that's merely a way of justifying themselves. As WWII proved, they don't have to have much reason at all. They just have to know that someone else does something diferently, or has something better than them and they will go to war.

I have to mainly agree with Beanchild. Most wars are not caused by religion. However if religion didn't exist the leaders would have to find a different excuse and quite possibly one that is less likely to con the general public and the soldiers into dieing so that the person in power can get more (power).

I don't even think that the wars in the Middle East are caused by religion. I would say that most - maybe all - wars are influenced by religion. For example the war in israel/palestine would probably not be still occuring where it not for the divide between jewish and muslim. But despite what the media tells you - that war has never been about religion - it is religion that divides the people - just like nationality, culture, race or political view can divide people. Who knows - perhaps if there were no religion - they would be divided for another reason - we can only speculate.

I would say that the main reason for the war in Israel was originally land - the Jews wanted a homeland - the Palestinians did not want to give one up. I would say that now it is about revenge - both sides have had too many people killed around them who they love to forgive the other side. I also think it's about power - which is what the leaders seem most keen for.

However there are virtually no occurances of people with the same religion fighting a war against each other.

That was a very simplified view of what started world war 2. I would say it was mainly started by world war 1.

Anyway - back on topic.
The main reason I find it very hard to be tolerant of fundamentalists - is because they are so intolerant. I hate feeling intolerant and I fight against it - but I can never control my feelings with my head (if you know what I mean).

Obviously I'm making a bit of a generalisation here - I'm sure there are exceptions - I've just never met one.

Twice I have typed a huge post explainging my views on religion, twice I have been booted as I was typing the last sentence. So this time it's gonna be quicker. :P

Religion is an impulse to explain, a natural impulse that everyone has in a quest to saitisfy the need to know where they came from and what the purpose of their existence is. It is an impulse, that sadly and ironically, has been seized by organised religions and subsequently manipulated and exploited so as to serve as a tool of the powerful. Organised religion teaches people to accept injustice, poverty and division amongst people based on the taught belief that such things are tests of character or the 'will of God'.

We must ask ourselves who it was that created this religous dogma. Of course it was the wealthy, the powerful, the cultural 'elite'. Thus the reasoning behind the religous insistence to accept injustice becomes clear. It is a way for the powerful to sit back and enjoy their comfy lives while absolving themselves of the responsibility for looking after those who are doing it tough due to the 'will' of their Lord. They can live their lives as 'good' religous people while doing nothing, booking themselves a room and a bed next door to the big man (Aha! A precursor to yet another inherent injustice within organised religion) upstairs. Religion, as it stands in it's current organised form, is essentially a tool of power.

My man Fred puts it rather well. "The judgment 'good' did not originate with those to whom 'goodness' was shown! Rather it was 'the good' themselves, the noble, powerful, high-stationed and high-minded, who felt and established themselves and their actions as good, that is, of the first rank, in contradistinction to all the low, low-minded, common and plebian".

Wow - that's a top post - nice work Jawbreaker!!

I'd like to add, that I have no doubt religion can be a good thing - do good things for people, but that doesn't make it right.

I have friends and family who are Quakers (religious society of friends) and I agree with a lot of what they teach - but I could never become a quaker because I don't believe in God of any kind. It doesn't matter how great I think the religion is - I have a complete lack of belief. And so of course - I think what they believe about the world is wrong. I admire their morals and their politics - and I believe religion is good when it gives people reasons for these beliefs - but that doesn't make the religion right in the technical sense of the word.

I'm sure you could argue very well that it's all true from a certain point of view - and good for you if you argue that - but it won't convince me to believe in something which isn't there!

I wouldn't quite classify myself as an atheist. I don't believe in the non-existence of God; how would you prove or even come up with substantial evidence for that? That said, I do not personally think there is a God, nor do I believe in the divinity of Christ, or that Buddha achieved enlightenment, or that Mohammed was a prophet. Why? Because I think that, all viewpoints considered, there is no one faith that seems to be more sensible or feasible than any other. I feel no need to believe in a deity, no need to turn to a religion to guide my actions in life, I do not feel a spiritual void in my life.

As for religious people... I respect their beliefs fully, but they are not my beliefs. And most religions teach that they are the only true religion and that holders of other beliefs are inferior (feel free to debate that, but it's funadmentally true).

And as for religion and war... most religions are strictly anti-war, which is a good thing. But people are just foolish and evil and hypocritical sometimes.

In the end, I don't think mankind has any further use for religion. In the old days it was good for explaining the unexplainable, but religion has outlived its usefulness. So can I join the Nietzsche club too?

I'm pretty sure he's talking figuratively. Well, I hope so anyway.

Ummm texta, you might think it, but I think you shouldn't say things like that. You don't always have to be politically correct, but that can get kind of offensive.

I might think that a lot of atheists are too selfish, ignorant, afraid and ultimately stupid to accept the truth, but if I said that everyone would come and jump on my back. (For the record I didn't say that, its just an example...nobody come and abuse me!!! I don't necessarily think that either...)

I'm an Atheist, and was raised one, as for me to believe in something I need some evidence to prove that it exists, and even if a Chrisitian god was proven to exist, there's no way I'd convert to Christianity. I dislike religion in general because it stops people from being open minded and tells them what to think. Religion tells you to think one way and that if you don't, you're wrong and will be punished. It discourages individuality and encourages conformity with its agreed upon codes.
It seems to me that people who aren't raised to be religious only turn to religion when their life is in the proverbial shitter, when they have no one else to turn to. Religion provides it's followers with a false sense of security, if it didn't have that then it would have died out by now.
I also dislike religion for the influence it sometimes has on political decisions that will affect non religious citizens when they shouldn't have the beliefs of others thrust upon them. Bush's plant to change the constitution to disallow gay marriage is a good example of this. The separation of church and state needs to be strictly enforced.
Oh, and when I was about 10 attending a baptism of a family friend, during the middle of the baptism the priest or whatever his title was stopped and told me to remove my hate because I was 'distracting him', at which point all 100+ people in the church turned around to stare at me. Cunt. I think this was what sparked my anti Christian attitude.

Although with all that said, I don't really have anything against the vast majority of religious folk. Most are good people and as long as they don't try to persuade me to join their religion, then they're fine by me. It's just the fundamentalists that really 'chafe my ass'.

Sorry if some of that was a little un-PC, but political correctness is bollocks anyway :P

I really don't mind religious people, but oragnised religion pisses me off, sure they do some charity but think about it Vatican City CITY thats a lot of money there. The Russian Orthodox Chruch also still had all its fancy crosses while the Russian people were staving. Basically where theres power(priests have too much influance) and money there is corruption the more people the worse it is. I don't think any religion needs priests or higharcky read the book for your selves nearly all religions come with one.

I think from reading most people's opinions regarding the subject we can see that it is not the underlying foundation of religion that is the problem, that foundation being the need people have to explain their existence, but rather the organised institutionalism of it that has such a stranglehold over much of society. It is the smallest of minorities calling the shots, getting the majority to fall into line with their way of thinking and to accept their 'teachings' as unequivocably correct. People in religous organisations seemingly believe that a moral code cannot exist outside of their own. Newsflash, it can and it does! As Gnomey put it, "religion tells you to think one way and that if you don't, you're wrong and will be punished". Organised religion seeks to remove individual thought and questioning from the equation, generally by threatening a person with eternal damnation or the image of some big bearded dude in a robe flinging lightning bolts at their 'sinful' behind.

At its core, religion is a potentially great thing. That is why it so disheartening to see how it has been manipulated and exploited to the point where it barely reflects these core concepts, namely love, justice, peace, etc.

Yeah, I'd find it hard to believe in the Christian God if I didn't have some proof. Which hello does... <_<

As for the church burning us bit, the dickheads forced my dad out of a job, and so we had to live off the dole for 6 months. Arses.

Texta, I never got an answer to my question over at hyper: Why do you think that Yann Martel's 'Life of Pi' isn't about believing in a higher being?

It was showing that people believe things on the basis of what's nice, not what is more plausible.

I pretty much agreed with this post apart from this:

Of course it depends which famine in russia you are talking about but if it was after 1917 then religion was banned and all the crosses were pulled down.

I think texta's comment that people believe in religion because they find it hard to accept the truth is pretty true. I also think that Drewgcn feeling the need to say that Hello's comments were figuratively perhaps demonstrated Texta's point rather well ;) /jk.

While I'm aetheist I don't see how a two paragraph rant is going to make someone convert to aetheism.

People believe in things for different reasons, and just because they follow a certain religion doesn't mean they aren't open-minded.

As much as I dislike christians preaching to me, i equally dislike aetheists slagging off religious people because they have different views

I'm a strong Christian.

To be honest, what I dislike most is people trying to stop discussion. I have no problem with people trying to convert me to christianity or any other religion. Infact I enjoy discussions of religion. Mormans and other religious door knockers are welcome at my house anytime - I'll even invite them in, give them some milk and cookies ;) and spend a few hours debating the existance of god with them. If I'm not busy anyway.

I was brought up as a christian, and I believe in that. But people who try to convert other people into what they think it is right to be is just unacceptable. If someone doesn't wish to believe in something, let them. The point is, it's their choice, not someone else's. people have to make up their own minds about what is real or not, if they choose to believe in something.

Religion is an explanation for the unexplainable, and therefore only an answer to those who seek an answer to the unexplainable.

I dont care where the universe came from, I care about the people around me, the world around me, i'm positive there is a higher power at work but I don't need a church to validate my acknowledgement of that higher power - I feel that my conscience is enough of a guide to right and wrong, this is how God talks to me.

Real religions in the world create categories and denominations of people, which defeats the uniting purpose of religion in my opinion. Religion is most definetly not a bad thing though, it helps people through unimaginable adversity, it is a strength to draw on, perhaps my life just hasn't been under enough fire to justify seeking the refuge of organized religion, but for those who have, more power to them.

It doesn't matter what you believe in, as long as you don't lie to yourself about your beliefs and are a fundamentally good person, I would assume a happy afterlife awaits.

No offence - but on this line of thinking I would say religion is an answer for those that seek an easy answer to the unexplainable.

I think things like the concept that we have abosolutley no purpose in the world at all scare a lot of people - so they turn to religion, which gives them a purpose - although not if you think about it too hard.

I take a fairly scientific view on beliefs and I think that the best thing you can do once you have a belief (theory) is to question it. The best way to prove a theory is to try to disprove it and if you're interested in trying to discover the true nature of the universe, you can't do that if you dismiss everyone else's opinions.

Obviously it is easier for me to say why other peoples ideas on why my beliefs are wrong than to pick holes in my beliefs (If I could think of a reason why I shouldn't believe what I believe, I wouldn't believe what I believe... if that makes sense).

Having said that, I don't door knock trying to convert people to atheism. In fact the only time I talk about religion is when someone else brings it up or on forums where people are welcome not to read a particular thread.