Sciforums religion survey 2014

What do you believe? (Select all that apply.)

  • I don't believe in God now, and I never did.

    Votes: 12 26.1%

  • I don't believe in God now, but I used to.

    Votes: 15 32.6%

  • I believe in God now, but in the past I did not.

    Votes: 4 8.7%

  • I believe in God now, and always have.

    Votes: 5 10.9%

  • I have no opinion on God/do not wish to select one of the above options.

    Votes: 6 13.0%

  • I don't believe in God, but I believe there is a higher power, life force or similar.

    Votes: 4 8.7%

  • I don't regard myself as religious, but I am a spiritual person.

    Votes: 7 15.2%

  • I believe that human beings have a soul or life force which remains after the death of the body.

    Votes: 5 10.9%

  • I believe in reincarnation.

    Votes: 4 8.7%

  • I describe myself as a follower of a recognised religion.

    Votes: 3 6.5%
  • Total voters
    46
  • Poll closed .
cosmictotem said:
I haven't believed in God since I was 22 but I should clarify I do firmly "believe" in a non-religious, non-supernatural, totally naturalistic reincarnation.
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Good luck with that :) If it is naturalistic there should be evidence shouldn't there? If you believe in it there should be evidence as well?
 
Seattle said:
Good luck with that :) If it is naturalistic there should be evidence shouldn't there? If you believe in it there should be evidence as well?
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I admit it is an indulgence on my part but the fact that we all know it happened at least once - each with our own lives - is a strong basis for my indulgence in such a belief.
 
By 8 years old i sensed that "God" was just anuther Santa Clause type story... but i still chose to go to Sunday school cause it was fun an you got free cookies an cool aid.!!!
Then when i turned 12... insted of Sunday school... the church sent me to adult bible study class which was about 30 minutes of my life i will never get back.!!!
Me an some older people (males only) just set in a kinda-dark room wit purple drapes an was suposed to silently read the bible... but i wasnt readin... i was thankin "this is hell"... an after about 30 minutes we took a brake... but i went home an never came back.!!!

After that i went to diferent churches ever now an then but it had to do wit meetin girls or goin to chruch wit a girlfrind... except for one time when a buddy begged me to go wit him to his chruch... said it woud be so much fun... the fugger lied... it was 90 minutes of hell an i never went back.!!!

So i voated used to believe but dont now.!!!
 
I believe in my own version, without the boundaries of sticking to any religion.

I totally believe in god, and think the ptb tell stories to depict what they know, but is allegorical. I am sure the ptb believe in something too, but obviously have thousands of years of hidden knowledge to get taught probably, while giving us stories.
 
Cris said:
Christianity is entirely mythical, and it is still questionable whether an actual Jesus ever existed. Without any evidence...
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It doesn't matter what he was called, the fact of the matter is "someone" existed by which 4 separate gospels were written about. Call him Harry Crumb if you want.

Your logic is like saying Alexandra the Great *may* not of existed, but wait, you have nothing against him because you are quite clearly a bitter person, and I feel sorry for your lack of Faith, I mean that.
 
zgmc said:
Saying that you feel sorry about ones lack of faith implies that you think you know better than him.
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Faith is a precious thing to have, it opens doors without blinding yourself by religion, faith in things only get better makes you an eternal optimist amongst many things combined, because naturally there are atheistic eternal optimists.
 
Photizo said:
http://www.breitbart.com/national-s...ple-much-happier-than-others-new-study-shows/
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That is to be expected. The same is true of any form of escapism where you convince yourself a fantasy is true so you can avoid the ugly realities of life. It is somewhat depressing to realize that these few decades we each live, if we are lucky enough, is so short, and that after that we simply cease to exist. So certainly if I were to make myself believe some supernatural protector is looking after me and that my real life is in fact eternal, then I would likely feel happier.

And being religious with several billion people like you, will encourage that feeling of togetherness and well-being that comes from large supportive communities. But we know that the number of people who believe something has no correlation with truth - truth is not determined by a majority vote.

So while you might feel happier than me it still doesn't change the fact that your belief is based on fantasy and has no factual support - you have simply decided to delude yourself so you can feel happier. I understand some people use alcohol instead.
 
davewhite04 said:
It doesn't matter what he was called, the fact of the matter is "someone" existed by which 4 separate gospels were written about. Call him Harry Crumb if you want.

Your logic is like saying Alexandra the Great *may* not of existed, but wait, you have nothing against him because you are quite clearly a bitter person, and I feel sorry for your lack of Faith, I mean that.
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With Alex there are large quantities of verifiable independent textual evidence, with Jesus there are zero independent sources - the closest is the historian Josephus who lived at the time and appears to make an indirect quote to a special person - those few sentences are considered by most biblical scholars to be a forgery. In the end you only have the writings of myth-makers, the story-tellers of those times for the masses of illiterate, much like today we have the movie industry to tell us adventure stories. And the gospels aren't particularly separate - Mark came first, the simplest, and Mathew copies Mark about a decade later and enhances it, much like some movies now are re-makes of older 10 year old versions.

And why do you think I am bitter? My perspective is simply the result of some 6 decades considering such issues - I feel quite objective about the matter.

And why feel sorry for my lack of faith? Faith of this type is simply a choice to believe something without any evidence. It is entirely a perspective without reasoned judgement. There is nothing special about religious faith, certainly nothing to be prideful.
 
davewhite04 said:
Faith is a precious thing to have, it opens doors without blinding yourself by religion, faith in things only get better makes you an eternal optimist amongst many things combined, because naturally there are atheistic eternal optimists.
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Religious faith is being convinced of an assertion without any evidence. There is no more to it than that. It is not precious, it is irrational.

Optimism, and hope, are quite different than faith. Faith is a conviction that something is true without factual support. Optimism and hope are expressions of a desire that something might be true without actually committing oneself to believe that it is true. There is nothing wrong with being optimistic or hopeful providing one is always aware that whatever is hoped-for might turn out to be false. This is a healthy perspective. Blind faith that you advocate is entirely without any worthwhile merit.
 
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