Where do you stand?

Just curious on the percentages.

Let's see ... I was baptized Catholic, I'm agnostic by philosophy, I'm a minister in the Universal Life Church, a card-carrying "Bob"-fearing SubGenius, and occasionally practice the Discordian faith.

Yeah, "other."

Good ol Catholic boy here!

I guess I'm Other. Baptized Catholic. Raised sporatically practicing Catholic faith. Strong rearing in Santeria/Brujeria (Saints and coconuts and cigars and all that stuff).

My original pair of Dog tags say Roman Catholic (I had to pick something). My new pair of Dog Tags that I had mad in the City say Universal. I personally don't agree with organized religion for the most part. I do believe in a greater being than me of course so I do believe in something. What I practice, is being an all around considerate and helpful person. I could go on and on, but I won't not here, not now. Thanks for listening.

Shem,
I had no idea that there was a Universal Life Church. I would like to find out more about this if you don't mind. I'll be emailing you in the near future.

.......I'm definitley other......I was raised a catholic.......but, I went off that path a logn time ago......

hmmmmmm........maybe I'll become a Buddhist......

You can find out about the Universal Life Church at this site.

Be warned that it's not for people who like their religion organized, or their theology exhaustively detailed. When I was in college, the ULC would ordain anyone who sent them $2.95; now it's free. (And yes, being ordained as a ULC minister does mean you can perform marriages, baptisms, and such -- but don't think you can declare your house a church and duck taxes that way; it's been tried.)

I'm definitely other. Don't know that there ever WAS a spelling for the Huron faith. Learned it from ma, who learned it from her grandfather. Definitely "other".

Beyond the family faith, I've a favoritism for Taoism.

I'm just stunned that this poll is here, now. I say this 'cause, on an email list, some folks of a specific faith were doin' the "our religion is the one" rants, and then barkin' when someone posted some humor with a theistically neutral God reference. The whole mess ended up in a row, and one person left in a huff. Mind ya, some folks don't do well when stopped from preachin'.

Since that mess, I've found, through the West Coast Gatherings list, that no one in my events cared what the faith of the host was. Was also reminded that the faithful of just about every faith around tend towards forgiving for those outside their faith. I'm outside about every faith, so this was refreshin' t'hear.

I *did* get a free membership to the Church of Universal Life, mind ya, but it was a freebie on their website in '96 and I couldn't pass up the possibility of bein' able t'marry folks. Wanna clear a room? Threaten to start marryin' folks. Oddly, everyone wants away from ya. Ain't used it yet, either.

That "other" and "agnostic" are the highest numbers is fascinatin'. Wonder if it'll stay like that?

$0.02,

dvnc

dizzy

" hey bop shabam....akoolamop" I am a devout musician, I work hard and try to bring fun and pleasure in to peoples lifes with my work, no preaching, no ideologies, no mantra, " A love supreme".

Lapsed Catholic, in my case, though it's definitely part of my cultural identity.

Strelnikov

dvnc,

It wasn't my intent to start another discussion or debate on beliefs. And wasn't looking for an explanation from anyone as to why they believe what they do. I was strictly curious as to the numbers. The WTC incident has triggered alot of religious talk and debate lately and has probably made alot of people look in the mirror to re-think or confirm what they believe. I was curious to where the percentages are now in the world, so I did some research on the internet looking for polls, surveys and research.

I don't claim these numbers to be 100% accurate, but this is whatI found:

All 1400 variations of Christianity total 33%
Agnostic/Athiest 30%
Islamic 21%
All other religions had small followings by comparison.

Being Agnostic/Athiest myself I found a couple of things interesting.
Of the 30% only 60% of the Athiests would admit in public what there belief was.
About 80% of Christians respect other religions.
But only a small percentage respect Agnostic/Athiests point of view.

Tickler2001, I didn't think you DID intend such. Not certain from where you derived such. That such emerged here, as it has nearly everywhere else online, still doesn't surprise me.

What's fascinating, based on your private polling is that your public polling shows a different statistical ratio for each. What's also interesting to me is that "Islamic" has one category, where "Catholic" and "Protestant" are separate sections of the unlisted Christianity portion of religion. Christianity does include a great deal more than just Catholic and Protestant, as I understand it. Were it to be revised, such a questionairre could easily house these:
Jewish (all variations)
Christian (all variations)
Moslem (all variations)
Buddhist
Taoist
Confusianist
Hindu
OTHER (where other includes all of us not part of the above in any way)

Your numbers would likely be clearer, as "other", as you use it now, gets us non-Christian kids in it, AND those whose Christian faith is neither Protestant or Catholic (and some countries don't feel either fits their iteration of Christianity).

Oddly, if you check the faiths outside of our continent, such as in Asia, the numbers change. If you divide your search by region, the numbers change. In such a poll, specificity will clarify your answer.

What's most impressive to me, at present, is that, with a couple thousand members, there's so small a response. It's actually a good sign, in that, apparently, most here don't feel the need to "go there".

After all, it's all about the love. How you get there is just a matter of choice.

dvnc

I was a good ole catholic boy but now I might be a universal uniterian..So far so good..

In hindsight the categories should have been a little different. It is interesting the over whelming amount of Agnostic/Athiests in the group though.

methodist

I grew up as a methodist When I was 14 a good friend of mine showed up for the wed.night youth group in a t-shirt saying Everybody needs to believe in something I believe I'll have another beer True story The youth group director just gave a strange look but didn't say a word about it

So many non-believers...

Of the people who have voted, almost half dob't believe in God? That seems quite shocking to me.

I'd love to hear form some of these 'aetheists' as to what their belief is for when we die. Relax, I'm not gonna be like Scott and preach to everyone, but I would like to engage in a friendly discussion on what everyone thinks happens when our number is up.

For example: If you believe there's no God, does that mean no Heaven? No hell? When we die do we just 'wink out' and cease to exist, and that's it?

Thanks and hope to hear from some poeple on this.

strokeofgenius, you might be interested to go to the thread 'Tickling, guilt, and religion' on page 4 of the Tickling Discussions (or simply use http://www.ticklingforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2918), where this subject was discussed at lenght. You might have to take a day off for reading the whole thread though, it is VERY long!

Religions? Pffft!

I have been born and raised as a Jew in Israel. I am as well an actor so I can turn that on whenever I need to.
Yes. I am an athiest by choice because I haven't been given many.






-Nny-
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"You don't like Beethoven. You don't know what you're missing. Overtures like that get my... juices flowing. So powerfull.. But after his openings, to be honest, he does tend to get a little fucking boring. ...That's why I stopped!"

Gary Oldman "The Professonal"

Shocking?

strokeofgenius,

It goes something like this:

To use your words, I find it quite SHOCKING that in this day and age so many intelligent people believe in fairy tales.
The term Agnostic means that I don't stress myself out trying to explain the unknown. Meaning how existence came to be can't be proven with the technology we have at this point in our evolution, so why BS about it?

Know one can provide one credible piece of proof that a magical "higher being" exists. Some think they can, but when it comes down to it religion is based on blind faith and the bible is nothing more then a book of fairy tales like greek mythology.

On the same token, science at this point in time can't prove the "big bang theory" or anything similar to this beyond a reasonable doubt either. This is why its called a theory.

So the Agnostic side of me says why argue about it, because neither one of us can prove anything? Athiests by nature are less tolerant towards religious people. My Athiest side makes me roll my eyes when I hear people talk about their religion and almost burst out laughing when I have have to sit through a church service at a wedding or something.

So generally speaking Agnostics don't believe in a "God" because there is know credible proof of such a being, but at the same time they don't offer any explanation to the unknown because it can't be proven. They just accept this fact and live there lifes.

My personal belief is that when we die, we are dead and that is it. There is no heaven, no hell, no spriritual afterlife. Life is organic and there is no "magic" to it. Athiests are not evil satanistic people, I don't believe in the devil either. I also don't believe in ghosts. I believe that there is most likely other life in the universe some where(it would pretty arrogant of us to think that with billions of planets over unimaginable distances, that this is the only one with life), but I am skeptical at this point that any claimed UFO sightings were actaully life from another planet.
I of course can not prove any of these beliefs, but I think there close enough to the real thing to hold my curiosity over until something can be proven(which most likely won't be in my lifetime).

Although I grow less and less tolerant towards religious fanatics, I do understand how over whelming it can be to think about why there is life, where did it come from, what happens when we die? For some it becomes neccesary to believe in something that explains this to keep there sanity. I choose not to fear the unknown and just make the best of my life while I'm here, some people can't handle their fear of the unknown so they need something to help them. Others are just brainwashed from the day they are born and don't really have a chance to develop their own beliefs.

The last thing I want ot say is that being a Agnostic/Athiest doesn't make me a "immorral" or bad person. I lead a better life and commit less "sins" than most religous people. I am liked, trusted, and respected by all my friends and family. I live a good life because I want to, not because I fear the wrath of a "God". I answer to my own conscience and I obey the laws of society.