What religion are you?

To what faith do you consider yourself a member?

  • Christianity

  • Islam

  • Buddhism

  • Gnostic/Agnostic

  • Pagan

  • Santeria

  • Hinduism

  • Judaism

  • Other

  • Atheist/none

  • Results of the 'test' in http://selectsmart.com/RELIGION/ (specify)

Results are only viewable after voting.
androo - for some people their religion is a very private matter. they really don't want everyone to know and possibly judge them by it. the poll offers people the opportunity to be 'counted' or represented without having to give up that privacy.
 
Originally posted by Darkshadow
Toast, you don't have any religious beliefs at all? Just wondering, it wasn't quite clear to me from your posts.
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Sorry if I've been unclear. No I don't have any religious beliefs at all. I cannot stand the concept of religion itself :)
 
toast - just curious - are these things you cannot stand?

the idea of an afterlife
the idea of something greater than oneself
the idea that conscious energies exist without form
the idea that truths may be found within one's self
the idea that all things are connected
the idea that you were created for some purpose and that your consiousness is connected to that purpose
the idea that there may be planes of existence beyond ours?
 
Originally posted by edX
toast - just curious - are these things you cannot stand?
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Standable.

1.the idea of an afterlife
2.the idea that there may be planes of existence beyond ours?
3.the idea that conscious energies exist without form
4.the idea that all things are connected

Idea #2 sounds like Aldous Huxley, Doors of Perception.
Idea #4 sounds like Darren Aronofsky, Pi.

---

Unbearable.

1. the idea of something greater than oneself
2. the idea that truths may be found within one's self
3. the idea that you were created for some purpose and that your consiousness is connected to that purpose

Ideas #1 and #3 were used by totalitarian regimes.
Idea #2 is extremely dangerous, in terms of psycho-sociology.

There obviously is a debate to have around those arguments. But I have to go, I'll be talking to my class about new socio-political cleavages in an hour or so :).
 
That's interesting. You can bear the thought of a conscious energy without form - what one may term a god - but not the idea that said form could be greater than oneself.

A little sidenote on myself: if anyone sees me use 'spirit' in a post, I'm most likely meaning 'energy' - I personally don't use the term energy but spirit, and almost used it above, which I'm sure would've confused things. That's why I changed it. But if I forget to proofread my post before I post it, that's most likely what I mean. ;)
 
Your Results:

1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2. Theravada Buddhism (97%)
3. Secular Humanism (88%)
4. Liberal Quakers (83%)
5. Taoism (82%)
6. Mahayana Buddhism (74%)
7. Neo-Pagan (69%)
8. Non-theist (69%)
9. Mainline - Liberal Christian Protestants (68%)
10. Jainism (59%)
11. New Age (58%)
12. Scientology (54%)
13. Hinduism (53%)
14. New Thought (53%)
15. Reform Judaism (52%)
16. Orthodox Quaker (51%)
17. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (45%)
18. Sikhism (43%)
19. Bahá'í Faith (40%)
20. Seventh Day Adventist (24%)
21. Mainline - Conservative Christian Protestant (23%)
22. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (15%)
23. Islam (15%)
24. Orthodox Judaism (15%)
25. Eastern Orthodox (6%)
26. Roman Catholic (6%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (0%)
 
I don't have any religion... I'm my own god!
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Now that is a religion to my liking (with the appropriate indexicals switched of course...)! :D

1) the idea of an afterlife
From within this life I thin kit is impossible to form an idea whatsoever of any kind of afterlife or even whether there is such a thing or not. Any kind of speculation, will necessarily remain just that: speculation. Interesting but not informative. I see no way in which a rational being can base actions in this life upon speculations over a hypothetical afterlife.

2) the idea of something greater than oneself
I cannot logically and psycologically conceive of any idea greater than myself, since necessarily I am the one thinking it and thus, as originator and bearer, greater than the idea itself. Notice that this claim says nothing about the objective existence of an external thing without myself. No objective knowledge about such things is possible.

3) the idea that conscious energies exist without form
Shaky ground here due to the formulation of the question. "Without form" baffles me. No material constraints? Well, energy is a state of matter (or at leats interchangeable) so energy always has a form (=structure, organization). Consciousness is an emergent property of certain complex systems, and thus dependent upon their structure and organization.

4) the idea that truths may be found within one's self
"one's self": I do not have a self, I am a self. I'll reformulate accordingly: truth within oneself. Well, yeah, sure. What has this to do with religion though? "Nole foras ire, rede in te ipsum" St. Augustine. Don't go looking for the truth in fora, but return into yourself.
(P.S. Did you mean this in a Freudian way?)

5) the idea that all things are connected
"What is up there is like what is down here", quite an old bit of knowledge, eh? The emerald tables ... or "Omne Omne est" like the later alchemists put it. Well, yes, of course everything is connected, in a very ordinary way. Causal influences ripple through the fabric of reality. nothing strange or mystic though, simple billard balls on a table. Gravity and light connect distant stars to our bodies, microcosmos and macrocosmos are one. You can give a very romantic, Sturm und Drang formulation to it or simply speak scientifically about universal constants and global causal effects. The language changes the facts do not. Giving it a religious tinge only clouds the understanding.

6) the idea that you were created for some purpose and that your consiousness is connected to that purpose
Purpose presupposes a purporter. By introducing purpose at this level, you necessarily need someone/thing that gives the purpose. But like in biology we all learned that purpose, teleology, is just a usefull way of thinking about bodily finctions, even so purpose is just a complex metaphor, for evenly complex physical, physiological, psycological and sociological interactions and relations. We use a simplified, sketchy vocabulary of purposes, will, intentions etc because we do not understand or have no time to explain what the inner machinery is really doing.
BTW. I wasn't created, I grew.

7) the idea that there may be planes of existence beyond ours?
"Planes of existence" is in dire need of an accurate definition. Like Wittgenstein thought, this is probably a problem due to obscurity in language which will dissolve, instead of getting solved, when we define the words we use: What is a "plane"? Specifically: what is a "plane of existence"? What would qualify as "beyond"?

Like always philosophy leaves us with more questions than answers... ;)
 
1._ Jainism (100%)
2._ Mahayana Buddhism (100%)
3._ New Age (100%)
4._ New Thought (100%)
5._ Non-theist (100%)
6._ Secular Humanism (100%)
7._ Theravada Buddhism (100%)

That sh*t sucks... Really... Lies, all lies!
 
But I!

Well those false gods and godesses I worship not.

There is only one true God! And He is God.

While others search for the truth, the Jew were revealed the truth. Christ came and made it whole.


I'm practising Roman Catholic!:D Alas there are only a few who truly practise their religion. I pity them! Specially those Jews & Christians. :(
 
Atheism (could you please change that in the poll? it's got 'theos' in it, which stands for 'god') seems to be pretty 'popular'. I guess it would get more points if only those Christians would choose 'Christian' that are also practising it.

Btw., I'm an atheist who practises Paganism. I'm also a Christian Catholic since I was born, so I've still got a lot to forget about when trying to think straight about it all. ;-)

If you'd like to know a bit more about quite a famous atheist that has also written a lot about Macintosh in his latest book (which was released after his death, so if he was right with atheism, he doesn't even know how right he was...), read his book 'The Salmon of Doubt'. Douglas Adams, of course.
 
100% Mainline Conservative Christian

And it's good to read the boards again. Hope I get more time to come back and join the fun. Thanks for starting this thread Ed.
 
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