Which religion you belong to?

[Provost Harrison]

Atheist...

[The Mad Monk]

Originally posted by Kramerman
Ive learned to put my faith in only to places, for my own good. 1) myself. If i let my own dumb ass down, I cant blame anybody else but myself. And 2) science/mathematics. It has yet to either let me down or be uninteresting

Hmmm...someone remind me of Einstein's POV on God...

[Provost Harrison]

God does not play dice?

He's more of a poker man

[The Mad Monk]

Reformed Church in America, BTW.

[Vlad Antlerkov]

Deist here.

[Eli]

Zionism is not a religion sherlock.

[Mr. President]

He forgot communism.

[Sonic]

Communists are atheists, mr. president

[Vlad Antlerkov]

Pres, Sonic-- Communism is an economic/political system. Atheism is the lack of a religion.

And not all communists were atheists. Our own Monkspider is both Communist and Christian-- in fact, he's been building arguments that the Bible is pro-Communism.

My advice: Don't take American political (mis)conceptions to be the infallible truth.

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by Mr. President
He forgot communism.

Demonstrating your 'stereotypically American' ignorance on the issue eh? Dubya would be proud

[Sonic]

Obviously not all communists are atheists, but most are. So, communist ussual "religion" is atheism and thus I don't need to add communist option (communism is not a religion in fact).

[Ethelred]

Originally posted by Rogan Josh
Why is Baptist included separately from Christian Protestant, but none of the other Protentant subdivisions are?

Its by far the largest Protestant religion in the US.

And atheism is most certainly a religion since it makes a statement about the universe which cannot be proven.

While Atheism is a religious belief it is not a religion since a religion entails a belief in at least some kind of higher power or creator. The active disbelief of many Atheists does not constitute that.

So you can say its a religious belief which I sometimes do just to annoy the hardcore Atheists you cannot call it religion.

This pole really did need an agnostic option. I am not an Aetheist. I have NO religious beliefs not even a disbelief in a god. I just doubt the existence of one and see no need for one to explain the Universe.

[Ethelred]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk


Hmmm...someone remind me of Einstein's POV on God...

While Einstein often spoke of god in terms that sounded like he believed in a god it seems mostly matter of putting a label of convenience on his thinking. Think of it as objectifying the laws of nature.

Einstein on this subject:

From

http://www.religioustolerance.org/deism.htm

"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble minds. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God. "

"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own - a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. It is enough for me to contemplate the mystery of conscious life perpetuating itself through all eternity, to reflect upon the marvelous structure of the universe which we can dimly perceive and to try humbly to comprehend even an infinitesimal part of the intelligence manifested in Nature."

From

http://www.positiveatheism.org/writ/ebtomcat.htm

It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.

From

http://freethought.freeservers.com/reason/quotes.html

"I have never imputed to Nature a purpose or a goal, or anything that could be understood as anthropomorphic. What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility. This is a genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism."

I would guess that he was halfway between an Agnostic and a Deist.

[loinburger]

Originally posted by Ethelred
This pole really did need an agnostic option. I am not an Aetheist. I have NO religious beliefs not even a disbelief in a god. I just doubt the existence of one and see no need for one to explain the Universe.

Atheism covers "doesn't believe in god(s)" as well as "actively disbelieves in god(s)." Often the former is called weak atheism while the latter is called strong atheism. (This is mostly done so that weak atheists don't get lumped together with strong atheists, since most hardcore idiot atheists belong to the latter group.)

It's possible to be an agnostic and still believe in god(s), since an agnostic believes that god's existence hasn't been proven or that it can never be proven--it therefore isn't contradictory for an agnostic to believe in god yet still believe that god's existence can never be proven, since belief and proof are two very different things.

[Bosh]

And atheism is most certainly a religion since it makes a statement about the universe which cannot be proven.

Usually not, most atheists don't make any definitive statements about god, just don't see any reason to believe in a god so they don't, which is different from agnostics who are more unsure about things, so at least according to my definitions, Ethelred is a weak atheist rather than an agnostic since an agnostic would give god a bit more of a benefit of the doubt, of course a lot of people would disagree with me on that.

Personally I like infidel, since it sounds stronger than agnostic and you're less likely to get people misintertreting your position and asking questions like "but how can you PROVE that god doesn't exist" with that label...