What religion or belief system are you?

What religion or belief system are you?


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Why exactly are Pantheism and Atheism combined there? One believes in no god and the other believes in a multitude of gods. They're quite different.
Pantheism is not just predominantly polytheism. It is the worship of all gods of different creeds, cults, or peoples indifferently. Due to this context, it can be placed in the religious and irreligious category, depending what form of pantheism you are. This includes monism, determinism, gnosticism, reality, divinity, and finally, the one you describe to have the belief in many gods... polytheism.
Both of you are wrong. Pantheism is the belief that the universe is God. See Baruch Spinoza.
 
idk what I believe is called in nerd language, But basically I believe than an entity that is much more powerful and intelligent than humans and which probably played a part in creation of life exists, but I dont believe there is a need to maae it diety or somethingy equally lame :p All things considred, I dont have an interest any religion, unless this really old really cool thingy of massive power just pops out of nowhere and puts out job offers on its elite hit squad to take over the world. Hmm but I do respect and like people of all religions and their various ideals. Especially when it comes to religious culture.
 
also i believe that typing on a kindle is really fucking hard and i cant believe i still made grammar mistakes after double checking it -. -
 
I'm a Roman Catholic.

Despite having kept myself away from the faith for some years, I'm slowly, but surely, returning back to it.
Roman Catholic here.



Asking for the intercession of St. Thérèse on this thread.
Glad to have found a fellow Catholic in here! ^^
 
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737373elj

Banned deucer.
I’m a Christian with some wacky views, thinking that God used evolution to create the animals and all that, and caused the Big Bang, etc. though I wonder if I’m even mentally stable.
 
What would general believe in a higher power / afterlife be? That's generally how I'd describe my belief and I've always used Deist to describe it but I'm not 100% sure if that's the absolutely correct term for it.
 

Annika

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I'm an agnostic atheist: I do not believe in a higher power, but cannot disprove the existence of one.
I also think that there could very well be a creator who no longer influences our lives.
 
Well, I did click an option on this poll. But my real choice would be that I'm part of a group who really cringes at labels and rigid categories for putting people into like this.

I am intolerant of intolerance, and find that to be one of the most off-putting traits I can discover in someone else. Of course there are exceptions, and in certain circumstances the most extreme iterations of belief systems must be challenged. However, the preponderance of people should not be characterized based on the sort of categories listed in the poll.
 

Oathkeeper

"Wait!" he says, do I look like a waiter?
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Hey guys and girls. I am Christian myself. I go to church every Sunday and love the message my pastor gives each time! I used to be on the fence about it but, my mother who was born Catholic and then baptized Christian loved going to our church in California. I cannot explain what it was but, one morning I decided to go to said church myself and I've never looked back. I grew so attached to it that when we moved out here to Wisconsin to care for my grandmother with demetia, I didn't think we'd find a church just like the one we had before. I was wrong, I should've trusted in God that he'd find one for us and he did! I believe he is there, I believe he sent his son Jesus to die on a cross for our sins, and I believe that when I die, I will join him in heaven! Praise him!
 
I personally do not believe in God (I believe that science can do a better job explaining events than The Bible can), but I understand and respect how the belief in a higher power watching over you is something that brings people hope.
 
I'm fucking atheist, and i'm proud of it. Facts only matter, in the material aspects of life and in the immaterial ones.

-Mr.Gradgrind, Hard Time by Charles Dickens.
 
I'm a Christian. I believe that God exists and that the universe around us is too complex to have been made by accident. I believe that only a divine Creator can be the explanation for how various things in nature, and our bodies work. In addition, we live on a planet that is perfect for human needs and is the perfect distance away from the sun to keep us warm without burning to death and not being too far away to be frozen to death.
While all that is well and good, I absolutely detest a lot of people who claim to be Christian and don't practice their faith whatsoever.
Example: Homophobia, transphobia, racism, and sexism are especially prominent in the Bible Belt area of the United States. 1 John 4:20 says "If someone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen."
I don't believe God made any exceptions for gay people, trans people, black people, or women in this verse. You cannot call yourself a Christian and have hatred in your heart for a certain group of people. As such, I practice my faith by being inclusive, and non-judgmental. Christians have a bad rep as being bigoted so I want to do my part (however small it may be) to help erase that stigma. I have several friends who are LGBT, transgender, different races, and even atheistic and agnostic.
TLDR: I don't care what you are as long as you're not a dick.
 
I guess you would say I'm Agnostic. I don't claim to know anything is right or wrong; I get along with and respect all and kinda don't even care cus idk... the "religious/faith" realm isn't a everyday thought for me. My family is Catholic, I have nothing against it, or anyone else. I just haven't "Felt it," outside maybe when I was younger.. but since not so much.
To be very honest, I'm more spiritual and hate to sound like a hippy cus god knows I aint but nature is more a "spiritual feeling" for me than walking into some building with some guy in it. I respect all though, my first girlfriend was Hindu, I've dated/been friends with everyone from Jews, Muslims, etc I was lucky to be raised around all types of people both religious beliefs and ethinicities/background cus my Mom was an Artist.

I focus on Energy and people's spirit for guidance on if I should associate, same with life in regards to situations - guess that explains my comfort with nature. That dictates me more than "faith" Idk if that makes any sense. Respect to all of course, however.
 
So I have a genuine question that perhaps some of the religious people on Smogon could shed some light on. Full disclosure, I am an atheist myself, but this isn't intended to be a 'gotcha' or rhetorical kind of question, I'm genuinely curious how a Christian would rationalize this. I'm also aware this isn't exactly the right thread for this, but this is the closest thing to a general religion/epistemology thread we have.

As I understand it Adam and Eve had no knowledge of good and evil before they ate the fruit of the Tree. God expressly forbade them to eat of this fruit. It was, in fact, Satan who convinced them to ignore God's orders and eat the fruit, and as a result Adam and Eve gained understanding of the concepts of good and evil.

Does this not mean that humanity's moral compass comes from Satan, and not God? Or at the very least, was it not Satan who instilled this moral compass in us, where God would have seen us live without one?
 

BP

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So I have a genuine question that perhaps some of the religious people on Smogon could shed some light on. Full disclosure, I am an atheist myself, but this isn't intended to be a 'gotcha' or rhetorical kind of question, I'm genuinely curious how a Christian would rationalize this. I'm also aware this isn't exactly the right thread for this, but this is the closest thing to a general religion/epistemology thread we have.

As I understand it Adam and Eve had no knowledge of good and evil before they ate the fruit of the Tree. God expressly forbade them to eat of this fruit. It was, in fact, Satan who convinced them to ignore God's orders and eat the fruit, and as a result Adam and Eve gained understanding of the concepts of good and evil.

Does this not mean that humanity's moral compass comes from Satan, and not God? Or at the very least, was it not Satan who instilled this moral compass in us, where God would have seen us live without one?
I'm a Christian myself and I've read the bible in the last year. That being said I have my own views on christianity because I dont really think as human beings we can truly understand "gods plan". We instead try to rationalize and explain it with stories.

I really don't think the story of Adam and Eve is real. It's just a story to explain what I believe to be God wanting us to grow as people on our own. With the knowledge of good and evil the knowledge of right and wrong comes in and we no longer function solely on survival instincts. The story of Adam and eve is humanity's way of rationalizing this huge evolution in mental capacity.
 

BP

Beers and Steers
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Divine Retribution If you're interested in further stories regarding morality and why god is the way he is I recommend checking out the book of Job which is also located in the old Testament. Again, I recommend that because it's the old testament and you're an atheist that you take it as more of a metaphor than a literal story.
 

てんし

Banned deucer.
I grew up with shinto and imo it's perfect when it comes to explaining the world we live in. I doubt the universe could have been made as complex as it is if not for the kami that inhabit both animate and inanimate things.
 
Does this not mean that humanity's moral compass comes from Satan, and not God? Or at the very least, was it not Satan who instilled this moral compass in us, where God would have seen us live without one?
I'm Christian (catholic), but I don't know perfectly my own religion (that being possible is another very interesting debate). I really don't know what credit one should give to the Torah (aka the 5 oldest, hebrew books of the Bible, including the Genesis where you find the Adam and Eve thing). Taking them in a litteral way creates a toooon of problems. For example there isn't one God in the Torah ; Yahvé is only one of them.

From a catholic point of view, the power of creating something is exclusive to God. Satan can't create something. This means that he might have lead us to know what's good and bad (which, again, isn't all that clear), but that the possibility of this distinction was created by God.

I will be refering to Saint Augustine all the way here (mostly De Libero arbitrio). What I know for a fact is that "Moral", as you rightfully call it (as it is a very Christian concept (Nietzsche)), is the fact that your will can decide wether or not it gets along with God's will. The closer your will is to God's will, the more saint you are. For that to make sense, God created the "free will", the capacity for every man to determine oneself.

God didn't create "moral", as it is just a way of seing things, and not a thing on its own. He created something in us that allows moral to make sense. Otherwise the Judgement and God's justice wouldn't make any sense. A Divine Restribution (haha) can exist only if men are responsible for what they do.

Conclusion : According to Augustine, God is the one and only origin (not creator) of moral.

Problem : What about Satan ? Did God create the evil ? Why ?

Satan, in the Bible, is litterally "the accuser". He invites God to tempt men to test their will. His only will is to separate men from God ("stn" in hebrew = separation). He is the origin of some cases of sin. He really doesn't help answering your question imo. In the Bible, he definetly has less importance than people tend to think (ofc he's important, but he's not the cause of all sins, he's not the only demon).

Going back to Augustine for the second question. God created the possibility of choosing. He created good and evil with the free will. The possibility for you to join him on yourself (which is beautiful tbh) necessarily includes the possibility of not joining him ie of sin.

Hope that was clear. Sorry for my bad English. Ask any question.
 
Funny thing actually, cause I'm from a Japanese family instead of growing up with the main American Christianity I grew up with Buddhism. I will recount my experiences cause I would be right in thinking here that most people did not grow up with Buddhism.

Right so I was living in Oklahoma at the time(Not the most Buddhist state) and I used to go to this monastery. Now it wasn't some hardcore monastery that most people imagine it would be, rather it was mostly aimed towards children. Although it still had classes for non-child Buddhists. It was called Buddha Mind Monastery(Look it up if you want)
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So what we would do is walk in and take our shoes off(Japanese and other Asian Tradition)
download (12).jpeg

We would all go those little chairs and sit on the blanket things in a lotus position(each foot is over the other knee) and meditate for like 15 minutes.
We would then do standing meditation for like 5 minutes.
They would tell us a Buddhist story with a moral
We would then eat a free lunch and that was it.
On rare occasions we would walk in the nearby forest and do related activities.

I certainly liked Buddhism a lot but now I'm just an atheist, while being more depressing it certainly is more satisfying.
I grew up with shinto and imo it's perfect when it comes to explaining the world we live in. I doubt the universe could have been made as complex as it is if not for the kami that inhabit both animate and inanimate things.
Credits to Tenshi as while I really just can't agree with Christian people, I enjoy finding another person who grew up with a Japanese religion.
 
I think everything exists but at the same time there's rules and then there's also no rules. Yes God created Universe # 1394848382 but it's a contradiction because the science of that universe confirms that it wasn't made by a God. This makes no sense right? that's because our brains are wired to want something to make sense when in reality the universe doesn't owe us that. (Yes Gods exists, so does Magic and Unicorns and Dragons and even time travel) There's no end to this madness. The universe just goes on forever. Dragon Ball, Pokemon, Superman they're all real in other dimensions. While I'm not religious I kind of subscribe to the idea that we live in some sort of simulation or program or something like that. The universe we live in. It has rules. Light has a speed limit. You're able to walk on a solid surface. You don't just go through it, this has been said before about how we are the perfect spot away from the sun and things like that. The human brain is so incredibly complex, it's just so mind boggling. Everytime I have a delicious meal. I just think to myself how the fuck is this possible. It also gets me thinking about solipsism. I don't feel anything the other person feels, I don't taste anything when they eat. I see trough my eyes and no one elses. Does that mean I'm the only one that exists? clearly that can't be the case because I interact with people every day but It's kind of depressing because you start to wonder are you incredibly special to be yourself or not that special because there's billion of us living a just as real first person experience like yourself? Then I start to wonder why now? I could've been born a million years ago. Also why human? that's arguably the best type of animal to be and the most intelligent. When you think about the fact of how unlikely it really is for you to be born instead of someone else, it really makes you start to question what you been told. I think we live in some sort of matrix. I think there's some truth to the whole flat earth thing and God cover up. (I don't think the Earth is flat btw, the shape of the Earth is irrelevant) But I do think we have a shadow government behind the scenes. How powerful are they? I have no clue. They could be aliens for all I know. If anyone wants to PM me, feel free to. I love talking about these type of things.
 
For very obvious reasons I'm irreligious. Now yeah shocker the gay guy isn't religious is about as news worthy as saying the sky is blue, but my mother tried to raise me as Catholic, and that backfired spectacularly. She signed me up for a weekly school program that was just school but for Jesus which lasted for eight years too many. On top of that I just feel straight up uncomfortable in a church and always have. It feels like they were designed to be uncomfortable. It probably doesn't help that Catholics are infamous for pedophilia, the crusades, corruption within the papacy, someone literally posting 95 reasons as to why the entire church was bullshit and then made his own brand of Christianity, the crusades, and a lot more shit which kind of turned me off of organized religion as a whole, on top of the whole being gay == sin thing a lot of religions tend to push. Of course there's also the concept of an afterlife which I know not all religions have but when they are there odds are I'm gonna be sent to Hell. This isn't even getting into my issues of how the concept of a God or Gods creating everything and being ever watching is really unnerving to me. I honestly do not understand how that concept is supposed to make people feel comfortable because that kind of shit is creepy IMO.
 
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ErPeris

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Personally I don't believe in any God, I am an atheist.
I do not want to motivate my choice here, it is something I prefer to keep for myself and I am afraid that I would not be able to explain myself as I would like, especially considering that English is not my first language and that I still have to improve my language skills a lot.
What I really do not conceive of and against which I am absolutely opposed are holy wars. The name itself is a contradiction on which I invite everyone to make a thorough reflection. A war is NEVER holy and it saddens me that in 2020 people still kill themselves in the name of ideals that are imposed with violence. Religions, although different from each other, should never be a reason to make wars.
Always leave everyone the freedom of expression and thought, violence and hatred will never lead to anything good.
Sorry for this digression and if I focused on this aspect, but I think certain topics should always be reiterated.
Peace to all.
 

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