Why are you religious? Please give your reasons.

Quote:

re·li·gious (rĭ-lĭj'əs)
adj.
Having or showing belief in and reverence for God or a deity

Hep- I think that you have your terms confused. Being religious means believing in a deity. There are many people who do not subscribe to a particular religious tradition, but believe in a god, nonetheless.

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Hehehe... that's why I said by my definition...

Which I'm pleading the 5th on... :wink:

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Phoenix32890 wrote:

Quote:
re·li·gious (rĭ-lĭj'əs)
adj.
Having or showing belief in and reverence for God or a deity

Hep- I think that you have your terms confused. Being religious means believing in a deity. There are many people who do not subscribe to a particular religious tradition, but believe in a god, nonetheless.

Then there are those of us that take the opposite path.

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So does that make you the opposite of religious then dok?

Hmmm... What would be the opposite of religious?

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Everybody free.. In İslam.. One of you may say I don't believe and live free.. Don't confuse with human doctrins.. God Royality is freedom Royality for world.. Only say you ve to be carefull about second world.. Also everybody talk about for this world.. No problem no problem.. If there is no second world.. oooo believer don't loss anything..

But If there is a God ..
Hi.. Why did God give freewill and ego to humanbeing ?

Ants are animal.. Flowers are plant.. They are in so so in discipline .. But human .. What is the orginalities of human ?? Nature killer.. Human killer.. Technology murder.. There r many hungry people in the world.. Whereis the human being ? What is human being.. Only story...

Humanbeing pray everything .. money.. ego.. benefits.. But God??? ooo problem.. He prevents our freewill.. He didn't bind anybodies hands.. Says you r free.

If you share all stars , everyone will ve 100 billion stars.. God Royality.. Don't need anyone .. He shows only ant's way , flower's way .. Quite quite..

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Quote:

He didn't bind anybodies hands.. Says you r free.

Is that so? Then why don't you Muslims practice what your God preaches? Why do you persecute so many people?

Here's something I picked up today.

Quote:

Iraqi cleric wants gays killed in "most severe way"
03.16.2006 12:00 AM EST

In the midst of sectarian violence that threatens to drag Iraq into civil war, the country's influential Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has issued a violent death order against gays and lesbians on his Web site, according to London-based LGBT human rights groups OutRage.
Written in Arabic, the fatwa comes from a press conference with the powerful religious cleric, where he was asked about the judgment on sodomy and lesbianism. "Forbidden," Sistani answered, according to OutRage, "Punished, in fact, killed. The people involved should be killed in the worst, most severe way of killing."

Considering Sistani's stature and influence within the Iraqi Shiite majority, OutRage member Ali Hili declared the cleric's statements extremely dangerous.

"Sistani's murderous homophobic incitement has given a green light to Shia Muslims to hunt and kill lesbians and gay men," said Hili. "We hold Sistani personally responsible for the murder of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Iraqis. He gives the killers theological sanction and encouragement."

Sistani is a leading member and voice of the Shiite sect, which in Iraq has approximately twice as many followers as the Sunni sect. (The Advocate)

http://www.logoonline.com/news/story.jhtml?id=1526230&disableFeatureRedirect=true&contentTypeID=1087

http://petertatchell.net/international/sistani.htm

Persecute and kill. It's in your Koran and everyday life.

It's bad enough to kill for oil and wealth. But you people kill for your God. You use your religion to justify murder.

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Doktor S wrote:

Yes, choice.
The experience of choice.
That you can and wil ultimately only choose one way does not preclude the experience itself

Was it a choice freely made?

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neologist wrote:

Doktor S wrote:
Yes, choice.
The experience of choice.
That you can and wil ultimately only choose one way does not preclude the experience itself
Was it a choice freely made?

Freedom too is an illusion from where I sit. Yet perhaps the most important illusion we have.

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hephzibah wrote:

So does that make you the opposite of religious then dok?

Hmmm... What would be the opposite of religious?

In a way I suppose. It all hinges on how one defines religious.
The popular conception of the word is rather myopic as it tends to focus on the judeo-christian interpretation. God is always taken to mean something 'out there' with a certain set of properties.
If you interpret 'religious' as 'someone that believes in god' then I qualify, however my autotheistic interpretation of what 'god' is shares little in common with the popular conception.
If you define 'religious' as someone that follows a certain set of tenets and dogma, then I qualify as I do tend to live my life by the Satanic creed.

However, I am still an atheist, as far as the popular conception of god, or in fact any non-autotheistic interpretation.

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Re: Why are you religious? Please give your reasons.

Chumly wrote:

Why are you religious? Please give your reasons.

Howz bout 'er Neo?

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When Chumly asks why one is religious and to give his reasons, the implication is that the individual chooses to be religious. I think that very few people have explictly chosen to adopt a faith as an internal posture (for reasons, say, like that of Pascal's Wager). Some have, I'm confident, chosen a religion as an external posture, to be good with one's community, for example. But instead of asking the question in terms of a goal or purpose, one may ask the psycho-sociological question of what CAUSED an individual to feel faith. That's much more difficult to answer, don't you think?

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I chose to leave faith. Would that be applicable?

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Oh yeah JLNobody, and it would be very interesting to hear responses to that question.

I am not religious, and I have not chosen any one religion. I do have a lot of respect, and lot yet to learn, though, from Buddhism. Perhaps other religions as well; though they are less appealing to me.

I left the faith of Christianity that I grew up in.

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Raul-7's is not as applicable as yours Gus. He said that he is religious because he is grateful to his Creator, and because of his fear of eternal punishment for not following "the path".

All he has said is that he is religious because he is religious.

Perhaps your answer, Gus, could be reversed? Could you just change the variables, and say, you entered religion for the opposite of the reasons that you left it? That is, of course, if you could say why you chose to leave religion.

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i find religion fascinating, but i have yet to find a god or any particular religion i'd be willing to put my faith in

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Correction, Raul-7's response is not valid as an explanation for why he became religious, but it is valid as an explanation of why he persists in his religion. Is that right, Raul?

Flushd, I am a shoddy practicioner of (zen) Buddhism which is to my mind an atheistic form of spiritual hygiene.

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JLNobody wrote:

When Chumly asks why one is religious and to give his reasons, the implication is that the individual chooses to be religious. I think that very few people have explictly chosen to adopt a faith as an internal posture (for reasons, say, like that of Pascal's Wager). Some have, I'm confident, chosen a religion as an external posture, to be good with one's community, for example. But instead of asking the question in terms of a goal or purpose, one may ask the psycho-sociological question of what CAUSED an individual to feel faith. That's much more difficult to answer, don't you think?

I did ask two for simple things:
1) No long scriptural quotes
2) Not to say it's the Bible, Koran, Torah etc. that tells one to be religious

But I did not imply choice or lack of choice in my question. I left all that completely up to the individual. So pretty much anything goes.

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JL, I entered religion because it was forced down my throat almost from the day of my conception. I could swear as I was being formed in the womb I could hear the rustling of rosary beads.

I spent my early childhood going to church seven days a week. I was an altar boy. I looked out the church windows on beautiful summer days and could see some of the atheist boys from around town playing baseball and laughing among themselves.

I looked around the church -- old people, people with dementia in their eyes -- and I asked myself why I was in this situation. What did I do wrong to suffer at such a young age?

Fear of my parents' reaction kept me from fleeing the church on that beautiful summer day, but years later I walked away from that cold, heartless edifice.

And I have never returned.

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O.K., but asking for "reasons" does suggest to me a request for the basis for a choice.
To me "choice" suggests a reason regarding a goal that PULLS one from the anticipated future--if I do this I will gain this or avoid that.
A "cause", by contrast, implies a PUSH from the past--an antecedent condition or force that impels a present condition, e.g., religious belief or membership.

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Not religious. Used to be quite spiritual--not so much now.

My daughter and her fiance have found a funky church --in an auditorium--where people are free to interpret the message with dance, song or art. They raise money to refurbish an old building to give this area our first art gallery. <smiles>

They meet at 4pm on Sundays, and are welcoming and casual.

I'm going to go Sunday.

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Why are you religious? Please give your reasons.

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