Religious/Philosophical Profile Thread

[liamb109]

I was born into a Catholic family. I do not believe in god. I believe that the means should justify the ends. My philosophy is simple; Be good. Moral vacuousness and decisions of that standard only lead to depression through escapism. I prefer to deal with my problems, not hide from them in drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and as many women as the world will throw at me. Since it enters into it, I do believe in love.

[Bob Doad]

I was raised Catholic in the Bible Belt of the U.S. and attended a Catholic School. I followed every law of the Catholic Church even the bigotry, hypocrisy, and lunacy. I was very devout, able to write multiple pages on theology in 30 minutes or less and I got the religion award at my school. I would even get in fights with other people over religion. Then everything began to change starting with my decision to read the Bible (I had already read most of the Catechism). As I went through I noticed all the discrepancies, contradictions, and impossibilities. I was distraught but held onto my faith because I was taught it was supposed to be confusing and I have to believe without any proof and for a while the questions stopped. Then, at my Confirmation preparation class my peers and I had these rounds where we discussed important issues (evolution, gay marriage, women's rights in the church, church scandals, euthanasia etc...) with our teachers. It went on for some time and by the end I was shocked, I had already known the stances but when they attempted to explain the reasoning everything came together. I realized how the Catholic Church was just feeding baseless, outdated and not to mention hateful things to us. However, I stayed Catholic for a little while longer from fear of my parents outrage, despite this I continued to search for answers through rational thought and found comfort in Science and its beauty. At the beginning of October 2011 I finally let go and became an atheist and explored my new found truth by reading books (Theist and Atheist), listening to Christopher Hitchens, Carl Sagan, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Stephen Hawking and Richard Dawkins, and debates about God. Additionally, I came upon r/atheism which made me laugh and allowed me to know there are others like me.

tl;dr First, Catholic. Then, Atheist.

[Mortality]

I am a Secular Humanist with some Buddhist beliefs and principles (Meditation, Karma, Reincarnation.)

[Invictus XII]

Roman Catholic, practicing but I wouldn't say totally devout. I do believe in the theology completely, and the church body, but keep in mind the historical context of the church. I do believe in balance, and eventually, everything requires balance, even religion and science. I don't believe in doing only what makes you happy, and due to my balance concepts of the universe, equal amounts worth of labour and/or suffering for joy and happiness. I studied both evolutionary theories, and creationism (balanced) and I do have my doubts on creation, but equally the same with the theories of the beginning of the universe. I do believe in experience being the most important part of life, the more experiences you have, the more you know, and the more memories you have. I am a vivid believer of seizing the chance, and every chance that is presented that leads to benefiting anyone should be seized, as long as you quickly evaluate it with a balanced mind - but don't over think. I think we are the only species in this universe that is intelligent, meaning that whatever connotative meanings we as humanity give things, should be almost considered alongside equally as the actual detonative meaning - (As in fire being safety, hope, etc...and love not just being a chemical neurological reaction).

But my most favoured philosophy is "simplicity is key" - Living simply is the key to a good life. I often find the hunt for new technologies and advancements in sciences and engineering as fruitless. Though they save lives and create comfort, doesn't make them beneficial. Comfort is the killer of the western world, its what causes people to live their lives in such restricted terms, never venturing, never experiencing reality and creating laziness.

[CelticSlav]

I'm A Catholic Christian, and both my mother and father's families are devout Catholics. But one of my father's grandfathers was Ukrainian Orthodox, but later became Catholic. I go to church every Sunday, learned the Catechism, and I knew about the Sacraments very well. I feel proud about our Catholic faith and heritage.

Zdrowaś Maryjo, łaski pełna,
Pan z Tobą.
Błogosławiona jesteś między niewiastami,
i błogosławiony owoc żywota Twojego, Jezus.
Święta Maryjo, Matko Boża,
módl się za nami grzesznymi,
teraz i w godzinę śmierci naszej.
Amen!

[Biggieboy]

I'm an atheist. that means no God, no heaven or eternal fire, dead is dead. Does that make me feel comfortable? No, but as far as I'm concerned, there's no evidence for a god.

What philosophy I follow? I dunno really, I guess the golden rule (do not do to other what you don't want to be done to you). Otherwise, be kind to people, help where you can. I'll always be nice to people to start with, until they betray my trust. I think that's enough really.

[XIII]

I am nominally a Roman Catholic though it might be more accurate to say that I am a Christian. I was raised a Catholic but I never showed any particular interest in theology until I came into contact with philosophy.

I believe in the Doctrine of the Trinity. I believe that Jesus is God Incarnate who became human to redeem the world. I believe that he historically lived, suffered, died and rose again. I believe that Christianity is a rational worldview and indeed the most rational worldview to hold.

[Gatsby]

Atheist with tendencies towards nihilism, depending on what kind of a mood I'm in.

[Himster]

I am ascetic, but I like to drink and eat. I'm an agnostic-atheist but I love religions, I'm a contemporary artist, but I'm bored by contemporary art (I'm an alleged "stuckist"), I have the romantic (unattainable) ideals of a pseudo-anarchist, I'm called liberal by my enemies but my friends think I'm conservative, I'm culturally catholic but I get on with protestants better, I'm middle class and somewhat elitist, but, I also have the unattainable romantic ideals of Marxism buried deep in my animus.
Despite common allegation: I don't believe that there is no god, I am simply unconvinced by the arguments in favour of god or gods, I am therefore forced to suspend judgement and admit my ignorance.

[Watercress]

My religious belief is probably quite similar to that of Clement Atlee - I like the ethics of Christianity, but not the mumbo jumbo. And indeed, like the Earl Atlee, I would say I'm Agnostic, but with a general disinterest and non-commitment towards religions.

[Enzo]

For me only the truth of God as revealed through the living Christ will do. No specific denomination but can be considered post reformation with a few acretions from other religions that I think are compatible.

[Aquila SPQR]

Atheist since I understood that all religions and gods were "invented/created" by people.

[America125]

I dont belive in nothing I just live my life striveing to get what I want and need though i do hate Atheist their very nerdy btw my thought on how earth was created idk why should I care anyways not my problem it really dosent affect me either just be glad you live on earth O.o

[Sar1n]

Agnostic, as I consider the question of god's (or gods') existence inherently impossible to objectively answer. I do harbor strong resentment of religions in general, as they use the inherent human fears and desire for answers to manipulate people.

[Calypze]

Atheist and naturalist. I don't think there is any objective morality. I view morality in a Humean way, that is as feelings, that were shaped by evolution. I am sympathetic to secular humanism.

Favorite philosophers: David Hume, Bertrand Russell, Epicurus, Democritus.

I was baptised (though I had no confirmation) but my parents are not religious and I don't think any of my family members or close relatives are religious.

[Roserthegothi]

I was raised with a belief in a higher power, but believed in nothing in particular. As i grew up though I found that odinism matched greatly with the way i thought about the life and could feel in my blood that this was my faith.

[DarthShizNit]

Mormon (LDS) even if I sometimes get lax in attending it's mainly because I'm lazy not because I have issues with it. I definetly have questions and concerns and don't believe everything that has come out of the church is true, but at the end of the day the way it instructs one to live their life and the theology behind it makes the most sense to me. I'm definetly more of a diest than most Mormons, I do believe in some higher power that had a hand in shapping the universe and then lets it run on its own with the minimum of interferance. Also aspire to be half as good of a person as a good buddhist lol. I tend not to pray or ask god for anything, as I believe that there are billions more who are more worthy of his assistance if he does give any, that said, everytime I see a sunset or drive down a desert highway with the window down, I say "thank you."

My religion definetly influences my political views (I'm sure I could have ended up with the exact same views if I was an athiest but I have no evidence to the contrary) so there are certain aspects I would say I'm a hard socialist on based off of that. As such, Early Socialist philosphers are something I'm keen to, though Marx is someone I disagree with. Apparently I'm tied for being a Hedoist and one who believes in Justice according to that one little test on the internet, and oddly enough I can agree with it even though I'm not sure those two things are supposed to go together . Also love me some science, Neil DeGrass Tyson for the win.

[Sharpe]

Born Roman Catholic to semi devout Parents and very devout Grandparents. Attended mass in Latin until I was 16 years old.

Still Roman Catholic I guess, though I do not practice but consider it loyalty to my deceased grandparents to identify and keep that way, I still have an old rosary that my grandfather gave me and it is nice to look at it and reflect. I went to a primary, secondary and high school all run by the De La Salle brothers and my teachers were frequently Nuns and Monks/Brothers of the Order, though myself and my fellow students were always skeptical or were outright atheists. I believe the communal attitude and teachings of a good local parish is a great benefit to the youth, regardless of whether you "believe" or not.

Obviously believe that evolution is the logical truth and creationism is folly/embarrassing. But with regards to what started the universe I do not know, perhaps a "God" or higher power, its maddening to think about too much.

I now live in a flat with a Westernized devout Hindu, a very devout Muslim from Malaysia, a very non devout Muslim from Singapore, which he claims is a small slice of The West in Asia (He was eating bacon wrapped around a sausage earlier LOL) and a few Christians. Certainly opens up some interesting conversation.

[alex man142]

I'm a devout Christian here. My family was Christian so that's why I'm a Christian. I believe in the Bible and specifically, I am a Catholic. I was Anglican, but the Anglican church is nothing more than a left-wing women's frat party now.

[Papay]

Progressive creationist and christian apologetic which means i believe that God created this world and species progressively starting from microorganisms and through an endless series of experiments specifically created humans.I also support Christianity because i think that it has high moral values(i am christian orthodox)