Why are you what you are?

[Dayman]

We've had topics about what your stances on religion are, but in my short time here I haven't seen one on the reasons why people choose to believe what they do. I think it'd be an interesting subject, and give people a chance to post what makes them tick.

[Mathias]

I have always been a doubter, not a believer. Even in kindergarden I was considered to be very sober and realistic, not taken in by the wild fantasies of most kids. Always have I needed proof before I believing in something. Even when I went to sunday school as a kid I didn't really believe in what I was being told there, but found it silly and the evidence lacking. As time passed and I got older, I found more and more arguments against religion, at least christianity, which is the religion around here. Arguments for it, however, became fewer, as I saw the flaws of those I had previously accepted.
I have always believed that one should doubt whatever one is being told, especially when no arguments for why it is so are given. As I have gotten older, I have seen how true that is. Society tells us things without giving any reasons for why it is so, and almost everyone believes in it. But a person of some intelligence can easily give good arguments against it, and while not necessarily prove it wrong, can prove that there are no reasons to think that it is right either.
In short: for me to believe in something I need logical reasons, based on empirical evidence dependingt on what we are talking about. That is why I'm an atheist.

[Bokks]

I'd say I'm a realist, which makes me at odds with nearly everyone I meet, as my incredibly optimistic mother always yells at my "pessimism" and my overly pessimistic co-workers besmirch my "unerring optimism". I haven't always questioned anything I have seen like Mathias, in fact generally I trust authority and what we are all told recognizing that they may be a greater reason for why we should all (or mostly) think that way. Having been in limited leadership positions myself, I can see why leaders would have to cover the truth for the greater good, but being of sound scientific mind I generally refuse to accept that lying should be necessary. In short, I do always question, but while I am questioning I generally trust what I hear, sort of an "innocent until proven guilty" kind of practice. Beyond that, I try to keep my mind open for the greatest possible good, that if I can't do a difference to help everyone then I should try to help as many as I can. At times this makes me removed from the present, forever mindful of the future and possible reactions.
I work only in ways that I know shall have a positive outcome, if I don't know or am not sure about the outcome then I test limitations in a theater that I believe I can control. This is all done because I have a need to learn and to continue to learn, from that gaining ultimate wisdom. This makes me a conservative, of the older actual conservative definition, and makes me unwilling to actually meddle in peoples lives but extremely willing to teach them what I know, so that they would also be able to fend for themselves.

[edit] this is a great idea, Boeing, but you didn't write about yourself!

[Dunecat]

I was always an incredibly imaginative child, but also a very jaded one. I always wanted to find reality, as early as I can remember...

My earliest memory was when I was in the 2nd grade. I felt for the first time what it feels like when eternity is certain. Where there is no question it exists. Allow yourself to feel it. Believe in it, even if you know it to be false. Can you feel the despair? The hopelessness? That's what I felt. I felt utter pointlessness.

I still feel that. I believe that there is a Christian God and morality because I want to. It is the ultimate fallacy, but one from which I could not escape. I was faced with a dilemma, that of altruistic pointlessness with no history, or that with much. I want to believe it so bad that I convince myself I do, but many time I am not rationally so sure.

What do I believe? Depends on the day. A common thread is my veneration of good and selfless acts, something for which I have always felt but never had a reason to. Honestly I don't know what I believe for certain, but I do know what I feel, just like what I felt that one day when I first contemplated what "Heaven" must be like... The ultimate feeling of humility... That no matter what I wanted, it existed or it didn't. No method of my will could change it.

Spend a day like you have an endless supply of them. Do you eat? How do you treat others? Imagine yourself in a Heaven. One which knows no end. Your consciousness there would be a continuation of yours presently... And though your sentience had a beginning, it would have no end. You would go on. And on. And nothing you willed would be able to stop it.

I have those feelings every day... And that's what I base my beliefs off of. It's cold, but it's real. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

[Thanatos]

Because.

[Dayman]

Because.

Profound.

[Thanatos]

Profound.

Is there truly any other answer?

[infernocanuck]

Well, see. One night, both my parents were feeling amorous, the lights were set, a nice bottle of wine was opened and.....

Wait.

Oh, Oh, Oh. My mistake. I thought the question was "How"....

[Bokks]

Well, see. One night, both my parents were feeling amorous, the lights were set, a nice bottle of wine was opened and.....

Wait.

Oh, Oh, Oh. My mistake. I thought the question was "How"....

I was going to do something along those lines, but then i thought against it.

And Ronnec that was, that was deep, man.

[molonthegreat]

Im an atheist because i cant see any logic that some invisible guy has created the world.

[Kiljan Arslan]

It just makes sense to me that we are special. To have the ability to reason, to love, to change our own environment I feel that evolution couldn't have jsut produced that we are unique from them all I feel that therefore something had to have helped in the making of us.

[Mansa musa]

because i have to

[Roman Knight]

because i have to

Can we go back to that?

I don't want to sound invasive but, why do you have to? Who makes you? It seems so outlandish to have no choice of religion.

[Mansa musa]

Can we go back to that?

I don't want to sound invasive but, why do you have to? Who makes you? It seems so outlandish to have no choice of religion.

i did have a choice of religion. and i chose islam. i have to because i believe it's what i was put on this earth to do. and i find the notion of life having no purpose to be purpostrous

[Daovonnaex]

i did have a choice of religion. and i chose islam. i have to because i believe it's what i was put on this earth to do. and i find the notion of life having no purpose to be purpostrous

the purpose of life is to eat bacon

repent, heathen

[Bokks]

the purpose of life is to eat bacon

repent, heathen

When I first read this I thought it said "the purpose of life is to be eaten"
I had to do a double-take

[Roman Knight]

i did have a choice of religion. and i chose islam. i have to because i believe it's what i was put on this earth to do. and i find the notion of life having no purpose to be purpostrous

But that is a belief, noone but you knows your purpose in life and it only exists because you believe it to be true, but in essence you did have a choice of religion.:hmmm: confusing

[CyberFist]

Because God made me so.

[LoZz]

my parents who where married in a church and had me dipped in water at birth in a church never themselves attended church on a sunday and didnt inforce it apon me.

like with most choices in my life, my parents allowed me to make them for myselves (with the exception of behaving, that was not a choice!) and like them i do not really care much for religion.

however i do like to think there is a higher being and if pushed i would pick christianity. and i do plan in the future to marry in a church and get my kids dipped in the holy water, it just seems the right thing to do.

[MaximiIian]

We've had topics about what your stances on religion are, but in my short time here I haven't seen one on the reasons why people choose to believe what they do. I think it'd be an interesting subject, and give people a chance to post what makes them tick.

I've always seen nature, life, & the universe as something interesting & wonderful, but never believed in a deity. I don't know why, I just never was raised to believe in such a thing.
As time went on, I saw the illogic in blindly believing in a god, in believing in something with zero direct evidence, and I became solidly in the realm of an atheistic theological view.

Only in recent times, have I come to terms with my views on mythology & paganism, and my non-theistic views on deity. I see the universe itself and physical laws & theories as evidence for my metaphysical views, because I see such things as the spirit & ritual magic as natural phenomena which are as yet unexplained clearly, but can be explained by some modern theories in current physical & natural sciences.