Are you religious? Why or why not?

No, but I try hard not to be an asshole about it. People can believe what they want as long as it isn't directly hurting someone.

Personally I find religious studies fascinating simply because of the influence it has had on culture both locally and worldwide.

No, I'm not religious. There's no elevator pitch, because it doesn't need one.

I was born in China, I remember very early on, I was taught the concept of 命運 (fate), 投胎 (reincarnation), 上天 (the heavens) 睇住你 (are watching you), and 報應 (karma)... lot of that stuff.

My mom told me that if I "waste food", i'd 畀雷公劈 (get stuck by lightning by the "god of thunder"; or some bullshit like that)

A lot of Chinese drama has those spiritual themes

One time I was like: "so what religion are we?"

Then my mom was like 道教 (Taoism), but I was so confused like I thought it was 佛教 (Buddhism)?

So idk what ever the fuck their "religion" is?

My mom always said "唔可以全信但唔可以唔信" (you can't believe it all, but you also can't no believe any)

And she also told me the story about the tale of man that was "waiting for god to save him" when it was flooding" and said that guy was stupid

I used to believe in Santa, then I found out my uncle was the "Santa", so yea I just stopped believing. I used to believe in ghosts cuz all the Chinese ghost stories in media, but then I stopped believing.

I read a lot of Western Atheism stuff... Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins... so I believed less and less...

I still sort of hang on to the reincarnation thing as a sort of copism, well not the karma stuff, but more as in "matter cannot be created or destroyed" so it must be recycled, that sort of way...

We weren't able to see atoms for a long time, maybe there's a "soul" that we cannot yet measure? (I know atheists are gonna say I'm being silly xD)

Like the "fate" thing is just so bizzare. I wasn't supposed to be born as a second child during One Child Policy, so I feel like "maybe 'god' intervened and saved me?". So bizzare, I wasn't even supposed to exist.

edit: typos

Yes. I was raised in an agnostic family (I'm French, and in France agnosticism is very dominant) but the idea of the existence of a creator always seemed like a certainty for me. I searched myself for a time, and I'm now very active in my (French equivalent of mainline Protestant) community. I'm not sure it's the “right” religion, I'm not even sure there's such thing as the “right” religion, but it gives me a framework to developp my spirituality while giving me the freedom to question everything. It's a sweet spot that makes me happy.

No. I convinced myself I was until I was 16 or 17. It wasn't compatible with my worldview and it was completely unscientific.

No. I used to be agnostic but it relied on this idea that humanity was overall essentially sensible and large groups would not just believe some bs and then pass it on to their kids and it would keep going. I kept up this belief besides the evidence of obvious cults and such. The real nail in the coffin was the internet age and things like qanon, flat earthers, anti vaxers, anti maskers, etc. etc. Just how easily and quickly people whole heartadly believe bulltrump has brushed away any fence sitting I had left and I now recognize that the universe is wysiwyg.

Religion is abuse.

Yeah. I didn't use to be but now I am, and I'm very happy about it. And why? Because God guides whom He wills, I guess. 😅

I consider myself Buddhist. Im not a particularly good Buddhist and im not an asshole so I generally keep it to myself.

When I was a teenager 20+ years ago I learned as much as I could about it. I wasnt ready to commit to anything so I carried on as an atheist, but I always felt that if anyone got it right, it was Buddha. If youre going to have a spiritual/religious philosophy, being devoted to the elimination of suffering seems like pretty much the best central concept you could go from IMO.

Im particularly drawn to Soto Zen. Theres a straightforwardness to it and zazen that makes sense to me. I really do need to sit zazen more regularly though.

I'm not, but I kind of miss the community connection and discussion of life wisdom that religion serves.

I've thought about trying to go to a universalist Unitarian service sometime, since I've heard they dont really care if you are a more secular person, they're not a Christian church, and welcome folks of all sorts of world views

Nope.. I dont buy into modern mythology.

No. It’s not really something I think about apart from curiosity on an anthropological level on how it all came about.

As it is 95% a hereditary construct, no.

Not religious.

Because I was raised well enough to successfully avoid indoctrination into a cult.

Are you religious?

No.

Why or why not?

I was raised Lutheran and went through the whole Sunday School and Catechism routine. Basically brainwashed by my parents from an early age to buy into it. At the same time, I was always a curious person and learned (also from my parents) to ask questions and be skeptical. By the time I was taking Catechism, I had started to notice the cracks in Christian mythology. Their version of the Christian Bible is outright self-contradictory in some places, and the rest of it has logical holes big enough to walk through. Eventually, I got stuck on two questions:

1. What proof do you have that the supernatural exists?
2. How does that evidence of the supernatural prove that your mythology is correct?

It never ceases to amaze me how many religious people just flat out don't have an answer for those questions, but damn if they don't want to bring up faith. "Faith" is not proof, and a god of the gaps argument is not useful.

I do find the study of mythology interesting and worthwhile. Various mythologies have heavily influenced society to this very day. We can still see various Christian, Jewish and Islamic mythologies having a heavy impact on modern world events. And the storytelling in many myths is interesting and tells us a lot about the issues a society was grappling with at the time the myths were created and the overlap between societies as they shared stories.

I'm also quite willing to partake in most religious celebrations. Any excuse for feasting, frolicking or fornicating seems worthwhile.

I was raised in a devout Christian family. It never felt right to me. It just never felt capital "T" True.

After expressing that feeling at an early age, I was scolded and made to feel afraid of expressing any dissenting opinions about it. I guess I kind of internalized that fear, more as a coping mechanism than an actual belief.

When I got older, I rejected it outright, and went searching for the TRUE religion. I didn't find it, lol, and I began identifying as an atheist. Albeit, an atheist with a lot of knowledge of various religious and spiritual traditions.

Then, I read the Principia Discordia. That book changed my perspective on everything. It led me to Leary/Wilson's concept of reality tunnels. A person who only views things from one perspective (be that perspective religious, philosophical, scientific, or whatever) has a very narrow reality tunnel; a person who views things from multiple perspectives has a wider one. Our perception of reality is based on the perspectives we bring to it.

I think that most religions are structurally unsound as a whole. They fall apart under their own weight. But some of the discrete pieces of those religions can stand on their own, and when I find those pieces, I add them to my reality tunnel.

I'm drawn to non-dual forms of spirituality, because that's what feels true to me. I feel that way because of experiences I've had, or things that just feel true to me.

I don't expect anyone to feel the same way I do about it though. We don't have the same perspective, because we haven't had the same experiences. Expecting others to see things the way I do would be unfair, and wildly irrational.

Nope. Wasn't raised religious. It's pretty common where I come from.

There has been written a lot of fantasy the last 3000 years, but I prefer the more recent ones.

Nah, catholic church was very boring and always seemed like a scam to me as long a I can remember. Also Occam's razor. I'm not an evangelical atheist though: that seems like a waste of time and effort.

No. Started in a Baptist family, but Mom died while I was young and Dad was less interested in the church, so I spent most of my adolescence not even acknowledging the hard questions of life. When those hard questions did arise, and answers aplenty showed their face, I was able to pick apart things in each religion that didn't make sense in order to keep myself from falling into the easy answers offered by others. Eventually, watching my grandma suffer from Alzheimer's gave me everything I needed to know about the soul and what makes each person themselves, so I found myself wholly stuck in an atheistic and scientific worldview.

Could there be something more? Maybe, but I can't see any of the existing religions fitting neatly into our cosmos.

Yes because I find it fascinating and meaningful and I'm open to new ideas.

I'm not religious because I never believed. From the first time when I was very young and asked at church "where was god?" and they couldn't answer. I called bullshit on it and I didn't even know what bullshit was.

No. I don't understand why anyone is, really. The whole idea is so weird.

I'm somewhat religious as I believe some feelings are holy/otherworldly/peaceful but it's not bible religion and there is only one of me, not a group.

I was very, very devout. After a long long while, I finally gathered enough courage to embrace apostasy (at no small cost). I'm much happier and healthier now.

I'd like to think I'm a person of free will but... no, I'm not religious mainly because I was raised atheist. China was mostly folk religion (with a good bit of Buddhism) and in modern history it became aggressively atheist so... It's probably quite fascinating for ppl interested in history/religion studies, because I don't know any other country that is over 90% not religious

Obviously with scientific training & stuff I probably would have become an atheist or an agnostic anyways, but it's not because of my education that I became not religious so I can't really pitch it or anything...

Like siempastrophe, I was not blessed with belief. I remember finding out that the adults at the church really believed the stories they were telling were true, when I was 5 or so.

I wouldn't say I am Atheist, with a capital A, either. No way to disprove, and the simple fact of physical existence is so mind-blowing, the universe existing at all, consciousness, time. But no I can't believe enough to believe in any particular religion as true.

No but not for any hard reasons. It just never appealed to me

Nah, cuz retrovirus in chimps. Also, whales.

No. It's a scam created by humans to control the behavior of other humans. And to steal their $$ with false hopes of a nonexistent "paradise".

I find it mind boggling that people still get indoctrinated into the Cults. It's sad and pathetic.

Whether they recognize it or not, all humans have religious needs. The need to feel like a good person (whether you are or not) is a religious need. The need to have hope for the future (whether hope is reasonable or not) is a religious need. The need for something bigger than yourself to look up to (regardless of how capable you are) is a religious need. People don't always meet these needs through what would be recognized as an organized religion, but they still usually meet these needs through religious means.