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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.
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.
Wow! That's so interesting! Have you ever thought about what would need to happen to confirm or deny that what you believe is the “right” religion?
No, I'm not religious. There's no elevator pitch, because it doesn't need one.
No. I convinced myself I was until I was 16 or 17. It wasn't compatible with my worldview and it was completely unscientific.
What about your worldview was incompatible with religion? Secondarily, do you think there is any religion that might be compatible with your worldview?
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
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.
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.
Reincarnation seems interesting except I hate the "you shouldn't desire anything" aspect...
like... what if its wrong? Why the fuck shouldn't I get to enjoy my current incarnation?
There's nothing to say you can't enjoy life. Buddhism teaches mindfulness, which encourages you to appreciate where you are. There is joy to find in simply appreciating your circumstances, rather than striving for things like material wealth endlessly. It teaches escaping the treadmill of accumulation which ends up controlling us. By grasping interconnectedness, possession is left behind, and we liberate ourselves from suffering.
Thats my understanding, anyhow. Ive got a long way to go still.
Nope.. I dont buy into modern mythology.
Not religious.
Because I was raised well enough to successfully avoid indoctrination into a cult.
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. 😅
Because God guides whom He wills, I guess. 😅
And fuck everyone else, right? Including literal children with terminal cancer.
Sorry kids, God didn't will it. You gotta die painfully at 4 years old.
That’s Awesome! How long have you believed in God and how did he meet you?
Nope. Wasn't raised religious. It's pretty common where I come from.
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.
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.
It's funny you say this. After I became an apostate and left my faith, as I learned and grew behind that... I came to the conclusion that I knew what true salvation was now. Or at least perhaps one kind of salvation.
Salvation lies within ones ability to embrace different perspectives.
So much pain, struggling, and strife can be resolved by a change in perspective.
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...
I wouldn't call weird spiritual stuff "atheist", per se.
Does your family burn those fake heaven money thing? Burn incense? Put a chicken on a huge plate as a "sacrifice", then like hold the fake heaven money in their hand then like pray to spirits or whatever while muttering weird 4 character phrases like 心想事成，快高長大, 學業進步。。。 etc... then throw the fake money into a metal container with burning fire... you know what I'm talking about, right?
Idk wtf they are even doing lmao... so weird, I just never participate since I was a teen because those traditions just felt silly.
That, to me, is religion, even though its not "officially" religious.
I don't think I'm gonna be burning fake heaven money if I have kids... like... nah... kinda weird lol... I don't really believe in the spirits stuff and feels like its adding more pollution for no reason. Maybe I'm just too westernized and don't feel attached to Chinese culture anymore.
My family is from Guangdong btw, maybe your family is different, idk, does your family do those weird rituals?
I feel like a "banana" lmfao... ("asian on the outside, westerner on the inside"), the only attachment I have is that I can still read basic Chinese characters... and speak on a 2nd grade level, that's about it...
Oh btw, my mom is very anti-mental-health care and constantly think my depression is just “鬼纏住你” and tells me to wear some necklace or some dumb shit that "wards off evil" lmfao...
And wasting food will “被雷公劈” lolol.
I threw away food I didn't like (I was a kid okay lol) and I never got struck by the lightning god or whatever so... okay boomers.
My family is from Manchuria/Beijing where the communist party has a much stronger grip so... I'm not kidding, a lot of ppl literally practice no religion whatsoever; probably got stamped out by the CCP. I think there might be a rather strong North/South divide in China: the North unfortunately has always been under stricter supervision by the party so...
Like they separate it very clearly. My grandparents' generation have old folk religion but ppl would call them "Mi Xin" so... my dad did burn the fake money things, but only during my grandparents' tomb cleanings or anything to do with the older generation. One of my grandparents is Buddhist, but she does make it quite clear. Otherwise most ppl I know literally have nothing remotely resembling religious in their apartments
No. I don't understand why anyone is, really. The whole idea is so weird.
No. I was never raised on it and it doesn’t make sense to me. I think religions should be seen more as a cultural thing than anything else and without positions of power involved. Organized religion with any type of power is just nuts to me. Spirituality and less dogmatic things make more sense though, it’s just us trying to understand the reality we exist in. It can be fun speculation, especially when drugs are involved.
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:
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 second the no thanks on "the god of the gaps." Very very important.
I've become a healthier and happier person after embracing my ignorance. Always learn. Always seek to know more. When the the data isn't there, it's okay. One need not fill the void.
Someday, we will have an answer. Or, perhaps not. We need to sit with that as it is.
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.
Not really. I was technically raised Christian, but [I'll be blunt here for the sake of honesty] theism as a whole always smelled like bullshit for me, since childhood.
And contrariwise to my nickname I'm not even Satanist. I played around its aesthetic in my teen years, but by then my beliefs were already "not quite a Monotheist, not quite an Atheist" already.
I don't really have a problem with religious people, as long as they aren't zealots. (The dividing line between "zealot" and "non-zealot" for me is attempting to convert me.)
And contrariwise to my nickname I’m not even Satanist. I played around its aesthetic in my teen years, but by then my beliefs were already “not quite a Monotheist, not quite an Atheist.”
Tbh i don't get why anyone would ever profess to be a satanist if they don't believe in christianity. Satan is part of christianity... make it make sense
Many forms of satanism, perhaps most?, aren't religious and do not believe in a literal Satan or in Christianity. Satan is used as a symbol of individualism, skepticism, and resistance to religious authority. For many satanists, it's less about worship and more about expressing values like personal autonomy and separation of church and state.
I have a lot of Satanist friends. I'm all for individualism, skepticism, and resistance to religious authorities, but I personally prefer to do it without all the satanic imagery. Just to tease, I occasionally remind them that their beliefs are too Christian for me. Haha. 😈
It's probably better if some Satanist answers this instead of me, but AFAIK there are as many answers for this as there are Satanists out there.
For a lot of them Satanism boils down to a set of moral principles; e.g. embracing individualism, non-conformism and carnal desires as virtues instead of sins. It's an opposition to Christianity on moral grounds, but it says nothing about agreement/disagreement on epistemic ones. (AFAIK most of those are Atheists.)
For some Satanism is more like an instinct of opposition, internal to the individual, that pops up across multiple religions; e.g. the Set from the Ancient Egyptian religion, the Asurāḥ from Hinduism, and the Satan from Judaism/Christianity/Islamism. And it's that instinct that they worship/appreciate/support. (I'd argue those are either Pantheists or Panentheists.)
Then for a few it's like "inverted Christianity" — the epistemic beliefs are the same (there's some guy called Yahweh creating the world, he create a guy called Satan, Satan backstabs Yahweh), but the morality is flipped (i.e. worshipping Satan instead of Yahweh).
So TL;DR: it depends, but for most of them there's no belief in the epistemic claims of Christianity.
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.
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.
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.
Yes because I find it fascinating and meaningful and I'm open to new ideas.
No but not for any hard reasons. It just never appealed to me