Off topic replies will be deleted.

I am curious as to how many consider themselves religious, and what
religion they follow. Please, if you do not attend
church/mosque/synagogue/gudwara regularly, please do not post yourself
as Christian etc. I am interested in those who actively pursue their
religious belief.

<div class="abouttext">Message submitted 1 minutes after original post:</div>
I myself am an atheist, by the way.

Major religions outside of the "big four" -

Buddhism, Taoism, Ba'hai, Sikhism - i'd guess. Feel free to specify
denominations of your religion (eg Anglicanism/Catholocism or
Sunni/Shia)

Off topic, yet not.

Is there a list someplace that has all the religions on it, both past and present? I'd kinda like to see how it has progressed since man first created it.

[EDIT] I was kinda thinking to myself. With only 6 slots, it would be more efficient to post:

Yes- please specify.
No- Please specify.
Other- Please specify.

/thinking to self.

[EDIT 2] How far is off topic? I wouldn't mind a discussion that doesn't involve preaching or converting. I mean, to my thinking "ALL' religion is pagan. I mean seriously, religion is nothing more than a modified superstition... Isn't it?

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The best things in life, aren't things.

No doubt there will be a unverifiable one on Wikipedia, but my general
idea for religion (aside from Hinduism) is that we went from Polytheism
(eg Paganism) to Monotheism. That might just be Civilization and an
outsiders understanding of it though!

Edit: I'd guess this is close, without us being to classify and collate beliefs before records of civilisation began -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religions

Gwil said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religions

Oh my.. Thats some list. I was truly impressed that they didn't omit satanism, although they did confer that it was a left sided view.. I, dunno how I like that notion.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

:smile:

Tis a big list!

But this remains a demographics review, nothing more. See "off topic replies will be deleted"

Just to add, I chose Judaism over Sikhism and Buddhism because the
representation and ideology of Jewish faith holds more relevance (and
likely more followers here) than that of Sikhism, for instance.

:razz:

i am a christian, lutheran to be more specific....practicing?....well, i practice on some sundays....all in all, im not really enthused with the church, as stated, i believe its....well....bulls**t. i feel like im being pickpocketed all the time, for every damn thing that comes down the pike....i could develope a better understanding of religion, and what really drives it in man at the local community college....(ill prolly go to hell for that one...)...anyway, a quick two cents....

Doc B... :dodgy:

I am Jewish.

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

I was born into a Hindu family, so I guess i'm a hindu by default :razz: ...
Don't practice much at all... Maybe visit the temple a few times a
year. That's why I chose non-practicing. And I don't know why I'm
posting this thoroughly pointless stuff... Procrastination ftw...

I'm christian, and although I don't go to church, I do regularily pray and the bible.

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Dark_Kilauea
DVS Administration
http://www.dvstudio-production.com/

Russian Orthodox Christian. Practicing.

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I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

Roman Catholic
it's funny that if any other community had brought this topic up Catholics would have been seperate from Christians, or maybe that's just in southern Missouri

Meh, people in southern missouri have no idea what they are talking aobut, you should know that by now.

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I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

... To my thinking "ALL' religion is pagan. I mean seriously, religion is nothing more than a modified superstition ... Isn't it?

Well. Superstition is deduction with a limited amount of knowledge. Only after more knowledge is understood which contradicts the previous "knowledge" is it deemed superstition, especially if people continue to believe the previous knowledge with blatant proof otherwise.

Now I have a question: Can you prove God does not exist? (the answer is no, by the way) Therefore, religion and theories about what happens past anything we can't currently experience or accurately deduce isn't superstition. (There's no proof confirming it either, though) There's some silly sounding stuff, but most of it is viewed as teachings.

You can learn many things from fictional stories, you being such an avid reader should understand what you can learn when fiction reflects our own society. Religion is much the same, in most respects.

As for your comment on people preaching or converting ... doesn't happen much. Most people, who're actually religious, either understand people don't want to be bothered, or that believing something because someone told you to isn't actually believing it. But there are a lot of people who push it anyway, and generally, they're not very religious even if they claim to be.

That's what I've experienced, reflected upon, and concluded for the most part. May be another aspect on your question, I hope you try to use the alterer aspect as a way to understand something more and not an avenue to change my opinions. (As you tend to do, even if you claim with all your heart that you don't, I'm afraid.)

I'm not particularly religious one way or another, but I do have personal beliefs. Not really keen to share them here, hence the whole "personal" aspect.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Romanian Orthodox Christian, non-practicing. I'm more of a deist TBH.

Muslim. I don't go to the mosque or read the Koran. The only thing I
actively do is not eating the things that are forbidden, like anything
from the pig. So most days I receive special food in school, so I'd
like to consider myself active to some small extent.

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

I'd consider myself an atheist, maybe agnostic.

it's interesting to find a diest, though i have a limited understanding of them
to my knowledge i don't think i've ever met a true diest<br style="color: white;">

Meh, I'm a Buddhist. An asshole Buddhist but a Buddhist nonetheless.

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One day you'll know what you're talking about, I can hardly imagine

Maps! - Audio blog!

Hughddhist

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I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

Chirstian lutherian. Non-active. My views are closer to atheism tbh.

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''Everyone wades in s**t until they're competent enough to walk on it. Jesus style.''
Dystopia - Empires

Roman Catholic

I believe in my religion. What I don't believe in is the whole "I
must show up everyone else when it comes to praying" thing. It's
evident in quite a few Catholics I know via church. Were you
listening to the Gospel reading about the hypocrites? Guess not,
you were too busy screaming "thanks be to God!!!11!!"

I want to know more about Buddhism though, because, since the Vatican
even says that other religions can be a path to God, that has got to be
one of them.

The great thing about actual Catholicism is how subjective it is.
Literal interpretation of the Bible? No. You have to
celebrate mass this way? No, you can make variations(some
variations piss me off though). Very few things in Roman
Catholicism are absolute, and the eucharist is one of them.

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Also change the texture of the dock. Docks are rarely tile. -Facepunch
As I Lay Dying

I belive that we create our own reality, so if you belive in something
strong enough it will be 100% real. as for me, I'm becoming more
and more atheist everyday

um... amen stadric
but yeah that's one thing i love about the catholic church is that they are more sympathetic to other religions and don't take interpret the bible in a completely literal sense
but some of those people with those wwjd bracelets need to start asking themselves that instead of throwing the question at everyone else

I know how you feel, man. Just because I'm not singing along with your christian rock, doesn't mean I hate God.

IRT christian rock

It is one of the least imaginative musical genres. I mean, at
least rap has some clever lyrics once in a while, but there should be a
limit to how many times you can say alleluia in the course of a
song. From what I've seen, christian rock consists mostly of
refrains.

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Also change the texture of the dock. Docks are rarely tile. -Facepunch
As I Lay Dying

most the hypocritical people i know in this area are the ones going out and breaking every guideline they try to force on people, but whatever
another thing i have learned from the church is that instead of preaching to people and trying to change people through words you should instead show them through actions this is a much more meaningful way to teach such lessons and i believe a better way altogether which is why i don't walk around telling people to find God or they are going to Hell

but yeah christian rock is lame and takes less talent than goth punk
even worse: Goth for God people i mean...wtf

I just realized I dreamt last night that there were two votes on islam in this poll. Hmm, funny dream.

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

I don't do religion. I'd say I believe in science, but that sounds like scientology, which has nothing to do with science.

So yeah. No religion for me.

Meh im christian but I havent been to church for years.
I just do good things and help poor people - IMO that is much better than doing weird relegious stuff to go to heaven or whatever.
Im Anglican, and from what ive heard it is PART of their relegion to believe in evolution! So I think Ang's rock (With no offense to other faiths)

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'The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit.' - Somerset Maugham

I don't do religion. I'd say I believe in science, but that sounds like scientology, which has nothing to do with science.

Scientology isn't as much about science as you'd think. Did you see the Southpark episode with Tom Cruise hiding in the closet?

I voted Other.

I'm a fairly spiritual person, but I don't follow any religion. My beliefs are my own, forged from what has happened in my life. I believe in God, I don't believe in Christ, or any other "prophet" figure. Established religion, or at least the devout followers that just take everything they're told as the gospel truth, sicken me. I don't know how someone can live their life being told what to believe. To me, in my opinion, spirituality is like a journey parallel to your life, and you should build your own beliefs according to your experiences, instead of having them handed to you.

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o

I don't do religion. I'd say I believe in science, but that sounds like scientology, which has nothing to do with science.

Scientology isn't as much about science as you'd think. Did you see the Southpark episode with Tom Cruise hiding in the closet?

Didn't you read what I wrote? I said 'which has nothing to do with science', to which you replied 'scientology isn't actually about science'.

So...

Didn't you read what I wrote? I said 'which has nothing to do with science', to which you replied 'scientology isn't actually about science'.

So...

Sorry, I was tired and somehow that picture of Lord Xenu haunts me since days. I didn't know they actually believe in a crude sci-fi story about an intergalactic empire. Until recently I thought they were more of a scary but profitable psychological experiment.

if the point of religion is to explain humankind's relationship with the universe, then it's an exceptional person that can claim to have little or no interest in it.
science, scientology, or blind faith; take your pick.

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i eat paint

i would have to go with blind faith fishman....those guys used to rock....steve winwood was the s**t!!! :heee:

Doc B... :dodgy:

i would have to go with blind faith fishman....those guys used to rock....steve winwood was the s**t!!! :heee:

QTF

IRT blind faith.

Not all faith is blind. If I expand on that, this will become a debate, instead of a demographic poll.

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Also change the texture of the dock. Docks are rarely tile. -Facepunch
As I Lay Dying

qtf?....irt?...what does it mean?....(forgive an ignorant middle aged man please, and explain yer 'gliph ...)

Doc B... :dodgy:

i'd guess at "quoted for truth" and "in response to", but they're not at all commonly used net shortenings.

is it really too much effort to type out three words? seems pointless
using "acronyms" not widely known when 2 seconds extra typing makes
your point clearer.

i'd guess at "quoted for truth" and "in response to", but they're not at all commonly used net shortenings.

is it really too much effort to type out three words? seems pointless
using "acronyms" not widely known when 2 seconds extra typing makes
your point clearer.

QFT

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http://maze5.net

I'm appreciating the irony, and usually I try to abstain from any 'leet speak', aside from wtf and lol.

QFT: Quoted For Truth

IRT: In Response To

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Also change the texture of the dock. Docks are rarely tile. -Facepunch
As I Lay Dying

any one know why gravity works?

science is its own religion IMHOROFL

Science has not explained why Gravity operates, but we ARE sure it has NOTHING to do with anything unexplainable.

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I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

Science never really explains anything, it just breaks up big unexplanable things into a bunch of interconnected little unexplainable things.

I like to give the example of lightening. Back in ancient times, people saw lightening and didnt know wtf was up. So over time "scientists" slowly started to explain it. It was pretty clear that lightening came with storms, so people say the storm causes the lightening.

But why does the storm cause the lightening? Thousands of years later people discovered electricity and realized that lightening is is electricity flowing through the air to make lightening, and that is a result of a storm.

But how does electricity work, thats still mysterious... Well in the 1800's Maxwell came up with his equations that describe electricity and magnetism.

Ok, but why are Maxwell's equations true? To explain this we have to get into particle physics and appeal to the standard model for particle physics.

But why is the standard model true? Thats still unexplainable. People theorize things like String theory, etc to explain the standard model, and one day these may be accepted, but the point is that nomatter how many scientific theories you come up with, there will always be an unexplainable element that you have to assume.

The ultimate "explanation" of anything in science is that it happens because we observe that it happens. That is just as true for explaining why particles interact via the standard model of particle physics as it is for explaining why lightening works.

So anyways, the scientific explanation of why gravity operates the way it does is, bluntly, because we observe it to act that way.

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http://maze5.net

I agree mazemaster. I think that science is great, but as much as some try to deny it, when you get to the top level of the tree of unexplainable things, you have to have faith of SOME kind.

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I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

As for how gravity works (at least according to GR), heres a small non-mathematical explanation (hope I don't derail this conversation too much...)

Imagine that there is a colony of very smart ants living on the surface of a sphere. To them (locally) their world is totally flat, even though from our perspective (globally) we can say that they live on a curved surface.

Suppose that 2 ants that are next to each other but separated by a small distance roll small marbles in the exact same direction.

Ant 1: ----------->o
Ant 2: ----------->o

For a short time, the marbles will basically roll parallel to each other. However, since the marbles are on the surface of a sphere, even though initially they are rolled parallel, as they keep going they will travel along great circles, get closer, and eventually hit each other.

The ants on the sphere, observing that the marbles get closer to each other and eventually meet, hypothesize that there is a "force" that acts between marbles that pulls them together, and call this force "gravity".

However, in reality there was no force between the marbles. The marbles were just rolling along the shortest path in the geometry they were in, and on the sphere that meant that they got closer to each other as they rolled along.

Now if you imagine that the presence of marbles could also change the shape of the sphere, then thats basically General Relativity, except that the marbles are all matter, and the surface they are traveling on is space-time.

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http://maze5.net

One of the four "great" forces ....

Just wait 'till we find that graviton particle.
All we need is another multi-trillion dollar particle accelerator.

Something that might make it more clear is that space is far from empty ... even if it is a vacuum. Anything massive enough will bend that space and cause a curvature ...

and I gotta say Maze ... just use the bowling ball on a trampoline example (with some smaller mass like a ping pong ball). Conceptual understanding is all that'd be needed in this conversation, I'd reckon.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

and I gotta say Maze ... just use the bowling ball on a trampoline example (with some smaller mass like a ping pong ball). Conceptual understanding is all that'd be needed in this conversation, I'd reckon.

I'm not a big fan of the bowling ball/trampoline conceptual example. It confused the hell out of me until I actually took a class on GR because it seemed to require some sort of "meta-gravity" that causes the bowling ball to bend the trampoline, and it wasn't really clear how the trampoline surface could effect the path of a ball without actually applying a force to it (more clear with a sphere).

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http://maze5.net

It's actually a very good example. I think the only reason why anyone would get confused is because they're thinking of a literal trampoline ... which is on Earth ... which has gravity.

Understanding that the surface of the trampoline represents a single plane of space and also that space is 3 dimensional (we're not counting time it takes to travel through it) you can understand that it means there's a plane everywhere, in every direction. (I suppose you could imagine a liquid fluid made of trampoline elasticity)

Also understanding that two forms of matter can't exist in the same place at the same time is imperative. Space is filled with "stuff". That "stuff" is what gets pushed around and creates the gravitational "force" (That, more or less, could be thought of a current through that trampoline fluid, if that helps). We're still trying to find the actual particles that 'should' exist (such as the graviton particle). No doubt, it most likely does. Since, as it has been stated, something "is" because it "is" doesn't make any sense and in our 'cause and effect' reality it defies almost everything we are limited to.

I have to be honest though: your explanation is bizarre and hard to understand ... and I already have an understanding of this aspect of general relativity.

I apologize about the continued derailment.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I agree mazemaster. I think that science is great, but as much as some try to deny it, when you get to the top level of the tree of unexplainable things, you have to have faith of SOME kind.

What I like about science is that it actually goes to the top level while most religions try to explain things on a very low, everyday level. (God made the lightings vs. electrons and friction). That's one of the main reason I never felt drawn towards religion.

______________________

I like your explaination a lot, mazemaster. I always felt the trampoline explaination jumping between 3 different dimensions is somewhat more confusing.

I'm was cristend(sp?) CofE but I don't beleve any of it or go to chruch apart from if someone I know gets married or dies.

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Tinterweb site
Deviantart

Human knowledge belongs to the world

I saw an intresting story on the title wave that hit in 2003.
There was this one tribe of people who lived on the coast of the
hardest hit area. Yet not one of them was killed. A
reported (I think nation geographic) went out and asked how they
survived.

The chief told them that the water god and land god fight for
territory, and every so often they have a big battle where the water
god steals most of the land. It only happens when the land pushes
the water far back and reviles the land that was once under
water. On that day the forest god shook the trees and told all
the animals to run inland. Then the land god pushed the water
back.

Those people KNEW what was going to happen, they just didn't use
"scientific" terms to explain it. Its like a madlib of a science
text book. I feel like that is a great way to go about religion,
kinda like the Greeks. Explaining all the little facts of life
they didn't understand with stories of gods. Its an honest way to
inform the other wise dumb masses about all kinds of things.

Unlike some religions that don't want Africa to give condoms to it's people...