What is your religion?

[clannadman]

Atheist although I advocate any and all possibilities regarding the universe, giving each possibility equal value. For instance, I equate the likelihood of a monotheistic God existing alongside Thor, Zeus, talking blow-dryers and my favorite anime characters. Everything has equal value because everybody lives a perceptual experience of life.

[ShojiAmasawa]

I had Buddhist up bringing but am Atheist with Buddhist way of living. Not very good about but I have some Shinto views as well. I am reading the Bible and think it is quite frightening and contradicts itself.

[Yakkety]

I'm a Muslim...

[zankizuna]

I'm SDA, Seventh day Adventist. ever heard of it?
We're Christians, we believe the bible, God and everything else minus Mary, Saints and dillydallying Spirits of the dead

[manco7]

I was raised in a multi-faiths environment as well. My mom strongly believes in some sort of blend of Shintoism, Christianity and Buddhism, I had a Wesleyan grandmother, even some exposing to Judaism. Ultimately my family wasn't faithful and no one never made me go to church, even though I was baptized as Roman Catholic Christian. By the age of 8 I decided that I wanted to go to church and faithfully went to sunday mass for 2 years while I was being indoctrinated (catechesis). Let's say that after those 2 years I dropped out church and went directly to the atheist way of life. I don't really have a reason for that, I think I never had a strong believe in God to begin with.
When I was ~5 years old I used to think that Jesus was a bad person for receiving all the attention that was meant to God. I was raised to believe that Jesus was human and all human beings were equally important, as Jesus was a prophet and all humans were children of God. You wouldn't believe my surprise once I went to church, I don't think I ever believed that Jesus was anything more than human, I never believed in reincarnation and the catechesis didn't convince me otherwise. I'm not resentful of the time I spent in Church and it was quite fun, but believing in deities wasn't really meant to be.
Only after my 17s or 18s that I became anti-theist, prior to that I didn't mind religion at all. That's it, I think. I don't believe in the occult, astrology or UFOs, but I do believe that we're not alone in the universe. I just don't think they use flying disks to kidnap people, or even come to Earth.

[Taleweaver]

I'm SDA, Seventh day Adventist. ever heard of it?
We're Christians, we believe the bible, God and everything else minus Mary, Saints and dillydallying Spirits of the dead

So what differentiates you from other Protestants?

[clannadman]

I'm SDA, Seventh day Adventist. ever heard of it?
We're Christians, we believe the bible, God and everything else minus Mary, Saints and dillydallying Spirits of the dead

So what differentiates you from other Protestants?

Probably the traditions.

[Taleweaver]

Well, "we believe in the Bible" could mean "we believe in the Bible as the literal word of God", but if you just take the sentence as "we believe in God as He reveals Himself in the Bible", pretty much every Christian could agree to that. Then, if you take away worship of Mary and the saints, the Catholics are out, and what remains is pretty much all Protestant groups. That's why I was asking for differences.

*edit* Just found out that the most visible difference is that the Seventh Day Adventists rest on Sabbath (Saturday) and not on Sunday. Just thought it would be worth mentioning.

[Sapphi]

I'm SDA, Seventh day Adventist. ever heard of it?
We're Christians, we believe the bible, God and everything else minus Mary, Saints and dillydallying Spirits of the dead

I've heard of it. A guy I knew in high school was SDA.

[aestate]

I'm agnostic, but I would like to pose an open question: why or how, exactly, does someone choose to follow a certain religion? Most people I know just follow along with how they were raised, so I'm curious. (I hope this doesn't come off as offensive orz.)

[Blane Doyle]

Might as well post myself.
I'm agnostic, not really sure what to believe in aside from believe that there is possibly something somewhere out there.

My family is Christian... or at least I THINK they are, they don't act religious and we haven't been to church in ages. Maybe that's why I started to question and become interested in other beliefs.

One of my roommates practices some Buddhist traditions (she meditates, refuses to take life... not so much staying away from sexual misconduct though XD) and she is slowly getting me to try to certain things to help with my anxiety. They've actually been very helpful, to tell the truth.

Neither of us really follow the big religious practices though, just the moral and health ones that help us work through our days.

[Gambit74]

I'm agnostic, but I would like to pose an open question: why or how, exactly, does someone choose to follow a certain religion?

That's a good question. There are many reasons why people choose to follow certain religions. Some people follow religion to find spiritual meaning in their lives, some use them as a guideline for their morals, and then there's others like me who uses them as a means to cope with what happens to us after death.

[Taleweaver]

I'm agnostic, but I would like to pose an open question: why or how, exactly, does someone choose to follow a certain religion? Most people I know just follow along with how they were raised, so I'm curious. (I hope this doesn't come off as offensive orz.)

Can only answer for myself, so...

I'm a Protestant Christian, and I try to follow the example Christ has set with his life and his words regarding behavior towards other people. The entire "love thy neighbor" thing, if you want to put it like that. I try to be kind and helpful towards everybody, I try not to be predjudiced towards any sorts of social outcasts, I try not to judge other people whose motivations I cannot hope to understand, and I try to stand up for the weak to the best of my abilities. What I don't do is evangelizing or rubbing my faith into other people's faces because I believe religion is a personal decision and shouldn't be forced upon other people.

That's the how; as for the why, that's quicker: I do that because I think the world would be a better place if everyone did it. Yup, that's Kant and not Jesus, but it works out for me.

[Auro-Cyanide]

I'm agnostic, but I would like to pose an open question: why or how, exactly, does someone choose to follow a certain religion? Most people I know just follow along with how they were raised, so I'm curious. (I hope this doesn't come off as offensive orz.)

My Dad is Catholic, my Mum is Protestant, neither follow their faiths strongly. I went to a Catholic primary school and it was around years 4-6 that I decided that religion didn't align with what I believed, which tended more to what science had proved. So I stopped belonging to any religion I do have slight... naturalist belief tendencies but even they tend to follow the laws of science such as the conservation of matter and energy... though that's about me not following a religion, I presume people follow religion for similar reason. It's what makes them comfortable to believe.

[HikkiPanda]

I'm a custom catholic (catholic which I modified myself). I only follow new testament because old testament is just screw up + crazy lol. Oh, and I support gay and lesbian (I also believe that Jesus never ban or complaint about them)