No need to write anything. Same as Partofme. Same reasons why I call myself an atheist. I'm an agnostic as far as elves, unicorns and dragons go. Just because I can't disprove any god(s), that doesn't mean I should call myself an agnostic.

I can find no rational reason to believe in a personal god. It would be easier to believe in elves and dragons, really.

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The intellectual journey that had began with Copernicus displacing humans from the centre of the Universe and continued with Darwin’s insistence that humans are merely modified monkeys has finally focused in on the very essence of life. And there was nothing special about it. The double helix is an elegant structure, but its message is downright prosaic: life is simply a matter of chemistry.
- James Watson

I am of Old Religion.

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En uneksi. I do not dream.

I agree.

Haha what kind of an answer is that

Actually, part of the reason I think the discussion could be good is I don't quite understand the compulsion myself.

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"A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent."
-John Calvin

Even Bokononism?

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The apocalypse is coming... we're gonna need more ammo.

Off to Wiki I went ! Oooooohhh ! Now thats more like it.

"Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God."

I may well be a Bokonod

Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!

:::thud:::

What's wrong with agreeing that it could be an interesting discussion?

I think we could all be a little more understanding of each other if we started to identify certain things as what they are. Well, either that or we could probably use it to start more wars

Ahh. Now, I'm be curious to know what you mean by "the compulsion" yourself? Could be an interesting discussion.

Well I don't have much time here, but I think the word "compulsion" is a good one. Augustine says in the Confessions "our hearts do not find rest until they find rest in you oh Lord" and that is a good way to describe the feeling for me. God is a very forceful personality and I feel a need to be in communion with God.

but what do you mean by "compulsion and nature?" Is it like, why do people feel a need to be religious?

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"A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent."
-John Calvin

I was brought up a Catholic, but in the ten years since I was 18, I have abandoned religion. I have serious problems with organized religion. Every Sunday people give to their churches and it's like a wholesale delivery system of wealth that goes to the top. And then they use the money to do things like sending missionaries to Africa and in the Middle East to tell people that they live the way they live because they haven't given their hearts to Jesus Christ. That's shameful. From what I know about Jesus either as a person or as a character in a book, he would never have stood for that kind of way of being.

Religion has caused much of the problems of our times. It keeps people from thinking rationally and being open and understanding to all the different kinds of people there are in the world. It's like a team sport. I think a lot of religious people are good but that they are bred to have subtle prejudices like, "well, if you don't believe in Jesus Christ than you won't go to heaven" and that's ridiculous.

Since we are all human and can't possibly know anything about the afterlife, none of us can possibly say if there even is a heaven or a hell or an afterlife at all. The people who are certain one way or another are people I distrust since they are blinded.

You don't have to be religious to have moral values and to live by those values. Often religious people sort of quietly pat themselveson the back as if they are better, but remember it was religiosity that has gotten us in this mess in the Middle East, and despite whatever rhetoric we hear we do nothing about poverty in our very own backyards. That any religious person could possibly defend attacking one's neighbor and doing it in a "pre-emptive" way is the height of hypocrisy.

You can be a very productive and kind and giving person and you needn't have a religion to do that.

If there is a god or a heaven, I imagine it is much more complex than a "Holiday Inn" in the sky and some old guy with a huge white beard sitting in the situation room.

Raised anglican. Caused endless trouble for my family every sunday from the age of 7. Caused endless trouble for the sunday school teachers. Eventually succeeded in driving my entire immediate family away from the church. I esentially made it too difficult to even bother.

If i had to pick a religion these days it would animism.

But i mainly teeter-totter between agnosticism and atheism.

Im a humanist with no need for religion, but a need for community.

Andrew

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“...corporations and those who run them cannot stop exploiting resources and amassing wealth until they have... .I cannot finish this sentence, because the truth is that can never stop; like cancer, they can only continue to expand until they kill the host.”

-- Derrick Jensen

Smells like the same game as silk-stocking socialists whining about the fluctuating values of their stock portfolios.

Forgive me if I can't take that kind of shit seriously.

Why would i forgive you? I aint no christian...

So you think community has to have religion??? You are usually able to exercise far more logic than that WR.

Andrew

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“...corporations and those who run them cannot stop exploiting resources and amassing wealth until they have... .I cannot finish this sentence, because the truth is that can never stop; like cancer, they can only continue to expand until they kill the host.”

-- Derrick Jensen

Just fyi, that is exactly why you should call yourself agnostic if you don't want to suffer the weight of the so-far insurmountable burden of proof that any sort of theist/deist feels.

Why would a theist/deist feel any burden of proof?

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A nation of slaves is always prepared to applaud the clemency of their master, who, in the abuse of absolute power, does not proceed to the last extremes of injustice and oppression.
Edward Gibbon