Census time: The Ultimate Giantbomb Religion Poll.

Whatever religion involves not debating religion anymore cause it's boring as fuck and pretty irrelevant.

What brand cassette gives me the best dub? haha

i never believed in nothin. even as a baby. i prefer non-denominational to athiest, regardless of semantics and all that other shit, 
 
non-denominational sounds cool

I tend to stray towards Apatheism, but if you pressed me I would say there isn't a god.

@Contrarian said:

I think about 87% of the US consider themselves Christian,

I find statistics like that misleading. I'm not sure how it's done in the US, but I imagine that statistic is pulled from the census. Even if only the parents of a family are religious, the 4 atheist children would still be put down as Christian.

Ohey, another person who thinks agnosticism is somehow a religion. That's like concluding someone likes or dislikes the taste of strawberries after they say, "I have no way of knowing how strawberries taste".

Eh. Of the poll options available I am an atheist. Though I prefer the term antitheist as it more describes my feelings on religion in general, that I find it, on the balance, more negative than positive on the whole. I can respect view points like pantheism & deism, but people who think that any deity has any direct influence on human life & merely gives a fuck about us they are, to me, just silly. If there is a deity then we are ants to it & not worth worrying about. OR.

But if as I sit waiting for TNT to start a deity comes down to me & says "yo, Cameron, I'm real. I'm the god of X faith" (no need to discriminate) I'll have to change my position. Atheism would no longer be a rational decision to make when you have definitive proof of a deity. So my position would then become one of misotheism. Because I have seen enough in this life not to love or respect any god who takes an intimate interest in humanity. This world is ugly. Our species is ugly.

@Animasta said:

agnostic is the only smart thing to do... anyone who says they know gods don't exist are idiots, and anyone who says THEY know god exists are also idiots

boom

By that logic bigfoot, the lock ness monster, ghosts, godzilla and demons exist/don't exist. WHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO KNOWS????

@MrKlorox said:

Agnostics aren't "unsure". They don't believe that knowing whether or not a god exists is even possible.

Isn't that semantics?

On the point of Atheism not being a religion, right and wrong. Atheists most likely have a faith in science. Faith is faith. Atheists don't know the answers.

No Unitology option????

Agnostic Athiest

I appreciate that you put in irreligious as an option, most wouldn't. I'm not Atheist (in that I don't reject existence of any god or believe that any god does exist), but I'm not religious in any way. I just don't care about that stuff. People can do whatever they choose, as long as they don't force it on me.

"I don't know for certain but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption that he is not there." This sentence sums up my views. This is an atheist viewpoint.

Shit. I had a big post where I quoted a bunch of people. And then I made a mistake & lost it all. Grrr.

ugh religion debates

interesting to see the polls

and guys please keep it civil demeaning someone elses belief is not cool is especially if its the way they base they're life, give people the respect you would give yourself.

its annoying to see god is a flying spaghetti monster/ OMG RELGIOUS PEOPLES SO IGNORANTZ.like wise OMG ATHEISTS HAZ NO MORALS everyone has different beliefs and ways they view the world.

@spartanlolz92 said:

ugh religion debates

interesting to see the polls

and guys please keep it civil demeaning someone elses belief is not cool is especially if its the way they base they're life, give people the respect you would give yourself.

its annoying to see god is a flying spaghetti monster/ OMG RELGIOUS PEOPLES SO IGNORANTZ.like wise OMG ATHEISTS HAZ NO MORALS everyone has different beliefs and ways they view the world.

I absolutely respect someones right to hold what ever view they want. Even racists have the right to hate blacks or Jews or whatever. But in the same way that a Christian believes that everyone who doesn't accept Jesus as their saviour is going to hell & so wants to convert people to save them from that awful fate, it is the duty of someone who thinks that organised religion has a negative impact on society to respectfully but perhaps forcefully attempt to make a believer in an organised religion question why they hold those beliefs. If someone gets offended by that then it's unfortunate but at the same time, we live in a multicultural society so maybe it's time those people accept that some people think you are wrong & so to maybe get used to their beliefs being questioned from time to time.

Socrates had the right idea of it, even if he was an irritating asshole. Make people think why they believe X Y & Z. It's healthy personally & for wider society.

@forkboy: We may not share opinions on the spiders vs. parisitic wasps debate, but you, sir, sound like you are also an agnostic athiest.

@xobballox said:

@forkboy: We may not share opinions on the spiders vs. parisitic wasps debate, but you, sir, sound like you are also an agnostic athiest.

I tend to just call myself an atheist because the only thing that could convince me of the existence of god would be him or one of his angels/henchmen coming down to me & having a chat. The only gods I really think are possible are the kind mentioned in deism & pantheism, which are more philosophical position on the universe than religious beliefs in that they aren't gods who demand attention. Even when I was very young & so not really philosophically inclined I was troubled by the idea that any god could allow this world to be full of so many pointlessly cruel events.

How many more religious posts are you going to make?

Oh and Catholic.

Interesting how dominant flat-out atheism in our demographic. Even Bill Maher and Christopher Hitchens would describe themselves as agnostic. It's another kind of faith to say with total CERTAINTY that there is nothing out there. Any wise man should recognize that while there's no proof of God (and therefore no reason to care about religion), there is not absolute disproof of a God yet. At the end of the day, we just don't know.

That said, I had a pretty intense experience in my college years that makes ME personally certain of an interventionist God. I voted "Other Christian" because I consider myself Gnostic Christian. So what the hell does that mean? Read some later writings of Carl Jung, then watch "Holy Mountain" and the first "Matrix" back-to-back, and you might be on a similar wavelength.

But anyway, agnosticism is the reasonable choice for most people. It's clear that organized religion is rapidly losing influence in the world, thank God.

@GalacticPunt said:

Interesting how dominant flat-out atheism in our demographic. Even Bill Maher and Christopher Hitchens would describe themselves as agnostic. It's another kind of faith to say with total CERTAINTY that there is nothing out there. Any wise man should recognize that while there's no proof of God (and therefore no reason to care about religion), there is not absolute disproof of a God yet. At the end of the day, we just don't know.

Agnosticism and atheism aren't mutually exclusive. See what@xobballox said:

Agnostic Athiest

@Contrarian: Born

As Robert Flint explained in his 1903 book Agnosticism, agnosticism is:

...properly a theory about knowledge, not about religion. A theist and a Christian may be an agnostic; an atheist may not be an agnostic. An atheist may deny that there is God, and in this case his atheism is dogmatic and not agnostic. Or he may refuse to acknowledge that there is a God simply on the ground that he perceives no evidence for his existence and finds the arguments which have been advanced in proof of it invalid. In this case his atheism is critical, not agnostic. The atheist may be, and not infrequently is, an agnostic.

We are just verging into pendantic arguments about the infinite possibilities of how we define something. No what anyone says, we can counter with a slight variation. An atheist, agnostic and theist are not simply three differenet viewpoints as there are variations within each position. Having an argument on that isn't helpful. It is pretty simple:

Atheist - you just don't make room for the possibilty of a God, it makes no sense.

Agnostic - you make room for any possiblilty as you just can't be certain either way.

Theist - you believe in a higher power and then it comes to which one, or in the case of irreligious, none in particular.

Drilling down further than that is really just making an argument more complicated than is required.

@BoG: Cool.

@Voxel said:

No Unitology option????

Unitarian is there - same thing?

@mandude said:

@Contrarian said:

I think about 87% of the US consider themselves Christian,

I find statistics like that misleading. I'm not sure how it's done in the US, but I imagine that statistic is pulled from the census. Even if only the parents of a family are religious, the 4 atheist children would still be put down as Christian.

I agree entirely. Children should be left out of the question and it left for those filling out the Census for themselves.

Atheist. No good reason to believe in god, so why believe in god?

I was an atheist before it was cool.

Raised by parents who told me to believe in God or there's a place called hell, although they didn't push it on me. When I was about 12 I started questioning the fact whether there was a god or not and couldn't really decide, so I was agnostic for a long time. As the years went on, I started to lean towards atheism more and more.

I came across a news story that happened around my area where an 18 year old boy was leaving bible study and was held up by a robber at gun point. The article said the boy held up his bible and said, "In the name of Jesus Christ, your gun will not fire." The guy pulled the trigger, the round was fired because that's how bullets work and the kid bled to death at the hospital moments after. At that point I realized there's no magical man watching over shit. Atheist ever since.

Here's the article. http://www.cantonrep.com/carousel/x438808575/Jackson-man-shot-to-death-at-Bible-study-in-Canton

Agnostic. I feel like atheism disregards too much. I don't think you can answer those questions either way

Christian.

Observation, logic, science, and relationship all led me to my conclusion.

I share the reasons for my beliefs when given the opportunity, but not when unwanted, nor do I attempt to belittle those who believe differently.

I much prefer Atheists who can manage to do the same.

''A. Atheist

B. Agnostic

C. Irreligious''

and how the eff am I supposed to choose?

@egg said:

''A. Atheist

B. Agnostic

C. Irreligious''

and how the eff am I supposed to choose?

The way I see it, in very simple terms:

Atheist - you just don't make room for the possibilty of a God, it makes no sense.

Agnostic - you make room for any possiblilty as you just can't be certain either way.

Theist - you believe in a higher power and then it comes to which one, or in the case of irreligious, none in particular.

@Contrarian: Actually, I would argue that even that is not a firm position to stand on. The Robert Flint explanation shouldn't be taken as gospel and I feel like the definitions you lay out for the three terms are a little shaky as well. No matter what Flint has said the word "agnostic" has been repeatedly and validly applied to situations where people do not think it is knowable if there is a God, do not believe there is sufficient evidence to prove or disprove that there is a God, or believe that conclusions cannot be drawn about something unless evidence for them is demonstratable or can be demonstrated. Over the years it seems a lot of different people have had a lot of different ideas about what "agnostic" means and ultimately it seems to come down to an argument about semantics. Personally, at this point, I'm thinking of dropping the "agnostic" label from my "agnostic atheism" because a lot of people seem to be rather unclear about what the definition of "agnosticism" is.

Really, I'd say to anyone who identifies as an "agnostic", it's strongly advisable to explain what you mean by that, and if anyone is going around saying that agnosticism is a superior position to atheism because it does not claim to know there is no God, then you probably don't know what you're talking about. Atheism is a lack of belief in the existence of a God, not a position that we know there is no God. They're not the same thing and it's frustrating to see so many people looking down on my belief, while not actually knowing what my belief is, and often holding the same belief themselves.

@Contrarian said:

The way I see it, in very simple terms:

Atheist - you just don't make room for the possibilty of a God, it makes no sense.

Agnostic - you make room for any possiblilty as you just can't be certain either way.

Theist - you believe in a higher power and then it comes to which one, or in the case of irreligious, none in particular.

I don't think the poll results reflect these definitions.

@Contrarian said:

@egg said:

''A. Atheist

B. Agnostic

C. Irreligious''

and how the eff am I supposed to choose?

The way I see it, in very simple terms:

Atheist - you just don't make room for the possibilty of a God, it makes no sense.

Agnostic - you make room for any possiblilty as you just can't be certain either way.

Theist - you believe in a higher power and then it comes to which one, or in the case of irreligious, none in particular.

Since it's your poll, I will trust your definitions and vote agnostic.

@Still_I_Cry said:

Atheist, because that is what is trending right now.

Religion was very trendy when it was shoved down your throat at a young age by your parents.

@Gamer_152 said:

@Contrarian: Actually, I would argue that even that is not a firm position to stand on. The Robert Flint explanation shouldn't be taken as gospel and I feel like the definitions you lay out for the three terms are a little shaky as well. No matter what Flint has said the word "agnostic" has been repeatedly and validly applied to situations where people do not think it is knowable if there is a God, do not believe there is sufficient evidence to prove or disprove that there is a God, or believe that conclusions cannot be drawn about something unless evidence for them is demonstratable or can be demonstrated. Over the years it seems a lot of different people have had a lot of different ideas about what "agnostic" means and ultimately it seems to come down to an argument about semantics. Personally, at this point, I'm thinking of dropping the "agnostic" label from my "agnostic atheism" because a lot of people seem to be rather unclear about what the definition of "agnosticism" is.

Really, I'd say to anyone who identifies as an "agnostic", it's strongly advisable to explain what you mean by that, and if anyone is going around saying that agnosticism is a superior position to atheism because it does not claim to know there is no God, then you probably don't know what you're talking about. Atheism is a lack of belief in the existence of a God, not a position that we know there is no God. They're not the same thing and it's frustrating to see so many people looking down on my belief, while not actually knowing what my belief is, and often holding the same belief themselves.

I couldn't agree more. It gets very messy because of so much variation in definition. For simplicity though, how else can you reduce it?

@Contrarian: I do not believe we have a proper way of reducing positions like "I do not believe it is knowable that there is a God" or "I do not believe there is sufficient evidence for or against a God" down into one word. The point of condensing something like that into one word is so it easily communicates the idea, but the word "agnosticism" seems to do more to miscommunicate than it does to communicate. It would seem to be less trouble altogether if we tried to ignore the word entirely, at least in all situations where it is not immediately followed by a definition.

I don't know anymore, man!

The night is dark and full of terrors.

I'm an Atheist because I utilise logic. I guess if you don't like logic then religion is a happy fun-time, often full of hate towards minorities (because they like totally are evil and stuff); full of illogical statements, and full of "my magical unicorn is better than your magical unicorn".

I've been atheist pretty much forever having been given the chance to decide for myself having had many options provided to me. I did read about Pantheism the other day and it's not in the poll. I don't think it fits me but I think it's worth looking into for others so I thought I'd bring it up.

@AhmadMetallic said:

I don't know anymore, man!

It will come to you when you are ready man.

@theodacourt said:

I've been atheist pretty much forever having been given the chance to decide for myself having had many options provided to me. I did read about Pantheism the other day and it's not in the poll. I don't think it fits me but I think it's worth looking into for others so I thought I'd bring it up.

I do find that one extremely interesting as it is somewhat like my own thoughts. I have for a long time stated that I believe God to be nature, not a sentient, all knowing being, but rather a force that inevitably controls us all. I see it as the three Gods - Inner, that which controls the planet internally - Surface, that which controls forces on the surface such as weather - External, that which controls the universe. Those 3 control my destiny, so they are in a way Gods, but they don't act with a deliberate plan. The only one I have some influence on is the Surface, in how I treat the planet. The rest is up to them. Yeah, I know, new age hippy crap, but that is how I see it.

Which one is the plain "I don't give a shit"? I'll go with agnostic, because I don't know wtf is up with the world. I have a hard time believing in any gods though.

I'm usually tolerant over any and all religious beliefs (unlike a lot of the arrogant Atheists here on GB) but whoever said Scientology is a fucking weirdo.

@Seastalk said:

I'm an Atheist because I utilise logic. I guess if you don't like logic then religion is a happy fun-time, often full of hate towards minorities (because they like totally are evil and stuff); full of illogical statements, and full of "my magical unicorn is better than your magical unicorn".

My magical unicorn is real though.

@Dagbiker said:

I like when people use "logic" in religion threads, unless you are describing your religion as "my religion is logic." then nothing about religion is logical, its about beliefs, not facts, not science.

A lot of Science isn't even factual silly.

What's the one where you believe in the Easter Bunny and Santa? 
Yeah, that one. At least those two have something to prove that they're real. 
 
 
I'm joking

Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. How is it not on the list? I am deeply offended, and demand you give me some sort of compensation for being insensitive towards my religion. Haters.

May you all be touched by His noodly appendage.

@NlGHTCRAWLER said:

I'm usually tolerant over any and all religious beliefs (unlike a lot of the arrogant Atheists here on GB) but whoever said Scientology is a fucking weirdo.

I am disappointed we don't have a practicing Voodoo!

@NlGHTCRAWLER said:

@Dagbiker said:

I like when people use "logic" in religion threads, unless you are describing your religion as "my religion is logic." then nothing about religion is logical, its about beliefs, not facts, not science.

A lot of Science isn't even factual silly.

I have stated before that science is in itself a faith, as it doesn't have enough answers and much of it is theory. How many times do scientists change their position? How many times will they change their position. However, it is a moving faith, as we who believe in it, know that we will change our current beliefs when better answers come along.

@Seastalk said:

I'm an Atheist because I utilise logic. I guess if you don't like logic then religion is a happy fun-time, often full of hate towards minorities (because they like totally are evil and stuff); full of illogical statements, and full of "my magical unicorn is better than your magical unicorn".

Illogical statements like the one you just provided about minorities?

Hooray for atheism.