Anyone non-religious here? Please be nice!

[deb1]

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Isn't The Way just another term for Christian? It is all right if that is how you want to term yourself.

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Generally, polytheistic cultures believed in sacrifices to appease their gods. .

Until the temple fell, Jewish people sacrificed to God also. Judaism is a monotheistic religion.​

 

[farmerlor]

Quote:
I am not Christian but I do distance myself from those terms because, to me, they mean something--canon, bible, SOMETHING--organized and formal. Catholic, Evangelical, Baptist, Jewish, Muslim--people organized into formal groups with a formal code of beliefs that everyone must adhere to in order to belong. That is what religion and religious mean to me.

Formal religions leave a bad taste in my mouth no matter which one they are. I consider myself spiritual but I go my own way. No one stands between me and my Creator.

Rusty

That's my thing too. While I am technically Pagan/Wiccan since I do not ascribe to any particular coven rules and practice as a solitary I definitely so not belong to any organized religion. Actually, the way I practice my beliefs is anything BUT organized but that's another story.

 

[mom'sfolly]

My friend who is Hindu considers herself a monotheist who believes in multiple aspects of the divine. And some Muslims do not consider Christians monotheist because they believe in a triune God, the whole god in three parts seems to be polytheistic to them.

I would also consider both Confucianism and Taoism as philosophies rather than religions because the do not require a belief in the divine.

 

[KDbeads]

Re religion, religious, etc and definitions there of...

It makes more sense, at least to me, to look at the meaning of the words in a different way. To me religion is a set of rules by which you must follow in which to be considered religious. And religious means you subscribe to those rules of your religion willingly. For those who believe in a higher power yet wish not to conscribe to a set of rules in regards to their beliefs I view them as spiritual.

Does this make sense? When it comes to definitions from the dictionary.... well... not everyone agrees to the exact meaning so there is some interpretation.

 

[deb1]

Quote:
I am not Christian but I do distance myself from those terms because, to me, they mean something--canon, bible, SOMETHING--organized and formal. Catholic, Evangelical, Baptist, Jewish, Muslim--people organized into formal groups with a formal code of beliefs that everyone must adhere to in order to belong. That is what religion and religious mean to me.

Formal religions leave a bad taste in my mouth no matter which one they are. I consider myself spiritual but I go my own way. No one stands between me and my Creator.

Rusty

I understand.

But I see no way that a Christian can classify themselves as not being part of a religion. Perhaps they could say that they don't belong to a specific church or denomination though. But the traditional definition of religion would include all Christians except those who aren't following their religion closely(Like no hell, literal translation of the bible, etc.) You would almost have to give up all the theology that makes up Christianity in order to make it a non religion.

That is not meant as an insult to Christians in anyway.

 

[mom'sfolly]

I agree Deb. I also think this must be coming from some ministry because I heard it for the first time, twice in one week, from widely different sources. I just don't understand how a self-identified Christian can say they are not religious. There must be something I'm missing.

 

[redux]

Christianity is a religion.

Some people who consider themselves Christians do not consider themselves religious because they don't belong to a particular denomination or subscribe to it's teachings. And maybe they don't attend a particular church, or follow particular rituals. I think this is what is meant by "I am a Christian but I am not religious." But clearly, they believe in a specific religion - Christianity.

 

[fowltemptress]

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I hear that all the time . . . that even I, as an atheist, am religious, and even that atheism in itself is a religion. Where does that idea come from? If they're saying I'm religious in the sense that Einstein was, who didn't believe in a personal god but who thought the universe was amazing and that contemplating it was akin to a religious experience, then I don't really mind, but I'd prefer a better word for it, but for some reason I get the idea from them that it takes just as much faith to be atheist as otherwise. How is that not counter-intuitive?

 

[Prettiest Frog]

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I should put up such an ad.

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It's a misinterpretation centered on the concept that 'you can't prove there is no god'.

Instead of saying 'atheists do not believe in god', which is an absence of faith, their claim is 'atheists believe there is no god', which they consider as a statement of faith.

 

[redux]

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Very interesting analysis.