Are you agnostic?

[117817]

Another agnostic here.

 

[Drifterwood]

I am diagnostic.

 

[SyddyKitty]

I'm an Atheist, by definition in that I don't believe there is a god. I would like to believe there is some form of life after death, but that's just the nagging human yearning for immortality.

 

[BigDuder]

Theistic Existentialist technically

 

[JustAsking]

JA, did you come to religion on your own or did you inherit it from your folks as most people get their faith?

How much of your faith shapes who you are as a person? What would you be like with out it?

You are interesting in that you have made these seemingly contradictory belief systems make sense in your life.

earl,
I was raised as a Methodist, but gave it up in middle school when I found it to be devoid of anything intellectually interesting.

As a college student Physics major, my sense of the numinous was awakened. It drew me towards the "Spinoza's God" that many scientists end up contemplating.

An experience much later in life put this on a collision course with a very heartfelt emotional component during something that was life-changing.

It took me a few years to reconcile that heartfelt part of it with my Deism, with the help of some briliant Pastors. The result was Lutheranism.

As for science or empiricism and Christianity, it is understandable but naive to think they are incompatible. In fact, the Catholic church was the very crucible from which science was born, before it became an institution of its own. The notion of studying the universe as a creation that is "not God" but runs with an elegant precision built into it by a creator is a fundamental notion of mainstream Christian theology.

Not surprisingly, I have become a real student of that strange but fascinating boundary between science and religion. In the process I have come to gain even more respect for the process scientific inquiry. But at the same time, I have come to understand why empiricism might be an incomplete way to universal truth.

So these days, you will find me in front of many a Sunday School class lecturing on why Intelligent Design is so much nonsense, and defending the local science curriculum against attacks on teaching Evolution.

This is not inconsistent with the official opinion of most of the mainstream Christian denominations in the world, including Catholicism. All of which have embraced science as the way to understand the natural world, and have accepted Evolution as the best explanation for the diversity of life on the planet.

 

[JustAsking]

I am diagnostic.

Does that mean that there are two Gods you don't believe in?

Actually, as Richard Dawkins says, we are all Atheists about at least one God. I am pretty much an Atheist when it comes to Zeus, for example.

 

[whatireallywant]

I was raised going to conservative Protestant churches, but became agnostic when I found out how sexist and repressive the churches I had gone to were. I also have a problem with the whole idea of hell.

Now, I have taken the BeliefNet quiz on what religion (or non-religion) is closest to your beliefs, and my two highest scores are Unitarian Universalist (which is what church I go to now on the rare occasion that I actually go) and Secular Humanist.

 

[B_NineInchCock_160IQ]

Am I agnostic?

I doubt it.

 

[JustAsking]

Did you hear about the dyslexic agnostic? He isn't sure if there is a dog.

 

[Mr. Snakey]

No........

 

[Guy-jin]

Am I agnostic?

I doubt it.

Haha! Brilliant!

I'm a devout atheist. It's like being agnostic, but more people hate you, and you're expected to be a total jerk about it (even though I'm not).

 

[freeballing]

I believe religion is a man-made device used to control people and justify wars... I consider myself spiritual and I believe there is a universal higher power. Call it God, or Buddha, or Allah, or a collective conscience. I think it's all the same.

OMG, I could go on and on, but I will spare all of you...

So, yeah. I guess that makes me agnostic.

 

[Guy-jin]

One can definitely be spiritual without believing in a god in the literal sense.

 

[freeballing]

One can definitely be spiritual without believing in a god in the literal sense.

agreed.

 

[JustAsking]

Haha! Brilliant!

I'm a devout atheist. It's like being agnostic, but more people hate you, and you're expected to be a total jerk about it (even though I'm not).

Then you would love my patron saint of Atheism, Richard Dawkins.

 

[Guy-jin]

Then you would love my patron saint of Atheism, Richard Dawkins.

Indeed, he's who I was referring to. Pretty much constantly makes all Atheists look like total jerks every time he opens his mouth. As if we didn't have the deck stacked against us with the whole going-to-hell thing.

 

[JustAsking]

Indeed, he's who I was referring to. Pretty much constantly makes all Atheists look like total jerks every time he opens his mouth. As if we didn't have the deck stacked against us with the whole going-to-hell thing.

Ya think so? He is one of my heroes when it comes to Evolutionary Biology. What do you think makes him obnoxious? His aggressive anti-religious stance, or do you think his logic is bogus?

I think Christopher Hitchens is much more obnoxious, actually. Equally militant, but not so well spoken as Dawkins.

 

[snoozan]

Ya think so? He is one of my heroes when it comes to Evolutionary Biology. What do you think makes him obnoxious? His aggressive anti-religious stance, or do you think his logic is bogus?

I think Christopher Hitchens is much more obnoxious, actually. Equally militant, but not so well spoken as Dawkins.

I love Dawkins. Way back in high school I read "The Blind Watchmaker" and I was hooked. He is one of the most well-written, easily understood, educated scientists of the 20th century. However, I think he dilutes his message and makes his work less accessible with how outspoken and militant he is about atheism. Though I understand the main point he's trying to get across (that there absolutely doesn't have to be a Creator to have biology), I've seen his books turn off a lot of people that I think would have been more open to his ideas had he made his point without getting overboard with the theology part. The message "there doesn't need to be a God for this to occur" is a lot different from, "There is no God." I think Dawkins takes the leap to the latter a little too often. Unfortunately, in the US it seems like Creationism has gotten a strong voice because people like Dawkins aren't sticking with the science and are instead getting mired in the God debate.

 

[SereneBlue]

I'm Agnostic though there are days where I lean more to true Atheism. I've never seen any convincing evidence (to me anyway) that their was some (or even several) over-arching Uber Intelligent/Omnipotent Being(s) guiding the destiny of the universe and everything in it.

 

[Principessa]

Did you hear about the dyslexic agnostic? He isn't sure if there is a dog.

JA, I am highly offended that a learned man such as yourself would make such an insensitive attempt at humor. I will have you know that I am dyslexic.

I'm kidding of course, I wasn't at all offended. :smile: