Do you consider yourself religious? Do you go to church/temple/synagogue/mosque/other regularly? How many Forumosans are practicing Christians? …Buddhists/Daoists? …Muslims? …Hindus? …Shinto? Other recognized religion?
What have you observed in numbers of people practicing religions of non-asian origin, i.e. Christianity, Islam, Judasim?
[quote=“kjmillig”]Do you consider yourself religious? Do you go to church/temple/synagogue/mosque/other regularly? How many Forumosans are practicing Christians? …Buddhists/Daoists? …Muslims? …Hindus? …Shinto? Other recognized religion?
What have you observed in numbers of people practicing religions of non-asian origin, i.e. Christianity, Islam, Judasim?[/quote]
I do consider myself religious and a Christian. I live in a small city and it seems the closest place I could find to go to church around here is on the other side of town. It’s not always easy for me to make it out there for services, but I do go there to pray quite a bit.
Matt
Count me as one of the non-religious Forumosans.
I am religiously an atheist.
I am a protestant christian.
I don’t make it to service as often as I should, however I do pray a bit.
Ethnically, I come from a long line of Glasgow Tims, with some of Henry VIII’s minions on the paternal side. My parents were godless and left me to be raised by sea otters who initiated me into their complex belief system. I drew the line at bowing down before mother Beaver, though.
I’m fascinated by all religions, and have read about and experienced a lot of different stuff. This just strengthens my feeling of having no religion myself. (Not that I place that attitude above that of those that do have religious feelings, as long as they keep it to themselves). I am often found to be lurking around temples in the mountains, just hanging out, people watching and scribbling down temple inscriptions. You always get a nice cup of tea if you talk to the ladies in the incense shop.
I went to church for a boy, once. I’ve always been easily led. The thing with church in the UK, is that it’s going to be cold. 1000 year old frosty-cold stone sheds with pretty yet gloom-making windows that you can’t see out of because nobody figured out that clear glass was a Good Thing until later on. Haemorrhoid-inducing wooden pews. Headache-forming bellringing and organ music, far too a.m. for my liking. Ladies in nylon, singing ‘Jerusalem’. And the sandwiches! Oh, my weary soul. God’s army in Albion needs sustenance, ladies.
Anything that has me kneeling before a man in a dress makes me suspicious. And I’m certainly not telling my secrets to a smelly boy, even if he has been touched by St Peter. Did Vipassana meditation in Bangkok, but the whole reincarnation thing didn’t really fire my imagination, although I always admired the Theravada mindset. No faith, I suppose. I don’t want to be a person who says ‘Hey, I guess I’m just a really spiritual person’, because that makes me giggle.
I wanted something to help me make sense of things during a very difficult time in my life, a few years ago, but it just felt fakey and dumb. The only thing that gave me much comfort was that these things happened for no reason at all. Death is death and that we all end up as fertiliser comforts me.
Uh, yes?
Still recovering from an excessively Catholic upbringing.
Long time eh?
Christian. I’m still practicing cause I sure haven’t gotten it right yet.
I tend to think that all religions are different abstractions of the same idea. And I believe in that idea, via whichever God or Gods are near to hand at the time.
I don’t usually pray, though, and when I do it’s to the clouds or the mountains or the trees.
Not only is there no God, but try getting a plumber on weekends.
If it turns out that there is a God, I don't think that he's evil. But the worst that you can say about him is that basically he's an underachiever.
Woody Allen
What can you say about a society that says that God is dead and Elvis is alive?
Irv Kupcinet
If God lived on earth, people would break his windows.
Jewish Proverb
Operationally, God is beginning to resemble not a ruler but the last fading smile of a cosmic Cheshire cat.
Sir Julian Huxley (1887 - 1975)
God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
Voltaire (1694 - 1778)
The universe will reward you for taking risks on its behalf.
Shakti Gawain
I was raised in an Irish/Italian Catholic family-which makes me 200% Catholic-Bubba 2 Guns
I feel “spiritual” when I read a book like Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything. My current signature sums up nicely what I’ve felt since the age of about 20:
Every one of the world’s “great” religions utterly trivializes the immensity and beauty of the cosmos. Books like the Bible and the Koran get almost every significant fact about us and our world wrong. Every scientific domain — from cosmology to psychology to economics — has superseded and surpassed the wisdom of Scripture.
Not feeling religious today, or any other day in the past for that matter.
Hey, PP, you’re free to your opinion, but I’d like to understand your PoV a little better. I understand how someone can think belief in something as complex as God or gods without proof. But I don’t understand your statements below. Could you elaborate on them?
I don’t understand how you say that. From what I know of the world religions, they all look to the immensity, complexity, and beauty of the universe with wonder.
Do you mean because they don’t think it is random? That life is more beautiful because we’re just so lucky it happened this way?
Most religious books are not intended to teach about all aspects of the universe. They aren’t intended to be compediums of all knowledge. They’re written to include stories to build faith and to express wisdom.
So, what’s your point on this one?
Honestly, I’m looking to understand, not attack or contradict.
I don’t need to be religious … I’m a reincarnation of Jesus in a Belgian body … and God was not my father …
Recent article that I liked: Rabbi Gellman’s take on the debate: Is God Real?
I’m thankful. Is that enough?
I’m a Catholic and consider myself a believer. However, I do not always agree with the Catholic Church.
I’m a none beliver just like my father and he’s father befour him.