Seems like in the 1990's I didn't know anybody who was an atheist. It's interesting how the Internet has made it, well, not trendy, but at least an acceptable position to have.
I'll give religion its due, it provides a certain amount of civility and stability to society ... at least until that society rubs up against another society with a different "ultimate truth."
In the 90's I certainly would have said I was Jewish, although my beliefs were very similar to what they are now. Back then I waffled between believing in nothing and believing vaguely in some organizing force. But for me, the Internet, reading countless discussions, listening to podcasts, gave me a chance to hone in on what my beliefs truly were. So it is only with the internet that I actually became an atheist. And I do feel guilty and sad that I don't call myself Jewish. I sometimes say I'm culturally Jewish, or genetically Jewish, but usually I just say my family is Jewish, but I'm not.
I never mind when some thug or killer goes to jail and says they found god. If their belief keeps them in check, I'm cool.
Pardon my ignorance, but isn't objectavist a philosophy on how to live, but not really an answer to god or no god? Can you be an Objectivist and be Christian, or Muslim? I never actually read Rand.
Objectivism is godless. It's about science and Reason. Belief in what you can sense and objectively measure.
I think the American Indians are closest to whatever the "truth" is: We are all part of The Great Spirit. Reincarnation also makes a lot of sense to me. Many thing die and are reborn: Just look at nature - winter, spring, winter, spring. Finally, strangely, I take solace in Steve Jobs' last words: "Oh wow, Oh wow, Oh wow."
I'm a godless heathen who came from an irreligious home. My first experience with religion was my grandma taking some of my books and games like the R. L. Stine ones and burning them, not the best first impression for a 6 year old kid.
At least the Indian beliefs make sense, we took a lot of peyote and thought animals were talking to us
I believe in God Almighty, Christ, the Holy Spirit....and a personal relationship therein. I've had far too many encounters, answered prayers, miracles, and the like to believe otherwise. I love the life I have and live in Christ. Wouldn't ever want it any other way. I'm not into religion religiosity, ritual, or the like.
Was raised Catholic...kind of. That sort of faded away as my grandparents did and I stopped going to catechism altogether in middle school. Don't think my heart was ever really in it. In my teenage years I think I was certainly an atheist, but the last few years I've really started to think there's something more. This just seems like too big of a coincidence for me. An atheist may argue that although there's a miniscule chance that life can exist in any place, and exponentially more unlikely that I'm a conscious being, and exponentially more that I'm a human, and exponentially more that I'm absurdly privileged to have been born into relatively extraordinary circumstances being born in the U.S. at this stage in the world's history and not having to suffer really at all, I still have difficulty believing that I was put here at random, because something had to be here and it happened to be me. Maybe I just think I'm more important in the scheme of things than I am. That I have purpose. That I wasn't completely random. But I feel like I need to explore it more. I was put in an absurdly advantageous position compared to the vast majority of people and things that I know of on this planet. I think maybe something did put me here, and it should be explored. But most major religions don't really appeal to me in that sense. I wouldn't say I'm a "spiritual" person, but the major religions don't appeal to me at all, though I do have a desire to explore spirituality. Over the last few years I got the sense that I would gravitate toward a religion as I got older, I just had to find the right one. I've been quite intrigued by Unitarian Universalism lately, though I'm far too lazy to actually attend an event at this point.
