# Do you believe in a God , or God(s)? Please participate! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 4, 2011, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-a-god-or-god-s-please-participate/605029 "2011-12-04T14:54:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2011, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-a-god-or-god-s-please-participate/605029/21 "2011-12-04T22:14:55Z")
Agnostic atheist. I think it’s a misconception that agnostic is “atheism light”, they are two different things that usually go together. The (non-) existence of god is not something we can _know_ (this is the nature of the way believers describe their god). I do not believe any god exists. I think I’ll go with “atheist”, because it probably better represents what others would think. ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2011, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-a-god-or-god-s-please-participate/605029/22 "2011-12-04T22:19:45Z")
Atheist, agnostic or apatheist. Atheist covers it best, though. I do not believe in a god or gods, never have and probably never will. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2011, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-a-god-or-god-s-please-participate/605029/23 "2011-12-04T22:22:02Z")
_shrug_ “Shrugnostic” for me, I guess. I don’t know and I don’t care. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2011, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-a-god-or-god-s-please-participate/605029/24 "2011-12-04T23:07:41Z")
I always say I’m agnostic. Not too long ago a friend described me as an atheist who \*wants \*to believe. That isn’t a bad description. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2011, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-a-god-or-god-s-please-participate/605029/25 "2011-12-04T23:29:58Z")
I’ve called myself “atheist, [antitheist](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antitheist), and theocidal”. I don’t believe in gods, I think that God-belief and religion is a bad thing in its own right, and my reaction to the great majority of gods is the desire to kill them off, not worship them. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2011, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-a-god-or-god-s-please-participate/605029/26 "2011-12-04T23:51:39Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > I’ve called myself “atheist, [antitheist](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antitheist), and theocidal”. That’s definitely taking Strong Atheism to its logical extreme. 🙂 I guess you’re hoping that if theocide does turn out to be necessary then the monotheists are correct… 'cos if it’s the Hindus you’re going to have a very wide target selection. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Sudden\_Kestrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-a-god-or-god-s-please-participate/605029/27 "2011-12-05T00:05:59Z")
I’m an atheist. I don’t give a rat’s ass what other people believe unless they start spewing limitations all over my life. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-a-god-or-god-s-please-participate/605029/28 "2011-12-05T00:24:43Z")
It would seem that there are 18 other Christians here besides me, but nobody else wants to admit to being one. I mean, you guys aren’t \*that \*scary… ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-a-god-or-god-s-please-participate/605029/29 "2011-12-05T00:29:13Z")
I’ve always called myself a “vague theist”. As in, “I believe in a God, but I don’t really define that God by any one particular religion.” ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-a-god-or-god-s-please-participate/605029/30 "2011-12-05T00:31:38Z")
> [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > It would seem that there are 18 other Christians here besides me, but nobody else wants to admit to being one. I mean, you guys aren’t \*that \*scary… It was my post, in the thread about atheism and bigotry, which inspired this thread - I maintained that the number of self-professed theists on this board is exceptionally small, and **RickJay** claimed that I was mistaken.) Yes, now several dozen people have selected various religions in this poll. But, as the post above me indicates, they never _talk_ about it in any way. And that’s fine. I don’t believe in wearing your religion on your sleeve. But it would explain why I said what I said in the other thread. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-a-god-or-god-s-please-participate/605029/31 "2011-12-05T00:45:52Z")
Functional atheist. If there is a God, he’s a jerk or he died a long time ago. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-a-god-or-god-s-please-participate/605029/32 "2011-12-05T00:51:53Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > Functional atheist. If there is a God, he’s a jerk or he died a long time ago. So if he signed on to SDMB, he’d be violating our guidelines for being a jerk. Serves Him right. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-a-god-or-god-s-please-participate/605029/33 "2011-12-05T01:01:23Z")
Strongish atheist. “God” is nondisprovable. I think it’s possible that a “high power” of some sort could exist, but I’ve seen no evidence of one, don’t feel such a postulate is needed or healthy, and, should one exist, I believe it would be far enough from conventional definitions of “god” as to really stretch the definition. ---
**Author:** ![PandaBear77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@PandaBear77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PandaBear77)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-a-god-or-god-s-please-participate/605029/34 "2011-12-05T01:20:30Z")
Abrahamic God in the Christian sense. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-a-god-or-god-s-please-participate/605029/35 "2011-12-05T01:22:51Z")
I voted atheist, because I don’t believe in a God in the way that I hear people try to define God. The lack of any real definition of God means that I surely can’t believe in ‘him’. That said, I love the idea of considering the awesomeness of the cosmos and existence ‘God’ in and of itself. It just seems like the perfect loaded word to describe such indescribable wonder. So I go with the term ‘pantheist’ if that can be taken to meant, “I just call it all ‘God’”. I have done some reading on pantheism, though, and I understand that not all pantheists think it is as simple as ‘calling it all god’. So, if really pressed, I guess I would go with, ‘atheist.’ ---
**Author:** ![ASanders](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asanders/32/3367_2.png) [@ASanders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASanders)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-a-god-or-god-s-please-participate/605029/36 "2011-12-05T01:23:24Z")
> [@Cumberdale](#): > > I used to say I was agnostic because it was a kinder, gentler way of saying I don’t believe in god. Now, I unashamedly say I am an atheist. > > While I don’t believe in the gods that have so far been imagined by humans, I’m not saying there is definitely nothing out there. I just see no evidence. > > I will say that if there is some sort of higher power, it most likely in no way resembles anything people currently or in the past believed. The sooner we as a species outgrow this silly belief system the better off the world will be. What I would have said had you not gotten here first. You said it better than I would have. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-a-god-or-god-s-please-participate/605029/37 "2011-12-05T02:01:40Z")
Abrahamic God in the Christian sense. Conservative Catholic . > [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > I’ve called myself “atheist, [antitheist](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antitheist), and theocidal”. I don’t believe in gods, I think that God-belief and religion is a bad thing in its own right, and my reaction to the great majority of gods is the desire to kill them off, not worship them. How can you desire to kill non-existing beings? ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-a-god-or-god-s-please-participate/605029/38 "2011-12-05T02:05:37Z")
The existence of gods is infinitely more implausible than, say, talking trees, as trees capable of speech would ostensibly be more bound by the laws of physics than gods are purported to be. If gods exist then anything that could possibly be imagined by anyone, no matter how far-fetched, exists as well. As **RealityChuck** alluded in post #5 above, that people in this day and age actually believe in gods and other supernatural phenomena is, to me, laughably silly. That we are asked to respect this belief, however, is, in my opinion, dangerous and detrimental to the progress of the human race. I think I will always be amazed that while most agree that Scientology is kooky, these same people will defend, say, Christianity when the only real differences between the two are that one is older and has a more elaborate mythology. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-a-god-or-god-s-please-participate/605029/39 "2011-12-05T04:42:07Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > I’ve called myself “atheist, [antitheist](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antitheist), and theocidal”. I don’t believe in gods, I think that God-belief and religion is a bad thing in its own right, and my reaction to the great majority of gods is the desire to kill them off, not worship them. Den u no getz cheezburgerz. Srsly. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-a-god-or-god-s-please-participate/605029/40 "2011-12-05T04:51:41Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Den u no getz cheezburgerz. Srsly. I do believe in ceiling cat. Does that make me a theist? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-a-god-or-god-s-please-participate/605029.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-a-god-or-god-s-please-participate/605029.md?page=3)