# NON-Christians post here **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 23, 2001, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-christians-post-here/55579 "2001-02-23T08:30:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2001, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-christians-post-here/55579/141 "2001-02-27T20:52:46Z")
YAACI (Yet Another Agnostic Checking In). ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2001, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-christians-post-here/55579/142 "2001-02-27T22:21:54Z")
fluh ---
**Author:** ![celestina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/258eb7/32.png) [@celestina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/celestina)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2001, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-christians-post-here/55579/143 "2001-02-28T21:15:30Z")
If it’s not too late to post, I’m agnostic. I don’t trust Christians because they believe in stuff like the Bible, which is basically a chronicle of Jewish history that has been translated so many times that whatever original meaning it had has probably been lost in the shuffle. The Bible is interesting fiction to me. Plus slaveholders and slave traders used Christianity to justify the atrocities of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and of slavery in America. I’m leaning towards spiritualist/animist, though because I’ve been visited by a few angels and other spirits and had some interesting communication with a few trees, and I wasn’t under the influence of any drugs at these times either. 🙂 Sounds crazy, I know, and I can’t prove it to anyone else, but I believe what my own eyes have seen over someone else’s translation of events that may have happened centuries ago. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2001, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-christians-post-here/55579/144 "2001-02-28T21:56:56Z")
celestina wrote: > [@](#): > > Plus slaveholders and slave traders used Christianity to justify the atrocities of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and of slavery in America. Just FTR, most American anti-slave abolitionists in the mid-19th century **also** used Christianity to assert that slavery was immoral. Seems one can use the Bible to support **any** viewpoint. ---
**Author:** ![Kyberneticist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kyberneticist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyberneticist)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2001, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-christians-post-here/55579/145 "2001-02-28T22:55:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Danielinthewolvesden \* > \*\* > It is not a very scientific survey, true, but it was suggested by the Mod in charge of this forum, which is where we are supposed to do polling. Since it was suggested by a 3rd party, who if anything is biased in the “other sides” favor, you would think they would accept it. I cannot think of a more scientific way to do it- within the board rules. > > It seems to show that Christians possess a plurality, but not a majority here- running about 40%. \*\* Interesting, [OpalCat’s polling booth](http://polls.vantagenet.com/1/0/921219410/polls/222674916/results.htm?rlt=222674916&id=222674916) linked to from her thread: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=61388](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=61388) Is currently broken down as follows. > [@](#): > > Athiest/Agnostic/None (27) 31% > Buddhist/Taoist (4) 4% > Christian/Catholic (24) 27% > Jewish (5) 5% > Muslim (1) 1% > Hindu 0% > Pagan/Wiccan (11) 12% > Mormon 0% > Secular Humanist (6) 6% > Other (9) 10% So we have a fairly large discrepancy between these various polls. In OpalCat’s Christians have neither the plurality nor the majority. This is definitely unusual given the normal breakdown in the U.S. of A. I wonder what that says about the board? (well, I have my own opinion, but no matter) ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2001, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-christians-post-here/55579/146 "2001-03-01T02:02:07Z")
I’m a God! Worship me, fools. But I myself am an atheist. (Is an atheist God is a contradiction in terms? Discuss.) ---
**Author:** ![El\_Zagna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@El\_Zagna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Zagna)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2001, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-christians-post-here/55579/147 "2001-03-01T03:30:55Z")
Anthropologist. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2001, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-christians-post-here/55579/148 "2001-03-01T04:58:56Z")
I’m a non-Christian (read: atheist). What, are we being rounded up now? ---
**Author:** ![robgruver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@robgruver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robgruver)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2001, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-christians-post-here/55579/149 "2001-03-01T05:07:47Z")
I am a Pagan with Christian belief’s. Don’t ask. ---
**Author:** ![handandahalf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@handandahalf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handandahalf)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2001, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-christians-post-here/55579/150 "2001-03-01T07:29:34Z")
Proud to be Heathen here! ---
**Author:** ![celestina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/258eb7/32.png) [@celestina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/celestina)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2001, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-christians-post-here/55579/151 "2001-03-01T18:13:58Z")
tracer, thank you for noting that some abolitionists were Christians who used Christianity to argue that slavery was wrong. Actually the first slave narratives were conversion narratives, ex-enslaved people talking about how they were converted to Christianity, but if you look between the lines, those narratives are suspect. I imagine they would not have been published if the author hadn’t talked about being converted to Christianity and how that was the most positive thing resulting from his experience as a slave. And even if those early authors found that converting to Christianity turned out to be a good thing in their lives, it still did not make the horrors of slavery that enslaved people in general suffered worth that conversion. Yes, you can use religion to support any view, but the reason I mentioned Christians using Christianity to justify the atrocities of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and slavery in America is because this fact is often overlooked. I don’t hate Christians; they can believe whatever they want. I just don’t trust them because a lot of times some of them don’t practice the love and tolerance that Jesus, if such a person really ever existed, preached. A lot of times you can find Christians singing and praising the lord in church on Sunday and then cheating people or worse on Monday. If Christianity or any other religion for that matter is so wonderful, then it should not have to resort to coercion to increase its numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Danielinthewolvesden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Danielinthewolvesden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danielinthewolvesden)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2001, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-christians-post-here/55579/152 "2001-03-01T23:34:52Z")
I have not seen a major religion yet that does not have it’s fair share of hypocrites. ---
**Author:** ![thinksnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thinksnow/32/2849_2.png) [@thinksnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thinksnow)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2001, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-christians-post-here/55579/153 "2001-03-02T00:57:08Z")
I guess I consider myself a Deist, though after reading through this thread, I suppose I’m somewhat Agnostic as well. To be honest, although I enjoy discussing religious beliefs and why people believe what they do while in a social setting, I personally don’t give it much of a thought on a day-to-day basis (what was that called…apatheist?). I was raised Christian, Catholic, actually, and attended Catholic grade and high schools but by age 16 no longer felt the need to go through the motions of religious belief. When I looked around the church or while in religion class, I saw people mostly going through the motions, not giving any serious thought to their actions or words, I know I wasn’t, but instead treating it as one more thing they had to remember and recite verbatim in order to pass a class and by doing so, they would be doing what they had to. Bah! I call myself a Deist (with Agnostic leanings, I suppose) because I believe in the Big-Bang and the sheer random chance of our evolution and all that Science stands for, but somewhere, at the very beginning, there had to be _something_ that put the seed in place from which the Big-Bang erupted. I just don’t see the need to run around telling everyone what I believe. It’s like people need validation or something and religion is the ultimate conversion…enough, I’m not going to get into it in this thread, just put me down for Deist-Agnostic with a minor in Taoist life-philosophy. [sub]I’ve got a thread about Hell going, if you’d care to comment[/sub] [Why would Hell be bad?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=61930) ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2001, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-christians-post-here/55579/154 "2001-03-02T02:44:01Z")
Buddhist ---
**Author:** ![Peregrine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a6a055/32.png) [@Peregrine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peregrine)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2001, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-christians-post-here/55579/155 "2001-03-02T06:00:07Z")
Devout atheist, recognizing metaphorical truth in spiritual imagery. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-christians-post-here/55579.md?page=7)