# Religious Poll **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 22, 2009, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-poll/511137 "2009-09-22T20:54:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![potenski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e79b87/32.png) [@potenski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/potenski)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-poll/511137/101 "2014-07-22T13:50:13Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > Aaaand… suprise, suprise, the biggest group on the Dope is the athiests. > > I was actually thinking about the religious makeup of theist Dopers, today. I don’t suppose we have any Zoroastrionists? I’m not surprised… I’m not surprised… Dopers are intelligent. ---
**Author:** ![potenski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e79b87/32.png) [@potenski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/potenski)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-poll/511137/102 "2014-07-22T13:54:36Z")
[quote=“potenski, post:101, topic:511137”] I’m not surprised… I’m not surprised… Dopers are intelligent people that can think freely. ---
**Author:** ![potenski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e79b87/32.png) [@potenski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/potenski)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-poll/511137/103 "2014-07-22T14:17:56Z")
I used to be an Agnostic then some time ago I had a revelation… **I found out that nothing was ever created… it’s always been there and will always be there… it just changes form** … now I’m an Athiest. ---
**Author:** ![Cumberdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@Cumberdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cumberdale)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-poll/511137/104 "2014-07-22T16:04:57Z")
I used to call myself agnostic because it seemed to be a kinder, gentler word. As I got older I stopped worrying what others thought and now I use the term atheist and at times anti-theist. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-poll/511137/105 "2014-07-22T16:25:36Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > With which system of belief (or non-belief) do you identify most closely? Why is “servant of Athena” not among the poll options? > [@potenski](#): > > I used to be an Agnostic then some time ago I had a revelation… **I found out that nothing was ever created… it’s always been there and will always be there… it just changes form** … now I’m an Athiest. Whence came this revelation, and why are you capitalizing agnostic & atheist? ---
**Author:** ![Saffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saffer/32/6440_2.png) [@Saffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saffer)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-poll/511137/106 "2014-07-22T17:58:48Z")
> [@MoonMoon](#): > > I chose other because I believe in God, but not the Trinity. Me too, but because I believe in the Trinity, but not God. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-poll/511137/107 "2014-07-22T18:10:31Z")
> [@xash](#): > > Damn, I don’t even remember mentioning that on the boards. You have some memory. By birth, I’m half-Parsee and half-Hindu. By choice, I’m atheist. > > And I’m definitely not a former member 🙂 I have no memory of how I remembered that at the time. 😃 Of course, your post is now five years old so you probably have no memory of mentioning that you had no memory of mentioning that. > [@bldysabba](#): > > … I’m _another_ atheist Hindu. Me too. I picked apatheist because if I _was_ going to believe in a fictional entity it would be one of the relatively benign Hindu pantheon. ---
**Author:** ![Commander\_Fortune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Commander\_Fortune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commander_Fortune)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-poll/511137/108 "2014-07-22T18:47:45Z")
I’m a Thelemite. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-poll/511137/109 "2014-07-22T19:21:33Z")
I chose Other: theological non-cognitivist. Also antitheist. Also secular humanist. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-poll/511137/110 "2014-07-22T19:29:43Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I chose Other: theological non-cognitivist. Also antitheist. Also secular humanist. Can you explain that first one? ETA: Never mind, I wikied it. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-poll/511137/111 "2014-07-22T19:30:27Z")
I always say my religion is Other. Everything else carries too much baggage in people’s minds. I would say atheist is the closest but that always seems to be heard as anti-theist. Even other atheists seem to have some nuance that I don’t get. I found this quote in \*The Left Hand of Darkness \*recently and it comes close to my brand of non-believer. _To be an atheist is to maintain God. His existence or his nonexistence, it amounts to much the same, on the plane of proof. Thus proof is a word not often used among the Handdarata, who have chosen not to treat God as a fact, subject either to proof or to belief: and they have broken the circle, and go free. To learn which questions are unanswerable, and not to answer them: this skill is most needful in times of stress and darkness._ ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-poll/511137/112 "2014-07-22T19:49:40Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Can you explain that first one? > > ETA: Never mind, I wikied it. For the benefit of others - theological noncognitivism basically says that far from being something one should have an actual opinion on, the concept of “God” is so meaningless as to be incoherent, so it’s better not to even play the game, the way atheists and agnostics do. This is not the same as the apatheists, who just don’t care. T-NCs do care, have given the matter quite a bit of thought, and arrived at the conclusion that it’s a mug’s game, when the terms of art are so meaningless or self-contradictory. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-poll/511137/113 "2014-07-22T20:05:16Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > For the benefit of others - theological noncognitivism basically says that far from being something one should have an actual opinion on, the concept of “God” is so meaningless as to be incoherent, so it’s better not to even play the game, the way atheists and agnostics do. > > This is not the same as the apatheists, who just don’t care. T-NCs do care, have given the matter quite a bit of thought, and arrived at the conclusion that it’s a mug’s game, when the terms of art are so meaningless or self-contradictory. How, then, can you be both a T-N-G and an antitheist? Whom are are you opposing? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-poll/511137/114 "2014-07-22T20:09:51Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > And I see you’ve disabled the ability to see who voted what. Cunning 🙂 Yes, we Jews…oopsie. ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-poll/511137/115 "2014-07-22T23:48:58Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > For the benefit of others - theological noncognitivism basically says that far from being something one should have an actual opinion on, the concept of “God” is so meaningless as to be incoherent, so it’s better not to even play the game, the way atheists and agnostics do. That just sounds like you’re still playing the game, but don’t want to appear as though you are. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2014, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-poll/511137/116 "2014-07-23T00:42:54Z")
> [@bldysabba](#): > > That just sounds like you’re still playing the game, but don’t want to appear as though you are. An I thought an\* Agnostic\* was someone who did not believe in G-d, yet feared him. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2014, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-poll/511137/117 "2014-07-23T06:22:18Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > How, then, can you be both a T-N-G and an antitheist? Whom are are you opposing? Theists. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2014, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-poll/511137/118 "2014-07-23T06:25:52Z")
> [@bldysabba](#): > > That just sounds like you’re still playing the game, but don’t want to appear as though you are. Nope. The game, in this case, is arguing about the existence of God, yay or nay. Saying “God’s a meaningless concept” is _not_ the same as saying “God does not exist” Pointing out that an argument both sides are having is incoherent is not the same as taking part in the argument itself. ---
**Author:** ![DrumBum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e79b87/32.png) [@DrumBum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrumBum)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-poll/511137/119 "2014-07-24T16:02:18Z")
I voted “agnostics/undecided” although “uninterested” would be a more accurate description. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-poll/511137/120 "2014-07-24T17:28:05Z")
I clicked Muslim. I’m actually an Atheist, but I do not consider that to be a “religion”. Of those religions listed, I think the basic principles espoused in the Koran come the closest to a social ideal. Sadly, it is being interpreted over-conservatively, and the Islamic world is demonstrating to us what happens when any Abrahamic religion is placed in the hands of a conservative extremist fringe. Islam is the leading faith in Indonesia, where society functions comfortably and the economy flourishes. So Muslim is my answer to the OP’s literal question, although I do not practice it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-poll/511137.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-poll/511137.md?page=7)