I am a devout, evangelical (as opposed to fundamentalist {I used to know the difference})Christian. I am not a proselytizer, but I am all for it. I believe the bible is the Word of God, and totally literal, except where it says it is visions, etc…
not much of a churchgoer, because most of them are not hardcore enough, are too loud, or off on too many tangents. I believe in the raising of the dead, healing, gifts of the Spirit, etc…
Hmmmm…what else…
I dunno what else. I’ll have to look up what an Evangelical is, but, last time I checked, ca. 1977, I knew what it was and I fit the category. Lately, the dictionaries seem to make the two the same.
Heh, as another “unsure” sorta guy, it totally made sense to me.
Someday I feel like I don’t believe in God/Gods/Whatever is out there, but that’s okay, because God believes in me. And that makes me feel a little better, though I do feel bad then for not believing in Him/Her/Both/Whatever. But I feel like if He* was out there, he’d be pretty understanding of that.
Sorta like:
God: “Hey, dude, sorry I didn’t put much evidence down there for you to believe in me. My bad. But I must say you’re doing a good job of being good to your fellow man and staying pretty cool down there. Good job!”
Me: “Thanks, God, for being so understanding on this one. I’m sorry I can’t believe in you right now. Thanks for being so patient though. Maybe I’ll come around another time?”
God: “It’s cool. Take your time, I understand how it is. Science and logic and all. Run with that, just be Righteous.”
Me: “Why am I talking to myself about an imaginary conversation with God?”
God: "I don’t know, dude. Anyways, have a nice day! "
I’m surprised that there aren’t more deists. I’m definitely not a mainstream believer given I don’t attend church or particularly like the concept of organized religion, so I picked deist. I do pray, though, despite not being too sure if prayers are heard. I figure it has meditative value at the very least.
Atheist with high confidence, plus the conviction that religion taints practically everything it touches. I like Richard Dawkins’ and Christopher Hitchens’ takes on it. I also like much of what Sam Harris has to say, my only reservation being that he seems to promote censoring religious expression and I fear that if we establish censorship of expression of belief, atheists are probably going to be out-voted.
I’m a Pagan with an extremely loose attitude toward all belief systems, including my own. I’ve never heard the phrase “agnostic theist” before, but come to think of it, it does describe my religious thoughts somewhat aptly. I experience that there’s something numinous, but I’m not going to bother trying to nail down just what it is, which seems inappropriate. The best succinct summation I’ve ever found was on a Wikipedia userbox: “This user’s spiritual beliefs are complex and personal.”
My beliefs aren’t dogmas, they’re catmas.
My group and the Deists are by far the smallest. Yep, we’re the weirdos of the bunch.
Christian, specifically Catholic (and I hate the way the word “Christian” has been hijacked by a small percentage of Christians). I’m pretty observant, meaning I miss Mass once in a while, but try not to miss it too often, and I go to confession once in a while, and I generally believe that the Catholic Church is the truest (but not the only) path to God. And I’m well aware of where the Catholic Church has gone, and is going, wrong.
I voted “mainstream or moderate” because, although I’m fairly religious by the standards of the part of American society in which I live, I don’t proselytize, I don’t really care if any of my friends or relatives share my religious beliefs or not, or if they have any religious beliefs at all (and hardly any of them do), I don’t think that people are less “good” because they’re not Catholics, or not Christians, or lack any religious beliefs at all.
I think that people who insist on proselytizing, or witnessing, or spouting off unsolicited critcisms of others’ religious beliefs (and yes, that includes atheists, whether said atheists are being critcized or doing the criticizing) are assholes.
I have to go with moderate Catholic. I am very interested in Bible study and love mass but I am not a daily communicant. I go to confession when I need to and try and stay involved in some form of volunteer work. I try and follow the churches teachings to the best of my ability although I sometimes fall short.
