OK I'll bite. Let's take the religion section for a spin!

What religion (if any) do you practice. Why do you see it as the right religion (or lack thereof) for you?

Atheism. I need _credible_ proof.

I consider myself Agnostic. Why? Well, I am unsure of everything in this world! I lean more towards atheism most of the time. Skeptical of anything *supernatural*.

I consider myself a "follower of Jesus."

I don't like the word Christian because so many that use it seem so different from the person I have read about.

I used to be a huge skeptic, but I met some people who were incredibly real--honest, genuine, kind, just, and a lot of other good stuff. When I asked why, they told me to read the New Testament...and they never asked me to join their group or anything. I read it, liked the guy that's described in it so much, I decided to try to pattern my life after his as much as is possible for a fallible, weak human.

Great!

I consider myself a follower of Buddha. I come from an atheist background and Buddhism allows me to practice religion without having to accept an anthropomorphic God. I have read a little New Testement and found it very inspiring. My favourite Christian book is 'The Prophet' by Khalil Gibran.
What I like about Buddhism is the variety of practies and methods offered which cater to different needs and different stages of personal development.

i'm a ferm believer in god. i was an atheist a couple of years ago. but in two years time, i've changed a lot. now i'm a yoga practicer, and my life is going great.
the biggest mistake atheists make, in my opinion, is that they say they will believe in God when they will recieve tangible proof. but that's not true faith. belief in God is belief against what your resoning tells you, and without needing any proof.
and for tangible proof, you will recieve a lot of proofs, but only after you start believing.

Atheism is my religion.

You can say that, but you must understand the strong disagreement of fellow believers. Take Kirk Cameron for an example, you know, that kid on Growing Pains? He was just on the ABC Special claiming he could prove the existance of God quite easily. Some people claim it has to be faith, others claim it's self evident.

If you have a proof it will be science not religion.

yes, but in the society we live in today, "self evident" is pretty much equal with "faith" since there are fewer and fewer people who trully believe in God, and since mankind has headed towards trying to explain everything with science.

What he's getting at is the claim to believe in God is one that requires complete faith in such a belief.

To myself, and probably him (although I don't want to take words out of his mouth), the belief in God is one of the most unproven and widely accepted beliefs in the world.

If I claim that there are fairies under my garden, you'd think I was insane unless I somehow could show you in person, or photoshopped Tinkerbell from Peter Pan into a picture of my garden. The belief in God is absolutely unproven, and it never will be proven, yet billions of people believe in a God. I for one find it odd.

After being an athiest for most of my life, I moved on to paganism/wicca for a while during high school (brought on by a mandator credit hour of 'religious studies')... and now consider myself an agnostic pagan In other words, I really don't think theres a 'god' or some such, but if there is such a thing, feel its much more close to the pagan/wiccan set of beliefs than the silly judeo-christians

Belif doesn´t need proof.I understand what you want to say,but it is not that easy as it is seems.You want knowlege not faith.O.K.What is knowlege?By definition knowlege is
1.truthfull
2.justified
3.belif
if you miss any of these above you don´t have knowlege.

i'm for science and against religions.

this is why.

Very good point,but...How does that shema explain existence and development of mathematic?What is ontolgycal status of number?

Imagine i would pretend to be the creator of 'everything' ... to the non-believers i would say:
"you have to believe in me to realize that you're right to believe in me."

what would you say ?
a) ok i believe you.
b) do you think i'm that retarded ?

answer b) is how i feel when i hear that kind of arguments for faith.

i find that one of the most confusing arguements as to why people should beleive, to post a quote that sums it up for me

if someoone makes a seemingly impossible claim to me i expect the onus to be on them to prove it to me, not for me to disprove that their tinfoil hat prevents alien abduction.

I tend to just go for I believe but I don't really follow any particular faith.

I'm a protestant Christian, and I always have been.

There is no (or at least, I don't have any) emperical evidence for the existence of God, but there is something that you can't exactly describe which is proof enough for me. Wherever you go, you can feel that he's with you and watching over you. He protects you and talks to you. It's faith, and that's a huge part of it, but there's a part of you that just knows.

For someone to have made up the Bible and the beliefs therin would not make sense, since Judaism at the time of the Exodus and the Kingdom of Israel was quite possibly the most restrictive religion out there. While others emphasized fear and pleasure, Judaism taught love and moderation. Judaism and hence Christianity are not "fun" religions, but rather we get our pleasure in a different way: being friends to an all powerful God who loves us.

A poster above said that he preffered to be called a Jesus follower. In translation, that's what Christian means ("like Christ"), but it's not practiced as such. I have neighbours that say they're Catholic (and I notice this much more with people claiming to be Catholic and Anglican than Protestant, but that may just be me not seeing), but you could never tell. They don't act like or respect Christian values. There are alot of people who jump on the Christian bandwagon, but don't follow.

It's almost like we need to somewhat tell ourselves apart from radicalists and such.

Anyway, this was waaaayyyy too long :P

I really don't have any formal religion but am extremely interested in the background to, and reasons for (if any), our existence.
Up to now, I have not found it necessary to invoke the existence of a unique superior being whose principal (if not the only) concern is our welfare.
If this makes me an atheist, then fine, that's what I am.

However, I think it is almost inevitable that there must be other living beings in the unimaginable immensity of our universe who can be considered in at least some respects superior to us. Where I fall short of bringing this to a belief in God is that I believe there is virtually no chance that these beings have the slightest interest (whether positive or negative) in us. Indeed, given that light (or information) would take 30 billion light years to travel from one edge of the known universe to the other, it seems almost impossible that they would be even aware of our existence.

Another important point is whether or not we are mentally capable of coming up with a well-founded explanation for our existence. I have very severe doubts on this. It's like the proverbial dog trying to figure out how a television works. Hard as the dog may try to rationalise on this, the cerebral ability just isn't there and any conclusion arrived at is likely to be pure, (probably self-serving) nonsense.

I will say that I have many friends who are very sincerely religious and enjoy discussing these matters with them. Nevertheless, to me the whole concept of religion is a consequence of our helplessness here on earth and in particular our concern for what happens after death. (Indeed, this conflict between the inevitability of death and our intensely instinctive desire to live is a major factor in our need for religion).

So, rather than throwing our hands in the air and concluding that we just haven't a clue about these matters, it is much more satisfying to accept that a blind faith in a just and loving father-like figure who is passionately concerned about what happens to us is a justifiable direction for our life's purpose.