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religion, science, anything to do with explaning things has its roots from the human need for answers, that's what I think.
within every system of belifes there are errors, that's obvious, but that doesn't mean that it's all bad.

by the way, I was raised buddist but then i never was that religious, it's all really sort of boring in detail

Being raised in a mixed-faith household (father a unitarian who believes in reincarnation, mother a dualist who sees good and evil in a constant struggle), I have my own views of faith and nature and how the two are intertwined, and I've come to these conclusions through observation and studying other belief systems.

First, I believe in evolution because I was raised on dinosaur books and the like. And those things are cool. I heard some creationists down in America are trying to prove it's false by stating they found evidence of velociraptors in South America. Just this once, I want them to be right. C'mon. DINOSAURS.

I studied other religions and came to the conclusion that they're all after the same thing: peace, unity, love and harmony. The problem is, in my mind, that when these systems were established, the founders had far too much faith in people. Y'know the saying: "Love God. Hate the fanclub."

Perhaps what solidified my belief system the most was a line from the Qu'ran which said, and I quote: "Behold the Qu'ran. Final message of God." As such I've come to the conclusion that whatever made us left because of humankind's own incompetence and lunacy. That's it in a nutshell.

Does this mean you have yet to find your ideal belief system?

I'm Christian because it just makes sense. I mean, creating life in a controlled environment, providing for their every need. Then, He gives them free will, but in the simplest way possible: You either eat the fruit, or you don't. From where I'm standing, God finds as many loopholes as He can to help His children. He makes rules, then obeys them Himself... Which is a lot more than any other "diety" does. And using His own son to save us... That's love, right there.

I do believe in God, but I do not believe that he made the world. I like the scientific version of how the world was created and how people evolved into society. Call me strange but I like facts and not what's written in a book that has been edited and revised over a dozen times. I believe in God because it gives me something to look forward to when I die. I do, however, think that when you die you just become non-existent. It scares me to think about it but still.. Believing in God does not make you religious it make you someone who wants to believe in an all mighty being, which could be anything. You can even make your own being. It doesn't really matter if you do or do not because in the end someone is going to be right and the rest of us will.. Well.. We'll just be wrong.

Wow, it's been a long time since I've been interested in talking about religion.

I was raised Jehovah's Witness, which is kind of a whacked group to begin with. They're Christians, and believe the Bible is 100% true (except in some cases like the days of creation and the book of Revelation which they believe to be symbolic or figurative).

I started to have a problem with their version of Christianity finally when I was in my late 20s. I was learning a lot about emotional health, and the more I learned to trust my own feelings as valid (which the JW's condemn as being selfish and dangerous) the more I realized that my inner values were in disharmony with the ones that were told to me.

I like Christians who are all about the love. Jehovah's Witnesses talk a lot about the love but they don't really practice it. And if they do, it's usually with an ulterior motive (to get more members). The two things I took away from the Bible (and I don't believe most of it now) are: "God is love" and "man was created in God's image". The conclusion I choose to take from that is, "I am love. You are love. We are all capable of divine unconditional love"

I don't believe in the biblical version of God. I don't even like to use the word "God" because it still has negative connotations for me of the conditional god the JW's preach. I have a problem with Jesus because I don't believe that I have to have someone die for me in order for me to deserve life, but some of his teachings were definitely cool and enlightened.

I believe in evolution because it makes more sense to me than what I consider the "easy answer"...I believe it's important to be spiritual, but I don't really believe you have to have a defined deity to be spiritual. There are pure, divine parts of myself that I can connect to when I need to.

Growing up a JW taught me that I don't ever have to worry about anything because they gave me an easy answer to every possible problem that exists on earth. But how does that help you grow as a person? It doesn't. Part of you remains a child, stunted, if you don't learn to deal with the realities of grief, pain, suffering, and loss. And it is possible to learn to deal with those things in a peaceful, equanimous way.

Technically, I guess you would say that I'm agnostic.

/me in a nutshell. ninja

Ah, the age old question of religion.

Me? I'm agnostic. Why am I agnostic? Because I really don't care. Let me explain: While growing up, the only thing I saw religion do was cause conflict - Sure, if you were all the same crowd (Catholic, Jehovas Witness, etc) then everything was all cheer and forced smiles... But the scorn I saw always came from opposing sides butting heads. A christian talking to a wiccan? It'd be with pity in their eyes, if not outright hostility. To me, religion just seperates people into warring groups ready and ripe for conflict and arguements.

Do I believe there is a god? Yeah, there probably is. But I don't go to church, I don't read the bible. I don't have faith, and going into a church pretending to be faithful is going to be more insulting than not for all parties involved. All I do is live my life ethically and morally correct, and if that's not good enough... Well, you just let me worry about that. But in the meantime, I'm just fine doing my best to get along with all people of all religions.