Religions?

[Zathoth]

I consider myself an atheist most days, just because we can accept being wrong does not make us not atheists.

[Aryanath]

I seem to have been the first person to vote "Hindu" in the poll. I'm not surprised, given that most fans are probably from the United States or the United Kingdom and from a Western ancestral origin. My parents immigrated to the U.S. from India. 

 

I'm not super-practicing but I enjoy reading the folklore and philosophy associated with the religion, and it provides the basis for me to incorporate other religious ideas into my belief system (various pagan religions, other Indic religons, Sufism, aspects of Christian mysticism, Greco-Roman philosophical schools, etc) without feeling weird about it, since depending on how you look at it, Hinduism is panentheistic, monotheistic, and polytheistic, and it all works out. Going off the principle that when it comes to metaphysical issues, one either accepts the concept of the supernatural or doesn't, if one does accept it, then why not incorporate multiple religions, in my view. Its the flip side of atheism in a sense. 

[The Honor Spren]

I have a question, mainly for the American atheists on here.

Christmas is a huge thing here. You guys don't believe in God, but do you celebrate it? Or have a generic gift giving or something?

Just curious.

[Zathoth]

I seem to have been the first person to vote "Hindu" in the poll. I'm not surprised, given that most fans are probably from the United States or the United Kingdom and from a Western ancestral origin. My parents immigrated to the U.S. from India. 

 

I'm not super-practicing but I enjoy reading the folklore and philosophy associated with the religion, and it provides the basis for me to incorporate other religious ideas into my belief system (various pagan religions, other Indic religons, Sufism, aspects of Christian mysticism, Greco-Roman philosophical schools, etc) without feeling weird about it, since depending on how you look at it, Hinduism is panentheistic, monotheistic, and polytheistic, and it all works out. Going off the principle that when it comes to metaphysical issues, one either accepts the concept of the supernatural or doesn't, if one does accept it, then why not incorporate multiple religions, in my view. Its the flip side of atheism in a sense. 

So you are pretty much Sazed? Cool, cool.

 

 

I have a question, mainly for the American atheists on here.

Christmas is a huge thing here. You guys don't believe in God, but do you celebrate it? Or have a generic gift giving or something?

Just curious.

Swedish, but whatever. Personally I celebrate the secularized version with the standard decorations, food and presents.

[Orlion Blight]

I have a question, mainly for the American atheists on here.

Christmas is a huge thing here. You guys don't believe in God, but do you celebrate it? Or have a generic gift giving or something?

Just curious.

I shall answer with another question: if you do not have a significant other, do you celebrate/observe Valentine's Day?

The answer, would be a yes, but...

1) You certainly might take advantage of the various discount chocolates

2) As a kid, you may have handed out various valentines

3) You might hand out cards/candy/small gifts to family and friends to show you are thinking of them.

4) Be annoyed at the focus on couples during this time frame.

5) Because of 4, rebrand Valentine's Day as Single Awareness Day.

Celebrating Christmas as a non-believer is much the same, except add the jerks that constantly talk about "the reason for the season" and "war on Christmas" to the point I've been reprimanded for using X-mas because it "took the Christ out of Christmas"...never mind that Xmas was historically used and invented by Christians for Christians...And no-one seems to mind that we don't observe the "mass" part of Christmas.

Whew! End of rant! So, in a nutshell, it's like Valentine's day for singles but with waaay more annoying interactions with people.

[ThirdGen]

I have a question, mainly for the American atheists on here.

Christmas is a huge thing here. You guys don't believe in God, but do you celebrate it? Or have a generic gift giving or something?

Just curious.

 

Socially, it's considered rude to not get Christmas gifts for your family.  Even among atheist families, I see this.

[Kaymyth]

I seem to have been the first person to vote "Hindu" in the poll. I'm not surprised, given that most fans are probably from the United States or the United Kingdom and from a Western ancestral origin. My parents immigrated to the U.S. from India. 

 

I'm not super-practicing but I enjoy reading the folklore and philosophy associated with the religion, and it provides the basis for me to incorporate other religious ideas into my belief system (various pagan religions, other Indic religons, Sufism, aspects of Christian mysticism, Greco-Roman philosophical schools, etc) without feeling weird about it, since depending on how you look at it, Hinduism is panentheistic, monotheistic, and polytheistic, and it all works out. Going off the principle that when it comes to metaphysical issues, one either accepts the concept of the supernatural or doesn't, if one does accept it, then why not incorporate multiple religions, in my view. Its the flip side of atheism in a sense. 

 

Hooray!  I'm not the only polytheist on the board anymore!

 

I have a question, mainly for the American atheists on here.

Christmas is a huge thing here. You guys don't believe in God, but do you celebrate it? Or have a generic gift giving or something?

Just curious.

 

I'm Kemetic and my husband is an atheist, but we still celebrate the season.  I tend to focus more on the Yule aspects (just 'cause I've still got some Wiccan remnants floating around in my personal practice), but we put up a tree, decorate it (I have the entire run of Order of the Stick ornaments ), buy gifts for each other, etc.  Our families are also all still Christian, so it's hard to completely disconnect from the holiday when it has such a strong family connotation.

[Aryanath]

Hooray!  I'm not the only polytheist on the board anymore!

 

I wish there were more of us!

So you are pretty much Sazed? Cool, cool.

 

Yup, exactly 

[Oversleep]

I wonder whether it was brought up: some countries are more likely to have certain religions. So the poll won't reflect actually the religion - Sanderfan connection worldwide.

For it to be truly reflective of the distribution of religion of the Sharders, we'd have to differentiate for the country. For example, I wouldn't expect many Mormons from Europe. Since this is a English language forum and Sanderson books are primarily known in USA, I guess most Sharders are from USA.

I'm just curious. I wanted to see whether Brandon's books were more likely to be read by a certain religion.

So unfortunately the poll is inconclusive

[Moonskin]

I seem to have been the first person to vote "Hindu" in the poll. I'm not surprised, given that most fans are probably from the United States or the United Kingdom and from a Western ancestral origin. My parents immigrated to the U.S. from India. 

 

I'm not super-practicing but I enjoy reading the folklore and philosophy associated with the religion, and it provides the basis for me to incorporate other religious ideas into my belief system (various pagan religions, other Indic religons, Sufism, aspects of Christian mysticism, Greco-Roman philosophical schools, etc) without feeling weird about it, since depending on how you look at it, Hinduism is panentheistic, monotheistic, and polytheistic, and it all works out. Going off the principle that when it comes to metaphysical issues, one either accepts the concept of the supernatural or doesn't, if one does accept it, then why not incorporate multiple religions, in my view. Its the flip side of atheism in a sense. 

 

I find hinduism absolutely fascinating. I studied several religions these last twenty years and it is by far the most interesting in my opinion. I still have the Bhagavad-Gita and I never read a religious text as poetic as that

 

Regarding Christmas, most witches/wiccan celebrate the winter solstice instead of christmas and as a "crossover" of pagan and atheist, I do the same

[Arrae]

I have a question, mainly for the American atheists on here.

Christmas is a huge thing here. You guys don't believe in God, but do you celebrate it? Or have a generic gift giving or something?

Just curious.

 

My family celebrates Christmas in the sense that we all enjoy the holiday, give gifts, and make use of the vacation time, but we don't celebrate the birth of Christ. It's more like a break from school and work for my family.

[Voidus]

I have a question, mainly for the American atheists on here.

Christmas is a huge thing here. You guys don't believe in God, but do you celebrate it? Or have a generic gift giving or something?

Just curious.

Australian here but christmas is pretty big here as well so I thought I'd answer.

Mrs. Voidus and I celebrate the winter solstice (Though technically it's summer here) because winter is awesome and gifts are awesome and that's the reason we celebrate christmas when we do anyway, the date of Jesus' actual birth was unclear so when it became the religion of Rome they just kind of merged it with the older celebration.

[Delightful]

I find hinduism absolutely fascinating. I studied several religions these last twenty years and it is by far the most interesting in my opinion. I still have the Bhagavad-Gita and I never read a religious text as poetic as that

Regarding Christmas, most witches/wiccan celebrate the winter solstice instead of christmas and as a "crossover" of pagan and atheist, I do the same

How do you mix pagan and atheist? You don't believe in a god but if you do you believe in multiple? I am very confused.

[Moonskin]

It is a bit complicated. I think of gods and godesses as personifications of life forces, not as "superior beings" like the christian god. I consider myself a pagan because I respect and celebrate the forces that rule the universe, but I am an atheist in the sense that I do not believe in the existence of an entity that watches our every move and dictate us how we should live our lives. To me, the universe has no moral, no code and no dogma; it tends only to balance without considering what us little humans may think or want. Spirituality and religion are two very different things in my opinion; so it makes perfect sense to me to celebrate the wheel of the year and be thankful for what life brings us without believing that all that comes from gods.

 

I am not sure that it is very clear, it is already difficult to explain in French, but I hope that you get the general meaning ^^''

Edited February 27, 2016 by Moonskin

[DreamEternal]

My personal beliefs are not... easily explained. In part because I am in a continuous process of finding them.

That is not to say I am agnostic or atheistic or having a crysis of faith. I have a belief in the spiritual, even if it does not exactly correspond to any religion I know enough of to have an opinion. But the specifics of what I believe are vague, to say the least.

So, in the end, I think I would classify myself as spiritual, but not religious, at least for the time being.

EDIT: although Aryanath's explanation of hinduism does interest me, and I will research more on it.

I feel that a flexible system of belief, that allowed me to seek pieces of truth and wisdow from various sources and fit them together, would align very well with my personal philosophies.

Edited February 27, 2016 by DreamEternal

[Orlion Blight]

It is a bit complicated. I think of gods and godesses as personifications of life forces, not as "superior beings" like the christian god. I consider myself a pagan because I respect and celebrate the forces that rule the universe, but I am an atheist in the sense that I do not believe in the existence of an entity that watches our every move and dictate us how we should live our lives. To me, the universe has no moral, no code and no dogma; it tends only to balance without considering what us little humans may think or want. Spirituality and religion are two very different things in my opinion; so it makes perfect sense to me to celebrate the wheel of the year and be thankful for what life brings us without believing that all that comes from gods.

I am not sure that it is very clear, it is already difficult to explain in French, but I hope that you get the general meaning ^^''

I think this is very clearly explained

[Delightful]

It is a bit complicated. I think of gods and godesses as personifications of life forces, not as "superior beings" like the christian god. I consider myself a pagan because I respect and celebrate the forces that rule the universe, but I am an atheist in the sense that I do not believe in the existence of an entity that watches our every move and dictate us how we should live our lives. To me, the universe has no moral, no code and no dogma; it tends only to balance without considering what us little humans may think or want. Spirituality and religion are two very different things in my opinion; so it makes perfect sense to me to celebrate the wheel of the year and be thankful for what life brings us without believing that all that comes from gods.

I am not sure that it is very clear, it is already difficult to explain in French, but I hope that you get the general meaning ^^''

That actually makes a lot of sense. Thanks.

[Patar]

I have a question, mainly for the American atheists on here.

Christmas is a huge thing here. You guys don't believe in God, but do you celebrate it? Or have a generic gift giving or something?

Just curious.

My family actually has four different viewpoints on Christmas.

• Myself (Atheist): I love Christmas for a few different reasons. Foremost among those is the atmosphere. Whenever Christmas time roles around, I just feel happy. It typically means a break from school, so I don't have to deal with as much stress as I normally do. I like the songs (in moderation, that is) I like the lights, and I like the decorations. I enjoy spending time with my family. I enjoy getting them gifts. For me, Christmas is a time of peace and relaxation. 
• Brother (Atheist): He honestly doesn't care for Christmas all that much. He likes being able to relax, but he doesn't get into the "Christmas Spirit" as much as I do.
• Father (Christian): He celebrates the birth of Christ, but more than anything he enjoys being off work for a few days and being able to spend time with our family. Doesn't really care for decorations, presents, etc. 
• Mother (Christian): A mixture of myself and my dad. She celebrates the birth of Christ, while also getting more into the Christmas mood like I do. She loves having the whole family together.

Hope this helped!

[Jondesu]

It's interesting that increasingly online I feel I'm a rarity, and on some sites, a pariah, in that I'm a Christian, and one who actually believes that Jesus wants me to live my life for Him, not just occasionally acknowledge His presence (not that I'm anywhere close to perfect). I doubt I'll see anything like the attacks I've gotten on other sites here, though. :-)

To be more specific, my church is a PCA church (Presbyterian, but the conservative, reformed branch instead of the larger and significantly more liberal PCUSA). I don't know if I'm 100% in agreement in every theological area, but in general I feel I'm in the right church. I've been there since I was 1 year old, though, and haven't explored a ton of other churches.

jW

[Trizee]

Yeah, the word translated day can be used to refer to an age, this is true.

Actually the word is "yom" which means "day". Though I do believe that it is quite possible that is a metaphorical day, especially since the sun was only created on the fourth day, and how do you have a day without a sun?

As for myself, I'm an orthodox Jew

Edited March 8, 2016 by Trizee

[Jondesu]

Actually the word is "yom" which means "day". Though I do believe that it is quite possible that is a metaphorical day, especially since the sun was only created on the fourth day, and how do you have a day without a sun?

As for myself, I'm an orthodox Jew

True.  Poetic usage could result in thinking of it as a longer timeframe, but not a direct reading of the word itself.

 

Edit: I've actually never met anyone who was an Orthodox Jew, I don't think, just some very liberal and barely religious ones (by their own admission).  Nice to meet you (in the online sense)!

 

jW

Edited March 8, 2016 by Jondesu

[Haelbarde]

Actually the word is "yom" which means "day". Though I do believe that it is quite possible that is a metaphorical day, especially since the sun was only created on the fourth day, and how do you have a day without a sun?

As for myself, I'm an orthodox Jew

Oh, I certainly believe that it refers to a literal day. I was conceding that people could argue for it being nonliteral.

Curious, would you believe in young earth creation? See I am of the opinion that the earth was already around and that Gen 1 is written from the perspective of an observer 'standing' as it were on the planet's 'surface' (at that point there was no dry land, only water). So the stars would have already been there, but they just couldn't be seen, and creation was 6 days of setting up the planet and solar system to support life, and setting up all the ecosystems.

[Delightful]

Edit: I've actually never met anyone who was an Orthodox Jew, I don't think, just some very liberal and barely religious ones (by their own admission).

jW

There's me too

[Jondesu]

There's me too

Nice! I'm curious too, would you or Trizee say you believe in a young earth, like Haelbarde was asking? I do myself, and I think there's a number of very good explanations for why scientists may be misinterpreting a lot of data that seems to indicate an older earth and universe.

jW

[little wilson]

There's me too

Can someone fix this downvote? Totally accidental.