Ask HN: Are You Religious?

FWIW you may find the newpoll feature [1] useful for this. It requires a 200+ karma which you have.

[1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/newpoll

I was raised in a Christian fundamentalist church, one of the “everyone but us is doing Christianity wrong” variants which encouraged bible study. That study led me to examine their own beliefs critically and I am now an atheist.

Yes I am religious, I am Muslim :o,

But I take things from every other faith or movement and keep an open mind about things. Eastern asian cultures are very interesting to study right now.

Not in the traditional sense of the word, but: I have read enough philosophy and thought about the topic for long enough to realize that it’s an extremely complex one - and unfortunately one that (as you can see by the comments here) many otherwise intelligent people seem content to ignore. Religious history and beliefs underlie just about every part of the modern world, even the so-called atheist ones.

And so my position on religious matters is something like agnosticism, with the caveat that I do think some of these questions are answerable, even if there isn’t much societal energy trying to do so.

Personally, I find process theology to be extremely interesting and promising, although I haven’t spent the time to delve into Whitehead and other thinkers. Other interesting things are Daoism, Zen, and interpreting Nietzsche’s ideas in a religious manner (Julian Young wrote a book about this.) One of these days I’ll start a newsletter/blog about the study of religion…

No. I'm atheist. There is no compelling reason for me to believe that religious claims are true.

It's that simple.

99% of religious membership is based upon birth. Every Muslim would be a Jew had they been born to Jewish instead of Muslim parents. And vice versa. It's true for every religion.

Every organized religion on earth would disappear within one generation if membership was not passed on through birth.

After careful consideration of multiple compensation packages, culture, philosophy, open-mindedness, vacation & benefits packages, I went with atheism.

Great meal selection, no mandated daily/weekly/monthly meetings, no mandated training, super diverse culture, lack of shame, violence, and judgement for natural human behaviors. Best of all you can work as much or as little as you want.

No one has been sacrificed... At least not since Jerry reheated talapia in the break room microwave.

Shit christmas parties though.

Yes. Christian. Bible-believing, serious about actually trying to live it out, not just showing up on Sunday and wearing the label.

No. I am atheist, but I happily encourage the lessons of Buddhism and religious pluralism. (This came about from having an atheist father and Buddhist mother)

I am the only atheist that I know of that helps teach at a Sunday school. I still believe in community and the greater good. My friends tell me this is because I have not been betrayed often enough.

raised independent bible church/southern baptist, probably 80% fundamentalist.

Now I guess you could consider me a deist, since I think if we are going to define God as some kind of infinite extension of some aspect of humanity then God would have to be a hyper turing machine then in my estimation.

Seems like such a thing could not exist in this universe, but I do actually choose to, loosely, believe something along that line exists, but we couldn't actually interact with or understand an entity like that... on like a mathematical level we couldn't.

So I explicitly disbelieve in a personal god of any kind. There could be a demiurge but I see no reason why it would have moral authority or anything, maybe it could torture you endlessly I guess XD.

No

I try to be a good person because it’s right, not because I might be punished in the afterlife

No, agnostic.

Grew up with many Christian friends but saw most of them outgrow it and become proud heretics.

I can believe there might be higher powers, but I wouldn't call them dieties.

I hope one day we can invent better and more ethical AI gods.

Yes, but in the sense that I realize there is a chance we can be in a simulation and the sysadmin is the god.

When my national census form arrives and asks what religion I follow, I put 'Jedi'.

There may or may not be a superpower/god. But its none of my (mere mortal) concern. So No.

I give up religion for Lent.

Yes, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Group together as religions those systems of thought and their institutions that make specific truth claims about

1. Origins of the cosmos and, specifically, homo sapiens 2. Existence (or not) and nature of super-human sentient beings, their character and agency 3. What happens after death 4. Some root cause of all problems faced by individuals, tribes, nations, and humanity 5. Prescribed and proscribed behaviors that eliminate the root cause of problems

This description covers, to my knowledge, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism, all in their many varieties.

Inasmuch as I have my own answers to these questions, then by my own definition I'm religious, though I am not backed by a state-spnsored institution :)

My path is best described as Buddhist, without reincarnation or supernatural "devas" that were syncretically added even as Sidhhata Gotoma's dead body was still warm.

In high school I was known as a non-practicing Jewish Athiest.

No, I’m an atheist.

No, was Catholic, became agnostic atheist.

No.

No, I’m an atheist

Yes. You choose your god(s). They're in your head.

Yes. Hinduism

No. Atheist.

No.

No.

No

No

No.

Yes, Christian

Many will incorrectly answer "no" to this question, not realizing their system of values and beliefs and rituals has every hallmark of religion except the belief in a supernatural god.