It's clear that you're trying to get a rise out of me. Go troll elsewhere.

That's a serious allegation, please provide a basis for it.

I saw that but it doesn't make your poll valid. Other religion is still a religion, thus we can't have trustworthy results. — Noblosh

We can just say that people who are unusually anal/Aspie-like may not have voted because of this.

The real substance of religion is the lived experience of companionship with God. God is supposed to be a being with whom you can have a personal relationship. He is supposed to be a living reality; not just the conclusion of a sterile argument from natural theology. — lambda

Like an imaginary friend, but one you convince yourself is real.

Like an imaginary friend, but one you convince yourself is real. — Sapientia

If your imaginary friend can give you confidence to live, infinite hope, eternal life, strength, determination, resolution, etc. then sure, go ahead, believe in him!

Easier said than done. And hypothetically, I wouldn't choose that over what I've got anyway, for a similar reason I wouldn't choose the pleasure machine.

Easier said than done. — Sapientia

Exactly, see, your imaginary friend isn't God, nor is he like God.

Exactly, see, your imaginary friend isn't God, nor is he like God. — Agustino

No, I don't see what you mean. And I don't have an imaginary friend.

No, I don't see what you mean. — Sapientia

It's easier said than done to believe that your imaginary friend will give you confidence to live, infinite hope, etc. But it's not easier said than done to believe that God will give that to you (in fact MANY people believe that). So the two are non comparable.

Yes, it's about time we get our rights, and get properly recognised! — Agustino

You Have the Right to Remain Silent, But Anything You Don’t Say May Be Used Against You.

In my case, I don't say a lot about God, and it gets used against me a lot. A long forgotten source said that belief is thinking the bridge will support you, whereas faith is stepping out on the bridge over the void. I have faith without belief, and that, by convention, is lunacy.

I am not MANY people. The two are indeed comparable for me and for MANY others, in at least the sense that they're both unbelievable. This God fellow sounds like a snake oil salesman, and an imaginary one at that!

And for the last time, I don't have an imaginary friend.

Also, you gave no option for antitheists, how can we differentiate them from the nontheists?

And for the last time, I don't have an imaginary friend. — Sapientia

Let's put it differently: do you have any projection of yourself?
Maybe God is the mental image of someone's hope and faith they view as necessary to keep on living.
Maybe you also have a mental image for your reasoning that you consider legitimate and dependable.

I didn't make the poll perfectly. Sue me. You can make one yourself if you're so interested and concerned.

Sue me. — Thorongil

The consequences of that may entail a moderating owl coming around and moving the poll to the dustbin me thinks >:)

In my case, I don't say a lot about God, and it gets used against me a lot. A long forgotten source said that belief is thinking the bridge will support you, whereas faith is stepping out on the bridge over the void. I have faith without belief, and that, by convention, is lunacy. — unenlightened

So what goes through your mind when you step on the bridge?

I'm other-agnostic-theist

I borrow from a variety of religions/traditions, but I do what the Hindus suggest in that I adhere mostly to the religion of my upbringing, viz. Christianity.

Religion is for followers and I’ve never been a follower. I have a keen interest in spirituality though.

67% of 58 voters say that they belong to a religion, yet only 36% of 58 voters say that they consider themselves a religious person. :brow:

'It (Deism) also rejects revelation as a source of religious knowledge and asserts that reason and observation of the natural world are sufficient to determine the existence of a single creator or absolute principle of the universe.'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism

A logical, scientific approach to God. Not sure it really counts as a religion, more its a position between theism and atheism.

67% of 58 voters say that they belong to a religion, yet only 36% of 58 voters say that they consider themselves a religious person. :brow: — S

Hardly surprising. For example in my country 3/4 of the people belong to a church (vast majority of them to the Lutheran State Church), yet only 27% of the people view themselves as religious.

Besides, today 'a religious person' might be defined a bit differently than before: a fundamentalist, a zealot or a person that believes that the Bible (the Koran etc.) is to be taken literally and anything other is heresy.

Western convert to Buddhism from a Christian cultural background but brought up in non-religious family. Read a large number of spiritual books and some philosophy and have developed a syncretic approach basically Buddhist in orientation but with some ideas from Christian Platonism. — Wayfarer

My background is similar. Christian. Picked up a mish mash of everything over the years, but predominately lean towards advaita, non-dualist, Buddhist flavours. I don't think the word religious applies to one who created his own spiritual patchwork, cut from the cloth of various faiths and philosophies. There is truth and untruth in all of them.

Hardly surprising. For example in my country 3/4 of the people belong to a church (vast majority of them to the Lutheran State Church), yet only 27% of the people view themselves as religious.

Besides, today 'a religious person' might be defined a bit differently than before: a fundamentalist, a zealot or a person that believes that the Bible (the Koran etc.) is to be taken literally and anything other is heresy. — ssu

If I had wanted to express surprise, then I would've used a different emoticon. But instead, I raised an eyebrow. Let's just say that it's not something that I would do. For me, both would have to go hand in hand, otherwise it would seem superficial and pointless.

I am a self-made man who worships his maker. — unenlightened

Best answer by far! :-)

67% of 58 voters say that they belong to a religion, yet only 36% of 58 voters say that they consider themselves a religious person. — S

I'm not saying this is necessarily what's going on, but it's not uncommon for people to look at "belonging to a religion" as being akin to ethnicity. One is "born into" the religion in question, due to one's family, one may have undergone various rituals under that religion as an infant or child--christening/baptism, bar/bat mitzvahs, etc., but one might not consider oneself religious despite this because one doesn't actually have any religious beliefs. Some people even do this while still going to church/temple/etc. occasionally--it's more of a social thing for them. They might choose to get married in a church/temple setting, and they might even socialize their kids into the religion in a similar way, despite a lack of religious belief, just because it's seen as a part of their family's tradition.

I'm not saying this is necessarily what's going on, but it's not uncommon for people to look at "belonging to a religion" as being akin to ethnicity. — Terrapin Station

Agreed, good point. It's in that context that I sometimes label myself as being "Catholic".

I'm not Catholic in the way people typically use that word, as a choice one has made. Instead, I'm Catholic in a manner that is beyond choice. That is, I have hundreds of years of Catholic DNA up my family tree, and this genetic history is a source of influence which was built in to my brain before I was even born. I am a product of Catholic culture (as almost all of us are to one degree or another) but my beliefs don't align with Catholic doctrines very well at all.

I think like a Catholic, but I don't think what most Catholics think.

I'm not saying this is necessarily what's going on, but it's not uncommon for people to look at "belonging to a religion" as being akin to ethnicity. One is "born into" the religion in question, due to one's family, one may have undergone various rituals under that religion as an infant or child--christening/baptism, bar/bat mitzvahs, etc., but one might not consider oneself religious despite this because one doesn't actually have any religious beliefs. Some people even do this while still going to church/temple/etc. occasionally--it's more of a social thing for them. They might choose to get married in a church/temple setting, and they might even sociale their kids into the religion in a similar way, despite a lack of religious belief, just because it's seen as a part of their family's tradition. — Terrapin Station

Yeah, I understand that, I just don't relate to it. Even if I was Christened as a child and whatnot, I still wouldn't call myself a Christian for those reasons. And to me at least, anyone who does this isn't really a true Christian. I don't see Christianity as something that superficial or accidental. It's not like your natural hair colour.