Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

PP makes it pretty clear that she is not a fundamentalist (like you?) who believes there is only one path to God. In the past, she has said she respects the atheist "path" as well, but it seems to go unmentioned here as a legitimate way to live.

In fairness, that wasn't really part of the OP's survey. The questions were specifically about religious faith. If you ask me if I believe the atheists path to be "legitimate", of course I would agree that it is. I believe in God the same way I believe in gravity. I can't see it, but I can certainly see the effect. I strongly believe that all beings eventually find "God" whatever the word means to them. I don't need to worry about the atheist's path. God has that covered. He/She doesn't need my help.

The poster questioning my Christianity is concerned about my statement that I do not believe humans need to be "saved". I probably should have phrased it more clearly. I believe every person is born good. I reject the concept of original sin completely. God is good and therefore incapable of creating evil. We have free will. We screw up over and over again. That's the nature of ego. But every single being on this planet is inherently good. There is a light in each person. Some just hide it really, really well. I believe that when Christ spoke of salvation, he was speaking metaphysically. Salvation comes when we begin to let go of ego and move towards enlightenment. I believe we all get there. It may take many lifetimes. I believe we are literally "born again" and again and again until we are finally capable of being born into eternal communion with God. We all eventually join the creative consciousness of our creator. We return to our beginning when our soul journey is complete.

Jesus the Christ is my way-shower. I follow Christ therefore, I Am a Christian. Others follow different paths with different way-showers. All are manifestations of the same God.

Just MY personal beliefs. I enjoy discussions about religion and spirituality. I do not appreciate being told I am "not a Christian". To the poster who said that - May I gently suggest you spend a little time thinking about what it means to be Christ-like?

I don't appreciate being told different paths are all "manifestations of the same God." And atheists might not appreciate being told that God had their path covered.

Just sayin'.

Big difference - I said over and over and over again in my posts that these were my beliefs. My path. I think it's great that others have different paths. We learn a lot from each other. I respect the atheist who does good because he truly loves others much more than the fundi Christian serving soup to the homeless once week because it looks good and because he is terrified of going to hell. To me, the atheist is the one behaving like Christ. It's hard for me to imagine an all powerful being needing to scare people into worship. That's just not the God I know.

But it doesn't sound as if you understand that atheists don't have a "wayshower" You may believe that they do, but they not.

You talk about different paths, but when you say "That's just not the God I know" it sounds like you somehow know that there are a lot of different gods out there. And that people can choose their own to believe in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

PP makes it pretty clear that she is not a fundamentalist (like you?) who believes there is only one path to God. In the past, she has said she respects the atheist "path" as well, but it seems to go unmentioned here as a legitimate way to live.

In fairness, that wasn't really part of the OP's survey. The questions were specifically about religious faith. If you ask me if I believe the atheists path to be "legitimate", of course I would agree that it is. I believe in God the same way I believe in gravity. I can't see it, but I can certainly see the effect. I strongly believe that all beings eventually find "God" whatever the word means to them. I don't need to worry about the atheist's path. God has that covered. He/She doesn't need my help.

The poster questioning my Christianity is concerned about my statement that I do not believe humans need to be "saved". I probably should have phrased it more clearly. I believe every person is born good. I reject the concept of original sin completely. God is good and therefore incapable of creating evil. We have free will. We screw up over and over again. That's the nature of ego. But every single being on this planet is inherently good. There is a light in each person. Some just hide it really, really well. I believe that when Christ spoke of salvation, he was speaking metaphysically. Salvation comes when we begin to let go of ego and move towards enlightenment. I believe we all get there. It may take many lifetimes. I believe we are literally "born again" and again and again until we are finally capable of being born into eternal communion with God. We all eventually join the creative consciousness of our creator. We return to our beginning when our soul journey is complete.

Jesus the Christ is my way-shower. I follow Christ therefore, I Am a Christian. Others follow different paths with different way-showers. All are manifestations of the same God.

Just MY personal beliefs. I enjoy discussions about religion and spirituality. I do not appreciate being told I am "not a Christian". To the poster who said that - May I gently suggest you spend a little time thinking about what it means to be Christ-like?

I don't appreciate being told different paths are all "manifestations of the same God." And atheists might not appreciate being told that God had their path covered.

Just sayin'.

Big difference - I said over and over and over again in my posts that these were my beliefs. My path. I think it's great that others have different paths. We learn a lot from each other. I respect the atheist who does good because he truly loves others much more than the fundi Christian serving soup to the homeless once week because it looks good and because he is terrified of going to hell. To me, the atheist is the one behaving like Christ. It's hard for me to imagine an all powerful being needing to scare people into worship. That's just not the God I know.

Anonymous wrote:

PP makes it pretty clear that she is not a fundamentalist (like you?) who believes there is only one path to God. In the past, she has said she respects the atheist "path" as well, but it seems to go unmentioned here as a legitimate way to live.

In fairness, that wasn't really part of the OP's survey. The questions were specifically about religious faith. If you ask me if I believe the atheists path to be "legitimate", of course I would agree that it is. I believe in God the same way I believe in gravity. I can't see it, but I can certainly see the effect. I strongly believe that all beings eventually find "God" whatever the word means to them. I don't need to worry about the atheist's path. God has that covered. He/She doesn't need my help.

The poster questioning my Christianity is concerned about my statement that I do not believe humans need to be "saved". I probably should have phrased it more clearly. I believe every person is born good. I reject the concept of original sin completely. God is good and therefore incapable of creating evil. We have free will. We screw up over and over again. That's the nature of ego. But every single being on this planet is inherently good. There is a light in each person. Some just hide it really, really well. I believe that when Christ spoke of salvation, he was speaking metaphysically. Salvation comes when we begin to let go of ego and move towards enlightenment. I believe we all get there. It may take many lifetimes. I believe we are literally "born again" and again and again until we are finally capable of being born into eternal communion with God. We all eventually join the creative consciousness of our creator. We return to our beginning when our soul journey is complete.

Jesus the Christ is my way-shower. I follow Christ therefore, I Am a Christian. Others follow different paths with different way-showers. All are manifestations of the same God.

Just MY personal beliefs. I enjoy discussions about religion and spirituality. I do not appreciate being told I am "not a Christian". To the poster who said that - May I gently suggest you spend a little time thinking about what it means to be Christ-like?

I don't appreciate being told different paths are all "manifestations of the same God." And atheists might not appreciate being told that God had their path covered.

Just sayin'.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because a totally unrepresentative sample of DCUM is much better?

And what makes you think professional polling methods are flawed? Or that people would be "more" honest on DCUM? Or that DCUM's atheist trolls wouldn't post multiple times in a way that professional pollsters could control for?

I work for Pew-seriously. I know a lot about polling and statistics.

Your poll is ridiculous.

Agree. DCUM is predominantly liberal, and liberals tend to have a lesser belief in G-d. Skewed sample.

Disagree. I'm extremely concerned liberal and religious. However, I do think that, on this particular forum, the atheist buzz saw of hatred for all things religious has driven off a lot of religious posters. Therefore I doubt the survey would be representative for that reason.

not believing is not a buzzsaw of hatred. It's just not believing. Believing in god is not on its own a good thing. It's simply a thing. Some of those who believe find great comfort in it. Others seem fearful of a punishing god and others seem to think that they must deride people who don't believe the way they do.

PP makes it pretty clear that she is not a fundamentalist (like you?) who believes there is only one path to God. In the past, she has said she respects the atheist "path" as well, but it seems to go unmentioned here as a legitimate way to live.

In fairness, that wasn't really part of the OP's survey. The questions were specifically about religious faith. If you ask me if I believe the atheists path to be "legitimate", of course I would agree that it is. I believe in God the same way I believe in gravity. I can't see it, but I can certainly see the effect. I strongly believe that all beings eventually find "God" whatever the word means to them. I don't need to worry about the atheist's path. God has that covered. He/She doesn't need my help.

The poster questioning my Christianity is concerned about my statement that I do not believe humans need to be "saved". I probably should have phrased it more clearly. I believe every person is born good. I reject the concept of original sin completely. God is good and therefore incapable of creating evil. We have free will. We screw up over and over again. That's the nature of ego. But every single being on this planet is inherently good. There is a light in each person. Some just hide it really, really well. I believe that when Christ spoke of salvation, he was speaking metaphysically. Salvation comes when we begin to let go of ego and move towards enlightenment. I believe we all get there. It may take many lifetimes. I believe we are literally "born again" and again and again until we are finally capable of being born into eternal communion with God. We all eventually join the creative consciousness of our creator. We return to our beginning when our soul journey is complete.

Jesus the Christ is my way-shower. I follow Christ therefore, I Am a Christian. Others follow different paths with different way-showers. All are manifestations of the same God.

Just MY personal beliefs. I enjoy discussions about religion and spirituality. I do not appreciate being told I am "not a Christian". To the poster who said that - May I gently suggest you spend a little time thinking about what it means to be Christ-like?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because a totally unrepresentative sample of DCUM is much better?

And what makes you think professional polling methods are flawed? Or that people would be "more" honest on DCUM? Or that DCUM's atheist trolls wouldn't post multiple times in a way that professional pollsters could control for?

I work for Pew-seriously. I know a lot about polling and statistics.

Your poll is ridiculous.

Agree. DCUM is predominantly liberal, and liberals tend to have a lesser belief in G-d. Skewed sample.

Disagree. I'm extremely concerned liberal and religious. However, I do think that, on this particular forum, the atheist buzz saw of hatred for all things religious has driven off a lot of religious posters. Therefore I doubt the survey would be representative for that reason.

Let me guess: Catholic?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because a totally unrepresentative sample of DCUM is much better?

And what makes you think professional polling methods are flawed? Or that people would be "more" honest on DCUM? Or that DCUM's atheist trolls wouldn't post multiple times in a way that professional pollsters could control for?

I work for Pew-seriously. I know a lot about polling and statistics.

Your poll is ridiculous.

Agree. DCUM is predominantly liberal, and liberals tend to have a lesser belief in G-d. Skewed sample.

Disagree. I'm extremely concerned liberal and religious. However, I do think that, on this particular forum, the atheist buzz saw of hatred for all things religious has driven off a lot of religious posters. Therefore I doubt the survey would be representative for that reason.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. Do you believe in God?
Yes. As Spirit, the loving source of all that is. The one power, all good, everywhere present, all wisdom. Not in the angry, smitey judge with a long white beard sitting on a throne kind of way.
2. Do you believe in a "higher power" or intelligent force at hand?
Yes
3. Do you participate in organized religion?
Yes
4. Do you believe most of the tenets of your religion?
My religion has very loose tenets. So yes.
5. Which religion?
Unity
6. How often do you pray?
Many times every day
7. How often do you attend religious services?
It depends on what you mean by "services". I attend a church service every Sunday morning. But I practice my faith daily.
8. How were you brought up in religion? Same religion as now?
I was raised in an evangelical southern baptist church. Very different from my faith now.
9. How are you bringing up your children wrt religion?
My children are exposed to many different spiritual paths. I want them to find their own. I have four grown kids and one in high school. My oldest is a Catholic but attends UU services as well. My second is Unity. My third is Catholic but identified as Wicca for several years. My fourth is all over the place right now but she leans towards Unity. My youngest is agnostic/Buddhist today.
10. How important is your religion/spirituality to you?
I am a minister. It's very important

Some questions about sharing that information with others:
A. Were you comfortable responding to these questions on DCUM?
Yes
B. Are you comfortable discussing your true personal beliefs with friends and family?
I have to be careful with my extended family. They are very southern baptist and are not ready to accept that no one spiritual journey is more sacred than another. We are all on our own paths. I believe there are many, many paths to God. With friends I tend to be a little guarded as well. Because I am a minister, I think people sometimes expect me to start proselytizing. That's not at all who I am. I love to discuss religion and spirituality. But I'm not out to "save" people. I don't believe people need to be saved.
C. Would you share your true personal beliefs to a stranger on a telephone poll?
Sure.

Then you're not a Christian minister, correct? Just checking.

PP makes it pretty clear that she is not a fundamentalist (like you?) who believes there is only one path to God. In the past, she has said she respects the atheist "path" as well, but it seems to go unmentioned here as a legitimate way to live.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. Do you believe in God?
Yes. As Spirit, the loving source of all that is. The one power, all good, everywhere present, all wisdom. Not in the angry, smitey judge with a long white beard sitting on a throne kind of way.
2. Do you believe in a "higher power" or intelligent force at hand?
Yes
3. Do you participate in organized religion?
Yes
4. Do you believe most of the tenets of your religion?
My religion has very loose tenets. So yes.
5. Which religion?
Unity
6. How often do you pray?
Many times every day
7. How often do you attend religious services?
It depends on what you mean by "services". I attend a church service every Sunday morning. But I practice my faith daily.
8. How were you brought up in religion? Same religion as now?
I was raised in an evangelical southern baptist church. Very different from my faith now.
9. How are you bringing up your children wrt religion?
My children are exposed to many different spiritual paths. I want them to find their own. I have four grown kids and one in high school. My oldest is a Catholic but attends UU services as well. My second is Unity. My third is Catholic but identified as Wicca for several years. My fourth is all over the place right now but she leans towards Unity. My youngest is agnostic/Buddhist today.
10. How important is your religion/spirituality to you?
I am a minister. It's very important

Some questions about sharing that information with others:
A. Were you comfortable responding to these questions on DCUM?
Yes
B. Are you comfortable discussing your true personal beliefs with friends and family?
I have to be careful with my extended family. They are very southern baptist and are not ready to accept that no one spiritual journey is more sacred than another. We are all on our own paths. I believe there are many, many paths to God. With friends I tend to be a little guarded as well. Because I am a minister, I think people sometimes expect me to start proselytizing. That's not at all who I am. I love to discuss religion and spirituality. But I'm not out to "save" people. I don't believe people need to be saved.
C. Would you share your true personal beliefs to a stranger on a telephone poll?
Sure.

Then you're not a Christian minister, correct? Just checking.

I am definitely a Christian minister. Ordained by a Christian church. And working to be more like my Christ every single day.

Anonymous wrote:1. Do you believe in God?
Yes. As Spirit, the loving source of all that is. The one power, all good, everywhere present, all wisdom. Not in the angry, smitey judge with a long white beard sitting on a throne kind of way.
2. Do you believe in a "higher power" or intelligent force at hand?
Yes
3. Do you participate in organized religion?
Yes
4. Do you believe most of the tenets of your religion?
My religion has very loose tenets. So yes.
5. Which religion?
Unity
6. How often do you pray?
Many times every day
7. How often do you attend religious services?
It depends on what you mean by "services". I attend a church service every Sunday morning. But I practice my faith daily.
8. How were you brought up in religion? Same religion as now?
I was raised in an evangelical southern baptist church. Very different from my faith now.
9. How are you bringing up your children wrt religion?
My children are exposed to many different spiritual paths. I want them to find their own. I have four grown kids and one in high school. My oldest is a Catholic but attends UU services as well. My second is Unity. My third is Catholic but identified as Wicca for several years. My fourth is all over the place right now but she leans towards Unity. My youngest is agnostic/Buddhist today.
10. How important is your religion/spirituality to you?
I am a minister. It's very important

Some questions about sharing that information with others:
A. Were you comfortable responding to these questions on DCUM?
Yes
B. Are you comfortable discussing your true personal beliefs with friends and family?
I have to be careful with my extended family. They are very southern baptist and are not ready to accept that no one spiritual journey is more sacred than another. We are all on our own paths. I believe there are many, many paths to God. With friends I tend to be a little guarded as well. Because I am a minister, I think people sometimes expect me to start proselytizing. That's not at all who I am. I love to discuss religion and spirituality. But I'm not out to "save" people. I don't believe people need to be saved.
C. Would you share your true personal beliefs to a stranger on a telephone poll?
Sure.

Then you're not a Christian minister, correct? Just checking.

Believe in God. Believe many paths to the top of the Mountain. Believe in Karma

1. Do you believe in God?
Yes. As Spirit, the loving source of all that is. The one power, all good, everywhere present, all wisdom. Not in the angry, smitey judge with a long white beard sitting on a throne kind of way.
2. Do you believe in a "higher power" or intelligent force at hand?
Yes
3. Do you participate in organized religion?
Yes
4. Do you believe most of the tenets of your religion?
My religion has very loose tenets. So yes.
5. Which religion?
Unity
6. How often do you pray?
Many times every day
7. How often do you attend religious services?
It depends on what you mean by "services". I attend a church service every Sunday morning. But I practice my faith daily.
8. How were you brought up in religion? Same religion as now?
I was raised in an evangelical southern baptist church. Very different from my faith now.
9. How are you bringing up your children wrt religion?
My children are exposed to many different spiritual paths. I want them to find their own. I have four grown kids and one in high school. My oldest is a Catholic but attends UU services as well. My second is Unity. My third is Catholic but identified as Wicca for several years. My fourth is all over the place right now but she leans towards Unity. My youngest is agnostic/Buddhist today.
10. How important is your religion/spirituality to you?
I am a minister. It's very important

Some questions about sharing that information with others:
A. Were you comfortable responding to these questions on DCUM?
Yes
B. Are you comfortable discussing your true personal beliefs with friends and family?
I have to be careful with my extended family. They are very southern baptist and are not ready to accept that no one spiritual journey is more sacred than another. We are all on our own paths. I believe there are many, many paths to God. With friends I tend to be a little guarded as well. Because I am a minister, I think people sometimes expect me to start proselytizing. That's not at all who I am. I love to discuss religion and spirituality. But I'm not out to "save" people. I don't believe people need to be saved.
C. Would you share your true personal beliefs to a stranger on a telephone poll?
Sure.

Sounds like some people aren't comfortable sharing their beliefs about God so current polls may be inaccurate.
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_58f67e31e4b0de5bac41d3eb

So let's do a little informal poll to see who we have here in DCUMland.

1. Do you believe in God? No
2. Do you believe in a "higher power" or intelligent force at hand? No
3. Do you participate in organized religion? Somewhat. My kids go to a private religious school and I'll go to their chapel on occassion.
4. Do you believe most of the tenets of your religion? NA
5. Which religion? NA
6. How often do you pray? Never. I tried praying for years and it didn't work out so well for me.
7. How often do you attend religious services? Every other Christmas or so (to be with family, plus I enjoy the tradition of it) and occasionally at my kids' school.
8. How were you brought up in religion? Same religion as now? Raised Catholic.
9. How are you bringing up your children wrt religion? My kids go to a religious school, but know I don't believe.
10. How important is your religion/spirituality to you? Not at all.

Some questions about sharing that information with others:
A. Were you comfortable responding to these questions on DCUM? Yes.
B. Are you comfortable discussing your true personal beliefs with friends and family? Only with certain family and friends.
C. Would you share your true personal beliefs to a stranger on a telephone poll? Yes- more likely to be honest with a stranger than certain family and friends.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No I don't believe in God or any kind of "intelligent designer." At the very most, I might be persuaded that there is some kind of energy force that we're all a part of but it's not intelligent in the way that we normally think of that word nor does it have the other human characteristics that organized religion insists on attributing to God.

I'd like to believe. God to me is like Santa Clause. It's a nice story and I wish it was true but I just don't think it is.

+1

Then you really haven't done much searching, have you? Be honest! This is an extremely lazy point of view.

No judgemental posts, please.

Fundamentalist Christians are all about being judgmental -- and think they are doing you a favor in the process. They want to spare you from an eternity in Hell, that their benevolent Savior promises if you don't believe in him.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No I don't believe in God or any kind of "intelligent designer." At the very most, I might be persuaded that there is some kind of energy force that we're all a part of but it's not intelligent in the way that we normally think of that word nor does it have the other human characteristics that organized religion insists on attributing to God.

I'd like to believe. God to me is like Santa Clause. It's a nice story and I wish it was true but I just don't think it is.

+1

Then you really haven't done much searching, have you? Be honest! This is an extremely lazy point of view.

NP here. I *hate* when religious people say crap like this. I was an evangelical Christian, attended a conservative evangelical college, received a degree in Biblical studies, and eventually lost my faith for a variety of reasons. But no one could say I didn't try my damn hardest to hold onto my faith. No one worked harder than I did at clinging to a belief in God. But once I finally accepted that God was not real, it was like someone lifted a weight off my shoulders. PP, you have no idea what other people's spiritual journeys have been. Back off.

I hope your "testimony" has an effect on pp and others who think that way.