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I am religious and believe in free will

70 (27.6%)

I am religious and do not believe in free will

10 (3.9%)

I am not religious and believe in free will

113 (44.5%)

I am not religious and do not believe in free will

61 (24%)

Total Members Voted: 249

[penguinofhonor]

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[timferius]

This is partly why I've adopted a spirituality and belief system independent of any religion. To me, spirituality is a personal journey. No one is going to agree with everyone else in their religion on anything, so why bother? If I ever crave that church-like community, I'll just go to the local Universal Unitarian church.

[penguinofhonor]

.

[Orange Wizard]

“Young boys don’t want to do things with girls. It’s just natural,”

I feel like he's trying to subtly endorse homosexuality.

[TD1]

I'd like to be there when he realises his wording implies that

[MonkeyHead]

He also could have chosen a better wording than "most boys have their first deep experience as altar boys", which takes "manly discipline by the side of a priest".

Cos, you know... Catholicism and the paedophile issues, and all that... *shrugs*

[mastahcheese]

His choice of words is truly hilarious.

This is partly why I've adopted a spirituality and belief system independent of any religion. To me, spirituality is a personal journey. No one is going to agree with everyone else in their religion on anything, so why bother? If I ever crave that church-like community, I'll just go to the local Universal Unitarian church.

I heavily approve with this.

Hmm.
Question: What do you think of religions that expect its members to convert others to their beliefs?

I aak this because it irritates me when I try to talk to someone about religion, and they feel the need to try and sway my thinking to theirs. Particuraly because my beliefs are very personal, and I don't care if other people agree with me.

[Orange Wizard]

Probably because the religion teaches something along the lines of "eternal punishment for you if you don't worship deity X in Y manner". Either the person feels morally obligated to try to spare you from divine punishment or their sect has a particular focus on evangelism/conversions/whatever.

[timferius]

Hmm.
Question: What do you think of religions that expect its members to convert others to their beliefs?

I aak this because it irritates me when I try to talk to someone about religion, and they feel the need to try and sway my thinking to theirs. Particuraly because my beliefs are very personal, and I don't care if other people agree with me.

I'm generally a "I won't bug you if you don't bug me" kind of guy when it comes to spirituality and relgion. I do my best to not judge or harass people based on their relgion, and I expect the same courtesy in return. Some people will stop trying to persuade you if you say you aren't interested or whatever, and that's fine, it's when they get pushy/bullish with it that it really irks me.

[TD1]

But, you don't understand! They're all individually right!

[MonkeyHead]

Ironically, it is most probably an evolutionary trait of successful religions. The ones most likely to proliferate and survive are the ones who will go out and make people into new members... be it at the point of a sword or through persuasive arguments. Those that did not gather new converts withered and died. It is not that much of a leap then to think that those who led/lead faiths have a vested interest in getting new converts, lest they end up with nobody to lead.

[penguinofhonor]

.

[TD1]

Wasn't that Dawkin's argument in the God Delusion?

[Levi]

Wasn't that Dawkin's argument in the God Delusion?

I think it was in "The Selfish Gene", but it's been so long since I've read either I might be mistaken.

[Arx]

Personaly, I find normal evangelism to chase off more people than it draws. Adding "God bless!" to a generic kind act makes the opening if somone is interested, but otherwise I don't push.

The odds that a non-Christian I meet has never heard Christianity are low.