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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

[Grim Portent]

True, so I guess the better source would be an ancient rabbi.

[EuchreJack]

True, so I guess the better source would be an ancient rabbi.

Buy him a cheeseburger when you ask him.

[TD1]

Just not a jeezburger.

[McTraveller]

It's Easter! (At least, for Protestants and many others, I think maybe not Eastern Orthodox?)

A significant enough event to reset the year-counting of a major calendar (you can "common era" it all you want, but you won't be able to erase the reason why it was marked as zero, don't quibble over it being 4 or 7 years off or whatever that's irrelevant).

A significant enough event that even secular and skeptical scholars are confident that something happened that caused such an unusual (for the time) movement to take root and grow so quickly.

For those of us who believe, it's basically the defining moment in our lives - if Christ did indeed rise from the dead, verifying all his claims, existential death is defeated and we can live knowing it's not dependent on our own understanding or skill but on the agape love and sacrifice of Christ.

If not, as the letter attributed to Paul says, we're kind of the silliest, saddest bunch...

[Duuvian]

Happy Easter McTraveller

I'd say from an outsider's perspective that your last sentence is inaccurate, that the more important justification of religion is not based solely on that event, but how JC does good through you. I confess, in my youth I was angry at the local Christians for what I considered at the time their domineering and exclusive nature, and this also drove my father in his youth and thus myself forth from the religion of my grandparents. I have learned since that it is not the precepts that are to blame, should they be led by example rather than imposition, but that the falsehoods of man and willingness to forget these lessons in empathy leads to a drive to domination which is the bane of such individual (heretics?) as much as to those who are victims of such.

If I may recommend a book that changed my view, it would be the novel Quo Vadis. There was no work I have encountered that has softened my heart against practictioners as this one, though I reserve the right to be critical of individuals seeking to impose through authority or force their own beliefs in ways of living harmlessly, to the point I am reminded of St. Justin's First Apology. If I may tender a joke through role reversal, at times I almost feel as, an outsider in a very conservative Christian area, the barbarian princess in Quo Vadis. While this is a burden of questionable weight that I bear and have very much overstated here, I still will do my best to choose forgive this, as I feel this is a reflection of an excellent tenet.

So, happy Easter to those who care for the poor, service the unwanted, welcome those who are different, and do good deeds in the name.

[Rolan7]

Happy Easter!  This marks the day the Savior rose, his sacrifice revealed to be a grand design from the ultimate arbiter.

I am not a Christian, but I loved this day growing up as day of rebirth and growth.
It also happens to be near my birthday.

That's probably why I chose it as my personal day of... reinvention.

This has been a fantastic year.  With shortfalls, and difficulties.  But I can honestly say there's been more life in this year than in the past 10.

[EuchreJack]

...the chocolate is nice too.

[Magmacube_tr]

Ramadan is here.

I mean has been here. For some time now...

...Whatever.

[Schmaven]

I don't know much about Ramadan, but it sounds like a nice opportunity for focusing on spiritual growth.  Lunch breaks usually still happen, and even a few extra minutes reading can go along way.  Is it okay to wish someone a "Happy Ramadan"?

[Magmacube_tr]

I don't know much about Ramadan, but it sounds like a nice opportunity for focusing on spiritual growth.  Lunch breaks usually still happen, and even a few extra minutes reading can go along way.  Is it okay to wish someone a "Happy Ramadan"?

I dunno. I kinda can't do the spiritual growth thing. I am VERY anti-theistic, soooooo...

It is acceptable to say "Happy Ramadan", though.

[Frumple]

Parts of the world it might not be safe to, in some situations, though. Just depends on how prevalent and violent the local bigots are, but that's standard for most religiously aligned well wishing. Sometimes the stuff that isn't, too, really...

[Strongpoint]

I don't know much about Ramadan, but it sounds like a nice opportunity for focusing on spiritual growth.  Lunch breaks usually still happen, and even a few extra minutes reading can go along way.  Is it okay to wish someone a "Happy Ramadan"?

I dunno. I kinda can't do the spiritual growth thing. I am VERY anti-theistic, soooooo...

It is acceptable to say "Happy Ramadan", though.

Heh. I am an anti-theist for quite some time. Last year pushed me deeper into it, to a degree I am uncomfortable with... I am actively annoyed by anything religious and it becomes so hard to smile and ignore. I understand that it is not a good time to jump on religious people because, during a war, their drug of self-delusion is really necessary for them to maintain sanity (hey I am even sometimes jealous of that)

I fail to understand how one can preach the love of god when their social network feed is a long obituary mixed with stories of people who got their lives destroyed.

Calls for praying instead of doing something useful for victory are more eye-rolling than ever.

I feel anger seeing how various religions, big and small, actively recruit future sources of profit, attacking stressed and depressed people like an opportunistic pack of jackals, dragging them into religions when they are vulnerable.

I can't tolerate that an almost openly hostile Russian Orthodox Church is allowed to operate while working for the enemy because striking them would be somehow immoral and offensive to an imaginary character.

I find it weirdly amusing how Christians on our side conveniently ignore that the other side has many fanatics who believe in the very same God as they are. That their priesthood is openly calling for genocide. They just brush it aside with "those are not true Christians" which is just wrong.

And the list goes on. Easter, which is next week there, will be a hard time for me.

[Travis Bickle]

He is risen! Happy Pascha!

(At least, for Protestants and many others, I think maybe not Eastern Orthodox?)

The Eastern Churches not in communion with Rome will celebrate this next coming Sunday, which in the West will be Quasimodo Sunday. Apparently the days will actually line up with one another in 2025.

I don't know much about Ramadan, but it sounds like a nice opportunity for focusing on spiritual growth.  Lunch breaks usually still happen, and even a few extra minutes reading can go along way.  Is it okay to wish someone a "Happy Ramadan"?

I don't know much about Islamic religious customs but it seems to me that you wouldn't wish someone a happy Ramadan for the same reason you wouldn't wish someone a happy Lent: they're penitential seasons of fasting (at least as far as I understand the concept of Ramadan). I believe "Ramadan Mubarak" is considered an acceptable phrase. If you're like me and you'd feel tacky throwing in foreign expressions during small talk, "Blessed Ramadan" would probably suffice.

[Robsoie]

Happy Easter everyone !

[MaxTheFox]

I have long since decided that my religious beliefs are immune to logic and thus I will never deconvert. There is no atheist argument that can convince me to, because I believe religion and secular stuff must be kept fully separate-- and that separation includes rationality. I apply it to science or beliefs opposed to Christianity however, in fact I am proud to be a skeptic.