anyone else fall into this category or am i all alone

:cowwave: I am. Believe in being the best I can be to myself & others and enjoying the beauty around me. I also believe in choice & responsibility.
Don't believe in God or Gods.

Living well, laughing often & loving much about sums me up.

I try to show respect to those with opinions differing from mine but extremism in religion or lack of can get under my skin.

Atheist here too, though I've stopped defining myself that way. But no, I don't believe in gods, and think that morality is separate from religion. Darlene sums it up well. Personal responsibility is a big part of it for me too.

it's good to find like-minded adults on here..

i'm not extremist on any agenda; however i like to base my opinions on evidence...

that being said i realize some people need certain viewpoints to be able to get through their day- and so long as it works for them i guess there's no harm...

:cowwave: I am. Believe in being the best I can be to myself & others and enjoying the beauty around me. I also believe in choice & responsibility.
Don't believe in God or Gods.

Living well, laughing often & loving much about sums me up.

I try to show respect to those with opinions differing from mine but extremism in religion or lack of can get under my skin.

ABSOLUTEIY!

Well said Darlene, I completely agree! :thumb:

I fall into this category too

Atheist here, leaning onto Buddhism. :)

Same here. I'm not extreme in any way and I don't like extremists of whatever belief either. I don't advertise the fact I'm atheist either. I believe with proof basically and believe doing what is best morally is all that matters in the end. You can have the most religious fanatics doing the most horrific sins and crimes.

Another atheist here. I love life, and all it has to offer, I just don't believe in God(s).

Well not really atheist but I wanted to post somewhere that I LOVE the Phillip Pullman books (e.g., the Golden Compass) that the Christian ladies don't like for some reason. They are so imaginative and beautiful. Better than Harry Potter!

DH is an atheist. I believe in a higher power, but I don't believe in organized religion. I think it serves no purpose other than to divide people and make them intolerant of one another. The big brouhaha over the Philip Pullman books is an example of that.

We're trying to raise our kids to be true to themselves, to be moral, socially responsible, and respectful of others.

Count me in. I'm relieved to find this group here.

Same.

Do we need something like a Darwin fish to show solidarity? haha.

lol!

One of the nice things about being an atheist is not having to be identified by belonging to a group which might or might not share your ideals, so I'll pass on the fish.

Welcome, just the same!

Ah, HERE's the thread!

Atheist. Previously agnostic, but the fence posts were too sharp and I had to pick a side.

I worship at the altar of reason, and every definition of God I've ever heard defies the laws of physics. Morality is not the subject of religion - morality is the subject of how rational beings must live with each other, and all morality and ethics can be derived from the fundamentals of philosophy and reason.

I was raised Christian, rejected it for a couple of years, became an athiest, basically. I got back into Christianity when I was serving in Iraq, and also when I went to college and began studying chemistry. I feel that chemistry is almost a religion in itself, as in it is so amazing and complicated how it functions. I would say I am a Christian right now, as nothing else seems to make sense. I have several athiest friends, don't have a problem with it. Everyone is gonna believe what they want to.

Atheist here, too. I belong to a Lutheran Church, mainly because of a habit. I don´t believe in any Gods.

I'm agnostic/secular humanist/whatever, with an athiest leaning (I'm open to being surprised.) DH is full on atheist.

I believe in evidence and reason and I also understand the workings of a human mind behind the want to create religions and gods.

I embrace teachings from a bunch of different religious practices and have my own ideas, too. I believe we are all connected in a way, all part of the same energy. To me respecting others is my "spirituality".

Religion in general irks me. Boil it down the sweeping general message behind most major religious teachings come down to "don't be a d!ck!!" If everyone would spend more time doing that instead of arguing, and killing, over who said it best, we'd all be much better off.

I love this quote when explaining my position to people who'd like to get upset that I'm a heathen: "I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer gods than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours." - Stephen Roberts

Count me in. I dislike organized religion with a passion. I personally think its dangerous. I dont push my views on anyone and respect what others want to believe. I just wish they wouldnt push thier views on me. I have raised my kids to be decent people.

Another proud Atheist here!

Just saw this thread. I would have to call myself agnostic at this point. I hate organized religion for many reasons. I was also raised in a Christian home.

My path started when things stopped making sense to me. I just started questioning everything I was taught. I read books and the net and anything on the subject. I'll just leave it at that. What an eye opener it was for me!

I can take certain teachings of different faiths and apply it to my life. I love many Buddhist teachings.

:cowwave: Another one checking in!

Yep, I straddle the agnositc/atheist fence. I believe in being responsible, taking care of and supporting each other. And living in the South, this makes me a major minority!

Here is something pretty screwed up.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/us/26atheist.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

I'm here too.

My FB religious views say: "I believe in science, not stories"

I don't like organized religion. And I REALLY don't like old men telling young women what they can and can't do. I'm pretty into the whole live and let live as long as everyone is happy and no one's hurt or abused.

I have attended Greek Orthadox church, done Ramadan with my friend, celebrated hannukah and passover with another friend, married into a strong country catholic family, and think most religion is really an argument over who has the best imaginary friend ;)

And yes, I go to church on Christmas Eve, because it's important to my MIL that the whole family be there, and after all she does for us all year long, I don't think it's too much to ask :D

If I was forced to pick SOMETHING, I would probably go with some type of aboriginal belief system based in nature.

I belong in here also I was raised catholic but gave that up as soon as I was old enough to reason.I would define myself as agnostic 'cos I don't really know what's out there and if I had to choose it would be buddism or wiccan

Wow Greebo...that is very, very very scary.

:wave2:
I don't really like to classify myself. I was trained as a scientist, so it is hard for me to believe anything without proof. For a long time, I called myself a Pagan however, I always told people I wasn't a very good Pagan because I didn't really follow it or perform any ceremonies. It really was an ideology for me. I couldn't ever wrap my head around monotheastic religion. I bascially believed in Nature and how it worked. Later, after reading a few other books, I realized that what I was describing as Pagan was probably more atheist.

I also believe that if you believe in one "magical" creature logic would dictate that you have to believe in all, or at least allow for the possibility for that belief. For example...if you believe in angels appearing, than you should also allow for the appearence of other winged creatures that appear and disappear at will like fairies. If you believe in demons and the devil, then what about vampires, werewolves, etc. So....if a person is "crazy" for believing in faries, vampires, werewolves, Nessie, Bigfoot, etc, than by that same logic, shouldn't everyone who believes in the power of angels and saints also be "crazy".

I also am not a fan of organized religion. I don't like the herd mentality and I definately don't like having someone tell me what something means and how I should interpret something that I have read.

I also believe that if you believe in one "magical" creature logic would dictate that you have to believe in all, or at least allow for the possibility for that belief.
May you be touched by his noodley appendage. :)

May you be touched by his noodley appendage. :)
:shocked: Oh my!

You have heard of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, right?

Oh yes.
Me thinks I need a t-shirt with his holy form on it. LOL

Here's that T-shirt:

http://www.cafepress.com/venganza/3685269

This one's even better:
http://www.cafepress.com/venganza/3682856

Oh, that second one is great. Definately might be one for me or my hubby. LOVE IT.

Here is something pretty screwed up.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/us/26atheist.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Sounds like garbage. I had plenty of atheists in my unit in Iraq, and no one messed with them or treated them any different. We all watched each other's backs and made sure everyone got out alive. In a situation like that, people are too worried about day to day activities and their families back home to have time to bash someone's beliefs or lack of them.

This gave me a big laugh:
http://www.jhuger.com/kisshank.php

Sound familiar? ;)

This gave me a big laugh:
http://www.jhuger.com/kisshank.php

Sound familiar? ;)

Thanks Greebo! I needed a good laugh today!

LOL Very funny

:laughing: Thanks for the link Greebo.

I'm an atheist too, and a fairly radical one. That doesn't mean I wouldn't respect religious people - the right to choose must encompass the right to choose wrongly. I also enjoy the cultural heritage of religion, collect bible translations, study minority religions, etc. But I do things like this in an emotionally detached way and try to keep out of 'religious stuff' as much as possible.

Society here is VERY different. Even though we do not have a separation of church and state (there's formal religious education in all schools, and 'tithes'/church taxes are collected by the government), life is much more secular here than in the US. I live in a strongly Catholic region (Catholicism is the majority religion here and I have been raised in the Catholic faith), and I've met only two people in my life who mentioned keeping lent, even though most of my family are Catholic :D Religion permeates more aspects of life (such as schools, etc.), but plays a smaller role. We have e.g. a "Catholic Democratic Party" in the governing coalition at the time, but abortion hasn't been a political topic since... well, not during my lifetime. The role of religion in the US is one of those points that make me think "Wow. Freakingly different!".

When I was younger and told people that I was an atheist, I would usually get one of two replies:
(a) Don't you want to have a great wedding one day?
or
(b) Dear, please don't say that in public! :D

So, being an atheist here is probably less of a 'big deal' than in other parts of the world. I guess it's a bit like being a vegetarian. People will say "Well, I don't really agree with the Pope, but my kids go to Catholic pre-school" or "Yeah, I don't go to church, but I guess being Christian will help me once I'm older", just like they say "Oh, I hardly ever eat meat" (no, only for breakfast, lunch and dinner) or "I don't like meat anyway" (nope, only chicken, fish and pork sausages :D).