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Poll: My religious beliefs are best summarized by...

11 points by robg 18y ago

Let's just get this out of the way. I'm interested in an approximate distribution even as I'm okay in the minority.

pg 18y ago
How about adding "the evidence on the God question is at a similar level to the evidence on the werewolf question" as an option?
- robg 18y ago
  I really don't see the common analytic framework there - but sure, you can vote on the werewolf/cookie monster option. :)
- neilk 18y ago
  I dunno, is that really analogous? The werewolf question would barely alter your behavior even if you did believe in them. If you're saying that you do not act as if a God existed, I call that atheism. To me belief isn't a matter of profession, it's a matter of altered behavior. By this standard a lot of so-called believers actually aren't, so this is perhaps controversial, but I think this clarifies things.
bkbleikamp 18y ago
I tend toward atheism, but I still have trouble with the fact that we don't know why or how the universe was created, or how space was created. That said, I also have faith (ironic, right?) that science will figure it out - they figured out gravity, calculus, relativity, etc. so why not this? Not knowing why something happened is not enough for me to say "God exists." It means we need to keep looking for a reason.
- gunderson 18y ago
  If you consider how much we don't know, the "creation story" just happens to be a very small fraction of that. Religious people put a lot of weight on the creation story. It's not important. It's perhaps one of those things that people tend to wonder about, but in terms of scientific knowledge and the benefit of doing science to make the world better, figuring out exactly how the universe created is pretty much a useless undertaking. The important fact is that the universe exists and has properties that can be understood through science. It is not even relevant whether it ever did not exist. It simply does, and for human purposes it always will. The idea of the universe not existing is borrowed from religion. Scientists have come up with some fun theories, but there are a lot more useful/practical/interesting areas of science to think about than trying to come up with a scientific alternative to religious cosmogenesis myths.
mattdennewitz 18y ago
what?! no great, green occal seizure?! thats just offensive.
- neilk 18y ago
  You must be a fan of the radio or TV series? It was 'Arkleseizure' in the books. I suppose it does sound just like 'Occal', with the Brit accent. http://hhgproject.org/entries/greatgreenarkleseizure.html http://hhgproject.org/entries/greatgreenarkleseizure.html
bayareaguy 18y ago
- one true K&R brace style - 4 space indentation, no tabs
- md81544 18y ago
  Amen
paul 18y ago
FSM
MaysonL 18y ago
0 religious beliefs, but "There exists a benevolent (albeit highly ironic and humorous) higher power in the (uni|multi)verse.", taken as a working hypothesis, seems to be useful. YMMV
- ken 18y ago
  Agnostic theism? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnostic_theist http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnostic_theist) (The question was "best summarized by", so I assume the idea is to check only one, even though this spans two of the choices.)
0x44 18y ago
Vim.
nickb 18y ago
Interesting site: http://godisimaginary.com/ http://godisimaginary.com/

11 points by robg 18y ago

Let's just get this out of the way. I'm interested in an approximate distribution even as I'm okay in the minority.

pg 18y ago

How about adding "the evidence on the God question is at a similar level to the evidence on the werewolf question" as an option?

robg 18y ago
I really don't see the common analytic framework there - but sure, you can vote on the werewolf/cookie monster option. :)
neilk 18y ago
I dunno, is that really analogous? The werewolf question would barely alter your behavior even if you did believe in them. If you're saying that you do not act as if a God existed, I call that atheism. To me belief isn't a matter of profession, it's a matter of altered behavior. By this standard a lot of so-called believers actually aren't, so this is perhaps controversial, but I think this clarifies things.

bkbleikamp 18y ago

I tend toward atheism, but I still have trouble with the fact that we don't know why or how the universe was created, or how space was created. That said, I also have faith (ironic, right?) that science will figure it out - they figured out gravity, calculus, relativity, etc. so why not this? Not knowing why something happened is not enough for me to say "God exists." It means we need to keep looking for a reason.

gunderson 18y ago
If you consider how much we don't know, the "creation story" just happens to be a very small fraction of that. Religious people put a lot of weight on the creation story. It's not important. It's perhaps one of those things that people tend to wonder about, but in terms of scientific knowledge and the benefit of doing science to make the world better, figuring out exactly how the universe created is pretty much a useless undertaking. The important fact is that the universe exists and has properties that can be understood through science. It is not even relevant whether it ever did not exist. It simply does, and for human purposes it always will. The idea of the universe not existing is borrowed from religion. Scientists have come up with some fun theories, but there are a lot more useful/practical/interesting areas of science to think about than trying to come up with a scientific alternative to religious cosmogenesis myths.

mattdennewitz 18y ago

what?! no great, green occal seizure?! thats just offensive.

neilk 18y ago
You must be a fan of the radio or TV series? It was 'Arkleseizure' in the books. I suppose it does sound just like 'Occal', with the Brit accent. http://hhgproject.org/entries/greatgreenarkleseizure.html http://hhgproject.org/entries/greatgreenarkleseizure.html

bayareaguy 18y ago

- one true K&R brace style - 4 space indentation, no tabs

md81544 18y ago
Amen

paul 18y ago

FSM

MaysonL 18y ago

0 religious beliefs, but "There exists a benevolent (albeit highly ironic and humorous) higher power in the (uni|multi)verse.", taken as a working hypothesis, seems to be useful. YMMV

ken 18y ago
Agnostic theism? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnostic_theist http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnostic_theist) (The question was "best summarized by", so I assume the idea is to check only one, even though this spans two of the choices.)

0x44 18y ago

Vim.

nickb 18y ago

Interesting site: http://godisimaginary.com/ http://godisimaginary.com/