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Religulous Labels (+200 Platonic Love From Me If You Do My Short Survey!)

algorythymalgorythym Registered User regular
edited November 2008 in Debate and/or Discourse
Hey there, I am being strongly encouraged by a college professor to investigate religious labels. I am well aware that this is going to spark debate, and possibly discourse, so lets get it on. First, my overwhelmingly short survey.


Instructions According to your own beliefs and convictions, briefly define each of the following labels:

1. Devoutly religious
2. Moderately religious
3. Agnosticist
4. Secularist
5. Atheist

6. Which do you feel applies to you...

Gogo internet anonymity (while we still have it)!

Personally, I think that this labels issue is over complicated. But then again, in a time and age where a religious position is a good thing to have, which one you have is kinda of a big deal, an FaithPenis if you will.

However, on the hand, people that are not religious are sometimes uncomfortable with atheism and have created other labels.

WHAT. SAY. YOU.

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Posts

  • QuidQuid Definitely not a banana Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Deist.

    Now summon Hippie so that he may froth at the horror that is people behaving irrationally in ways he does not approve.

    Quid on
  • JohnDoeJohnDoe Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    1. Someone who completely believes in their religion and will consider anything that contradicts their beliefs/holy texts as false. Most likely attends a place of worships consistently. Likely attempts to convert others.
    2. Believes in their religion but will consider scientifically improbably aspects of their faith as metaphors rather literal truth. May or may not display their faith openly, unlikely to attempt to convert others.
    3. Does not know if God exists, does not really let it affect their lifestyle or choices.
    4. May or may not believe in God/religion, but believes that faith should be kept personal and not influence public affairs.
    5. Someone who does not believe in a higher power or religion.

    6. Atheist.

    JohnDoe on
  • poshnialloposhniallo Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I don't understand the difference between secularist and atheist.

    poshniallo on
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  • RaslinRaslin Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I'm an antitheist

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  • algorythymalgorythym Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    poshniallo wrote: »
    I don't understand the difference between secularist and atheist.

    well we should try to figure that out.

    I consider secularist more of a political term. In fact, lets bring politics into this, why not?

    Also, +200 Platonic Love to JohnDoe, thanks!:winky:

    algorythym on
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  • BlueBlueBlueBlue Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I have never even heard of "Agnosticist". My spell check is telling me it is not a word. I am going to look it up.

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  • Robos A Go GoRobos A Go Go Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    1. Devoutly religious- Someone who subscribes to a religion and lets their faith dictate their every action.
    2. Moderately religious- Someone who subscribes to a faith but does not let scripture override their opinions whenever to two conflict.
    3. Agnosticist- Someone with no desire to draw a conclusion about the existence of God either way and lives life under the assumption that there is no God, but nonetheless entertains the possibility when pressed.
    4. Secularist- Someone who believes religion should have no presence in public institutions.
    5. Atheist- Someone who just believes there is no God.



    6. Which do you feel applies to you...
    Atheist

    Robos A Go Go on
  • redxredx I(x)=2(x)+1 whole numbersRegistered User regular
    edited November 2008
    1. Devoutly religious-someone who's dedicated to the practice of a religion, to such a degree that it significantly impacts how they live their life.
    2. Moderately religious-like that first one, but less so. Minor impact on life, and that's really more about being a member of a social group.
    3. Agnosticist- Spme moron feels that god's existance can not be proven, and that it is ok to -ist to any damn fool thing they feel. Due to the pretenious nature of this label, I'd assume the person an evagalist about it.
    4. Secularist-someone who feels religion should be seperate from the practice of government.
    5. Atheist-Someone who either simply does not believe in god or one who believe god does not exist.

    I'm agnostic secularist that is also an atheist.

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  • taliosfalcontaliosfalcon Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    redx wrote: »
    1. Devoutly religious-someone who's dedicated to the practice of a religion, to such a degree that it significantly impacts how they live their life.
    2. Moderately religious-like that first one, but less so. Minor impact on life, and that's really more about being a member of a social group.
    3. Agnosticist- Spme moron feels that god's existance can not be proven, and that it is ok to -ist to any damn fool thing they feel. Due to the pretenious nature of this label, I'd assume the person an evagalist about it.
    4. Secularist-someone who feels religion should be seperate from the practice of government.
    5. Atheist-Someone who either simply does not believe in god or one who believe god does not exist.

    I'm agnostic secularist that is also an atheist.
    I do not think that means what you think it means o_O Mainly because its completely contradictory

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  • BlutrasereiBlutraserei Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    1. Devoutly religious: Can be one of two things. Either "too into it" i.e.: Seemingly crazy fundie, but still a good person, or well read on theology and apologetics, applying them to their faith. I also suppose the clinically crazy fundie fits in here as well. I am hesitant to leave them in this group because they give the rest of us a bad rap.*

    2. Moderately religious: Obviously the more moderate version of number one. A fair to good understanding of what it is they believe in, but not over zealous about it.

    3. Agnosticist: The perpetually unsure. The true skeptic. He with many questions, or simply, he with no questions.

    4. Secularist: Political Atheist.

    5. Atheist: Doesn't believe in God. Some are dicks. Some are not. This applies to the devoutly religious as well. Champions of science and logic with a moderate to severly annoying tendency to claim monopoly on both.

    6: Stuck somewhere between 1 and 3. Borderline Agnostic with seeking-to-believe tendencies.


    * = Westboro baptist types? yeah... =/= Christians. Remember the goats and sheep parable? Yeah guess who they are.


    Edit: P.S.: I had to google search to find out what the whole definition of Deist meant..and I think I just became one.

    Blutraserei on
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  • DetharinDetharin Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    1. Devoutly religious- Incredibly delusional. Complete lack of touch with reality.
    2. Moderately religious- Believes, but still recognizes there is more to the world. Conflicted in trying to mesh the world with beliefs.
    3. Agnosticist- Does not know the answer, willing to see evidence from both sides.
    4. Secularist-Recognizes the devoutly religious are insane and wishes to keep them from breaking things. Kinda like a fence you put up when you have toddlers.
    5. Atheist-Does not believe in god.
    6. Which do you feel applies to you...

    7. Apatheist - One who believes neither the presence nor absence of a god really matters, and as such should live ones life to the best of ones ability.

    Detharin on
  • TaximesTaximes Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I'm assuming you want to know what our gut responses are to the labels listed, so I'll go with what first comes to mind instead of trying to be a neutral/politically correct human dictionary.
    • Devoutly Religious - Someone who believes their religion usually quite literally and always without question. Some, but not all, may have: disregard for the opinion of others, and/or a desire or feeling of duty to convince others why their way is the right way.
    • Moderately Religious - Less enthusiastic than the above, perhaps has occasional doubts or disagreements with the specifics of their religion, but still believes it overall and identifies themselves as religious.
    • Agnosticist - Openly admit to themselves that questions such as religion aren't answerable, at least not yet. Does not seek to prove or disprove the existence of God, but rather acknowledges and accepts that no one can ever do either.
    • Secularist - Separation of church and state. Has more to do with government than religion. Likely to coincide with Agnosticist or Atheist, but can be used to classify anyone who thinks that religion and government should stay separate.
    • Atheist - Denies the existence of God altogether. You could have included a category for "devoutly atheist" and "moderately atheist", too, because there's atheists who think "Yeah, I suppose God does seem too convenient to be likely," and there's atheists who think, "It's so obvious and you're so stupid, how can you possibly believe in anything other than nothing?"
    Which do you feel applies to you: Picking from this list...Secularist first and foremost, even though it's not a religious belief, because I easily agree that church and state should be kept separate. Without a doubt. People should be free to believe whatever they want, but they also need to be able govern themselves in unity, and religion can interfere far too easily with that.

    As for selecting one of the religious philosophies: agnostic leaning atheist. I recognize that modern religions, just like ancient religions, serve only to explain the inexplicable, and realize that yes, God seems too convenient and too man-made to be real. However, I also acknowledge that saying "Definitely No" is as foolish as saying "Definitely Yes", and so I identify as an agnostic.

    Taximes on
  • piLpiL Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I'm going to try to throw a bit of a wrench in the two religious definitions, sorry.

    1. Devoutly religious - Religious with a great deal of effort devoted to their religion. This may manifest as unwavering loyalty and faith in their religion's tenants, but it may also be represented in often performing works related to their beliefs at the expense of personal gain, or even in developing religious thought in such a way that it conforms to the world-as-understood. The devout is not in the amount of trust given to the religion, but the amount of effort. Ex. Clergy, Priests, Monks, Fire-and-brimstone Baptists, Thelogians.

    2. Moderately religious - Religious with a more moderate focus, devoting less resources to religion than a devoutly religious individual. This person may just as easily unwaveringly trust the word of its texts as blind following does not require a great deal of effort on their part. These tend to be religious people who are generally too busy doing things either non-related or tangentally related to their religion.

    3. Agnosticist - Does not make a claim of understanding the universe. Most commonly either apathetic, or skeptic of even skeptic arguments.

    4. Secularist - Believing that religious view should not affect government or community policy.

    5. Atheist - One who denies the existence of gods or goddesses. Used colloquially to especially refer to those who follow Occam's razor. Some atheists are devoutly religious, and some moderate.




    6. I am a diest. I am also a Secularist.


    An addendum: You may note that I refer to Atheism as religious. I am defining religion in this context as a specific opinion as to the nature of divinity. A definition I've heard of religion before was: "Belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe." I beleive this is an erroneous definition (or at best, incomplete), as I see no reason that a religious person must beleive in an entity that exists beyond the material world.

    Addendum 2: That is a circular as hell definition, but I can't think of a better way to describe it. I do not want to say a specific opinion as to the nature of the world, because "gravity exists" is hardly a religious platform, and yet I want to claim that statements of belief on the subject are religious--a claim that God doesn't exist would be a religious claim much the same way that God does exist.

    I'm not totally sold on this, my definitions change regularly.

    piL on
  • RaslinRaslin Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I've always considered there to be a distinction between atheists and antitheists. Atheists simply don't believe, as they see no reason to. An Antitheist, on the otherhand, actively disbelieves in gods or religion.

    Kind of like Apathy and Antipathy :P

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  • GreeperGreeper Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Raslin wrote: »
    I've always considered there to be a distinction between atheists and antitheists. Atheists simply don't believe, as they see no reason to. An Antitheist, on the otherhand, actively disbelieves in gods or religion.

    Kind of like Apathy and Antipathy :P

    I see that as the difference between agnostics and atheists.

    Greeper on
  • RaslinRaslin Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Greeper wrote: »
    Raslin wrote: »
    I've always considered there to be a distinction between atheists and antitheists. Atheists simply don't believe, as they see no reason to. An Antitheist, on the otherhand, actively disbelieves in gods or religion.

    Kind of like Apathy and Antipathy :P

    I see that as the difference between agnostics and atheists.

    Well, as far as I can see anyways, agnostics are more along the lines of believing that its simply impossible to know whether god exists, but can... warm up, for lack of a better term, towards existing or not.

    Atheists, on the other hand, don't believe because they see no point. They see no god, no god affects them as far as they can tell, there's no proof, so why believe.

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  • ElitistbElitistb Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    algorythym wrote: »
    1. Devoutly religious
    2. Moderately religious
    3. Agnosticist
    4. Secularist
    5. Atheist

    6. Which do you feel applies to you...
    1. He who follows the tenets of his religion sometimes to the detriment of outside relationships.
    2. He who follows the tenets of his religion with some regard as to how the world itself is impacted by his words and deeds.
    3. Someone who has yet to make up his mind on the issue of the existence of more than zero gods.
    4. Someone who understands that religion must remain separate from many other forms of authority.
    5. Someone who has come to the conclusion that there are no deities.

    I feel that I am somewhere between 3 and 5. If there are deities, then they are not deities as represented by the religions of the world. I could sort of see "the universe" as a deity, as my every action is controlled by it, but that is about the closest to a deity that I can believe in. I do not believe in deities that are somehow beyond the scope of the universe, or universes depending on if there is more than one. Nothing that would have the capabilities to be considered a deity would have any concern or concepts of humanity, and no human traits could be ascribed to it. For instance, it would not be "good", nor "evil", nor even "caring or hateful". Basically it would be so far removed that it really doesn't even matter what you think of it.

    Elitistb on
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  • gtrmpgtrmp Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I don't think that the distinction between "devoutly religious" and "moderately religious" is the distinction that you're looking for here. It's possible for someone to be a devout believer in their religion while still remaining moderate on political and interfaith issues, or vice versa in the case of (for example) the Christmas-and-Easter-only Christians who use their interpretations of Christian doctrine as a bludgeon in support of their hardline extremist political beliefs. The distinctions imply that devout believers are equivalent to dogmatic extremists, and that moderates are lacking in devotion to their faith.

    "Agnosticist" isn't a word; to be "agnostic" is, broadly speaking, to hold that the existence of God is either currently unprovable and unknown, or is by definition unknowable. "Secularist" is new to me too, but Firefox's spellchecker seems to think that it's a word; at any rate, "secularism" would be the belief that the affairs of organized religions should remain separate from those of legal and governmental bodies. An atheist doesn't believe in God - or more accurately, doesn't believe in any god, but in a Western Judeo-Christian-dominated society, the capital-G Abrahamic God is usually the sticking point.

    (Firefox's spellchecker recognizes "secularist" but not "Judeo-Christian" or "Abrahamic", oddly enough.)
    redx wrote: »
    3. Agnosticist- Spme moron feels that god's existance can not be proven, and that it is ok to -ist to any damn fool thing they feel. Due to the pretenious nature of this label, I'd assume the person an evagalist about it.
    4. Secularist-someone who feels religion should be seperate from the practice of government.
    5. Atheist-Someone who either simply does not believe in god or one who believe god does not exist.

    I'm agnostic secularist that is also an atheist.
    I do not think that means what you think it means o_O Mainly because its completely contradictory

    By his definitions, an agnostic secular atheist would believe that there is no god, that the existence of such an entity would be unprovable if it did exist, and that the affairs of religion and government should remain separate from one another. How is that contradictory?

    gtrmp on
  • BlutrasereiBlutraserei Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    gtrmp wrote: »
    I don't think that the distinction between "devoutly religious" and "moderately religious" is the distinction that you're looking for here. It's possible for someone to be a devout believer in their religion while still remaining moderate on political and interfaith issues, or vice versa in the case of (for example) the Christmas-and-Easter-only Christians who use their interpretations of Christian doctrine as a bludgeon in support of their hardline extremist political beliefs. The distinctions imply that devout believers are equivalent to dogmatic extremists, and that moderates are lacking in devotion to their faith.

    "Agnosticist" isn't a word; to be "agnostic" is, broadly speaking, to hold that the existence of God is either currently unprovable and unknown, or is by definition unknowable. "Secularist" is new to me too, but Firefox's spellchecker seems to think that it's a word; at any rate, "secularism" would be the belief that the affairs of organized religions should remain separate from those of legal and governmental bodies. An atheist doesn't believe in God - or more accurately, doesn't believe in any god, but in a Western Judeo-Christian-dominated society, the capital-G Abrahamic God is usually the sticking point.

    (Firefox's spellchecker recognizes "secularist" but not "Judeo-Christian" or "Abrahamic", oddly enough.)
    redx wrote: »
    3. Agnosticist- Spme moron feels that god's existance can not be proven, and that it is ok to -ist to any damn fool thing they feel. Due to the pretenious nature of this label, I'd assume the person an evagalist about it.
    4. Secularist-someone who feels religion should be seperate from the practice of government.
    5. Atheist-Someone who either simply does not believe in god or one who believe god does not exist.

    I'm agnostic secularist that is also an atheist.
    I do not think that means what you think it means o_O Mainly because its completely contradictory

    By his definitions, an agnostic secular atheist would believe that there is no god, that the existence of such an entity would be unprovable if it did exist, and that the affairs of religion and government should remain separate from one another. How is that contradictory?

    Bolded the important parts. Most atheists I've seen or met insist on the absence of God. Agnostics don't insist either way, and believe the both extremes are impossible to highlight or prove scientifically. They are contradictory by both common and this personal definition.

    Blutraserei on
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  • VoodooVVoodooV Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    There was a thread a while back that tried to define athiesm as to include agnosticism. I didn't completely agree with the reasoning, but doesn't Dawkins define himself to be an athiest, but when he was pressed about it. He admits that he can't *absolutely* say there is no god, because, as a scientist, he simply doesn't know, which is agnostic IMO.

    My point, simply being that there seems to be a fair amount of athiests that try to include agnostics under their umbrella. I dunno if they do that to get more people onto their side so that they have a heavier political weight to throw about or what... But it does seem that "athiest" is being used in the political arena as the catch all term for someone who isn't religious despite it not being technically accurate

    VoodooV on
  • CantidoCantido Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Secularist.

    I'm raised Catholic but got tired of the bile that comes out of priests mouths so I stopped going. I'm pro-abortion because it prevents the child from growing up in horrible conditions, and I feel the Church should leave the 3rd world and stay out, because places like Mexico need contraceptives and abortions 10 times more than this country does.

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  • DrezDrez Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    1. Devoutly religious - Someone who (a) believes in God or something like God and (b) spends a lot of both time and brain space on living in a manner they think this God or something like God approves of. Also, (c) may regularly perform ritualistic practices as is traditional in their religion (prayer, mass, learning beatitudes, taking a seven-year vow of silence, etc.). Basically, a devoutly religious person follows the traditions of their religion, and usually blindly.

    2. Moderately religious - Someone who (a) believes in God or something like God and (b) spends some time and brain space trying to live up to the moral ideals put forth by the religion. May also (c) perform traditional rituals usually practiced by the religion, but not to any extensive degree. Moderately religious people usually follow their religion more in thought than by going through the motions and may take it as a compliment to their life rather than letting it lead them completely.

    3. Agnosticist - Middle-of-the-road people who have not made up their minds either way about God's existence, refusing to throw away the concept of God or something like God completely despite lack of evidence of God's existence. These people are brilliant and sexy and deserve any money or attention you care you give them. They are the best people in the universe.

    4. Secularist - Secularists believe that religion is best segregated from the government as much as possible.

    5. Atheist - Atheists are godless heathens. Some of them are obnoxious. Others are cool. If you go out drinking with an atheist, make sure you get them drunk quickly and leave them in the corner of the bar while you go talk to your much wiser, prettier Agnostic friends.


    6. Which do you feel applies to you... - I'll let you take a guess.

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  • VoodooVVoodooV Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
  • PelPel Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    1: Devoutly religious: Someone who actively tries to follow the doctrine of their chosen religion, to the detriment of their own economic or social well-being. These persons have probably examined their own religious beliefs and chosen to follow a certain religion. Somehow simultaneously responsible for a great deal of the good in the world, and a great deal of the bad. Often reminds me of the mob; protection for the made members, disregard for everyone else. Note that I believe there should be at least one step between this and #2.

    2: Moderately religious: An individual who professes religious beliefs but does not allow them to change his day to day life; these are the ones who have probably been brought up in a certain way but never really made an active, adult choice to pursue the religious goals of their stated affiliation. Some of these people actually believe quite strongly in their religion, but only because they never really thought about it.

    3: Agnostic: Has made an active choice to reject as gospel the tenets of organized religion. May believe in the fundamentals, but views the details as fluff. Alternatively, may be reformed Athiest who views life as empty of meaning without the possibility of a higher goal, but sees organized religion as a waste of time and/or a base power grab by its leaders. Also may be completely unreligious but of course realizes that any God is potentially beyond proof thus does not wish to consider himself Athiest.

    4: Secularist: A category completely aside from the others; opposite of a theocrat. Believes that religious beliefs have no place in government. One might fall into any of the above (or below) categories and still remain a secularist.

    5: Athiest: Either considers the concept of a god scientifically impossible or believes that, lacking evidence, God may be said to definitively not exist in the realm of human perception.

    6: Hard to say. Agnostic would be the most logically accurate choice of the above, but it is probably the broadest definition of the above and thus not very nuanced, so, ironically, somewhere between 1 and 3. I don't know if what I believe is right, but I believe it very strongly ^^. Also organized religion is a power grab or a social club more often than a vehicle of worship.

    Pel on
  • poshnialloposhniallo Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Pel wrote: »
    ...Athiest....

    I like this.

    I think it comes down to a toss-up between WH and Ap0.

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  • GoodOmensGoodOmens Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    algorythym wrote: »
    Instructions According to your own beliefs and convictions, briefly define each of the following labels:

    1. Devoutly religious
    2. Moderately religious
    3. Agnosticist
    4. Secularist
    5. Atheist

    6. Which do you feel applies to you...

    1. A person who believes fully in the worldview asserted by their religion, such that it has a dramatic and systematic effect on their beliefs, behavior, and treatment of those around them.

    2. A person who follows the rituals of a religion, but does not necessarily agree with the worldview asserted by the religion or its leaders.

    3. One who does not assert any knowledge about the existence or nonexistence of God. May accept that other hold specific beliefs, or may assert that no human is capable of knowin this.

    4. One who believes that religious beliefs should no directly inform public policy and social activity. A secularist may or may not hold personal religious beliefs.

    5. A person who asserts the non-existence of God.

    6. I consider myself an agnostic, in that I see no reason to believe that God exists, but also do not believe that his non-existence can be proven either.

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  • VoodooVVoodooV Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I could see myself as a religious person...If religion just made some fucking sense y'know?

    I was always kinda envious of the Bajorans in Deep Space Nine. Devoutly religious people, but guess what..their gods actually did exist. Sure technically they weren't gods, but they were super powerful entities that did apparently take a big interest in the Bajoran people and looked out for them. There was a basis of truth to their religion. It wasn't just made up stories originally designed to scare people into not doing bad things or a method of control.

    Same thing with Star Wars...it wasn't a hokey religion..the force did exist. There was a measurable aspect to it.

    VoodooV on
  • tsmvengytsmvengy Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    algorythym wrote: »
    Instructions According to your own beliefs and convictions, briefly define each of the following labels:

    1. Devoutly religious
    2. Moderately religious
    3. Agnosticist
    4. Secularist
    5. Atheist

    6. Which do you feel applies to you...

    EDIT: D'oh, forgot answers. One sec.

    1. This means different things depending on which religion you're talking about. For a fundamentalist christian, I would say it means you believe in the literal truth of the bible and go to church every week, and you uphold the values outlined in the bible. For a catholic I would say it means that you follow all the sort of ritual things that catholics do (rosary, etc.) and go to mass multiple times a week. But you wouldn't have to believe in the literal truth of the bible.

    2. Toned-down version of the above. You participate in going to services every week, but you don't necessarily subscribe to the more rigid aspects of religion.

    3. A couple definitions. 1: Someone who is non-religious but doesn't want to label themselves as "atheist" because they don't have a stake in religion one way or another. 2: Someone who believes that some sort of higher power exists but can't define it and doesn't subscribe to a religion.

    4. Someone who believes in a rigid separation of religion and state matters. They recognize that people draw from their worldview (which may include religion) in order to make decisions but that government should not have religious policy.

    5. Someone who is anti-religion.

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  • QinguQingu Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    1. Devoutly religious: Considers a religion's scriptures and/or traditions to be an unerring guide to reality and moral behavior.

    2. Moderately religious: Believes strongly in a few things from religious scripture or tradition, but ignores the rest in favor of secular morals or interprets the rest as "metaphorical" in favor of secular morals.

    3. Agnosticist: I've never heard this word before. In the context of religion, I would define an agnostic as someone who is genuinely on the fence between one or several religions and atheism. Functionally, in order to be a useful term, I think "agnostic" should mean something functionally different than "atheist"—that is, an agnostic would be someone who goes to church every now and then, "just in case."

    4. Secularist: I see this term as having more to do with how you think religion should interact with society rather than your beliefs about the religion itself. You can thus be religious and secularist (for example, many Jews)—however, it's difficult to be devout and secularist because religious scriptures provide non-secular instructions for society.

    5. Atheist: Someone who doesn't believe in gods. Again, I like to use the word "atheist" in a way that functionally distinguishes them from an "agnostic"—people who never go to church and never really act as if they might believe there are gods, I would call atheists. An atheist doesn't need to be 100% certain there aren't gods (some people would call such people "agnostics")—but then, you don't need to be 100% certain that your milkshake hasn't been poisoned in the kitchen to drink it.

    6. Which do you feel applies to you... I'm the atheist atheist of all. I hate religion so much that I majored in religious studies to destroy it.

    EDIT: for discussions about religious definitions, I think it's important to define what the word "god" means. To me, a god is necessarily a person—gods have superhuman powers, but they are not "forces" devoid of personality. Nor are they wholly untied from the flow of human history—a god, by definition, must have some agency in the course of history, specifically human history, that makes him or her worthy of worship in the first place.

    The Deist's Clockmaker god, for me, sits on the very edge of the definition, sort of like how a virus or a prion sits on the edge of the definition of "life." I don't really see how a Deist is, functionally speaking, any different from an atheist. As far as a Deist's behavior, actions, and beliefs about observable reality are concerned, the Clockmaker God may for all intents and purposes not exist at all. This doesn't seem like much of a god to me, for the same reason that Carl Sagan's dragon doesn't seem like much of a dragon. Similarly, your typical "agnostic's" god that he may or may not believe in is usually similar to the Deist god—a vague impersonal force that would have no influence or bearing on your existence if it did exist. Such self-styled agnostics are functionally indistinguishable from atheists—it's not like they're on the fence about any god whose existence would affect their actual behavior or way of life.

    Qingu on
  • TadPlumeTadPlume Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    algorythym wrote: »
    1. Devoutly religious
    2. Moderately religious
    3. Agnosticist
    4. Secularist
    5. Atheist

    6. Which do you feel applies to you...

    1. Devoutly religious - Someone who believes in their religion and its works as an immutable and infallible.

    2. Moderately religious - A person who believes in the spirit of the religion more than the dogma.

    3. Agnosticist - Someone who either believes in a non-personal god (I consider a deist a sub-set of agnostic), or refuses to definitely say either way for lack of evidence.

    4. Secularist - A person who believes that religion and common public life should be separate. I believe it is more of a modifier to the other definitions than one of it's own. Devoutly religious people are mostly at odds with this idea.

    5. Atheist - A person who has no belief in a god. Atheists believe there is no testable proof of a god, and an untestable theory is not a sound idea to work from.


    6. Which do you feel applies to you... I am an apathetic agnostic, I don't know if there is a god, but if there is then any being powerful enough to create everything is beyond our understanding anyway. It would be like bacteria in a lab trying to understand what a scientist has grown them for.

    TadPlume on
  • ArgusArgus Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    VoodooV wrote: »
    There was a thread a while back that tried to define athiesm as to include agnosticism. I didn't completely agree with the reasoning, but doesn't Dawkins define himself to be an athiest, but when he was pressed about it. He admits that he can't *absolutely* say there is no god, because, as a scientist, he simply doesn't know, which is agnostic IMO.

    My point, simply being that there seems to be a fair amount of athiests that try to include agnostics under their umbrella. I dunno if they do that to get more people onto their side so that they have a heavier political weight to throw about or what... But it does seem that "athiest" is being used in the political arena as the catch all term for someone who isn't religious despite it not being technically accurate

    I think Dawkins' system is a pretty good system: it shows a spectrum that, as far as I can tell, is realistic, and includes some categories that other systems of naming leave out.
    Wiki wrote:
    1. Strong theist. 100 per cent probability of God. In the words of C.G. Jung, 'I do not believe, I know.'
    2. Very high probability but short of 100 per cent. De facto theist. 'I cannot know for certain, but I strongly believe in God and live my life on the assumption that he is there.'
    3. Higher than 50 per cent but not very high. Technically agnostic but leaning towards theism. 'I am very uncertain, but I am inclined to believe in God.'
    4. Exactly 50 per cent. Completely impartial agnostic. 'God's existence and non-existence are exactly equiprobable.'
    5. Lower than 50 per cent but not very low. Technically agnostic but leaning towards atheism. 'I do not know whether God exists but I'm inclined to be skeptical.'
    6. Very low probability, but short of zero. De facto atheist. 'I cannot know for certain but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption that he is not there.'
    7. Strong atheist. 'I know there is no God, with the same conviction as Jung "knows" there is one.'

    In this context, atheists are not "recruiting" agnostics to their side; they are simply recognizing that you may think that it's impossible to know for certain whether God exists but still be disinclined to believe in God or gods.
    Qingu wrote: »
    6. Which do you feel applies to you... I'm the atheist atheist of all. I hate religion so much that I majored in religious studies to destroy it.

    What kind of job can you get based on majoring in Religious Studies as an Atheist?


    As to the question at hand...

    1. Devoutly religious- Depends on using "devout" to mean in actions or in belief. As such, it could either be those who attend church more than once weekly, and perform various rituals depending on the religion they follow, or could be someone who deeply believes that their religious view is the correct view. I will disagree with some of the others in this thread by saying that they might deeply believe themselves to be right and yet not have looked closely at their own convictions; they grew up with religion X as a strong part of their lives, and never considered it leaving. They could have examined their belief, but not necessarily.
    2. Moderately religious- Again, depending on actions or belief, it could mean either those who attend church less often than devouts, or those who aren't as gnostic about their belief as devouts. They could also be both; I would bet that those who are more uncertain about their beliefs also tend to place less importance on strict adherence to religious practices and attend less frequently as well.
    3. Agnostic- Uncertain about whether God's or gods' existences could be known by humans. There should really be two more categories on either side of agnostic, to represent the barely religious or highly uncertain theists and the highly uncertain nontheists.
    4. Secularist- Separates gov't and religious functions and interactions; the often quoted phrase of Jefferson "A wall of separation between church and state" would sit well with them. As noted by others, could actually be in any of the other categories.
    5. Atheist- Does not believe in God or gods, highly unlikely to attend church services. Could be expanded to include 5, 6, and 7 on the Dawkins scale, and as such, includes both agnostic atheists, who can't say that it's ultimately knowable whether God or gods exist or not, as well as gnostic atheists, who are sure that God or gods don't exist, because they know it.

    6. Which do you feel applies to you...

    Agnostic atheist, or a 6 on the Dawkins scale.

    Are you using these results for an actual "survey" or just getting general ideas for this professor?

    Argus on
    pasigsizedu5.jpg
  • FunkyWaltDoggFunkyWaltDogg Columbia, SCRegistered User regular
    edited November 2008
    1. Devoutly Religious - Subscribes to the core dogma of a religion and lives a life strongly influenced by it.
    2. Moderately Religious - Either does not believe or does not live by the core dogma of a religion, but considers self to be a person of that religion anyway.
    3. Agnostic - Does not subscribe to any single religion, but feels there is probably a god.
    4. Secularist - Regardless of belief in a god (or lack thereof), feels that religion has no place in public society. Should not, strictly speaking, be on this continuum as it describes something else entirely.
    5. Atheist - Suspects, or is certain, that there is no god and lives accordingly.

    As I've defined the terms above I would consider myself Devoutly Religious, but according to some of these other classifications I'd be Moderately Religious. Really I think there need to be at least 3 divisions of "religious" to get a full spread: Fundamentalist, Devout but not Fundamentalist (I'd go here), and Not Devout.

    FunkyWaltDogg on
  • Wonder_HippieWonder_Hippie __BANNED USERS regular
    edited November 2008
    I guess I should take part in a thread where I've been invoked twice already.

    1. Devoutly religious - Adheres strictly to a text or personal mythology independent of reality, evidence, empiricism and naturalistic though. Wholly devoted to whatever system of belief they adhere to, rejecting modern science and philosophy out of hand.

    2. Moderately religious - Take the above defition and remove all aspects that necessarily require eschewing modern society. A moderately religious person is somebody that maintains a cognitive dissonance regarding the real world and their religion's claims. They accept that modern medicine works and that evolution happened despite what their text may say, but still believe in that text.

    3. Agnosticist - God damned aloof fucking fence sitters that think the argument is split 50/50 between nontheism and theism. In a word: annoying.

    4. Secularist - My first inclination is that you're describing a deist with this one. Functionally, they are indiscernable from atheists and agnostics in that they reject the idea of interventionists gods and generally live secular lives. They still take that leap, however, and unnecessarily and erroneously claim that there is some magical, meaningless, unspecified deity or being or something. That's about as far as you can go with deists, because it's an incredibly individual belief system. Some believe there's a plan, some ultimate point to the universe, others just take the leap because they have to believe in some sort of uncaused cause kind of crap.

    5. Atheism - This one, as well, seems to be very individual. Ultimately, the only thing that can be said about an atheist is that we are nontheists. There are debates about strong atheism v. weak atheism, and debates about what atheism and agnosticism actually mean, but I'll just ride with the common parlance where agnostic = fence-sitting fuck and atheists have chosen a side.

    6. Which do you feel applies to you... - Atheism by way of absolute, strict naturalism. I don't disbelieve anything, I just know what evidence has been gathered and make no assumptions beyond that. I don't reject any gods, I just know that the evidence indicates conclusions that run contrary to any and all supernatural. There is naturalism and that's the end of it. I despise how people define gods nowadays, as being something "outside" this universe - whatever the ass that means - because it begs the question about an "outside" that we can't even perceive. Basically, it's a god-of-the-gaps, and it drives me up a god damned wall. "We don't know about this, so let's make wild, baseless assumptions about reality!"

    Wonder_Hippie on
  • mnollmnoll Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    1. Devoutly religious- People who very thoroughly believe in their creed of choice and rejects on principle the idea that they are mistaken.
    2. Moderately religious- People who publicly identify as belonging to a certain religion, but balk at the idea of having said religion define their existence.
    3. Agnosticist- Someone who recognizes the lack of evidence for theism and atheism, and resolves this by abstaining from the debate altogether.
    4. Secularist- More of a political stance than a religious identification. These are people who believe that religion has no place in public policy, as that is a forum for humanistic goals, not spiritual ones.
    5. Atheist- Someone who believes very thoroughly that there is no God, by virtue of the lack of evidence.

    6. Which do you feel applies to you...
    I suppose I come down technically as a secular agnostic, but I am by popular definition an atheist. I dislike the rituals of virtually all organized (and unorganized) religion, and believe firmly in the separation of church and state. I don't think anything happens after you die. I've never been convinced in the idea of God, and I've concluded that if he is there, he's strictly a passive force. Nothing more.

    Where's my +200 platonic love?!

    mnoll on
  • DrezDrez Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    1. Devoutly Religious - Subscribes to the core dogma of a religion and lives a life strongly influenced by it.
    2. Moderately Religious - Either does not believe or does not live by the core dogma of a religion, but considers self to be a person of that religion anyway.
    3. Agnostic - Does not subscribe to any single religion, but feels there is probably a god.
    4. Secularist - Regardless of belief in a god (or lack thereof), feels that religion has no place in public society. Should not, strictly speaking, be on this continuum as it describes something else entirely.
    5. Atheist - Suspects, or is certain, that there is no god and lives accordingly.

    As I've defined the terms above I would consider myself Devoutly Religious, but according to some of these other classifications I'd be Moderately Religious. Really I think there need to be at least 3 divisions of "religious" to get a full spread: Fundamentalist, Devout but not Fundamentalist (I'd go here), and Not Devout.

    Just so everyone knows, Agnostics do not "feel there is probably a God." This is just not correct. They "feel there is possibly a God" which is a massive difference.

    Drez on
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  • DrezDrez Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Man...I'm reading over a lot of the posts here and the concept most people have about Agnosticism is just wrong.

    The five options the OP gave don't cover every type of theistic philosophy available, and so I think people are conflating unspecific theism with Agnosticism for lack of an appropriate label to describe.

    But they are not the same. Someone who believes there is a God, but is not sure what this God is or what have you is simply a theist or, in some cases, a deist. A theist believes in some God. A deist believes in some single God that is the creator. In both cases, what "God" entails is unspecific.

    Agnostics are NOT theists or deists by any stretch of the imagination. They accept the possibility of God existing and accept the possibility of God not existing, but tend to not lean too hard in either direction.



    Oh and for the record "religious" and "believes in God" are only tangentially related. I mean, you can be religious about Monday Night Football if you want. Thus, the five labels presented for definition do not cover simple, unspecific theism or deism. I think the fact that agnosticism is the third (middle) choice and that there appears to be a gradient from belief to non-belief in the choices presented is likely why people are putting a definition of theism next to agnosticism.

    Drez on
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  • FunkyWaltDoggFunkyWaltDogg Columbia, SCRegistered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Drez wrote: »
    Man...I'm reading over a lot of the posts here and the concept most people have about Agnosticism is just wrong.

    The five options the OP gave don't cover every type of theistic philosophy available, and so I think people are conflating unspecific theism with Agnosticism for lack of an appropriate label to describe.

    I rather thought this was the point of the exercise. Given insufficient categories, each person attempts to specifically ascribe their own situation to one grouping while shoehorning everything else into the other four groups as best they can.

    FunkyWaltDogg on
  • Bad KittyBad Kitty Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    People tend to be a mishmash and emphasize certain portions of faith over others. I don't think you can make a proper propensity inference to specific tenets simply by being devoutly religious.

    1. Devoutly Religious - When confronted with evidence contrary to religious doctrine or tenet, will discount the evidence. Fundamentalist, often literal approach to certain tenets. Coincides with religious justification for behaviour and events.
    2. Moderately Religious - Interpretive rather than literal stance to religion and evidence contrary to belief. Sometimes justifies behaviour on religion, but never events on religion.
    3. Agnosticist - Same as agnostic: functionally not a technical 50/50 probability. Accepts there is much evidence contrary to religious beliefs but still accepts there is enough of a possibility of a god to be intuitively sound.
    4. Secularist - irrespective of religion, wants governmental policy decisions to be independent from formalized religious justification.
    5. Atheist - certain that due to evidence the possibility of a god is infinitesimal so as to be discounted.

    6. Atheist.

    Bad Kitty on
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