God.

[Kayla]

WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE WHEN IT COMES TO RELIGION?
Just wondering =]

[Eva Stoops]

"The afterlife is something else entirely."

Well is it really? It could be a testable theory, we just don't actually know how to test it.

And actually aren't there some laws of freedom that allow us to believe whatever we wish? Maybe believing things because they make you happy might not be the best reason, but if we start restricting what people can believe in, we reduce the amount of freedom that we have. It is not a problem to believe things, it is a problem when your belief begins to hurt other people.

[Autobrots]

Sorry to be brief, but I have to get to work.

"Well is it really? It could be a testable theory, we just don't actually know how to test it."

At the very least, it is not currently a testable theory. I cannot imagine a test that would satisfy me as to the existence/non-existence of life after death. I may be wrong on this, but for now, let's work with what we've got.

"And actually aren't there some laws of freedom that allow us to believe whatever we wish? "

Er, yes and no. I mean, I don't know of any 'laws of freedom', but it's an obvious fact that anyone can believe anything they wish and nobody can stop them.

"Maybe believing things because they make you happy might not be the best reason, but if we start restricting what people can believe in, we reduce the amount of freedom that we have."

Well, I'm not suggesting that there should be actual, legal restrictions on what people believe. All I'm saying is that we should try to believe things that are true. If people want to believe that Santa, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny are real beings, they absolutely can do that, I can't and don't really want to forcibly prevent them from doing that, but I will argue with them that they shouldn't believe what is not true.

Nobody's arguing for forcing people to believe anything here, far from it, I think that would be a terrible idea! I'm merely saying that we need to answer for our beliefs, that they should be examined, debated, discussed and if necessary changed if they prove to be false. I don't think it's a good idea to go about one's life believing something because you want to, and I'm not going to come over to your house and force you to believe what I believe, but I am going to argue with you about it on the internet if I have the time.

"It is not a problem to believe things, it is a problem when your belief begins to hurt other people."

Well, sadly, my time here is up, so you'll just have to take my word for it that there's a little more to it than you suggest in this quote.

[James Hynes]

i'm atheist but I don't like any sort of theism that including atheism all it does is split people up and kill innocents

[David]

To start off I just wanted to say how peculiar it is how all the qualities of Christianity are based off of human ideals, stories and depictions of what God is. Now I believe like almost every other religion these qualities are express through what they believe in. Now regarding Religion, I would define it as a moral guideline towards how life should be lived which is based off things such as the Bible, The old testament, the church and so on. Secondly, I think God is an imaginary figure which provides people with a sense of hope and guilt in the decisions they make.

So now onto miracles; the human brain works in a positive and negative respect towards everything in life and through that it predicts the outcome of the event.

This is done through people's beliefs in themselves (through god their imaginary friend which they believe is helping them).This affects everything from healing a wound, getting really sick and then better all of sudden and overcoming hardships. As an example I read this study on how a women had been raped and had believed that she was pregnant, now she of course wasn't and had seen multiple doctors on the matter, although somehow she had grown an empty fetus with nothing inside and had still believed she was pregnant.

As for the practices such as going to church praying and so on those are just ritualistic actions to get yourself to believe that everything is going to be alright, it's also used as a means of sustaining confidence in one's self.

[Furey]

Atheist, but I don't mind other people believing in god does no harm to me.

[MisterShadow]

Personally, I think that's the only completely rational stance to take. I'm agnostic leaning pretty heavily towards atheism.

[Cassidy Beach]

I'm a.. Buddhist Agnostic, which sounds kind of weird, but let me explain.

Buddhism isn't a strict religion, and some people find it hard to call it a religion at all. Granted, there are branches of Buddhism with different beliefs, some believing in a god, deity, whatever.

I have Buddhist beliefs about just about everything (4 Truths, Eightfold Path, etc.) but I also believe in a God. I don't believe in a God though, that a lot of people believe in. I believe in my own God and my own spiritual guidance. I believe in personal "heavens" (Lovely Bones, anyone?) and no Hell.

So, I have my own God, my own Heaven, and my own beliefs.

[Alaska Is Beautiful]

Wow, you have a lot of replies. Regardless, I'm sure you won't see my reply often. I am a Jehovah's Witness. I am a Christian. Jehovah's Witnesses belive pretty mush the same as what other "Christians" believe except we believe God has a name (Jehovah) and Jesus did not die on a cross (a torture stake...just a long stick...a pole...). Those are the main differences. We do not salute the flag because we believe it is idolizing the flag and only God (Jehovah) should be idolized. We do not celebrate birthdays because both of the first two birthdays ended in death. I wpould explain more, but I must leave. I'll try to get back on. Thanks for reading...
Oh, and look up Psalm 83:18....

[Eystein,]

Why don't you believe Jesus died on a cross? It says so in the Bible, or so I've heard O.o... He's not the only one either. Hundreds, if not thousands of people the Romans considered criminals died on crosses. Besides what differance does it make? That's my main issue with religion, is how followers tend to obsess about trivial things...

Your faith is one I particularly dislike. But I don't know much about it, so it's basically prejudice on my part. A kid in my mom's class was supposed to be a Jehovah's Witness, but he didn't know what it was all about yet, so he wouldn't participate on anything because he was afraid it could be sinful. He had to check back home first. My mom felt really sorry for him. One time he seemed very distressed, and my mom asked him why. He said his parents had forbid him to say her name because he was under the impression that her name was Kari Gud, which would mean Kari God, when it's acctually Kari Gunn..sigh!

[Iiris]

i'm a good ole atheist and so are most of the ppl i know, there actually isnt even one religious pupil in my class

[Collin Thomas]

The stories are all boring