i have a question for religious people .. i guess for agnostics and atheists too.?

Question

OK my personal beliefs are: i believe in a being that at least had some part in creating life as we know it today. If you choose to call that being God then so be it, then in your words i believe in a God. i do not believe that God is all powerful, nor do i believe that God punishes people here on earth for "sins" man made up. i do NOT believe in the Bible. i think it is a man made evil creation that most people use as a shield to behave as badly as they want in "Gods" name. i do believe in a heaven; but to me heaven is achieving peace within yourself either before or after you die. And i believe in hell - we are living it right now. it's our test to see if we get to achieve our heaven.
So ok to stop my rhetoric and get to the main question. What am i? Agnostic, atheist, religious? i usually tell people i am agnostic; but i am wondering if that is the right term. So just want opinions as to what people would say i am. Don't waste time quoting the bible, i won't read those answers

As i said i don’t believe in the Bible…it is man made and therefore in my mind has nothing to do with God, only man’s perception of God. i have no use for those answers, so it will be a waste of your time to write them all out. If that sounds rude then i apologize but why let you waste time writing what i won’t read anyway?
Serious answers only please; i am genuinely interested in what people think; especially since i am not the only person i know who believes as i do. It would be nice to see what others say about my beliefs and what the word for it would be. Thank you for taking the time to answer this question.

i have no idea who to pick as best answer. Most are very nice and informative. i appreciate everyones time and opinions. Now any ideas on how to pick the best? can click the contcat me option in my profile if you have any suggestions on how to pick the best of so many good answers. Thanks again.

Answer 1

I like your question because you are really asking about definitions and that is a necessary first step in any discussion of religion. On the spectrum of definitions of God we have the possibility of both noun and verb. Noun: God is a being. Verb: God IS being itself (for example, God IS love itself or the being is a loving being.) Sometimes people who believe in God as a verb will say that they are an atheist because they don't believe in a God that is an anthropomorphic being. But you really shouldn't let other people force you into being labeled as something based on their definitions: definitions that were never agreed upon.

I would say based on the fact that you have even asked the question, that you are a Seeker. Don't worry that you will never have all the answers. I commend you for seeking. I suggest that you think of your search as a search for wisdom. There is a great deal of human wisdom at the core of each of the many human religions. Wise and caring people who were seeking after truth have left us a rich, metaphorical heritage. Even the Christian's bible, despite its misuse over the years (and continued misuse) contains wisdom that can be valuable to you. Don't give up the responsibility to think for yourself - evaluate the wisdom that has been left here for you and continue your journey!

Answer 2

Deist - hadn't heard of it, but I don't think God is taking vacation.

I think God exists - or at least his species does - and I think they seeded our solar system.
I think that the beings we call God are just conscious beings that evolved billions of years ago. They achieved knowledge of the universe. Then realizing that the universe only 'infinite' as long as it doesn't reach final entropy. To keep the universe from reaching final entropy the creators seed billions of planets knowing that a least a few will evolve to join in universe creation - kind of like a self-fueling machine.
I think this is what our potential is - not our destiny. We very well could end our existence, and life would start again in another form.

Sometimes I think Sitchin's story is the best.
An alien race came to our planet from a 12th planet in our solar system that has a 3,000yr orbit. Actually their planet destroyed a precursor planet and the result was the Earth, Moon and the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Anyway, they came to our planet and created us from native Earth caveman DNA and theirs. They needed workers (eerily similar to story of Adam who was made to be a gardener). All of the ancient polytheistic gods and goddesses were real people/aliens flying around in ships (again like the fiery chariots in the bible) using all kinds of technology. Man tried to use the alien techology and build a ship themselves and were disbanded (Babel). The Flood occurred because of the gravitational pull of their planet caused Anarctic ice sheets to shift enough to cause a global tsunami. It goes on and on...covering the globe. He ties in every continent and civilization and every profound structure.

People think Sitchin's work is fiction, but he got his data from Sumerian texts. The interesting/scary part is that the 12th planet has been seen - Zena in the news. If Sitchin is correct then the planet will be at it's closest around 2100AD. We have this whole century to watch it come.

Either way - God is busy doing some other creation and not involved in the mundane workings of our planet.

Answer 3

Glad to see more questions like this........I am in the same boat as you, with similar beliefs, and still unsure what I would call my "religion", It is also nice to know that I'm not alone in those beliefs.... The interesting part is that all of us who have these similar beliefs came to them on our own, from our self's. I still don't know what we would or ever should call ourselves, but at the moment I'm learning more about Deism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism
Since it seems to encompass many of my beliefs.....It really isn't important to me to have a title for my beliefs but it would be nice to have a simple answer when I'm asked what my faith is.

Ether way.....Good luck in this gurney, and may we all see each other on the other side =]
by the way you should check out my question, I have had many good responses

Answer 4

Hi Bill,

First of all there is no God outside of your heart and there is no God inside your heart. If you are good you will do good to people and if you are bad you will do bad to people. Gurus says "Aham Brahmasmi" and "Shivoham"; meaning The world is you and you yourself is God. There is no heaven or hell outside of this world. Everything is here. If you do good to the needy and get a mental satisfaction then you are in heaven and if you don't you are in hell. You can see how people live; some have enough of all and some haven't anything to live. If you can read books of Amritandmay (Recently released a documentary film "Darshan"), Swami Vivekananda, Aurobindo Gosh you will not say there is no God. These books are not religious and not related to any religion it is from their experience.

Answer 5

I believe you are a Freethinker. those who think religion can be harmful and those who choose not to believe in conformed religion.....
Agnostic, from what I know, is someone who does not know IF there is a god or not...
I totally agree with your opinion. I feel the same.
I believe in the world around me..... nature, the sky, the earth, etc. that's enough for me to have spirituality. I do not need a book nor a supreme being to lead my life.
Keep up your free spirit!!!

Answer 6

If you:
A) believe that it is impossible to know whether there is a God
or
B) are skeptical about the existence of God but do not profess true atheism

then you are Agnostic

If you:
Have or show belief in and REVERENCE for God OR A DEITY
(i believe the key there is the "showing reverence" part)

then you are Religious.

Since you believe in A god, then you are technically NOT an atheist.

My guess is you're probably Agnostic.

Hope that helps

Answer 7

Very confused - that is what you are.

If you truly do acts in Gods name then they are not evil or sins and the Bible does not get used as a shield to do bad things just because you can ask forgiveness. If you are truly saved then you change your life and don't do those things. Yes, everyone sins, but at least Christian sins are not killing people and then asking forgiveness and thinking it is OK.
As for the Bible - yes, it is man made, but God gave those men the words to put in the Bible. they are experiences of those men with God and a lot of it is Gods own words to us as believers.
We punish ourselves for not following or believing - God doesn't punish us.
In order for you to believe there is a God - you have to believe the rest of it - otherwise you don't really believe. You can't say I believe God created the earth, but nothing else.

Answer 8

You are a deist. Just like Thomas Jefferson.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism

You wouldn't be an agnostic, since agnostics don't believe in god because they don't have enough evidence, but they also aren't ruling out the possibility that god exists.

Atheists simply don't believe in any god or any supernatural hocus pocus.

Deists believe that 'something' created the world but it isn't like this 'something' is sitting around judging people and expecting people to worship it.

Answer 9

i would say that you are an idol worshipper. you are your own God. you have taken it upon yourself to determine, by your own limited understanding, that whatever you believe has to be the truth. that doesn't work with anything else in our world and it doesn't work with God either. God is the standard, or the higher being as you like to call him. i would say you are a worshipper of self. you won't claim there is the biblical God because then you know you have to answer for your actions here on earth. you cover yourself by saying there is a higher being because this fictitious higher being you have created will hot hold you accountable for your sin. this is a very popular belief today. you believe in a higer being because evolution is too far out there, but that higher being won't judge us. so again, i would say, list your sources for this type of belief. you are not a source by the way

Answer 10

Well, you believe in God, so you're not an atheist -- because an atheist believes there is no God.

Nor are you an agnostic, because agnostics doubt the existence of God but don't go so far as to say He flat-out doesn't exist. You've acknowledged that God is real, and you don't seem to doubt it -- so you're not an agnostic.

Nor do you seem religious -- your belief in God is there, but it seems to be a very formal one, with little or no doctrine or structure.

It sounds like you don't fit into any of the particular categories that we tend to want to put ourselves in.

I guess you could say, "I believe in God in some sense, but I don't adhere to any formal religion."