So do Mormons get to check two boxes? Mormons are Christian.
I believe the way Mormonism differentiates itself from other forms of Christianity is the additional text (Book of Mormon) and the addition of Joeseph Smith as a prophet.
Poll: How religious is hacker news?
151–160 of 168 posts
Re: Poll: How religious is hacker news?
#152Having grown up in the church, I have honestly never found a good replacement for the sense of community and support that a church offers. Its a shame that no other non-religious organizations have been able to replicate it.
I would contest that any communal group that meets face to face regularly develops similar bonds and that this is not exclusive of spiritual gatherings. I think over the past few generations we have lost more of those reasons to get together, and church is one of the last hanger-ons of these close knit communities.
Agreed, but spiritual gatherings are often centered around questions or issues that are important, fundamental, and/or relevant to daily life.
That's something you generally don't have as much with other types of communal activities, and it's something that, in my experience, creates tight communities much faster, and bonds that often go deeper.
It's like friendships. There's a gradual strengthening over time, but usually the big 'jumps' are caused by personal or interpersonal crises; moment of vulnerability.
Re: Poll: How religious is hacker news?
#153I put Buddhist, but consider myself atheistic to many concepts, but agnostic to others (see: Simulation Argument), and pan-theistic in general - as in, the term reflects a unity of the Universe that any true Cosmos fan should come to see, for instance. (Proof of such is hard won by sceptical scientists.)
Stats with this kind of options are could be seen as rather divisive and can give a false impression if interpreted without nuance.
Re: Poll: How religious is hacker news?
#154Here are the poll results in graph format:
Re: Poll: How religious is hacker news?
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, that is exactly what it means. It doesnt take very long to look something up (eg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticism ). Agnosticism is not about being uncertain, it's the position that the answer is unknowable or unknown - which is much stronger than merely being uncertain.
If that's the definition then it's useless as a distinguishing label since everyone on either side of faith can't know. If anyone could know, faith and belief wouldn't be necessary.
Many atheists and theists believe you can provide evidence one way or another. Most people are not agnostic.
Re: Poll: How religious is hacker news?
#156At first, I was an atheist, and I pitied religious folks for their incredible stupidity. Then, I learned about agnosticism, and I realized it better describes what I believe, and that my lack of belief in God is possibly incorrect. I still pitied the religious for their blind faith. Then I realized one day, while pondering the subject, that because it is not possible to experimentally test for the existence of God, n…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell's_teapot
Re: Poll: How religious is hacker news?
#157It looks like this thread is being moderated off the front page, but it's something that I think is interesting too. I was astonished about the overwhelming response the church software got. Don't get me wrong, it's a great effort, but the sheer amount of votes it received seems somewhat out of proportion for what you'd expect a comparable project to get. So I'm curious if this Show HN maybe released some pressure in…
> allowed people to self-identify as non-religious, somewhat religious, and very religious. The word 'religious' has enough negative connotations that even many religions like to challenge its use to apply to themselves. I did a module of comparative religion a while ago which involved interviews with deeply devout practitioners of a number of religions. All of them said something like 'it's not really a religion, it…
This really baffles me. Does that mean it's impossible to refer to a person's religiosity in general without offending them if you don't provide the exact name of their faith? So the majority of religious people don't actually acknowledge their religiosity and the only way to talk to them about it is to outwardly treat every religion as if it is a huge special case?
Re: Poll: How religious is hacker news?
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't like to say that I'm an agnostic or atheist or anything like that, because why would I? If I don't believe in a god, calling myself an atheist is like calling myself a non-Christian if I'm not a Christian, or a non-Jew if I'm not Jewish. Why would I define myself in contrast to whatever other religious groups there are, when I'm areligious (at least in my case)? It doesn't make sense. So because I don't belie…
Atheism doesn't necessarily imply that you care about, or are being forced to define yourself against, other people's conceptions of spirituality, or religion, or god(s). It simply means that you don't believe in a god, gods, etc. I'd suspect that for most atheists, the label begins and ends there. Atheism isn't a way of life for most people, and despite what anti-atheist types would proclaim, it's not a "religion,"…
Surely tennis-fandom can be proven? (I know, not your point, but that's what makes religion complicated). At least I'm a 100% sure tennis exists.
Re: Poll: How religious is hacker news?
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
> allowed people to self-identify as non-religious, somewhat religious, and very religious. The word 'religious' has enough negative connotations that even many religions like to challenge its use to apply to themselves. I did a module of comparative religion a while ago which involved interviews with deeply devout practitioners of a number of religions. All of them said something like 'it's not really a religion, it…
This really baffles me. Does that mean it's impossible to refer to a person's religiosity in general without offending them if you don't provide the exact name of their faith? So the majority of religious people don't actually acknowledge their religiosity and the only way to talk to them about it is to outwardly treat every religion as if it is a huge special case?
Well, religious people have to realize that even if they wouldn't use the term to describe themselves, it's pretty normal for others to, so I assume most of them can cope without getting offended, but if you ask them if they self identify as religious, they might well say no despite being extremely devout.
I think the argument with the word 'religious' is probably that it is perceived to have connotations of dry rule-following without any kind of meaning. It's not surprising that people want to avoid that sort of image, because they almost certainly don't see their own religion in that way.
Re: Poll: How religious is hacker news?
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
Atheism doesn't necessarily imply that you care about, or are being forced to define yourself against, other people's conceptions of spirituality, or religion, or god(s). It simply means that you don't believe in a god, gods, etc. I'd suspect that for most atheists, the label begins and ends there. Atheism isn't a way of life for most people, and despite what anti-atheist types would proclaim, it's not a "religion,"…
Surely tennis-fandom can be proven? (I know, not your point, but that's what makes religion complicated). At least I'm a 100% sure tennis exists.
Sure. But as you said, that's not really the point of my analogy. I used it more to illustrate the idea that atheism, like tennis non-fandom, can be a conditional state, "called" only when the subject of religion (or tennis) comes up.
Religion is a much more fraught subject than tennis. But the precise subject of the analogy wasn't intended to be 1:1 congruous. I'd be sitting on my butt for weeks, trying to come up with a different analogy, if I felt I needed a measure-for-measure match. :)