Hello everyone, welcome to the first post of my research blog, and many thanks in advance for your feedback. Hope everyone is doing okay with the current ‘plague’-like situation and staying safe.
I will keep my posts and questions as simple and straightforward as possible, but you should feel free to expand on your replies as much as you want. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated!
My first question on this blog is relating to your own self-definition as nonreligious individuals. Are you using any specific label(s) to describe your nonreligious identity? If yes, what label(s) are you using and how would you define it/them?
Putting a few nonreligious labels examples here. But the list is, of course, non-exhaustive so any additions are more than welcome. Feel free to use as many labels as you want.
Examples: Atheist, Agnostic, Humanist, Spiritual but Not Religious, Nonreligious, Nonbeliever, Anti-theist, Anti-religious, Secularist, Pastafarian, New Atheist, Skeptic, Religiously Indifferent, Nontheist, Dudeist, ex-Christian/ex-Muslim/ex-…, and others.
Atheist
Hey there! Could you maybe elaborate on what atheism is to you? Because during my research I have heard multiple definitions of it, some people for example use it as an indication of not believing to the deity/deities of specific religion(s), but then when asked on whether they believe in a “higher power” they reply that they do. So, could you maybe elaborate on what the label means to you personally?
Here is the confusion that most make between atheism and agnosticism:
Atheism is the lack of belief in the existence of deities.
Agnosticism is the view that the existence of a God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable.
When they refer to a “higher power”, that falls into the agnostic branch where people leave a shred of doubt. In atheism there is no need for doubt of the unknown in the absence of proper evidence. An atheist will state this: I do not claim to know if a god exists or not, but I will not believe you say there is one just because you “feel” there should be one.
Realistically, I have not come up with a one-word label. When asked, I usually elaborate saying – I don’t believe in God, but culturally I do follow some of the orthodox christian practices (e.g. saying happy easter and bumping colored eggs).
Why I have not come up with a label…maybe there is some term and I just don’t know what it is.
So, what many people identify as God (e.g. as a creator of universe, or some power to control/guide our development), for me is a collection of unidentified or unsolvable laws of nature (laws of physics), at least for now.
I’m a skeptic agnostic atheist.
I do not believe claims without evidence – skeptic
I do not claim to know if any gods exist – agnostic
I do not believe in any gods – atheist
Αγνωστικιστής, γιατί σ’ένα άπειρο σύμπαν τα πάντα είναι πιθανά και οι γνώσεις μας είναι περιορισμένες. Δεν μπορώ να πιστέψω σε τίποτα χωρίς αποδείξεις αλλά είμαι ανοιχτή σε κάθε ενδεχόμενο. και έκπληξη εκ μέρους του σύμπαντος.
Ανθρωπιστής, γιατί είμαι άνθρωπος. Ακόμα κι αν υπήρχε κάποιο αρχικό αίτιο των πάντων δεν πιστεύω πως θα είχε κάποιο λόγο να ασχοληθεί ιδιαίτερα με την ανθρωπότητα. Άλλωστε το σύμπαν είναι άπειρο. Αν δε φροντίσουμε οι άνθρωποι για την ανθρωπότητα, κανείς δεν πρόκειται να το κάνει, κανείς δε θα μας σώσει.
Άθρησκος, γιατί με τέτοια μεγάλη ποικιλία θρησκειών στο χώρο και το χρόνο, πως θα μπορούσε κανείς να πιστέψει πως κάποιος κατέχει τη μοναδική και αδιαμφισβήτητη αλήθεια; Άλλωστε οι θρησκείες είναι κυρίως δομές εξουσίας κι επιβολής.
Πασταφάριαν, γιατί το χάος της ύπαρξης χωρίς το δεκανίκι των θρησκειών μόνο με χιούμορ μπορεί κανείς να το αντιμετωπίσει. Και γιατί όχι, είναι εξίσου πιθανή η ύπαρξη του μεγάλου μακαρονοτέρατος όσο και των υπολοίπων θεών. (Βέβαια, πριν δήλωσα άθρησκη, αλλά ελπίζω να μου συγχωρεθεί η αντίφαση).
Agnostic, and I think I could say fiercely agnostic, in the sense that are actively refuse to take a stance, more or less as a matter of principle.
Not sure how rational that is, though, since I guess I in my teens slid out of a Christian identity because I could really get it to make logical or historical sense, and I still can’t, really, so in that sense some would perhaps call me an atheist or agnostic atheist.
If you define atheism as merely “lack of faith”, I guess I’m an atheist.
But I still has a certain emotional bond to Christianity, so that might be a reason I don’t really want to define myself as atheist.
I also identified more or less as a Christian agnostic for a while, probably for that same reason.
Atheist and Antitheist.
Atheist meaning that I lack belief in a God because claims about Gods haven’t met their burden of proof. Depending on the definition of God, I would often go one step further and say that I actively believe that God does not exist. The reasons for that are usually a) The particular deity is logicaly incoherent b) contradicting scientific findings c) we can conclude that it is unlikely with a simple application of Ocam’s razor (it requires more assumptions than other, simpler explanations/models).
Antitheist meaning that my ideology is actively opposed to theistic beliefs and especially organized belief systems. My position is that these beliefs have done and still do more harm than good and they should be abondoned by any rational mind in favor of critical thinking, skepticism, science and secular humanism.
I technically also fall in the category “agnostic” but I dislike that label and I don’t use it for myself cause it doesn’t give any information on what I believe and disbelieve. It only says what I don’t know for certain. It’s often misused as some sort of “middle ground” when in reality almost every theist and atheist is also an agnostic. People can easily use it to avoid making their position clear. I prefer labels that provide context and insight into my ideology and convictions.
I find the theme of religious identity extremely interesting and also personally challenging. My own stance philosophically is simply “We cannot know if there is a God”, which corresponds with an agnostic worldview. However, having spent most of my adult life in church and working for various Christian organizations, the majority of my social network is Christian. I still occasionally attend church services and find the liturgy and various practices of contemplation to have a positive effect on my emotional and psychological well-being. Whenever the hymns or sermons touch upon topics such as religious exclusivity, the after-life or the dichotomy of being saved or last, I can be slightly irritated, but I try to translate this to a more material worldview while excusing the sermonizer as being trapped in their own narrow frame or sense of loyalty. Nevertheless, all this to say that I differentiate between my cognitive beliefs about supernatural beings, my contemplative practices and my social identity, where I have not “come out” as an agnostic or non-believer, although I have voiced my beliefs in a few private conversations. This is probably partly due to my fear of making a dent in some relationships I still hold dearly, and partly due to the fact that I don’t wish to represent or associate myself with any new group dead-certain about their (non)beliefs. So to answer this I would be a 1) philosophical agnostic (leaning towards atheism), 2) utilitarian, occasionally engaging in Christian practices (when they seem beneficial), while 3) a pragmatic, socially surviving as a chameleon, adapting and blending in with the given environment.
I do not believe in a God/’divine power’/’divine law’. The only thing this can apply to is the concept of the universe, making natural law the same as the ‘divine law/power’ I mentioned before and the only thing making a entity possible that is described as a singular god or the a pantheon of gods is the energy that makes up our universe. It is everywhere (omnipresent) and is does everything (omnipotent).
I do not believe that any ‘divine connection’ has been made with humans. That would be simply our brain playing tricks on us. And don’t underestimate how tricksy our brains are.
I do not believe in any ‘divine rulings’ that have been passed down to us. Those are just made up by power hungry people or by people mislead by their (tricksy) brain or other people.
I do not believe in the concept of a afterlife or reincarnation. Heaven and Hell are descriptions of the present while the only cycle we are part of is the cycle of energy, you die and become part of the earth and its inhabitants, the place where you come from. Or you freeze your body and remain outside of it as long as your container holds.
I do not believe in ghosts, the soul and anything between earth and something. Although I cannot disprove it completly and it is very disheartening to think this way, I cannot believe in things like those.
I do believe that a label could be used on me but I don’t like them. They limit the scope in which someone sees you (the people that cannot look beyond a label or haven’t trained themselves to do so) while it also hides some of you.
I am agnostic, and proudly agnostic I might say. I cannot draw any definite conclusions when it comes to the existence of a higher power or something divine. I would call myself “atheist” when it comes to the existence of the Bible-related gods – or any god that is described in detail by humans – but that’s as far as I can go with the terms. If there is a divinity, I do not thing we would be able to describe it in any way using human words and logic. So, I cannot believe the Christian version of god in the same way that I cannot believe the ancient gods of Greek mythology, or Nordic mythology, or anything like that. It does not make sense to claim to know anything regarding this topic in such detail – it really feels very made-up to me. But I cannot rule out an abstract version of a higher power, that would also be “too gnostic” of me. So, agnostic it is.
I am agnostic, maybe there is a God or one superior entity maybe no. I do not know and I will never be able to figure it out. Deep down I really hope there is something up there but seeing all this injustice, pain, poverty etc I do not believe so. So, I am more inclined to atheism.