Just a little inquiry.

[TheMashiah]

:book: Being new here, I would just like to ask, and please stop me if I'm over stepping my bounds, just what religion is everyone here. Personally I'm Agnostic.

[Bluefire]

"Religion":
Atheist (ex-mormon)

Philosophy:
~Objectivist

[Skeptical Greg]

Originally posted by Scizerus
:book: Being new here, I would just like to ask, and please stop me if I'm over stepping my bounds, just what religion is everyone here. Personally I'm Agnostic.


Religion = none

[Mr. Skinny]

Religion: None. I consider myself atheist.

[Jet Grind]

Religion=none

I'm a naturalist, a skeptic, and an atheist.

[Phil]

I belong to the Church of Baseball, and I . . .

Sorry about that. I was channelling Annie Savoy again.

Religion=none

[Yahweh]

Originally posted by Scizerus
:book: Being new here, I would just like to ask, and please stop me if I'm over stepping my bounds, just what religion is everyone here. Personally I'm Agnostic.
By all means, you are in no way overstepping your bounds, its a perfectly fine question. Philosopher Yahweh says inquery is the first step in the process of learning.

Religion = none = Atheist.

[Upchurch]

I'd say I'm an atheist Unitarian, so "none". :D

[Peter Jenkins]

Ex-Mormon, Ex-Anglican, religion-savvy carefully considered atheist

although usually i just say, ex-mo

Peter

[Bentspoon]

Atheist and wondering why everyone else in the world isn't.

Bentspoon

Edited to add: = no religion

[elliotfc]

Originally posted by Scizerus
:book: Being new here, I would just like to ask, and please stop me if I'm over stepping my bounds, just what religion is everyone here. Personally I'm Agnostic.

I'm Catholic.

-Elliot

[Nyarlathotep]

I haven't had a religion in a very long time. I used to be a Mormon. I am now an atheist.

As an aside, I notice a lot of ex-mormons here. It seems to me hat the vast majority of atheists that I know are either ex-Mormons or ex-Catholics. I wonder what it is about those two religions that creates such a disproportionately high number of atheists, or if it's just coincidence.

[Peter Jenkins]

I have noticed that ex-mormons tend to be atheist. I assume it's a coincidence, or just the fact that I notice ex-mo's more.
However, it's possible that the Mormon indoctrination process tends to try and 'prove' every other religion is wrong. If you are able to break away from the Morg, you have no religion left to turn to.
Peter

[Nyarlathotep]

Originally posted by Peter Jenkins
I have noticed that ex-mormons tend to be atheist. I assume it's a coincidence, or just the fact that I notice ex-mo's more.
However, it's possible that the Mormon indoctrination process tends to try and 'prove' every other religion is wrong. If you are able to break away from the Morg, you have no religion left to turn to.
Peter

When I first began to notice it I chalked it up to the fact that I live in Nevada and we have the second highest Mormon population outside of Utah, so of course any atheists I run into here are going have a good chance of being ex-Mormons. But then I noticed it on alt.atheism and on this board. It could just be like you said, that being an ex-mormon myself I am going to tend to notice other ex-mormons. Still I think there are a lot of us compared to other ex-whatevers, there are three of us in this thread alone. Ex-Catholics is the only group that it seems to me are larger in population thatn ex-Mormons in the atheist community. I have no data to back that up (and if anyone has any data at all on the subject, I for one would find it highly interesting) it is just my own observation.

I sometimes wonder if it isn't that former Mormons and Catholics are over-represented among atheists so much as, due to the nature of the religions, people tend to have more of their identity wrapped up in those religions than most others and thus they are more likely to identify themselves as a former member of that religion. I know lots of people, even among non-atheists, that will identify themselves as a "Jack" Mormon or an ex-Catholic. I know very few who will call themselves something like a "Jack" Presbyterian or an ex-Methodist. This is my theory anyway.

[Marilyn_Manson]

None=Atheist,
And I’m a recovering Mormon, that hopes to be a Ex-Mormon in the future (Target date 08/18/09).

[Nyarlathotep]

Originally posted by Marilyn_Manson
None=Atheist,
And I’m a recovering Mormon, that hopes to be a Ex-Mormon in the future (Target date 08/18/09).

That makes four.

Why do you have a target date? Are you under 18 and waiting for your 18th birthday? Or am I missing something?

BTW, if no one else has welcomed you to the forum yet, welcome.

[Marilyn_Manson]

Originally posted by Nyarlathotep


That makes four.

Why do you have a target date? Are you under 18 and waiting for your 18th birthday? Or am I missing something?

BTW, if no one else has welcomed you to the forum yet, welcome.

Well thanks for the welcome Nyarlathotep and about my target date well it wasn't a birthday or anything. I just was thinking about Homer Simpson talking about building a new doghouse and he said target date 2004 and it was 1998 at the time.
BTW this is why I started to think about what it was to be a Mormon. And it's been hard living around my old lifestyle and starting a new one the last few years.http://www.thei.aust.com/isite/manson2.html another link http://www.beliefnet.com/story/78/story_7870_1.html

[SquishyDave]

Greetings Scizerus, your name is unpronounceable to me. Welcome to the forum.

No religion, atheist. Thanks for asking.

[Eos of the Eons]

I tried to believe in God once. It just pissed me off. Whenever I went to church or a bible study I got sick about all the crap that is preached up. Jesus and the children...sheeep baaaaaaah-in heaven the lions don't eat other animals.....(wouldn't that be hell for a lion?) Then the anti-science angle turned me off of it once and for all...oh and when they told us not to be friends to non-christians (you can be nice to them, just don't be friends with them). Then I read the bible and nearly threw up (see thread on contradictions).

So I don't even believe in spirits or afterlives at all. Without our brains we can't sense anything. When you die-you no longer have a brain or eyes or whatever to see/hear/smell with. So if ghosts can see, then that's a load of crap.

When you're dead it's just like it was before you were born.

People who "remember past lives" are delusional or cons.

[Max560]

Raised Roman Catholic, now atheist.

[Rayn]

Humanist.

Gooooooooooo Humans!

[Lord Emsworth]

Once upon a time ... Lutheran, but ... no more. Now ... Atheist.

[Yahweh]

Originally posted by Eos of the Eons
Then the anti-science angle turned me off of it once and for all...
I also wanted to believe in God (actually I wanted to be Pagan and/or Wiccan), but I was unable to accept religion because it was incompatible with science. For a while in college, I had the "Hang in there, Yahweh, time'll prove science and Wiccanism work together"... yeah, you can see how that turned out.

oh and when they told us not to be friends to non-christians (you can be nice to them, just don't be friends with them).
Yeah, I have my experience with those kinds of people. I hate to break it to them, but uhhh, I think they're makin' the baby Jesus cry... :D

[Eos of the Eons]

Yeah, I even started to look into paganism, but once they went into spirits and seeing ghosts-then my eyes did start rolling to the back of my head!

I can see the baby Jesus cryin over all the wars started by religion...that segregation and elitism has no good results.

Then I went on a few wicca sites and the homeopathy was rampant. Irradiation is a conspiracy to get rid of nuclear waste doncha know. GM foods are dumped on the third world too. Then onto DEET being just as bad as DDT...

hmmphh. ANY religion can have me fuming in a matter of minutes. I give up.

Well, not really giving up...waking up. I'm all 'bright eyed' now...LOL,

The brights movement is even doomed I think.

[triadboy]

Dog-faced, cigar-chompin' atheist

[urstardust]

Atheist/ no god(s)

[Yahzi]

Atheist materialist humanist.

Is that enough ists?

[ceo_esq]

Originally posted by Nyarlathotep
As an aside, I notice a lot of ex-mormons here. It seems to me hat the vast majority of atheists that I know are either ex-Mormons or ex-Catholics. I wonder what it is about those two religions that creates such a disproportionately high number of atheists, or if it's just coincidence. I don't know about Mormons, but because Catholics are the largest Christian denomination (at least 60 million in the United States), one would expect ex-Catholics to have high representation among atheists even if Catholics were no more likely than the average Christian to become atheist. Perhaps the number seems disproportionate compared to other atheists, but is merely proportionate to the very large number of "potential" ex-Catholics.

[figarot]

born orthodox raised interdominational right now I consider myself a mere believer in God, at the same time I don't go for ghosts, homeopathy, healings, talking to the dead woo-woo mumbo jumbo and have a firm faith in science that does not interfere with my belief in God.

[Cleopatra]

Baptised Christian Orthodox /Humanist /Aesthete.

[Nefertiti]

Baptised Christian. Now partial Animist.

[Cleopatra]

Originally posted by Nefertiti

Baptised Christian. Now partial Animist.

As long as you don't let yourself to fantasize that there will be a day that you will become the Queen here, you have the right to believe what ever you wish ... :p

[Zep]

Axolotls don't believe in anything...

Except that they will eat something soon.

[diddidit]

Non.

Every sunday I attend the Church of the Inner Eyelid...

did

[Some Friggin Guy]

Baptized and (forcibly) confirmed Roman Catholic. Raised by a hardline-sicilian and a convert.

Now, an atheist who practices Buddhist philosophy and meditation without focussing on the spiritual aspects, or "religion" behind it. I follow these tennents because they help me relax and keep a good deal of anger in check.

[mindless]

I am an Atheist + Agnostic

I have had christianity pushed onto me for yaers, through school and family but its never been anything more than an old fairy tale to me.

[Iconoclast]

godless heathen

[Gulliamo]

I'ma gonna say... Atheist.

Although "Recovering Catholic" might be more appropriate. :-)

[angard]

I belive that I'm an Atheist.

[hgc]

Naturalist Jew

[Yahzi]

Originally posted by hgc
Naturalist Jew
Eh... I need some help with this one. I'm guessing it means something like Jewish by culture but a non-believer in God?

[roger]

Godless

[Nyarlathotep]

Originally posted by Yahzi

Eh... I need some help with this one. I'm guessing it means something like Jewish by culture but a non-believer in God?

I hope that's what it means. I honestly was thinking he meant a Jew who is a nudist, but I suppose that would be a 'Naturist Jew'

[hgc]

Originally posted by Yahzi

Eh... I need some help with this one. I'm guessing it means something like Jewish by culture but a non-believer in God? Yes. That sounds right.
Nyarlathotep

I hope that's what it means. I honestly was thinking he meant a Jew who is a nudist, but I suppose that would be a 'Naturist Jew'I am a Naturist in the confines of my own home, as my neighbors can probably attest.

[Hexxenhammer]

Baptized and confirmed Presbyterian then agnostic then I realized a god who doesn't do anything and is undetectable is the same as no god at all now atheist. Probably needed some commas in that sentence.

[Dancing David]

pagan buddhist nihilist

[Lord Emsworth]

Originally posted by Hexxenhammer
Baptized and confirmed Presbyterian then agnostic then I realized a god who doesn't do anything and is undetectable is the same as no god at all now atheist. Probably needed some commas in that sentence.

You can have some of mine:

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[Lord Kenneth]

Atheist (Ex-Catholic).

[Dragonrock]

I believe that I am the one and only practicing Elvisian Tacoist on the board. I worship the Taco in all it's delicious glory.

I used to be catholic, but then I discovered tex-mex.

[Hexxenhammer]

Originally posted by Lord Emsworth


You can have some of mine:

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
T,h,a,n,k,s,

[Rat]

Raised CofE, now atheist. How could I be otherwise?

Originally posted by Some Friggin Guy
...I follow these tennents because they help me relax and keep a good deal of anger in check.
Isn't tennents a lager? Like Export? Or something.

Cheers,
Rat.

[LeFevre]

non religious.

I am agnostic, and from that agnosticism I am an atheist.

[Mr. Skinny]

Originally posted by LeFevre
non religious.

I am agnostic, and from that agnosticism I am an atheist.
Except for belief in SkinnyGod of course! :D

[LeFevre]

Originally posted by Mr. Skinny

Except for belief in SkinnyGod of course! :D
As you know, that is not a belief. That is a conclusion I have come to from being within the SkinnyLight. No belief required, IT IS FACT.

[fishbob]

Religion = None
Although Tex-Mex has some attractive benefits.

[triadboy]

Originally posted by Lord Kenneth
Atheist (Ex-Catholic).


eeewwwww...you ate Jesus and drank his blood. eeewwww.

[Ruby]

Originally posted by Scizerus
:book: Being new here, I would just like to ask, and please stop me if I'm over stepping my bounds, just what religion is everyone here. Personally I'm Agnostic.

Well, I'm trying to figure that out. I'm sort of a mix of Liberal Christian/Unitarian/agnostic. I guess that's not possible. It's the best I can describe my "religion".;)

[Ruby]

Originally posted by Scizerus
:book: Being new here, I would just like to ask, and please stop me if I'm over stepping my bounds, just what religion is everyone here. Personally I'm Agnostic.

I forgot to say WELCOME!!!:w2:

[Ruby]

Originally posted by Bluefire
"Religion":
Atheist (ex-mormon)

Philosophy:
~Objectivist

Welcome to you too!!!:D

[Ruby]

Originally posted by Marilyn_Manson
None=Atheist,
And I’m a recovering Mormon, that hopes to be a Ex-Mormon in the future (Target date 08/18/09).

Welcome!!!!!:eek: :D

[Ruby]

Originally posted by Nefertiti
Baptised Christian. Now partial Animist.

Welcome!!!:)

[Lord Kenneth]

Originally posted by triadboy



eeewwwww...you ate Jesus and drank his blood. eeewwww.


I never drank his blood; however, I did consume his flesh on many occasions.

[Lord Emsworth]

Originally posted by Lord Kenneth



I never drank his blood; however, I did consume his flesh on many occasions.

Ah, you still were too young, right? But ... didn't you have any kind of fun in church? ;)

[Lord Kenneth]

Originally posted by Lord Emsworth


Ah, you still were too young, right? But ... didn't you have any kind of fun in church? ;)

Hell no, I was always glad church ended. A bunch of useless, annoying crap that wasted an hour on Sundays. I have better things to do than sit around and here about some hack-fiction story during my precious weekend.

Of course, that's not why I disbelieve.

[Yahweh]

Originally posted by Lord Emsworth
But ... didn't you have any kind of fun in church? ;)
Now youre just being cruel, Lord Emsworth :D.

[Chanileslie]

Originally posted by Scizerus
:book: Being new here, I would just like to ask, and please stop me if I'm over stepping my bounds, just what religion is everyone here. Personally I'm Agnostic.

None. Religion kind of gets in the way of that whole atheism thing. :-)

[Max560]

Originally posted by Gulliamo
I'ma gonna say... Atheist.

Although "Recovering Catholic" might be more appropriate. :-)

I feel your pain. And that residual sense of guilt.

[Chanileslie]

Originally posted by Lord Kenneth



I never drank his blood; however, I did consume his flesh on many occasions.

Ah at least the Mormons use water and Wonder bread for the transubstination, which of course means that all the children get to take part in the drinking of the blood and the eating of the flesh. Of course to me, it just tasted like water and Wonder bread, and was a welcome if all to little treat on fasting sundays!! :-) Yes, I as well am an ex-mormon, but I joined when Iwas 15 and was completely dropped out by the time I was 18.

[Yahweh]

I've noticed Mormons are the nicest people of the bunch when speaking about Christianity.

At the same time, I've noticed ex-Mormons are hard, cynical, sarcastic...

I guess thats what happens when you abandon all that wishful thinking...

[Some Friggin Guy]

Isn't tennents a lager?

Why do you think they help me relax?

[Underemployed]

Raised a catholic

Now a Taoist (non-practising).

[Peter Jenkins]

Originally posted by Yahweh
I've noticed Mormons are the nicest people of the bunch when speaking about Christianity.

At the same time, I've noticed ex-Mormons are hard, cynical, sarcastic...

I guess thats what happens when you abandon all that wishful thinking...

If the Mormons you know are nice, it's 'cos they're trying to sucker you in.
Am I cynical? Nah! Sarcastic? Not me!

It's usually pretty difficult for ex-mo's to be friendly with current members, as we are seen as , just about, one step above satan.
I've seen the hateful stupid ignorant side of the current crop of members.
It's pretty easy for me to be cynical about the nice, polite, well dressed Morg.

As far as other religions go, I tend to be fairly tolerant of most peoples beliefs. I've seen the good that (some) religions do. I've seen the comfort that (in some cases) it brings. It's only when they cause financial, emotional or bodily harm to their members that I object.

Peter

[rachaella]

Religion - Atheist (none)

Philosophy - Secular Humanist

I shall second a statement made earlier - Gooooo Humans! :D

[Bluefire]

Originally posted by Yahweh
I've noticed Mormons are the nicest people of the bunch when speaking about Christianity.

At the same time, I've noticed ex-Mormons are hard, cynical, sarcastic...

I guess thats what happens when you abandon all that wishful thinking...

Guess I would pass for cynical,sarcastic and kinda hard sometimes.

Lets just say that leaving mormonism, and especially the treatment you receive from those that were your best friends before tends to harden you quite alot.

I had a life outside of church, so it wasn't so hard on me, but not everyone's so lucky.

[Nyarlathotep]

Originally posted by Bluefire


Guess I would pass for cynical,sarcastic and kinda hard sometimes.

Lets just say that leaving mormonism, and especially the treatment you receive from those that were your best friends before tends to harden you quite alot.

I had a life outside of church, so it wasn't so hard on me, but not everyone's so lucky.

I guess my experience has been different than most peoples. I had no trouble leaving the church, either internally or externally. I just stopped going and that was that. The only real effect that leaving the church had on me was I was sort of like a kid who had never had candy before suddenly being let loose in a candy store. I went through a brief period where I drank a lot, did a lot of drugs, tried to take up smoking (but I couldn't stand it so it never took) and drank enough coffee to keep a legion of narcoleptics awake for days. But even that I found easy to get past. I simply quit that too, which is why I find it hard to sympathise with drug addicts and alcoholics who claim to have a hard time quitting, because I was able to just quit without any help. During that time I had a small accident that did permanent damage to my leg so I guess leaving Mormonism indirectly gave me a slight limp. That is the only permanent effect I can say leaving Mormonism had on me.

If I ever come across as cynical or sarcastic then I was likely just as cynical and sarcastic when I was in the church since I don't feel my personality has changed all that much since those days.

[plindboe]

Atheist, and have been one my entire life.

Peter :cs:

[Ratman_tf]

No religion. No belief in any Gods. I feel the term atheist is too loaded, but gets my basic point across more quickly than explaining it.

[billydkid]

Originally posted by Bluefire
"Religion":
Atheist (ex-mormon)

Philosophy:
~Objectivist

Mormons huh? They are one of those religions that worship doorbells, right?

[Peter Jenkins]

Originally posted by billydkid


Mormons huh? They are one of those religions that worship doorbells, right?
Actually, it is possible to get a door knocker which will drive mormons away

[EdipisReks]

i'm an atheist and secular humanist.

[triadboy]

Originally posted by plindboe
Atheist, and have been one my entire life.

Peter :cs:

You're lucky you grew up in Denmark. If you had grown up in the States, you would have had a black velvet portrait of Elvis holding baby Jesus hanging over your dining room table.

[triadboy]

Originally posted by Peter Jenkins

Actually, it is possible to get a door knocker which will drive mormons away

That's great Peter! :roll:

[fishbait]

Originally posted by Peter Jenkins

Actually, it is possible to get a door knocker which will drive mormons away

That would make an ideal Christmas gift for somebody special. Do you know where I can get one?