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Demographics Poll: What is your religion?

semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
This is the fourth in a series of polls to measure the demographics of the Beamdog community (I was just curious). The poll is anonymous by default, but you're welcome to discuss the issue publicly if you like.

The other polls are here:

Sex/Gender
Race/Ethnicity
Nationality
Political Affiliation
  1. Demographics Poll: What is your religion?122 votes
    1. Christianity
      26.23%
    2. Islam
        1.64%
    3. Buddhism
        0.82%
    4. Hinduism
        1.64%
    5. Atheism/Agnosticism
      50.82%
    6. Folk religion (local traditions)
        2.46%
    7. Judaism
        0.82%
    8. Other (please specify via post or PM if you wish to remain anonymous)
      15.57%
Post edited by semiticgoddess on
Adul
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Comments

  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    @ThacoBell: Protestant or Catholic? Mormon?
    ThacoBellAedan
  • mashedtatersmashedtaters Member Posts: 2,266
    edited December 2018
    Mormon here, though I haven’t been as involved as of late. Still believe in Jesus, I think. (Faith?)

    Edit: to be clear, I’m not one of those criminal Mormons with the 10 wives and all that. We are supposed to refer to ourselves as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, though not too many people know of that name.
    semiticgoddessStummvonBordwehrSir_GarrickQuartz
  • mashedtatersmashedtaters Member Posts: 2,266
    Btw, seeing as you started this poll, @semiticgod do you mind if I ask if you’re Jewish?
    It may be silly that I’m asking as it’s in your name. Just curious, though.
    semiticgoddessThacoBell
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    @semiticgod ha haaaa. I guess I should post it for the sake of this thread. Non-denominational Christian. Though that technically IS a denomination. Religion is funny.
    JLeesemiticgoddessmashedtatersQuartz
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,366
    A rather sceptical Christian, but Christian still describes me best...
    semiticgoddessThacoBellmashedtaters
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,366
    ThacoBell said:

    @semiticgod ha haaaa. I guess I should post it for the sake of this thread. Non-denominational Christian. Though that technically IS a denomination. Religion is funny.

    I actually would have guessed you as either non-denominational Christian or Church of Christ.
    ThacoBellmashedtaters
  • SilverstarSilverstar Member Posts: 2,207
    edited December 2018
    I generally keep my particular religious and political views to myself and very close friends. It's simply too volatile to discuss these things and I'm not very fond of conflict.

    I am religious, though other people of my faith might disagree as I don't practice it much, don't believe the entirety of the holy texts can be taken literally and don't even agree on some of the core "truths".
    StummvonBordwehr
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,508
    Probably folk is closest.
    My family has many informed between Christianity, Hinduism, paganism, guna guna and more. I have no clue what values and beliefs belong to what.... So confusing.
    KamigoroshiJLeesemiticgoddess
  • Grond0Grond0 Member Posts: 7,305

    Hoh boy...
    Regrettably started off as Lutheric for a good decade. Then switched to Buddhism. After a while I took a dip in Animism and then got a crash course in Shinto. Paid a visit to Wicca for a couple of years, too. And probably got a level or two in both Heathenry and Slavic Native Faith down the line as well. Now, I mostly just don't care anymore.

    TLDR: Most of the above poll choices and then a couple more.

    Reading this post my first reaction was "there's a religion called Amnism"! Perhaps I should really be posting this response in the thread about knowing when you've been playing BG too much. B)
    SilverstarmashedtatersKamigoroshi
  • dunbardunbar Member Posts: 1,603
    I'm an Agnostic but definitely not Atheist.
    mashedtatersWandering_Minstrel
  • O_BruceO_Bruce Member Posts: 2,790
    Atheist here, but I am not sure if I can be called agnostic. On one hand I don't know for the fact that there is no any kind of deity. With sufficient evidence, I can even be persuaded the deity exist. But all of that doesn't mean I would start worshipping said deity if its existence would be proven as a true.

    First of all, if I would start doing that out of fear, then my devotion would not be sincere so I would be pretty screwed anyways. The second it, no one deserves worship by just "being", not even gods.
    mashedtatersMirandelKamigoroshi
  • dunbardunbar Member Posts: 1,603
    @O_Bruce the "I don't know" bit pretty much falls under agnostic ('gnosis' being derived from the Greek word for knowledge, with the 'a' prefix making it negative). Theism on the other hand is the belief in god(s) which, when prefixed with an 'a', becomes negative - thus a disbelief in god(s) is Atheism.
  • GalactygonGalactygon Member, Developer Posts: 412
    Atheist. My entire family was only nominally religious around the time of WWII, so we were quite early in the secular trend (pun intended). My parents considered baptizing me as a lutheran but it didn't happen. So I remain an atheist.

    I do think the paranormal occurs though (first-hand experience) but widespread proof isn't available and is hard to reproduce in a controlled manner. I'm fascinated by all stuff paranormal both in real life and in-game hence my avatar and role as the "IE spells guru" within the team.
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    I really didn't expect there to be so many atheists and agnostics. I knew there were a fair number on the forum, but I assumed that a community with a majority-European background would be majority Christian.
    mashedtaters
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    I don't think there's as many of us as people think.
    mashedtaters
  • KamigoroshiKamigoroshi Member Posts: 5,870
    Not the devoted kind, anyway. It also doesn't help that many countries in Europe impose rather steep church taxes on their members. Needless to say non-members cannot get any church services at all... well, with the exception of furneral services. Incidentally, German churches in Westphalians nowadays only let people who previously bought tickets attend their Christmas Eve mass.

    Can't really blame people for leaving the church en masses with such things.
    ThacoBell
  • SilverstarSilverstar Member Posts: 2,207

    I really didn't expect there to be so many atheists and agnostics. I knew there were a fair number on the forum, but I assumed that a community with a majority-European background would be majority Christian.

    I always get the feeling the vast majority these days are atheists. Typically the kind that go out of their way to point out why religion is wrong. Unless they're getting married or buried, then they're suddenly religious for a day. Maybe that's just here and the parts of the internet I frequent though.
    ThacoBellmashedtatersStummvonBordwehr
  • Ludwig_IILudwig_II Member Posts: 369
    As a gnostic atheist, I think it would be better if agnostic and atheist were separated into 2 different options. And the amount of votes going into that consolidated option supports my point too
    JLeedunbar
  • ArdanisArdanis Member Posts: 1,736
    A violent atheist when approached by Jegovah's Witness street preachers.
    Otherwise indifferent.
    Sometimes I feel there may be something in believing there's a figure up above. Like even as we grow adult, we may still sometimes believe in Santa even if we know he doesn't really exist.

    Voted agnostic.
  • QuickbladeQuickblade Member Posts: 957
    I went with the atheist/agnostic. Raised Episcopalian, I identify as deist or pantheist, depending on how I think the universe is related to a creator.

    Not atheist, because there's that niggling little chance that there IS a divine being. And it is hard to prove that God does NOT exist, probably harder than that God DOES exist. You can prove God does not interact with the universe, but that doesn't mean he isn't there.
    ThacoBellSilverstar
  • MirandelMirandel Member Posts: 526
    O_Bruce said:

    Atheist here, but I am not sure if I can be called agnostic. On one hand I don't know for the fact that there is no any kind of deity. With sufficient evidence, I can even be persuaded the deity exist. But all of that doesn't mean I would start worshipping said deity if its existence would be proven as a true.

    First of all, if I would start doing that out of fear, then my devotion would not be sincere so I would be pretty screwed anyways. The second it, no one deserves worship by just "being", not even gods.

    A couple more of your posts and I will confess my love to you :smile:

    Interesting, this poll restores my faith in humanity, I expected to be alone in "atheist" option.
  • deltagodeltago Member Posts: 7,811
    Love everyone. Judge no one. Treat others how you want to treated. Expect nothing.

    Which is the baseline for Christianity however I do not need to believe in a higher being to follow those basic principles. I do not have to believe in the miracles of Christ to understand his message.

    I do not like organized religions because they tend to add more useless clutter, or steer away from those 4 basic philosophies, but it is how I attempt to live my life.
    semiticgoddessJLeegorgonzolaMirandel
  • gorgonzolagorgonzola Member Posts: 3,864
    edited January 2019
    JLee said:




    EDIT: end of quote
    in my childhood i was cristian, then i become agnostic in my teen years as i realized that there is no real proof about a god existing or not, is like to talk of the elephant basing only on what we like it to be and not according to what it is.

    to talk about what is behind a hill is imho pointless unless we go on the top of the hill and see. one kan tell that there is a lake, an other that there is a desert, an other that there are more hills, pointless unless you go and see it by yourself.
    some people decide to trust some prophet or revelation, that is like to trust to someone that has been on the top of the hill, imo better than deciding according only to our taste. but it seems that the prophets and revelations tells different things, maybe those prophets have touched different parts of the elephant that (maybe) is behind the hill. or maybe is not so easy to describe an elephant to someone that has never seen one...

    so i decided to try to become a gnostic, to go myself on the hill and see beyond. this was more than 40 years ago. did i reach the top of the hill? pointless to tell it... each one has to go himself or try to do it if really interested.

    on an other level i am convinced that buddha was right talking about the 4 noble truths and the 8 fold path that brings the man to liberation from suffering.
    but this is not a religion at all, buddha never talked about god existence and such kind of things, mahayana, vajirayana , theravada and hinayana are creations of his followers, them are or can be regarded as religions, what buddha told in his plain form is not.
    so i don't qualify myself as buddhist even if i am convinced that enlightenment can be attained following the path he showed to us.

    @Mirandel, is funny how i expected to see much more atheists in the poll than what i actually see.

    JLeeBelgarathMTH
  • SkatanSkatan Member, Moderator Posts: 5,352
    edited January 2019
    Voted other since religion is a non-topic to me. Never cared for, or about, it. Some people call me atheist, but I care not for that label nor use it to describe myself. I don't know the difference between agnostic and atheist and don't care about finding out either. On the same note, I care as little for other people's religion as I care for their favorite food, color or TV-series. It's something some ppl like to talk about (though very, very rarely in secular Sweden), and which I listen to and reply to in such context, but it doesn't affect me the slightest.

    EDIT: Btw, never understood why some feel the need to categorize ppl based on religion or ethnicity. Nationality is enough for me personally, "race" and religion is just ridiculous.
    StummvonBordwehrMirandelgorgonzolaFina92
  • MirandelMirandel Member Posts: 526
    @gorgonzola Fear (caution?) forces us to give more credits to "impressions" that they are worth. And "impressions" and "common views" quite often simply wrong in their misinterpretation of reality.
    gorgonzolaSilverstar
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