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About Me Member Art Student Jaden Andrea16/Female/United States Recent Activity Deviant for 1 Year
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Religion and Agnosticism.

Wed Mar 18, 2009, 6:43 PM
  • Mood: Questionable
  • Reading: Wikipedia
  • Watching: The Ducks Game/Anime
  • Drinking: Water
Today I made this huge post about what I believe and religion and stuff. I think I'm proud of it.. maybe. But I want to know what you guys think. It was in a thread with religion on the topic, so I'll just copy/paste.
"
I don't have much to add other than I'm agnostic.
Agnosticism. Not Atheism. ^^; People tend to get that mixed up. They're similar but there are different kinds.
It's more of a "no-religion" slash doubt thing. I was raised a Christian but I never really went to church often.. though my Iowan family is VERY religious. I think Agnosticism in itself would be an interesting topic in itself for this thread.. it's a little complicated.
When I was little I was really.. different. Especially about what I believed. I was so curious about religion. I knew that my family was Christian and I knew mostly what that was all about at that age. I would go into libraries and read books on world religions because I guess what I was trying to do was "find what I believe". Get new ideas and perspectives.
In the end I guess I just stuck in the middle. I don't know if there's one god, multiple gods, gods for different parts of the day, luck, seasons, weather, etc. Nobody really knows. And I guess my own personal form of agnosticism is just not picking a side. I choose to stay open so I can learn about what other people believe.

And the interesting thing I've learned since I chose agnosticism is that everyone sees their religion differently. Either they interpret what they read or are told in their own way (like looking at art or poetry) or they just blindly accept what they're preached at. Think about it like this: Two Christian teens came to our door last summer to spread their faith etc. and 'advertise' their church. But as my dad and I engaged in conversation with them it was apparent that they didn't really understand what their religion meant at all, and couldn't hold an argument (friendly, don't worry) at all. A little tidbit, yes, they were Adam/Eve believers. I think that they just repeated whatever they learned in their teen faith group, without bothering to ask questions or try to understand.

Agnosticism is also like.. believing what you want to, without a set religion. As in, from what you've learned, this is what I believe may be true and this is what I don't believe at all because it's just silly (like Adam and Eve for some people). So it's not necessarily denial of a god.. it may be for some people, but that's more... Atheist. It's more "I don't really KNOW what's out there, what god(s) there are, but because I don't know I'm not going to blindly pick a faith, because I'm not sure if that's true!"

There are a lot of different types of Agnostics. From Wiki, it lists:

Strong agnosticism
"—the view that the question of the existence or nonexistence of a deity or deities and the nature of ultimate reality is unknowable by reason of our natural inability to verify any experience with anything but another subjective experience. A strong agnostic would say, 'I cannot know whether a deity exists or not, and neither can you.'"

Weak agnosticism
"—the view that the existence or nonexistence of any deities is currently unknown but is not necessarily unknowable, therefore one will withhold judgment until/if any evidence is available. A weak agnostic would say, 'I don't know whether any deities exist or not, but maybe one day when there is more evidence we can find something out.'"

Apathetic agnosticism
"—the view that there is no proof of either the existence or nonexistence of any deity, but since any deity that may exist appears unconcerned for the universe or the welfare of its inhabitants, the question is largely academic anyway."

Agnostic atheism
"—the view of those who do not claim to know of the existence of any deity, and do not believe in any."

Agnostic theism
"—the view of those who do not claim to know of the existence of any deity, but still believe in such an existence. Søren Kierkegaard believed that knowledge of any deity is impossible, and because of that people who want to be theists must believe: "'If I am capable of grasping God objectively, I do not believe, but precisely because I cannot do this I must believe.'"

Ignosticism
"—the view that a coherent definition of a deity must be put forward before the question of the existence of a deity can be meaningfully discussed. If the chosen definition isn't coherent, the ignostic holds the noncognitivist view that the existence of a deity is meaningless or empirically untestable. A.J. Ayer, Theodore Drange, and other philosophers see both atheism and agnosticism as incompatible with ignosticism on the grounds that atheism and agnosticism accept "a deity exists" as a meaningful proposition which can be argued for or against. An ignostic cannot even say whether he/she is a theist or a nontheist until a better definition of theism is put forth."

Wiki's a little confusing. So I didn't really use that much in my explanation. ^^; I just went completely by mind and heart in that first part, so if you want to disagree with anything go ahead. That's just my interpretation of it. "

Any opinions/comments? It's a little confusing.. well, religion all together is, really.

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I look.. so tired.
I am tired. :l Tired and happy.. at the same time. Maybe I had too much caffeine.

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Comments


:iconkiarate:
thank you very much for the fav :)
:iconviscountdruitt:
Oh, well, nice to meet you, *smile* Lady.
:iconthesporkiee:
I LOVE YOU. :D

--
Always look on the bright side of life~
:iconviscountdruitt:
Oh, well, thank you very much.
:iconthesporkiee:
*clings*

--
Always look on the bright side of life~
:iconviscountdruitt:
Well, do you want to do entertaining things, my Lady? *smile*
:iconblindbeyondsight:
-nearly breaks head trying to see the pics of you clearly- JEEBUS. CONCEIDED MUCH?! xD jkjk, anyways, yes Bizenghast (however you spell that) has good art, it just fails to entertain me. xD OMG I SAW YOU AT BARNES AND NOBLE THE OTHER DAY ^^

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~I'm not a rip off....But how would YOU like to buy some DIET WATER? ;DDD
I OWN SWEDEN IN THE ~bishie-stalker-club

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