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The question is simple enough. Let's keep the answers short, guys. I don't want this thread to devolve into a flame war. And be respectful.

I'll go first. Yes, I do. If you want me to elaborate, I will upon request. (but not too much. Don't want to break my own rule.)

Negative. Hard atheist here.

Yes. I'm a Christian, and I really consider my faith to be the center of who I am.

Yeah. I think he exists. Not as the Bible depicts him, but still.

Yes.

Absolutely. I'll be getting confirmed in under a month.
United Methodist represent, baby!

(UMC has best cross)

Yes, I do believe in God.

Yes. I believe in the Judeo-Christian God YHVH, and believe Jesus to be His Son.

Agnostic, Basically.

Yeah

I think it's best for not for me to say anything but the word yes.

I used to believe in god

But then I took an arrow to the knee

.

.

.

so now I'm atheist

This.

No. But I do believe in the Values of Life. Every person here has a choice to choose their beliefs.
Life is all about decisions an the effects of it. We chose what we want to become while following the laws. We Our choices can lead to good or bad consequences. For Instance, if I want to change religion for the sake of someone, my family will be dissapointed. One person or an entire group of people?

I like that we can discuss our beliefs here and no one flames… That's really rare, sadly.

@Patrick: Indeed. It's because we all respect each other at a base level and are a somewhat tight-knit community.

As for my choice, I think I'm agnostic (that's probably an incorrect term). It's been a while since I last thought about it, but I believe that there may or may not be one or multiple Gods. Personally I don't believe in God Himself, but I do believe that He may exist, in His form or not.

Besides. I usually just try to live by the cardinal rule of "Don't be a dick". That seems to cover most of the sins you can do.

tl;dr; No and sort of yes.

Sad indeed. If anybody wants a great read with some really interesting stuff on religion, try The Life of Pi. In the part before he gets stuck on a life raft with a tiger, there's some legitimately interesting exploration of religion.
Also, too late for no flames.

Yes, that's true. I found a video yesterday and the sad thing is that some people completely disregarded her talent and started flaming her for having a couple bible verses in her video.

Many defended her( a lot were atheist themselves) but I don't understand why that even needs to be an issue

That escalated quickly…

No. I was Jewish, but because I felt that God ignored me and hated me, I became an Athiest.

I felt that God ignored me and hated me

You had obviously been going to the wrong place of worship if you felt that God hated and ignored you.
One of my fundamental beliefs in God is that He loves you unconditionally. Nothing you can do can make Him love you more or less.
"But Luis, my friend/relative/ect. was killed in a car accident! How could God let that happen?"
God gave everybody free will. It's not His decision whether somebody has a beer too many or is texting at the wheel. It was their decision, and their decision only.

I'm really sorry you felt that way. Having experienced that feeling myself, it always pulls at my heart when others do, as well.

I was born and raised in a Christian home and community. However, I consider myself agnostic (neutral; accepting both possibilities that there is or isn't a God.) People who consider themselves "agnostic" aren't people who haven't made up their mind; most of the time at least. For example, I still go to church every Sunday (except last Sunday because I was not feeling well), I still listen to the sermon given by my church's pastor. Why am I not considered Christian? Here's why:

1. I think religion is something to think about than just jumping in because of whatever reason; even if it may be that you grew up in a Christian home like me. I also accept that becoming Christian after something big happened in your life (both good or bad) recently (or even not recently) is also an acceptable case. I don't find just jumping into a religion because you were raised that way (not counting religions that label you when you are first born like Judaism) is relatively naive.

2. My morals and opinions of social and/or political topics aren't exactly common of what Christians believe in the U.S. (Gay rights, etc.). I'm waiting for Christians to be like this. Sorry if that's too much to ask of them.

I'm a Clockwork-Theorist.

I feel like everything you're saying is completely Christian, in fact, and if you feel that it's not, it's because someone's not giving you the whole picture. Christianity isn't something you have because your parents took you to church, or because you were baptized when you were little, or for any external reason. Faith in Christ is a choice, and a choice only you can make, and I think the fact that you're waiting for that is very wise.

Also, being a Christian does not mean you have to have a certain political view. I define myself as a communitarian, many of my beliefs being liberally oriented, including gay marriage. Being a Christian is about loving others, and glorifying God, and while there are things God commands of us, the beautiful thing is, even if we don't follow them, He still loves us completely and unconditionally. And, I can say, I personally want to strive to be like the people in that picture for Jesus, because it's the exact same thing He'd do.

Born and raised Catholic. But I have a lot questions about things and began to lose faith ,due to some personal issues, so I can't really say I believe in God but then again, there might be something greater out there. I'm sorta in-between all of this.

That's exactly how I am and feel.

No, I don't. Incidentally, this:

I do believe in God, but living in an ardent southern Christian community for the last two years, I've lost hope in organized religion. I've jokingly told people I'm everything from Muslim to Jewish to atheist, and each time I've been told I'm going to hell with varying levels of hatred. I understand that religion helps a lot of people through their lives, and that sometimes they do positive things for other people, but I've lost sight of any benefit it has for me. Like Sparty said, I just try to live the life I want to live without worsening things for anyone else. I like to think of myself as a pretty good guy.

So basically, I can't take religion seriously. And it's made worse by how I was treated when I made that clear; people asked me all the time which church I went to, and for a while I told them I didn't go. They'd act like they felt bad and they'd invite me to go with them, and I'd say I didn't want to. They'd act as though I had insulted their family dating back to their great-great-great grandfathers. I've had too much religion forced on me for me to accept it.

But I'm still live and let live about it.

Tl:Dr; God still exists, but he doesn't intervene in our puny mortal affairs. Deism represent!

The good thing about being raised in a Christian home and have been going to Church for as long as I remember is that I know what it means to be a Christian and how to honestly become one by faith and God's word alone. I am very grateful of how I was raised in fact. I have loving and understanding parents.

Being Christian does not mean you have to have certain or even similar political visions and opinions. You are, however, socially and biasly labeled to the most common social and political view points among the Christian community.

Or the most vocal, at any rate.

I sincerely doubt the majority of Christians would actually support a "Personhood" law. But the most vocal of them out there do support the idea that life begins at conception.

No, but I'm open to anything. Agnosticism = Wild Card

That is very true. I just personally believe that it's worth being incorrectly labeled. Besides, I don't think anyone here has labeled me with those ideas, and I like to think I'm expressive about my faith. Or if they have, they haven't expressed it.

Kind of?

Yes, I do. I'd prefer not to state which church I belong to, mainly because I don't want to have to take sides and sometimes I'm not even sure. I believe and practice most of the core doctrine, but there are some practices and opinions (that aren't official doctrine) within my church that I don't agree with. Thus, it's vey hard to get along with a lot of my "fellow worshippers".

I do, but I'm a Unitarian. However, unlike some Unitarians, I don't believe that Jesus doesn't exist, but I don't believe that he was a divine being or the prophet of the God that I believe in. I also don't believe a lot of things in the Bible. My religious orientation is rather complicated, I think.

No. I considered myself to be Christian for most of my life until very recently. Basically, I'd say I thought too hard.

No i do not.

Atheist here.

I do believe in God, but also believe Christians should be like the ones that Ghandi wanted.

i am a god

Hey me too, but this isn't a place for that

I'm an agnostic theist. I believe in a God as some sort of a divine being, but I believe that we are incapable of measuring the scope of his influence and presence in the world. Odds are, not much, at least in modern day society, but we can never really be sure.

I grew up as a Catholic Buddhist, but my family never really practiced either religion at all. The occasional Buddha statue and crucifix around the house were the only things reminding me my religious background. So never been religious, never will be.

I also run my own church in my spare time, in which I myself am God, and require a tithe from all of its adherents, in return for my holy grace and sacrosanct being. A fair price to pay indeed.

It's interesting you say that. I've always thought it was interesting for people who are Jewish and perhaps practice the faith may not always believe in the Judeo-Christian God. I'm sure you have a more informed view on your own beliefs, but there's something about that which is more refreshing that confusing (although it is somewhat confusing.)

I certainly believe in God. I rarely say it unless prompted, because I would hope that Christ's (who I believe to be God as well) love is evident in what I do and how I act. Like Brawler, the belief guides what I do.

Well, I would best fit under Deist, but i have my own beliefs built upon it.

Yes, I'm a proud Catholic. But I hate zealots, they make the rest look bad.

@Twins
Me too.

Mod edit: I saw what you did there, please don't.

ANN HIRO edit: that thing was like a failure son that I have disowned. I even forgot the password

How can i believe in something that isn't real? Ok im just joking but in reality im agnostic so i don't know what to believe in. I used to be a christian but i need some time to think.

Yes.