How religious are you?

[Eran of Arcadia]

being religious doesnt necessarily require being in a religious organisation.

That is certainly true . . . but that doesn't contradict what I said, as far as I can tell.

 

[holy king]

wait, didnt you say that believing that "there's a God, but no one else but me really knows what He/She/It/They is like." makes you theistic but not religious?

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

Yes, yes I did.

There is no question that makes you theist - I would say it doesn't make you religious if it doesn't have an affect on your philosophy of life or your lifestyle or something. Because one can be religious without belonging to a religion, but to be religious, it has to make a difference in your life somehow.

 

[holy king]

i'd say having faith in something metaphysical is enough, but this is really a rather unimportant question of definition anyway.

 

[warpus]

Did you read my post? I clearly said that atheism is understood in a broader meaning - so it's not just an antithesis of theism, but also of religion in general. Buddhists certainly believe in many supernatural things and "revealed truths", ergo they cannot be atheists other than in the strict sense.

Why do you want to argue about semantics? You know perfectly well what I mean and I clearly explained my position.

Because you're incorrect about the accepted meaning of the word 'atheist'.

It has nothing to do with the supernatural and everything to do with God. Just because you believe that elves exist doesn't make you a non-atheist. Other supernatural things? Same thing.

 

[Xyan]

Did you read my post? I clearly said that atheism is understood in a broader meaning - so it's not just an antithesis of theism, but also of religion in general. Buddhists certainly believe in many supernatural things and "revealed truths", ergo they cannot be atheists other than in the strict sense.

Why do you want to argue about semantics? You know perfectly well what I mean and I clearly explained my position.

I am proud of being both a religious Buddhist and an Atheist. Since this thread is a discussion on religiosity, let's not be too restrictive with the definitions.

I tend to believe that the majority accepts that atheism simply means no god. Why not keep it as that?