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Absolutely not.

Not really.

I like witchy stuff but only if its considerable to placebos. A rose quartz bracelet, for example, might not be scientifically going to attract love and good fortune---but its cute and makes me happy, so who knows, THAT might help.

If I had to choose a religion though, I'd probably go with one of those polytheist religions because ever since I was a kid and first went to a church camp, I decided that a singular "God" scares the shit out of me. I basically considered "God" too overpowered and decided that wasn't for me.

No. It took me a lot of hard effort to get here with my upbringing. I think parts of it are fine and for the most part regular people practice in ways that aren't harmful to others, but (at least in the US), the entire structure of it is deeply harmful and results in good, decent folk taking actions or supporting others who do real harm.

I am atheist but I do enjoy religious spaces. There's a stillness that I like, gives you the opportunity to just be in the moment. You don't get many spaces like that for atheist folk (libraries are the closest I can think of). I sing a lot of choral music so often find myself in churches. I like the structure of a service and the ceremonial aspect, I just don't believe in the content itself.

Hell yeah! I'm Hindu and I love it.

I loved mythology as a child and devoured every myth from every culture I could get my hands on. Later this evolved into exploration of religion. I've read religious books of many religions - Hindu epics and scriptures, Buddhist scriptures, Jain scriptures, Quran, Bible, Guru Granth Sahib, and the Avesta - I enjoyed them all, and my parents encouraged this exploration.

I ultimately came back to Hinduism because a lot of the stuff in it made sense and resonated with me, and let me adopt a mindset that works well for letting me process and ascribe meaning to the various experiences and phenomenon of life.

Hinduism is a collection of hundreds of belief-systems - a lot of which are uber chill, some literally cult-like, some polticised and weaponised for oppression, and some that are intense but harmless. You can choose what makes sense to you - I personally follow a pretty chill belief system, but it also makes me seem not serious about it.

Oooh and it is fun in the community - festivals, temples, ceremonies, and various cultural events -there are so many of these, and each of them very fun depending on the people involved in the celebration.

I'm quite drawn to the ritual aspects of religion but there's another part of me finds it all hopelessly silly.

It's complicated. I am not religious, and have considered myself to be an atheist for most of my life so far. I also have strong negative feelings towards most mainstream religions, because of their long-standing hate towards people like me and my loved ones. I also grew up in a Presbyterian church and honestly, fuck everything about calvinist-derived theology.

But, it is hard to shake some amount of magical thinking. And honestly, if it brings joy, and isn't harming people around you, why not? So lately I've been leaning into it a bit, in a vaguely neopagan direction. I definitely don't take any of it literally, but if a sprinkle of it helps keep me from descending into despondency, I will shrug and go with it. It isn't rational, but I am a human, not a robot.

I have also considered finding a local unitarian universalist church or something along those lines. Somewhere that is chill with me as I am. The last few years have been isolating and I think I need more community in my life to thrive.

Not even a little bit. I'm still in awe of the universe, aware of my own insignificance, and terrified yet resigned to my eventual death though!

No, but I also recognize that I may be wrong. To be honest, arrogant atheists bother me even more than arrogant theists.

To me, the whole point is that any answer is impossible to prove. Trying to definitively, factually state that no kind of higher power exists is irrational, and thoroughly undermines any claims of logic or reason. The stubborn, uncompromising kind of atheist frequently claims to be a logical, rational people, so I expect them to see this problem.

I hate religion. I hate ""spirituality"" (what does that even mean?). It makes my skin crawl. I hate that people willfully delude themselves into believing things that they clearly know to not be true, on some level, and then argue wholeheartedly for their actual truthfulness. It's the most nonsensical practice I can imagine someone engaging in and I struggle to see people who do so as willful, rational human beings. Just look at all the people in this thread searching for one that "speaks to them as if they can just pick the nature of reality out for themselves. How in the world can people do that and not make themselves crazy with cognitive dissonance?

BUT. What I do understand is that people are searching for structure, community and a sense of reverence towards... something. There have been attempts at replicating that experience sans-nonsense, but every time it's tried it's mostly ridiculed and laughed at by the sort of jackass atheists who can't even empathize with that longing. It's sad.

Nuh uh. "Losing My Religion" by R.E.M. still feels surreal and sad for my heart.

I was raised particularly southern, like three denomination deep Protestant, (that only existed because some people argued if you should speak in tongues in church or if that would be "distracting from the lawd".) And my family participated in the activities so I was forced to attend EVERY SUNDAY AND WEDNESDAY NIGHT until I was 18.

I don't have a lot of good things to say about it. After I realized I only tried to follow it cause of where I was born (and what measure of truth is that?) I started to address each moral question as it came and settle it myself based off of morality I could stomach.

A lack of belief is easy when I've seen nothing to believe, in fact I used to feel alone in it. Eventually I realized I cannot fake it, and what reason would there be, what diety would accept it?

Every religious community organisation that I have had first hand personal experience with has been involved in a myriad of verified claims of abuse Including: sexual, financial, and elder. My confidence in these institutions is now nonexistent. And I find myself misidentifying with them completely. I think I am now de facto apathetically agnostic.

Religions have been perverted into a system of manipulation and control of the masses. Granules of truth in each one keep people coming back, but in the end they are like a virus in human consciousness that is designed to control us. I really believe each person can only find real truth by turning inward and deeply exploring their own consciousness.

Yes, I'm Christian. I am also queer and staunchly opposed to American bible fascism. An unfortunate number of people seem to believe that these traits can't coexist in one person without hypocrisy or denial.

Myself, I enjoy how my religious beliefs and my queer identity support and bolster one another. 😁

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer... sets up power point

My history with religion/spirituality is all over the place.

Those of the more religious bent in my family were/are Baptists. My single working mother never made religion a super big focus for me and sis. She let us discover that part of ourselves on our own. I had issues with Southern Baptists early on as a child when one pastor pressured me about getting baptized. I kinda just ran from organized religion after that.

As I grew up, I had explored Catholicism. What I discovered was I really was drawn to the divine feminine. I was aaalll about some Mary. I flirted with Wicca, Norse Paganism, Pagan Paganism, and finally settled in as an agnostic. "Nobody knows ANYTHING", I figured.

Then, about a year and a half ago, a fella I followed on instagram was streaming his DJ program on Twitch. One of the tunes he spun was Ganesh is Fresh by MC Yogi. It was a bangin' tune! Then I remembered a Hindu mantra I had heard in a new age book store when I was a teen. It left such an impression on me that it just kind of stayed in the back of my mind. I took a chance, and looked it up on YouTube. Sure enough! There it was! Then I looked up the meaning: "A mantra of purification and seeking the oneness of God in all things"

I just sat there listening to my mantra with "new ears". Then I said "Okay. I'm on board. Let's do this." I embraced Hinduism, and honestly couldn't be happier. As I read and researched more about it, it really fit with my outlook on life, the universe, and everything. It's a seeking path that doesn't have rigid dogma. It acknowledges change, and encourages exploration and questioning. I've had to learn to drop a lot of the Western Abrahamic thinking that came along with American culture, which seemed small and kinda dark in comparison.

These days I find chanting, meditation, and kirtan to be great sources of comfort in a world gone higgledy-piggledy. I do my best to make my corner of the universe as kind and welcoming as I can. I refuse to hate, and don't wish ill on others. There's just better ways to spend my energy.

If by 'spiritual' is meant to be belief in something that is outside of our current understanding of scientific knowledge, then yes.

Obviously, the scientific fields of inquiry do not have answers to all of humanity's questions.

So, that would be the sense that I am 'spiritual'...there are things going on in the immense universe that are outside (or unknown) our collective scientific understanding.

I'm apatheistic when it comes to if there is a god and/or gods and I actively dislike all organised religion. Religion has no place in modern society and causes so much suffering. It's time has been and gone.

No, I am an atheist and do not believe in anything super natural.

I have a complicated relationship with religion. I was raised in a very hardline and honestly kind of culty ‘born again’ environment so I have a deep-rooted distaste for conservative Christianity, but I also don’t really love the fairly shallow ‘atheism, monism, logical positivism, and physicalism’ that’s taken as the default for most people these days. I’m open-minded to spirituality but I’m cautious about taking a leap of faith directly into oncoming traffic.

I mean, I have beliefs, just not religious ones. The only religions that I could ever vibe with were Wicca and Discordianism, and in time I realized that was because the only forces that I could ever accept having power over me are nature and chaos.

I used to be a pretty staunch atheist, but had a life experience earlier in life that changed my perception. I spent months trying to find a scientific explanation for what I experienced, something within the realm of physics for it to make sense, but could not. Even today I try to debunk my own experience but I know that it happened and have somebody else who can confirm it as well.

I don't know the nature of the universe, I do know that we don't know a whole lot about the universe though. The atheists that claim with certainty that there is nothing beyond the veil of our reality sound just as ignorant and stubborn as the orthodox priests of any major religion though. As a science minded person, you should always try to keep an open mind.

Today I would describe myself as a scientific pantheist, I guess, if we have to put labels on things. Which is to say that I believe that what we see as the universe is synonymous with what we think of as God. That science, mathematics, physics, etc are the languages in which "God" speaks to us.

Agnostic atheist here. If you twisted my arm to choose something I'd make a religion out of this story [http://galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html]("The Egg")

Other than that, I don't have any reason to believe its anything other than nothing, non-existence after we die.

In any organised sense, no, not really. Beyond that, maybe?

But no more than feeling a sense of belonging within the universe which we are a part of and connection with other parts of that universe, be they human, animal, plant or other.

If there is something else out there or on a higher plane of existence than us, I don't believe it is within the grasp of any human to understand it, let alone write down it's wants and desires in regards to the way we should live out lives.

Nope, my parents are atheists and my siblings and I were raised as same. Never went to churches or had a bible at home etc.

im pretty neutral on it maybe theres a god maybe there isnt doesnt make a difference me people can believe what they want as long as its not actively harming them or others

I'm spiritual and I guess some would say religious, though I just call it witchy. I was raised by strict parents as an evangelical Christian (Southern Baptist), but that made less and less sense as I grew older and learned more about the world around me.

I found my way to witchcraft, and working with and in nature made way more sense to me. I'm eclectic, and not very into ceremonial magic, but I do believe magic is real, and I believe we all have different paths to take in life. I currently worship Persephone, Hestia, and Loki, and I try to honor other deities where applicable. I'm studying everything I can, and love hearing about other people's experiences.

Not anymore, but grew up in church.

I'm a Christian. I'm in a weird state where i'm trying to figure out where my faith sits and trying to find a new congregation I am comfortable with, since there's so much bad stuff coming from Christians nowadays.

I’m not religious but always thought of myself as very spiritual… which I think is just living on a deeper level. I feel like I have my own custom-made religion, and I can borrow here and there from different religions if I want to. I especially like Buddhism, but I’m sure every religion must have some nice things to say. But I prefer learning about life from science, especially psychology, it seems more accurate.

But lately I became accustomed with energy healing… and it’s making me wonder about life and my belief system. I started watching the Goop Lab on Netflix, which led to me wondering if there really are people with psychic powers, then I got curious about energy healing, tried it a few times and became convinced that no, it’s not just a placebo effect and it works from a distance. But it’s also not supported by science. It’s been boggling my mind for a few months… Then I start looking at what these people believe, these healers who practice energy healing. They all believe in an afterlife, in spirit guides, crystals, psychic powers, etc. I never believed in all this, always looked down on what I consider to be New Age (except for yoga, mindfulness and meditation), I always looked to science for answers. So, do I believe in all this? I wouldn’t say that (yet), but it did make me wonder. My thinking was, if there really are people with psychic powers, wouldn’t they know more about life than I do? My thinking prior to this was more along the lines of I don’t know what happens after death. But I also thought, it seems like a cold, cruel world, so there probably isn’t anything after death. And you’re just alive for a while, it’s a struggle and then it’s over.

What’s interesting is that I started contemplating the way these energy healers and psychics make sense of the world, and I decided to sort of ‘try’ it. Because I like to learn about life and experiment. And it does ‘feel’ better, actually ‘much’ better. I always thought, I don’t want to be delusional and I’m one to try to get in touch with reality. But now I’m kind of enjoying this new way of thinking mostly because it feels better. It’s comforting, reassuring, it can really change how you feel about life and how you live it. So it’s been an interesting experiment. It’s also been making me wonder how this science-based way of thinking is affecting us and whether we’re missing out. Humans have always had spiritual practices (up until recently) and believed in an afterlife and a God and maybe there’s a good reason for that, maybe it’s something we need. But also seeing all the different beliefs and religions around the world it’s clear that there’s no consensus and what people believe has much to do with what they’ve been taught… But you also have to look at the similarities and how it must meet some of our needs.

Then I’ve also been meditating for a long time, and now synchronicities happen much more often, they barely ever happened when I was younger. I also feel like more often I get ‘lucky’ or it seems like my intuition leads me in the right direction. This also makes me wonder what it is and how does this happen? Also, I’ve seen how much I’ve grown from practicing meditation, how it gives me insights, how it has improved my mental health and how it has changed me as a person. When I started practicing meditation, I didn’t readily believe what it claimed it could do, but I thought it would be interesting to see what happens, if anything. Everything they say about meditation actually is true. But whether someone can become enlightened, I don’t necessarily believe it... I think we’re always learning and growing. Even people that are put on a pedestal are nowhere near perfect once you get to know them. But there’s no doubt practicing meditation can help you grow as a person and reach a better balance.

I was born and raised Roman Catholic and attended Catholic schools up to college. I feel very disconnected from the religion because of how it upholds discriminatory views against gender minorities. There was also a lot of fear instilled in me when I was younger and I just grew out of it eventually. It didn't make sense that I would do good just because a higher being promised salvation when I die. There well also too many hypocrites around me who would go to church religiously but never practice the teachings from the priest.

I now try to make sense of life as I see it and I still practice spirituality through Tarot. It's brought me a lot of peace but I still struggle every now and then

I don't, I'm an atheist. I grew up in a very strict christian household (my dad took away my yugioh cards and my Harry Potter books for being "demonic" lmao) kinda turned me off to religion.

@alyaza I was quite religious when I was very young. My parents were not too religious, but my grandma, where I would spend a huge part of my childhood, was. She never asked me to keep a lent or an advent (I don't know what it's called in English, but on the Orthodox side we have various periods of the year when we basically become vegan 😀)) We call that post - religiously it's mainly about food, but not only. You're supposed to clean yourself up in a way), but I would occasionally go to church with her, and I got the habit of crossing myself whenever I would pass next to a church (both walking or when taking the public transit).

Later when I grew up, I would find some awesome friends that gradually got me less religious, to a point where I would simply become agnostic - which was pretty much the same to this day 😁

Yes, very much. I think it would be impossible for me not to be religious. If I wasn't Anglican I'd be Buddhist or Baháʼí.

My parents and grandparents were but my generation (all my siblings & cousins) don't follow the church much if at all

No. I was raised in a secular household, and honestly, I haven't seen anything that makes me think there's a supernatural at all.