religious atheist, confused with nonreligous?

well, it seems that there are a lot of atheist in the world, but there are confusions

not all atheist are non religious
you can be religious and still not believe in a deity

then you have your atheist, with no religion

so i see that a lot of them are confused with each other, anybody else agree?
or am i just seeing things?

 

Buddhism is a good example of an atheist religion.

 

I wouldn't say they're confused with eachother, at least not by atheists without religion, but it's true that differing degrees of religiosity can be recognized in anyone.
Morbid seriousness is closely related to physical imperfection.

 

Like anything else, especially involving religion or lack thereof, it's not all black and white.

I believe the level and type of "religiosity" is a product of a person's genetics. Religion is and has been absolutely breed into people for millions of years. It is as different as our skin, hair and eye color. It's just not obvious traits that can be picked out. But like physical traits, religious traits can be somewhat linked to geographical regions. For instance the very far east are deeply religious but in more of a cult of personality style. The Middle East and Africa are deeply religious to a particular God. Europeans not as deeply religious in areas and Westerners tend to be little less religious. Of course this is a very broad generalization but religion does pocket in areas just like race and language with which it is intimately tied into.

Religious tendencies are not just a local cultural phenomenon. I believe people are genetically susceptible to types of religion even if they were brought up in a different culture they can be more easily drawn back to a type religion linked to their geographic and ancestral background.

The true non religious atheists are the rarest of breeds because we're not really a breed at all. If our non-religious trait were a hair color it would be platinum blond. My mindset is an anomaly. I realized when I was a very young child that I marched to a different beat. I just don't think the way most people do. I also discovered that I am practically immune to addictions. In my teens I experimented with just about everything under the sun and I watched a lot of friends self destruct. I even smoked a pack and a half a day while I was working Week long shifts on a Ship and not smoke one cigarette on my week off. When I could no longer get smokes for next to nothing I stopped cold turkey, never had one craving, ever.

Why do I mention addiction, because I have observed an obvious link with religion and addictions? Religion IS an addiction.

 

lol Why? Surely it would be any. We're anomalies after all.

I feel certain the difference lies with the type of intelligence. I have met bright people who are religious, but there has always seemed to be something lacking in their laughter! Something in their understanding that doesn't want to, or cannot go beyond 'words'

 

As far as IQ goes I score an average between 104 and 109, my wife can mentally run circles around me and regularly scores in the high 120 range on tests. I was officially tested in grade school to have an IQ of 104, they tested me because they thought I might be "Special". I have no doubt that my wife is more intelligent than me as far as analyzing, calculating and remembering and yet she absolutely believes that there is a God.

There is something in the minds of religious people that override logic and reason when the subject is God.

 

Of course, there's another possibility:your wife's superior intelligence gave her the insight that there's a God.

 

Insight? Like how God has a dick for no reason whatsoever!!
Picking out bold faced lies is not rocket science!

 

I think Dejavu is right. There are different types of intelligence. Einstein for example was not all that good with math. But he processed things in a different way that allowed him to make great advances anyway. I think it's an intelligence that allows you to process large amounts of information while keeping the big picture in mind. relaxxx's wife is probably really good at detail work and only sees the trees, while relaxxx and the rest of us atheists see the forest.

 

Seems to me its vice versa.

 

To begin, i think the main bulk of your "genertic religiousity" theory is completly crazy for lack of a better word. Please define what you mean by "far east". I would hardly call Shinto a "cult of personality", nor would I call Vaisnava traditions or Saiva traditions cults of personality. What seperates Europeans and Westerners? If by Westerners you mean Americans (of the USA) then I think you are totally off your rocker when elections are being decided on who is the best candidate for the conservative Christians (mostly evangelicals). How are Africans traditionally tied to a particular God? If you go by the traditional societies of Africa, most would be classified as animistic or a form of totemism. I think you need maybe to present some evidence for your theory of I basically just discredited it right here.

Also, I think you need to explain how religion is an addiction. Because people feel drawn to traditions and beliefs they grew up with? I am becoming Catholic and I wasn't baptized and my father nor mother are Catholic. I am a "Westerner" by your definition too I presume (Canadian) so should I not be religious? Should most of the people I went to high school with also not be religious (public high school, I dabbled in a Bah'ai faith type belief while in high school). I think your generalization that religion is like an addiction is quite general because any cultural phenomenon is similar to that where we are drawn to what is familiar even if we exist in the "other" (ex. we feel drawn to our culture in a foreign culture, we feel drawn to a childhood/family faith when beliving in another, or we feel it hard to let go of that familiar faith).

 

Hryhorii

Why are you becoming a Catholic?

 

After doing personal research into it (and other religions) it made the most sense to/for me. It also fit with beliefs I already held (ex. asking for the saints prayers, etc)

 

What do you mean by asking for the prayers of saints who are no longer among us?

 

recognized saints, yes (and although it doesn't apply to me because I am forutnate enough not to have suffered any family losses, also deceased people you knew).

The idea is that people are "alive" in heaven, so you are able to ask for their prayers. so you ask them for help, they pray to god, and you pray to god

 

You can ask them all you like! You'll be required to kneel down with the stiffs, and eat their tasteless wafers, and get dabbed with water, and take part in miserable singalongs, but on the bright side you'll be able to imagine you're getting in good with god!

 

That's not what I said at all. I said Westerners are SLIGHTLY less religious than middle easterners. Every region of this world is dominated by one form of religion or another because religious breeding does such a great job of "weeding" out the strays, either one at a time or by the millions in mass burial pits!


But you don't want to hear what I really have to say so much as dismissing what you can't bother to read, any more than how I can't be bothered with most creationist babble.

 

Yeah, rereading it I must conceid my "i am a westerner, so i can't be religious complaint". You did say that it is a generalization.

I don't know where you got that I was a creationist from though. I never even touched on that. you seem to have a Christian prejudice...

 

Haha don't forget I'll have to stand and sit too And I for one at the Masses that I take part in the community is quite apt at making the "singalongs" enjoyable because as opposed to other masses I've taken part in, these people seem like that really want to be there and take part (I go to a chapel on a univsersity campus).

 

I never called you a creationist and I am prejudice to ALL RELIGION. I have zero tolerance for this deadly, destructive, counterproductive social mental disease called religion.