Evergreen said 10 years, 5 months ago:

I mentioned in the introduction of Agnosticism that religion is what unites many people. Even though many may not agree with religion or even dismiss it, it’s important to realize the benefits it contributes to the world, societies and most importantly: Individual circumstances. If you have any particular views/opinions on how you think religion is beneficial please do share or if religion has benefited you in any way, shape or form.

It is of vital importance that people understand what religion means to many and how it benefits them.

bricheese said 10 years, 5 months ago:

I have briefly studied a few religions before and I find them to be really fascinating. I consider myself to be agnostic because I’m a person of the sciences and like you’ve said you can never prove or disprove something but I do like looking at core values behind each religion. If you look at them they are all based on these fundamental questions that we all ask ourselves before we die. A few of them being, where did we come from, why are we here, what’s the purpose of a life, what happens when we die, and there’s a few more. But that’s it, that’s what they are, they answer these questions.

It’s funny that you talk about how religions benefit people because my professor has been working on this project where we try to accomplish the benefits of being religiously affiliated without the Bible, God, Allah whomever attached. There are benefits of being religiously associated, more happiness, less depression, and so on. But the research shows that these benefits are a result from social interaction rather then how devoutly religious you are. So these positive feelings come from things like being apart of a youth group, volunteering etc. not how many times a day you pray.

And so with the group that my professor has made, instead of being like the Bible or Torah etc. and looking at stories and interpreting meaning from that, we look at scientific evidence and use that to have those positive outcomes and this group for me has been really nice, I love hearing about people’s research and it’s just really fascinating to use actual scientific evidence to increase one’s happiness.

But I think the main reason I identify myself as agnostic is because I was always really intimidated by the atheists. Now I know it’s not everyone but some of them scoff at religions and I don’t think that’s the point, people should believe in whatever they want to believe in and where they find themselves being most comfortable. Having people shoving their ways down your throat is definitely not the way to achieve this, like I said at the core of all religions it’s just by answering those fundamental questions. There’s so many ways to answer them and there really isn’t a ‘right’ answer, just pick the one you can buy into the most.

Evergreen said 10 years, 5 months ago:

very well said, Bricheese. I like your mindset and how you choose to approach religion is extremely logical.

Thanks for sharing the information about research studies that are going on, I’ve also heard some news about that but not much.

bricheese said 10 years, 5 months ago:

Yeah, I find it to be fascinating because I grew up Catholic but my mom never really pushed it on me it was a choice thing for the most part and I never really felt that connected to it or anything. Perhaps some of it partly plays into the fact that my Dad would belittle people who weren’t Catholic or Christian, but yeah I just never was interested in it. And so what happens to people like us who don’t fit into a niche of religion or spirituality? Like I said before there’s a lot of benefits in being religiously associated and it’s kind of sad to lose out on those things, so now for the first time I’m experiencing the social support of people with similar thoughts and it has been amazing. And there’s data showing that more and more people are leaning towards being agnostic or atheist, so hopefully society adapts in that those who aren’t necessarily religiously associated are able to gain the social aspect and benefits from the group I’ve been attending or things like Freethinker groups.