I am Atheist, Humanist, and I belong to a group called the Ethical Society.
I was raised in a strict Southern Baptist church, which may explain why I am now Atheist. Ha Ha. I believe in "Just Be Nice." The people who don't believe in equality for all people, no matter what your color or gender or whom you marry, really bother me. I have a hard time tolerating intolerance.
I believe that dieties were created by humans the same way as Santa Claus was, just a story to tell, "You'd better watch out, You'd better not cry, Jesus Christ is coming back some day. He's making a list, checking it twice, gonna find out who's naughty or nice." Think about it. Both stories offer a reward if you behave a certain way for a specific time period. Both are just stories written by human beings. The difference is that along about 6 or 7 years old, we begin to realize that Santa is not real, but the adults still push the deity story.

I believe that we are all smaller parts of a unified whole. We are in God, and He's in us - we are One! We are all "little" Gods / Higher Power / Buddhas - the difficult part is realizing it. :)

Hi i hear what you are saying and i know you are right. There is goodness in most of us. i also believe there are "little" devils out there too. Some people have no godliness in them whatsoever and are just pure evil. Luckily there are an awful lot more of us than them. Its the old good versus evil thing for me. A difficult fight. There is so much goodness in the world but also too much cruelty. I dont mean to infer that you are wrong - not at all - so plese dont take thia the wrong way. i just see it from a different perspective i guess. We all have our own unique slant on life and that is a healthy and good thing. I'm sure that in your career you have seen too much of that evil and im sorry you have. Take care

I am a devout atheist, if there is such a thing. I was raised Protestant. My parents sent me to a Southern Baptist school for high school and I hated every minute of it. I tried to get expelled a few times. Listening to them drone on and on about how everyone but Baptists were going to hell got old very fast. It has given me a very bad opinion of religion in general. The fact that I am lesbian doesn't really help too much, since I have gone toe to toe with a few hate-spewing Christians at protests/demonstrations.

Some people can hold faith in the most graceful ways and I have the deepest respect for them and others seem to use it as a way of feeling better than someone else.

I was raised in church, and I have always believed in God.
I might be a bit unusual among those do believe in God.
I don't believe in hell ( the afterlife variety - with fire, brimstone, and pitchforks ) and I haven't since I was about 12.

In the Jewish religion, there is no hell, but there is a god and heaven.

The miracles and blessing given to me over the pass few years have proven to me that there is a God or a higher power. It has also be proven to me that there is a plan for my life and I can chose to follow it or not. But the blessing come when I let that plan work and not fight it.

About 2 years ago I went to church with Mom--been a very long time since last visit! Had what I thought was a panic attack but while in the middle of it I cryed out "Oh God help me" and I have had only blessing ever since.

I believe 100% in God and Jesus. The God described in the King James Bible.

God has been absolutely proven to me many times, I have witnessed so many miracles, one of the greatest being the complete filling of my heart with His love. When you receive that, you know it with no doubt. I started rather late on my spiritual walk, and am moving along at my own pace. I was baptized in the Atlantic ocean, and that was one amazing experience, as I have always felt one with the ocean. It has always exemplified God's awesome power and glory to me. The tide never EVER stops, and the breeze always blows, breathing life into me. I feel its thunder under my feet [or butt!]

I often wonder how folks get through life without anything to hold on to, to believe in and be grounded, when there is no one or nothing else there. No one to hand your burdens to. What a relief that is, to know that someone will take your every worry and trouble and entrust that it will be taken care of. Maybe not always the way I would choose, but always a way and reason I can understand that is right. But that is a very hard thing to do, to have that kind of trust, esp. for 'us'. I realize that. WE do not want to let go of our burdens, to let anyone else shoulder them. Faith is a journey. Those of you that got involved and turned off by 'odd' churches, I completely understand.

My son has a saying I love - "I hate religion, I love Jesus Christ". Jesus himself warned to beware of 'religious types'.

I believe in God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. With what I've been through in my life as a young child though adulthood, I'd be dead if I hadn't had a loving, holy, Father to take care of me through thick and thin, even when I feel He is not there, I have been in the palm of His hand.

One way I can see Him is that I write "letters to God" and keep them in a spiral notebook. I can go back read my requests and they have all been answered. Sometimes yes, sometimes no, sometimes wait, but they are all answered to my good.

Chissi

Chissi