I find it hard to believe when someone says they believe in god, that they pray, and that they go to church…but they’re not religious. Sounds like bullshit to me. What do they mean by that anyway? I fail to understand it.
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I’ve heard this before, and I believe it’s because they want to caim Christianity without the trappings (ie: rituals) of organized religion.
So . . . it’s like being generally Christian without claiming that one is Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian, Unitarian, Quaker, and so forth.
Such people take this position often because they feel religious but still want to distance themselves from dogma.
Not sure what you are getting at but what is sounds like is the modern Christian phenomenon of being non-denominational. What these modern Christians say is that they do not follow any specific religion. So, they are not religious. Instead, they have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This is a bullshit way of avoiding all argumentation. “I feel it in my heart.” You can not attack that position. What are you going to say… “No. you don’t.” That’s going nowhere. “You could be wrong?” “And I could be right.” “But people all over the world have wrong beliefs that they think are true.” “Yep. So what? I trust in Jesus.” (Feeling frustrated yet.) The argument from personal experience is extremely ignorant and quite strong. It is irrational as all fuck, fallacious from the ground up, but you can not deny the other person feels something that he or she is calling Jesus, If they are good at this argument they sound like Rabbi Wolpe. He is particularly good at this approach,
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Does to me as well.
Religion
noun
- the belief in and worship of a superhuman power or powers, especially a God or gods.
- a particular system of faith and worship.
They’re either misspeaking, or they’re just plain wrong.
More likely they’re trying to disassociate themselves from established religions, which doesn’t mean they themselves are not religious. I have heard some people use the assertion as a euphemism for being an atheist, I can only infer it is because in some places people hold a bigoted prejudice against atheists?
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You’re correct. That’s what I meant and you’ve made some good points. I’ve heard a few Christians say that and mostly all I can do is roll my eyes. Those people are like arguing with a brick wall.
While I agree in general, I think there is some justification. Someone can be a theist (simply believe there is or was a god) and not be specifically religious. I don’t know how old some of you are (I, unfortunately am) but I remember the days of Talk Origins and debating on bulletin boards. In those days (says he sounding ancient) there was this guy called Martin Gardner, a theist widely respected by the atheist community and every bit as hard on the nutters as anyone else. Never discussed anything with him personally but, from that, I learned that being a theist and being religious aren’t quite the same thing.
If, as you say, they go to a church to pray then clearly that can’t really apply.
UK Atheist