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Turning Agnostic

I’m agnostic. While some of you may not have heard of this word prior to Facebook’s existence, I’ve been agnostic for quite some time.

(Image by Berbux)

I don’t know if there is a god, or if there are gods. I do not rule out the possibility of his/her/their existence, but I’m skeptical mostly. Having grown up in a Buddhist / Taoist environment, and having been exposed to Christianity and Islam (in fact, I was once Christian, although not a very good one), I guess I’ve formed my own ideas about religions.

I’m accepting (not just tolerating) of all religions. And I’m not opposed to the notion of religion, nor the practise of it. I am, however, against meaningless rituals that harm people, and aggressive evangelism.

I believe that religion first came about as a means for rulers of ancient times to control their subjects. It’s plausible. But I digress. Religion encourages people to do good. However, more often than not, what we see is fanticism and obsession with the rites and with evangelising, which easily make its practisers and faith-followers socially unaccepted in secular/non-religious social circles.

Perhaps it’s the way people promote certain religions. I guess it all boils down to presentation and communication skills. A sales trainer once told me, “Don’t sell your product. Make people want to buy it.”

Perhaps evangelism is precisely that - marketing of a faith. And in my books, all religious people fail in that.

Tags: agnosticism, evangelism, evangelist, faith, religion

Communication | daphnemaia | February 25, 2009 6:49 pm

11 Comments

By uzyn, February 25, 2009 @ 7:20 pm

Hey, be an atheist. Don’t just be agnostic.
By hendri, February 25, 2009 @ 9:14 pm

This entry sums up what I’ve wanted to say for a long, long time.
By Thought Walker, February 25, 2009 @ 10:35 pm

What is the difference between tolerating and accepting?
I can see how people can tolerate all religions by not saying that any one of them is completely true to the exclusion of all the others
I can’t quite see how you can accept all religions if you mean saying they are ALL true… Doesn’t that provide a major contradiction?
I guess this is a pretty common question and people say stuff like “you make your own truth” or “what’s true for you isn’t true for me”… but that sounds like nonsense to me.
By daphnemaia, February 26, 2009 @ 2:30 am

to tolerate means that u live with it, but there is a possibility (and it’s a very high one too, since we are humans) that people will explode or snap beyond the limit.

to accept means that u give equal opportunities to every religion to co-exist, that you do not discriminate against any one of them, nor take the side of any. neutrality, perhaps?
By Superman, February 26, 2009 @ 12:08 pm

I’m a Buddhist but I believe that any religion will do as long as they teach us to be kind to each other and to be a decent human.
By Rinko, February 26, 2009 @ 1:48 pm

i with uyzn i mean seriously if ther wasnt a god then who are we cursing to when bad things happen

ah well i would say this issue is rther based on people, just like those pro religoin ppl might say a and u say b at the end of the say we all die, get burried/cremated and head off to lala land XD

weather there is someone on the other side to judge us or is there after life/ re-incarnation or anything else there we dun know.. XD

so as far as i am concern i live for today with no regrets XD
By arzhou (adrian), February 26, 2009 @ 10:32 pm

Aiyar… everyone be kind and helpful to everyone, be happy, drink beer can liao.
By Jo, March 1, 2009 @ 8:42 am

Spirituality, not religion!

I’m not a believer of any one faith, but subscribe to the notion of a higher consciousness, a kind of connection with the broader world (not necessarily to a higher power, although who knows.. our knowledge is infinitely too small to claim that a higher power does or does not exist).
By Nick Lee, March 11, 2009 @ 2:06 am

Ok, what religion background I come from doesn’t really matter here (or so I feel), so I wouldn’t talk much about that.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but someone once told me that religions were formed to teach a “way of life”, and thus, most religions that have long histories teach positive things, like how to live your life and how to make the lives of those around you better, etc. I thought long and hard about it and I definitely agree.

What do you think?

I’m definitely not monotheist although my faith in my religion is strong. I just feel I can identify with one religion better than the others. I can tolerate those from other faiths, as long as no extreme preaching (ala force-down-your-throat style) and evangelism occur in my contact with them. If not, kthxbye to you.
By daphnemaia, March 11, 2009 @ 2:10 am

Nick, I really agree with what you said about religion teaching a “way of life”. But somehow it’s been lost somewhere along the way, over the years, and people just start this whole religion war in which they try to prove that theirs is better than others.

That, frankly, is stupid.
By dot, March 13, 2009 @ 9:31 am

It’s all the suffering that’s done “in the name of God” that make me very wary of religions too. Ultra religious people scare me. I guess you could say I’m atheist. Can you be an atheist and also believe in spirituality? I’m not sure what the right word is, but I think there is an energy connecting us. It’s not a religion per se, just karma I guess.