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I'm sure you would rather suspect you have better logic I'm not a self-proclaimed agnostic or atheist - but I doubt anything will stop you from thinking that you know better than I do what I 'really' do or don't believe
Why is it that if you're not religious in this country almost all religious people will refer to you as an atheist When in fact atheists make up less than a third of self identified non religious people in most surveys?
I've noticed this particularly on this forum.
I don't understand the question. Do you mean people that do believe in God, but don't go to church, or bother other people with their religious practices? Is that what you mean by non religious? Because usually people that subscribe to some religion would be considered "religious", and the alternate to theism is atheism.
Well, as a Deist I am constantly being accused of being an atheist by Christians usually in online debates. This is nothing new, as Deists (such as the founding fathers) were accused of atheism even 200 years ago. Apparently in the Christian mind, anyone capable of seeing the fallacies of Christian theology, and who points out the true history and origins of the Bible and its god, by default MUST be an atheist.
Conservatives see education and knowledge as a threat and conservative Christians even more so.
I don't understand the question. Do you mean people that do believe in God, but don't go to church, or bother other people with their religious practices? Is that what you mean by non religious? Because usually people that subscribe to some religion would be considered "religious", and the alternate to theism is atheism.
I'm sure you would rather suspect you have better logic I'm not a self-proclaimed agnostic or atheist - but I doubt anything will stop you from thinking that you know better than I do what I 'really' do or don't believe
I am sure that the atheism rationale has the better logic. I had the idea that you were agnostic, but of course it is for you to correct me if I had that wrong.
Well, that much is true. We've discussed that a number of times, even though some people believe that if it doesn't have some sort of God-figure, it's not a religion, but a philosophy.
I actually don't see it that way, that all religions are philosophies, but not all philosophies are religions.
Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism...none of these subscribe to the concept of a God-figure. I was still trying to figure out what the OP intended by "not religious". Would I be considered "not religious" since I don't go to church or read any holy books?
Why is it that if you're not religious in this country almost all religious people will refer to you as an atheist
I've noticed this with quite a few christian sects, I suspect it is part and parcel of the ole "Us or Them" syndrome, If you don't belong to THEIR church, then you believe wrongly, ergo- Atheist. I have actually heard a baptist accuse a presbyterian of being an atheist. Ignorance is often a facet of some christian belief structures.
Well, that much is true. We've discussed that a number of times, even though some people believe that if it doesn't have some sort of God-figure, it's not a religion, but a philosophy.
I actually don't see it that way, that all religions are philosophies, but not all philosophies are religions.
Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism...none of these subscribe to the concept of a God-figure. I was still trying to figure out what the OP intended by "not religious". Would I be considered "not religious" since I don't go to church or read any holy books?
Good questions. It is tempting to avoid the problem by taking the 'well, we all know what we mean' detour, but one does like to have some fairly reliable definitions.
I'd say that it comes down to worldview...no, really, and whether one does more from habit than from reason. It is to do with superstition, self justification and Chauvinism, which are the more instinctive modes of thought than the rules of logic and reason.
Theist -think ( including religions) is closely allied to cult - think where one believes something because one has been persuaded to from infancy or by the sort of persuasive presentation that is the basis or politics, advertising and religious apologetics.
What is a cult and what is religion pretty much divides where one adopts the trappings of religion, such as prayers, costumes and comunual belief
- enhancing activities. Thus Buddhism is a religion and so is Confucianism and also Taoism in its current superstitious form, though not in its original form which was a cult (having a pretty unprovable belief in the 'Tao' concept) and what one might call theist thinking if not actually using religious trappings in the early stages.
I'm sure you would rather suspect you have better logic I'm not a self-proclaimed agnostic or atheist - but I doubt anything will stop you from thinking that you know better than I do what I 'really' do or don't believe
I am genuinely confused. Are you a theist then? there is only 'really' 3 options here: positive belief in a god or gods (theism), do not know/not sure/ could be 50/50 (agnosticism), lack of belief/ almost certainly no god or gods (atheism).
Of course you can be any number of subcategories of the 3 options. Such as a non-religious theist (Deist), or religious atheist (Buddhist, etc), or theist-agnostic (not sure if god or gods exist but I live my life as though they do) or atheist-agnostic (not sure if god or gods exist but I live my life as though they don't). However, I am pretty sure all options on the question of supernatural are covered by the broad 3 categories.
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I'm not a self-proclaimed agnostic or atheist - but I doubt anything will stop you from thinking that you know better than I do what I 'really' do or don't believe 
