# Intuitive Thinkers and Religion



## Grandmaster Yoda (Jan 18, 2014)

I'm an agnostic theist. I can see myself believing in a higher power but sometimes religion is just ridiculous. On the same token I don't want to spoil it for those who actually enjoy what they do.


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## Aha (Mar 6, 2014)




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## DeathRipper (Jan 23, 2013)

NT, agnostic, like to say neither atheist nor theist, although I admit it to be completely nonsensical.


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## TruthDismantled (Jan 16, 2013)

My parents believe there's a God and come from Catholic families but they are by no means devout. So they never pushed religion on me or spoke to me about it at any point.

When I reached about 14 I started to take an interest, going to my local church and the youth group they had. I was really into it, wanting to know more and get closer to God. But then I realized how immersed I was in it all and there was still that lingering thought in my mind that I had too many unanswered questions. Eventually most of my questions boiled down to it being a question of faith, and that really wasn't enough for me. I couldn't be comfortable with having to put blind faith in something. I couldn't help seeing it as a tool used by those who were more powerful during those times as a method of control. It also seems too bizarre to me, too far away from what is tangible in this world to be true that there is an all-powerful God.

I've had a look at other religious/spiritual practices since, preferring those which emphasize a personal journey for each individual person. I also like the idea of karma, it helps to form an understanding of different things in this world. It connects everything in a way goes beyond the more Fe approach in Christianity, at least that's how I see it.


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## onyxbrain (Mar 30, 2014)

My father is a Roman Catholic and my mother is a Lutheran.

My father is not a practicing Catholic. He does not observe the religion, nor its practices; but he will become combative and defensive over both (despite being an obvious case of "blind belief"). 
A number of years ago, I approached + informed him that he could not believe in both the existence of dinosaurs, and the story of Adam & Eve. This was not a philosophical debate, he is not equipped for those. In the rare event you do make a statement before him, you have to be assertive. I clearly explained why this was so, to which he appeared somewhat nervous- something that I had noticed, as it rare for him to make visible. I repeated my initial statement, rephrased into a question- "Do you believe in Adam & Eve, or the dinosaurs? You only can logically pick one." He quickly said " the dinosaurs" and then refused to face me. He started fidgeting and anxiously moving around, and finally exited that area of the house. As he left, I asked "Whose bones were those? Where are Adam & Eve's bones?"

I don't recall ever believing in religion. I had debated it, as a prepubescent. 
This is not an attempt to appear as some advanced critical thinker- being much "too immune" to pseudo-truth, even as a child,
I remember, initially, just not understanding the Catholic concept. The same way a child might struggle with learning the correct sequence of the alphabet.
My father did have my brother and I complete Catechism, so there was exposure. 
It was a church in a small community, outside of the city, right next to a senior citizens home. 
The church majority of the members were people who looked (and acted) as though they were going to be on their deathbed, within the next week.
The communication of religious ideas suffered, and I simply had more engaging things to learn/ better books to read.
It may have played out different, had I not had a just a random "glimpse" of religion.
(There was no real church experience prior to the few years in Catechism, which were mid-late elementary, and none after) 

By the time I understood the philosophy, and general religious claims, it read like fiction.
I never experienced the traditional "rejection" of religious orientation.


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## MrJunge (Mar 24, 2012)

While I'm an agnostic negative atheist, I'm into continental philosophy, and there's a period called "The Turn" that had quite a lot of interesting import when it comes to interpretations of both Scripture and religious tradition that I find to be wholly reasonable on their own, albeit invalid as a legitimate over-all appraisal of those religions these "imports" are trying to make sense of (a lot of people who see this discrepancy speak of it as the "Philosopher's God" as opposed to Religion's God). This has challenged my atheism but not toppled it; by this I mean that, initially as an atheist I assessed religion from a standpoint of seeming logical positivism and scientism, which restricted me to critiques of very unsophisticated religious views that meant to threaten either science or basic standards of argumentation.

The "Turn," which is not wholly taken aboard by continental philosophy as a whole (as a matter of fact, I'd say the majority of such philosophers are atheists, even those who are incidentally contributing to theology), allowed me to expand my horizon in terms of how to view and frame the "debate." I began to see a gap both much wider, and yet much smaller, between theism and atheism than I had initially seen. But religion to me is itself is not very interesting outside of this context or outside of their social and psychoemotional functions found in communal ritual practice and existential concern. I have my biases towards some religious or spiritual viewpoints more than others though: Sethianism, Discordianism, Luciferianism/Theistic-Satanism, Daoism, Zen Buddhism, Thelema. And my biases towards some schools of thought: theological non-cognitivism, post-theism/trans-theism, apophatic theology, theothanatology. And as for biases towards a faith community: Unitarian Universalism. But I see all of these as more informing my atheism and in some senses even backing it, even while being challenging about religion, rather than bolstering mythic edifices.

So, I guess I have mixed feelings. Probably because I see religion as a sort of capsule of interesting mythic stories that allow for very interesting literary criticism.

As for my backgroud, I was raised in a very secular household and religion and spirituality were treated as very individualistic affairs; my grandma is Catholic (albeit not Church-abiding), my aunt is Catholic though cynical about the Church, my uncle is a positive atheist, my dad is a troll (meaning I don't even know, but I feel he mostly does not believe) and my mother is "agnostic."


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## ieatgingers (Nov 4, 2013)

I'm agnostic, but I wasn't really raised with religion either, so that could also have something to do with it. I just don't understand believing in something so completely without having proof that it's true. I want proof.


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## HippoHunter94 (Jan 19, 2012)

I always take the reverse of appealing to ignorance on the matter. There's so much we don't know, so much that is too neat, and so much that is too huge, for me not to believe there isn't a God. Now, I don't know the nature of this god. Whether or not they're Judeo-Christian, whether or not they're more deistic, or whether or not there's even an afterlife that they have to offer us, I have no real decided feeling on such matters. Now, how I rationalize my religion, and how God makes sense to me metaphysically more or less depends on the day. Sometimes I believe everything is deterministic. Other times, I think we're given agency by way of chaos theory, or something similar. What I don't believe in is accidents. It feels more correct to me that some supreme force or being is the catalyst for everything than not.


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## shameless (Apr 21, 2014)

I was raised in very inconsistent religious beliefs. My mother was converted Jeahovahs Witness who did not attend or practice the faith other then not celebrating holidays or birthdays. I had many contradictions fed to me from her in terms of right/wrong, while questioning her own hypocrisy. She was a pot smoking Jeahovahs Witness who preached about worldly deeds yet exposed me to many things. Quite contradicting. Was exposed to a lot yet told it was bad and shamed for it. Was very hard to filter.

My dad was non practicing Catholic.

Anyways I think I went thru atheist faze, in general I like to say I am agnostic, spiritual but not religious. 

I am not set on the idea there was a bang, or that theres a god tho, to me a faith or science argument is nothing but data of the reality in front of us. It still offers no concrete evidence.

I respect peoples beliefs who are respectful what ever they are.


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## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

I do find it funny hearing how my great grandma "couldn't find the church" when a family member was married in a Lutheran church. They all know she didn't approve of the whole Catholic-Lutheran thing and was saying she got lost as an excuse. Those times must have been interesting where a "mixed" marriage that people frowned on was something as simple as Catholic-Lutheran.


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## Dabbling (Nov 2, 2013)

As an Ni dom, I see so many parallels in the great nature of things between how people actually are, deep down; how they would like to be treated and the way in which Jesus treated people.

how anyone can explain or discuss these things using Te alone...in an Ni dom forum...is beyond me. Where are all the Lewis, Chesterton, Hurnard, Edwards fans?

Sometimes it's important to *see* both oneself *and* the other ... But we have been hurt and so we miss the message of the other. Bad enough between people, but to misinterpret the Love which holds the Universe of consciousness together, that is a great darkness.


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## Yeezus (Feb 22, 2014)

Any NTs that are religious must have been mistyped. I don't see how a rational mind can entertain the idea of religion.


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## illow (Dec 23, 2012)

religion is a choice, a way of life. It doesn't matter what type you are, just like it would sound silly to state that religion is absolutely linked to a healthier internal value system. I believe any type can make those choices, the components, and layers of the beliefs, maybe be different for NT's, and say NF's, although they may both identify with the same institution, community, its how we struggle to depict our personality in the midst of the conformity, thats the real plot....


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## kazerpowa (Apr 26, 2014)

I was always an atheist.

Then I discovered agnosticism and I found out that it was actually better than atheism.
So, first I was like "if I can't see it, it does not exist" and now I'm like "if I can't see it, it may or may not exist".

Also, as I find religion and related topics irrelevant, agnosticism is what fits me better, since it's the "lazy" position. Instead of saying "look, I don't care" you can say "oh, I'm agnostic "


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## Grandmaster Yoda (Jan 18, 2014)

According to the book about INTPs I read it said INTPs are among the most likely types to be agnostic/atheistic with an ~11% rate of atheism among the subjects studied. The book noted though that it is one of the highest rates, the majority are still left as believers in a higher power, what that means was not specifically studied which I see as a flaw. There could be a lot of INTP deists but that wasn't thrown into the study.


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## Dabbling (Nov 2, 2013)

The informational data on near death experiences is fascinating and definitely worth looking into...


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