What's your religion?

[BannedForSatire]

And as a side topic, does your asexuality have anything to do with your religion?

Personally I am pantheistic but my demisexuality doesn't have a lot to do with my religious affiliation.

When I was younger and felt asexually only I felt like it was more of a religious choice to be celibate.

[Misplaced]

No idea what half of them are. ^_^

I picked other, but i like ancient. I kind of like the idea the ancient Egyptians had, it makes most sense to me. That said i'm mostly atheist and it neither has any impact on my sexuality.

[.//]

I chose Christian, since that's where I fit, being raised LDS/Mormon. I've been questioning my own spirituality recently, however... Probably just due to some of the things that contradict each other. Bahh... Overall, I'm not 100% certain about it, going through some stages of rediscovery.

My asexuality has nothing to do with my religion.

[John Dee]

Honestly, I think that sexuality does diminish the chances of being part of a properly established religion, since alternate sexualities tend to be bunked into liberalism (as in, Gay rights etc. is a rather leftie thing), and liberals/lefties will of course veer away from organised tradionalist religions.

[sound_the_bugle]

I identify as deist.

And no, nothing at all to do with my demisexuality.

[katnya]

I'm Wiccan. I used to be catholic since I was born into it, but I chose my own path and knew it wasn't right for me, so I converted to Wicca. It's the perfect religion for me and I love it. If only people didn't claim we were evil...

[sound_the_bugle]

Honestly, I think that sexuality does diminish the chances of being part of a properly established religion, since alternate sexualities tend to be bunked into liberalism (as in, Gay rights etc. is a rather leftie thing), and liberals/lefties will of course veer away from organised tradionalist religions.

The question wasn't whether or not sexuality can diminish the chances of being part of a certain religion, but whether or not your religion affected your sexuality.

Difference there.

[The Great WTF]

I'm... complicated, as far as my spiritual beliefs go. I'm probably a weird mash up of something out of American Gods, Wicca, and something I don't have a word for. I firmly believe in the concept of creating your own reality and my spiritual beliefs are an extension of that. I don't believe in the god Apollo himself, for example, but I do believe in what he personifies, creativity, the arts, and healing and Apollo is the form those things take in my mind. Does that make sense? Probably not.

I think that thoughts become things. I think that a person's religious or spiritual belief manifests itself through them and gains strength through them and, in it's own way, becomes an entity unto itself, a force within that person's life.

I doubt it has anything to with my asexuality or vice versa.

[Striped Sweater]

I would consider myself Christian, although not excessively so. The church I go to at home is actually really open-minded and cares more about current human rights issues and helping those in need rather than preaching fire and brimstone. I think my specific church and the attitude of my parents (also open-minded) has shaped my faith more than my actual religion and the institution that runs it. I hope that makes sense...

I don't think it has anything to do with my asexuality though. Finding out I was asexual didn't shake my faith or anything. I was already planning on staying celibate at least until marriage (something I thought was inevitable, not so much now), maybe forever. But I think that had less to do with faith and more to do with me being completely uninterested in sex. That's one thing that I know has been consistent my whole life.

[John Dee]

To Chrilona: Then you don't believe that sexuality is something genetic or memetic, but is in fact a matter of choice? Veeeerrry dangerous point of view, and- from an objectively scientific point of view- utterly wrong.

Also, notice that all religions mentioned so far are extremely un-traditionalist, we have people who move away from Christianity (Katnya for example) and move into more exotic and rather postmodernistic religions. Certainly I don't think these people see any link between their sexuality and their religious/political views, which is only to be expected as self analysis is a tricky business.

Oh, and for the record, I'm a complete Catholic, I'm into theology and philosophy. Religion has always been my thing, I have always studied mythologies (like Wiccan) from a very early age.

[sound_the_bugle]

To Chrilona: Then you don't believe that sexuality is something genetic or memetic, but is in fact a matter of choice? Veeeerrry dangerous point of view, and- from an objectively scientific point of view- utterly wrong.

No, I never said that. I was merely pointing out what the original question asked.

I don't believe any sexuality is a choice. Behavior is. Sexuality is not.

[Capslock Cadet]

I answered "other". If I had to find a religion I agree with it'd probably be "norse paganism". I've read a lot of myths and other related texts in my literary studies, and there are some customs and rules that makes sense to me. On the other hand, there are a lot of crazy things too. And so, in the end, I probably consider myself "agnostic" more than anything else.

As for my spiritual beliefs affecting my asexuality? Nope. Not one bit.

[BannedForSatire]

I'm... complicated, as far as my spiritual beliefs go. I'm probably a weird mash up of something out of American Gods, Wicca, and something I don't have a word for. I firmly believe in the concept of creating your own reality and my spiritual beliefs are an extension of that. I don't believe in the god Apollo himself, for example, but I do believe in what he personifies, creativity, the arts, and healing and Apollo is the form those things take in my mind. Does that make sense? Probably not.

I think that thoughts become things. I think that a person's religious or spiritual belief manifests itself through them and gains strength through them and, in it's own way, becomes an entity unto itself, a force within that person's life.

I doubt it has anything to with my asexuality or vice versa.

That's interesting that you would say Apollo because I had a similar idea about Artemis when I was younger... that's why I believed in being celibate when I was younger because Artemis is the Greek goddess of virginity among other things.

[Yhamilitz]

I consider myself as a non-practical protestant. Still have strong faith on God.

And my Demisexuality Also has nothing to do with religion xD

[Crooked Ascension]

I am a non-denominational Christian, and the only thing that really affected me was that I am able to sorta cancel out adultery with my asexuality. Other than that, no.

[Guest]

Panentheist, independent of any church or organized religion.

I don't think there's correlation between my faith and my sexual orientation either way.

[Janus the Fox]

Well, basically apatheist... I don't argue whats god or not either way, my views are often atheist, but I don't stand true to it nor patronize other peoples delief systems.

[Grumpy Alien]

Other: Possibly falling between pantheism and panentheism - with a touch of humanism. I have my own beliefs that are compatible with many religions, I simply don't follow one. I believe the cores of religions are universal truths. I don't believe it's possible to know things like if there is a god or what exactly our purpose is - I believe that's not for us to learn.

I guess I've kind of gathered the basics of major religions from my "well rounded" education. (Jewish, Protestant, public, and Catholic schooling along with Christian Sunday and Bible schools and Jewish camp. My Catholic high school had a mandatory religion course all four years that covered every major world religion from Abrahamic religions to Zoroastrianism.) And weeded through what I think is cultural bs and what is true understanding of humanity and the universe.

I can't see my sexuality playing a role in my spirituality.

[Nightingales;]

I'm a progressive Muslim, alhamdulillah. No, it has nothing to do with my asexuality -- apart from the fact that Allah (subhanahu wa ta'ala) made me the way that I am, and so I see no shame in it whatsoever. My faith has helped me accept myself to varying degrees.

[Waist of Thyme]

I'm an apatheist. I'm not interested in religion (or spirituality) in the slightest and very rarely think about it. I don't think it has anything to do with my asexuality.

[Anhamirak]

I'm on the liberal end of the Mennonite spectrum (a denomination of Christianity). And I say liberal end because I want to make it clear that I'm not Amish (which you'd think would be made obvious by the fact that I'm on an online forum...but then, I've had people ask me if being Mennonite meant I was Amish while I was wearing jeans and riding home on a public school bus...so now I try to make that distinction right away, just to be safe).

And no, my religious beliefs and sexual orientation don't really affect each other. My faith affects my stance on issues of sexual ethics, of course, but I don't think the Bible really has anything to say about sexual orientation, since there really wasn't the concept of such a thing when the Bible was being written. Sort of like it doesn't say much about stuff like molecular biology and aerospace engineering. (Sorry for the rambling; I'll shut up/stop typing now.)

[WhenSummersGone]

Agnostic, and my sexual orientation doesn't have anything to do with religion.

[R_1]

I'm a ignostic apathiest. Research into the word god had led me to conclude that there are so many definitions of god and I cannot answer questions until terms has been defined. However, I have no interest into participating into theological debates.

[Guest]

Agnostic - maybe there is, maybe there isn't, it doesn't really change how I would act either way so why worry about it imo. If God exists and cares more about worship than deeds, I don't think I would want to follow him anyway.

No it has nothing to do with my asexuality.

[Guest]

I am a pantheist, I believe in all science but also believe there is some sort of force (nature force or whatever) that promotes life, that make the molecules collaborate to the degree that it forms a living organism.

My belief has nothing to do with my asexuality

[Guest]

I identify as atheist, although apathetic agnosticism describes me better. I don't believe in the existence of God or any other supernatural being, and even if one or more existed, it could never be proven, nor could it be proven that they don't exist. And even if it could be proven, it wouldn't affect people's lives at all. So I'm in a more or less constant don't-give-a-damn status. :P I don't believe in the afterlife either.

That said, I'm still respectful of religious people and pretty curious about religious mythology. I can relate to some of the concepts I've found in Buddhism, particularly the concept and nature of Nirvana, but not strongly enough to actually belong to the cult.

[Vampyremage]

I'm a left hand path polytheistic pagan. This actually doesn't really even begin to scratch the surface of the things that make up my spiritual belief system, but its the closest I can come without writing an essay. My spiritual beliefs have nothing to do with my being asexual.

[SquirrelCat]

My relationship with spirituality has been a complicated one. Over the past few years I've been questioning it. I thought that, in order to find my spiritual path I had to shake off my spiritual heritage. But recently I've come to terms with it and found that different views can actually be compatible. I don't have to turn my back on my past, becuase I really didn't want to do that, I was confused about views and terminology.

Over the years I tried a few different things. I dipped into atheism for a while (or maybe it was more of a confused state of agnosticism) but I'm no longer in that click. I came out of it with my original spiritual beliefs strengthened.

I was raised an unclassifed Theist. My parents had a jungian archetype view on Gods; not as deities but parts of the human mind. More important views in our household were animism and folklorish belifes from my mother's side of the family. (My father's side was Catholic but it never had a huge impact on our lives.)
As for religious practices: Who doesn't like a good bonfire!

My journey over the past few years has strengthened my spiritual beliefs and taught me many things about myself: I learned that I cannot justify denying the existance of any Gods whatever they are Ra, Odin, God, Minerva, Allah, Loki or whatever but that doesn't mean I have to serve them or believe in them as literal entities
It was a bumpy ride, filled with questions like "How can I make this belief work along with this other one, are they compatible,is it ok for me to disagree with this view while agreeing with another?" etc, etc, etc.
I found myself landing back where I started, with Paganism, animism.

[DexM]

If I had discovered Asexuality when I was younger, I would have been reluctant to tell my Christian family. I'm sure certain Aunts and Uncles, probably my Nana too, would have frowned upon me as in their eyes I would have been unwilling to father children and no matter the reason they would have seen that as a not so Christian like. Even as an adult I know that remarks have been made from one of my cousins as apparently he sees it as a form of birth control.

[enjolras]

I consider myself mostly atheist -- I tentatively chose "agnostic."

I feel like agnosticism is tricky, because people define it in enough different ways that I'd rather not use it myself -- it's very wishy-washy. I'm still not sure exactly what it entails.

I have my own belief systems and set of morals that have basically nothing to do with any deity/ies or organized religion. I don't believe or deny the existence of any higher power(s) -- I figure I'm only a mortal human (and a young one, at that), and I therefore have no cosmic right to presume to know anything of the secrets of the universe. At the same time, my persnickityness and liking of logic lead me to distrust people telling me what to believe (in a religious setting, usually because a book written by other humans told them so). I was raised in a methodist setting (though not a strict one) but I don't Believe.

My religion (or lack thereof) has nothing to do with my asexuality, as far as I can tell. It may have helped form an automatic open-mindedness, though, to new ideas (i.e., ones to do with sexuality)? I'm certainly not going to be queerphobic in the name of religion, at least.

I chose Christian, since that's where I fit, being raised LDS/Mormon. I've been questioning my own spirituality recently, however... Probably just due to some of the things that contradict each other. Bahh... Overall, I'm not 100% certain about it, going through some stages of rediscovery.

My asexuality has nothing to do with my religion.

That's interesting, though! Actually, two of the first people to whom I came out at school are LDS, and they (along with my Catholic friend) were the most immediately accepting non-queer-community people I told, even having never before heard of asexuality. Not trying to imply anything negative about Mormonism at all, but I think we don't always expect that kind of acceptance from the more stereotyped-as-strict organized religions. They get a bad rep for being close-minded when often their members are not, which is kind of a shame.