Are you agnostic?

That presupposes that one thinks empiricism is the only path to truth.

An atheist, but if a big monty python type foot came down from the aureate rimmed clouds and crushed me for my disbelief then I'd change my mind.

Do I feel a discussion concerning epistemology coming on?

Haha, yes, its inevitable when someone brings up faith and evidence.

I am a devout scientist, but also a devout Kuhnist when it comes to empiricism. This is how I can remain a devout theist.

JA, did you come to religion on your own or did you inherit it from your folks as most people get their faith?

How much of your faith shapes who you are as a person? What would you be like with out it?

You are interesting in that you have made these seemingly contradictory belief systems make sense in your life.

Another agnostic here.

I am diagnostic.

I'm an Atheist, by definition in that I don't believe there is a god. I would like to believe there is some form of life after death, but that's just the nagging human yearning for immortality.

Theistic Existentialist technically

earl,
I was raised as a Methodist, but gave it up in middle school when I found it to be devoid of anything intellectually interesting.

As a college student Physics major, my sense of the numinous was awakened. It drew me towards the "Spinoza's God" that many scientists end up contemplating.

An experience much later in life put this on a collision course with a very heartfelt emotional component during something that was life-changing.

It took me a few years to reconcile that heartfelt part of it with my Deism, with the help of some briliant Pastors. The result was Lutheranism.

As for science or empiricism and Christianity, it is understandable but naive to think they are incompatible. In fact, the Catholic church was the very crucible from which science was born, before it became an institution of its own. The notion of studying the universe as a creation that is "not God" but runs with an elegant precision built into it by a creator is a fundamental notion of mainstream Christian theology.

Not surprisingly, I have become a real student of that strange but fascinating boundary between science and religion. In the process I have come to gain even more respect for the process scientific inquiry. But at the same time, I have come to understand why empiricism might be an incomplete way to universal truth.

So these days, you will find me in front of many a Sunday School class lecturing on why Intelligent Design is so much nonsense, and defending the local science curriculum against attacks on teaching Evolution.

This is not inconsistent with the official opinion of most of the mainstream Christian denominations in the world, including Catholicism. All of which have embraced science as the way to understand the natural world, and have accepted Evolution as the best explanation for the diversity of life on the planet.

Does that mean that there are two Gods you don't believe in?

Actually, as Richard Dawkins says, we are all Atheists about at least one God. I am pretty much an Atheist when it comes to Zeus, for example.

I was raised going to conservative Protestant churches, but became agnostic when I found out how sexist and repressive the churches I had gone to were. I also have a problem with the whole idea of hell.

Now, I have taken the BeliefNet quiz on what religion (or non-religion) is closest to your beliefs, and my two highest scores are Unitarian Universalist (which is what church I go to now on the rare occasion that I actually go) and Secular Humanist.

Am I agnostic?

I doubt it.

Did you hear about the dyslexic agnostic? He isn't sure if there is a dog.

No........