How often to you attend mass?

Quote from: Redefeatbush04 on October 22, 2004, 10:05:46 pm

I attend mass weekly simply because my parents force me to (will be 18 soon thank dog). I am an agnostic/atheist though, but I prefer the term religiously neutral

religiously neutral. I like that.

I voted never by the way. but that's a stretch. (it's somewhere between once a year and never).

By the way, it is entirely inappropriate to group agnostic with athestic, FYI. Religions may grouped in many ways. One popular classification scheme is to group them according to the number of deities worshipped. Thus religions may be polytheistic, monotheistic, or atheistic. Polytheistic includes most of the religions the world has ever known. Atheistic is the second largest group (by religions). Monotheistic is the smallest group (by number of religions), but the largest group (by number of 'nominal' adherents). Examples include:

Polytheistic: Hinduism, the ancient Greeks, the polynesians, the Maya
Monotheistic: Zoroastrians, Jews, Druze, Christians, Muslims
Atheistic: Some schools of Buddhism, animism, ancestor worship, tribal religions, etc.

(there's some argument over what constitutes the true differences between the theravada, mahayana, and yogacara schools of buddhism, but one difference is certainly the atheistic nature of one and the polytheistic nature of the others)

One requires immensely great faith to be an atheist. Of the three groups, I'd venture a guess that mono- and atheistic groups demand huge faith, whereas polytheists tend to be a bit less singleminded. Much has been written, for example, about how the Inca assimilated local religions into its own with great success in its empire-building. A cultural coup, if you will.

Agnosticism certainly requires little or no faith. In fact, by definition, it carries none. Thus it should be grouped separately. Also, you may decide to create a poll less eurocentric, and recognize that one may be very religious and yet never attend mass. Certainly many groups never hold formal services, but practice some religion all the same.

Just some random thoughts. I find religion is a fascinating subject. Though the religious experience was always more academic, rather than spiritual, at least for me. (I've heard the prase, "not religious, just spiritual" I think I may just be the opposite. I think many others may as well.)

Again, I like the term religiously neutral, and I think I shall steal it. Thanks.

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