Can you believe in certain things without being religious?
 

More specifically reincarnation, does it have to be synonymous with religion and believing in God? I ask because of a question I posed on another forum where I got told I couldnt believe in RC because I also claimed I was an atheist.

I happen to consider the two matters seperate and wondered what the general consensus was on 2p2?

Re: Can you believe in certain things without being religious?
 

They're absolutely separate. Not only can you be an atheist and believe in reincarnation, but there are even religions that don't believe in gods but do believe in reincarnation (some sects of Buddhism are like this).

Re: Can you believe in certain things without being religious?
 

[ QUOTE ]
More specifically reincarnation, does it have to be synonymous with religion and believing in God? I ask because of a question I posed on another forum where I got told I couldnt believe in RC because I also claimed I was an atheist.

I happen to consider the two matters seperate and wondered what the general consensus was on 2p2?

[/ QUOTE ]

Two different things. Those telling you otherwise were not atheists.

Re: Can you believe in certain things without being religious?
 

If you go to wikipedia there's a huge list of variations on reincarnation. Down at the bottom is the scientific research then tons of article links in the footnotes.

Re: Can you believe in certain things without being religious?
 

I guess the better question would be why?

Re: Can you believe in certain things without being religious?
 

[ QUOTE ]
I guess the better question would be why?

[/ QUOTE ]

Why wouldn't he want to research as many angles as possible on this. He trying to find something that's not all that common. To locate it might take more indepth research and searching as many avenues as possible. Did you think SMP has the only authoritative answer on this question?

Re: Can you believe in certain things without being religious?
 

[ QUOTE ]
If you go to wikipedia there's a huge list of variations on reincarnation. Down at the bottom is the scientific research then tons of article links in the footnotes.

[/ QUOTE ]

scientific research?

Re: Can you believe in certain things without being religious?
 

They are separate, but it just so happens most atheists are too smart and/or rational to believe in reincarnation. By the same token, atheists generally don't believe in ghosts, zodiac predictions, or superstitious beliefs either, but none of those are religious things (generally speaking).

Re: Can you believe in certain things without being religious?
 

Religion can be a lot of things, it doesn't have to mean believing in a god or some such. Believing in reincarnation can certainly qualify in the eyes of some people.

And if you look at atheism as only the lack of belief in god or divine beings, you could even say there are atheistic religions.

They are just words, and they can mean different things.

Re: Can you believe in certain things without being religious?
 

That poster assumed you were an atheist based on intelligent rational thought.