Ask the Patriarch 50
What Religion am I?
from Kacy
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I'm having trouble deciding what religion I should take part of. Or any at all. I believe God is only a spiritual idea,not an actual being and Jesus was only a human,nothing more. I do not believe there is a spirit world. I believe nature is entirely a product of natural forces and following life there is nothing .I took a quiz at this certain site and it labeled me as a "spiritual dabbler". So,what am I?
the Patriarch replies:
Thank you for writing, but you have asked an unanswerable question. It's not the first time this question has been posed, and the last one to ask, to whom sent a very similar reply to what follows, replied with a "Gotcha! I am a...." (what he claimed to be is irrelevant and in my view nothing resembling what he described.) but, once again, I will try to answer.
Within reason, people can call themselves pretty well whatever they want to.
The religious views you have expressed could be claimed by people who consider themselves variously atheists, agnostics, Buddhists, Unitarians, or Daoists along with a variety of new-age religions. Even some people who call themselves Christians do not consider Jesus to have been divine, but to have been a teacher worth following.
And whichever label you choose for your set of beliefs, there will be some who use the same label who will regard themselves as following a "purer" version, and will say you are not one of them.
Is it really important that you have a label for your current set of beliefs? If you are still sorting things out, just call yourself a "seeker." And if you have decided that religion is not really important or relevant to your life, call yourself an "apatheist."
But what it comes down to is what you are comfortable with, not what someone else tells you. And you are welcome to consider yourself an agnostic if you wish.
Best wishes