i am right up front about my religious /spiritual leanings.. and it seems there are SOOOOOO many males who seem put off by it=

hey. well maybe its because some girls use their so called religiousity like a defence mechanism, that males have to agree with,in order to be acceptable to them.us males substitute the word metaphysics for anything of a spiritual/religious bent. we don't get emotionally attached to such notions. technically one is not allowed to attach to spiritual concepts,, or in psych terms you are deluded with cognitive dissonance.
just thoughts from an ignor'nt aussie

its just that SOOOOO many identify with being Christian they cannot accept anything else.. peop[le areALLOWED to ebliev whatever they wish.. but i basically have no respect for religion per se.. and i surely dont want to be witnessed to..

organized religion is just a scam, nothing more... i'm so surprised that more people can't see this, but i guess it's ok for the preacher to have a better car and house than the people giving them their money... and the hookers ain't cheap either

I have trouble with people who have any serious belief in any religion that makes up things that are not real. Now who am I to say what is and isn't real. I am just someone who has learned from a standard public education in history and biology. I have learned from these things that all religions are the products of people, at one time religions of all kinds did not exist. Hence when you you believe in any kind of religion you are believing in the thoughts of some ancestral human, not any divine being. But if I can't say what is and isn't real, why should the ancestral beings have the right to say what is either?

oi sounded originally as you had specific 'b'liefs' now I read yr profile, i'd say yr a lapsed atheist. know that all belief is illogical, but need a rationale, bhuddism falls down, because tenets dictate incarnations occur sequentially. whereas all notions of time collapse outside of our three dimensional continuum,( so I plan to incarnate, prob 2.5 billion years ago, on a now extinct planet. joking only)mind you if I was a fully realised Tibetan style rimpoche, it would be possible. leastwise I allways liked the dancing wu-li masters, david zukov.

meant to say. I agree unbelievably amerikons can be still so hung up on da jewish messiah notion, they don't even realise they are being tratiors to their own ethnic, ancestral origins, often Germanic or celtic, with more than valid belief systems. infinitely more plausible than that semetic fairytale

I`m an openish (open minded). It basically mean that I`m open to everything i.e. don`t draw conclusions. I made it up myself.

a very dangerous position to hold

As i was growing up i found it troubling that had i been born next door i would have been brought up a diffeerent faith which made the whole idea of religion arbitrary and that was before i was 13.

Personal responsibility means accepting the fact that your opinion is not held by others and that is your issue when others disagree as its their right as its yours to ignore religion.. Both could use a dose of tolerance and a little open mindedness past ones own beliefs

Well said

But being religious in broad sense of being compassionate and accounting for the beyond rational life could be good it can lead to greater harmony within -though I remain agnostic

odd,, who would be put off by knowing someone has 'no respect' for their value system,,,,

lol

we are compatible with who we are compatible with, common values matter as does respect,,,

Think the problem is that most people don't really know what it means to be spiritual. There's so many different connotations to that word, that I myself have come to dislike it. I suspect most think you're just some weirdo who sits on a cushion on the floor meditation whilst inhaling incense and listening to weird music or something like that.
That's NOT what it means. Maybe some do or think that's it, but it ain't.

To me being spiritual and intuitive is another word for "personal growth & development". You can not progress spiritually if you don't grow and develop as a person.
It comes with specific understanding, insight and so on. If you've 'advanced' you kind of become a different person. You're still the same, but you deal with many things in a totally different way.
Please don't take 'advantaged' literally, I just used it for clarity, nothing else as there is no better or worse.

The thing is, if you have changed that much in the way you think, behave, feel and deal with things of life, you simply don't match with someone who hasn't gone through a similar process anymore. You're simply on different tracks.

Myself I'm a believer but if your not and its truly in your heart then people should accept you for who you are.

I totally agree

there are different relationships , friendships, family , spouses

all start with respect though,, if there is a blatant confessing of a disrespect for ones beliefs from the jumpstart t hough, I doubt any of those types of relationships can form

and, people can 'befriend' others that they may hot be able to share a life with,,, and so choose not to 'date'

Surprised you keep latching on to this respect thing and not read the rest of what's being said.
Now I didn't say anything about disrespect. And I think you misinterpret Randomideas' statement on that. I also don't respect religion much, but religion is not a person, religion is a thing. Religion is and always has been the cause of most wars. Religion is and has been used as a tool to manipulate ppl and to obtain power.
I believe the original scriptures of what is now called the bible, are very very pure and the absolute truth.
However, this truth has been ripped out of context, many of these truths, original scrolls, are carefully being hidden and guarded in the Vatican. If ppl were to find out what was in those scrolls, churches would very likely cease to exist. The powerful and very rich ppl that use religion to remain powerful, wouldn't want that to happen.
So yes, in that sense I do not respect religion much, nor the people that wield it for their own benefit.

I can, however, respect religious ppl, even though their believes aren't congruent with mine.
They are people with free choice and will and they choose to believe in a specific religion. No reason why I can't or shouldn't respect them.

But I don't think I could live with someone like that, simply because our views would be way too different and it would cause friction.

respect is whats most important to me,, so I latch on to it

and IM sorry, when someone states that they have 'no respect for religion', to a person who is raised with religion,, that pretty much says they have no respect for their belief system,, which would hinder being able to 'date' or share a life

it shouldn't hinder friendship, as that is a fleeting thing with much less of a constant interaction or interdependence

Agnostic Should Not Scare Off Anyone It's Like Saying Gods In All The Religions Who Am I To say. People Assume Morality And Religion Go Together But I Have Not Seen That. My Friends That Were Not Brought Up With Faith Are More Scared Of Death For Me It's A Family Reunion. :(