Do you feel fairly and accurately represented by the most prominent media spokespersons of your chosen spiritual or religious path?

Since when does the media present anything accurately? What planet are you living on?

I am a Quaker. What media spokespeople even know who we are?

Wow...I thought I was the only Quaker on SodaHead! Glad to find I was wrong.

People do seem to lack general knowledge about the Friends. I can't even recount how many times people on the net have asked me, "aren't you guys forbidden from using technology?" or "do you wear those black hats all the time, even in public?"

I am a member of a silent meeting. It is pretty cool to be a Quaker. Apparently I can marry people. Of course the meeting would be upset if I don't follow procedures but I am listed with the state as being able to do it and in the past someone married a couple even though it wasn't through the meeting. It is the best religion as one is not tied to ritual and dogma.

I got no spokespersons.

The spokespersons that claim they represent me are certainly not representing me.

Penn Jillette is my very favorite prominent atheist. Always comes off as extremely humble, likeable, open-minded, and not a jerk at all. I wish TV Christians were the same way.

then they wouldn't make any money. lol

If the spokesman were NOT controversial, there would not be an audience. No controversy is BORING! It's why Limbaugh does so well. He knows HOW to spin people up! If my beliefs were represented...it's a virtual certainty that the person would receive credible death threats. My beliefs are in the minority.

Anyone who is sincerely seeking the truth fairly and accurately represents me...

...even this guy.

We all agree Jesus is Lord and all that – only a fool would believe otherwise – but since you mentioned Hitchens below, do yourself a service, suspend judgment for a brief second, and listen to this clip: Only a child of God, however weary, jaded and disenfranchised he might have become in his view of this at times scary, painful and inhumane world, could feel as he feels at the end.
<sub>This clip, unfortunately, simultaneously proves Dawkins is the AntiChrist.

(But we already knew that.)</sub>

Jesus was no more a 'god' then you are.Only an indoctrinated,uneducated,fearful individual (for all the wrong reasons)would robotically believe in any religion without questioning all the apparent stupid things religions say are true.Many can be prove false.'Anti-christ' is another religious myth.I find it amazing that religious individuals are afraid to use their right to question all the obviously stupid things they are told by their religious leaders.Why?

What is your evidence that I 'robotically believe' in religion, my friend? Or that I have failed to question any of the 'apparent stupid things religions say are true'?

On the contrary, as for my right to question, I agree with Galileo, who opined:

“I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.”

Notwithstanding, you say 'myth' as if it's a *bad* thing. I wonder why anyone would equate myth with falsity. Perhaps it is *you* who misunderstand?

_{(No disrespect meant, I'm just putting forward the possibility.)}

In my experience,I've found religious people seem to be afraid to question their beliefs,that it is a 'sin' to do so.If science or archeology proves their beliefs wrong, they will still believe in those beliefs.Myths are interesting to read but one doesn't believe in them as fact.Where are the facts of your beliefs? THAT'S the point! There is none but people will STILL 'believe without question' because they are TOLD TO.Instead of saying that a 'god created' the universe,wouldn't it be more factual to say 'WE DON'T KNOW' instead of pushing a myth?

I have no belief in any of that spiritual/religious hooey, and find that that path is the most often not only ignored, but ridiculed by people who think they know better.

Honestly, my beliefs aren't represented by anyone bar myself.
In religious debates I tend to side with the Atheist but there is plenty I disagree with them on which I may agree with the Theist on or disagree with everyone on.

I simply believe that there is no way to know whether there is or isn't a higher power, I choose to live my life based on my own moral compass and dislike anyone trying to tell me that I have to behave a certain way because they believe in a god and have been told that said god wants us to behave this way.

OMG are you serious !

Religious or spiritual please get a faith and stick with it ... Your asking the difference ?



May I ask are you conflicted ? if so ask yourself who do you think is ??????

I'm not conflicted at all. I'm a Christian, but I didn't write this question only for Christians, but for everyone

I don't need a spokesperson for my religious beliefs.

Well put my friend...

Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens did an excellent job of speaking for Atheists. I do not share the same admiration for Sam Harris.

I'm a Christian, but when the likes of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Rick Santorum, or Fred Phelps bear that label so publicly in the media spotlight, it makes me cringe and want to duck into a corner. My atheist friends feel similarly embarrassed by seemingly more rational but just as blustery and smugly self-satisfied figures as Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and the insufferable YouTube celeb, "The Amazing Atheist."

So, food for thought; if we know that media thrives on stirring up controversy, and can easily do so by promoting dumbed-down "discussions" about religion that bear more resemblance to "rock 'em sock 'em robot" than the Socratic Dialogues, then how can we trust them to bring us fair, accurate, and reasonable representatives from ANY viewpoint - spiritual, religious, political, or cultural?

And, even more troubling, how do we know that what they're telling us about Muslims is true, when most of us in the U.S. have probably never met one, and are only going by the narrow samples of angry fundamentalist radicals presented by ratings-crazy media networks with an axe to grind, not to mention a foreign policy agenda to push?