I do not regard myself as religious but I really enjoyed the way you wrote that. A lovely sentiment which I echo in less Christian tones in my own life.
Iām not religious either - Iām just a Christian!
Thoroughly love your choice from Peter Sarstedt!!
Genuinely curious, could you explain this statement please?
Hi Grunt! You can be religious, but not a Christian. In fact, you can be a member of a darts team and attend āreligiouslyā, i.e. regularly. So being āreligiousā can have nothing to do with (a) Religion. You can go to church religiously, but not have made a commitment. Being a Christian is taking a step further and accepting the promise of redemption in Christ by faith and then following wherever that leads. Some Christians will enter a (Christian!!) church full-time whereas others wonāt.
I perhaps was a little brusque in my reply, I try and (a lot of times) fail to be the best I can beā¦and I hope I havenāt caused offence to anyone. But unfortunately it wonāt be the first time I would have upset someone, I remain a clumsy person as I always have been, although one of the things I try to do is improve myself as a person by looking at how Jesus behaved and trying to copy his example.
Sorry for the inevitably long (Iāve always produced a sentence when a word would have done) explanationā¦
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Sorry for my ignorance but does that mean that you are a christian but donāt practise religiously (regularly)? Because in my understanding if you follow a religion you are religious (not in the āto do something regularlyā sense). Genuinely just trying to understand.
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In secular (non-Church going) society, doing something religiously is another way of saying regularly. In church circles, referring to someone as being religious can be a way of recognising their good practices, but also recognises that they may not have come to the point of accepting Jesus as their Saviour. Religious people can be zealots, keen on emphasising one part of the āRulesā and may not have the most rounded view of the Faith. Some may say they lack compassion and forgiveness, concentrating on others rather than themselves, but not necessarily so, itās not a complete listā¦ and never could be.
Christians would probably agree with "God is Love" and that we should try to be Love as much as we are able to.
Labels, like grammar, should be ignored as much as Aran and Iestyn advocate! I usually donāt mention I am a Christian, I want people who know me to ask me about my Faith after noticing the way I do things and the things I say.
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Ok, Iām getting there, bear with me. Iām still trying to understand your original statement āIām not religious ā¦ Iām a christianā (ed). Are you saying that once you ācome to the point of accepting Jesus as your saviourā you are no longer classed as religious?
@aran, thanks for splitting this topic.
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It struck me more that Gary was trying to make a point that he wasnāt āin your faceā religious - that ābeing religiousā could be seen as something more overt than just being a plain old Christian. Is that anywhere near the mark, Gary? 
To be honest I didnāt see it like that. Iām hoping to understand more about religion as I believe any real atheist should. Iāve always believed that anyone that follows a religion can be classed as religious but Gary (sorry, I didnāt know your name before) is saying that thereās more to it than that. Just eager to learn.
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Is this more about living by the spirit of the philosohy, i.e. Enacting what you believe in rather than just going through the rituals? My mateās a vicar and he sets more store in living it rather than giving an appearance of believing. Sorry if Iām adding to the confusion, Iāll get back to shed repairs ā¦
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Oh, are you an atheist? Because it always seemed very unscientific to me. Agnostic, OK! But an atheist is saying I do not believe in God and since you can never prove non-existence, that is a leap of faith! Well, so it seems to me!
Can you explain your view? I came to feel the evidence for was better than zero, so am a non-practising Methodist.(nearest church is about 60 miles away -
Churches available locally didnāt really fit.)
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Thanks for all the input. Gareth, thereās no official line to cross which is kind of how how I read your thoughts (in writing!), so I hope I read that right. A Christian would like to quietly get on with life and deal with life as it comes, much like Andy suggested his Vicar-mate advocates. Itās more a slight bit of snobbery almost, in an inverted way, 'cos thatās not the best attitude either. A religious person is a fairly general term and is not easily defined. But Iām not going to dodge trying. In general, a Christian would prefer not to be known as religious, but never forget I am one person and am expressing my own ideas. There is a shift in the direction of your thinking that occurs after a āconversionā (commitment) experience, although that is not something that happens to everyone. I was in the Navy at the time of my decision and I felt the right thing was to alter my language and stop swearing. That passed unnoticed!! for three secondsā¦ You become more aware of a pressure in a direction that you dimly, dimly sense. No criticism, just a supportive guiding push. Gentle, relentlessly gentle.
My impression is that being religious is more of an outward direction, almost as if (not in every persons case) someone is saying āIām behaving this (good) way so you should as wellā. That actually seems a good thing, being a good example for others. The thing is, everyoneās life is their own to live. There is no generalisation that is terribly detailed because of that. Iām ducking out again, but itās a valid point, there are no absolutes here.
What I will stand on is that weāve already needed to clarify that āreligiouslyā does not necessarily mean regularly and that it depends on context and can be confused. And that Iād rather be known as a Christian than religious. Christians follow Christ, religious people do religious things according to the traditions of that Religion.
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Gareth, you may like to look locally for a church that organises the āAlpha Courseā and attend. You will be able to ask any question, nothing is off-limits and you will not be disrespected. Inevitably you will be presented with Christian views but you will benefit.
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By that argument you should also be agnostic about Zeus, Odin, Abnoth, Dagr, Karora and the Flying Spaghetti Monster every bit as much as you would be about the Christian/Jewish/Muslim God.
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I am not sure. To be honest, unless they have changed, alpha seemed too sure of everything in my day! I started going to Methodist Church with my Auntie. I said, āI canāt believe in virgin birth!ā She assured me that I didnāt need to. She didnāt and was a preacher! Methodists are very open minded - well.most are! Alpha tend to be a bit Pentecostal!
To @dave_5 Zeus et al were planets or crazy modern inventions etcā¦ I am not saying I expect anyone to agree with me, just giving my view!
I am a Christian, and was baptised as an adult, but I donāt attend a Church regularly because I find organised Religion, or being āreligiousā difficult. I guess I donāt like to be religiousā¦ As soon as man puts rules in the way about how you should behave I lose interest.
My faith is between me and my makerā¦ It would probably be beneficial for me to attend a congregation and be more āreligiousā but unfortunately every time I get involved I get mad about something. So, better to stay away and keep my faith between me and God.
Hope this helps!
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Can you prove they donāt exist?
I am not sure that anyone can prove or disprove whether any deity exists, and I guess that itās why it is called faith?
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Yes. I think Dave is just being a bit playful with Jackie because she said that atheism didnāt make sense, because you canāt prove non-existence, so atheists ought to be agnostics if they were strictly scientific.
Iām a bit horrified to discover that thereās any doubt about the Flying Spaghetti Monster, though. Sheās been an important part of my parenting skills.
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I was in no way intending this discussion to become about who believes what and why but merely for clarification on a definition which I think Iām now closer to understanding (thank you @Garys, Iām Geraint by the way 
). In order to explain why I see myself as an atheist I would end up picking holes in other peoples belief, something I am not willing to do on here. As Iāve mentioned previously I am very respectful of other peopleās beliefs. I do, however, believe that you donāt have to follow any religion to be a good human being ā¦ having āchristian valuesā if you will.
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