A question for religious people who frequent this section?

• This is a question for religious people who frequent this section. It is not a question for those who have popped in once or twice to ask a question. But for those of you who like to come here and hang around answering questions, and such- what is your reason for coming here? Now just so that people dont get offended and think i am implying that i dont like religious people to come here, let me say that i am religious myself, and have been coming here and spending a lot of time here over the last few days. I am jsut wondeing why religious people come here. Are you trying to convert people to your faith? Are you hoping to get the Atheists to believe in G-d? Are you trying to learn about other people's religion? Do you find the conversations here fun- do you come for entertainment? This is like a survey question. Please tell me what it is that makes you hang around here?

• Answer:

  I first came to Yahoo Answers to explore other areas besides Religion and Spirituality. I was first asked by a Yahoo360 contact to come over here to answer a few questions on rabbit and other animal care. I am a former veterinary technician and a Registered Nurse. While I was here, I began exploring other areas of Y/A and discovered that there was a massive amount of MISinformation being spread about Judaism, some of it quite rabid and blatant antisemitism. While a few of those questions and answers are removed, many are still allowed to stand. So, I started sharing what I know about Judaism and because of much positive support from other Jews across the spectrum of Branches, I have stayed. I have learned as well, about my own religion. I have met Jews from all over the world from every branch of Judaism who tell me they are here for much the same reasons. We learn from one another as well as share with others when we see questions about Judaism. The continuing frustration is that with RARE exception, any time a question appears asking about an aspect of Jewish belief, there are answers that appear to 1) proselytize to Jews rather than answer the question at all 2) insult Jews 3) fabrications that have nothing to do with any aspect of Judaism or someone goes to great effort to misrepresent Judaism by presenting Christian dogma as Jewish belief despite being corrected by Jewish believers. As to your question "are you trying to convert people to your faith?" A definite NO. IMHO if a path is a valid one for you, then you will seek to follow it on your own. 2) are you hoping to get atheists to believe in God? No, I really do not care if they believe God exists or not. I also understand that for many people, they appear actually incapable of accepting any idea without objective evidence. That is not a bad thing. It means they are often the most rational and logical. Religion is based on subjective experience since we have no objective evidence of any deity to present to them. My subjective experiences that lead me to believe that there is an Omnipotent Creator are not something I could "prove" to another, so why knock myself out attempting the impossible. Subjective experiences can be real or delusion. What I consider real, they could easily attribute to self-delusion. Living ethically, morally, and even having a feeling of spiritual connection to all life is not dependent on any form of theism. 3) Are you trying to learn about other people's religion? Yes! I have been fascinated to learn what people of the world believe, and why..since I was a small child. I also recognize that if I want to learn about other religions, the best source is the Adherents of those religions. 4) Do you find the conversations here fun- do you come for entertainment? Yes and no. Since I have always found the study of theology and religions of the world fascinating, and love philosophic discourse, yes. Since I have received many hateful and sometimes threatening messages telling me I am going to burn in hell or calling me names, those kinds of communications are not fun. I do not find that entertaining. I am not here for debate. I am here to share what I have learned with others and to learn from others. If I wanted to debate, I would be in a forum for such a purpose. I have connected to people of a wide spectrum of religious belief and a number of atheists that I respect for their logic and insight. I have also learned that despite the differences in the practices and customs of the various branches of Judaism, overall, our beliefs and the way we read and interpret what we read in Tanakh is far closer than different..and we are overall, far closer in connection to one another than many of us preveiously realized!