#religiousness

[thatpollguy]

Non-religious people - when asked about your beliefs, do you usually say "I'm atheist" or "I'm not religious"?

"I'm atheist"

"I'm not religious"

I say both of these, it's pretty much 50/50

I say something else entirely (feel free to comment)

I don't think I've ever been asked the question before

I follow a religion, so this poll does not apply to me

Voting ended onMar 13

[kellymagovern]

"I am against all religions because I am for religiousness, and religions are barriers to creating a humanity with a quality of religiousness. A Christian is not needed, nor a Hindu, nor a Mohammedan. These are the barriers to religious progress. What is needed is truthfulness, sincerity, silence, lovingness…a life of joy, playfulness…a life of deep search, inquiry into one's consciousness. And these qualities have nothing to do with Christianity or Judaism or Jainism or Buddhism." —Osho [x]

[s-kierkegaard]

‘Poetry is illusion before understanding, religiousness illusion after understanding. Between poetry and religiousness, worldly wisdom about life performs its vaudeville. Every individual who does not live either poetically or religiously is obtuse.’

Johannes Climacus, CUP:457

[midnightflaneuserie]

I was reading Middlemarch earlier this evening and came across the word "religiousness", which struck me as odd because I would've expected "religiosity" and presumed that adding "-ness" to the end of an adjective to make a noun would've become more popular in more recent times in the same way that the past tense is getting gradually standardised to "-ed".

However, I checked Google ngram,

and fascinatingly discovered this. Middlemarch was published in 1871 (same year Alice bands were invented. Fun fact that I know for some reason) so it makes sense that she used "religiousness".

I haven't done any research (😔) and am purely hypothesising here, but I'm presuming that prior to the 19th century, atheists (or nullifidians I suppose) were so few and far between in the English-speaking world that a term for how religious one was wasn't necessary, so piety and zeal fulfilled its roles.

As for why religiousness came before religiosity? Maybe "-ness" as a default dates back that far, but after it took off, some people began to 'correct' it to a word that fit better, and when that word became popular, it quickly replaced the clunkier version.

No idea though; I'll go and do some research and report back with any interesting findings

[oshoquotes]

[al-masturah]

Shaykh al-Fawzan:

“If a man is married with a righteous wife, he will live a harmonious life even if he is poor.”

[Al-Ittihaf | Page. 858]

[starseedsrise]