Dare I ask... religious beliefs?

There was a thread over on That Board that I found kind of interesting (until some more, ah, volatile types started spamming everyone with stuff like, "GIRATINA IS GOING TO BURN YOU FOR AN ETERNITY!" or something like that) - what are the religious beliefs of people here? Arceist, Mewist? Dittoist? Something else entirely? (There was one person there who believed in Smeargle as a creator, that was kind of interesting!)

I'll C&P what I wrote:

Atheist. I'm a strong supporter of the scientific method and of evolution through natural selection (Pokemon evolution is something else entirely, which I believe is akin more to metamorphosis than actual evolution) and don't believe in any creator.

All the stories about Arceus, Mew, and so on, I believe are myths and legends attributed to extremely uncommon Pokemon (the Legendaries - clue is in the name!). Early people had never seen Arceus before, and it's magnificant-looking, so people attributed the creation of the world to it. Over time, they wrote stories and myths about these Legendaries, and these stories and myths became religion - a way for people to understand the world in the absense of scientific knowledge.

So yes - when I'm saying I'm an atheist, that doesn't mean I'm discounting the existance of Arceus and so on. I'm just saying that perhaps things were attributed to it that they couldn't explain at the time, but we can explain now (such as how the solar system formed, condensing and accreting from a spinning mass of gas and dust, forming the sun and the planets).

Also, unlike certain individuals above me, this doesn't mean I disrespect Pokemon. Far from it! While I don't attribute the creation of the world or other lifeforms from it, I can find peacefulness and a respect for nature in a Meganium, appreciate the quickness and tenacity of a Rattata (they're pains, but even still, there's something admirable to see in them!), admire the majesty and beauty of Ho-Oh.

Pokemon all have worth and something to admire about them - my not worshipping them as gods has nothing to do with disliking them.

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So, what about you guys?

It's an interesting concept really. Pokemon have been around since the beginning of human history and I could see early people easily making assumptions about some of the more powerful ones. I'd consider myself an atheist quite easily. But I have to admit maybe there is some credence to the idea. Lugia lays at the bottom of the whirl Islands. We know he's there. That's not really up for much debate seeing as he's been seen before. The legendary Pokemon are great forces in the world, and I think to a extent they shape it and protect it. So I'm coming from a standpoint of some reverence here. But I don't think it's exactly worth outright worship. Just, more respect then they get I think.

Yeah... oh, I'm not doubting that the Legendaries can do some pretty amazing things. They're pretty powerful, after all! I'm just saying that I doubt any of them literally created the world or those that live in it. Science can do that pretty well on its own!

If you have no knowledge of, say, planetary accretion, because the society you live in has yet to invent telescopes with really high resolution, and you want to know how the world formed? Well, Pokemon can be pretty powerful. It's perfectly understandable to turn to some of the most powerful and rare of them all and say that they must have made the world. People like their traditions.

I was actually raised non-denominational Christian, but my parents placed all the importance on faith and love and basically disregarded the whole heaven and hell thing.

I'd learn bout the Pokétheistic religions from storybooks and almanacs my parents gave me and they basically just explained that the Pokémon some people worshiped as gods, whether they were actually confirmed to exist or not, were just embodiments of the different aspects of the God our family believed in.

My parents took me to church for a few years when from when I was six or seven to when I was nine or ten. I remember the Sunday school teacher saying that Dark, Dragon, and Ghost type Pokémon were from the devil, and sometimes the other kids would say I was going to go to hell because we had a Houndoom as a pet then, but I just ignored them, and eventually my parents stopped going to that church because they got sick of it too actually.

As for myself, I can't say I believe in what one could consider a "god" or a specific creator being, but I believe there's meaning and purpose to the universe and the world beyond what can be tangibly proven and the existence of the world and the way all the people and creatures in it depend on each other reminds me of that.

I'm a follower of the Arceus theory. I'm not a stickler for religion, but I've seen a fair amount of evidence to support Arceus' creation theory, at least as far as Pokemon are concerned. The tablets they've found are rumored to be blueprints of the makeup of the energy types we know Pokemon to have, and they've proven to actually enhance the powers of the Pokemon that hold them.

While Arceus may not have created humans, I do think He was key to the introduction of Pokemon to the prehistoric world, and I still follow many of His teachings, most notably to treat Pokemon as your equals in all ways.

...Not sure if I would follow the rote about deboning the dead and washing the bones downstream, though. I may stick to a traditional grave for my companions.