Choosing your religion (or the lack thereof)

Sorry to add to the early Sunday religious theme, but I was curious. How did you come to the set of beliefs (or set of lack of beliefs if you prefer) that you live by?

Kindly avoid anti-religion blasts in your replies. While I'm sympathetic, those might be more appropriate on your own thread. (Full disclosure: I fall under 3, 5 and 6. You'd be AMAZED how much you can pick up about the Manichaean heresy in the gutter!)

:)

my courses in school have required me to think, and my friends and I have lots of conversations about this.

I was raised Catholic, but my immediate family isn't very "religious" in the sense of going to Church every week, so it's not like I rebelled very much.

but I am going through a serious faith problem. I have been for some time. If there were a Unity Church near me I would give that a shot. Unfortunately there isn't anyone nearby. Who knows, I may be agnostic. I feel like the philosopher Miguel de Unamuno who wanted desperately to believe in the life hereafter but his logical mind would not allow it.

We were raised Episcopalian...and were given the personal choice of religious participation at the age of 12. By that time, I had realized that all the people in my life who practiced organized religion were messed up.

I made the choice that day to do my own thing. I believe in God and I try to conduct myself with total regard to what is humane, just, and moral. My god respects and loves me for that.

we were members of a church but we didn't go as a family except for easter and other big holidays. Other sundays, the kids would go to sunday school and the adults would stay home. The church was a block away.

but as I grew up and began to think about the world around me I began to have doubts about what I was being told by certain elements of organized religion.

My mother always told me that no matter what you think or believe, treat others the way you want them to treat you, learn how to forgive (people aren't perfect), respect the world around you and if there is a heaven I'll see you there.

I guess that today I would be classified as an Agnostic.

Now I could, and now I don't want it. But I'm an honorable, law-abiding, nice and moral person so, is that religious? I think about the possibility of a higher power, but don't know.

Basically I chose a spiritual path on my own. I was not raised in a religious household (spiritual is more like it), and never took kindly to outsiders trying to coerce me. I had always been curious of what is beoynd this material universe. Converted to Catholicism three years ago, and though the Church's stance on several matters irks me (the usual suspects), I've always felt comfort in their work in social justice issues and helping the poor. Yeah, they have a pretty crummy past at times, but when you're the only game in town for 1500 years, it's to be expected. It doesn't hurt that I attend a relatively progressive parish, either.

I remember going to church in the days before my father fell ill. It was the most boring thing in the WORLD to me. I remember splashing around in the holy water one day before mass, and my poor grandmother (who died only months after my father, when I was 6) freaking out.

My mother and I moved to Long Beach, CA when I was 7, and she decided to enroll me in Sunday School so I could get my communion (or whatever that is). I remember reading the little books they gave us to take home that went along with the lessons and thinking that none of it made the first bit of sense. Oh, and when I was picking my nose in the graduation picture, my poor mother about killed me. :P

What sealed it for good was when a friend of mine had a book in his house called "The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology". This was NOT a book about how to become a Satanist or even a Pagan. Instead, it was a detailed list of entries that primarily covered the period of the Inquisitions and Witch Hunts in Europe and America. The statistics and detailed accounts that were given sickened me so much I knew I could never go back to church. There is NOTHING they can do to erase the horror of that period of time and the abuse of power that went on.

Sorry about this long post. I'm just in a very reflective mood tonight. :)

I've been a Mahayana Buddhist for over 15 years. Semi-practicing. I read everything I could get my hands on when I was in my early 20's and it just fit.

:hug: I ordered Mr. Heidi's Christmas gift this week: a 108-bead Tiger Eye prayer mala.

Every _thing_ and every _one_ is connected.

:hug:

"Living Buddha, Living Christ" actually opened my mind back up to certain aspects of Christian theology. I practice both Buddhism and metaphysical Christianity now, and they both really enhance my experience of the other.

ed for spell

enjoy it. I read it in a Utopian Political Thought class during college, then made all my friends read it too. Never converted or thought very seriously about it, but it affected my thought greatly.

And I've read just about everything by him, including that and "The Doors Of perception", too. What a brilliant man.

Not that I have a problem with my folks' atheism; whatever their path, I support them. I just disagree with it; I just had too many strong intuitions from a pretty early age that there was more out there.

Experimented with Christianity as a kid - it was the only game in town where I grew up. But my most powerful religious feelings as a child and a teen always came when I was in the woods, not in church. I've been a happy Pagan since I found out there was a word for it around '87 or so, formally initiated in 1990.

I really don't remember how I arrived at this conclusion. I did study religion for a good while. But, my own experience has been that female is the ultimate Creator, for wthout her there would not be birth. We do have the option of abortion. Thus far.

As above, so below.<<---yeah, you know who you are:toast:

Though many people say I don't look Druish...:rofl:

I was raised Southern Baptist, but gave it up when it became clear they hated me. Started looking around and trying stuff out. Did the Buddhist thing for a while, the Taoist thing, a few others. Even tried The Church of Satan. But none of it worked for me.

But Wicca (and a lot of other neopagan religions) did work. It was congruent with the way I experienced the world and the way I experienced divinity and it gave me a way to express it.

One of the things I love about Wicca is that it's not an organized religion, but a disorganized religion. We often disagree with each other about religion or the nature of the Goddess, but we're respectful of our different visions. If I get on Horned God jag or write love poems to Aphrodite or anything else, the members of my coven are cool with it. (Not so cool with my Crowley/Thelemic magick/Golden Dawn thing, but that's another story.)

On the other hand, those proselytizing Mormon boys sure are hot. Maybe I should convert :)

Khash.

I know organized religion's definitely not for me, I was raised Catholic and was heartily sick of heirarchy and authority before my first communion. Tried pretestant churches ranging from Luthrans (just like Catholics only blonde) to holly roller types (scary :scared: ) decided to look elsewhere.

So I tried a few other things but I've decided that I don't really believe in deities in any literal sense. I'm still working out where that realization is going to lead me.

Lutherans don't have monastic orders and have only two sacraments. The pastors may marry (usually do) and Lutherans can sing most heartily. A few of the differences separating Lutherans from Catholics. HOWEVER Lutherans have bishops, an ecclesiastical hierarchy, acknowledge a Real Presence in the Eucharist, use much the same order of worship, have parochial schools (Missouri Synod) and still have high altars and altar rails, sanctuary lights and so on. I spent a year at a Lutheran seminary and pondered much on this. At present I am tending towards Zen Buddhism.

Now I am UU

Originally I hated going to church because it was so damn boring. 2 to 3 hours every sunday. Not enjoyable at all. I also went to a religious school up until grade 8. Every Sunday I would try to convince my parents to let me stay home. As I got older though I started to realize that it all seemed really ridiculous to me. At 13 I was finally given the choice of going or not and the only time I've been back to my church since has been for a funeral. Now I am agnostic and extremely skeptical of religion altogether.

wierdly. My dad was a member at our local shul, but only attended twice in my memory. He is and was an avowed atheist. I recieved a little Jewish/Hebrew training when my grandmother lived with us, and significant cultural exposure. My mother was totally disenchanted with organized religion as a recovering catholic -- although she has expressed a belief.

In my late 20's, I started to seek, and found out that the Jewish religion was everything I was looking for. So I have since converted under Conservative Judaism. I practice reformative and am a member at the same shul my dad and grandmother were so many years ago.

...Never bought into their right wing bullshit though.

I always felt more "spiritual" up in the mountains or on the beach (or some other natural surroundings)than I ever did in a church anyway.

I was raised by regular Christians, but was sent to one of those Christian Identity "Christian" schools. I'm not blasting Christians, just pointing out my history with the ones at that school and the ones who think like they do. The ones at that "Christian" school were beyond your normal right wing mysogenistic, racist, gay bashing hatemongers. There was a black kid whose parents wanted to enroll in the school. The preacher/principal called a special PTA. Racial slurs were used. My family heard that. I was taken out of that school finally, thankfully. I want to say it was the answer to a prayer that God protect me from his followers, but I hadn't put too much together by then. I was just rebelling in ways that caused me to get beat every day at that school. Oddly, once I went to public school (midway through the year in 6th grade), I never got in trouble again except a misunderstanding in 12th grade. Let's just say that I am glad I have met some liberal Christians since then, because after the whole experience of being told racism and sexism and child molesting was wrong at home and then going to school and seeing and hearing and experiencing it firsthand, I rebelled like nothing you could possibly imagine. I am happy to know that not all Christians are assholes now. The Christian Identity bunch can kiss mine now though. They are actually classified as hate groups. Anyone remember Eric Rudolph? Army of God? Yeah, that bunch. Oddly enough, I never got along with them. Gee, wonder why?

Now, I'm working on actually re-reading the Bible (New Testament only this time) and trying to re-interpret what the meaning behind it really is as opposed to what I was told at school as a kid. Also, I am finding some comfort in knowing that my beliefs are so all over the place now BECAUSE I rebelled against the Christian Identity bunch, aka the right wing "Christians" who advocate violence.

Officially, my religion is nothing with a little sprinkle of agreeing with only the most tolerant of belief systems. In other words, I'm still trying to learn how to make peace with my past in some way and come out of it not being as intolerant as the ones who tortured me as a child.

Long time agnostic. Or rather, Apathetic Agnostic. I don't know, and I don't care. But, I do think this world will be a better place, if and when humanity ever outgrows its primitive god worshipping thing.

my parents raised us to be secular, and figured we would choose our religion on our own. I chose to remain secular. I guess I fall somewhere between athiest and agnostic as I don't really consider myself either one exactly.

It actually helped me - having my own views through my own eyes instead of a doctrine that I did not completely understand helped me get back on my feet again .

A: None of them. He would, by definition, be everywhere. Which, when I, as a renegade Catholic, feel a tinge of what may be "spirituality" or not, prefer to believe.

possibly lead to salvation/ happiness/ whatever. No god I could believe in would condemn you to everlasting fire for not joining the right denomination.

I'm still not sure what I really believe about an afterlife. I have my own personal ideas about how I would like to exist after death, but my mental jury's still out on "hell", "eternal damnation", or whatever one wants to call that stuff, Christian or not. Part of me thinks the notion's just plain silly and nothing more than a product of people wanting to punish their enemies down through history. Part of me would love to see all the people in the BFEE, for example suffer the worst that their own religions have cooked up for punishment in an afterlife.

I was raised as Catholic. I was forced to go to Sunday school, as well as get dressed up for church and all that stuff. Around age 12 was when I decided it wasn't for me. One day, I didn't want to go to Sunday school, and decided that morning to go to the high mass instead of the one in the basement where we would be marched into the school afterwards. The main room was always beautiful, and the basement masses were so.....utilitarian. When I got home that night, I had the shit kicked out of me by my mother. That alone was pretty much the main factor, I think. When we had to go through confirmation, I wanted the name "Lee" added to my name, but the nuns wouldn't allow it because it "wasn't a saint's name." That just added to my frustration.

Over the course of years, I got into more metaphysical interests. I had always been curious about the Ouija board (and no, I don't see it as evil), numerology, other religions and such. I saw some beliefs in other religions as being more open-minded than in the Catholic church. I remember also reading something (though I don't remember where) when I was about 14 or 15, that said highly intelligent people were more agnostic than believers. Now that sounds a bit biased, but at that age, it made an impression on me. I decided to follow that advice.

Somewhere along the way, I saw "The Verdict" with Paul Newman, and saw the hypocrisy of the Catholic church, and that just made me more turned off by the church.

So here I am today, a heretic!

They sent us kids to the Baptist church on Sundays while THEY stayed at home enjoying the day.

I never took to religion (for reasons I won't go into), but if it makes other people happy that's fine with me. As long as they leave me alone!

"Rebelled" suggests to me that someone is taking some action (or inaction) for no other reason that to be simply defiant and contrary.

"Drifted Away" suggests to me a lack of interest, or boredom with it all, or being distracted by televised Sunday wrestling matches.

I just came to my senses and quit trying to pretend that there was any truth to the myths. It was a conscious decision on my part, but not because I was "rebelling" against any authority... it's just that I rejected the myth and instead choose logic, fact, and science.

I know it's impossible to come up with EVERY perfectly worded answer... that's just my small suggestion.

Great post :thumbsup:

before posting. "Came to my senses" is exactly the phrase I was looking for.

but my family is Catholic and like all good Catholic families we would go to church twice a year and use a heaping helping of Catholic guilt to get our points across.

To say I've become more or less religious over the years, I don't know. I'll still go to church every now and then and I do consider myself culturally Catholic. But I've shied away from the rituals of organized religion and have become a more spiritual person. It's quite complicated actually

on edit: Lately I've become really interested in the Catholic left people like Dorothy Day and I just bought a book on the Berrigan brothers that I can't wait to read. I guess it's people like that who keep me part of the church. Otherwise I would have left a long time ago

drifted over to the Episcopal Church after deciding it was more suitable for me liturgically, culturally, and attitudinally.

Now, after much self-educating, I would consider myself Buddhist/existentialist.

religion because my parents didn't believe in organized religion. I was taught to be ethical. I am a Humanist Buddhist. As a Humanist I believe in ethics, compassion, science, and nature. Buddhism strengthens my belief in compassion and pacifism.

So I had to go through these Catholic classes and was baptized at 12. Never did do confirmation though, rebelled way before that could happen. Before that, my none of my family was into any church. I used to go with the neighbors to some sort of Pentecostal (holler roller) church once in a while when I was oh, 8 or 9. Talk about scary shit. So now, I'm a solid agnostic borderline atheist with spiritual leanings. I make up my own religions really. I like the concepts found in Zen, and the Tao. I love Kali the hindu "death" goddess, she is one of the most misunderstood deities, and it's more about truth than death. I sometimes do certain Native american ceremony stuff--sweat lodge, prayer circle, (I don't do the Native American church, which is essentially a Christian church.) So I have complete freedom, I'm tied down by no dogma expect my own.

I still miss the hymns, but I don't miss the judgment or the intellectual dishonesty. I guess that's a fair trade.

I could have maybe made a go of being Unitarian if it hadn't been for the awful, utterly unsingable hymns. We should start the Church of Coming in on Sunday and Singing a Bunch of Good Hymns, No Judgment or Dogma Allowed. Probably be a big hit.

CofCSSBGHNJDA is utterly unpronounceable and looks suspiciously Hindu to me.

Who have no hymns at all.

and anyway, I have very favorable feelings towards the Friends (except Nixon, but he hardly counts.) No meetings around here that I know of, though. (Looked it up. Whuddayaknow; there is one. Pretty neat!)

but that's the one I choose - close enough. :)

It was a pretty deliberate drift - hmmm maybe that isn't quiet right either. I never fully believed while I grew up but there were at least two times in my life I tried to make catholism fit into my life - didn't work. And I didn't just drop religion without much thought about what that would mean for me and my family (how I would raise my son specifically) - so that doesn't seem to fit the connotation of just "drifting" away.

But it never really made sense to me. I questioned it all early and often. I attended church with several friends who were Baptist, Catholic, Born-again, and discussed religion with a Jewish friend as well. This was all in grade school and middle school.

I've always been interested in theology but I've always viewed religion as more of a social phenomenon than any real concrete fact. It's always seemed to me something that people use to explain the mysteries of our existence - where we come from, where we go when we die, why we of all creatures are able to reason so abstractly. That is not a bad thing in any way, IMO, but I don't see it as Truth.

I've read a lot about many, many patterns of belief. I find them all fascinating and see a lot about many of them that I find appealing. However, I don't believe in god as some sort of being who takes a personal interest in our welfare. If there is a god (and I'm not at all sure there is), I see it more as a disinterested power, more of a Nature type of power than a being with concrete designs. But I don't know - none of us do. That's why they call it "faith."