Why did you choose your religion?

[Jeannette]

I have searched and searched for the right religion. I've compared religions, I've tried everything! Born and raised a Catholic I could no longer believe my religion had anything over the others. I found myself "going through the motions". I've come to the conclusion that if I had been born in a nation with a different religion that would have been the religion I was following. I believe there is a God. I ask those of all religions to tell why they are what religion they are? Was it because you were born and raised in that religion? Or because your God found you? Please be as truthful and detailed as possible. I am open for anything. Scientology, Christian, Buddist, Lutheran, Methodist, etc... Why did you choose your religion?

[debbie.j]

where to being this humm .well for me its a very very long story .i,ll try to be short tho as someone

who was raised up in church . there has been a lot of changes from the frist time i went to church till now

then for what ever reason i kinda gave up on it all. now move to high school. i had made the choice to

go back to church . and i got in to going to he pentecostal church . before this time it was never heard of

churches havening break ups and so forth . but anyways i made the choice to go to this church . at the time

i thought it could not hurt . never had before . anyways it was at that time for what ever reason i just got

this feeling of something just  was not right or it was missing. i was not sure which it was. but i did feel

like this is something that i need to look in to and find out why . i had this feeling . so from that point on

i started  not just going to this church . but i also started going to other churches at the same time.so

for about the um next 3 yrs or so i went to church at lest 5 times on sunday and not the same church

every service.  and by this time on the tv side of it the whole jim and tammy fae ptl club. and a few

others had come and gone too. now the only reaosn i bring up the tv churches  is that i watched them

and umm some was ok and some well was not the greatest any ways . by the end of it all of going to

5 or more church services in a week and everything. one day i was just kinda setting around in one of my

blink moods i like to call them . and from out of now where and no one around me for a good 5 miles in any

one way given. something just hit me like a ton of blocks . and that was this  and i have to gotten to

believe this myself personally a lot. but the thought that hit me was this . the bible tells us that god is

everywhere and any where. it just dont matter i mean you can be in a flied cutting hay or at work or

at the store or even on the streets . and god is there. i mean it just dont matter he is there. and to me

thats all that matters the most 

[tekla]

I was raised Catholic, very Catholic, then grad school science pretty much undid all of that.

[tinkerbell]

I grew up in a very strict Roman Catholic household, went to Catholic school from elementary to HS.  I adopted my religion from my parents/family.

tink

[NicholeW.]

I grew up in a strict fundamentalist Christian denomination in the American South. When I was thirteen I read a book about The Goddess and it totally 'chimed' with me. She was who I had 'felt' in my heart. I was always left cold with this 'God-in-Heaven' notion I was being raised with.

So I made her a circular shrine in my backyard under the birch trees. Told my parent it was a fort. They bought that and I would go out and talk with Her. Over the years I read more and after I left home I began to go to covens-meetings. I also deepened my knowledge through other books and with Buddhist and Vedantin thought and practice as well.

Mother is my mother still, although probably something best called 'Nicholism' is my religious persuasion.

N~

[joannatsf]

I didn't grow up with religion.  My father was a nominal Protestant and my mom was an atheist.  I gathered most of my friends were Christians of one kind or another but wasn't all that interested in any of them until late adolescence.  My neighbour was Catholic and persuaded me to attend Saturday evening Mass with him so we could go party afterwards as well as check out the girls.  Often we'd get stoned in the parking lot before the service began and socialise and flirt when it was over.  Being a Catholic looked pretty cool to my 19 year old self!  In the end it didn't take and I only ventured into churches for weddings, funerals and an occasional Christening.  Unlike our parents we Boomers were not big on reproduction until we hit our 30s (tick-tock).

When my child turned about 3 we were socialising with other new parents that went to church and we decided we needed to give her some kind of spiritual and moral education so we decided to find a church.  My ex was raised Episcopalian (Catholic Lite) and we had friends in a local parish so we joined.  We were active in the parish, my wife taught Sunday School and I sang in the choir.  Later I served on the vestry.  It was fun but the divinity of Christ thing never really took hold of me.

Several years after the divorce I went back to an Anglican communion LGBT parish.  By this point my continued health was looking pretty dicey and I felt a real need for spirituality in my life.  I found that I revered the things that Jesus said and some of the Gnostic texts, particularly the Gospels of Sts. Thomas and Mary Magdalen.  The writings of Paul I found preposterous.  I was looking at the Ten Commandments one day at the time of the Alabama Courthouse controversy and in the very first one I read "I am the God that led you from bondage in Egypt.  Thou shalt have no other god before me".  Then it hit me; there were not a lot of of tall fair skinned people with blond and red hair running around in the Middle East at the time.  My blood lines are European not Middle Eastern.  Why should I worry about the ranting of Palestinian shepherds 3000 years ago!

Since Abrahamic religions had caused so much strife and discord from the time of Ramses II to that of George W. Bush, why not find another path?  So I did.  I'm of German and UK heritage so I looked to Pre-Christian religions for my path.  I studied Asatru, Druids and Celtic Wicca.  I found my spirituality through the Goddess who has guided me on my path the past 4 years.  I carry her in my heart and can always look to Her infinite love and knowledge to move my heart and mind.


Blessed be.

[Frank]

  I was born and raised in a heathen household with no real churchgoing or spiritual training whatsoever. My mom tried taking me to church when she could but the only religious insight she gave me was that if I trusted the Lord with all my heart he would never fail me. I might fail him at times but he has never failed me.
  With that in mind I knew I only had one shot at eternal life so I don't want to mess it up. That drive took me through many denominations until I arrived where I am.
  I knew that there would be one Lord and one way just as he said so I decided to say let God be true and every man a liar. I would trust Jesus over all men.
  That journey has brought me against most denominations and gotten me kicked out of many churches. I won't take something as precious as the blood of Christ and eternal life and allow anything to come before it. Jesus must be first and foremost in my life.
  Since then I have pretty much been shunned by every denomination of straight churches as soon as I open my mouth and the Holy Ghost gives me words that go against their heresy.
  I don't go looking for arguments but I have found that if a person stands on the rightly divided word of truth as brought forth by the Spirit the carnal chuches don't Have too much use for them.
  That is what finally led me to a non-denominational church. I can be free to speak what the Spirit gives and don't have to worry about conventions, internationals and such limiting that which brings forth eternal life in the saving grace of Jesus on my poor soul. Neither do I have to listen to sermons that do a song and dance around one scripture like Acts 2:38 or constantly hammer on sin. The Spirit of God convicts me of sin and I can repent of that daily without having someone make a buck reminding me of that which the Spirit brings.
  I enjoy attending a non-denominational church and being able to worship Jesus and not that which a group of high-minded people dream up as being the word of God.
  Frank

[lady amarant]

I was never too convinced by Christianity, and when I started developing a real interest in science and biology around the age of 11 or 12 or so, the entire dogma just fell apart for me. I read the bible back to front and decided that it was just too contradictory to make any real sense.

Thus began my atheist stage. I got kicked out of bible-studies for arguing evolution against the teacher (which I still regard as one of my finest moments) and told my folks that I wasn't going to go to Sunday school anymore. Luckily they are parents like parents should be, and my dad told me that, if I went and spoke to the pastor, and still felt the way I did after, they would support me. They have been that way ever since, for which I am sooooo grateful.

But the atheism thing didn't gel fully either - science just came up with too many anomolies. I gradually became more interested in the paranormal, in part due to the gaps, and also because my mom has always been.. special. She is almost certainly somewhat precognitive, without fail knowing when somebody close to her has died or is in alot of pain. There was definitely more to life than what science could account for, and that's where things got interesting. Besides the paranormal, I started consuming every scrap of religious teaching I could, looking for the underlying universal message, because by that time I'd seen just how much religion is just politics and control. That, and my interest in philosophy and theoretical physics got huge.

I'm still learning. I think the universe is stranger and more infinite than anything we can imagine. Ancient ideas from taoism and vedic philospohy are being echoed in bleeding-edge quantum physics, prophecies from different traditions are strikingly similar and coming to fruition, and science is pointing us to a universe where reality is as malleable as putty. Emergence theory even points at the virtual certainty that the earth, the universe, or any other structure that complex would almost certainly be conscious and regarded as a living entity.

Philosophically I identify as Wiccan, simply because the sacredness of nature, the duality of the Goddess and the Huntsman, the belief in magick and personal responsibility, the respect for the natural order and cycle of things all resonate in me, but as to the actual structure of the universe, or the mind of god - it's more fun finding out than knowing, I think.

[Chaunte]

Admittedly, I grew up in a then semi-practicing Roman Catholic household, so catholicism is teh faith I am most familiar with.

I stay Catholic because I find it the most uplifting way for me to express my beliefs.

I am sure others would say the same for their own faiths.

Chaunte

[tekla]

Often we'd get stoned in the parking lot before the service began and socialise and flirt when it was over.

Sad to say, that's what I miss most about it, sigh.  Gregorian Chant is like the Grateful Dead, a lot better when you're high.

[lady amarant]

Totally bad form and off-topic, but I figure it was in response to this thread. Somebody emailed me about Wicca and I accidentally deleted said message, because Yahoo keeps putting Susan's place messages in my spam folder!

Sorry, whomever you are. A resend would be cool...

   

[joannatsf]

Totally bad form and off-topic, but I figure it was in response to this thread. Somebody emailed me about Wicca and I accidentally deleted said message, because Yahoo keeps putting Susan's place messages in my spam folder!

Sorry, whomever you are. A resend would be cool...

   

It was me.  I just complemented you on your description of why you identify Wiccan.  I do too but I've never found a concise explantion for why.  IMHO you did a very nice job of it

Philosophically I identify as Wiccan, simply because the sacredness of nature, the duality of the Goddess and the Huntsman, the belief in magick and personal responsibility, the respect for the natural order and cycle of things all resonate in me, but as to the actual structure of the universe, or the mind of god - it's more fun finding out than knowing, I think.

[lady amarant]

Thanks Claire. I'll try not to be so silly next time...

[cindianna_jones]

I was reared in the LDS faith (Mormon) in Utah.  I even served a mission for the Church in Chile for a couple of years in the mid seventies.

When my TS "problem" became exposed, life was hell for me.  They publicly excommunicated me for sins against Christ. They destroyed my career (church authorities in charge where I worked). And they took my kids and everything I owned (Mormon judge).  After all that, they kept sending representatives to my door for years to get me to repent and come back.

I moved to California to start my new life.  They still showed up at my door from time to time. I attended services a few times here but could not fit in.

I am also a scientist. Resolving the conflicts between faith and religion has been a lifelong pursuit for me.  I've given up some beliefs and retained others.  I've been able to come to a compromise you might say concerning the things that I was taught as a child.

I believe that truth comes in many forms and that no single entity has all the answers.  No single church has been able to fulfill my needs. 

There are many parts of religion to me that are moral stories that we should cherish for their message and theme.  Far too often we take them far too literally.  That's when we miss the real moral story.

Cindi

[tekla]

Cindy, I have very real doubts that as Jesus was nailed to the cross that his thought were "Gee she is wearing lace underwear" - or even caring as to what your genitals are - would reduce my already low opinion to a new low.  Had it been me I'd be thinking - if not screaming - Get me the F*** OFF THIS CROSS.  But that's just me.

[Christo]

Parents.  Protestan christian here.

[Ell]

got that 'lost' feeling, huh?

i think religion is not the end of the line. just something to help you get to a higher level (or deeper level, depending on how you wanna look at it. it's actually both). when you reach it, you'll know.

(ok, ok! i'm crawling back to my little corner).

-ellie

[lady amarant]

i think religion is not the end of the line. just something to help you get to a higher level (or deeper level, depending on how you wanna look at it. it's actually both). when you reach it, you'll know.

True. Religion is just a crutch to help get you walking... Unfortunately many people mistake the crutch for the goal.

[Nigella]

True. Religion is just a crutch to help get you walking... Unfortunately many people mistake the crutch for the goal.

SORRY i have to diagree with the crutch thing. I did not grow up with religion in fact my parents gave me the choice of going to Sunday School or staying home. I chose staying home, lol. It did catch up with me though and at the age of 26 i started to try and find a part of me that was missing (spiritual life). I first went to Jehovah's Witness and was shunned by them in the end. Later I found what I believe is the answer, that Jesus dies for my sin on the cross. I believe that we are all have a fallen human nature and Jesus died for that. My transgender is accepted at church and after years of struggle with it and my faith I realize now that Jesus died for me fully knowing my issues better than me.

Its not a crutch but a way of life that makes me complete.

Hope you find your way, churches are made by man with all their faults, Jesus is God.

hugs

Nigella

 

[lady amarant]

Nigella: Sorry hon, I didn't mean to offend.

I was silly to not have given some context to the comment in that post - in one of my earlier posts on here I make the distinction between religion as being the dogma and ritual and politics of a human institution, as opposed to spirituality, which is an essential search for truth, developing compassion and a sense of wisdom - wherever you find that, be it in Christianity or Buddhism or some wild combination of Rasta and string theory, it's still a spiritual path because:

1. You went looking for it - you did not just accept the paradigm you were presented with by your parents or your community - you were mature enough to go looking for answers yourself because you were not afraid to question what you were being told.
2. You acknowledge that institutions are fallible and not cannot claim to be divinely ordained or whatever - "churches are made by man with all their faults" - this is something followers of a religion often cannot or will not accept, because it undermines the sense of security they get from their belief.

Spirituality is a personal thing, a truth that you do not need to force on others to feel validated in your belief. Religion, by contrast is usually the exact opposite.

Hope that explains my position on the matter a bit better.