Religion

[Mountaineer Bengal]

Are you a religious person? What Religion are you? Why to do you choose to disbelieve or believe in God?

Go.

[Alias]

I don't think I would consider myself religious, but I'm a Christian. I choose to believe in God because I can't look at nature and honestly believe something so complex that functions in such harmony could happen by mere chance. I'm a Christian because it makes the most sense and seems to contain the most truth about humanity and its role in the world. I'm talking about what the Bible actually says when I talk about Christianity...that's extremely important to note, because I feel that the church often distorts its meaning to pursue its own goals (like the crusades, for instance).

[toyota24]

Are you a religious person? What Religion are you? Why to do you choose to disbelieve or believe in God?

Go.
I'm agnostic, and have been since I was about 14. I call myself a non-practicing Catholic, though out of respect for the people in my family who raised me in that religion. I still have appreciation for it, just not belief. I don't neccessarily disbelieve in God. I just found it difficult when I started meeting people of different faiths to keep on going. Many people were always so sure that they were absolutely correct and that everyone else(that believed) was really wrong about something, wrong enough anyway to be considered part of what's wrong in the grand scheme of things. Even if somebody's right, everyone can't be, no matter how hard they believe or how good a person they are. I guess in the end, zeal put me off with religion, just as it did with real atheism after a short exploration . My godfather was, ironically, an atheist, and he was a huge influence on me. He's probably the smartest person I know (flew bombing missions in Vietnam, graduated with honors from UC Berkeley, very successful businessman, grew up and was educated in Paris/Hong Kong). He's as right wing as the come(fellow students spit on him at Berkeley when he wore his military uniform for ROTC), but still couldn't accept religion in his life. Like I said, I'm not an atheist as he is, but he was definitely a factor.

[jamiethelanky]

I'm agnostic as well. The trouble is; many religious people get so tied up in their scriptures, which generally are written for a world of thousands of years ago, to concentrate on the important teachings such as love for other people and appreciation of God. Unfortunately, many religious people act in a hateful and hypocritical manner and it's these people that put me off.
I don't want to tar all religious people with the same brush, there are many who concentrate on the important things; it's just the minority who spoil it.

[Bengal07]

I became Catholic about 8yrs. ago
Before that the last time I went to church was when I
was a kid (Sunday school) at the local Sally Ann
The way I look at it is you get what you put into it
and the same goes with the readings. Each to their own.
Believe what you want, Praise who you want, May your God bless you

[Danno]

I was raised Roman Catholic. In a family that had strong roots on both sides going back a ways. I had the Sunday school, and I attended private school (Catholic) for a goo majority of my education.

I have since fallen out of it, its been about 5 or 6 years. It was a combination of learning about new religions / cultures, personal reflection on the Church's teachings vs. the Church's rules (two different things in my opinion), the Church's questionable history, and religious zeal (good wording, Toyota, had to borrow it!) that made me finally just fizzle out with christianity and any religion really. I guess you would call my position agnostic, but i like to call it spiritual. I find aspects of all religions interesting, and I am not sure anyone has it right yet. However, I am not willing to close my mind off to what other people think, and thereby never expanding my own understanding of things.


I have more I could say, but I'd rather not ramble [:D]

[jamiethelanky]

Spiritual is probably a better word for what I am. And ramble away, Danno, our eyes don't get tired reading you yak.

[SmallAxe]

I was born and raised Roman Catholic, was educated by Jesuits, and have become a student of Taoism on my own accord. When I moved away to Florida without any family, I atteneded multiple types of Christian churchs from Pentecostal to Lutherern and also attended synagogue in this searching phase I had. Since then, I have come to the realization that God is too big for just one religion.

[toyota24]

I was raised Roman Catholic. In a family that had strong roots on both sides going back a ways. I had the Sunday school, and I attended private school (Catholic) for a goo majority of my education.

I have since fallen out of it, its been about 5 or 6 years. It was a combination of learning about new religions / cultures, personal reflection on the Church's teachings vs. the Church's rules (two different things in my opinion), the Church's questionable history, and religious zeal (good wording, Toyota, had to borrow it!) that made me finally just fizzle out with christianity and any religion really. I guess you would call my position agnostic, but i like to call it spiritual. I find aspects of all religions interesting, and I am not sure anyone has it right yet. However, I am not willing to close my mind off to what other people think, and thereby never expanding my own understanding of things.


I have more I could say, but I'd rather not ramble [:D]
Well said, Danno. I feel the same way when it comes to being interested. Religion is fascinating to obsevre in almost every form. I may not buy into most of it, but I certainly wouldn't want it to go away for that very reason.

[Ericw712]

I was raised Roman Catholic. In a family that had strong roots on both sides going back a ways. I had the Sunday school, and I attended private school (Catholic) for a goo majority of my education.

I have since fallen out of it, its been about 5 or 6 years. It was a combination of learning about new religions / cultures, personal reflection on the Church's teachings vs. the Church's rules (two different things in my opinion), the Church's questionable history, and religious zeal (good wording, Toyota, had to borrow it!) that made me finally just fizzle out with christianity and any religion really. I guess you would call my position agnostic, but i like to call it spiritual. I find aspects of all religions interesting, and I am not sure anyone has it right yet. However, I am not willing to close my mind off to what other people think, and thereby never expanding my own understanding of things.


I have more I could say, but I'd rather not ramble [:D]

That's the best point right there. No one has the corner on the religious market and an open mind is one of the keys to deeper discovery in any aspect of life, especially spirituality & religion.

[Turk88]

I was raised as a Roman Cathlolic and then decided that I wanted to try and go to a new church so I went to a Baptist chuirch at the tender age of 13. Then I quit going altogether until I found Buddhism. I learned all I could about this before deciding that religion may just not be right for me. Since then I have come to the realization that I have no clue if there is a god or not and what God would feel is the best religion. There are so many people killing in His name and that makes me sick. So right now I would say that am clueless but I would rather be safe then sorry so about once a month I ask the Lord to forgive me for my sins and then the only other time I really do any sort of praying is when the Buckeyes or Bengals are playing football!