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How has your religion changed in your life?

How has your religion changed?

  • I grew up in a religious household and remain as such

    Votes: 3 8.3%

  • I grew up with religion but found a different religion

    Votes: 2 5.6%

  • I grew up with religion but am no longer religious

    Votes: 17 47.2%

  • I was never religious

    Votes: 10 27.8%

  • I grew up without religion but later found it

    Votes: 3 8.3%

  • I left the beliefs of what I grew up with but am now back

    Votes: 1 2.8%
  • Total voters
    36
M

Masterhawk

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I would be interested to see how you guys changed your religion. The last choice is basically for people who left the belief system (religious or non-religious) of the one which they grew up with but later came back to it.
 
Masterhawk said:
I would be interested to see how you guys changed your religion. The last choice is basically for people who left the belief system (religious or non-religious) of the one which they grew up with but later came back to it.
Click to expand...

When I got saved my interests, my habits and other aspects of my life changed for the better. I believe I could have ended up a hopelessly addicted drunken sleazeball if not for what Jesus did to me when I asked Him to forgive me of my sins.
 
I was raised in a conservative evangelical family and community. We had the full craziness package, speaking in tongues, spontaneous healings, loss of motor control from the glory of god, god speaking through people to pass messages to the congregation, and more.

I was deeply religious the first 20 years of my life, but I joined the Army at 17 and got to see a lot of the world outside of the Texas bubble. After a while I began to question it all and began reading lots of different philosophy books and exposing myself to other beliefs and ideas.

I've been an atheist now for over a decade. It was hard at first going from thinking you're immortal and that everything is planned by god to being aware that this is all we have and that we're responsible for what happens in life. I've very much come to terms with it and find it far more comforting than I ever found Christianity. I enjoy the mental and physical freedom and appreciate life so much more. I'm glad this journey will end some day, it shouldn't last forever.

Looking back it's hard to understand how anyone could ever be that gullible, but I understand it's largely based on the religious tendency to brainwash children from birth to believe it without question. They did it to me, but I'm breaking the cycle and teaching my kids to think for themselves. If they choose to be religious with their own free will, I'll support them completely and even drive them to church every Sunday.
 
Just so people know, there are lots of groups out there to fooer support for people who are going through the leaving process and feel that they are the first person to do it and find it all scary;

YouTube

Post a message you will get loads of replies.
 
I grew up in the deep south in the 50's, 60's. and 70's. Mom was a typical fire and brimstone Evangelical. Dad was a Methodist, primarily because his Dad was a Southern Methodist Deacon ( and a KKK big wheel in the Texarkana area. ) Ended up going to the Lutheran Church, where I was promptly booted from my own confirmation, simply for giving honest answers to the church elders and the Pastor. Evidently, They were caught a bit off guard, when I spoke my mind, as opposed to regurgitating church catechism dogma. I'd have to say I've been a religious skeptic as far back as I can remember. Something about talking snakes is what I first remember setting off the B.S. meter. But each to his/her own on matters of religion as long as they don't attempt to forcibly impose those beliefs onto those who don't want it.
 
Grew up being dragged to church/sunday school almost every Sunday of my childhood. Not sure what age I was when it started becoming obvious that most of it was completely worthless to me.

Waffled back and forth between calling myself an agnostic and an atheist.

Now I'm a full-blown atheist, although the vast majority of those around me have no clue what-so-ever.

I have often wondered, if I posted it openly on Facebook how many "friends" I might lose.
 
Masterhawk said:
I would be interested to see how you guys changed your religion. The last choice is basically for people who left the belief system (religious or non-religious) of the one which they grew up with but later came back to it.
Click to expand...
What are the choices for us Tapatalk people who can't see polls?

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maquiscat said:
What are the choices for us Tapatalk people who can't see polls?

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Click to expand...

Here are the choices in order:
I grew up in a religious household and remain as such
I grew up with religion but found a different religion
I grew up with religion but am no longer religious
I was never religious
I grew up without religion but later found it
I left the beliefs of what I grew up with but am now back
 
Other...I grew up in a religious household and later found the truth...
 
Masterhawk said:
I would be interested to see how you guys changed your religion. The last choice is basically for people who left the belief system (religious or non-religious) of the one which they grew up with but later came back to it.
Click to expand...

I grew up in household that ignored religion for the most part, at a time when not being religious was frowned upon. At 11 or 12 I decided religion wasn't for me and never looked back. My mother defended my position and dad never mentioned it. I was about 30 when I realized that I grew up in an Atheist household.
 
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Raised in a christian household, but part of their religion was that members had to come to the faith naturally - unless someone expressed interest and went through a joining process they weren't members.

So although I grew up as a kinda part of their religion, I never joined and have in the passing years come to a more agnostic belief.

Which concerns them of course.
 
Did the whole catholic thing as a kid because my parents were catholic. Was basically indifferent towards religion even though 'god' in his goodness was being 'taught' to me five days a week and six if you count church on sunday. I just finally reached the point pretty early on, grade school early that I didn't believe any of what I was being taught.

I do believe there was a jesus dude walking around at one point. However I consider that person more of the first hippie preaching love and sharing but was not a god.

I am and have been a firm atheist for many years and I do not feel I need a religion to tell me the difference between right and wrong and certainly don't need it to be a decent human being.

I think religion fills the void some people feel emotionally.
 
I'm more spiritual than religious. I admit I don't know if God exists. My wife absolutely believes in God, and she seems a lot more contented in her faith than I am in my lack of it.
 
I'm in the last category, sort of. I grew up in an irreligious household until I was 10 at which time my parents divorced. My mom became a Jehovah's Witness as of course so did I, much to the consternation of my atheist father. I was very active in the Church until about age 17 or so at which point I stopped attending meetings and going door to door. I was never formally disfellowshipped - I just kinda faded away.

Not sure if that's returning to my original religion (or lack thereof) or just going through a phase. Dad was an atheist until the day he died. Mom is still very active in the Witnesses and I sometimes go to meetings with her. My wife is a Chinese Buddhist and I sometimes take part in her family's religious rituals too. I'm very ecumenical.

If you ask me what I believe now..., well it's complicated. I get that an alpha-male God watching over everyone is almost certainly not real. But I've been close to death on a couple of occasions and found myself praying someone or something to help me. Why would I do that? How can I square that circle? The answer is I don't try. It's a paradox, but God is all about paradoxes. God can make a rock so big He can't lift it - and He can lift it anyway. And not lift it. See 'omnipotent'.

Religion is just not an intellectual thing for me where I lay out N number of reasons why I think He exists. I believe He exists because I just do. Don't look for reasons. There are no reasons. Who need reasons when you've got belief?
 
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Masterhawk said:
Here are the choices in order:
I grew up in a religious household and remain as such
I grew up with religion but found a different religion
I grew up with religion but am no longer religious
I was never religious
I grew up without religion but later found it
I left the beliefs of what I grew up with but am now back
Click to expand...

Thank you.

Sadly, I don't think any of those hold towards me.

I grew up Methodist (for the sake of the thread it seems people are counting different denominations/sects as different religions). In my early teens I choose to no longer attend church, but later went back of my own accord with a renewed ... something. I don't want to call it faith, for that never left me. While I was in the Navy, I attended many churches, my favorite over the years being a non denominational on base, and there were many Methodist ones I would never set foot in again. Came home to my dad's church for a while, but some unknown quality chanced after they built their new sanctuary, and it was no longer home. I have not been with any specific denomination since.

Like one person said, I am probably more spiritual than religious, but Christianity is the base of my personal religion. I don't hold to all of the teaching most churches put out. My personal journey with God has brought me to realize that the underlying messages in the Bible are intact, but the details have skewed over time. I let the Holy Spirit guides me more than the book. I have friends and family who are of many religions, including Wiccan, and we all get along wonderfully. Our one motto is, "There is no one true way."

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eman623 said:
Who need reasons when you've got belief?
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I would say everyone does. The key is not needing reasons because you have faith. It's finding the reasons even if you can't prove them to others.

I have often said that the most dangerous kind of faith is blind Faith. Taken as gospel (pun intended) what is told to you, or what you hear from others. A questioning faith, IMHO, draws you nearer to your deity. It allows you the chance to separate out what They want from those who would use their name for acts in opposition of what They want.



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maquiscat said:
I would say everyone does. The key is not needing reasons because you have faith. It's finding the reasons even if you can't prove them to others.

I have often said that the most dangerous kind of faith is blind Faith. Taken as gospel (pun intended) what is told to you, or what you hear from others. A questioning faith, IMHO, draws you nearer to your deity. It allows you the chance to separate out what They want from those who would use their name for acts in opposition of what They want.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply and I see your point. Nothing happens for no reason whatsoever. There must be reasons why I believe or at least appear to believe in God. It might be my upbringing which included a religious phase, or perhaps it's a manifestation of something hard-coded into the species Homo Sapiens itself. My point is that my faith is intentionally not based on an evidentiary foundation. Forget proving it to others, I won't even try to prove to myself the reasons. That's not my worldview.

St. Thomas Aquinas, who was really smart but maybe a little too smart for his own good, tried to reconcile faith and reasoning and claimed that one could prove the existence of God through sheer logic alone. I would argue that Thomas had it backwards. He did not believe in God because he'd proven it to himself logically. He believed, like everyone else because he just did, and even if he thought he was clever enough to argue other people into believing too, that's not how it works.

In the modern scientific age, blind faith in God without reasons is often considered pejoratively. But everyone has faith in something. Do you have faith in your own abilities? Or in the ability of people to improve themselves? Or that your spouse and kids are the most beautiful and lovable beings on the planet? If so, then you have faith, perhaps even blind faith. I'm not going to demand from you N number of reasons why you love your family more than anyone. Ya just do!
 
I started to doubt religion when I was 11. I was raised a Baptist. When I got older I became a Catholic as I was searching to find a religious revelation. Finding none, I am now an Atheist. I feel liberated and I do respect all those of all religions.
 
Raised Catholic, did the first communion, church every Sunday, prayers before bed, rosaries, confessions...up until I was about 12 and then I said no more. Refused to do confirmation much to my mothers chagrin. I saw it for what it was, a shakedown and a pack of stories trying to sell themselves as truths. By the time I got out of college, I was an atheist and never looked back. I enjoy the rituals of the Catholic Church and have been to more cathedrals then I can count. As for the debate about who is the real Christian, I always say Catholics because they invented the religion in the first place.
 
marke said:
When I got saved my interests, my habits and other aspects of my life changed for the better. I believe I could have ended up a hopelessly addicted drunken sleazeball if not for what Jesus did to me when I asked Him to forgive me of my sins.
Click to expand...

You didn't know by yourself to stop drinking or taking drugs?

You really needed somebody else to tell you that?
 
my father's family was C of E /Episcopalian. Mom's was mainly Presbyterian. we regularly attended the local Episcopal church and often the Cathedral for the Diocese. I found Sunday School interesting and the Episcopal priest was a good ping pong player (he had been in WWII as a Major and played a lot in officers clubs-became a priest-he said-to make up for what he did and saw in the war against Japan). I never got the idea my parents were true believers though and after confirmation, I sort of drifted away from it though at some point, I had considered going to divinity school since one of my friends in college was at the divinity school and became an Episcopal priest and he seemed to have his act together, far more than most. My mom' funeral was at the Presbyterian church she attended as a girl-but by then she was somewhere between agnostic and unitarian. My wife-raised catholic, now attends what is best described as a big mega-church-non denominational Christian. Not my cup of tea.
 
I have a question;

If you do not believe in God will you have a church funeral? Where will you be buried? Or just cremated?

FWIW; Even though I'm somewhat reliably atheist, I will be cremated and buried in the family plot, with a headstone. With a church service. my wife won't have it any other way.
 
TurtleDude said:
my father's family was C of E /Episcopalian. Mom's was mainly Presbyterian. we regularly attended the local Episcopal church and often the Cathedral for the Diocese. I found Sunday School interesting and the Episcopal priest was a good ping pong player (he had been in WWII as a Major and played a lot in officers clubs-became a priest-he said-to make up for what he did and saw in the war against Japan). I never got the idea my parents were true believers though and after confirmation, I sort of drifted away from it though at some point, I had considered going to divinity school since one of my friends in college was at the divinity school and became an Episcopal priest and he seemed to have his act together, far more than most. My mom' funeral was at the Presbyterian church she attended as a girl-but by then she was somewhere between agnostic and unitarian. My wife-raised catholic, now attends what is best described as a big mega-church-non denominational Christian. Not my cup of tea.
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It can be interesting when one of you is religious and the other one much less so. I attend church with my wife when she tells me she wants me there, like for special occasions. Otherwise, she doesn't bother me much about it. I tried to believe in a Christian God, but it just didn't take. I do however, sometimes contemplate that there might be a creator. I'm old enough to know I don't know it all.
 
It hasn't changed. I grew up non-religious and I'm still non-religious.
 
Was raised southern Baptist by my mom, but my dad was one of the “speaking in tongues, snake handling” type religions. He just didn’t practice. He got older, started following the religion closely and my mom basically joined him and told me that everything she had ever told me about religion was wrong, and that if I didn’t follow her in that new religion, I was going to go to hell.

Took me a long time to get away from all that. I never followed that religion, but it scared me. I would think, “What if she is right?”

I am still a Christian, and a very spiritual person with a strong faith in God, but I have the tendency to shy away from organized religion. My salvation is a very private thing between God and myself.

I don’t worry about going to hell anymore. I am a good person and have a good relationship with my Maker.

And don’t @ me, those who don’t believe. One of the reasons I shy away from organized religion is because they often tell you what you have to believe. I don’t appreciate that any more from believers than non-believers.
 
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