How did you come to your religious beliefs

Symmetry

Myself, I started out in a Episcopalian family, going to church on every other Sunday. I was a good little Episcopalian at first, but then I started having doubts. Then I started coming up with slightly heretical explanations, like maybe there really wasn't any Hell, but God lied about it so we'd be good. Then I decided that God could only be two of omniscient, omnipotent, and good and that I'd drop omnipotent and become a deist. Then I just sort of slided into agnosticism with wondering how we came to know things and why we believed what we did.

Phantasos

Episcopalian. I know it's a convoluted word, but at least strive for consistency of error.

Alex

I was raised Unitarian Universalist, by parents who were both raised Catholic. (Disillusioned ex-Catholics make up a surprisingly large proportion of UUs...something about hating the religion but wanting the church community, I theorize.) If you're not familiar with them, UUs are almost completely non-dogmatic, and individuals selected at random from any gathering of them will probably have radically different opinions on the actual details of their religion. As the UU church emphasizes personal exploration rather than a single truth, this gets in the way not at all. A UU congregation is mostly an excuse for similarly-minded people to get together once a week and have the occasional potluck.

So from a fairly young age I was exposed to the sheer variety of mutually incompatible religions that humanity has come up with, and there was never an expectation that I had to stick with any particular one of them. I started thinking of myself as an atheist or agnostic almost as soon as I thought of myself as anything at all. I fell out of even the social aspect of church once I graduated high school, and have been revelling in my empty Sundays ever since.

The footnote to this is that I was introduced to the Principia Discordia in college; Discordianism is religion taken precisely as seriously as it should be. This helped me to solve one of the long-standing annoyances of being an atheist: having nothing interesting to swear by.

Jason

One time the Unitarian KKK burned a question mark in my yard.
Oh boy, I'm gonna catch some flack for that one.

Apreche

One time the Unitarian KKK burned a question mark in my yard.
Oh boy, I'm gonna catch some flack for that one.

lol!

NinjaNed

All was dark. My life seemed empty, but then one day I cast my gaze upon the heavens. There before me, in all his glory, was the flying spaghetti monster. I was touched by his noodly appendage, and my life had meaning.

Symmetry

Episcopalian. I know it's a convoluted word, but at least strive for consistency of error.

Sorry about that, I knew I was misspelling it that first time and meant to go back to the spellchecker, but obviously I made a mistake of some sort.

Kiey

Most of my religious ideas come from the movie Dogma, and the Futurama episode Godfellas, but I still think of myself as a Roman Catholic in name only.

Symmetry

Oh, I see. If I don't hit "Resume Editing" the spelling corrections won't take.

Jason

If you do something right, people won't be able to tell whether you've done anything at all.
I love futurama.

Apreche

If you do something right, people won't be able to tell whether you've done anything at all.
I love futurama.

That's a great episode, and it also helps to prove the point. If there is some omnipotent being doing things, and we aren't able to detect it, then it doesn't matter if the cause or not. If you fall down and hit your head, and it hurts. That could have been the act of a gremlin, a slippery floor or your own clumsiness. But if you can't detect the cause, then it doesn't matter what the cause is. So insisting that it was one particular cause, such as a god, is silly.

If you can't tell that a god exists, then it might as well not exist.

Sparkybuzzed

I'm a Cradle Catholic. I might not agree with all the Church's teachings (since I learned to reason for myself) but I still ascribe to the basic tenets of the faith. I usually call myself a "Practicing Catholic" since I'm not that good at it.

Funny thing is, I really like being Catholic. I'm certainly not the best one out there, but I stick by the Church and what it ultimately stands for. Maybe not what it currently stands for, but why it's there.

And, by the by, if you can't tell God exists then he's not an asshole deity like in D&D. The concept is there to comfort.

Man, these last two posts I really sound like a Thumper. I tell ya, I absolutely will not take up for those who force thier beliefs on others. Either way. I'd say I hate pushy Aetheists, but you guys don't even have the energy to believe in something. (thanks, Lewis Black)

Jason

"If you can't tell that a god exists, then it might as well not exist."

On the other hand, if you're on a raft in the middle of a river things might be different. If you can't tell that the waterfall up ahead exists, then it might as well not exist. Until you go over the edge. Whoops.

That argument is a glorified "ignorance is bliss" retelling.

Apreche

"If you can't tell that a god exists, then it might as well not exist."

On the other hand, if you're on a raft in the middle of a river things might be different. If you can't tell that the waterfall up ahead exists, then it might as well not exist. Until you go over the edge. Whoops.

That argument is a glorified "ignorance is bliss" retelling.

But you can tell the waterfall up ahead exists, you can't just tell right now. I think a more proper way of saying it is "If you can never tell that it exists."

Hasbro

I kinda stumbled into Taoism a couple years ago, mostly by reading the Tao te Ching (several times over) and later the Chuang-tzu and finding a lot of stuff I agreed with and a lot of stuff I enjoyed. As a religion, its an extremely agnostic and philisophical one. In the Tao te Ching at least, the passages tend to spur more questions than they answer. I should warn though, I'm not really into the more mystical, traditionally religious side of Taoism, which while stemming somewhat in the Chuang-tzu, can be interpreted as purely allegorical. I recommend the Tao te Ching (A good translation, mind you) to almost everyone as just something to mull over in your brain. It's not extraordinarily long by any standards and has certainly given me a lot to think about.
The Chuang-tzu is also a good read, but it's always struck me as a very different sort of book. Its chock full of lots of cool little anecdotes and parables though, such as the rather popular story of Chuang-tzu and the butterfly. The Lieh-tzu is also an interesting text, though I've read admitably less of it. It discusses the very fatalistic idea that the entire universe, including humans within it, operates on an almost mechanical level, and that neither what gods there are, or any action we take ourselves can do anything to change it.

Kiey

I read the Te Tao Ching once, I think I still have it my bookshelf. It was an interesting read, one part is very philosophical and the other part is what really confused me, since it sort of read as an instruction manual. Especially one part that when talking about ruler told them to keep their subjects stupid since it would keep them complacent. That really caught me off guard... I really should find that part in the book since it was so out of the blue it seemed fake.

Erwin

Well, my whole family is Catholic and even though i have read all the horrible stories that the Catholic church have done (such as the Pope having children and then having children with his own children, the Crusades, the genocide of millions of natives Americans in central America, yeah very bad stuff), basically I learned all that on my own Catholic school during primary back in my country (Peru). To tell you the true guys in Peru it is mandatory to take Religion during primary school, and almost everyone in Peru is Catholic, or Christian. I consider myself Catholic and I am happy to be one (even though his human history sucks) because are their main teachings what helped me to grow.
However, I also believe in what I want to believe and I put them together such as Buddhism, really my family had a Buddha and the lucky Cat at home.
As a wise person said once in space and time: " I do not care what you believe in, just believe"
Because at the end, even if you do not believe in God, you gotta believe in yourself.

TheWhaleShark

I was raised as a Methodist, and attended a Catholic grammar school from 3rd to 8th grades. In my childhood, I was actually quite religious and believed in all that God stuff and so forth.

Around the middle of 7th grade, following in the footsteps of social difficulties in grade school, I started having what is generally termed a "crisis of faith," wherein I suddenly realized that none of this crap actually made sense to me. I backed out of it for a while and started critically examining many religions in an intellectual and phiolosophical fashion. Throughout the course of high school, I became an agnostic, as I realized that there was probably no way to every definitely answer the grand questions.

I've since morphed into a hard apathetic agnostic, with existentialist and nihilist leanings: I'm 95% certain that the answer can't be known, and even if we did, it wouldn't matter anyway. I debate and consider religions from a purely philosophical standpoint, dissecting holy texts and such to look for the actual meaning behind the stories, the secular lessons that were being taught via stories, the oldest method of teaching of which we know.

Mind you, I'm not anti-theist, because from the standpoint of intellectual exercise, the idea of religion (or at least theology) is very important. One must be willing to explore all avenues of thought in one's intellectual development, even those with which you may not agree or may not make sense. Aside from that, since I see all religions as being equal, in that they're all equally crap, your specific religious belief is of no consequence to me, so long as you're willing to talk about it and consider it.

baltmatrix

I was born into an Italian family. So that means that I was also born into the Roman Catholic church. My father = Roman Catholic, my mother = Methodist (they were married in a Protestant church). Now when I was a little kid we did go to church but I never really listened since I was bored out of my mind. Plus the constant sitting-standing-sitting-standing-kneeling-sitting-etc was no fun for a kid. But for the most part things were kind of fun. I mean, at 4 and 5 years old kids find their own fun.

Now the big turning point came when I was six. Before I continue I need to add one little fact. A few days before the following story took place I went on a school trip to the Maryland Science Center. There I learned about how soap works and about the human stomach. This information will come into play very shortly.

Being that I was six my parents of course enrolled me in Sunday school. You know, Jesus Camp. We were being taught that Jesus walked on water via the power of the lord. And I though about this for a second, then I raised my hand. The "teacher" called on me and I asked "how come Jesus didn't break the water's surface tension?" I don't remember exactly how I phrased it but I definitely said "surface tension."

The teacher just looked at me. She looked at me with total shock. I remember her answer exactly: "because God made it so." Okay. As a little budding science nerd, that answer made no sense to me what so ever. But I kept my mouth shut.

A little later we were taught about the dude in getting eaten by the whale. Of course my hand shot up. I asked "why wasn't (inset guys name) digested?" Similar answer from the teacher "because God didn't want him to be."

Now I remember this happening a few more times and finally the "teacher" gave up. She walked me out into the hall, told me to stay there and "think about my faith." Um...how exactly is a six-year-old supposed to do that anyway? So instead I sat down and played with the toy I had in my pocket.

My parents came to get me some time later, and they were surprised to see me in the hallway. I told them what happened, and then my mother confirmed with the "teacher". When she came out from speaking with the teacher she was really, really mad. I mean the type of mad that every kid knows they are in deeeeeeeeeeeep shit. When we got out to the car mom whipped around, picked me up, hugged and kissed me and said "you are so smart!" Being a little kid I was just happy that I wasn't in any trouble.

It wasn't until many years later that I learned about the conversation my Mom had with the "teacher". Apparently it went something like this:
(Please note that I am paraphrasing base on what my mother has told me)

Mom: Hi, I'm Matthew's Mother
Teach: Hello
Mom: May I ask, why was my son in the hallway?
Teach: He was disrupting the class. So I put him outside.
Mom: How was he disrupting the class exactly?
Teach: He was asking silly questions.
Mom: Silly questions?
Teach: Yes. During the teachings of the bible he was asking about how Jesus could walk on water and why So-in-so was not digested by the whale. If you ask me you son has no faith and needs to be taught better. I'm sorry but your not doing so well as a parent.
Mom:..........excuse me, but maybe it's the fact that my six year-old some is smarter than the fucking dumbass that is teaching this class.
And with that mom left the room.

Now this is only the first run in I have had with religion not making any sense to me in the least. But those are stories for another time. Right now however I am living my life religion free. I do realize there are things in this universe that are not explained but you know what? I can deal with that.

trogdor9

Now this is only the first run in I have had with religion not making any sense to me in the least. But those are stories for another time. Right now however I am living my life religion free. I do realize there are things in this universe that are not explained but you know what? I can deal with that.

Wow. At first glance I read that as "region free".

Ilmarinen

I'm Finnish on my moms side, and her family is Laestadian(a Lutheran sect), and my fathers side of the family is Mexican and probably Catholic, but I'm not sure. My mother(and her brothers and sisters), are generally nonreligious or agnostic, mainly due to the harsh, restrictive nature of the religion. In a discussion on the subject, an aunt had this to say: "... it taught us great values and morals, but it ruined* my childhood." My parents were in the army when they got married, but my mother left when she got pregnant with my youngest sister, and wanted to take care of the kids full time. Due to my father being in the army, I moved often as a child, and I rarely ever saw him during the first six years of my life. Because of this, I was rarely exposed to religion, save for the few(I can count them on one hand) times I went to church with my father or my deeply religious grandparents. When I was six or seven, my dad retired from the army, got a job with SBC, and moved us to Michigan, where I have been since. I remained blissfully ignorant of religion until sixth grade, when a conversation about which churches people attended led me to realize my atheism. Since then, four years have passed, and I've further realized my disbelief, and lack of opinion on the matter. I don't believe in anything, and I don't give a fuck whether or not anything exists.

*The reasons for her childhood being ruined were not only the harsh rules, which forbade many things, and even limited social interaction with other people, but also a 1973 schism in the church, which led to considerable family drama, resulting in the ostracization of my family by other family members. Due to this alienation, and the rules of the religion, this cost my mother and her siblings many of their playmates.

MarcusNoble

Well when my grandparents on my mother's side still lived near me, my family went to church every week. It was your standard catholic church so I heard all of the standard rehotric about god, jesus, heaven, hell, etc. But after they moved down to South Carolina (where they still live) and my family stopped going to church I really just forgot about all the religious stuff and went about my life without thinking about god, jesus, heaven, hell etc. And honestly I think I"ve been better off since then.

belarm

I was raised Methodist, went to church every Sunday, and was involved in Sunday school, VBS, and a Wednesday meeting for kids in the church called "Rainbow Kids" (I know, neat name...). I remember finding the sermons from the bible very boring, but thankfully our first minister preached in more of an anecdotal style the majority of the time. Additionally, fully 2/3rds of the accelerated program kids from my school were in my Sunday school class, and we had some very, very enlightening discussions about the nature of divinity, omni-potence/science, and good and evil (of course, for the most part, these did not involve the teacher). However, when I was about 14, I kinda backed off from the church thing, as I felt I wasn't learning as much as I had been any more. At the same time, I began examining the tenants of my faith.

My conclusions where the following:
1. If the god of the KJV bible exists, I no longer have any desire to worship him; he is petty, arbitrary, and conceited.
2. Such a being does not need to exist to explain the universe.
3. By Occam's Razor (though I didn't know of the term, or ol' Billie's phrasing of it) such a being therefore does not exist.

At that point, I became an atheist. The energy I had previously directed towards study of the Christian faith was instead applied to learning about new religions, philosophies, etc. Fast-forward a few years, and I stumble upon Buddhism. I think, "hey, this is neat...the whole structure of this faith/philosophy is built around learning shit. I can deal with that!" Later on, I discover Taoism, and find that it leads, for me, to better internal dialog about the nature of the universe. I read the Tao Te Ching, and am enlightened and perplexed by it. As a friend of mine recently said upon reading it, "I got the feeling I could contemplate the concepts in this book for the rest of my life, and never stop developing new ideas"

So, final conclusion and currently held beliefs: One of the main purposes of life (mine, at least) is to continue gaining knowledge of both the quantifiable and qualitative aspects of life, the universe, and everything. All things exist as a balance, and peace is achieved through harmony. Happiness in one's own life may require breaking said harmony, but strife is also an important part of life. There's more, but it's still being developed, and this post is running long ;-)

Aido

Aw man, Baltmatrix. Major props to your mom. She obviously raised you right to have such a smart 6-year old kid.

Sparkybuzzed

Just makes me wonder when teenagers talk about how sure they are of their belief system. Most kids can't decide whether or not to pull their pants up over their asses, yet some have based huge, life-changing decisions on being bored in church at a young age, or discussions had in sixth grade.

my quay

My family is traditionally Anglican but my parents rarely took us to church, perhaps only 3 times that weren't for weddings etc. Any other religious events were at school or for events like Christmas. I think that the lack of a strong "indoctrination" (for lack of a better word) led me to be more philosophical and questioning of the nature of existence/religion/faith.

Wow, I'm sounding a bit like an Arts graduate aren't I?

I remember at the last census, when I was still living with my parents, being mad when they filled it out for me including listing my religion as Anglican/Christian.

Ilmarinen

Most kids can't decide whether or not to pull their pants up over their asses, yet some have based huge, life-changing decisions on... discussions had in sixth grade.

It's not like that discussion was some big turning point in my life. All I gained was a name to put to the lack of belief I had. I'm incredibly sure that I have no belief(or ever had) in any deities or supernatural beings, and my age shouldn't be a reason for you to doubt this.

AtheriShadow

I never had to go to church. We did celebrate christmas the American way, getting stuff for no apparent reason and putting up lights. So I was led to choose my own beliefs which was nothing, Atheism.