Are you the same religion you were born into? Just curious, I dumped my religion

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Originally posted by grasshopa:
I dumped my religion

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Good for you son.

I never had one so I never could've dumped one.

No.

Nooooooox

I was born christian(bluh), and am now agonistic. People usually stray from what they were brought up with, Simply because they question it more.

Yes, I returned to Atheism after a short childhood stint as a Catholic.

same, christian to agnostic

I was baptised Anglican as an infant, and supposedly am still a member of that parish because I go there when I'm at my grandparents, but I wasn't really brought up in any religion (including athiesm.)

I was raised Roman Catholic, even forced to be confirmed, but after that I completely abandoned it. I never really believed in it anyway, it was just something my parents made me do, sort of like football and baseball.

I was raised Christian, but later found the idea that a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings, and whose purposes are modeled after our own just a reflection of human frailty.

The only "God" force I recognize is nature. I use the word "God" for lack of a better term for "governing force".

born christian and i now despise it.

I was raised in a complete religious vacuum, so I don't think that I can really answer you question at all. However, I had some incredibly odd experiences about four years ago that made me think that there was some truth to many religious concepts, so I've been a practicing Pagan ever since?

Just for the record, why did you decide to wander from your beliefs? I'm pretty sure that all paths lead to the same mountaintop. Did you not like the view or something?

Decided to take an objective look at Christianity and abandon my pre-existing faith to actually determine the logial consistency and merit of it. The results were less than optimal.

That and there was really no reason I should have been believing in it in the first place outside of being brainwashed into it at an early age. It is a baseless claim with no criteria for falsification because it does not rest on logical proof or factual data.

Then there was teh argument from multiplicity. How can anyone accurately determine what the right religion is, if there even is one at all? It was just a matter of time until I had a logical breakthrough from being subjective to objective and logic tore down any remaining shreds of irrational belief that I may have once had.

I was born into a christian family. Rabidly christian. My dad was always the one really into it, my mom couldn't care less, and after she left my dad she would admit it. I tried to be good, and not do all those little "sins" as a little kid, and guess what, I still wasn't happy. I decided that even if I was going to go to hell for it, I wasn't going to waste the only life I was SURE I had being unhappy and worried for an unsure afterlife. I began to believe less and less in an all-powerful caring god the more I saw of the world, and now i'm convinced that the concept of god as viewed by christians is entirely wrong.

Organized religion is the Matrix.

quote:

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Originally posted by grasshopa:
Are you the same religion you were born into? Just curious, I dumped my religion

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I have a good memory of early childhood and don't recall any religion before i was seven. At seven i was taken to a Presbyterian sunday school, i rememember sitting on a long wooden stool with a bunch of other kids while a young lady told us the story of the Good Shepherd.

The 23rd Psalm mixed with descriptions of David(the physical precursor of the spiritual) as a young shepherd, a powerful young man capable of fighting off all predators, a friend when in need. Needed one of those at the time, and from then on envisioned the Good Shepherd as the ideal.

Mum got mixed up with a couple of cults and before you know it our lives turned to crap, took years to become free of that, in young adulthood, i went atheist, but it just did not make sense. Searching for answers went evangelical, gave away bibles and advised people to read it for themselves, don't just take someone else's word for what it all means!

One night the missus and i were trying to sort out the origin of the universe, we were following up the discoveries of science to do with matter and anti-matter. We spent hours brainstorming using the assumption that there is nothing inherently evil in the 'theory of evolution, just kids trying to work out how dad did it!

Afterward, in the midnight darkness, headed for bed, in a millisecond life changed, i was confronted by a being of light. It seemed as though a flash went off, for the shortest of moments i was eye to eye with .... eyes of light, the brightest eyes one could possibly imagine, light shining from within. These eyes lit up the hall and silhouetted the shape of a person, no words were spoken, but a thought seemed projected into my mind - "I love you I died for you".

Then .. gone, i was stunned, could not believe what had happened, thought perhaps i had taken leave of my senses, but straight way had that dispelled by the missus. I thought little of this incident, in fact it made no sense, a being of light just appearing? "I love you I died for you"? What did this mean? Made no sense to me, try as i could the meaning of that phrase escaped me, the identity of the being was a mystery, How can someone die for another?

Could not make sense of it so left it alone did not mention it to anyone, not even the missus, then she was killed, crushed in the impact from being flung off an out of control motorcycle/sidecar outfit. Well i was pretty p'd off at everything in general after that and God in particular, had good reason to question God on the meaning of that event.

Anyway buried the missus, and a bit later partnered up with a motorcycle riding, guitar playing, singer lass i met while out punting the BM. Six kids later, i'm out bushwalking the local mountains, and bite off more than i can chew. Wound up rockclimbing a vertical clifface in hiking gear, no ropes!

Almost at the top of a 300 metre drop, my foot slips and faster than the most powerful accelerating bike, i'm plunging headlong down the mountain. I was a dead man! Desperately i grabbed at bushes and rock, no chance, bounced off one ledge on my right thigh, then the next off my left, then headfirst over a sheer cliff. I was looking at a 300metre/900 foot near vertical drop. I knew i was dead, the immediate thought in my mind was sadness for my baby son who would grow up without a dad. Then the thought Jesus came into my mind and i yelled Jesus as loud as i could. At that instant i slammed headfirst into the rockface, blacked out, and later came to cradled by a couple of small bushes growing out the side of the cliff - blood pouring out of a split head.

The very first thoughts that ran thru my mind was a scripture "Whoever calls on the Name of The Lord will be saved".

True story, the Emergency Service Volunteers came in the middle of the night on a rope and dragged me up the cliff. Here in this area of OZ the newspapers and tv made a thing out of it and after a while i took to wearing a Praise The Lord beltbuckle - saved telling the story over and over!

Since then i have also "dumped religion", the spiritual life is so much better, no fear, no negatives, no bigotry, no dogma. An open and enquiring mind is the result of my life experience to date, i'm keen, eager to learn everything there is to know about the spiritual life of every person possible.

Nothing to sell, no indoctrination, no bias, no discrimination; intense curiosity - a burning desire to know all spiritual paths and the travellers thereon.

Cool.

Born a Baptist, now, having read much and lived more, I couldn't imagine being one (Agnostic)

no born a Cristian now an Athiest

Well mixed religions in my family, born raised on Christian and Buddist beliefs.
Now i practice witchcraft.

Thankfully, although my mother clings to the hope that there really might be a god, probably due to ignorance, I was not Baptised, and the only place religion has ever been enforced upon me was during primary school, where I was forced to be christian.

I am now atheist, and will remain so until I get the energy to start practicing buddhism. Buddhism sounds great, due to the fact that it is about self improvement, not worshipping an invisible person who you have to put faith in, and nor do you have to relentlessly pour money into a church...

Argh i totally understand about the whole primary school, i went to a very religious private school where we had to pray in the morning, lunch and before we left for home.

Also i didn't like taking the class REligious studies, we had to through middle and high school because all it was about was the study of Christianity and the subs that branch out from it, even though before the class started we were told it was about world religions, not just Christianity.

I am very happy that i was not baptised and that i was not forced to believe in whatever religion my family members had faith in.

You know how you just grow outa believing in the easter bunny or santa clause? No one explained to me they didnt exist, I grew out of it.

THat how it was with christianity and I. Just grew out of it.




[This message has been edited by gombowlzombie (edited 09-24-2002).]

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Originally posted by gombowlzombie:
You know how you just grow outa believing in the easter bunny or santa clause? No one explained to me they didnt exist, I grew out of it.

That how it was with christianity and I. Just grew out of it.

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It was half like that for me. I grew half out of it, and the other half I had to take the red pill to shed. The blue pill just wasn't going to do it for me.