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joydakiss
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Your Religion
What church or temple did you go to as a child? What part did religion play in your life?
--- We do not see things as they are; we see things as we are. ~ Talmud
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1/11/2008, 12:20 pm
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HIRAMWEVANS
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Re: Your Religion
None . Well I suppose you can call common sense a religion .
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1/11/2008, 1:25 pm
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jessilin0113
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Re: Your Religion
I technically was raised Mormon, but stopped going voluntarily when I was about 13, and am an atheist now. I don't think being raised Mormon had anything to do with that. When I say "raised", I just mean my family was, and we went to church on Sunday, because that was what you did on Sunday, but I wasn't steeped in the religion, I didn't go because I believed it strongly or anything like that. I wasn't raised in a household of great faith.
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"If I had a quarter for every time I said I had a nickel, I would have five times as much theoretical money." --Stephen Colbert
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1/11/2008, 1:27 pm
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joydakiss
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…
I was born and raised Seventh-Day Adventist.
My parents kind of broke away from the traditional SDA church when they started their own.
The church pretty much keeps to all the SDA tenets...the only thing is they're independent of the SDA conference. My parents church is also a little more "spirited", shall we say. That is, people use tambourines and drums and they clap, traditional SDA church is organ only and no clapping. They also anoint people and pray over the sick during church, at the end of the sermon, on occasion. Those are the main differences, yet traditional SDAs tend to be fearful of independent churches. I don't know why.
I still consider myself SDA, although I don't go to church, other than when I'm home with my folks. When I mentioned SDAs tend to be fearful of independent churches, I meant that my parents were and are subject to quite a bit of criticism. They tended to expose me to a lot of it, in that they would tell me about what was happening, and I was an only child. Sometimes, I tend to think they exposed me to a little too much, too early.
I think I was exposed to too much hypocrisy in the church at an early age...the falliability of people who claimed to be saved. I didn't understand why people would do the things they do, say the things they say, and still claimed that they are saved.
So, I don't go to church anymore. I still support my parents though...not only is it a Commandment, I'm really proud of their legacy and all they accomplished. That's OK though, I think God understands.
--- We do not see things as they are; we see things as we are. ~ Talmud
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2/4/2008, 8:52 pm
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1amIevil1
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Re: …
Raised Lutheran. Was confirmed Lutheran also.
I've now renounced all forms of organized religion.
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4/28/2008, 3:56 pm
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IAMIS
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Re: …
I went to a Catholic church growing up. I think it was mainly because my grandmother was alive so my Dad felt obligated to take us. I didn't like it except the inside of the church looked pretty cool. Our attendance pretty much faded out by the time I was in the 8th grade. My two oldest brothers pretty much declared themselves as agnostics. Religion was never discussed in the home except a few stray conversations here and there the gist of which were something like my Dad believed in God but didn't trust the church full of hypocrites. My Mom was raised by a wonderful devout woman who never pushed her faith on her and so my Mom was sort of a seeker but always on the fence.
I was something of a seeker at around 18. I sensed there was more to life than meets the eye. I read allot and experimented with meditation. I read into things like past life regressions and psychology books. I really liked science fiction and I think it helped keep my mind open to a broader way of thinking. I met my ex-wife who's mother was really into charismatic Christianity though you wouldn't know it by her personality. They were praying for me and I started reading the bible a bit more. Before meeting this girl I was desperately lonely and had started talking to God. I was asking for someone to love me. I found her and she claimed to love me but I felt she loved her image of me but didn't really know me and didn't seem that interested in knowing the real me. So even with her I still felt desperately lonely. I reached the point of crisis of desiring suicide once before meeting her and once after meeting her. Then one day while driving to no place in particular, totally sober, God touched me. Words can not convey the experience. It likely only lasted seconds but it was the most powerful experience of my life. I'll try to describe it. It was like being bathed in a ray beam of pure love. There was a warmth different than normal heat and a kind of light. God spoke a knowing directly into my mind without the words of language. The closest I can put it in words would be "I AM". I was immediately struck by the feeling of how could a nothing like me be so privileged to have received this. I felt like I was bursting with the need to release my appreciation of this gift. Not knowing where to go I went back to the catholic church the next Sunday for the first time in many years. In the pew they had little cards to fill out and one line was about teaching kids. I had always liked kids as they were less beguiling so I filled out the card and checked the box. Next thing I knew I found myself in a classroom with about 14 4th graders. I was a long haired dude who had still not grown out of my partying relationships and wasn't even a confirmed catholic and here I was being trusted to teach these people's kids about God. God was with me though and many "coincidences" kept happening in those days. I got through that year and the next two was tasked with teaching a two year confirmation class. All that time I was taking classes and hoping to find a mentor myself. One man I wrote to about my shyness tried to arrange for me to meet him at a rest area. Another never answered back. The nun who brought me in to the CCD program had stories of the cruelties of the church. I got confirmed with my class but drifted away from the catholic church because I could see that their dogma did not match what I was reading in the bible. Since then I have met many shamans and a few real people of God. I have met many people who came to God through very interesting circumstances. I have met very smart people who are believers, physicists, astronomers, doctors, etc. and they too are reluctant to try to explain their belief because to those who have not been through the process it can sound crazy. I have witnessed things that go against the odds of probability to an extreme. I have also seen what I believe are the efforts of an enemy of God working against Him. I now attend a small church with a pastor who is a 77 yo dynamo. He has never given me the impression that he cares about his ego or income. He preaches about love. He holds our band of shy intelligent and divergent believers together as a body by preaching truth. At this point in life I am struggling to overcome my innate weaknesses and my self pity over the all that has happened to me in life. I hope I can do that before my life runs out and that I can bloom and bear fruit.
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How does one change what he expects to see?
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5/3/2008, 12:31 pm
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1amIevil1
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Re: …
quote:
I was desperately lonely and had started talking to God
That's yourself, your conscience, that you were talking to. There's nobody out there listening who is going to somehow redirect a person to you. How silly.
--- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A view out front, early morning in October... |
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6/20/2008, 6:34 pm
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joydakiss
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Matt, this isn't about judging other people's personal religious experiences, or lack thereof. This is about people telling their story. We all know you're a militant atheist but that's your opinion.
--- We do not see things as they are; we see things as we are. ~ Talmud
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6/23/2008, 7:36 pm
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ObamaSupporter
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Right now I am reading Spirituality Without God by Moller de la Rouviere. It explains a lot of the "spiritual feelings" I've had, but in terms of it being human or humane, not as part of a religious experience involving God.
I was raised Episcopalian, explored Christian Science (early teens), Pentecostal (late teens), CG Jung (college), Wicca (Grad School), Eckankar (30s), and currently in my 40s, and I'm mainly interested in the different vocabulary words that these different groups use to explain the same thing... that despite the appearance of separation... We are all already whole.
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6/26/2008, 11:04 am
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mrgreed24
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Raised as a Roman Catholic. Still a Roman Catholic but am not very religious. I go throw periods where I attend mass every Sunday but then disappear for a while. I should be more diligent.
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6/27/2008, 10:10 am
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