What led you to your current religious (or non-religious) position?

[TheScholar]

All Dawkins did in the book was bash Religion, claiming that Religion does more harm to society than good. I could not agree to this idea and decided to do independent study of my own about Religion especially Dharmic Religion like Hinduism, Buddhism etc. But I could not agree to the idea of reincarnation and most of the ideas of Hinduism and Buddhism didnt make any sense to me. Finally I tried reading about Christianity especially "Mere Christianity" by CS Lewis and after lot of research and personal experiences I went back to Church.

I had a similar experience after I left the Catholic Church. I was an agnostic for awhile, and then ended up as a Pentecostal recently.

 

[Revoltingest]

I always like this question cuz it's easy to answer.
I was raised with no religion at all. Upon finding out about Xianity
(the local favorite), it seemed really implausible. This never changed.

 

[BruceDLimber]

>What led you to yoru cuxrrent religion?

Extensive reading, prayer, research, investigation, observation, and evaluation.

Bruce

 

[Sha'irullah]

>What led you to yoru cuxrrent religion?

Extensive reading, prayer, research, investigation, observation, and evaluation.

Bruce

Well that is exactly why I have no belief in god ironically

 

[Rainbow Mage]

I arrived at atheism after giving a lot of thought to the nature of god belief and why I felt I needed it, as well as asking myself things like why god allows suffering and why prayer doesn't seem to get things accomplished. I also recognize there is no evidence that would convince me of a god.

I chose Buddhism because I think it gives me good direction and purpose. It gives me a good framework in which to help myself and others. I recognize the temporal nature of this existence and like that Buddhism encourages humanity to believe in and help ourselves.

It took me many years of seeking and questioning to arrive here and I keep an open mind.

 

[metis]

I'm still a "work in progress" even at 69, so if I were to give you an answer now, undoubtedly I would have to return in 5 minutes to change it.

 

[Susanpalli,JW]

I was raised a catholic and was very interested in Jesus' teachings. After reading the Gospels, I came to the conclusion that the Catholic Church allowed practices that were contrary to Jesus' teachings. For example, love your neighbor as yourself and pray for your enemies, leaves no room for joining the military. There are priests that have blessed the armies that went to war. That is only one example of many that I found inconsistent with what Jesus taught his disciples.

I Researched every Christian religion i could and came upon the Jehovah's Witnesses. I studied with them with a skeptical mind, for two years, and finally came to the conclusion that they do as best they can, to follow the teachings of Jesus.

What convinced me was:
They make God's name (Jehovah )known to the world.
They don't go to war.
They preach that God's kingdom under Jesus' direction,will come to rule the earth and make it a paradise.
They try to follow as best they can, love your neighbor as yourself.

I am truly happy as one of Jehovah's Witnesses.

 

[Sir Doom]

Years of obsession with the topic.

 

[StarryNightshade]

My story is generally long and drawn out, so I'll do bullet points.

• Was raised Christian, but lost faith around age 13
• Went through an "angry atheist" phase that lasted throughout high school and the beginning of college
• Began exploring religion again after taking classes in History, Philosophy, and Psychology
• Began going to UU church and also began practicing Buddhism
• Buddhism eventually led me to Hinduism, which is where I currently am today

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

I wasn't really raised anything. I don't remember ever going to a church before my mom and I moved to Columbus in the late '90s. We tried to go to one of my uncle's Methodist church, a Baptist church and a UU church. We didn't like the first two and the UU church never contacted us when we tried to become members so we stopped going.

After that, I started exploring my own opinions about spirituality and became really hateful about organized religion (mostly due to the conspiracy stuff I was reading) until my mid teens. Then, all of a sudden, I had the idea of trying a church again. I told my mom and she said that I can choose it. So I looked online and settled on the Catholic cathedral. I'd never been to a Catholic church and I was curious.

So we went to our first Mass in Spring of 2006. We both loved it. I know I had never felt so amazing and closer to the Divine than I had at that church. We talked to the priest after Mass and he was a great guy, very funny (I miss him because he retired as rector and I don't really care for the new one). He told us about the RCIA program. So we kept going and that September we joined the RCIA. At Easter Vigil of 2007, we were Baptized, Confirmed and had our First Communion.

So I became Catholic because it was the religion that brought me closest to God than anything else. I also studied it a lot during the RCIA process and found that its claims make the most sense and that it has a very sophisicated and nuanced theology that goes back to the beginning of Christianity. A strong and consistent historical foundation is very important to me in a religion. I also feel that it truly lives up to the "universal" label because it is truly global in a way I feel that the other denominations aren't.

Since I have issues with depression and my life is pretty hard, my faith sometimes wanes and I try to leave. I've experimented with Satanism, Luciferianism and Paganism. None of them end up working for me and I've never had an experience with another deity. There's nothing there for me. I've also researched pretty much every other religion and none of them clicked with me or had the ring of truth to them, imo.

 

[Moishe3rd]

Well, I like reading about religion and one of the questions that intrigues me the most is what leads one person to accept certain religious (or non-religious) position as truth.

In my view, to declare yourself of a given religious position (perhaps excluding eclectic/syncretic and universalist religions) you have to strictly adhere to a set of ideas, values, precepts, etc. of that position, while rejecting or ignoring thousands of other religious positions – the majority of which you are mostly or totally ignorant about – considering them as less valuable than yours. To me, that seems to be a really complex issue, though many (perhaps most) people do not have the consciousness of that. By the way, what lead you your current religious (or non-religious position)?

Well, as a Seeker, I do not own any predefined religious position. But I'd say that the reasons why I became a seeker were my willingness to always question everything, retest old conclusions and know other points of view (a consequence of my agnostic/atheist phase, I think), as well as my interest in supernatural experiences and discovering the mysteries of life and the universe.

“In my youth,” Father William replied to his son,
"I feared it might injure the brain;
But, now that I’m perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again.”
- Lewis Carroll

"Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."
- Arthur Conan Doyle

I was raised as a Well Churched Episcopalian Christian. My late uncle was the Episcopalion bishop of Alabama and the Gulf Coast. My family held every position possible within the church as did I as a youth. My brother is currently an Episcopalian minister. I studied both the bible and church doctrine.
As I got older, I also studied history and other religions. I attended many different Christian denominations in my youth, learning the theological differences.
By the time I got to college, I tried a bit of Everything. I danced with the Hare Krishnas and ate their lovely foods as I hitchhiked about the United States stopping at religious communes and non religious communes such as "The Farm."
I joined "The Way," a Christian cult. I worshiped the little fat boy with the Divine Light Mission. I Sat with Chayom Trungpa Rinpoche and learned Tibetan Buddhist meditation and practices. I read Watts; Castenada; Ram Dass; and all the rest. I learned Tai Chi Chuan with Maggie Newman from the school of Chen Man Ching. I studied the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali and practiced much, learning of chakras and chi.
I meditated on the Tao Te Ching and Taoism.
I read the Koran and studied Idries Shah among others.
I delved deep into the works of Ouspensky, Gurdjieff, Nicoll, and Collin.
Plato and Aristotle; Marx and Adam Smith; Scientology and the Moonies; mind altering substances and isolated meditation; the Upanishads and the Ramayana; Celtic Druids and Wiccans; the I Ching and Tarot...
And much, much more if I strained my brain hard enough.

And, after a time, the Torah and Judaism.
Religions and philosophies can be very useful.
I have still, albeit rarely, recommended others to some other spiritual pursuit if I think that it would help them.
However, in light of my experiences and life, the Torah is True and G-d has a special relationship with the Jews, His People Who Chose G-d.

 

[metis]

“In my youth,” Father William replied to his son,
"I feared it might injure the brain;
But, now that I’m perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again.”
- Lewis Carroll

"Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."
- Arthur Conan Doyle

I was raised as a Well Churched Episcopalian Christian. My late uncle was the Episcopalion bishop of Alabama and the Gulf Coast. My family held every position possible within the church as did I as a youth. My brother is currently an Episcopalian minister. I studied both the bible and church doctrine.
As I got older, I also studied history and other religions. I attended many different Christian denominations in my youth, learning the theological differences.
By the time I got to college, I tried a bit of Everything. I danced with the Hare Krishnas and ate their lovely foods as I hitchhiked about the United States stopping at religious communes and non religious communes such as "The Farm."
I joined "The Way," a Christian cult. I worshiped the little fat boy with the Divine Light Mission. I Sat with Chayom Trungpa Rinpoche and learned Tibetan Buddhist meditation and practices. I read Watts; Castenada; Ram Dass; and all the rest. I learned Tai Chi Chuan with Maggie Newman from the school of Chen Man Ching. I studied the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali and practiced much, learning of chakras and chi.
I meditated on the Tao Te Ching and Taoism.
I read the Koran and studied Idries Shah among others.
I delved deep into the works of Ouspensky, Gurdjieff, Nicoll, and Collin.
Plato and Aristotle; Marx and Adam Smith; Scientology and the Moonies; mind altering substances and isolated meditation; the Upanishads and the Ramayana; Celtic Druids and Wiccans; the I Ching and Tarot...
And much, much more if I strained my brain hard enough.

And, after a time, the Torah and Judaism.
Religions and philosophies can be very useful.
I have still, albeit rarely, recommended others to some other spiritual pursuit if I think that it would help them.
However, in light of my experiences and life, the Torah is True and G-d has a special relationship with the Jews, His People Who Chose G-d.

I as well came from the Christian tradition, being brought up in a fundamentalist Protestant church, but left that church in my mid-20's. I later converted to my wife's Catholicism and actually taught Catholic theology to adults for 14 years.

However, on my way to the Vatican, my plane got highjacked and I was schlepped off to Jerusalem. I converted to Judaism about 20 years ago, but I'm pretty much on the lunatic left-wing fringe element.

Like yourself, I feel very much at home with Judaism and am very active in my synagogue, including co-teaching our Lunch & Learn program along with teaching various seminars (I also taught comparative religions for a couple of years).

shalom

 

[Jainarayan]

I was raised Roman Catholic and converted to Eastern Orthodox at age 23. Even as a Christian I had an affinity for the Hindu deities and was drawn to Hinduism. I believed they were just as real as anything else. After I became disillusioned with the Orthodox Church, I coasted in neutral as an agnostic deist, yet I still believed in the Hindu deities as real entities ("sub-gods"). It was only a few years ago that I fully embraced Hinduism. For a short time I rejected most of it and dabbled in a syncretization of Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism. However, I found that Buddhism's basic tenets are at odds with what I really believe: the basic tenets of Hinduism.

 

[Sunstone]

I was raised agnostic, and gradually shifted to agnostic atheist over the years I've spent on RF. But agnostic and agnostic atheist are just positions that I hold tentatively, until if and when more evidence becomes available.

 

[idav]

Well, I like reading about religion and one of the questions that intrigues me the most is what leads one person to accept certain religious (or non-religious) position as truth.

In my view, to declare yourself of a given religious position (perhaps excluding eclectic/syncretic and universalist religions) you have to strictly adhere to a set of ideas, values, precepts, etc. of that position, while rejecting or ignoring thousands of other religious positions – the majority of which you are mostly or totally ignorant about – considering them as less valuable than yours. To me, that seems to be a really complex issue, though many (perhaps most) people do not have the consciousness of that. By the way, what lead you your current religious (or non-religious position)?

Well, as a Seeker, I do not own any predefined religious position. But I'd say that the reasons why I became a seeker were my willingness to always question everything, retest old conclusions and know other points of view (a consequence of my agnostic/atheist phase, I think), as well as my interest in supernatural experiences and discovering the mysteries of life and the universe.

I was raised Catholic and believing in a One supreme God but have since delved into knowledge of the times and came to conclude that a personal god is a ridiculous concept but there is so much out there that we have yet to explain like existence itself. Since I have been in religious forum environments I have taken on Pantheism as my belief since it makes sense to me in regards to the mystery of existence and life itself, the type of god I believe makes so much more sense in regards to current knowledge, makes so much more sense than some magical being that just starts off all omni powerful and omni knowing.

BTW, sweet avatar.

 

[Nakosis]

By the way, what lead you your current religious (or non-religious position)?

So you think the non-religious have to adhere to a particular set of rules, truths, etc?


Me, as long as someone ain't directly stepping on my toes I think they should believe whatever they feel comfortable with.

I'm happy to explain why I believe as I do. Just don't feel it's my job to convince anyone to believe as I do. I actually like that freedom of belief is a protection that is afforded by the US Constitution. I also like the idea of separation of church and state. The government should not involve itself in my beliefs.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

What led you to your current religious (or non-religious) position?

Mostly intellectual curiosity, honesty, and rational thought.

 

[Tarheeler]

Well, I like reading about religion and one of the questions that intrigues me the most is what leads one person to accept certain religious (or non-religious) position as truth.

In my view, to declare yourself of a given religious position (perhaps excluding eclectic/syncretic and universalist religions) you have to strictly adhere to a set of ideas, values, precepts, etc. of that position, while rejecting or ignoring thousands of other religious positions – the majority of which you are mostly or totally ignorant about – considering them as less valuable than yours. To me, that seems to be a really complex issue, though many (perhaps most) people do not have the consciousness of that. By the way, what lead you your current religious (or non-religious position)?

Well, as a Seeker, I do not own any predefined religious position. But I'd say that the reasons why I became a seeker were my willingness to always question everything, retest old conclusions and know other points of view (a consequence of my agnostic/atheist phase, I think), as well as my interest in supernatural experiences and discovering the mysteries of life and the universe.

I was raised Christian, and went through a period of disbelief in my late teens and early 20's. When I tried to return to religion in my late 20's, I found that, while I believed in God, I did not believe in Christianity. I spent several years studying religions, including (but not limited to) different Christian denominations, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Germanic and Celtic paganism.

I had dismissed Judaism early because, as a Christian, I felt like I knew all about from what I had learned in church. But I would catch a little tidbit of something I had never of before here and there, and eventually realized that I didn't know anything about it. I read a little about Judaism between other religions, but still never it much thought as a possibilty. Pretty soon, however, I found myself reading about it exclusively, and then approached my local rabbi for more detailed information. About a year after that I began attending services, and approached him about conversion about six months after that. Converting to Judaism is a long process, but it was worth the effort.

In Judaism I've found a religion, a philosophy, a people, and a system that helps me to both worship God and to be the best person I can be.

I do practice Judaism to the exclusion of all other religions, I do not think that Judaism is the only "truth" or the only way to worship God. Torah describes God's covenant with the Jewish people and our relationship with our Creator, and Judaism is how we put that into action. There is nothing that precludes other groups from having their own understanding and relationships with God, and their own ways of putting that into action. Each path is a valid expression of that group's understanding of the Divine, but Judaism is the method that gives me the strongest connection to God.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

I was raised as an Orthodox Christian. Lost faith around when I was 15 due to excessive readings of Physics and Evolutionary Biology.

:biglaugh:

 

[Infinitum]

I was raised Christian, but I've been drawn to ancient mythologies and stories for all my life. A lot of things happened in my teens that got me involved in modern occultism and spirits. My experiences led me to rethink what I had been taught by a lot of things from an early age, especially about the nature of evil. My extensive research later made me drop both Christianity and the belief in literal spiritual entities, but I learned many valuable lessons about who I am and how I truly view the world. I wouldn't say I "follow" the Left-Hand Path in the traditional religious sense, it's simply the framework that is closest to my personal inner language. It provides me a community of (more or less) like-minded people and a language for things I've learned on the way so far. In other words I follow myself, not a specific philosophy or a religion.