Your Birth Religion

[Rainbow Mage]

What religious background do you come from? Were you raised something other then you are now? Why did you leave it?

If you've remained in it, why? If you ever left it and then returned to it, why?

Feel free to share if you like. I've known some of you on here awhile, and others I'm just meeting, but it'd be interesting to see where you come from.

I'll be sharing too

 

[The Sum of Awe]

I was raised Baptist, very seldom went to the Lutheran church though.

I left it because I found out my parents lied to me about Santa Clause, Tooth Fairy, etc. to make me behave, and I wondered "what if God is a lie to make us behave" when I was a kid, became atheist (kinda, I didn't believe in God or care about religion or even know the term "atheist" at that age)

 

[Rainbow Mage]

I was raised in the United Pentecostal Church myself, but I have mixed feelings about it. I won't lie and say I never liked it because I did have some good times with the other kids.

Part of me though always doubted it and that increased in my teen years. I also didn't like not being given a choice.

I left because I had become too liberal, too skeptical and because I wanted to explore other things.

I now entirely doubt most of what I was raised to believe- tongues, etc. I was always skeptical of hell.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

I was raised in the United Pentecostal Church myself, but I have mixed feelings about it. I won't lie and say I never liked it because I did have some good times with the other kids.

Part of me though always doubted it and that increased in my teen years. I also didn't like not being given a choice.

I left because I had become too liberal, too skeptical and because I wanted to explore other things.

I now entirely doubt most of what I was raised to believe- tongues, etc. I was always skeptical of hell.

How did your family feel when you stopped being Christian?

 

[Gjallarhorn]

What religious background do you come from?

Christian, Mennonite (sort of).

Were you raised something other then you are now?

Yes.

Why did you leave it?

I no longer believed.

 

[Trey of Diamonds]

Born and raised Southern Baptist. Didn't believe in a lot of Baptist doctrine like original sin, no dancing and no drinking. Also didn't care for all the stuck up snobs in my family church telling me my Muslim friends were going to Hell. So I told them I would rather burn in Hell with my friends than spend any time in Heaven with them. Refused to be Baptized and wandered the Earth looking for spiritual growth. Eventually found the UU Church and have been happy ever since.

And that's the very brief version of my spiritual journey.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

How did your family feel when you stopped being Christian?

My dad kind of refers to my beliefs mockingly if he ever brings it up while insisting that I know the truth. He also thinks my gods are demons. My mom is now Apathetic Agnostic so could care less. My siblings don't care because they all left it too. Atheist, Cafeteria Christian, Baptist, and Buddhist respectively.

 

[Iti oj]

Raised catholic now a wandering chaot with a flare for playing dress up with religion

 

[mycorrhiza]

I was brought up to believe in a mix of Christianity and New Age (dad's an atheist though, but he never spoke about religion when I grew up). That in combination with being a part of the local pentecostal church's child group (because there was nothing else to do in my town if you didn't like sports) made me a quite convinced Christian. Until I actually started reading the Bible. The God I found there was nothing like the all-loving God I had been brought up to believe in. And as I found no evidence that a God was active in the world I went on to deism and then later atheism/pantheism.

Neither of my parents really react to me being an atheist/pantheist

 

[Jainarayan]

Raised Roman Catholic in Italian-American family. Converted to Eastern Orthodox when I was 23. Always had Hindu leanings from the time I was a teenager. Fell away from Christianity almost 20 years ago. Became agnostic/deist. Hinduism resurfaced and I started fully embracing it maybe two years ago.

 

[uu_sage]

I was raised an evangelical in the Conservative Baptist Church of America and the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS). I left both traditions at 16, found Unitarian Universalism at 18. My theology evolved from humanist to Pagan/Buddhist eclectic and ended up a Christian Universalist.I left the UUA in 2007 and joined the United Church of Christ (UCC) in 2008.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

Well my journey to Pagan was kind of interesting and long. I wanted to remain Christian when I left the UPC, so I became Episcopal, but before long I realized I was even doubting the atonement and resurrection.

I became a Gnostic, which led me into Buddhism, and eventually Deism. I was doubting at that point that there was a god who cared enough to be part of my life.

I remained Buddhist and I gladly give the credit that it helped me grow more spiritually then any religion ever had.

Then through a series of events I was drawn to the gods and saw them coming into my life. It was a real change for someone raised Monotheist, but I couldn't deny it.

Since then I've given up Buddhism after being a Kemetic Buddhist for some time. I also briefly experimented with mixing it with Christian Gnosticism. That was a brief revisit.

I honestly just feel Pagan at this point. Its where I feel I fit, at last.

A note on Buddhism- I didn't give it up for any bad reason, but because I wasn't growing from it anymore. It has given me more in spiritual growth then can ever be repaid. Lord Buddha will always be one of my teachers in my heart. In giving up Buddhism I obeyed him because he said if you see a treasure being sold by another merchant that catches you, sell this treasure and go buy it. Giving Buddhism up was hard to do, but it was best.

 

[Breathe]

What religious background do you come from?

I was raised irreligious.

Were you raised something other then you are now? Why did you leave it?

I had a spiritual experience, and began questioning. Everything started falling into place. Then I got confused and started searching some more.

 

[1137]

Jewish by blood, no leaving that haha.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

Jewish by blood, no leaving that haha.

Well I'm Jewish by parentage myself, but I wasn't raised in Judaism. I would still like to learn more about it, but I know I wouldn't ever be a religious Jew.

 

[Riverwolf]

I didn't have one.

 

[Tarheeler]

What religious background do you come from? Were you raised something other then you are now? Why did you leave it?

I was raised Southern Baptist, and I left it because there wasn't anyway to reconcile what I had been taught about Jesus with what I believed about God.

There was just so much that didn't make sense: vicarious salvation, the deification and and status of Jesus as messiah, eternal punishment, salvation through faith alone, once saved always saved....

In Judaism I've found a connection with God, an accepting community, and meaningful rituals and traditions; things I always felt were missing in the religion I grew up in.

 

[Quintessence]

Eh, I left the religion I was "raised in" at such a young age I tend to discount it entirely. I mean, I left it before I was even ten and I would hardly count ages zero through four as significant as far as religious adherence goes. I've always carved my own trail through the landscape of purpose and meaning. I *should* have been raised UU with that kind of attitude, but oh well.

 

[waitasec]

What religious background do you come from?

christian

Were you raised something other then you are now?

yes

Why did you leave it?

it stopped making sense for me.

 

[ForeverFaithful]

Raised pretty Consevatively Protestant, didn't attend church regularly,

Became an Anglican on my own, and have been moving to Rome ever since