Religions you have chosen to be in.

I know some people are born into a family of a religion, some stick at it, some dont see the point of their teachings, many people dont have a religion at all.

If you are in a religion your family arnt or you have changed to it could you post a link about your religion and why you changed! I would like to learn about other religions other than Christianity and the main ones!

This is my first post, tell me If anythings wrong!

Good post....religion is essentially a cult.....which by definition is a persuasion by a group to influence others to their own beliefs. That encompasses a vast area of politics and religion.

I was brought up a Roman Catholic..I was an altar boy, but stopped after two setting myself on fire (in the name of the lord) incidents......some 10 yr olds should not be in church.

Some people manage to break free of their imposed ideologies, some dont......either way it is a powerful tool, that will have a fundemental effect on people; even when they think they are independant.

In order to judge whether it is right or wrong I must have a moralistic upbringing of some description......

what however makes my upbringing any more 'right' than a religion/race that I do not understand? nothing!

People can change religion, but at the end of they day, 'what is the point?' Live life and be happy........to quote some chap....."Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious"

hmm, my parents and grand parents are morman. i am a mixture of gnostic and my own beliefs. i dont like mormanism(is that correct?), they are too restricting i guess i could say. from what my grandmother keeps saying to me, they cant have coffee, shop on sundays(why would i care to begin with?), and from what i understand, you have to goto church or a "holy" building to have your "sins" forgivin.

a person should not have to goto a holy building to get thier sins forgiven, or go to a church to worship him(god). a person shouldnt be limited to what they are allowed to drink. and a person should not be told when they cant do something.

the only things i say should be "sinful" are killing urself and killing others.
but this is only my take on religion

rekar

Well let’s see, having been raised by two ordained hellfire and brimstone Pentecostal ministers I think its safe to say I broke free and discovered my own path. I am a Spiritual Anarchist.

Before we go any further I want to stress that my path is NOT your path. Your life has lead you this far and shall not let you fall as you search for the way that is most meaningful for you and your creator. I am a cult of one. If you want to join my cult the answer is no, go start your own damn cult.

Religion is brainwashed into people from the very moment of their birth and is very difficult to overcome. Few people ever actually overcome the brainwashing. They live in guilt because they think they are sinners, They suffer needlessly because the brainwashing won’t let them know peace as long as they remain outside of its horrible grip. They turn to drugs, alcohol and even the so called Devil to try to escape it.

Religion has messed up more human minds then bad parenting has ever even dreamed of.

Free the chains from your mind and the chains on your soul will melt away. Religion is a form of spiritual slavery that will rob you of the greatest gift the creator has bestowed upon you, free will.

I believe dearly in God, I just don’t believe in religion. God created man, man created religion. Life is a gift and to say its terrible or a burden is to spit in the face of the one that granted it to you, be it God or your parents.

Choose to be happy. Free your soul.

Wupy

As seems to be the general consensus of many ATSers, I too was forcibly brought up Christian, and then sort of rebelled away from it.

I was born and soon baptised in a Lutheran church. I notice that some other kids of young age seem to easily get into the 'brainwashing', and know all the 'right' answers the church supposedly teaches you, but to be honest, I never really understood it. Well I guess I understood it... but I just... didn't believe it? When it came to religion, I was just sort of in an oblivious dazed stupor for about the first 12 years of my life. Although I do recall one incident at around 8 where I had a crazy fit in church and just kept repeatedly saying I didnt want to be there, until I was brough home and spanked for 5 minutes straight, and locked up in my room all day. (Really the religion of peace and forgiveness . And this wouldn't be the last incident to indicate so.)
Anyway then I was forced to become confirmed. Mostly I did it for fear that my parents would kick me out of the house, which now seems unfounded that my parents would abandon me at the ripe age of 13. Then I became an acolyte, just to fulfill my manditory 40 hours of community service that you need to graduate from high school here in Ontario. Slowly my hatred for the church began to build and build. At times I found it unbearable to sit and listen to sermons and the service, and I was always one inch away from jumping up and yelling "NO, YOU'VE GOT IT SO WRONG." Eventually it culminated in me walking out and just walking home one day. Partially I blamed it on the fact that the old people's overly applied perfume and all the flowers on the alter closed up my lungs/throat so I couldn't breathe, but I have a good feeling my parents know how I feel about Christianity now anyways.
So now I haven't been to church for probably about 2 years. Especially since I started working Sundays it gives me an excuse sometimes, when I start early. Almost weekly my parents still ask "Are you coming to church" or something similar though. I don't' blame them. They are still under the influence of organized religion, and feel that it is their fault that they didn't do enough to make me believe in God or something.

Anyways... off of Christianity and into my own spiritual exploration. First I started with concepts that were loosely tied into Christianity, or that applied to Christianity without contridiction. My first search for truth came with an interest in aliens, and the idea that perhaps aliens were Gods, who came to Earth and mixed their genes with primitive man. Thus there is no missing link. It ties in well with the Bible, since there are many stories of glowing clouds and disks coming down from the sky, angels and aliens are both beings of light descending from the heavens bringing peace, etc. It's actually quite an interesting thing to look into, even if you don't believe in it. The ancient Sumarians had some pretty cool beliefs. Although I have stopped believing in this, mainly from the scoffing and ridicule you get when you even try to defend the idea, I still haven't ruled it out, as there is nothing within it that can really be proved wrong.

After that I decided to pursue a new area to find the "meaning of life". I have always been slightly interested in Buddhism, but I have never gotten serious into studying it, so I just picked up little tidbits along the way. The idea of tibetan monks and buddha, chi, meditation, and all that good stuff has always appealed to me. It's a pretty romantic idea. During my "meaning of life" period, I was basically absorbing and trying to work out any spiritual information that anybody was willing to give me. In a way, I am still sort of in this mode, except that I haven't found anything new or really appealing in quite a while.

My last main 'religion' was Modern Gnostic. Although I wouldn't consider this really a religion, as gnosis is latin for knowledge. The whole idea is that they try not to make it a religion. It is all about finding out for yourself, instead of just believing what you are told. My introduction to Gnosis came with a site called Mysticweb.org, which has since become Gnosticweb.com. When I first signed up, the site was wonderful. Full of spiritually free people, and bright new ideas. At first they had free PDFs available with all their information, but they have since succombed to the 'dark side' of money, and now you have to buy the book to participate in the course, and the supplimentary lessons are now videos (which I can't even get to download.) Anyways, I was lucky enough to complete all four of their main courses before the site went down the crapper: "Astral Travel", "Searching Within", "Journey To Enlightenment", and "Advanced Investigation". At the end of AI however, I was not accepted into the Teacher's Course based on the fact that they didn't think I had 'progressed' enough. Basically, it focused around astral projection/relaxation, and elimination of the egos, although there were many other elements such as alchemy, etc. All of the information was based around the teachings of Master Samael Aun Weor. So basically the website turned into quite a cult, but the ideas it gave in the beginning were quite amazing. Even if you don't believe any part of it, gnosis/esoteric material is some of the most fascinating material I have ever read. I highly suggest that anybody looking for their own spiritual truths looks into it. Feel free to U2U me and I will give you more information about it. Not to mention I met quite a few 'spiritual friends' on that website, including current ATS members AkashicWanderer and Sesmo.

So anyways yes, enough rambling for me. Basically I have explored ALL of the religions and taken whatever I saw fit, and slowly encorporated them into my own "Grand Scheme of Things". I recommend other people do the same. Don't be confined to one set of beliefs. Pick and choose how you will. When you start really delving into religion, you will see that a set of basic principles is the same throughout all of them.

It is my belief that all religions were conveying true spirituality in the beginning, but over time they become very distorted. Spiritual leaders get turned into Gods themselves. It is my belief that Jesus didn't come here to "save us" in the way that people currently believe, but that he came to HELP US SAVE OURSELVES, in the same way he did. He was a teacher. If you have ever been to a church, you will see that many people don't even know what's going on. They say words and recite things that don't have meaning to them, just because they have for thousands of years. Spirituality shouldn't be about following along, it should be actively engaging!

And whatever happens, make LOVE an important part of your beliefs.

-Yarcofin

I was born and raised Roman Catholic.

Perhaps it was the church where I was at - the people, the priest, and the atmosphere - but instead of being something that was evangilistic, Our Lady of Hope was, and is, a wonderful place.

Monsinuer Farrell, our parishoner, even helped form our youth group. The man was a giant, could've done football, and chose God instead. He taught me that a firm handshake is a sign of a true man. Many Sundays he would call forward the children of the parish to the altar, where he would ask us questions about God, about Jesus, and about Religion. There was no wrong answer, and he loved to help us explore the more human side of Jesus - not as a god, but as a man. And if you reduce Jesus to a man, you can then be like Jesus.

Now, I was pretty heavily christian, and my father even formed the church choir - replacing an old (but heavenly sweet) piano-lady with a jazz guitar and some top notch singers.

Perhaps this is what changed things so much.

Seeing my father doing something progressive made me want to do something for the church too. And so I helped to start the Youth Lecture's group - offering the youth of the parish to take part in the parish. Mind you, I didn't form it - I was just a kind of catalyst. And so I started doing readings at church. I would sit beside the regular lecturer, and I would do the second reading and the "Lord hear our prayer" things.

And you know what, it felt good. Especially because I was imitating a deacon we had (who was married), and who - whenever he read the readings - I was in awe of with his flair, and truely strory-telling attitude. It wasn't a chore, it was a story. And like a story, the way it's told can change what it means. And so I started reading the stories of Jesus, and I would try to tell it like I was brought up - that he was a man, and that like a man, we can be like him.


Now, you're probably wondering where this is going. Usually stories of people changing faiths is based on some kind of disagreement with the church, or some kind of angst. However, me change in faith came slowly, and with welcome arms. In fact, I still attend church with some frequency.


My realization first came when I found out what truely a church is. A church is a gathering of people anywhere that share a common value. A church need not be a building, but is instead the people of that building. And so I began to praise God in my own way - not by going to church - but by enjoying life. Truely that's what Jesus intended - not for people to sit and fall asleep, but to go out "into the marketplace" and enjoy each others company and love.

From there, it was but small steps to realize where I really stood on religion. My religion is my own. What I percieve as God and morality is different from what anyone else percieves. As such, my religion cannot be a religion, for a religion must be held by multiple people. And so now I am spiritual.

I believe in God, but I am completely accepting of other religions. In fact, during the Creed (I believe in God, the father almighty, creator of heaven and earth, yadda, yadda, yadda), I don't say "I believe in the holy Catholic church"... because I don't. The Bible - even if you say it is the word of God - is the Word of God INTERPRETED BY MAN. And man, as we know all too well, is sinful. Thus, we cannot place complete faith in the bible, but rather we need to believe in the morality that the stories represent.

Why point out the thorne in your neighbour's eye when you cannot see the log in your own?

And so, yeah, I totally believe in God - but my God is a very uncarring God. He created the universe (through the Big Bang or whatever), and then say "And that's my job done" and went to sit on a couch to watch it unfold.

Jesus, Jesus is much more important to me. He's love man, and like love, it should not be hidden or restrained. Love thy fellow man, whomever it may be. The Old Testament gave us the 10 Commandments - but they're too easily broken. The Beatitudes are MUCH nicer.

I mean, the Commandments are "You must do this or punishment!", which isn't good for anyone, whilst the Beatitudes are "Hey, here's a few ideas - and if you like em, great, and if not, no sweat". To quote The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

"And then, nearly two thousand years after some guy got nailed to a tree for proclaiming how great it would be for people to be nice to each other for a change..."

That's all Jesus was man, and it's a pity more people don't realize that's what it boils down to for EVERY faith and EVERY religion. Be nice.

Anyways, so like I said, I'm no longer Roman Catholic, and instead just Spiritual. I believe in many things, but they are my own beliefs, and does not restrict anyone else. The most important thing for me now is this:

The Truth

And here's the catch, the Truth is a Question that can't be answered...

Well, I was brought up without any religion even though I grew up in a predominately Catholic neighborhood. I had friends who parents, I noticed, weren't as open-minded as my parents were. I'm not religious at all. Yet, I do like the idea of a soul or maybe an inner chakra. Just recently I came across something called Scientology. From what I hear about it, it's not really a religion, it's a way of life. That's all I know about it. Their website doesn't quite explain much except they want you to buy their book. I don't know what to think of it yet. I'm thinking of going and talking to them in person. But I'll post the link for you, and maybe other people interested.

www.scientology.org

I was baptised into the Roman Catholic church, but I wasn't strictly raised. My parents let me free in what I did. The only times I was actively active with religion was at school. Every morning they prayed and had verses, but I never participated. The teachers said that it is ok for me to be this way as long as I respect their views and don't do something to disturb their prayers. So I just sat there, quietly, waiting for them to be done. It was boring as hell. At the age of 8 I was given the choice to do the communion, but at that age I was still very materialistic. So the only reason I did it was for the presents I'd get not for the religion. The school that followed at age 13-14 we had weekly religious classes. One time I was so fed up I wiped my arse with ripped out pages of the bible.

After that I didn't do a thing with religion till about 16-17 years old. I've studied the bible intensly as well as holy books from many other religions. The main religions and ideologies I've studied them all and took from them which I felt comfortable with. The Rules I compiled from all those religions is what I live my life by. I have parts of Judeo-Christian, Paganism, Buddhism, Satanism etc. I'm a real mixture of it all hehe.

These days I don't go to churches. You can't get me in there even if you tried bribing me. The cold and dead atmosphere. I associate church with death and I don't want to have anything to do with it. Not even when a family member dies...I will NEVER set foot in church again.


The ignorance and one-true-wayism is most annoying. I hear voices...oh it's satan trying to fool you - no idiot you're scizofrenic and no1 forces you to do as those voices say even when that voice is satan. You and only you are responsible for what you do. I used oujia...NOO burn it there is satan in it. Right!! And more such noncence
------

religion is essentially a cult.....which by definition is a persuasion by a group to influence others to their own beliefs. That encompasses a vast area of politics and religion.

I agree with that part. However cults these days are seen as small groups that try to cause harm. Can't really say that about the organized religions which are grand in size....large cults which manifested themselves strongly within society.

In the dawn of time there were small tribes of people who roamed across the globe like nomadic people. Small tribes with leading types which were called shamans. These were mainly men which were able to not only work with the forces of nature, but also with aspects which are called Paranormal these days.

Mankind evolved further and called many godforms into life so they could understand the forces of nature more. In Greek Mythology there is spoken about the shaking of the earth and that the people made the connection with stampeding bulls. Thus a bull god was born. To make the godform happy there needed to be sacrifices and one day the queen herself was sacrifised. More earthquakes started to take place in that region so the people made the assumption that the godform slept with the queen and so Minotaur were given birth.

Many people followed their own beliefs, which you start to see happening again. Except now people have a greater understanding of it all and realise the strenght within themselves instead of believing and following a god.

After all...over the millenia many "teachers" were send from "The All". These people came in many shapes and forms, some were recognized and others were not. There was Hermes Trismegistus who initiated science by alchemical/occult means. He started calculus which became algebra, nature sciences, astrology which became astronomy, alchemy which became psychology and chemistry and many more. There was Buddha, Jezus and many more less famous. But all talked about the same things and none wanted to have followers, none wished to be idolized and worshipped and religions based upon them. It was the people, the followers that created religions to idolize those which they worshipped. So it's normal that people only write positive things down no matter how conflicting they are.

I don't "Hate" religion, just it's followers. They are so blind and dumb and hypocritical. They choose to follow one aspect but not another. Selective bunch aren't they. The way a lot of children are raised, pretty strict with sunday school and nonsence will only push the child away from it all. Or they become so indoctrinated that they can't live life as it was ment to be. Try to have a discussion with a religion indoctrinated individual and all they can do is quote and soon they'll be stuck because many quotations contradict one another. And then they say no I don't follow that part and it actually means blabla. Which is nonsence.

Like with anything Judeo-Christian belief system also has many sub-divions. The Pinkster Community...oh my god what a cult is that. You feel pain or such and you're automatically controlled by the devil. People who think different you should not associate with. You should only talk with people of that community. You should burn the books and things you own when they're not approved by by them. Bah...I'd smack some sense into people like that. Instead I kill em verbally whenever they try to start a debate.

What annoys me as well is that christian people spew out more foul language then anyone else in my surrounding, disrespectfull and such. But sunday they're at church and all their sins are forgiven. Friggin Hypocrites.

In my mind there is a big difference between being Religious and being Spiritual. I choose to be the latter because that at least leads me to the "salvation" which Christianity and many other religions talk about so highly.

@Joshter
Don't even think about participating with the scientology. They are a cult and should be avoided as well. Rather look within for what you need then looking into shady and vague practices like that.

[edit on 8-3-2006 by Enyalius]

Before you decide to join Scientology, I urge you to look deeply into what it actually is. Most people find it quite ridiculous after reading it. But if thats what you believe that's okay too. First and foremost, it is important to understand that Scientology was created by a science-fiction writer. who said something along the lines of 'religion is the best way to control people'.

the story of Xenu, the galactic tyrant who first kidnapped certain individuals who were deemed "excess population" and loaded these individuals into space planes for transport to the site of extermination, the planet of Teegeeack (Earth). These space planes were said to have been copies of Douglas DC-8s, except with rocket engines. He then stacked hundreds of billions of these frozen victims around Earth's volcanoes 75 million years ago before blowing them up with hydrogen bombs and brainwashing them with a "three-D, super colossal motion picture" for 36 days, telling them lies of what they are and what the universe should be like and telling them that they are 3 different things: 'Jesus, God, and The Devil.' The traumatized thetans subsequently clustered around human bodies because they watched the motion picture together, making them think they are all the same thing, in effect acting as invisible spiritual parasites known as "body thetans" that can only be removed using advanced Scientology techniques. Xenu is allegedly imprisoned in a mountain by a force field powered by an eternal battery. He is said to be still alive today.

Source:en.wikipedia.org...

[edit on 8-3-2006 by Yarcofin]

Huh, that is quite strange. I definitely agree with you that it's more of a cult than anything else. I just wonder how a cult can get so mainstream that it has it's representatives on the news every once in a while. Now it makes sense to me why they want you to buy that book, they know it's fake and need profit.

yeah, i went to the same site to happen to find i guees you could say, thier religion(gnostic, gnosticweb.org). i did all the courses before they took a dump also. i still have all the ebooks before they switched over. i guess i could say it was ok while it lasted. all of the people i met there were nice. but then i jumped from them into my own little journey.

rekar

I was born and raised into te methodist church but became a Baha'i' when I was 16 and have been involved with htem in an on again off again basis for over 30 years now.

I am very sorry for putting this in the Paranormal boards I ment to put it in the religion one!

That cult story thing is very very weird, many cults have weird stories like that!

No problem Xyla. If you put it in the religion forum, I probably would have never seen it anyways. I'm sure a mod will move it soon.

First of all, welcome on this board!!!

I was born Catholic, and for several years sticked to Catholicism... but when i was 15 more or less i begun thinking on my very own (until that time, since i was very young, i had received a pretty dogmatic education under that point of view, and i sticked to it, also because i almost didn't know there were other ways of "thinking"), and understood it wasn't "my" path.

After some years of unanswered questions, as said in another topic when i was 20 i begun studying Magic... so i got closer to the Wiccan tradition, and started studying it.
At first, i defined myself Wiccan... it wasn't exactly true, but it was the closest definition to how i was feeling. Now, i consider myself simply pagan (from the latin definition of the word: pagan, from PAGUS, that meant VILLAGE ---> rural/natural cults and magical practices).

I believe in a superior intelligence, i think the Christ probably did really exist, but he wasn't what the Church is telling us: he probably said really different things from what we are taught nowadays, and he wasn't exactly the son of God (at least, not more that anyone of us can be)... simply, he was a very enlighted, intelligent and spiritually developed man, who managed to do and say great things.
But a also "worship" (or i should say respect) natural forces, and try to learn from them as much as i can.