Why do you believe in your Religion?

Take a minute to sit and think of WHY you believe in your certain religion.

Whether it is because you were brought up with it as a child, influenced by your parents taking you to church/mosque/etc.

Or whether it was for another reason, that suddenly you gained faith later on in life.

Lets hear it.

Originally posted by Lister87
Take a minute to sit and think of WHY you believe in your certain religion.

Whether it is because you were brought up with it as a child, influenced by your parents taking you to church/mosque/etc.

Or whether it was for another reason, that suddenly you gained faith later on in life.

Lets hear it.

Good question.

I do not believe IN my religion, but IN God. To me faith and religion
are not one and the same thing. Faith is God's self gift, givin freely,
ours to accept or reject, freely. Religion is man's expression of that
faith.

I was not raised in a religious home, but with the fundamental
belief in a creator God. As one ages one must reconcile her/his
mind and heart. Otherwise the heart requires the mind to believe in an
absurdity. Somehow come to a believing knowledge and a knowing
faith. One must be able to find, that faith, over and above the arguments
the mind presents, is after all, reasonable. This point is reached, I think,
only with a great deal of searching.

I find my religion, with all its flaws, with all its human failings,
hypocracy and sinfulness, to be the truest expression.

I believe in all religions not everything what is writen but the parts which are true, and the reason is because the difference betveen being human and animal is knowing GOD

[edit on 29-1-2010 by AeosGuru]

I believe in my beliefs which are of a religion cause i experienced them many weird and wonderful things, why do atheists have hope? Its a realisation all other means don't seem possible.

[edit on 15-6-2010 by thegreatestone]

Because I have seen how the grace of God has changed many lives, including mine. I've been on mission trips and to prisons to minister to inmates. The change I saw and feelings I've experienced I cannot put into words.

Also, his word (Holy Bible) is alive and well just as it was thousands of years ago. I've prayed over a piece of scripture, acted in faith accordance to that scripture, and everything he said came true.

That is why I believe in my religion.

I don't believe in Religion, there are too many to know which holds the truth. To be a good person with a pure heart should not be confusing - either you are that way or you are not. I do believe in a "Creator" - "Great Spirit" of all things beautiful and good. We create our own Demons, if that is the path we choose to follow.

Peace and blessings to all.

I grew up with Christianity because my dad is "Christian," (although he married a non Christian) and my dad would put me in church activities. I got into Christianity because of Christian Rock. The first concerts I went to were Christian Rock concerts and I loved the cheap ticket and high energy of the concerts, along with the great stories a lot of bands had to share.

But then I started to discover other bands and I realized that Christian Rock is uncreative and boring and I started to prefer listening to more exciting bands like Muse and Radiohead.

I started going to Young Life, a non-church based youth group type thing, and I loved the atmosphere because everyone was open and I felt like I could be myself. But after a while, some annoying people started to come to Young Life and I wanted to tell him to shut the hell up but I couldn't because I was supposedly a Christian. And I started to clash with my Young Life leader because he was completely ignorant of other religions' views and took his job way too seriously.

So I left Young Life, and with that I lost my drive to be a Christian. So here is what I realized. I was a Christian because of Christian Rock and because of Young Life, and somehow I feel like those weren't the right reasons to be a Christian.

I love this question.

I grew up in church but didn't really follow the religion until I got older. God brought me down by bringing me to a very low place. During this time, I was attacked by several demons for many years. They tried to cause me to commit suicide. Then I turned to God and my life has completely changed for the better. He gave me hope.

Also everything they talked about in church when I was younger about Bible predictions have happened or is happening now. Many people are turning to the faith because of it.

Personal experience.

I can physically feel the blood of Jesus washing my sins, also I felt unconditional, limitless love when I wept that I didn't know God since God is love.

because i have seen my god. He is an indian that turns into a wolf and drinks thunderbird. He has a straight razor and is not affraid to cut you with it. Im a level 12 pagan witch you start to believe around level 2 after you make your first sacrafice.

reply to post by Lister87
I was chosen..


"Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you."

John 15:16

I used to consider myself an athiest. But then I realised, I am an agnostic, in a sense. I do not believe in any of the current 'religions', and use scientific evaluation to think about everything. I believe that we will never truly know why we are here, or where we came from (the Universe as well for that matter), I do not believe in any magical deities, if there were such a 'creator' - it would be in a scientific sense, as explained below ('Experiment').

But, I would not disregard the idea of some sort of creation Billions of years ago, sort of an experiment that we are living in. Out of all of those stars, galaxies and solar systems, surely at least ONE would have created life, with planets that were the perfect size, distance from the sun and perfect atmosphere for a life to start? Like Golilocks and her porridge. Too hot, too cold, just about right...

I also wouldn't totally disregard that all life on this planet was not created from some form of extra-terrestrial inception millenia ago, and that what we now percieve as religious texts, the Bible for example, are just stories written down of certain events. Alien life forms using some form of science to plant us here.

But at the same time, the vast intellect back then was much lower than now, they did not have the broad horizon of collectable knowledge that we do now, they didn't have the same technologies, science, math or schooling, so these parables/religious texts could also be from lack of knowledge of the unknown, making their best estimated guess to explain.

Example; A 'god' that pulls a blanket over the sky at night - they weren't aware that the earth spun on an axis, or that it span around the sun.

It's a very interesting subject, and I am a lot more open minded in my older age now then I was in my teenage years. I am fully respectable of peoples beliefs, and will happily sit and debate with them, in good manner of course. I do not however like people pushing their beliefs on others, or causing violence due to it.

In a very hippy fashion (despite being totally un-hippyish myself) it would be much better if we used our minds for the common good of man, on a quest for the truth and working toward leaving a perfect future for our descendants - but sadly I can't see a day where that will happen.