Changing faiths

This thread isn't to provoke anyone religious. I am interested in how others look at what I am going to describe now.

For that it's necessary to share my own faith and the circumstances it came to be. I've been raised Christian Catholic, because that's the prevailing religion in my town. The ten commandmends always made sense to me. However the rest of the dogmas it teaches, I quickly declined this path. This is no judgement but describes my reasoning.

During my teenage years I started to meditate often. I would sit on my favorite stone for stargazing and just meditate, at night or day. I still go out of my way to visit this place now that I am farer away from it. The purpose was not only getting some rest from the troublesome life I had, but also getting a handle on pain. Since I had an accident there are several sources for pain in my body. My existence is basically pain but I learned to accept the constant presence of it. Since about a year I am completely off the pain killers that I had to take 1-4 times a year on days that we're really bad when a little bone splinter would put pressure on a nerve near my spine, that could be resolved by an invasive operation that luckily went over good, last year.

This early pain and the experiences, led me to meditating and during it, the experience out in the elements, wind, sun, smell and sensation on the skin, I had a kind of epiphany. It made much more sense to me, from a human point of perspective, that there isn't a God in the way we think it is. That any religion or faith that has to be learned and explained, not naturally understood, is against nature and only setting up a path of life that is influenced by these dogmatic rules and concepts.

So what is my faith?
The idea of an omnipresent energy that is not only made of male and/or female energies but is the spirit of life itself. Without knowing the faith of my mother (presumably very old Pagan and newer Wicca) I naturally found this way. Yes some distant memories I remember about herbs and rituals and how connected my mother was to nature. That might have influenced my path. Or helped me to find it. Is it the right path? I don't know but it feels right for me.

Instead of worshiping a faceless deity, I worship nature. I am mindful about things, always have been emphatic towards other life and if it's "just" a "lifeless" plant. I strongly disagree with this idea after reading up on science about how animals, trees, plants and fungi mostly share symbiotic relationships.

I asked myself what my symbiotic relationship with nature is and I had no answer. The reason I had no answer was, that I wasn't listening and observing enough. I don't know why we need TV and electronics to not be bored or at what point in time we lost this connection completely. Maybe thousands of years ago, looking back at history and how hard life had to be back then. We can now afford it again in this period of time. If we can afford to sit hours in front of a TV, we can also afford to marvel at the wonders and progress of nature.


Summary:
So I am interested how many here have been brought up by a religion and changed their idea, but still kept faith for a different viewpoint. How were you treated by your community when they discovered. How did you reflect about not being faithful to a religion or idea anymore, that has been teached to you and been accepted?

And a special question, not intended to provoke, how do our most faithful religious members think about changing faith? If we ponder the thought about that there's only one correct answer, what makes your religion so special and what keeps your faith? Did you choose it or was it inherited onto you by your surrounding community and society? If your answer would be "inherited", do you think other people are wrong in their faith and that your god or deity allowed you to be born into the "correct" faithful community?


Please keep it civil in terms of harmony and tolerance, these are honest questions not meant to provoke an emotional reaction, but to provoke reflection. I am not judging about other religions although I have pointed out cruelty in many religions, this is not judging about your faith but recognizing truths and circumstances.

Thank you, I am looking forward to respectful and thoughtful responses.

a reply to: ThatDamnDuckAgain
Nature is the Diety I worship too, but there's a little Odinism and Wicca thrown in for good measure.

I am the son of a Church of Scotland organist, I was raised Protestant but never ever believed what I was being taught in Sunday School or Bible Class. When I was allowed to make my own choice at 12, the only reason I stayed on was because there was only myself and a girl I knew of Bible Class age and leaving meant she would be there alone and I didn't think that was fair (a fact I have informed her of since then, we are still friends to this day). I left at 14 but still went to a church group at another Church of Scotland church with some of my Tabletop RPG group.

When I was 15 I started reading different religious texts to see if anything fitted. It was in Wicca and Paganism I found my home for a while. I did spells that worked (hint: same way prayers do) but found I couldn't identify with the God or Goddess and realised that it was Mother Nature herself I revere.

I still do the odd spell or charm if someone asks, which isn't often. I've been involved in medieval combat since i was 15, always had a strong connection to the Norse due to being from a place known for its viking heritage. As I get older I find these old Gods give me some confort and that's what religion should be about.

My own mother, who fell out with me on discovering the 1st book I ever bought on Wicca (not for long) and didn't like it. My Dad sat and spoke to me about it one Hogmanay and I explained about how all the original churches were built on Pagan places of power and encorporated the Green Man to bring in followers of the Old Ways. I went on to elaborate how they took all the Pagan Gods and turned them into Catholic Saints, Stealing Holy days as well as allegorical tales.

It was the following year, her last Christmas on Earth, Mum gave be a book on Witchcraft for my Christmas, her way of letting me know she accepted me. She passed away from Breast Cancer the following May.

My kids Mum has a strange connection to the other side and she has told me things, things my Mum, whom she never met, has told her in her dreams, things only my Mum would know. I asked her one day if she ever said anything about Religion, she said "Yes, she just said, nobody has got it right".

And you know what, I believe that.

a reply to: djz3ro
If I may ask, what experience brought you to believing this? Not asking to measure against mine, but because I am curious.

Not religious, but an outsider's/atheist perspective might be of use (or not, that's your determination there)

It's all stories to me, so to overly simplify the issue, and the changing of religious clothing aspect, you're gravitating toward different deity story systems that suit you better on a personal level. If anyone cops an attitude about it, ignore them, since they;'re not worth much else to you holding it against you.


IMO, people look for far too much approval from people who don't matter when it comes to finding what makes life best for them. So stop looking for approval from people who will never give you any no matter how much you grovel and appease them.

originally posted by: ThatDamnDuckAgain
a reply to: djz3ro
If I may ask, what experience brought you to believing this? Not asking to measure against mine, but because I am curious.

I actually have edited my post not to include what I originally intended to write, just hit send too soon.

a reply to: Nyiah

That is so very well said!

a reply to: Nyiah

Hey Nyiah, I appreciate the thoughtful input.

you're gravitating toward different deity story systems that suit you better on a personal level. If anyone cops an attitude about it, ignore them, since they;'re not worth much else to you holding it against you.

You may have understood that wrong or I may have put it clearer. There's no deity story system in my faith, no book or anything. It's mostly based on observation around nature. I could not care less about someone disagreing with my faith because I give others the respect and right to believe in what they want, too.

And if it's just believing in nothing. I wasn't set out to look for a new faith but I always felt there's more to nature than we can grasp with our senses.

a reply to: djz3ro
I read your update and your last paragraphs are the things we still can not explain. Give you the benefit of the doubt you are truthful, the sentence "nobody has got it right" made me smile.

It shows we're all wandering in the dark with our lantern that illuminates only the places and ideas we decide to look at.

A cold Catholic here until 1990s started to make sense. My career and ego pushed me out of religious association because of work, family and other escapades. Not believing with all these healing mass, I just got invited to volunteer and catch for attendees who may collapse of what they called "slain in the spirit." I believe it was 1994 with Father De Grandis. When the blessing of each one is almost finished, I decided to get blessed and all by myself waiting and standing in front of the altar 20 ft away from the last one, finally nothing happened to me during that blessing. However, while I was waiting for my turn, a sudden rush of warm wind crawled on my left arm twice. I ignored it and look on my side, and asked whispering what was that? Church door were closed and winter time around February. Not knowing about this kind of manifestation brought me to research and looked up about warm wind. It's like God was telling me, "Hey, I'm for real."

Another scenario when my 11 year son, collapsed when another healing priest performed in a house for significant amount of time on the floor. I was thinking, was he faking it? Can 11 year old capable of making a scene?

Just sharing the experience, but for me it's a never ending pursuit of Spiritual Faith and consider myself still not reconciled with my Creator.

a reply to: ThatDamnDuckAgain

Catholic school/Methodist, 5 gen-ministers.

I walked from Catholic school...and began an honest search thru meditation, projection, prayer...and came to a conclusion after much Buddhism and general Zen....that....

...All things being equal, and a name is just a name....I find that which created all....and thru teachings of Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed and others...

That there is a singular higher power...at least higher than us...that we choose to accept or deny by free will

It is organized...all organized...religion that's whacked...

Ancient Egypt had it right with mono-theism in principle and practice.

I'm Gnostic...Jesus, my ...maybe not yours-Savior....allows me to love all equally without judgment.

Faith, the Answer. Love, the key. No "religion".

a reply to: ThatDamnDuckAgain

I change it like underwear. Most are made of poor quality and tear up on the seems rather quickly, if you use them as the tool they are meant to be.
the one that seems to hold up is my patchwork underwear, I use the few pieces, from worn out underwear, that didn't tear, and put them together in my liking.

a reply to: lightblinker

a sudden rush of warm wind crawled on my left arm twice

There's a strong resonating with this sentence! I remembered that rush of warm feeling up my right arm, when I typed the experience out in the OP, when I was sitting on the stone and meditated, exactly the moment that idea popped up about an all spanning kind if energy.

That's intriguing me a lot now! I consider if it was chi or just a warm wind or a sunray hitting through the clouds? My memory works on all senses, it was a warm day but moderate cloudy day, blue sky though, around the start of May but not after the 8th. Red stone bugs and there was noise in the background. Maybe it was just a wind gush. I had my sweater around the wast and was sitting in what translates to "to sit in tailor-fashion / cross legged" and had my hands on the knees, palms up.

Just recalling things to see if something else pops up. Typing helps, as I need motion to remember precise memories.

a reply to: ThatDamnDuckAgain

Good questions to ponder. I'd have to say I have come back to my natural awareness of nature much as you have described. I started out in a scottish protestant family and my early awareness of religion was how split the catholic/protestant issue was in the country through football, churches, schools, politics and city districts. We moved out to the remote country and I went to a tiny school where religion wasn't an issue, then back to the city where gangs of kids would stop you and demand to know what religion you were. My own family, at that time, was protestant by culture not so much belief as they were born into it, so I knew the answer but somewhat feared the catholic kid gangs.

When we emigrated to northern canada I was thrown into the world of nature again. No religion whatsoever. The school was mostly native and emigrant kids struggling to survive really. When we moved back south my brother and I went to sunday school but all I remember was the large buffet of deserts and the candy bags that were handed out. It also gave my parents a chance to sleep in on sundays.

I had an interesting dip into taosim too and carlos castaneda's writings sit deep within me to this day despite him being discredited by academia and media.

In my teen and twenties I discovered voodoo and became aligned with it as much of it is a psychological system and good for healing. I healed and moved on. There was something in voodoo about "leaving your raft when you reach the shore that is not a shore" that sums all of this up well.

Conspiracy theories have been my church now about 25 years. I feel the truth is out there (why is my head playing the x-files theme music?) and that the holographic universe model allows for everyone's truth.

Most of my family became extremely born again religious recently which is weird to me because they were pretty much about all science before. It was so sudden that I was kinda shocked over it but mostly because it makes me feel more of an outsider than before. They truly believe other religions are WRONG and that saddens me but it is their path in life going in a different direction from me. I always knew this, just need to come to peace with it I guess.

a reply to: mysterioustranger

That there is a singular higher power...at least higher than us...that we choose to accept or deny by free will

Like if you ask for proof you will get it in a way or another?

Like thinking "this is going to be a long and bad day, god help me power through" on my way to work, a few seconds later some urge to change radio channels and "I Can See Clearly Now - Jimmy Cliff" plays.

It's obvious enough to notice but random enough to not be completely sure. I am aware that focusing on it could lead to many such patterns detected and to a self feeding loop of bias.

a reply to: Terpene

That's a fitting metaphor about religions

I don't think there's a one size fit's all underwear, not even my faith of course. I couldn't grow further mentally if I would just settle now. I really should read up more on different concepts and see where it leads me to.

a reply to: ThatDamnDuckAgain

Have you dipped your toes in reikki? I found it to be a very good tool. It helped me lots to feel and organise my inner worlds. That warm arm is something that is very common if you activate the pathways...

In the end it all boils down to fantasy, and how much faith you have in what you made up...

a reply to: igloo

Most of my family became extremely born again religious recently which is weird to me because they were pretty much about all science before. It was so sudden that I was kinda shocked over it but mostly because it makes me feel more of an outsider than before. They truly believe other religions are WRONG and that saddens me but it is their path in life going in a different direction from me. I always knew this, just need to come to peace with it I guess.

Well them thinking other religions are wrong is really just their faith. Everyone lives in their own world and bubble. We humans are creatures of habit, once we settle on something it's going to be that.

Don't be sad but happy they have faith

a reply to: Terpene

I know the term and I know some practitioners but the way they do it I completely disagree with it. They do it for money and they speak in absolutes, just like an religion.

I have done healing with my hands, well it made the persons situation better. Healing headaches sometimes backfires on me, but the result's speak for themselves. What I do is lay my hands on the forehead, close my eyes and concentrate on the tiny tiny barrier between my skin and the other persons skin.

Then I start to project chi into my hand, often it get's warm. At that point it's like it feels like I place my hands on a warm glass sphere with marbles going around inside. It kind of wobbles. Hard to describe, often I feel chaos when I try healing headaches.

"often" = I did this about two hand full of times in my life, it's not like I run around and offer it to everyone. The situation and my heart needs to call for it, then I will offer and I need to feel love for the person.

In the end it all boils down to fantasy, and how much faith you have in what you made up...

I agree, it's how much extra thoughts we add to such simple "epiphanies". That's faith.

a reply to: Terpene

In the end it all boils down to fantasy, and how much faith you have in what you made up...

That kind of profundity kicks ass...

a reply to: olaru12
Yeah but if it works for the person, why judge, right?