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What was your path to your belief system?

Thorgasm

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How did you arrive at your belief system? Was it because you were raised that way? Did you arrive at it later in life due to something that happened?

Let's not make this a bash beliefs thread. I don't want to argue about it. I am interested to hear people's paths
 
I was raised Lutheran. Converted to Catholicism as a young adult, even as the priest told me I asked too many questions. ;-) Eventually asked enough that I decided Catholicism wasn't for me. Joined the Moravian Church then a Methodist one....both rather benign belief systems that I could embrace.

Now, I rather like "all pathes lead to God." Exclusionary religions don't speak to me at all. It's inconcievable to me that a loving God would condemn his children because they were born in the wrong country or for any other reason. I don't like organized religion, particularly, although it can be a wonderful refuge in times of personal tragedy.

I was on the Board of Trustees in the last two churches I joined. I would NEVER do that again. One really doesn't want to see what's behind the curtain in a typical church. I'm happy with "all pathes....." Some people call that a "Pick & Choose Christian." I'd leave the Christian part out and just say "Pick & Choose."
 
How did you arrive at your belief system? Was it because you were raised that way? Did you arrive at it later in life due to something that happened?

Let's not make this a bash beliefs thread. I don't want to argue about it. I am interested to hear people's paths

I was raised Catholic. Went to Catholic school and all that jazz through Confirmation. Then I got to stop. I think at a very young age, I remember around 4th/5th grade that these concepts of gods and what the priests and nuns were saying didn't seem to make any sense. None of it seemed real. I kept going with my Catholic faith, at least in practice, till college really and then I acknowledged the fact that I didn't believe in any of it. Thus I came to terms with my atheism.
 
Came to my religious beliefs in college. They made the most sense and the evidence supported God out of all to beliefs out there.
 
From the time I was little I had always wanted to know how to act right. Of course, I DIDN't always act right, but I always did my best to follow rules and stay out of trouble, etc (which I also couldn't do because other kids would make trouble for me at school) and my parents did teach me right from wrong, and someone got me a beginner's bible for my 4th or 5th Birthday, and the people in the Bible were my role models because I learned how to behave from them also, while reading it on my own, and my family went to Baptist Church and were very loving (while not perfect, although as a kid I thought they were perfect) and I learned about why we needed Jesus to cleanse us of sin, so I got saved and baptised at 7 and yes, I really wanted it, and fast forward to teen years when I started trying to figure all the teen stuff out, and started to wonder, and started reading debates and not understanding that 14 year olds don't know what they are talking about, debated on gaming forums, then came here, got my tail handed to me here while trying to figure the world out in the new PC Age, realised that God and Jesus were still there just like they'd always been, went back to God (will never wonder again I hope) took a few years off and came back. :)
 
My parents are pretty much hard core objectivist/libertarian types and I strongly identified with their beliefs while growing up as I thought life was easy (they are quite wealthy). Than I left home, moved to the ghetto, and saw what life was really like for people who were not born into priviledge, which became the basis for my liberalism.

Religiously, its a similar story. Raised as a hard core athiest, than came to a point where I could not make stuff in life happen on my own. Asked God for help and made an offer to give Christianity a chance. I got what I needed immediately and basically that cycle repeats itself whenever I begin to feel doubts, which tend to happen. I am big on logic and the religion doesn't always make sense to me, but proof keeps happening and proof is proof.
 
Was raised strict Protestant, but from the age of 13 or so, couldn't accept some of the beliefs, started actively reading about and looking into Eastern religions and some of the more mystery-based belief systems. Have never fully accepted any of them, and tend to base my belief system in multiple schools of thought, though the predominant theme is based in objectivist reality and the laws of nature itself. I live by a strict moral and ethical code, but I believe that all paths lead to the same place. I do not live by fear nor act based on guilt. I feel good with my humanity and that of others.
 
Wasn't raised up with any kind of religion. My parents were both more or less Christian, my mother being more New Age and my father leaning to Deism. Neither of them had much use for the church and I don't remember either of them praying when I was a kid. Around when I was twelve, I had to go to church with my stepsiblings and I had never before encountered such a collection of hypocrites and simpletons. The experience soured me on the Christian faith.

I found my own faith later. As an occultist, I have always been interested in magickal and spiritual traditions. A friend of mine recommended seidhr to me, and in studying seidhr I learned more and more about Asatru. The strong ethics and family values of the faith appealed to me, and the words of the Sagas spoke to my soul. I found a faith that nourished my soul and encouraged me to become a better person.

As the years have gone by, my research has revealed more and more parallels and consistencies between my native faith and elements of Chinese religious tradition, and I've been adopting more elements of Chinese tradition to my worldview and religious practices.
 
Came to my religious beliefs in college. They made the most sense and the evidence supported God out of all to beliefs out there.

Is this 'God' thing antithetical to all other beliefs?
 
Short version: I was raised Christian, but struggled with faith for a long time until finding it at last at the age of 22. Studied the Bible carefully for many years since then, and have had many spiritual experiences that reinforce my faith in what I believe.

I am actually more moderate than what was taught in the church I grew up in, believe it or not. :mrgreen:
 
Don't really know what the path looks like. I've barely started walking on it.
 
i was born in a cross fire hurricane, and schooled with a strap across my back, but it's all right now.

i was raised a die hard conservative, then i accidentally brushed against a godless commie, got infected, and mutated into what i am today. :)
 
I was raised occasionally attending Episcopal services and Sunday school. At age 17 I became a charismatic fundamentalist Christian attending services at the Assembly of God. Later, I switched to services at Calvary Chapel.

I have always been of a skeptical mind while at the same time drawn to religious belief. After a few years of Christianity, I had a serious crisis of belief precipitated by my natural skepticism. This was a horrible experience for me, because I had attached so much of my life to Christian living. Ultimately, I realized that all of the subjective "evidence" had other, more plausible explanations and that ultimately, there was no reason to believe that belief in Jehovah and that Jesus was his son was more credible than believing any other theistic belief from any time period.

For a while after this, I would vacillate between Pantheism and Atheism. Mostly, I wanted to believe there was some intelligence out there bigger than us. I dabbled in Buddhism, which requires no belief in God at all. In this case, I think I was attracted to the possibility of improving myself and mankind.

I am pretty consistently Atheist of an agnostic type, now. That is, I do not accept belief in any god (I equate believing in god as equivalent to accepting wild assertions without evidence, such as the assertion that Santa Claus is real). However, I don't believe that we can 'know' that god does not exist. In the same way we cannot know that Santa Claus doesn't exist. I moved from Pantheism to these views as I became more and more able to ignore what I wanted to believe in favor of objective assessment of the available evidence.
 
I was born into a Catholic family, but my dad was anti-religion because his friends were molested by Catholic priests growing up. He ingrained in my sister and I at an early age that religion was the scum of the earth that was used to control and manipulate people. Naturally, as my sister and I arrived at our adolescence, we rebelled against our dad and started learning about religion. (Funny how that works.) I read everything I could on the different faiths, identifying as some of them for a while. None of them really fit because my mind was always wanting to learn more which meant I generally could not adhere to one faith.

Because of my unusual upbringing, I've become an eclectically spiritual individual with a wide range of beliefs. Once I started traveling at age 19 and seeing more of the world, my philosophical ideas began to expand a lot more rapidly. I've always looked up to holy people and wise men/women whose lives are dedicated to spiritual pursuits. I find they are rare but once I come across one I like to cling on and learn all that I can.

I just identify as non-denominational these days, and I tend to see all faiths as trying to express a similar connection to the Divine, whatever it is they call it. I guess that makes me a sort of universalist... though not really because not all faiths I agree with. Anyway, I think that's the best I can do.
 
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Good question. After years of not really caring about "truth" one way or another, I read the buddhist Dhammapada, Confuscious and the Koran ... I was into Buddhism at the time and started doing buddhist-esque practice more committedly.

Then I said "screw it, I'll read the bible too" and wowzer, converted to christianity, I just liked the black and white perspective instead of the wishy-washy philosophy I accepted with Buddhism.

So now I'm a christian, and the more I study the bible the more committed I become. Odd, considering christianity was my enemy for a decade of debating others.
 
I wasn't "raised" any certain way with any certain belief system. My parents were neutral, my mother extremely knowledgeable about the bible. They let me decide for myself and I chose to go to church as a young child for many years. Church, sunday school, church camps. Didn't matter the denomination, to me. I just went to whichever was close to where we were at the time. My mom answered any questions I had about the bible.

Then, I started actually questioning what I was being told. I guess I was around 8 - 10. I asked more and more questions and received fewer and fewer answers that I found appropriate. The older I got and more knowledgeable about the bible I became, and the more knowledgeable about science I became, the less any of the bible made any goddamn logical sense, and the more horrid the "main character" of the stories became. I couldn't reconcile the genocide, rape, murders, slavery, misogyny, and stupid, illogical, rigid "rules" with no benefit whatsoever.

I stepped away from christianity, and from a belief in any deity since I could find no reason to believe in such things any longer. Kind of like growing out of a belief in the easter bunny and santa.

I studied and still study many other mythologies now because I find the stories interesting, for the most part. My least favorites being the Abrahamic mythologies, however. The various polytheistic mythologies are far more interesting, colorful, and fun.
 
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