Why do you believe?

[Thelost1]

The premise of this is simple. Just make a post stating what your beliefs are relating to religion, morality, and ethics, and why you have those beliefs.

I'll start. I am an agnostic/atheist. This was originally because of my upbringing, but I have since validated my beliefs (or lack thereof, if you will) to myself due to the lack of actual evidence fo any religion. I have been, at varying times, a Buddhist, a Jew, and a Strong Atheist (belives that there is no god, instead of just not having any opinion on te subject). I have my own moral code, though it is not really set in stone, and tend to approach things on a case-by-case basis. A good way to sum it up would be that, if it doesn't hurt anyone else, I don't really care. I have these ethics because due to my agnosticism/atheism I don' belive actions to be "wrong" due to something inherent in them.

OK. I know you've gotten tired of listening to me by now, and you want to give your own opinion (I hope), so START POSTING!

 

[nes]

I'm a Christian and try to follow the moral code of the religion that I believe in. I believe that going to church / funerals / weddings / etc are unnecessary and that those events are a waste of time and money for me. I try to notice cultural norms and values of people in groups. I only came from a weak Christian/atheist believer to a strong Christian believer, not as a result of going to church.

 

[RightinNYC]

Raised Catholic in a very lax religious household, perhaps even more lapsed now since I came to school. Regardless, I still believe that there is in fact a God, he created this universe, and that at least in regards to the existence of Jesus, the Bible is right.

 

[Thelost1]

I'm a Christian and try to follow the moral code of the religion that I believe in. I believe that going to church / funerals / weddings / etc are unnecessary and that those events are a waste of time and money for me. I try to notice cultural norms and values of people in groups. I only came from a weak Christian/atheist believer to a strong Christian believer, not as a result of going to church.

But, WHY do you have these beliefs?

 

[Real Korimyr #9]

I am a polytheist by belief, and an Asatruar by creed; I believe that there are many gods and many ways to worship them, but my loyalty belongs to the gods of my ancestors.

This is not an issue of faith for me. I have felt the presence of my gods, and I have seen the works of many different spirits. It would be foolish of me to doubt them, at this point.

Morally, I do not accept the existence of absolutes. I believe that every person should have a code of conduct-- a set of moral virtues-- and that they should strive to exemplify that set of virtues with their every action. We should recognize that other people follow different moral principles, but our actions must be guided by our own.

My code of conduct is based in the Nine Noble Virtues of modern Asatru, combined with the Hermetic principle of self-transformation. The goal of all life is to improve itself, and to create better life to follow in its footsteps.

 

[PolySciGuy]

I am not really old enough to say I was raised Catholic so I will say that I am being raised catholic.

However, after reading the book Blue Like Jazz I would classify myself as Christian Spiritualist. My belief is, basically, that there is one God, and that he has a book that basically outlines what he wants us to do. I think that some of the Ideas expressed in that book are outdated, but I also think that there are some that are timeless.

I had some real doubts awhile back due to the lack of empirical evidence on the matter, until I saw and read about the infamous double-slit experiment. Some of you may be able to explain this thing and prove me wrong, but I don't care. The experiment made me think that if we dissect something enough, we miss the actual point. If we try and "observe" God mathematically, maybe He just steps aside to keep faith, well, faith!

I believe God doesn't want you to know He is there, He wants you to believe.

 

[Spartacus FPV]

I was born Christian, I was baptised, confirmed and have taken communion.

I became an overt atheist in 6th grade (11 years old.) I became an atheist because I once had questions for Jehova's witnesses I was left unsatisfied with their responses. I found that most of my questions could not be justified on any actual moral basis (in regards to real human suffering.)

I immediately saw that the Judeo-Christian god was no more compassionate than Ares, and was hardly a paragon of virtue. Through my research of all mainstream religions, and some fringe groups; I have come to the conclusion that there is no reason to believe in any known deity.

For a long time (perhaps until the age of 16) I still felt very afraid of the possibility of a god. By that I mean, I would sometimes act morally in fear of the great surveilance camera in the sky. Why is a pretty contemptible reason to be moral.

Eventually I became aware that nothing bad would happen to me (lightning strikes) if I proclaimed what I believed to be true. My plane would not go down in flames if my thoughts drifted to my lack of faith.

Eventually, I came to question why it was that I was good. I wont pretend to know where our morality came from, but I thank god that most of us are good, and that I had been until I was self-aware of my morality.

I believe that I chose to be good because of my own selfish long term rational self interest. The golden rule as some would put it, treat others as you would wish to be treated. There are evolutionary reasons for such altruism.

But these kinds of general rules, I believe we all follow, because most of us cant bare to witness or be thought the cause of human suffering.

But how to conduct myself in matters unrelated to suffering? What I mean is, how should one behave, when ones actions are of no consequence to anyone but ones own self-image? Did I care to be virtuous by my own standards?

Over these past few (college) years I have come to understand what it means to be a virtuous man, by my standards; and more importantly, how to give my life meaning.

I know that force, theft, and deception are intrinsically wrong. Force however may be instrumentally good, however the ends do not justify any means. Force may be used for the cause of ones own personal liberty, or for the cause of liberation.

Other than that, I follow secular humanism; Which is a moral philosophy of reason, ethics, and justice that needs not invoke a supernatural belief. I dont need to be rewarded from a god to be good, nor do I need a law to command me to be.

 

[Thales]

Lachean, your story of faith is remarkably similar to my own. I was raised Christian, but in seventh grade we started to learn a lot about other religions. I started to question why I believed in one, and what set it apart from all the others. I realized that none of them had any basis, and woke up to the fact that there was no god. This took course of a matter of years, however, and it wasn't by high school I settled into my current agnostic/atheist views.

Other than that, I follow secular humanism; Which is a moral philosophy of reason, ethics, and justice that needs not invoke a supernatural belief. I dont need to be rewarded from a god to be good, nor do I need a law to command me to be.

This is what I believe as well. I believe in a strong moral code, and I don't need an ancient book with ancient beliefs to tell me what morality is.

 

[Spartacus FPV]

Lachean, your story of faith is remarkably similar to my own.

Its nice to know I have kindred spirits on DP.

This is what I believe as well. I believe in a strong moral code, and I don't need an ancient book with ancient beliefs to tell me what morality is.

Then I suspect you are a truly moral being. I have nothing but contempt for those who are good only for fear of god's reaction to evil.

 

[Makhno]

I wasn't "born" anything. That is to say, I was never indoctrinated with any religious beliefs. I was taught Christianity at an early age at school however, but it was always it's more pleasant aspects. (ie, never about "hell" or whatever).

I did start to ask questions as to weather or not there was a God, or afterlife, "another side" etc around the age of 15. For a long time I liked to believe that there was some kind of God.

As I began to question this more I think that I can also say that I came to have a "fear" of the possibility of a God. But I eventually got over it after after reading up about the subjecty over the internet. After realizing the absurdity of many Christian beliefs, and the after looking at the violence committed in the name of "faith", I eventually arrived at atheism.

As for morals, I think some people just do have a real sense of "right" or "wrong" in (even though they may not always show it). Like, rape is wrong, murder is wrong etc etc.

But I also think what your morals will be is largely determined by the emotional conditions in which you live or grow up in.

I'm a liberal. So I believe that if somebody were to do something, or be something (ie. consenting homosexuals) that doesn't involve an infringement others people's liberty, then I don't consider it "immoral" nor do I have any other problem with it. I consider anything that does infringe on people's rights as illegitimate, unless it is backed up with good reason.

 

[bigsmitty]

I'm a contemporary deist. I believe that there is a God, that he created the world. (Billions of years ago, not a hundred or whatever) I believe he created the world, and said "have fun." I don't believe in a micromanaging God, and consequently, I'm not into organized religion.

I really found this pretty simple. There's a lot of **** going on in the world now, that I doubt would be going on in a micromanaged universe. Personally, I wouldn't like the world to be on a set motion plan like that, or otherwise, why am I the one doing it, when it could be God, who could do an infinitely better job than people could?

 

[hipsterdufus]

I choose not to believe in a god. I do however believe the following Affirmations of Humanism:

• We are committed to the application of reason and science to the understanding of the universe and to the solving of human problems.
• We deplore efforts to denigrate human intelligence, to seek to explain the world in supernatural terms, and to look outside nature for salvation.
• We believe that scientific discovery and technology can contribute to the betterment of human life.
• We believe in an open and pluralistic society and that democracy is the best guarantee of protecting human rights from authoritarian elites and repressive majorities.
• We are committed to the principle of the separation of church and state.
• We cultivate the arts of negotiation and compromise as a means of resolving differences and achieving mutual understanding.
• We are concerned with securing justice and fairness in society and with eliminating discrimination and intolerance.
• We believe in supporting the disadvantaged and the handicapped so that they will be able to help themselves.
• We attempt to transcend divisive parochial loyalties based on race, religion, gender, nationality, creed, class, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, and strive to work together for the common good of humanity.
• We want to protect and enhance the earth, to preserve it for future generations, and to avoid inflicting needless suffering on other species.
• We believe in enjoying life here and now and in developing our creative talents to their fullest.
• We believe in the cultivation of moral excellence.
• We respect the right to privacy. Mature adults should be allowed to fulfill their aspirations, to express their sexual preferences, to exercise reproductive freedom, to have access to comprehensive and informed health-care, and to die with dignity.
• We believe in the common moral decencies: altruism, integrity, honesty, truthfulness, responsibility. Humanist ethics is amenable to critical, rational guidance. There are normative standards that we discover together. Moral principles are tested by their consequences.
• We are deeply concerned with the moral education of our children. We want to nourish reason and compassion.
• We are engaged by the arts no less than by the sciences.
• We are citizens of the universe and are excited by discoveries still to be made in the cosmos.
• We are skeptical of untested claims to knowledge, and we are open to novel ideas and seek new departures in our thinking.
• We affirm humanism as a realistic alternative to theologies of despair and ideologies of violence and as a source of rich personal significance and genuine satisfaction in the service to others.
• We believe in optimism rather than pessimism, hope rather than despair, learning in the place of dogma, truth instead of ignorance, joy rather than guilt or sin, tolerance in the place of fear, love instead of hatred, compassion over selfishness, beauty instead of ugliness, and reason rather than blind faith or irrationality.
• We believe in the fullest realization of the best and noblest that we are capable of as human beings.

Council for Secular Humanism

 

[Thelost1]

This is not an issue of faith for me. I have felt the presence of my gods, and I have seen the works of many different spirits. It would be foolish of me to doubt them, at this point.

This is really neat! What happened?

Thanks to everybody for responding, I just hope that we can get more conservatives posting.

 

[PolySciGuy]

i just want to say that I really appreciate this thread, since it is set up as a "share but don't judge" thing. Religion is a touchy subject, and I'm glad there haven't been any tirades against any religion (or lack of)

Hope I didn't just jinx it.....

 

[Thelost1]

Thank you for that Polysciguy.

Actually, this is part of a school assignment that I'm doing. I decided that posting this question here would be a good idea.

 

[rathi]

Like everyone else, I was born an atheist. Nobody ever really bothered to explain the concept of god to me. When I was 9 I started debating stuff online and learned about science and major religions. After determining that no religion had anything to support it, I decided that atheism was the way to go.

I did briefly recreate the idea of karma when I was kid, hypothesizing that if I did good deeds, good fortune would smile upon me. After 2 months of this, I realized that their was no real link and dropped the practice.

 

[Thelost1]

You were 9 when you started debating on the internet??!!

yeesh.

 

[nes]

I believe in my religion and believe that it is true, without a doubt. I used to believe that the big bang at one time created everything of what we now see spontaneously. I've changed from a atheist / slightly Christian to now strong Christian believer. I sometimes spend a few minutes thinking about my past, instead of some people who wouldn't spend a minute in a year thinking about their past. I've attended public schools throughout my life, most likely contrary to what people believe about what I am here. Just recently I've changed my views on circumcision and now believe that it is ok to perform the procedure. even though I don't want to become a lib. I also have a hobby (or nothing else to do with time I have) as a vb6 programmer, anyone here need progs here using winsock / other functions I can do.
I'll leave it at that without further detail for now.

 

[Thelost1]

I believe in my religion and believe that it is true, without a doubt. I used to believe that the big bang at one time created everything of what we now see spontaneously. I've changed from a atheist / slightly Christian to now strong Christian believer. I sometimes spend a few minutes thinking about my past, instead of some people who wouldn't spend a minute in a year thinking about their past. I've attended public schools throughout my life, most likely contrary to what people believe about what I am here. Just recently I've changed my views on circumcision and now believe that it is ok to perform the procedure. even though I don't want to become a lib. I also have a hobby (or nothing else to do with time I have) as a vb6 programmer, anyone here need progs here using winsock / other functions I can do.
I'll leave it at that without further detail for now.

So, what caused you to become a "Strong Christian"?

 

[Rev.]

I am a Christian. But my story isn't cut and dry.

My mother is a Christian and my father said he was. I grew up attending a protestant, evangelical, Holiness church...with my mother. I was taught the roots of my faith and embraced them. But stuff happened.

I was sexually abused by my father for four years, and when everything came out, my Pastor came to my father's defense. Pastor said I was lying, and testified on my father's behalf in court. My father pleaded guilty and went to prison, and my pastor visited him there. I was pretty devestated and angry.

I went to college (at a Christian college) and just could not relate to the other kids. They had been so insulated and protected...their faith was simplistic and shallow. In my World History class, I learned that Babylonian myths were older than the Bible. It was only a short hop to concluding that the scripture was borrowed from mythology.

The final blow was when my fiance broke off our engagement. So much I had dreamed of and saved myself for and imagined that God had "promised" me went totally out the window. So I was done...done with college, done with being good, done with GOD!!!

So I LIVED!!! I got an apartment, a job selling cars (I was good at it and made a ton of money!) and a live-in boyfriend. Life was sweet. But gradually my life started falling apart. The economy went south, sales dried up, I got pregnant, lost my job, my cars, got evicted and was homeless and pregnant. My boyfriend was beating me, I had no family, no friends and nowhere to turn.

I ended up moving to my boyfriend's home in another state. After two years of struggle, edge of existance living, abuse, violence, lonliness...the boyfriend left me with a baby girl to raise.

As I contemplated moving back to my home state, I began thinking about what kind of parent I wanted to be for my daughter. I thought about church...and despite some of the things that had happened to me there, there were a lot of happy memories and I knew I wanted to create those memories for my daughter. And I began to pray for direction.

Very soon after I moved, I needed some help when my daughter became sick with the flu. On impulse, I called a local church of the denomination I grew up in. The Pastor came right away to help...no questions, no strings. I set him up, but he passed the test.

Then I found out that the man I felt God had "promised" that I'd marry was living just around the corner! He had stopped attending church as well, and had some serious addiction issues. But overnight, he quit drinking and cleaned himself up. And we both decided to recommit ourselves to living for God. We were married six weeks later.

Our first church was my husband's church from when he was a teen. They had kept his name on the membership books and prayed for him faithfully the whole time he was away from the church. They welcomed me as their own. I learned from them how God uses the church to love people. There was no funky teaching or feel-good preaching. Just real people who really loved God and showed it by loving each other.

While I was attending there, I realized that God wanted ME to preach! So, I enrolled in courses and began to study Bible and Theology. I began preaching in various churches and my husband would sing at the meetings. It's like swimming upstream to be a woman preacher, but over and over God opened the doors. Over and over, money was provided for classes, books, and even the gas to get to the classes!

I could go on and on about how God has moved in my life as a direct answer to prayer. He made the impossible possible. And He has taken my experiences...the good, the bad and the ugly...and He has redeemed them and used those things from my life to teach and encourage others on the Way.

So why do I believe? Because I have experienced God do the impossible...beginning with taking the ruins of my life and making it beautiful.

 

[Thelost1]

Wow, Rev, that story is amazing!

 

[Thelost1]

Wow, Rev, that story is amazing!

 

[Just Me 2]

I was raised Catholic but when I was in my late teens lost faith. For about two years my life was in a serious downward spiral. I was at a park on day with my mom sitting on a bench. We were just talking when this woman came up to me. She stood in front of me and said and I quote "you have lost him haven't you"? I looked at her like she was nuts of course and asked what she was talking about. She said "Jesus, you have lost him in your heart"? I didn't know what to say, I was stunned. She then asked me if she could "lay hands" on me and pray. Something I can't really explain what but something told me to let her. When she did it was amazing. It was like a weight was lifted from me, I felt free, happy and warmth through me. Now I know a lot of you will laugh and tell me I'm nuts but from that moment I have felt and been a different person, my life did a 180. I truly feel Jesus sent her to me, to show me his love again and I am thankful EVERYDAY that I accepted Jesus back into my life.

 

[Australianlibertarian]

Well I suppose I've been an atheist for quite some time, maybe since I was about 11 or 12. Being born in Glasgow the shadow of sectarian bigotry was and is very real. My parents and Grandparents have always had many stories about some of the prodestant prejudice against catholics. It probably got me thinking from an early age. In addition my Grandpa was a bit a small p-prodestant. He believed in God but never really went to church. He would crap on about the evils of the Catholic Church etc, but then in the same sentence discuss passages form the Old testement and New Testement, and in my opinion were just stories.

Ever since I was young I never really liked fantasy, or non-fiction books. I always prefered history and science. Even to this day I love the 4 great questions that can be asked about anything.... I.e Who, what, where, and most importantly WHY?

This is where my atheism comes into place. I found that in my opinion that saying that God did something, or it was God's will, when as people we can't understand a process, or an event, is really intellectually the equivalent to rolling your eyes and shrugging. Considering that I read up on history as little boy, I couldn't understand why God would allow violance such as war, or why he would allow the holocaust. I suppose I read in to the theory of God giving mankind freewill, but then in my opinion, most of what is written in the Torah, Bible or Koran seems to contradict the notion of mankind having freewill.... So from there on I became an atheist.

As for my religious views, you have probably noted that I have taken a very agressive stance against Islam, in many threads on this site. You probably wonder why I don't treat the other Abrahamic religions with the same zeal.... Well to be honest, I see that overall most Christians and Jews have moderated their beliefs. Therefore the actuall threat of those beliefs is not the same as Islam, which in my opinion has not undergone the reformations that has changed the course of Christianity and Judaism, thus allowing scientific achievement, and reason to flourish in the west. At the end of the day I do believe moderation of religion is intellectually dishonest, because it picks an chooses which parts of religion you like, put in terms of threat Islamic fundementalism can kill! Put it this way in terms of religious threat to an atheist, I see Buddists and Pagens as herbivors. Further up the scale of threat, you have Christianity and Judaism, maybe a bit like a Rottweiler, vicious at times but overall domesticated. At the other end of the scale (as an atheist) I see Islam as T-Rex. A giant violent killing machine, a relic of the past. Please consider that this is my analogy of threat posed by religion (as an atheist) so please don't be offended. Thanks.

Anyway I do worry about creationism entering the scientific and education system. I think it threatens the very economic greatness of America, and the West.

Lastly it really bugs me that many atheists seem to be lefty types. Maybe that is a relic of communism, but it seems that very few atheists seem to believe in Austrian-school economics. Because I find it ironic that lefty atheists have given up on social collectivism via religion, but still believe in economic collectivism. Just a thought.

 

[Thelost1]

oops, I double posted. Sorry 'bout that.

@Justme2: Anyways, I'm really happy for you, that you found something to turn yourself around like that.

And AussieLibertarian, I think that your views are very similar to mine, only you're more conservative than me.