Before all the creationists start mouthing off; "Darwin was a nazi!!!" and other bullshit, this thread is about personal development, not evolution of your religion or whatever.

Anyway, when I was a young lad, my parents were very religious, and I was fine with that, I'd go to church, sit at Sunday school and be taught the same fabulous stories over and over again, I'd learn about morality and about what "God liked" (at this young age I actually believed there was a god who listened to everything I said and could answer prayers in voice, etc.) .

As I got slightly older (but was still a child) I began to see the hypocrisy of the preachers at sunday school. I felt they were teaching moral codes that they ignored, themselves. At this young stage, I became more god-fearing than I have ever been in my life, although I stopped attending church after asking my mother. At this point I believed that attending church deviated from what Jesus taught, and that by helping your community, praying and always expanding your mind, you would be pleasing God.

As a consequence of this I began reading quite a lot and a new perspective on social organisation which was both charitable and preached equality became known to me. This hotspot of biblical values is known as communism.

A new left wing me was born, one who still held to the beliefs of the church but strived for equality and justice. My belief in the Bible at this point held back my communist views, however. My sceptical belief in an abhorrent side of humanity made communism seem a withered pipe dream with no hope of realisation.

Throughout this transitionary period, I continued to read avidly. Fiction, Non-fiction, whatever, I remember thinking at one point maybe if I read every book on this planet I'd one day be smart enough to "cure death", I was still, of course a naive child at heart. This childlike wish, and some other events had made me realise that religion and my thirst for knowledge had scarred me with a deep-seated fear of death, I began to loathe the idea of mortality and quiver at the thought of the unknown.

During these years of my childhood, my grandfather passed away. This man, in the short time I knew him, left a great impression on me and I thought about the calm way he accepted death, it's a natural thing isn't it, giving in and breathing your last? Finally my fear of death was gone, I could embrace the unknown.

Life returned to normal and I continued to read.

Eventually in some book, a work of fiction I believe, I came a cross an idea that intrigued and seduced me;

When we die, what we think will happen, will happen.

I began to accept this idea as the truth, dabbling in Wicca and in Buddhism, eventually leaving both faiths but taking the concept of karma with me, something which I believe there is evidence for the existence of unlike other religious concepts. Eventually I started thinking in a pseudo-scientific religious way; what if our consciousness moves from one dimension to another when we die, another like the one we came from, except in this one, we didn't die and had no memory of actually dying.

This is the point when I began to challenge my beliefs in god. What if everyone is right, why does that make me any better? Why should I need to believe in God and accept an eternal existence when I can accept nothing, and choose to live life more fully?

Wildness flourished and I became a hedonist, solely interested in pleasure, my life taking no meaning except that which I enjoyed, I became what is quite wrongly labelled a “pothead” only finally dropping the habit sometime very recently.

My communist beliefs then began to flourish, moving me into the extreme left of the political spectrum instead of left-centrist. I began to think morally and philosophically again, about society as a whole.

Then, at some point recently my philosophy changed, I now support society because it supports me, my actions fall within the bounds of society's modern ideals because outside of it I have left and, outside society, a human being just exists, it doesn't live.

My new philosophical standpoint, I'll admit, is egoist and my quest for immortality has been reduced to a quest for fame, my new ideal help for the community and society is the acquisition of wealth to share with my friends, because that would make me happy and I don't give a damn what the rest of the world thinks or does because if it doesn't affect me directly, it doesn't affect me at all. Communism, to me now is something I would accept, should it properly arise, but don’t really care about anymore in a sense, it’s not that I believe humans are inherently greedy, it’s that they are inherently lazy, and so am I in that I’m not passionate about any social system enough to want to change the current, which I’m used to.

The appeasement of one entity continues within me, in a sense, though I don't choose to believe in omnipotence or omni-benevolence or indeed anything that can't be backed with evidence, I still try to please one being. That being has changed from the god of Christian folklore to a less ethereal entity, myself.

So anyway in this thread I want some nice long, informative, and hopefully interesting posts about how your faith and beliefs have changed over the years, and why. Throw in lots of spiritual moments and epiphanies, just because that's what we all want to hear. So get cracking people.

I was raised Seventh Day Adventist. Turned my back on that when I was 9 and believed in a completely 'omnibenevolent' being. That evolved into the 'universal spirit' when I was 12 and realized that life needs death to continue, and death needs life to occur.

I completely quit believing when I was 14. Went through hell with drug addiction for 5 years; comitted suicide on July 30th, pronounced braindead on the 31st - woke up in jail on August 1st to find that I was braindead for almost four minutes; had a complete recollection of my 'death'.

Since then, I've admitted my agnosticism. Went through rehab with a completely new life view and have successfully quit drugs and am now living a life that I can live with. I now choose to call the eternal that is beyond my comprehension and knowledge 'god'. I spend a good deal of my time meditating.

Raised Catholic. I've realised the idiocy religion brings and now I commit the "sin" of blasphemy nonstop. My fav "sin".

But seriously, I've stopped believing in the Christian church. It alienated me with it's hypocrisy and intolerance.

My faith died.

quote:Originally posted by Viraljimmy:

My faith died.

well... my dad is atheist i think, although he doesnt put it to a name as such. My mum is lutheran kinda, but she's now into all spiritual stuff, and then she tries to see my aura and stuff, but i just tell her to fuck off.

Anywho, i was brought up with no faith whatsoever, although my mum beleives in a god, she never said that there deffinately was, and let me make my mind up about it... my dad said more if you believe in god you are an idiot but whatever.

Anywho... i grew up my whole life being atheist/agnostic... or perhaps weak atheist is a better term.

Anout 10 months ago, i started getting more interested in other religions and i did a lot of research into all religions... well, not all of them, not christianity, islam or judaism... because they all believe in a greater power.

But eventually i decided that buddhism was the best, as it didnt force me to do anything in particular, it didnt say that there was a god or any higher power... it just promoted kindness and being good all round, something i've always wanted to be good at, well i guess i am.

anywho, im 14 now and thats all thats happened with religion in my life.

quote:Originally posted by Hexadecimal:

I was raised Seventh Day Adventist. Turned my back on that when I was 9 and believed in a completely 'omnibenevolent' being. That evolved into the 'universal spirit' when I was 12 and realized that life needs death to continue, and death needs life to occur.

I completely quit believing when I was 14. Went through hell with drug addiction for 5 years; comitted suicide on July 30th, pronounced braindead on the 31st - woke up in jail on August 1st to find that I was braindead for almost four minutes; had a complete recollection of my 'death'.

Since then, I've admitted my agnosticism. Went through rehab with a completely new life view and have successfully quit drugs and am now living a life that I can live with. I now choose to call the eternal that is beyond my comprehension and knowledge 'god'. I spend a good deal of my time meditating.

2 words:

bull shit

positive correlation between abstract thought and paranoia.

You question answered in brief.

I'm 58. I wasn't raised "in the Church" but was born into the "Bilble Belt" of the USA. I was exposed to Christianity early in life and attended church occasionally with other family and friends. In my early teens, with hormones raging, church was a place to meet girls. One night a young lady and myself and another young couple were preached through the gates of hell by a church deacon for our activities behind the church. We stlll had all our clothes on. If God was against this I didn't want any part of God. So at age 14 I became an Atheist which was about the only name I knew for someone who didn't believe in God. Of course at this time the only "God" I knew was basically Christian. Over the years as I've read and learned about religion, spirituality, science, and most of all, human beings, my personal concept of God and God's place in my life has changed . Much of my learning came from my own personal experience. Having become afflicted with alcoholism, I got involved with 12 step programs that suggest we develop a reliance on doing what God wants us to do. I mean go figure. An active alcoholic's life is often a screwed up mess at best. Doing anything but what the alcoholic wants is probabaly going to mean an improvement. 12 step programs don't tell what God is. They call it a "power greater than ourselves". They say "God of your understanding" I try to rely today on a God of my own personal understanding. Actually I understand very little about God and will always be restricted by my humanity. But, to me, the true laws of God are the laws of nature, of physics. Verily I say unto you what goes up will always come down unless acted on by a force greater than that exerted by gravity in the appropriate vector. However, being forced by my own selfish humanity to live among others, the laws of man (whether set by government, religion, etc.) are of concern also.

Today I pray actively for God's guidance. Though I don't believe God is an entity as humans think nor a deity as religions signify, prayer works for me. Okay? Let's hope it keeps working and maybe no one out there will meet me on the street, drunk, in my car, head on. Okay!!!!!

My mother tried to make me religious, though she wasn't religious herself. She thought that a belief in Jesus would help me through life. For a while we would pray every night, but she never really went into details and my belief was never much than "there's this good and loving person called Jesus who listens to me pray." At somewhere around 9 years old, I gradually began to realize that this was a pretty unfounded belief. I eventually quit praying and didn't pay much attention to the whole issue for a while, only to later become an agnostic/atheist... which is what I am now.

Richard lizard, we are SO on the same page--I turned 59 yesterday, for one thing--and have about 30 years in and out of 12-step programs--mostly out.

I "got religion" at age 15 at Presbyterian Church Camp (my dad was a deacon), and stayed one for about twenty minutes, and was an arrogant unhappy atheist until college, when I found God (or something) through Eastern Religions (with the help of mescaline).

Years later, took up with a Buddhist gal, and started the chanting thing myself, dropped that when she dropped me.

About twenty years ago, I started going to pagan gatherings, joined my tribe formally (I belong to the Muskogee nation) and became a shaman. Even got ordained as a ULC minister while I was living in New Mexico and teaching classes on shamanism at Western New Mexico U.

Thirteen years ago, I started reading Neale Donald Walsch and everything sort of started coming together. Now I pretty much consider myself a follower of the New Gospel, the most important tenet of which is : We are All One. No one is better than any other, no state or religion is better than any other, and we had best treat others as we wish to be treated ourselves.

Oh, and I am in charge--so to speak--of the local NA group, even though I identify myself as a "heretic," since I don't agree with all the steps and traditions.

I see no "higher power"--since God--whatever he/she/it/them/whatever may be--is not something "up there" but a creative, loving force/power that resides in everything and everyone. Each one of us is an Individuation of Divinity.

quote:Originally posted by ArmsMerchant:

I see no "higher power"--since God--whatever he/she/it/them/whatever may be--is not something "up there" but a creative, loving force/power that resides in everything and everyone. Each one of us is an Individuation of Divinity.

Sort of the 'gods below God', but without the definite belief in God? Cool shit; if it keeps you sober it keeps you sober http://www.totse.com/bbs/biggrin.gif (http://www.totse.com/bbs/biggrin.gif) I do the AA thing even though I was much more heavily into narcotics than alcohol.

this is an interesting thread.

i guess when i was growing up my parents never were really religious at all. i would say they both had more hippy-like beliefs. they did crazy drugs and probably had the revelations that come with that, but before they even met they gave up that whole lifestyle and were just "normal people". i guess i was baptized(sp) and so was my sister, but that was more for the family probably.

at some point though i asked what religion we were and my dad said technically we were christians. i dont really remember how i learned about it but i knew something about christianity and hell. when i was young i guess i bought into christianity and was always scared of going to hell.

eventually i started to see how rediculous christianity seems, but i deffinetly didnt start believing there wasnt a god or afterlife. even though we never talked about it until recently it seems i inhereted my fathers beliefs for the most part. i believe in an afterlife, there isnt a place called hell, and we are all equally part of "god". i dont even know how to explain my beliefs on "god" really. i think the idea of some single entity that created everything and is seperate from us is kind of strange. i guess i tend to think of god as the energy that is everything. i guess you could call that universal energy intelligent but i really dont know.

ive had the pleasure of actually knowing a pyschic lady and she has deffinetly expanded upon my beliefs. she is the real deal too. a couple years ago i found a letter she wrote to my dad when i was still in diapers. she actually completely accurately discribed my personality, and other things about our familys lives. out of everything she has told us, not a single thing has been wrong. she even caught trick questions my dad threw at her during his first reading.

the only thing she actually added to my belief system i guess would be, the meaning of life. its not as earth shattering as you might think though. we're basicly just here to learn, and improve ourselfs, and others. i could go into more detail but thats really the jist of it. each one of us knew roughly how our lives would be, we actually spent a lot of time planning on comming here, and we even were able to choose our personalities to an extent. even the worst people on earth like for example, hitler, arent actually "bad". he would have been here not only for himself, but also to help all the people he effected during his life. it might seem like the things he did were evil, but the people he effected all knew more or less exactly how things would go down and for whatever personal reasons they knew it would ultimately help them better themselfs and/or others.

i also completely believe in science. i dont know why anyone wouldnt. i mean, the universe sure as hell didnt just pop out of nowhere because there was some quantum fluxuation in the endless NOTHINGNESS. that doesnt make any god damn sense. but everything that science can explain is deffinetly accurate. we just made sure that, atleast at this point in time, our scientific understanding wouldnt allow us to explain EVERYTHING.



sorry if this is hard to follow. i havent been to sleep yet and its early morning here.

I was raised to be a Seventh Day Adventist, and was fascinated by the dogma of Christianity. The words in the Bible were quite moving and comforting until I ate from the tree of knowledge. All it took was a combination of history and science to make me realize that I didn't need an ancient jewish fairy tale to explain my existense. I also realized that what people lacked was information to make logical deductions or to arrive at their own conclusions, therefor they could be led like sheep and would believe anything to make themselves feel better. After seeing how society has been so structured and controlled throughout history, the picture became as clear as crystal. God is fake. Ever since then the only faith I have is that if there is a "God", he has never contacted a human being on this Earth and probably never will. What does that make me, agnostic?

[This message has been edited by Ra-deus (edited 10-18-2006).]

quote:Originally posted by Hexadecimal:

Sort of the 'gods below God', but without the definite belief in God? Cool shit; if it keeps you sober it keeps you sober http://www.totse.com/bbs/biggrin.gif (http://www.totse.com/bbs/biggrin.gif) I do the AA thing even though I was much more heavily into narcotics than alcohol.



Good for you-- but what keeps me sober is not getting loaded.

Seriously, I just decided I had had enough of that shit and made up my mind I was done with it for good--none of that "I'll just stay sober today" head-trip stuff.

What made it easy this time was amino acid nutritional therapy, which stabilized my brain chemistry and removed the craving for dope.

I quit alcohol, weed, and cigs the same day--no problem.



[This message has been edited by ArmsMerchant (edited 10-18-2006).]

I was raised Catholic by my parents, who are fairly religious but they don't really let it control their lives and they always told me and my brothers that what religion we wanted to be was our own choice and they wouldn't force us to go to Church or anything if we didn't want to. I believed completely in the Catholic dogma and went to Church every week until I was about 15 when I started thinking alot more about God and religion in general and I realized that it wouldn't matter to God whether I went to Church every week or what religion I called myself. So I stopped going to Church but I still basically believed in God and Christianity.

However, the longer I stayed like this, the more I began to think about why I even believed in the dogma of Christianity if there was no evidence supporting it. This was about the time when I started thinking alot more rationally and realized that in order to believe something is true, there must be evidence to support it. I applied this thinking to everything in my life, excluding the idea of God, mainly because I had been so indoctrinated with the idea that you go to hell if you don't believe in God that I was afraid. However, as I began researching religion and philosophy much more I realized that I was being hypocritical to believe in God even though I had no evidence to do so, when I didn't believe in anything else supernatural for lack of evidence. Finally, after about 2 years after I stopped going to Church as a Catholic, I came to my "religion" which I still am now, which is a weak atheist.

[This message has been edited by danreil (edited 10-18-2006).]

I started out as christian. I eventually started educating myself in every single field of interest I had. Read up on the basics of all religions and came to the conclusion that God was nothing more than a poor attempt by futile members of the human race to try and explain the world around them with the information that could be gathered at that time. If you ask me, religions are just like a bad scientific theory, riddled with logical fallacies and should be discarded without a second thought.

When I was a little kid, I was a christian. My grandmother took me to church. Religion amazed me so much. Hearing what Jesus did brought a smile to my face.

As I grew older, I was exposed to more religions. I looked around and saw the wonders that people have done. In one of my classes I was introduced to Buddhism. It clicked right away.

During my english class, we read an elightening book. This lead to my own perception of Buddhism.

Seventeen posts and only one religious person? Why is forum even called "My God Can Beat the Shit Out of Your God"?

Obviously most of us are agnostic or atheist.

quote:Originally posted by jb_mcbean:

Obviously most of us are agnostic or atheist.

Or the religious folks haven't evolved enough to merit posting.

^ Many of us have transcended religion in favor of spirituality.

In short--God rocks; religion sucks.

Well, i always went to this non-denominational Christian church, then we switched to a different one. I always hated it. I did a lot of thinking about religion. I got involved with a conversation with some Muslim, and we went back and forth for months, sometimes I thought what if I'm wrong..then finally I figured it out. Then I converted to Catholicism when I was 17 and am really happy with that.

I feel special.

quote:Originally posted by jb_mcbean:

Seventeen posts and only one religious person? Why is forum even called "My God Can Beat the Shit Out of Your God"?



Excellent question, but let's not forget the two trolls who posted nothing of their own experience but poured out prideful scorn on those who accepted your invite. This topic is about what is a fairly personal and intimate part of life and to discuss it openly in a forum where one is liable to attacks from those seemingly blinded to humanity by egotistical pride .. makes ya think twice! Why bother anyway, as you said most are agnostic/atheist and one has to wonder why they come to a forum about God?

Peace http://www.totse.com/bbs/smile.gif (http://www.totse.com/bbs/smile.gif)

quote:Originally posted by redzed:

Excellent question, but let's not forget the two trolls who posted nothing of their own experience but poured out prideful scorn on those who accepted your invite.

And you're doing what here? Better bring that up to three trolls.



quote:Originally posted by redzed:



This topic is about what is a fairly personal and intimate part of life and to discuss it openly in a forum where one is liable to attacks from those seemingly blinded to humanity by egotistical pride .. makes ya think twice! Why bother anyway, as you said most are agnostic/atheist and one has to wonder why they come to a forum about God?



It's not a forum just for believers in God. You really should consider finding a nice Godly forum outside of Totse if you don't want skeptics and atheists chiming in.

Born and raised Muslim, my parents took me to mosque to learn how to pray, etc. As I grew older I drifted away from my faith, then my parents sent me to a Muslim school for 2.5 years. There I learned A LOT about Islam, but I also learned why Islam is so fucked up right now. So many Muslims yet they are powerless and a disgrace to what they used to be.

ANYWAYS I left that school, went back to a normal school. Then shit started to get bad. I started drinking, getting with girls, and I was enjoying it. But then I sat down, and took a look at myself, my religion and God. I knew what I was doing was wrong, but I enjoyed it. My body loved all this pleasure. But i knew that God was angry with me, and I knew that in the long run this won't make me a better person. So I stopped.

Now, everything is so much better. I still smoke cigarettes and weed, but I don't go out to pubs or clubs, no drinking, no sex, shit I even stopped hitting on women. And it all paid off. I've met the love of my life, I'm madly in love and my future looks bright. http://www.totse.com/bbs/smile.gif (http://www.totse.com/bbs/smile.gif)

I know it wasn't long, but I have stuff to do later on. I enjoyed reading other people's stories, really good.

You calling me blinded to humanity? Egotistical pride, huh? Eat my ass.

I wasnt raised very religious at all. We celebrated Chaunakah, Passover, Rosh Hashanah and maybe went to Synagogue on Yom Kippur. But my mom wasnt really religious at all, and to boot my Dad is Irish Catholic, so he always wanted me to come celebrate Christmas with him(He and my mum were no longer together). I never went to a Yeshiva nor did I have a Bar Mitzvah.

After High school I decided to become more religious, I started keeping Kosher, going to Shul and Learning Hebrew and some of the more important prayers(The Sh'ma and Shabbat candle blessings). Now Im more religious than most of my friends, but just as open minded. I guess my actually mentality is closer to Reform Judaism, but I still keep more of my practices closer to Orthodox Judaism.

I was raised Presbyterian. I was a big believer, I took the Cub Scouts religion merit badge, I went to mass on Thursdays (I went to a Catholic school), went to LOGOS on Thursday nights (confirmation stuff), and services on Sunday mornings.

I started to change when my minister said I couldn't believe in reincarnation and be a Presbyterian. I've always felt like I've lived many lives here on Earth, my Mom told me once that as a kid I called everyone "friend", she said she thinks I am a reincarnated Quaker.

I have a lot of memories and deja vu and weird bits of pictures and feelings and sounds in my head that I shouldn't have, I'm way too wise for a 22 year old. I feel like an old soul, I've been told I'm an old soul.

I drifted away from Christianity when I moved up here to Wisconsin. I realized what I was searching for in religion was a direct experience of the divine, not the rituals and moralizing that were the bulk of what was sold at Church. I was always turned off by ministers or priests who insisted that their way was the only way, and since I had experience with both Catholicism and Protestantism, I knew that they were mostly the same, just different in emphasis on ritual.

For a long time, I have had my own spiritual beliefs. I basically believe that the energy that gives everything life, that spark, is the real thing to worship. I don't think God is some dude sitting up in the clouds, I think God is everywhere, all around us, all the time as that lifeforce, that "spark".

I've gotten into Buddhism recently as well. Meditation does a lot for me, it helps me relax, it helps me let go of bad impressions and thoughts, and it clears my palate of bad emotions.

.

[This message has been edited by Clarphimous (edited 10-22-2006).]