Choices in religion

Hi all,
Just throwing this out there. Those with strongly held religious beleifs, where did they come from? How old were you and do you parents beleive the same thing?

Please also mention what the religion is ;)

Born and baptised catholic. Been confirmed catholic as well. Parents both went to private schools growing up. My dad, however, switched to public school after junior high by his own graces. My mom doesn't have any clue what public school is like. My mom in the last few years has b/c, as my dad likes to say, an old lady. Which interpruts to very religious. Last week when I went home my dad and I were talking about it and he said he asked about trying a different church(i.e. Lutheren, Baptist,etc). And he got bitched at to the tenth degree.

We went off and on to a lot of different churches growing up. Never went very long to any particular one and never went very often to church. Around 23 I decided to see if there was anything to Christianity. Don't know why (well I didn't know why then) but I felt like I needed to look into it. Eventually I ended up at an Assembly of God(pentacostal) church and joined. It felt like home and the people were great. The pastor was very down to earth and would always take time to discuss things that I questioned. He was never judgemental and always tried to see my point of view even if he didn't agree with it. We moved across state a few years back and joined another Assembly of God Church but just recently we are looking to try a local non denominational church.

I remember getting into an un-understandable convo with an Irish priest when I was 10 or (I'm Catholic, apparantly).

"Waasishyernemederbiy?"

"I'm sorry Father, I didn't catch that?"
*Big grin by Father*

"Thish moiy achent ard to oonderstind?"

"Yeah I'm sorry it is Father"

"Weeeelll, ave a gud win lead"

mormon. belief all my life pushed on by my parents. but this past year i have started to believe it my self.

My parrents raised me Lutheran, but then i started to disagree with an "Organized religion" so i declared my self Christian meaning follower of Christ. Then i started to loose my faith enitrely until i almost died. Now I'm not so sure.
I kind of take it one day at a time until i find my self.




Just as a update i looked for my self at the bottom of a Jack Daniels bottle. I wasnt there. More on this later.

I was born into the catholic church then my mother converted all of us to christianity, now at 18 i think christianity is the most rediculous cult on the planet and think that those who belive it are all fools who were scared as children of "hell" and dont want to go there, so every week they "worship" GOD and do his bidding. So that they dont go there. :lol2:

Almost died?

Just as a update i looked for my self at the bottom of a Jack Daniels bottle. I wasnt there. More on this later.

I've been doing that way too much lately. My parents are not religious at all, having been raised that way and smartened up. But no, I am starting to believe in this whole "God" idea. I don't belong to any particular faith, although I take the ideas I like from alot of them. I think everyone should get their own "religion" that works for you, then maybe the world would be a better place.

I was born into the catholic church then my mother converted all of us to christianity, now at 18 i think christianity is the most rediculous cult on the planet and think that those who belive it are all fools who were scared as children of "hell" and dont want to go there, so every week they "worship" GOD and do his bidding. So that they dont go there. :lol2:

This thread was going along very nicely without insults and then you show up.:disappoin

MBTN, i was hit on my motorcycle. Technically there is no reason i should be alive, but i am. Which makes me wonder if i have a reason for being here. In fact someone else was hit on their cycle while i was in the hospital. They wernt hit as bad as i was, but unfortunatly they passes away. Which make me think of a great quote

"Now its clear the i'm here for a real reason. Cause he got hit like i got hit but he anit f**king breathing" 50 cent

DGB454 - agreed with your sentiments. There is no need to degrade or insult other people here or their religious choices.

I am merely interested because the majority of the 'religious' people I have come accross have adopted their parents religion. It would seem that those that have strongly held religious beleifs developed outside their parents beleiefs often have a good story about how they came to that particular faith. I was interested in possibly hearing a bit about them.

My parents both believed in God strongly, and we went to church all the time. But after a long time of being exposed to different churches, I learned that most of the people who go to church didn't even really care, or believe in their faith.
In fact, alot of the times, they'd say one thing, but mean something completely different. I was turned off by church by how many flakes there always were there. And of course, I also realised that church is rather useless - as you can read the Bible and pray on your own time, and as a bonus you don't have people forcing their opinions of what the Bible means on you every time you visit.
Then I got turned off of the Bible because even out of church I'd hear people talking about it, and idolizing it, as though it were a God - and realised that the majority Christians today believe more strongly in the Bible, than they do in God or his supposed son Jesus.
So I still believe that there's a God, but I don't go to church, and I rarely read the Bible, as I've realised it is only paper and ink, and not as important to my beliefs as many people think it should be.

My father was born Catholic (which according to him he abandoned in his early teens) my mom went to a Christian church (no clue what kind) but also stoped going early on. When I was raised I was "given" no religion to follow I pretty much spent my younger years as an atheist. about a year and a half a ago I met a girl at school an extremely devoted Baptist and she talked me in to going with her to church a few times. After a few visits I decided that they all seemed to "fake" (similarly to what 2strokebloke talks about) I decided that I didn't want to go to her church anymore but my intrest in religion/phylosophy was sparked so I looked for something else. my last semester at college I took a yoga class an the instructor was Buddhist. I figured I'd look in to it and instantly found it amazing, it was exactly what I'd been looking for so now I'm a Buddhist.