what kind of beliefs were you raised with, ...and what do you believe currently? Options

[timeflies51]

I just thought it would be interesting to see what kind of beliefs you were raised with compared to what you believe now.


If you have kept the beliefs you were raised with, what made you keep them?

If your beliefs have shifted to a different form of belief within the religion (example: Catholic to Lutheran, Reform Judaism to Conservative Judaism, etc.), what made you change them?

If you switched to a different religion or set of beliefs completely, what compelled you to do so? If you did, are you still proud of/do you still respect your background?

And, if you picked "Other", please specify.



I'll start.


I was raised as a Reform Jew, but now I'm an atheist. Now that I think about it, I don't think I ever, truly believed in God. If anything, I had the shallow belief that God was a man with a white beard up in the sky watching and controlling everything. I think it's mostly my temple's fault that I never developed a deep belief; they weren't (and still aren't) very passionate about it. A couple years ago, I came to the conclusion that I was an atheist, and after researching many views on religion and God, I became comfortable being an atheist and an existentialist. Turns out that for all of these years, my dad has been an atheist and my mom has been an agnostic anyway!

Despite my beliefs, I still recognize myself as being Jewish. Why? Because I am proud of my background. I love the culture and the community aspect. I'm going to raise my kids Jewish because I myself love being raised Jewish.


Alright. How about you guys?



(BTW: Sorry for that really obvious grammar mistake in the title, haha, but I couldn't think of how to word it any other way.)

[*Statues/Shadows*]

I was raised in a non-reigious house... probably Agnostic rather than Athiest. Now I'm an athiest, although i do attend a Christian school, although that is something of a joke...

Technically I was baptised as a Catholic, but I've never voluntarily set foot in a church (well, at least not for a service), and I've been to church probably fewer than 10 times in my life, excluding the odd school thing.

I've never been interested or had any belief in having religion, although i have studied Christianity in a asonable depth of my own free will as an optional class... To me, religion is like any other myth. Faintly interesting, but I don't need it.

I looked into Buddhism, but decided I'm not a nice enough person.
Why the change, and how different do you find it? I've always been interested in different denominations...

I think you came to some mass with me at some point. First communion, maybe? I don't remember. Your grandmother always came with us, but I vaguely remember you coming once.

Well my parents are mostly Nigerian and all Nigerians are Catholic, usually. It's not that I really didn't like Cathoholicism, I just didn't believe that strongly in it. And when my parents started having problems we went to different churches, and I went with my dad to a Baptist church and I found I liked that better. There isn't a huuuuuge difference between those two denominations, (or maybe it isn't as drastic as other denominations).

Hm. I find the differences between Catholic and Baptist beliefs to be quite significant. I don't think I've been to any Baptist services (maybe one?), but occasionally my dad and stepmom drag me to their Methodist church, which I think is pretty similar to Baptist, but a little less on the opposite end of the sectrum, and it seems pretty different to me. Seems about as drastic as you can get amoung Christians (Mormons and all that excluded). As much as I sort of fail at religion in general, having experiences both Catholic masses and Protestant services, I am much more comfortable with Catholic beliefs than Baptists ones *shrug*

Hmm... fair enough.

I supported a Nigerian candidate for Pope. I don't remember why, but it seemed like a good idea at the time... I'm also not really sure why that's relevant, but I remembered it just now.

I think we've had quite a few Nigerian priests.

So anyway. I was raised very much Catholic, and I think I'm still expected to be very much Catholic, but uh...that's not going so well. I'm really just lying to myself. I'm more agnostic, I think.