If You CHANGED your Religion, What Lead You to Do So? (Buddhism, souls)

[goldengrain]

Please, do NOT use this as some testiment to/for your CHRISTIANITY. We all pretty much know what your beliefs are, and good for you, that you are saved!


I was reared as a fundie Christian. After learning that my best friend of another religion was going to hell, and I knew she believed deeply, I started questioning what I was being told in my faith.

I ran across a book on alternate religions and found out that many people whom I was taught were heathen idol worshippers were also worshipping the one god, but some were more comfortable with an image, just as many Christians imagine an image of Christ or a cross, in their minds.

I told god that he/it had better guide me if he/it wished me to be a believer, for I no longer will just accept a belief merely because I was born into a particular family or country or because it happened to be in some book or spoken by some guru.

So, now I have formulated my own beliefs, learned through my life.

I cannot understand how a 'one religion suits all' works. Do all adherants of a particular faith believe everything that they are told? If they do not believe in some finer points, wouldn't this lead to the questioning of everything?

Is not being intellectually and morally honest with yourself more important than agreeing with a group just in order to fit in?

Wouldn't a group that was really concerned with the state of your soul encourage you to question everything and NOT insult you with facile answers to complicated problems?

I wonder how have others' religious beliefs morphed, through time, away from the religion that they were born into?

[Tricky D]

I just dropped the whole organised religion once I realised that having a religion does not mean having faith.
I have faith but do not see the need to support a religion.

[Miss Blue]

I was raised in many different churches, I learned that God is everywhere and we are free to worship where and with whom we choose as long as it is for Him. When I married I belonged to one church, the one of my dh..For years they tried to make me believe what they did, that they were the only ones acceptable to God... I finally rebelled and returned to the "roots of my raising" and God accepted me as the prodigal son was accepted back into the family. I don't attend any manmade church at the moment, but I don't feel guilty because I am part of The Church...

[noland123]

Its not about changing religions.it is about having a personal relationship with God and through Him knowing His Son Jesus Christ our Savior and the Holy Spirit that dwell within us..Religions are suited for man.

[CelticLady1]

I was also raised as a fundamentalist Christian, and I questioned the concept of hell, and many other things, from the time I was a child. But, as most people know, who have come out of fundamentalist Christianity, questions are not really welcome, because they make people uncomfortable, particularly if there is not a reasonable answer. One is told that God works in mysterious ways, or that his ways are not our ways, and a myriad of other arguments. One is expected to "go with the flow", and not bother their pastor, Sunday School teacher, youth pastor, parents, etc., with troublesome questions or doubts. The older I got, the more questions I had, and no one could, or would, answer them, or if they did, it was not an acceptable answer for me, because it still didn't make sense. Which, of course, meant that I did not have enough faith. But, I think the real reason that fundamentalist folks, (Christian or otherwise), don't appreciate questions or doubts from others, is because it may make them do some questioning of their own. And, it can be very frightening to step out on one's own and question, or even leave behind, the belief system you were raised in.

I no longer attend any church, nor do I have any desire to. That doesn't mean that I have no interest in God, or in spiritual matters; far from it. I have done more reading and searching on my own, than I ever did as a "fundie", and I am much happier for it. But, I have no interest in returning to my former belief system, (Fundamentalist Christianity). My confidence in my Creator grew ten-fold, when I gave up listening to those who insist that it is their way, or the highway. Frankly, if that's how they feel, then I'll take the highway. I've learned much more.

[goldengrain]

Yes. In every other walk of life, we are encouraged to ask questions, to grow, to test one way and then another. It is called maturity. In fact, people who are using their brains constantly in trying to find new ways and in being challanged tend not to get alzhiemers. Religion is the one place in which we are told to be stagnant.

Yet, you guys seem to believe as I, that we do continue on, and that there is definately a component to 'life' that is not immediately obvious.

So many atheists that I have met have been raised in very strict religions, and believed that this was the only way. When they gave up that way, they gave up on god. Don't you think that these religions that are so full of themselves, so self-righteous by their natures, do an injustice to these souls? Would it not be so much better to say - there are many ways, and this is the one that suits us? So at least, in giving up a church they would still have a door open to god?

I think, if a church were open minded (and a closed mind is never be required by god) they would be learning a bit about quantum theory? I mean, that some scientists are saying the mind does seem to influence matter in some instances? That what appears to be material and solid, is not? That there can be alternate universes? Doesn't this have a similar 'feel' to it as some aspects of religion? If people actually took their religion as reality and not just so many pie in the sky words, wouldn't they be just fascinated by these quantum discoveries, and thanking god for the scientific brains that are able to get a handle on exploring his universe?

Unlike some of you guys, I would love to attend meetings which explore the holy teachings of other religions and also physics, as much as I am capable of understanding such things. I have heard things in 'other' faiths and all of a sudden got a deeper understanding of certain teachings.

But, I think the words of the bard, 'to thine ownself be true' are the greatest. Because, in actuality, there are as many pathways to god as there are people, and an atheist, following what he thinks is best, is worshipping just as well, and perhaps better, than the churchgoer.

[Joshhhhh]

I was born and raised as a Roman Catholic, traditional churches, it was boring, I remember being 7 and going to sunday school, and all we did was color on plates and draw jesus fish, crap like that, it was pointless, and I didnt understand the point of it.

As I got older, and realized there is not 1 single piece of evidence to point that there is a god, or that some high being created us, its all easily explained by science, and makes much more sense than some book we are told to read and live our life by.

It just seem kind of insane that people live their life by what some book that was written many years ago.

I think religon is a joke, and just another form of seperation, and only gives a sense of false hope, and gives the ability to "clean your mind" of wrong doings.

[Mattie Jo]

I questioned myself out of every religion I ever joined, and I have joined many. I say this in light of what CelticLady had to say. I was a Jehovah's Witness in my younger years after being a Babtist, Luthern, etc. I soon learned that the Jehovah's Witnesses practiced shunning and didn't like questions. Being shunned by a religion that meant everything to me caused me to want nothing more to do with Christianity. It took me years before joining another religion, and it wasn't Christianity. I had studied too much to even be able to accept Christianity again. I went to Hinduism, and when I learned how the gurus treated disciples I left. I went to Buddhism, but I couldn't embrace everything that they taught, and by that time I was doing research on the dangers of meditation and so stopped meditating. I also realized that this so-called peaceful religion wasn't always so peaceful as I began doing research on the Tibetan teachings and was glad that at least I had joined a Zen group that had peace as much as any religion ever can.

So now I no longer believe in organized religion of any kind, and I no longer study spiritual books, but my leaning are between Hinduism and Buddhist teachings, and learning that Christ taught the same as Buddha did 500 years earlier I am more at peace with his teachings too. I am always reminded of when I read the book Siddharta in college and how Siddharta went searching in his lifetime, and at the end of the book he just sat down by the river. So I am just sitting down by the river enjoying life and trying to be the best person that I can and to help others when they need help. I no longer see a need to concern myself with heaven or hell or with any afterlife. What happens happens. I found that what was important was to have peace within, which was something I never found in an organized religion because all I ever saw was people being hurt.

[ParkTwain]

I dropped evangelical Christianity (Southern Baptist) when I realized that the historicity of the Book of Daniel is actually a crock. I had been giving the whole enchilada of Christianity a huge "benefit of the doubt" up to that point. At the same time I learned that the apocalyptic tradition in Christianity was the product of weirded-out Jews in 2nd and 1st c BCE Palestine who couldn't handle the fact that their "Kingdom of Israel" existed basically at the leisure of several other belligerent regional military powers. And look how much damage to world peace those apocalyptic ideas have sown since then, right up to this second.

[goldengrain]

I don't know if you can be harsh enough with a religion that religates the majority of humanity to hell for not thinking their way. The only reason why Christianity has so many adherents in the US is because it effectively cuts away all the competition and it has somehow been confused with patriotism in many minds.

There are spiritually minded people born into every country. If they would like fellowship, in the US, they often have no choice other than Christianity. Does anyone really think that making some innane comment about believing in Christ is really going to make a person think twice about his spiritual status? Of course not. What that person is asking for is to be ostracized because it is the only way they can feel 'special', like they are suffering for the truth, just like their god. It's all about them.

There are atheists in the world, but I don't think the choice in life is between atheism and Christianity, or at least, it should not be.

So I am interested in those individuals who refuse to be brainwashed, and are willing to stand alone and break out of the pack. People who have a faith that mere Christianity, at least how it is practiced, does not serve.

When a nation decides to war on a group of people, the first thing they do is to paint the enemy as the 'other' - aliens. They are easier to hate and kill that way. Hitler did it to the Jews. We are doing that, now, to Moslems. And radical Islam is doing it to us.

Not that I have much good to say about the Old Testiment god, either, but don't get me started.

I remember when that goofy Kumani(sp) was in charge in Iran, how there were instances of Iranians being attacked in this country. Even now, after 911, some Hindus were attacked, being mistaken by some jerks for Moslems.
You would probably not be doing that, but just the idea that so many people in the US really have not seriously looked into other religions has set the stage for some idiot with only one functioning brain cell to think this way.

Christianity, like Islam in many countries today, is not a religion that tolerates diversity. THat has to change.