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  1. #1
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    Hi

    I was wondering how many, if any of you were raised under one religion and now as an adult have changed to a different religion or philosophy? and why?

    I was raised as a Christian and now my beliefs are changing. It's not so much that I don't believe in a higher power or anything like that...I am just now starting to move from away from oraganized religion to individual spirituality.

    I have some MAJOR problems with organized religion...(and to clarify, I mean religion as far as mindlessly following empty traditions and as a tool for mental conditioning and control.)

    I grew up being forced to go to church. If I didn't go, I couldn't not leave the house for the rest of the day once my mother came home. So I went and I listened, I got baptized, and at one point I was really into "church".

    But now that I am out on my own, I'm questioning a lot of what I've been conditioned to believe. I say conditioned because I never sought the knowledge for myself. I just believe what pastor said to believe for a long time. Now, I am questioning because as an individual I have to live and think for myself. Religion did not allow me to do that. They made me feel as if questioning meant non-belief, lack of faith, or heresy. To me, there's too much room for individual interpretation and misuse of the word. I had people tell me having piercings and tattoos is wrong and that I'm going to hell for it...because they interpreted text WRONG. That's why you can go to one church and the pastor says this and then go to another and the pastor says this and it's just a big ball of confusion. Who's right? Who's wrong? The Bible itself is an interpretation by MAN...which leaves room for imposition of will and misinterpretation.

    and please don't get me started on the fact that slaves were stripped of their TRUE religion and forced to practice Christianity so they could further be brainwashed...

    My point is...I'm not so sure that people are aware that you can have an individual relationship with God and not have to be "religious" per se. I say that because I wasn't aware because of being conditioned. Sorry to be so long and ramble, but I'm just trying to see can anyone relate to this and what resolution did they come to...
    We have all established that our hair is different....At the end of the day we pride ourselves as being NAPPY! [b]Let this quest for right and wrong go[/b] - RoseBurnt

    [url="http://public.fotki.com/melanizm13"]UPDATES[/url]...12/08

  2. #2
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    I liked the way I was raised (well, by religious standards). I was raised a Baptist, but my parents never forced me to be Baptized (and I never was), and I wasn't forced to attend church services. My mother taught Sunday School and I liked that only because all my friends were there. When I was in my mom's class as a young teenager, I would get into trouble for asking all of these philosophical questions that challenged the bible. Because I went to school with Muslims, Jews, Taoists, Atheists, and Agnostics, I was open to many different belief systems, and never saw the Baptist faith as something I wanted to persue. I don't have a desire to go to church anymore, because to me a church service is like watching a motivational speaker. I've never come out of a service having learned anything new. And if that's the case, I'd rather get my extra three hours of sleep on Sunday.

    Only when I went to college and took my required religious studies classes did I become interested in spirituality again. Not from a biblical perspective, but from a scholastic, historical perspective, an area that these country preachers who I've encountered who just went to the local bible college never had any knowledge of. I love religious studies, and am even thinking of doing post grad work in it, purely for my own benefit.

    I don't understand why we force our teachers and doctors to be properly educated, but we allow our pastors, etc. to teach the masses with a half-azzed understanding of the bible from a historical perspective. These are the people that some people trust with their souls. I'd say that's a big deal.

    Wow, I really strayed from the topic on this one. I just had to get it all out. Sorry folks. :-?

  3. #3
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    i feel the exact same way....i was just thinking about this the other day....i never took in anything i heard, yet i sat there sunday after sunday because i had to. the church i was raised in was filled with hypocrisy, and once i was eighteen, i was tired of it. the pastor and wife of my church were also my godparents by default (my sister and i had a rough childhood so they called themselves our godparents) they were so overbearing and judgemental, yet there own children were not subject to their views. i felt i had to get away and i took a year off from church, to get myself together and find out who i was without them telling me who i should be....im still not sure whatr path will be on, but i know that my happiness and sanity is to come first...im looking into some aspects of buddhism.
    ~How many fools will I let unlock the door to my heart, when I know that they shouldn't have had the key~ Hot Tequila Brown- Jamiroquai (Dynamite)

    ~This can never really end, its infinitely sad...can someone tell me when something good became so bad...so if you have a cure, to me would you please send...a picture of my life with a letter telling how it should really be instead~Picture of My Life- Jamiroquai (A Funk Odyssey)

  4. #4
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    @ libraising:
    I don't understand why we force our teachers and doctors to be properly educated, but we allow our pastors, etc. to teach the masses with a half-azzed understanding of the bible from a historical perspective. These are the people that some people trust with their souls. I'd say that's a big deal
    :app thank for you perspective...I'd also like to start studying religion from a historical perspective and study world religions as well...there's so much information out there!

    @mizz_jazz, I'm right there with you. I haven't been to church in a long time and probably won't go. I don't have any desire to sit there and see the hypocrisy in the so-called "house of the Lord"...there's enough of that in the world that I have to deal with :smug I'd rather focus on my personal relationship with the Creator. I think letting other people dictate what is and isn't "right" actually hinders people from spirituality all together and that's a problem!
    We have all established that our hair is different....At the end of the day we pride ourselves as being NAPPY! [b]Let this quest for right and wrong go[/b] - RoseBurnt

    [url="http://public.fotki.com/melanizm13"]UPDATES[/url]...12/08

  5. #5
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    Interesting...

    Melanizm, my parents were raised in the church much the same way you were -- it wasn't an option. When they got married they decided not to raise my sisters and me in the church. We'd go to church every once in a while, and I remember saying grace and bedtime prayers when I was a little girl, but as we got older those fell by the wayside.

    Then I went to Catholic high school and got a real education in religion and spirituality. I'm not kidding...I had to take a religion class every year. I had the kind of romance with the Catholic Church that, according to many of my ex-Catholic friends, only someone who wasn't born Catholic can have. :lol When I graduated I seriously considered converting...but once I looked under the pretty cover and saw what was really involved I decided to break up my romance.

    It was around that time (college) that I really started questioning the purpose of religion in general. A number of friends, including my Catholic-born-and-raised cousin, were becoming born-again Christians, and they were really sweating me to become one too. But I was also meeting Muslims and Hindus (in addition to the Jews I'd grown up around) and it REALLY bothered me that, according to my born-again friends, they wouldn't go to heaven unless they accepted Jesus as their Savior. That kind of exclusivity pretty much turned me off Christianity by the time I was in my mid-20s.

    Since then I've tagged myself with the label "spiritual but not religious." I look for and observe those things that are common to all religions (prayer/meditation and the Golden Rule being two of them) and pretty much steer clear of any dogma or ideology that presumes to make less of me because I'm a woman, or because I'm not a specific member of x or y religion, or because I show respect for and interest in other religions and lifestyles. My relationship with the Universe is very personal and individual and I don't appreciate people trying to scare me into signing onto their vision of what a spiritual relationship should be.

    Interestingly, one of my sisters became born-again, but as she puts it, she's "Christian but not narrow." My mom became born-again too. My dad, other sister, and I still remain fairly independent, but we all respect each other's choices.
    Hello, 2021. Glad to see you. Hope you're bringing us goodness and light this year!

  6. #6
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    Thanks for sharing that LBellatrix! Your 4th paragraph pretty much explains how I want to be. I tell people I'm spiritual but not religious also, so it's interesting that you said that.

    I'm jotting this down for sure:

    My relationship with the Universe is very personal and individual and I don't appreciate people trying to scare me into signing onto their vision of what a spiritual relationship should be.
    I know it's going to be hard when/if I introduce my newfound feelings on religion (in the traditional sense) vs. spirituality, to certain people in my life, but these posts are definitely helping me realize it's not about them...it's about me and my personal relationship.


    We have all established that our hair is different....At the end of the day we pride ourselves as being NAPPY! [b]Let this quest for right and wrong go[/b] - RoseBurnt

    [url="http://public.fotki.com/melanizm13"]UPDATES[/url]...12/08

  7. #7
    vinny_46 Guest

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    Christian...but I'm free now. :thumbsup

  8. #8
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    I was raised under the Baptist religion, but as an adult I joined non-deonominational churches. After visiting around 50 different churches in the first three years of college I finally found a church that I felt comfortable with. I saw a lot of things in the Baptist church that I didn't agree with and it was hard for me (at that time) to differentiate the denomination from the particular church. So I decided that the Baptist church was not for me. When I moved to Texas, I visited several different churches until I found the non-denominational church that I've been a member of for almost 6 years.

    The point in listing this history is to say that I had to do some searching until I found the religious institution that I felt would be beneficial for me to join. None of my friends are part of the church that I'm a member of and I didn't join the church to become part of a "family". I joined the church so that I could be taught the Word of God. The first time I visited the church I'm a member of now, the pastor preached a message where he used over 10 different scriptures to support what he was saying, yet he still encouraged us to go home and study it for ourselves. His message gave me a plan of what I could do to experience a better life. I definitely learned something and I joined the church several weeks later.

    I believe that if you're at a church that you're not learning anything at, then that church is not right for you. Also, if you're at a church where they discourage individual study of the Bible, then that is not a good church. My opinion.

    Am I Christian because I go to church? No.
    Am I a good Christian because I go to church several times a week? No
    I'm a Christian because I believe and follow Christ.

    My $.02.
    Seek First - Matthew 6:33 Sixth year, Yea!
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  9. #9
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    i am raised as a christian. though i was never forced to go to church like my mom and her bros. she did teach me that there was a GOD, that he loves everyone and everyone is equal in his eyes. i used to go to church and only went when it was fun. baptist church cause i loved the music and the one old lady that had to get up and do the holy ghost. now i'm starting to think that maybe i wasn't taught christians because i believe different then alot of the christians around me. and i follow GOD not christ. i never read the bible but i know alot about it. but i look at and respect other religions. maybe i'm just a person who beliefs in GOD but am not in a religion idk.
    just i case anyone was wondering i'm not suggestion GOD is a man because i keep saying "he" and "his"

  10. #10
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    LBellatrix...I feel the same way you do about the exclusivity that Christianity requires. I have always wondered that if belief and acceptance of Jesus Christ (as the son of God and Savior and all that jazz) is the only way to "get to heaven" , then what about people in other parts of the world who have never heard of and probably never will hear of Jesus Christ. Are they damned to "hell" simply because they were born in another part of the globe?

    I was raised Baptist myself although neither of my parents are very religious. I went through a brief phase in my life where I was very into church and youth group and evangelism and all that. But it always seemed to me that to please God so I could get to "heaven" meant that I would have to live my life denying myself of the things I naturally wanted to do and experience. Now I think my views on God and spirituality have drastically changed. I realized that God is in me and everything around me. Being close to the spirit of God doesnt come from reading any books, or attending any services or doing or not doing certain things. I think that my Creator lives within in. Everything the spirit is I am as well. All the answers to all my problems and questions and wants are all inside of me. I am the answer because I am what God is. I think if you can listen and be still ( through meditation or affirmative prayer or however) all the answers will become evident.

    I am interested in hearing more about what others believe..

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