How did you come to your faith?

[enoch]

many of us were born into our parents beliefs and hold the same beliefs today without having had a moment of divine inspiration

some have had that moment and it brought them to believe in the religion of their fathers

and some found religion on their own, apart from that to which they were born


I am curious to hear from anyone who would like to share how they came to their faith

This is not an argument, a debate, or a discussion
This is a place for people to share their faith

PLEASE RESPECT EVERY FAITH AND BELIEF
from atheism (the first religion) to the evangelicals inventing new ways to worship Christ as we speak



My story

I do believe in the faith of my father, but I had to come to it

I was raised in both the Catholic and First Presbyterian Churches
as well as an intense emphasis on the history of the Christianity in both thought and physical events
My father's family is from a long line of thinkers who believed that the Ministry of Jesus was the true faith, so history was essential for me to understand what was actually likely from Jesus and what was from those who came after
They have always participated in the Catholic Church as well, and since the order's founding, at least one boy from every generation has become a Jesuit

in my generation my father hoped it would be me, although he understands that, thanks to the evangelicals, you do not have to be a member of a large Christian sect to be respected as a Christian teacher


I actually had that moment of Divinity, where I felt the guiding presence of God enter into me to stay

1989
My uncle (my fathers second brother) had just left a very promising future in the Episcopalian Church (he had been a minister for five years) to become a model banging coke addict in NYC's east village

my father had paid for my uncle to go to columbia undergrad and harvard divinity, so my dad was understandably frustrated with my Uncle's choice

one night I woke up to my dad and uncle screaming at each other - I walked to the stair landing, and began to eavesdrop

my dad was furious - screaming about how my uncle betrayed his family and his faith and all the good he could have done to further the Ministry etc, and finally he screamed "WHY!!!"

and I couldn't see them, but I heard my Uncle's words and they changed my life - forever sealing me into my father's faith

my uncle said,


"I love God, but I can't stand lying to those who love him too..."

amen

[Farnan]

Stopped going to Church, started reading the Bible.

[Anachronist]

Got fed up with the BS of western religion basically.

[Romanos]

Mostly TWC and my aunt and uncle help me change from a true believer to a athiest.

[LSJ]

I am agnostic because my parents didn't take me to church, never taught me religion, and I just learned things myself.
The only things I was told about were the easter bunny and Santa Claus, and as soon as I realized they weren't real (age 4) my life contained no religious beliefs. When I got older I thought that because the only religious teachings I knew were not even part of the religion and were just child's stories for fun, I realized I was non religious (although I didn't know what religion meant).
Now, since I've lived my entire life not believing in any gods or sacred texts, I find it impossible to believe anything that cannot be proven physically, thus my development to agnosticism; I think knowing the truth about the existence of a god is beyond human ability.

That's the problem with religion... if you are an intelligent person raised without religion you can never believe in it unless something major happens in your life changing your psyche... Unless that happens I'll be stuck as an agnostic. And I like knowing the answers to big questions; being agnostic means I'll never "know" the answer about God, because I believe the answer is unknowable: quite the sticky situation there, mate.

[Hafnium]

I am agnostic because my parents didn't take me to church, never taught me religion, and I just learned things myself.
The only things I was told about were the easter bunny and Santa Claus, and as soon as I realized they weren't real (age 4) my life contained no religious beliefs. When I got older I thought that because the only religious teachings I knew were not even part of the religion and were just child's stories for fun, I realized I was non religious (although I didn't know what religion meant).
Now, since I've lived my entire life not believing in any gods or sacred texts, I find it impossible to believe anything that cannot be proven physically, thus my development to agnosticism; I think knowing the truth about the existence of a god is beyond human ability.

That's the problem with religion... if you are an intelligent person raised without religion you can never believe in it unless something major happens in your life changing your psyche... Unless that happens I'll be stuck as an agnostic. And I like knowing the answers to big questions; being agnostic means I'll never "know" the answer about God, because I believe the answer is unknowable: quite the sticky situation there, mate.

Exactly my view as well.

[deRougemont]

Got fed up with the BS of western religion basically.

Try an eastern religion, like Christianity.

There was no one thing that made me a Christian. I was 'plucked' from the mire, as they saying goes; I simply knew one day. It was not a matter of becoming one, but a matter of not being able to not be one.

[Oldgamer]

Try an eastern religion, like Christianity.

There was no one thing that made me a Christian. I was 'plucked' from the mire, as they saying goes; I simply knew one day. It was not a matter of becoming one, but a matter of not being able to not be one.

Hear! Hear!

I will get into this thread, tomorrow, in a larger way.

However, suffice it to say that the words of Jesus are the most compelling that I have ever read. Furthermore, the gentle Carpenter from Galilee drew me into the faith, every time I read those words.

[jankren]

I used to be a Sunnist but then I learned that Sunnism was just a bunch of purely Middle Eastern traditions and customs so I decided to embrace Islam and take only Al Quran as my sole religious guide.

Peace,

[sdjenkyn]

I came to my beliefs from watching hypocrites falter in their beliefs.

[Thanatos]

I became Catholic as soon as my Evangelical pastor said that Christ's body wasn't really in the bread and wine.

[zznɟ ǝɥʇ]

I was raised a Unitarian Universalist but my grandparents are Roman Catholic. UUs believe in free choice of religious thought, so I was encouraged to explore other beliefs and such.

After a series of Christian friends and girlfriends I took up that damn uber Christianity, basically evangelicism. But after breaking up with the most recent Christian gf that I had, I realised I was faking it the entire time. As I don't belive in God, it was kinda hard to be a Christian.

So now I'm agnostic, perhaps an athiest. All I know is I'm happy.

[Zenith Darksea]

First of all, it isn't 'athiest', it's 'atheist'.

Well, I went to a Church of England primary school, though my family were actually Church of Scotland Presbyterians (we live in England, however). Nonetheless, none of the rest of my family were or are actually practising Christians, so I pretty much developed my belief in God independently of them. Nonetheless, it hardly dominated my thoughts.

At secondary school, I had a sort of epiphany, in a minor way. I was given a copy of the New Testament one day, and on stopping to read it I became completely engrossed, and from then on I wanted to try and get into Church of Scotland Presbyterianism much more, something that was especially difficult, what with me being in England.

Over time my interest in Classics and the ancient Mediterranean was developing. I started learning Latin and Greek at school, and my appreciation of Europe's early history was developing. Then I had a history lesson on the Crusades, and I remember that my teacher briefly mentioned an 'Emperor in the East'. That was the only mention that was made in my history lessons of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, but I soon became fascinated by what we refer to as the 'Byzantine Empire', largely because it was such an odd continuation of the Classical world that I was studying and because school syllabuses seemed to wilfully avoid teaching us about it. At this point however I still very strongly thought of myself as Church of Scotland. Obviously once I left school/university, I'd move back to Scotland and be a practising Presbyterian. So I thought.

So I read and read about the Byzantines, and I came to develop a deep fondness for them. I also developed a great deal of sympathy for Byzantine subjects who came to be ruled by foreign powers such as Turks and Arabs. I also came to start reading about the Eastern Orthodox Church, something that I had never really considered at first. In the beginning I just developed an interest in knowing more about it, and just thought that I'd like to give it my sympathetic support, though I still disagreed with a lot of its ideas, most of which I barely knew about.

However, I started reading on it, and especially on the heretical controversies such as Arianism etc. More often than not, I found myself thinking, "Actually, that's exactly what I would have thought." Still, I didn't yet understand it or agree with everything. Nonetheless, my curiosity developed.

About three years ago I went to visit a friend of my mother's who lives in France. This woman is a Byzantine archaeologist, and she took me to see a Russian Orthodox cathedral in Nice. I was pretty impressed, and I bought an icon of St James as a sort of novelty. Thinking back on that time, it seems quite strange to me. Because I know now that I was quite clearly slipping towards the Orthodox Church more and more, yet I still thought of myself as Presbyterian. Then I went to university.

After one or two weeks I heard about an Orthodox Church in Oxford, where I'm a student, and I went there once to see a liturgy. After one liturgy I found myself writing to the priest to ask to be received into the Church. It felt very odd indeed at the time, and there were still quite a few issues for me to deal with, but after six months of catechism I was baptised and chrismated. That was a year ago, and now I couldn't imagine being anything but Eastern Orthodox.

[Kythras]

Well, my mum is a non-practicing Catholic, and my dad is an ex-Catholic, and I always attended Scripture at school as a kid, I was Baptised (in a Baptismal font that my dad made, beat that), I had my First Communion, and I had a confession once (I was like 7, what the **** does a seven year old have to confess!?!?!?). The most concerned about my faith I was up until grade seven was that was that Catholics did more work in Scripture class than my Protestant friends, and significantly more that the non-Scripture kids.

When I went to high school, the system changed, all religions attended the same scripture class, and the idea was to learn about other religions as well... which turned out to be total rubbish - we had some Evangelist jackass who, in a class with Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Catholics and Protestants, said that if you didn't believe in Jesus/God you would go to hell, that did it for religion in my eyes, and it was largely thanks to the very spiritual (not religious) influence of my father that I became and agnostic, as opposed to clear-cut atheist. However, i recent years I've developed of strong interest in religion and I'm always interested in learning about it (and posting in the Ethos, Mores et Monastica subforum)...

So spaketh Kythras!

[TestudoAubreii]

My mom raised my brothers and me in Catholicism. I attended CCD, a sort of catholic Sunday school, received my first Holy Communion and attended countless religious workshops. Growing up, I had many friends of various faiths and although our mother was pretty strict on her views of Catholicism, she allowed us to go to different church services with our different friends, if we wanted to. Our friend’s religions spanned from Baptist to Mormon, from Orthodox to Presbyterian and we were fortunate enough to experience this diversity at an early age. I say fortunate because we are able to see and learn about these religions outside of our own.
Anyhow, very early on I started questioning many things within my own faith and the timing for those questions could not have come at a greater time…right when the nun was teaching. I was in so much trouble between the church and my mom, but I didn’t understand why. They told me I was wrong for asking “silly” questions, but without giving me any real answers to the questions I posed. I think the one that got them was the question about Jesus Christ’s resurrection and how no one knows for sure if it happened and how could a person rise from the dead, I mean he died right. One thing about the Catholics, they do not like questions.
As time passed, my religious beliefs were on a steady decline and then one day they vanished, my beliefs were gone. I guess I figure that I have enough strength and faith in myself as a human being to make it through my life. Not to say that being religious is weak; some people just need that extra boost to keep them going. I, for one, do not need to pray and worship to some entity, or whatever, that one, never answers back; two, never shows him/her/it self and three, we have absolutely no explanation for. I am not bashing religion or any one who may happen to believe differently, I am just stating theses are some of the things that made my mind the way it is now.
Another reason I believe the way I do is because of the “we cannot explain it, it must be god” factor. For example, I was doing some school work at work and I had a co-worker come up and ask what I was working on. I told her I was working on a piece that is dealing creationism and evolution. She then proceeded to tell me how evolution was a farce and how could anyone think that what we look at was not made by god. She went on this tangent pointing to the trees and the grass outside of the office and asked me how I would explain how everything is beautiful if it was not made by god. I did not answer; I did not want to start an argument at work, so I just kind of looked at her and the then told me that I would understand soon, that I was not old enough to see god’s beauty and how it couldn’t be anything else. These kinds of things turn me off to religion and how I became the way I am today.

Sorry for the long post. Again, this isn't a bash, it is just how I cam to my faith. Thanks.

[Manji]

Raised Catholic but half of my family are Jehovah's Witnesses.

I consider myself mostly agnostic but Druidism (not of the Wiccan/New Age Pagan sort) appeals to me in a way that I cannot quite explain.

[Chaigidel]

spoke to god it told me nothing matters and nothing makes sense

and that I will be resigned to nothingness when I die-- so I thank god everyday

[Shaun]

Well, the Flying Spaghetti Monster speaks to me in my dreams, he says I must convert or face etenal damnation. It must be true.

[KaerMorhen]

Raised Catholic by Grandparents and I'm catholic since then. I take Ten Commandments as moral standard and each day try to live a good life thats all.

[Mathias]

My parents didn't raise me with any religion, although I don't think they are atheist like me. I went to sunday school and such, but I have questioned religion and the existence of god for as long as I can remember. As I got older I found more and more flaws with religion.