changing religions or becoming agnostic or athiest

Juanita · Guru

RE: changing religions or becoming agnostic or athiest

mctex · Guru

Supafly wrote:

Juanita wrote:

Supafly wrote:

Well, I always wanted religion in my life, even as a kid, it was something I knew I wanted, even though I didn't really understand why. We went to church every sunday for a long long time, in fact, my mom and dad were in charge of the choir.

Something happened at the church-there was some sort of scandal, but IDK what it was exactly-something about the pastor doing something. And then we got a new pastor, a woman. My parents stopped going after that. They had been close to the previous pastor, and I think they felt betrayed or something. Anyway, this was around the time I was to be confirmed, and I wanted to do it, so I walked to church myself every Sunday morning-got ready to go while everyone else was still asleep.

But of course, after a while as a teenager, you get tired of going to church alone, and I barely knew anyone at the church outside of my parent's friends. So I stopped going. I always felt something was missing, but didn't really put it together then-the years when I stopped going were my worst years behavior wise too.

When I was in HS, a junior I think, a couple of friends of mine were talking about a church trip to go skiing, and they invited me to go. That kind of opened the door, and I started going with them to their church on Sundays-a Presbyterian church. I enjoyed it, and their family (whom I had known for a long time) was very welcoming to me and took me every week. We had youth group, and it was nice to be part of a community again. It was a nice place to be-lightweight and not terribly thought provoking, but enjoyable.

When I went to college, I stopped going. I didn't enjoy chapel at my school, and for me personally, I have to feel inspired or moved or something in order to keep going to church. Well, there was that and the fact that I was partying a lot.

Anyway, after college, I was dating Bill. I had never fully dealt with my past issues (probably still haven't when it comes to my dad), so we had a LOT of discussions about God and religion back then. By that point in my life, I had pretty much abandoned religion of any kind. I was just too upset about things in my own life and I couldn't see how God fit into them. There were a lot of tears while Bill and I sat out on his little deck for hours talking about all of this stuff, and it moved me how steadfast he was in his beliefs. I had always assumed that was because his parents were such strict Catholics and he was basically forced into it or brainwashed, because from everything my dad had every said, no one who was Catholic actually believed in that "crap." But when we actually talked about it, I found out that he had struggled with his own faith as well. During his college years, he did a lot of soul searching and came back to Catholicism and the faith he had grown up in.

I made the choice then that I wanted to find faith as well too. Bill never pressured me into becoming Catholic-he just wanted me to find a religious home-and his parents were fine with it too. So I tried going to church at a few places, including Bill's family's church. There was a priest there at the time that I just fell in love with (not like "in love" obviously, lol) and I really found myself enjoying mass. I liked the message, and for me, while I didn't know the various parts of mass, I felt something comforting in the rituals that only a few years ago I felt were mindless and silly for people to just stand there and repeat every week. Also, I know this is an oddity, but I also enjoyed that for the most part, we Catholics stick to ourselves, and you never feel like you have to hang around and chat. Everywhere else I had gone, there was not only the service, but also coffee and donuts before, and people hung around and chatted after. I mean, some of the Catholics do that too-you *can* be social if you want to be, but it isn't expected, and I felt safe in that. It feels like a very internal religion to me, and that is exactly what I wanted.

There are some things I don't believe in though-which I attribute to having not been raised in the faith. I don't buy into Original Sin, and I don't have the Adoration of Mary thing either. Not to say I don't appreciate her, but it isn't the same for me as for some cradle catholics. Obviously, there is the birth control issue as well as abortion-things like that. So I am not technically a good Catholic, but I very strongly feel that ALL religions have there issues. Maybe there are more in the Catholic faith, but there are also more good things for me than bad. My mindset is that religions are man made, but the faith behind the religion is what is important.

Ok, this is ridiculous in length, so I hope it has been a bit helpful!!!

That's so funny, the way you worded that, lol.

I hope I didn't offend with that!!! I don't mean to!!!

IDT that's offensive. Adoration is an actual Catholic term (which I'm sure you know, although I think I've seen it mostly used in connection with sacraments, but I forget)...

Lizzy · Guru

Juanita wrote:

Lizzy wrote:

Juanita wrote:

SerenityNow wrote:

I converted from agnostic to Christian. I have no denomination.

I had a father who was a Sunday School teacher and an atheist mother. I stopped attending church at 9. I was almost (but could never be sure) an atheist. In my mid-twenties I was still lambasting God and Jesus with a fervor that would make a Christian mourn. I would debate against religions in college with the poor students who had a ministry.

So the change happened when a Jehovah's Witness bought a dresser at my mom's garage sale and left a large booklet about 10 question about God. I was going potty and read it the next day. Um, yeah. The seed of God was planted while going potty.

It answered a lot of questions, and for my annoyingly logical mind, I started investigating further. Surprisingly to me, and most of my friends, I realized that God was more likely than not. Then the bigger question for any real philosopher is then the nature of said God (as it is pretty easy to imagine a higher being or power). The nature of God was discovered in the New Testament. As I read it, and the Bible twice cover to cover, I learned that what I thought about religion was wrong, and that there was GREAT news. And the idea that Jesus didn't rise from the dead seemed more ridiculous than if he didn't. And if he did, then that was the nature of God, and that meant there was no choice but to believe.

I wish my parents had more to do with it, but they didn't. Probably because my father was raised atheist and found God as a teen and wanted the same for me, to search Him out on my own. I was never baptized until I chose to be at 26.

This is EXACTLY they way I want my girls to be. While I believe without question in God and all that goes with that, and while I'm raising them to be Christian, I will not force them to be baptized until they WANT to and understand what it means.

I want them to have the same thing that God gives us: free will. While I hope and pray that they choose him, I won't force them to do or believe anything they don't.
Regarding the blue: That's one of the reasons, when asked, I advise people to start reading the bible in the New Testament. Once you do and you find the true nature of God, and you go back and read the Old Testament, you see how it all fits into place..just like pieces of a puzzle. Which is amazing considering the Old Testament talks about stuff that happens in the NT, and was written WAAAYYY before the NT was. Pretty awesome

Jen....I am most interested in this "while I believe without questioon in God and all that goes with that". This is the direction my paper is focusing on...people who have deeply held religion and then change or lose it.

For you, can you think of anything that would lead you to abandon your religion? Can you understand when others do? How is it perceived in religious circles when people convert?

tia!!

Do I think there's anything that could make me lose my faith? Absolutley NOT! I have seen God work in too many "real" ways over the past 7 years, not just with Presley but with other areas in my life that have me 100% convinced of his existence. I have "felt" him. It's hard to describe to someone who hasn't experienced it, and sounds like freaky I know, lol. But it was as real to me as an other person touching me. I have felt his presence.

I have seen the kind of person that you're talking about. As my preacher says, there are a lot of people who "play" Christian and are at church everytime the doors are open. That doesn't make them Christian though. I think that once you truly, whole heartily accept Jesus, there's nothing in the world that can seperate him and you again, no matter what.

I can only speak for how I feel when someone does that. It's heartbreaking and makes me very sad, because I know what they're losing. This, of course, is according to what I believe

Great!! Thanks Jen.

I am really stuggling to understand the process by which someone can go from having a firm, deeply held set of beliefs to either none or where they deny a fundamental tenet of their religion or in the alternate, embrace an opposing tenet.

My dh was raised Methodist and he converted to Bahai. I agree with ALOT of their ideas and such, but I just can't convert (they actually have you sign a membership card). I would feel like I was denying Christ.
While I do have problems with some issues in christianity, I think that it is the religion I was raised in and I want to stick with what I know ;)

Juanita · Guru

I hate the quote boxes so I'm starting over.

Lizzy, I totally understand where you're coming from, because I too have a hard time understanding those with deep belief who no longer believe. It just would never, ever cross my mind to do that. There's nothing in the world that could happen that would make me lose my faith in God..NOTHING.

The only thing I can come up with is maybe their faith wasn't as strong as they thought? I don't know. That's a total guess on my part.