A Thought : Born Into religion

[Liade]

I've been pondering lately how some people can be so self-righteous as to call others liars, wrong doers, sinners, and such just because they believe differently and have differing opinions. The ones doing the name calling and accusing are so convinced that they are right. That their way is the only way, right way, and true way, and everyone who doesn't go along with that will never "get to Heaven" and be "condemned to hell", poor lost souls that they are.

This observation brings me to think that most of these people were born into their specific branch of religion. It is what their parents were, so its what they were given, or labeled, with at birth. They were taught that specific religion and how it was the only right way to believe, act, and live from the time they were born.

This thought brings me to wonder if that isn't a mild cultural form of brain washing that lasts for generations. Most of these people were never encouraged, or given permission, to seek for themselves and find their own beliefs and truths. It was simply conditioned into them that 'this is what you are, this is what you believe'. You ever wondered what it would be like to find out your parents, and their parents, and even theirs, were wrong or misguided?

As for me, I wasn't born into a religion, nor raised with one. That said, I wasn't raised without the notion of "God" and what it meant to be a good person, and to accept that others had their own views. I was given the gift of an open mind to find my own way and my own beliefs through my life experience. My beliefs are truly mine, not put upon me by my parents or grandparents.

So, were you born and raised into your religion and how you believe it to be, or have you found your own way through your life's experience?

[Drew98]

So, were you born and raised into your religion and how you believe it to be, or have you found your own way through your life's experience?

I was raised Catholic but have "found my own way" to atheism.

As for me, I wasn't born into a religion, nor raised with one.

I envy you immensely.

This thought brings me to wonder if that isn't a mild cultural form of brain washing...

Yes, this is exactly what's going on when when someone says "we're raising our kids (insert religion here)". Speaking from personal experience, parents can put a tremendous amount of pressure on their kids to follow in their religious footsteps. Most religions not only tolerate this they expect it. I suppose this is the easiest way to gain new members - get your hooks into them while they're young and impressionable.

[Archangel]

Hi Liade, I was born into Islam but thankfully in America. I met Jesus at 22 after a 7 year search for what i reached out for in a prayer at 15 years old was the Truth and evidence that God existed. I'll put it this way, after asking God to reveal Himself to me, it took Him 7 years to get through to me.

But everyone in my family are cultural moslems in that they don't follow islam or allah by praying 5 times a day to the East, no one owns a prayer rug even though we're affiliated with the rug industry, some of them eat pork and we all eat shell fish. So by islamic standards they are all infidels :) . I'm the most radical one religiously speaking and i'm the only convert. Go figure huh ?

[Terrell]

I was raised Catholic but have "found my own way" to atheism.



I envy you immensely.



Yes, this is exactly what's going on when when someone says "we're raising our kids (insert religion here)". Speaking from personal experience, parents can put a tremendous amount of pressure on their kids to follow in their religious footsteps. Most religions not only tolerate this they expect it. I suppose this is the easiest way to gain new members - get your hooks into them while they're young and impressionable.

What Drew said, my experience is similiar.

[Epicurus]

I was born into a Mormon family and raised mormon. As a child we were very active members of our church. I was baptized at the traditional age. I completely believed in God and the Mormon religion I had been taught. My moms side of the family are all Mormon still and two of my three brothers are still practicing Mormon's now. My nephew is on his mission right now:)

I left the church without discussion at age 12. I just didn't believe it and felt hypocritical attending. I have been atheist ever since although I didn't use the title until I was older.

Collette

[Ginny]

My experience has been different. In my life, it's been the people who have found their religion later in life who have been the more self-righteous and judgemental.

I've always figured that, having had such a profound and life-changing experience when they were old enough to fully appreciate and comprehend, they have been more convinced of their "truth" than someone for whom it's always been a part of the scenery in their lives.

[Raven]

We were raised with a general belief in the christian god, but neither parent were super "go to church' religious when we were young. My mother has gotten more religious over the years, but still not what I would call fanatical about it.

For a while when we were kids, we were taken to church. Ironic that my sister and I were just discussing this a day or so ago :D We both agreed that our church attendence was likely more a situation of a particular neighbor putting the "you should" burdens on my father's head.

In any case, I can thank that period of church attendence for setting me on the path to skeptical thinking and atheism. Not what Mrs. Vaughn intended, I'm sure, but I sincerely thank her anyway :lol:

[SayWha]

My experience has been different. In my life, it's been the people who have found their religion later in life who have been the more self-righteous and judgemental.

I've always figured that, having had such a profound and life-changing experience when they were old enough to fully appreciate and comprehend, they have been more convinced of their "truth" than someone for whom it's always been a part of the scenery in their lives.
I agree with your first paragraph wholeheartedly. I'm not certain of the second, though I don't necessarily disagree.

[Ginny]

Ugh! The phone rang and I hit reply before I meant to.

I was raised Catholic. In my later years of high school, I met some people who shared their faith with me. They told me that I wasn't really saved, that I'd been raised in a false religion, etc. I began attending their church and walked that path for a while. It was the worst, most damaging thing that ever happened to my spirituality and my relationship with God. After leaving that experience, I had no faith, no relationship with God. I gradually found my way back to my roots, and I'm not leaving. My personal relationship with my God is much stronger now.

[SayWha]

Ugh! The phone rang and I hit reply before I meant to.

I was raised Catholic. In my later years of high school, I met some people who shared their faith with me. They told me that I wasn't really saved, that I'd been raised in a false religion, etc. I began attending their church and walked that path for a while. It was the worst, most damaging thing that ever happened to my spirituality and my relationship with God. After leaving that experience, I had no faith, no relationship with God. I gradually found my way back to my roots, and I'm not leaving. My personal relationship with my God is much stronger now.
Are you me? Replace "Catholic" with "Lutheran", and you've described my experience. For the record, the people whose church I "switched to" don't attend at all any more. They're pretty bitter people.

[ziviel]

So, were you born and raised into your religion and how you believe it to be, or have you found your own way through your life's experience?

I was raised as a bible believing Christian. I was a Christian until I was 25. Even though I was a Christian until I was 25, I think somewhere in me I always knew I didn't believe, way way way in the back of my mind. I was always too afraid to ask those scary questions. One day I did, and I never looked back.
As a child I did not go to a church that they rolled around on the floor and spoke in tongues. But as I got older I did. At least I have some funny memories. :lol: I explored other religions but I did not believe in those either.

I have always liked to debate religion, even when I was a Christian. :)

[Kimber]

So, were you born and raised into your religion and how you believe it to be, or have you found your own way through your life's experience?

I was sort of born into the LDS (Mormon) religion because my mother was, older siblings, all her family but my father was no religion. She told everyone we were mormon yet rarely took me to church. When I would stay with my older sibs, then I had to go church. It wasn't until I turned 12 that my mom decided to start going to church again so of course she made me go also. She made me get baptised and by 15 I didn't believe any of it. At 16 I quit going and haven't been back since.

[Book Wizard]

We were brought up Episcopalian. Each of the three of us has found her own way. I am still Episcopalian because it suits me. I am comfortable with my beliefs and God has been very good to be although at times, it was hard to see. I have also been strongly influenced by the Quakers since I went to a Quaker college.

[FaeryGem]

Well according to my mother I was born a Catholic. That has never made any sense to me because if I was born Catholic why go through a christening, a first holy communion and a confirmation to become Catholic? As far as I'm concerned it was a huge waste of time. It wasn't my choice to go through all that rubbish in the first place.

From an early age I rebelled because I never beleived in the Catholic or Christian belief system and *I* think its all hipocrasy. I started to explore Paganism from age 12 and by the time I was 17 I decided it was the right path for me. That was 22 years ago and I haven't looked back.

My mother will never accept the fact that I'm a pagan and to this day she still insits I believe in God and Jesus and was born a Catholic. Basically I believe its a human beings' inherant right to choose what religion if any they wish to practice. Being forced to believe is just plain wrong.

Julie
xxx

[Michele]

I was raised christian. Baptist, then Nazarene. We (my mom, brother and I) were kicked out of our church when my mom and dad divorced. My dad was allowed to stay. We were asked to leave another church because I wouldn't give up ballet and dancing was of the devil.

I have mixed feelings on it all. On one hand, I got to know God and for that, I am ever grateful. On the other hand, *I* believe that a lot of christianty is based on guilt and how dirty the human body is and scare tactics. Do this or you burn in hell.

Now I am christo wicca and very happy. I found my own path with God. One that feels right to me. It took a lot of soul searching, praying and talking to God and my guides to get me beyond the typical guilt that comes with christianity. Finally I have found my place with God/dess and Jesus Christ. :)

[GracieMae]

I was born into a Lutheran family who went to church every Sunday and that was the extent of it. Nothing learned in church applied to our home life.

For many years my brother and I attended church while our parents stayed home.

As an adult I left the church though I believed strongly in God. I bounced from religion to religion before settling in the Pentecostal church where I couldn't be happier.

I attend church twice a week along with Marion and Hannah who both love going to church. Danny is a Christian but he doesn't agree with organized religion. Leigh believes but doesn't attend church. Lisa couldn't be dragged kicking and screaming into a church.

[kingclick]

I was raised by wolves.....now I am a mountain lion.

I found my own way.

[Minion]

i was born and raised Roman Catholic, and as far as i have seen i am the only one of my siblings who didn't go through a "religion is bullshit" or at least "this religion is bullshit" phase in his/her life. two of the other five have come back to the Catholic Church and one is Lutheran. the other two don't care what you call them, as long as you don't call them late for dinner.

i've never walked away from the Church, but i've always faced up to the hard questions and insisted on an answer. as a matter of fact, that is why i am still Catholic. when i looked for an answer to one of those hard questions as a kid and even through high school, i would look around in various places and look to various people, seldom in any particular order. i would often come to a conclusion and stick to it for a while. then, being a practicing Catholic, i would get the Church's position. sometimes it would be a reinforcement of my existing position (or be how i came to it in the first place), but as often as not i would be forced (by my own conscience, not by some overbearing parent or meddling priest) to reexamine my position. i have found that i have never found the Church's reasoning lacking. being uninterested in doing unnecessary work, after quite a few years of this hit-and-miss crap i figured out it is easier for me to go to the Church first and look at other ideas later.

a crucial part of why i remained RC is the very fact that i watched as my siblings broke with the Church, had shitty lives, then came back to the Church or at least to God and things got better for them in short order. now, i'm not arguing cause and effect here, just mentioning that as i saw this it was reinforced in my mind that maintaining some stability in my spiritual life would result in much less turbulence. that sense got stronger as i watched my younger brother cast aside first Catholicism, then Christianity, then religion. in his first year in college he had a bad acid trip resulting in a psychotic break and treatment in a mental facility. even when he was in high school i could see he was looking for answers, but he always looked for them where he knew he would find the answer he wanted to hear, and this only showed me the need to look for whatever answer seemed most true to me, not just the answer that seemed to fit the lifestyle i wanted for myself.

what i find most intriguing is that while i have stuck to my cradle-Catholic upbringing, i love learning my faith from converts. these men and women have both the zeal that comes with a hard-won understanding and (in the cases of those that i have followed) an incredible depth of faith and breadth of knowledge that made their conversion possible in the face of difficult circumstances (often including family members who were ardently against the Catholic Church, most often spouses and parents). excellent examples include G.K. Chesterton, a former Anglican and prolific British author of the early twentieth century, and Scott Hahn, a former Presbyterian minister and currently a professor at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio. both men of incredible insight and conviction who came to their beliefs through much well-reasoned soul-searching. it may sound silly, but there are days i feel i'd be a better Catholic and a better person if i had been something else first. i have examined my beliefs thoroughly, but never as thoroughly as these men were forced to.

as for personal choices and passing on religion, it is no more brain-washing than being taught that the democratic republic is the most practical form of the best form of government, or that a moderated free-market economy is better than extreme socialism. those who love us try to teach us what they feel is best for us as best they can. it's when those who don't genuinely care about us try to do to us what is best for them that i agree we should be extra vigilant in searching for our own path.

[Demona]

My parents never talked to me about religion; to this day I do not know the religious beliefs of my parents.

I was christened and I was taken to church ceremonies on special occasions, and my school asssumed christianity among staff and pupils, but was not actually a faith school of any kind. Over a number of years I formulated questions which could not be answered satisfactorily by religion and found myself trying to test god in the same way I tested the assertion of the existence of Father Christmas. I stopped actively participating in school prayers and somewhere along the line I realised that the name for people like me was atheist.

[Krista]

I was raised Roman Catholic. My parents were fairly strict. Growing up, I had to attend mass weekly & I went to a Catholic high school. I left the church for awhile and looked at other religions (I'm interested in the Christo-Pagan - I've never heard that before). I have eventually come back to the Catholic church because of my son. I'm not an overly religious person, but I want my son to have a good set of beliefs. I feel if we don't raise them with beliefs, then they won't be able to find their way as they get older.