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How did you choose your religion?


I'mConvinced

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Dear UM,

I am interested in why people choose to follow the doctrines of a specific religion?

If we imagine a human being exists that has no prior memory of their life events but still has the ability to understand and absorb new information. This human being asks you to provide your best reason for following your particular religion. How do you respond?

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I no longer am affiliated to any formal religion or religious practice but was raised a Christian. However, as a general principle I still try to live by Jesus' exhortation:

'Do unto others as you would wish they would do unto you.'

Edited by Ozymandias
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I did not choose a religion, it was choosen for me.....and as soon as i got to the stage where i needed to question it because there seemed to be an awful lot of flaws and contradictions, i choose not to go down the religious route. I think i was about 9, as i grew older and wiser i knew for sure i did the right thing.

 

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I was born into it, but then drifted a way for a long time. I did what I wanted, "live as you will" was how I lived my life. I didn't even think about going back to church. I used to joke that if I ever set foot in another church, it would spontaneously combust.

It's funny how that works, some people turn their backs on God, but then they end up right back where they started. Like a second chance to get things right.

Edited by WoIverine
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How did I choose my religion?

 

By taking it for granted that God exists, before I knew anything about it.

Then slowly, I started to become aware that the truth is God does exist, and that first, he's my Father, and second, I am his infant son.

When that sank in, I decided to learn more about him and me, before I knew almost anything about religion. This decision led the way to becoming drawn to his other son, Jesus.

He took it over from there.

 

 

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4 minutes ago, FLOMBIE said:

Almost all religious people are born into it. And that's also why they do not question it.

That will depend on if you are "free" to question it openly or if you are told you can not question it.

I questioned it because i was among others of different religions, and was "free" by my parents to question why there were differences. 

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1 minute ago, freetoroam said:

That will depend on if you are "free" to question it openly or if you are told you can not question it.

I questioned it because i was among others of different religions, and was "free" by my parents to question why there were differences. 

Maybe so. And I guess most people are not free to question it. 

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9 minutes ago, FLOMBIE said:

Maybe so. And I guess most people are not free to question it. 

I do not know...i think some believe it that much  they do not "need" to question it. 

Some can not openly question their religion with those around them

Some will question the religion they have been brought up with,  are still believers in a god so will change their religion.

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Just now, freetoroam said:

I do not know...i think some believe it that much  they do not "need" to question it. 

Some can not openly question their religion with those around them

Some will question the religion they have been brought up with,  are still believers in a god so will change their religion.

Most religious people do not even grow up in a free society. They have no chance but to go with it, and have also no one around them who is indeed questioning any dogma. 

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I guess you could say I was "born into" a Christian household, but my family is a mix of both Christian and Jewish. Very luckily for me, neither of my parents ever pushed religion and rarely ever discussed it, so I was free to go my own way. As such, I've basically been an atheist ever since I could read. Religion simply never made sense to me.

My mother was much more religious, or pretended to be, and didn't care for my non-belief, but never made a big deal about it. As for my father, sometimes I think he was a closet atheist, himself. 

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I was raised with a christian mother and an atheist materialist father.

 

I believed what I was told at church until reason, critical thinking and insatiable curiosity led me to read for myself the source of the religion.  Reading the bible for my self to find the answers none of the church elders were willing or able to answer, led me to an agnostic position which I still maintain.

 

Open mindedly skeptical of claims.  Though not utterly closed, as I have had many experiences that defy the materialist mindset, yet do not support the idea of a god man sculptor.

One of the several aspects of christianity that was particularly alien to me, was this notion of a sculptor being who created me from nothing and put me here... for my notion has always been that I grew here naturally from my mother, just like every other living thing on the planet.  No sculptor, the natural cycle of co-arising conditions that bring about life.

 

 

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10 minutes ago, FLOMBIE said:

Most religious people do not even grow up in a free society. They have no chance but to go with it, and have also no one around them who is indeed questioning any dogma. 

I grew up in London....i was lucky to be part of the free society, but not all are.....which questions what is a free society if parents are not allowing their children to be part of it? 

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21 minutes ago, freetoroam said:

I grew up in London....i was lucky to be part of the free society, but not all are.....which questions what is a free society if parents are not allowing their children to be part of it? 

A shame, that is what it is. 

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9 hours ago, I'mConvinced said:

Dear UM,

I am interested in why people choose to follow the doctrines of a specific religion?

If we imagine a human being exists that has no prior memory of their life events but still has the ability to understand and absorb new information. This human being asks you to provide your best reason for following your particular religion. How do you respond?

I find this very interesting, how you worded it in your OP post. Reflecting on your thread's title, it had me thinking a little differently. Maybe it's the way I was raised, and how I came into my path today. But, I don't think we choose our belief. And pretty much, as I have noticed with many posters here, there was no choosing, it was being born into it. 

And also with reflection of Will Due's path, and I believe my own comes into the same way, a bit, but I think the same, I think it's something that chooses us, in a sense. I do feel, that maybe varying degrees of expectations and needs, and then many experiences go along with it. In the end though, when it comes to belief, I don't think you can choose it. You believe, because of a reason. 

Unlike a lot of people here, I happen to be born and raised in a secular home. So, I didn't go to any religious building for meetings, or read any religious books. It's not like the home was Atheist, in a sense, just that a religion didn't take priority in it. And I would think it's interesting, how I became a very unique spiritualist. I have been comparing it to New Age, a unique New Age. Probably still do. But, I really delve into the spiritual mostly. It's not like I'm totally against materialism, I just don't depend on it in a religious sense. That means, I feel my belief, my spirituality, my religion comes from spiritual means, being from within you and elsewhere in messages and the like. And this seemed to come to me, and that way, and I felt it made me feel a better person. It's like when I was a very young adult, (I had a couple of years of being an Atheist) when I caught something on the radio, and I felt it was a door opening to more things. Then I just went from there. 

That's the thing, I didn't choose it, I caught it and followed it. Choosing to catch it? Maybe, but I started believing due to what I feel was evidence, not something I decided I would make as evidence. If that makes sense. :o 

I guess, if I could call myself something, it's a Bohemian Spiritualist. :) 

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I was raised Catholic but don't have a religion, the is no written doctrine, I don't see god as having an identity nor do I percieve god as having human qualities. My world is my place of worship and my spirit is the way that I express myself in the world. To me gpd doesn't make judgments, the thing I do is my responsibility so in most things I answer to myself and exercise the same fairness to others that I allow myself.

Life teaches me what I need to know by my interactions with others and those that I have conflicting views with are as much my teacher as those with whom I have had favorable encounters.

I count on myself to do what needs to be done and stand alone when I have to answer for my actions. I see god as the gift of being able to learn and have experiences from which to learn and that god is everything including you and me, the ablilty to change myself by realizing potential personally and in the challenges I encounter

jmccr8

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My story is the same as many others. Raised in a Christian home, abandoned it several years ago, had about 6 months of being an Atheist, and now I simply call myself 'Spiritual'.

Although I feel the OP in this thread necessarily assumes something that I believe isn't true: which is that belief is not chosen. Yes, there's the whole indoctrination from birth thing, everybody knows that happens, and in most cases this is why people are religious. However there are plenty of cases of religious converts as well. I think it's inaccurate to say that they chose their beliefs like one chooses what to have for supper.

I may be alone in this line of thinking, but I don't believe that any beliefs are necessarily chosen. If you were to strap me to a lie detector test, put a gun to my head, and tell me to believe in Santa Clause, I can almost say with certainty that I wouldn't pass no matter what my answer is. Because I can't just suddenly chose to believe that Santa Clause exists. In order to believe it, I must first be convinced of it. Whether what convinces me is rational or irrational, evidential or faith-based, logical or emotional, it doesn't matter. Something must necessarily happen in us that convinces us that our beliefs are the truth.

What I'm essentially saying is, I think beliefs are deeper than just thoughts. I think they reside in our subconscious mind, and are not so easily swayed because of this. Therefore you can't simply chose to believe in something any more than you can chose to like the taste of dog poo. It's just something deep down in our wiring or something that's out of our conscious ability to chose.

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I was raised Catholic by crazy people. I never really was Catholic, though. And I wasn't like other kids who don't realize their parents are crazy. I knew it. 

I was pretty turned off by religion and I was a hard atheist for a really long time. I wasn't a jerk about it, but you didn't want to be the person trying to sell religion to me. 

Basically, I went through a lot. More than most people do. I lost everyone close to me, and I went through what some would call the Dark Night of the Soul. After that, I wasn't so sure about it anymore. I started leaning agnostic, bit by bit. I guess I'd still qualify as a hopeful agnostic. 

There's no dogma and I don't follow any organized religion. I like some of the gnostic myths, although I'm well aware that they are myths. I guess the only thing I'm solid on is the Golden Rule, which people can find running through many belief systems. I appreciate some of the things Crowley had to say, because I had experiences that seemed to back them up. 

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3 minutes ago, Aquila King said:

My story is the same as many others. Raised in a Christian home, abandoned it several years ago, had about 6 months of being an Atheist, and now I simply call myself 'Spiritual'.

Although I feel the OP in this thread necessarily assumes something that I believe isn't true: which is that belief is not chosen. Yes, there's the whole indoctrination from birth thing, everybody knows that happens, and in most cases this is why people are religious. However there are plenty of cases of religious converts as well. I think it's inaccurate to say that they chose their beliefs like one chooses what to have for supper.

I may be alone in this line of thinking, but I don't believe that any beliefs are necessarily chosen. If you were to strap me to a lie detector test, put a gun to my head, and tell me to believe in Santa Clause, I can almost say with certainty that I wouldn't pass no matter what my answer is. Because I can't just suddenly chose to believe that Santa Clause exists. In order to believe it, I must first be convinced of it. Whether what convinces me is rational or irrational, evidential or faith-based, logical or emotional, it doesn't matter. Something must necessarily happen in us that convinces us that our beliefs are the truth.

What I'm essentially saying is, I think beliefs are deeper than just thoughts. I think they reside in our subconscious mind, and are not so easily swayed because of this. Therefore you can't simply chose to believe in something any more than you can chose to like the taste of dog poo. It's just something deep down in our wiring or something that's out of our conscious ability to chose.

I can agree with you in that I do know why I made my choices and what influence and when in my life they happened. For the most part it was my resistance to be broken made to submitt. My dad raised horses and this was likely the most significant thing that he said to me when I was a young boy. He told me that he trained horses because he rode broke one once and had seen other horses that had been broke but when that happened their spirit was broke too and that they were not the same as they had been because they had been mastered and did not submit because they liked you.

I felt like that for a good part of my youth and would not submit or be mastered, I was/am strong willed and anyone that tried to dominate me was likely to give up first, and that was how religion was for me, men tried to break my spirit and couldn't.

jmccr8

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15 minutes ago, jmccr8 said:

I felt like that for a good part of my youth and would not submit or be mastered, I was/am strong willed and anyone that tried to dominate me was likely to give up first, and that was how religion was for me, men tried to break my spirit and couldn't.

It's funny how different we human beings are. I've spent much of my life too weak to stand up to anyone. Most of my life was spent as my desperately trying to please, although the ironic thing is I never could. This led me to retreat into myself and become an isolated hermit for a number of years. At first the fear and shame were too much to bear, but over time you begin to just stop giving a ****. I ended up having to lose everything in order to finally break out of my shell and stand up for myself. What little self-confidence I have now is merely born out of a sense of nothing more left to lose. No where to go but up. Ironically it was pure apathy that lead me to love.

It's taken a lot of hard **** to deal with, but I eventually ended up in the right place. Unapologetic and unashamed of who I am and what I stand for. The day I stopped caring about pleasing others was they day I first tasted real freedom. Now I please others only by being my real self, rather than being who they want me to be. And if they ain't pleased then tough ****. Get in line. I can't please everybody and I don't care if I please anybody. I'll please me and hope that pleases others, which for the most part it does. 

Bottom line is, I no longer prescribe to any ideology but the one I make. That's the only way to live. That's why I don't prescribe to any religion, because they all demand subjects to bow on their knees. And now days, I'd rather die on my feet then to live on my knees.

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1 minute ago, Aquila King said:

It's funny how different we human beings are. I've spent much of my life too weak to stand up to anyone. Most of my life was spent as my desperately trying to please, although the ironic thing is I never could. This led me to retreat into myself and become an isolated hermit for a number of years. At first the fear and shame were too much to bear, but over time you begin to just stop giving a ****. I ended up having to lose everything in order to finally break out of my shell and stand up for myself. What little self-confidence I have now is merely born out of a sense of nothing more left to lose. No where to go but up. Ironically it was pure apathy that lead me to love.

It's taken a lot of hard **** to deal with, but I eventually ended up in the right place. Unapologetic and unashamed of who I am and what I stand for. The day I stopped caring about pleasing others was they day I first tasted real freedom. Now I please others only by being my real self, rather than being who they want me to be. And if they ain't pleased then tough ****. Get in line. I can't please everybody and I don't care if I please anybody. I'll please me and hope that pleases others, which for the most part it does. 

Bottom line is, I no longer prescribe to any ideology but the one I make. That's the only way to live. That's why I don't prescribe to any religion, because they all demand subjects to bow on their knees. And now days, I'd rather die on my feet then to live on my knees.

Ain't that the truth, glad you found it bro.:tu:

jmccr8

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For me it was more a process of elimination than a choice. I started life full of belief in "God", in rituals, in people, in church and in prayer. Little by little I've weeded out what I don't believe. What is left, I'll call my religion.

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I thought I'd add my own experience, which as many have said, is pretty similar to others here.  Born and raised as a Christian by my mother but with an Atheist father.  I spent 17 years going to church at least once a week, attending midnight mass etc.  Something never really clicked with my religion and for years I attended for no other reason than to keep my mother happy.  I have many Christian values and fight daily to break out of this mindset even now, 24 years later.

9 hours ago, Aquila King said:

Although I feel the OP in this thread necessarily assumes something that I believe isn't true: which is that belief is not chosen.

I think belief is mainly driven by the culture you grow up in yes, but it is not the only way belief is found.  This is why it has fascinated me to ask the question in the OP to various people throughout my life.  The OP assumes this human has no prior knowledge of religion or its beliefs and yet no one questions why this human being would want to believe anything in the first place.  It is a natural assumption that belief arises from a need to have our questions answered - even when our questions are unanswerable.  Beyond your culture there seems to be no reason for choosing one religion over another and so we are left with the conundrum of why follow one at all? All cannot hold equal truth.

If the human brain is wired for belief and, given no other input, will create it's own model to answer the unanswerable questions then is it not wrong of us to indoctrinate our young with the preconceived notions of existing religious doctrine?  If there truly is a god then would not our predisposition to forming our own beliefs actually be what was intended? Would a god be angry that we have stopped seeking it because, in our hubris, many of us think we already have the answer?

 

 

 

 

    

 

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35 minutes ago, I'mConvinced said:

Something never really clicked with my religion and for years I attended for no other reason than to keep my mother happy.

This hits home rather hard. My mother still has no clue I'm not a Christian, and I don't plan on ever telling her. It'd destroy her to think that I'm headed to an eternal Hell. Thankfully she's not so obsessed with her religion that she brings it up that much. Heck, she doesn't even go to church all that often and is a heathen Democrat to boot. But nonetheless she still does believe in Heaven and Hell, and that the only way to heaven is through Christianity, so there's really no way for me to tell her this without upending her entire world.

40 minutes ago, I'mConvinced said:

I have many Christian values and fight daily to break out of this mindset even now, 24 years later.

As do I to an extent. Especially when it comes to sex and relationships. I'm still an advocate for abstinence believe it or not. Not because I find the alternative 'immoral' necessarily, but mainly because I personally find it healthier and more romantic. Plenty can disagree with me, I don't really care. It's more of a personal decision on my part, but I make no mistake in pointing out it's most likely a strong carry-over from my old Christian days.

44 minutes ago, I'mConvinced said:

I think belief is mainly driven by the culture you grow up in yes, but it is not the only way belief is found.  This is why it has fascinated me to ask the question in the OP to various people throughout my life.  The OP assumes this human has no prior knowledge of religion or its beliefs and yet no one questions why this human being would want to believe anything in the first place.  It is a natural assumption that belief arises from a need to have our questions answered - even when our questions are unanswerable.  Beyond your culture there seems to be no reason for choosing one religion over another and so we are left with the conundrum of why follow one at all? All cannot hold equal truth.

Well in my personal opinion (and I realize my position is controversial and most consider it conspiracy-theoretical, but), I see ancient religions as being more syncretic than our modern interpretations allow. I believe they compliment each other more than we realize, with only a few contradictions to be found in the minor details. Big picture wise, I think they all teach the same thing. We simply see them as more divided than need be due to our current interpretation, and due to over a millennia of Roman Catholic lies and persecution of other religions.

52 minutes ago, I'mConvinced said:

If the human brain is wired for belief and, given no other input, will create it's own model to answer the unanswerable questions then is it not wrong of us to indoctrinate our young with the preconceived notions of existing religious doctrine?  If there truly is a god then would not our predisposition to forming our own beliefs actually be what was intended? Would a god be angry that we have stopped seeking it because, in our hubris, many of us think we already have the answer?

I agree entirely. I believe inquisition and growth is the ultimate form of true spirituality. This trend in religious indoctrination is mostly due in my view to different religious institutions segregating themselves from other religious viewpoints as a means of seeking greater power and influence over the populace. In other words, rather than religion being a seeking of the spiritual, it became a control system for the religious leaders to indoctrinate the masses.

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