Why are you religious/spiritual?

Question

I will select the best answer based on the most informative, personally BIOGRAPHICAL, and well-written response on your acquisition of your current faith; please tell us your story and revelation. All religions welcome (atheists and agnostics; I have a separate question for you, please answer that one instead).
I am interested in your personal story, from day one to today.
Please do not answer with one-liners such as, "Because I am" or "Because I feel God inside me", please do not preach, please do not flood with biblical (or any other) citations, poems, and quotations, and please be attentive to your language and grammar.

I'm not hung up on it, I am simply curious how people come to believe what they believe. Please be conciderate of the question; if you have a personal comment for me contact me online; my AIM sn is MCCLXIX, and I will be happy to entertain your query.

Answer 1

First of all, thank you for an excellent question. I'm 38, married, and livimg on a small farm in central Missouri.
I'm Pagan. I started studying ancient Pagan religions when I left Christianity at the age of 10. I spent my adolesent years feeling disconnected. I had no real religious beliefs, just a lot of knowledge of others' beliefs. Yet there was something intangible I felt when I was alone with nature. I went camping often. When I was out hiking or swimming in a creek, or exploring a cave I felt an incredible euphoria. I was truly happy. None of the stresses of the modern world existed. But there was something else as well. I felt a presence out there. I began to feel as if I wasn't entirely alone. I felt something all around me. I didn't understand what that was at the time, but I didn't fear it.
As an adult I stopped going camping and pretty much cut myself off from the natural world. My life was all about work. Soon I started getting a restless feeling. I kept going back in my mind to my time spent walking in the woods communing with nature. I wanted that again. By now I was 25, and an interesting thing happened. A new shop opened up in my neighborhood unlike any other I'd seen. It was an incense shop called Wizzard's Botanica. This place became my doorway to a new world. I met other Pagans, people who loved nature like I did. You've got to remember that this was before the Internet. I knew about modern Paganism, I'd even read a couple of books. But, I'd never before met a Pagan. Now suddenly I was being introduced to the Pagan community of St. Louis. A community I never knew existed. I had found my tribe. More importantly I discovered the Goddess and the God. My Lord and Lady. I realized it was their presence I'd felt all those years ago. That's what had been missing from my life. What I'd been feeling was their love. I I went to a Pagan festival for the first time a year after I'd found the shop. It'd been the first time I'd been outdoors, other than a park, for a long time. Immediately I could feel the Goddess and the God. They were with me. I completely believed in them at that moment. And when I left the festival they stayed with me. I am their child. I quickly became active in the local Pagan community. I helped organize the first public Pagan Picnic. I was also active in the open rituals we held at a local Unitarian church. I going the first Pagan organization in St. Louis, the Council for Alternative Spiritual Traditions, or C.A.S.T. After about a decade though, the human aspect of it all began to wear on me. All the in-fighting, and cliqueishness became too much. I left C.A.S.T., I left my coven. I had gotten married near the end of my life with the Pagan community. My wife and I decided acouple of years ago to move away from the city and live on a farm. We've done that. Now I go to the occasional Pagan Pride rally, but my contact with other Pagans except on-line in limited. This is a personal choice.
Now I should explain that I've never named the Goddess and the God. Many Pagans have specific ideas of who they are. Some see the Goddess as Artemis, Brigit, or Yemaya. Some see the God as Cernunnos, Zeus, or Thor. I see the Goddess and the God in the world around me. They are in the new growth of Spring. They are heat of Summer and the cool breeze in the shade. I see their touch in the changing colors of Autumn. And I feel their chill touch on a cold Winter's morning and in the warmth from the fire in my hearth. Night and Day there are there, together. They are there and they are in my Heart. I see the Goddess in every girl and woman I meet. She is maiden, mother and crone. As well, I see the God in every boy and man I meet. He is the youth, the father and the sage. I could never limit the Goddess and God to a single name or aspect. They are too great for that. They are as vast as the universe itself. And yet, they can be found in a single blade of grass.
I'd also like to talk a little about magick and ritual. Early on I practiced magick. I did spells. I even taught classes on them. I've probably attended hundreds of rituals. Some had dozens of people participating. Some I did alone or with just a few friends or my coven. I've never had a bad experience. All of them were spiritually fulfilling, but I eventually realized I no longer needed a structured ritual to worship the Lady and Lord. I could do that at any time anywhere. No special equipment is needed. I call on them and they are there.
I could go on but It's late, and I need to get up early. I hope I've answered your question.

Answer 2

Every sentient being is on a spiritual path. Some are consciously there, others might not be aware of it but they are there none the less.

Myself, from "day one to today" I've always been a seeker. When I came upon the writings Thich Nhat Hanh it was like the light came on and the teachings of the Buddha began to make perfect sense to me. So my main practice is Buddhist. Keeping an open mind, I realize that there is also much that is good and true in many religions insofar as they teach peace and compassion. I read, study, meditate, smile, and pay attention as I live out this lifetime. Peace.

Answer 3

I first felt The Goddess with me two years ago. I was sitting in a park, under a tree and was admiring how beautiful the Earth was. Then I got to thinking about how my spirituality and I thought that if there was a religion based on the beauty of nature, that's the one I would belong to. Then a spider crawled onto my hand, but it didn't scare me, and I've always been scared of spiders.

I went online and searched for any religion based on nature, and I found Paganism. I learned that Pagans worship both the masculine and feminine aspects of God, and I agreed with that. I learned that Pagans believe in magick and in karma, and I agreed with all that.

Ever since then, I have studied the Pagan religion every single day, and every day, I learn something new and grow as a person. My self-esteem has grown over the past two years, because now I feel like I have the parents I've always wanted, and They are Holy and Heavenly. I've also become much better at keeping my promises and obligations, for a Witch's word is sacred.

Being a Witch helped me realize many things about myself, because it teaches that one should know him/herself. It has taught me to watch out for myself, since it teaches that your intuition can be your best friend.

I hope that's the kind of answer you were looking for. Blessed be.

Answer 4

I was brought up in the church, and I believed what I was taught, but I wasn't baptized because it was very important to me to do it for the right reasons. Then when I was a teenager I let other things get in my way (like boyfriends and jobs). Then I married a man who didn't take it too seriously. He believed, (Catholic) but everything else was more important. I followed his lead, and for the next 20 years I rarely went to church, although I missed it and always said I'd go back "someday". When the marriage started to fall apart, I realized what had been missing from my life. I was depressed and suicidal, and I knew that God was the answer. I went back to church and found the joy in my life that had been missing. After a short separation, my husband and I reconciled for awhile. He came with me for awhile, but he resented my involvement in the church, and turned against it after a few years, and we finally ended the marriage. It hasn't been easy, but God has helped me through it with comfort, guidance, and has put people in my life that have done amazing things for me that I never would have imagined possible. I know that I would not be where I am today without my love and faith in God.

Answer 5

Okay okay I feel warned enough! :P

I am religious not because I've had some form of metaphysical experience or been given some sort of revelation. I like my religion because it gives me and the rest of the members a good base to hope for the future of life, a very reasonable explanation of life's most intriguing questions, but not based on sheer logic or traditional dogmas. Instead, it is based in a thorough understanding of the Bible as a book first, then as a source of answers to your uncertainties.

Answer 6

I was raised catholic but I could never really get into the judgmental punishing God who thought it made sense to send everyone who was not a Christian to hell, so I lost any faith I might have had in that God.

Then Several years ago I had an unusual experience concerning an uncle, a distant relative who lived over a thousand miles away.

While driving my car I suddenly felt the unmistakable presence of this relative that I hardly even knew. He was more like someone I had heard about than someone I knew. It was very strange; it felt as though I was momentarily lifted right out of my physical body. I seemed to be suspended somehow beyond space and time, bathed in a love so intense It felt like I could have just disappear into it at any moment if It would have let me. It only lasted for a few seconds, but it seemed to last forever at the same time. I realize how crazy this must sound. The experience was so strong that at first I was afraid I was loosing my grip on reality. I finally managed to chalk it up to an over active imagination.

Three days later I got a call from my aunt telling me that this uncle we are talking about had gone into a coma and died the day I had the experience. It felt like ice water had been poured down my back when she told me this. I had lost any real ideas of God or faith and had become somewhat of an atheist. Needless to say this experience caused me to rethink some of the conclusions I had come to.

I feel blessed to now understand that even in our darkest confusion something loves us so much that it went out of its way to assist me and bring me back to a state of absolute certainty about Gods love for us.
During the experience it seemed like there was a vast amount of information that I was somehow allowed access to. One thing that I came away from this experience understanding beyond any shadow of a doubt was that any Idea that God is unhappy with us or would judge or allow us to be punished for any reason is simply impossible.

I can’t explain the love I felt with words. They simply don’t make words big enough or complete enough to do this. The only way I can begin to convey this love to you is to say that there was simply nothing else there. Nothing but love. No hint of judgment, no displeasure of any sort. It is as though God sees us as being as perfect as we were the day we were created. It is only in our confused idea of ourselves that we seem to have changed.

I hope this is of some help to you. Good luck. Love and blessings.

Your brother don

Answer 7

Cool!
A good question to ask!
I had went to many different churches growing up, but it wasn't until I was 21 years old that God became really real to me.
I had taken my daughters to a neighborhood park and met another young mother there.
She began discussing scripture to me at some point in our conversation and I remember thinking that for once, it wasn't boring, it seemed interesting.
She gave me a card that had the name and address to her church on it.
I kept the card thinking that someday I might want to visit.
Several months later, I had a dream that scared me so bad, that I could not sleep. It was about the endtime, and how you would have to die to be saved.
I went into my kitchen and prayed, crying, and told God that I would go to church but I wanted to know where to go (I didn't know much, only that there are so many religions and felt that they couldn't all be right) and to give me a sign.
I asked Him to have someonre to call me and invite me to church.
I'd been getting Jehovah's witnesses at my door, and I knew that they'd be back, so I had to go with the phone call. All of my friends and family were into smoking pot, and drinking, no one that I hung out with ever asked me to go to church.
Then I remembered my card and thought that I'd visit there.
I went in and sat in the back.
The message? The signs of the endtime that Jesus had told of!
That was Sunday.
On Tuesday, a sister in law of mine ( also pot head) CALLED and said that she'd heard about the dream that I had.
She said that she'd visited her sister's church a couple of times and thought that maybe I'd want to go.
My sister in law lived a half hour away from me, a hundred churches between us, but it was the same church.
Then, when I went, it seemed different than the other churches that I'd went to - you could actually feel the presence of God!
The word of God seemed like he was talking to you personally, and this doctrine follows the teaching of the first church more than any other that I know of ( book of Acts).
I have since repented of my sins, been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of my sins, and have received the gift of the Holy Ghost. And it's for you!
You asked! I was glad to tell it!
God Bless!

Answer 8

Great question!
I am spiritual due to the fact that I have reconnected with my inner spirit, the spirit I emanated from, the same spirit that is within all of creation.

All of creation is made up of this same energy, how we vibrate with this energy is what we create in our lives.

It is all very simple. But the ego/mind only allows you to accept only so much, unless you consciously increase your level of awareness.

Just like you are doing with this question.

Answer 9

John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

The word "again" (anothen) in Greek means "from above", so born from above.

John 3:4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? John 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

We all are born of the flesh and water, the womb. You must be born from above or the Spirit. God's Word is His Spirit. I pray that helps you. Sow to your spirit by studying His Word which is God's Spirit.

KEEP MY WORDS
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

NOTICE; WE will come, make OUR abode with him.

Answer 10

I BELIEVE THAT THERE IS MORE TO LIFE,MY SEARCH CAME
TO THE HOLY BIBLE,THIS IS GODS WORD,THIS IS WHERE I FOUND LIFE.GOD IS A SPIRIT,THE WORLD THAT WE LIVE IN IS VERY SPIRITUAL,BUT WE MUST FIRST BELIEVE. THIS WISDOM IS ACHIEVED BY BELIEVE AND PRACTICE,IT IS NOT AN OVERNIGHT READING,IT IS FOR LIFE.WE ARE SURROUNDED BY SPIRITS,YOU CAN FEEL THEM,SOME CAN SEE THEM.THEY ARE REAL,JUST AS GOD IS.