Testimony time: How did you arrive at the faith (or lack thereof) that you have?

Question

What is it?

Answer 1

I'm christian,and after living a very unchristian life,for 45 years,i was saved,only after i had hit rock bottom,i was into drugs,and drinking,i was practicing witchcraft and really trying to get as far away from God as possible,i had been raised in a christian home,but when i moved away from home after high school,i fell into hell,really,abuse,and all the other,til i was in such a bad shape that i tried to kill myself,someone found me before the sleeping pills and morphine had took affect,then 15 yrs later i tried it again,this time it was with a gun,i had the gun to my head i couldn't stand to live anymore as i was,so one morning ,i got the gun out from under my mattress and i had the TV on and i stopped on a religious channel,and the preacher was looking as if she was looking at me talking directly to me and the message she was preaching was for me,and that was what stopped me from shooting myself and i got saved and have never,and will never go back there to that place again,that God

Answer 2

I was raised in a strong Catholic family, and never thought about whether it was the answer or not for many years... it was just like common sense to me - "of course there's a God!". But in my early teens, I started thinking about it. Things like "does there have to be a god?" and that sort of thing.

Through looking around, I didn't see a lot of difference in a lot of religions - In fact, I got rather startled when I saw a cult speech that in many ways sounded like homilys at my church. The only thing that separated them from the homilys were that the homilys told us to love unconditionally, and that God would look after us in everything, ("Vengence is Mine, says the Lord" - So we don't need to kill those people who hurt us, or anything, trust in the Lord's reward). The cult speech talked about "we have to exterminate all unbelievers" etc. and were based on secrecy.

This wasn't enough though, of course. I wasn't satisfied that we even needed a God, that there was any reason that he had to exist. Studying Philosophy really helped me here. I looked at all these arguments for why God couldn't exist, and none of them held any water at all. Then there were arguments using chance and stuff to show that God needn't exist, but they were almost as bad. for instance, the "Big Bang" theory is great, but where did that come from? There needed to be some sort of "prime mover" as Aristotle put it, whether this was a sentinent being, or just some timeless clockwork thing.

So, I looked into that idea, but came up with so many problems, and so many complications with the Idea of a non sentinent "prime mover" based entirely on chance and no "intelligence", that the idea of a God, or timeless sentinent being seemed much more plausible. ("God does not play dice with the universe" - Einstein. Although he was probably not referring to a "god" as such, the meaning was that a universe based entirely on chance is so incredibly far fetched, that he didn't think it worth considering.)

So, having decided that the idea of a sentinent creator was more than plausible, it was still a leap to decide if this would be a "God", and what that might mean/involve/require. To base a religion on this being would still be quite a leap. So, I looked to other people, experiences, etc.

I went to a camp run by a group called the Youth Mission Team (YMT), and these people struck me as while still being real, and human, being hugely on fire with their faith. I remember wondering why it seemed so cool to them, But that weekend, I had an incredible experience of God, during prayer, that broke me down. I wasn't really looking for it, just sitting there, going through the motions - you know: "thanks God for today, and all the stuff I got to do, thanks that these people understand that a 15 year old boy actually needs to eat a normal amount of food," etc, etc, and it got on to "sorry for ..." and suddenly I felt touched. I felt an incredible urge to go to reco (confession), which was available there, and although I'd never thought of it as something special, I went. When I came back, I felt physically light, and incredibly peaceful. As I fell back into prayer, it became a personal conversation with God, and I felt so grateful, and just broke down right there. There was nothing I could think of that would cause this feeling.

Every time i've participated in the sacraments since then have been incredible. I've had on and off times, sure, and i'm not perfect because of my experiences, but I have found a faith that means something to me ethically, philosophically, emotionally, rationally, and religiously.

Well, there's my testimony! I still study and explore my religion and the religions of others, and I think this is an important part of my faith, because if I stopped doing this, I would be living my faith passively, in which case I may as well believe anything. But at the moment, I am convinced that This will get me where I want to go.

God bless
Isaac
PS. - Sorry about the essay.

Answer 3

I've been researching various religions for quite a while, not because I was looking for something, but because I was interested to compare them from the outside (I was a non believer). I've also researched such things as Sewage treatment systems, aircraft baggage containers, worlds fairs, Art deco, alternative fuels etc etc.

Anyway, back to the subject, I came across Asatru, I'd heard of Odinism before and was familiar with some of the gods, Thor, Odin & Loki, and during my reading, something just clicked into place and it has stayed "clicked" ever since.

I guess that for religion to stick with someone, it has to make some kind of sense to them, or fulfill a need of some kind. For me, Asatru makes sense, and it asks no more of me than to be the honourable, honest person that I was before.

Answer 4

Having been raised in a theistic society, I assumed there was a God.

Then one day (maybe around 12 or 13) I asked myself whether it made any sense to me, and realized it did not.

For many years I talked to believers, asking them what they believed and why. None ever gave me any reason to change my mind back. They talked about experiences they had had, which I just didn't get ("oneness with all" for example -- no idea what people mean by this sort of thing).

The more I've learned, the more I realized that it just doesn't make any sense to believe in woo-woo stuff. It doesn't hold up.

Don't see reason to believe it. Don't need it. Don't want it.

I prefer reason and evidence. (Let me hear you say, "Yeah!")

Answer 5

Raised in fundamentalist evangelical home (christian brethren..but not the "tight" ones, the "loose" ones...LOL) Was born again at age 8.....then again at age 12, just to be sure (though that one was kind of accidental, actually....long story)

Never really bought into it wholesale, was always kind of embarassed about the whole church thing...3 times on Sunday. so never got baptized which most of my church friends did around age 12-13...(we had the old tank under the preachers podium, they did baptisms after the sunday night meeting) you had to go up in front of the congregation and announce your faith and answer questions about belief....and I knew I didn't believe it in my heart....I had just had the crap scared out of me with hellfire all my life. I remember asking a lot of hard questions about contradictory stuff when I was pretty young too, was fairly precocious....could tell adults were just making stuff up.

Studied and read both the bible and lots of other books, history, mythology, sci fictiona and fantasy....took a great interest in science, and gradually realized how silly the Wholly Babble really is. Certainly agnostic since my early 20's, and now essentially atheist, and have become much more of an activist skeptic with all kinds of silly beliefs,not just religious ones
Religious faith is primitive superstition and it is really too dangerous to be allowed to hold back progress and foment chaos and war any longer. People with beliefs in mythological beings and magical thinking have control of nuclear weapons.And I'm not talking about Saddam.....

Answer 6

From the time I was born ,all I heard were grandmas ,aunts and mothers praying, as soon as I could talk ,they thaught me the padre nuestro, but I came into my own faith , when at 15 yrs old I got in a very bad accident and almost lost my life, but even tho I could not speak , I prayes silently and evry ry day ,my grandma, aunts, mom, and uncles came to the hospital to pray and bless me with oil, all bandage as I was , and when I walked out a year later , my first act was to pray outside, in the old wooden church and at my house , prayer is awesome and results in answers.

Answer 7

Well, it took a traumatic incindent that happened to me when I was 14 to turn away from Catholicism (no no priest or nun was involved, just me and the eucharist). Anyways after about 20+ years of research and wandering, I was called to my present belief. I am an initiated witch, and have never been happier, more spiritually at ease and comfortable in my life.

Answer 8

I have no basis on which to create faith, so I have none. I cannot feel or sense or know god, and I have tried. I have arrived at the conclusion that there is no personal god, no one watching over us and caring when our cats die. The idea now seems completely absurd, so I don't bother trying to connect with a god anymore.

Answer 9

I don't have religious faith, but I read something a few days back that filled me with admiration:

Rev, Gregory Boyd, Pastor of one of the US's largest Fundamentalist Congregations:

“America wasn’t founded as a theocracy,” he said. “America was founded by people trying to escape theocracies. Never in history have we had a Christian theocracy where it wasn’t bloody and barbaric. That’s why our Constitution wisely put in a separation of church and state.

“I am sorry to tell you,” he continued, “that America is not the light of the world and the hope of the world. The light of the world and the hope of the world is Jesus Christ.”

Mr. Boyd lambasted the “hypocrisy and pettiness” of Christians who focus on “sexual issues” like homosexuality, abortion or Janet Jackson’s breast-revealing performance at the Super Bowl halftime show. He said Christians these days were constantly outraged about sex and perceived violations of their rights to display their faith in public.

“Those are the two buttons to push if you want to get Christians to act,” he said. “And those are the two buttons Jesus never pushed.”

All good, decent people want good and order and justice. Just don’t slap the label ‘Christian’ on it.” It isn't exclusive to being Chritian.

Rev. Boyd has faced major retribution with his views. He is one of the few mem I would call CHRISTIAN with a capital C!

Answer 10

I spent over 30 years of my earlier life as a practicing Christian.

And over time, with additional study, concluded that the bible was a book of mythology. And, the premise of God belief is not only unsupported by credible evidence, it is a ridiculous (juvenile) concept on the face of it.

Atheism is the only logical choice.