I went to church until I was 18 and then I refused to go because I thought it was all a bunch of brainwashing. I'm just curious how many other people were raised going to church or made to go to church (like me) but now don't believe in God or practice the religion they were brought up practicing.
2006-09-17 15:55:02 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Count me in. I started seriously questioning god and religion when I was about 18 also. I think anybody with a curious, analytical mind would be hard-pressed to get past 22 or so and still believe in a strict interpretation of any religion. There are just far too many contradictions.
Having said that, I can't say for certain whether there is a higher power or not. That's just beyond my sphere of knowledge. However, if there is a higher power, it probably doesn't give a crap whether we lousy humans worship it or not. It's got bigger fish to fry.
2006-09-17 16:08:04 · answer #1 · answered by southeastside 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Actually, I began my search for the spirit world in church. Many many churches! By the time I reached my late teens I realized I was looking in the wrong place. I came to realize the "Christian" churches were teaching a strange mixture of Jewish mysticism and bibleism. It was several years before I learned through thousands of hours of study, that the joining of the old and new testaments had completely thrown the church into chaos. Both books are valid and important, but they reveal two distinctly separate systems of instruction. The church in it's struggle to meld the two together have missed the most powerful points of both. It's not possible to resolve the differences without fatal compromise. Both should be studied for the revelations they contain, but they cannot be forced into a single entity without losing the profundity of both. So to answer your question, I no longer go to "church", but it's because I'm aware of the terrifying force that moves all things, which we refer to as God.
2006-09-17 23:28:56 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
i was raised as a catholic. no, lol i didnt get abused. church held no meaning for me. i went there because i was made to go.
as i got older, i started trying to listen to the speakers, but i just couldnt pay attention. it wasnt that i disagreed with what they were saying, it was just that there were so many other places i would rather be. finally, i went to high school and stopped going to church. my parents stopped going to. i accepted my mother's reason for leaving the church as my own for a while, until i learned more about religion through religious chat rooms and site like this. i still agree, as my mother does, that churches just want your money. but as she still believes in the christian god, i believe that there might be or might not be a god. i believe that i wont truly know if there is a god, until i die... even if then. i may never know. am i ok with that? yes. im going to try to make the most out of my life here, just in case there isnt any afterlife. if there is, well thats cool too. i dont believe im going to "hell", because i try to be good, and help others.
i definately dont believe that you have to believe in jesus in order to go to heaven.
2006-09-17 23:13:29 · answer #3 · answered by lostcause8436 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Me. I was christened a Catholic. Then spent 12 years at a Uniting Church school and was forced to study a lot of religion there. I was always questioning christianity and knew it wasn't for me, so the older I got, the more I gravitated towards Humanism. I came to that conclusion when I was about 18 and at university.
2006-09-17 23:05:44 · answer #4 · answered by Aussie Chick 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I was made to go to a very strict christian church until I moved out of my parents' house at 17, and I never set foot in a church again. It just wasn't what I believed no matter how hard they tried to convince me.
Now 20 years later I am a practicing pagan.
2006-09-17 22:59:09 · answer #5 · answered by DontPanic 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I use to be at church everytime the doors opened. No more...not for many years now. I still believe in God and will see Him one day. I just dont believe in the politics and judgements that go on in the church... they are far from Godly.
2006-09-17 23:03:57 · answer #6 · answered by honiebyrd 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I don't believe in the Christian 'God', don't know that I ever did. I was forced to church, and HATED it! I'm Wiccan now, with alot of Native American Spirituality influence. I'm very comfortable with my spirituality now days, and feel really bad for those who haven't taken the time to educate and think for themselves. I have studied a wide range of religion in the last 16 years, and I'm still learning! Don't know that I'll ever stop growing! ; )
Blessed Be....
2006-09-17 23:02:43 · answer #7 · answered by Helzabet 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
left the church and now don't believe in any organized religion.
2006-09-17 22:58:34 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
i feel silly and sometimes embarrased of myself for having have believed "it"
i didnt have a choice though...
i was born into it. i dont think i was really "in" and it feels like a drag having to go to church every sunday, wendesday, etc. till im too old to drag..
2006-09-17 22:58:28 · answer #9 · answered by lnfrared Loaf 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It happens at times
2006-09-17 23:03:36 · answer #10 · answered by Fleeting 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋