Tell me about your religion.?

Question

I have always been interested in religion but now I really want to learn about it. I do not follow any particular religion, but that just makes it all the more interesting to me. Speaking sincerely, I really want to know about every different religion. Tell me about yours?

Answer 1

I am a member of the United Methodist church. I chose this as my home church years ago because it was the only church I found that did not tell me how I had to believe.

At our church, there is room for everyone, and everyone is welcome. Even unbelievers would be welcome to come, as would Buddhists, Hindi and any other beliefs. We have people all the way from very liberal to very conservative.

I am a Christian through grace and faith. I have come to the place in my spiritual growth where I realize that love is more important than anything else in my religion. I choose to base my beliefs most heavily on the Gospels of Jesus.

Although I do go to church, I draw heavily from nature to renew my spirit and to worship. I believe that prayer is an ongoing conversation with God who is always with me. I accept the will of God in my life.

I do not preach to anyone and do not believe it is my gift to proselytize or damn anyone to hell. I prefer instead to witness by example.
**JENN

Answer 2

Set aside the Bible and consider other issues, the one that I favor:

Believe in obeying the law, even the inconvenient ones, such as speed limits when late for work;

Believe in paying taxes, even though there are many ways they could avoid them, as many religions do;

Believe in keeping their word, such as to the IRS that they will not promote politics in the church, and they actually mean it;

Teach their youth that waiting until marriage is preferable to using protection, and for the most part, the youths actually believe it....As a result, they have the lowest rates of out-of-wedlock births and STDs....Yes, there is the occasional ones who would rather have their fun now than wait, but there are far more who choose to wait;

Treat their youth with respect, not just "do what you're told!";

Teach their youths side by side with the adults, the Bible as a whole, and not just Bible stories....The very young may not understand what they are being taught, but by the time you reach the age of understanding, they have a good basic knowledge of the scriptures;

Don’t allow their congregations to get so large that the individual gets lost in the crowd and since everyone is taught the same, it is easy to start a new congregation, with a set of elders;

Have members who know all other members, whether in their congregation, their city, or their county....When Katrina happened, they made sure everyone living in New Orleans could be found in Texas, with every individual accounted for;

Believe their meeting places should compliment a neighborhood, and not overwhelm it, so they are small and don’t include a lot of expensive decorative features....Each place can hold up to four congregations;

Encourage all their members to read the whole Bible, and not just one particular version, than submit their thoughts to see whether the religion could be following God’s Word better;

Don’t pay or elect leading members or governing board based on their donation....a fisherman, a tax collector, or a carpenter can end up on the Governing Board.

Can have every member, over the age of 12 answer the following question without just referring to a secular holiday in May:
WHAT DAY DO YOU OBSERVE THE MEMORIAL ON?

Answer 3

I can't tell you about my religion, but I can speak to spirituality.

I was raised Lutheran, but started studying other Christian sects in Jr. high. After I exhausted Christianity, I learned about Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. Then I studied Shamanism and Native religions around the world. Then mythologies of the world. Then the "others", like scientology, etc.

Bottom line is: your spirituality is YOUR relationship to the Universe and no one else's. Only you can develop this relationship as it is unique to you. Ask two people that were raised in the same church with the same pastor questions about their faith-you will always get two answers because they are individuals.

Study, read, ask questions. There are good books at the library that explain the differences between the major religions, including the Eastern ones. I recommend that if you are serious about this knowledge, online answers are not comprehensive enough to help you. Happy hunting!

Answer 4

Well I was technically raised a Christian, but then I fell away for a long time and was kind of an agnostic. A few years back I had a very wise professor in college who was of the Sikh faith. He told me that all religions are like different roads going to the top of the same mountain. So now I primarily believe in the Christian doctrine, but I also admire, respect and read text from other religions...I own copies of most of the major religious texts. Besides the peripheral stuff most religions basically believe the same thing...God is eternal, transcendant, etc. The rest of it is just labeling.

Answer 5

Two things you could do would be to go to different religious services, and read.

Another would be to take a class or more in Comparative Religions.

If there's an institution of higher learning near you, go to bookstores that serve the student population. You'd probably find some worthwhile reading material there.

Also, there's a big web. You could visit various religion-based sites.

I used to be curious about religion (I'm not at all religious myself, being atheistic), but now I more often find myself bored, or worse, by religion and religious people. Too many of them are really obnoxious about it.

Answer 6

Wiccan witch. Practicing the Craft for about 30 years. But that's not a religion. It's a practice. Earth based. Belief in magic as anyone's ability.

Wiccan, now there is the spirituality. We are not a religion as you perceive it, but more a spirituality. A path. Many different streets, all in the same town, all leading somewhere. Many different Deities, all enabling their followers to achieve whatever they want to.

It is a self empowering system, overlaying spirituality on a magical practice. The magic is personally enabling, and the adding of Deity makes it a system of advancement on three levels - emotional, spiritual and physical. The union of the seen and the unseen, working together in harmony for the betterment of not just ourselves, but everyone and everything.

Very idealistic, but we do feel personally responsible for what we undertake, and we take it very seriously. But it is not for everyone, and we acknowledge that .

Whatever path you walk, that is the one that is right for you. Walk it like you mean it.

Answer 7

If it's every different religion, you'll be at this quite a while.
You may find it useful to classify them by groups and then look at smaller differences and details as time and interest permits.

Slightly dated but still useful is "The Universe Next Door: A guidebook to world views" by James Sire. (Marxism has faded considerably since it was written)

I prefer Colin Chapman's "The Case for Christianity"
(even as an atheist) as it appears, as far as I can make out, to have a fair representation of almost every major religion and school of thought going, though it's weak on "New Age" concepts, which slide in between Primal religion and Pantheism. Nevertheless, if you get that under your belt, you'll know where to look next.

Me, I'm an existentialist with Fortean leanings.
"One measures a circle beginning anywhere."

That which is, is.

Answer 8

Well, I am an Ásatrúar. Ásatrú ( which means in Old Norse "Faith in the Gods) is an polytheistic faith based on Pre-Christian indigenous Northern European beliefs. Ásatrú has a rich and complex ethical system in which personal honor, truth and integrity are considered to be some of the highest virtues. There are Nine Noble Virtues: Honor, Truth, Courage, Fidelity, Self-discipline, Hospitality, Independence, Industry, and Perseverance

I believe the Æsir and Vanir (Norse Gods) are living, independent entities. They are our eldest kin-folk, and are descended from them. I worship the Æsir and Vanir not in submission, but standing upright; I give gifts to the Gods and Goddesses, in return for the gifts that they give to us. I honor the spirits of our departed ancestors, who watch over us and, I believe, are sometimes reborn among us.

Ásatrú is unlike the better-known religions in many ways. Some of these are that we're polytheistic. That is, we believe in a number of deities, including Goddesses as well as Gods. We do not accept the idea of "original sin", the notion that we are tainted from birth and intrinsically bad, as does Christianity. Thus, we do not need "saving".

The Middle Eastern religions teach either a hatred of other religions or a duty to convert others, often by force. They have often practiced these beliefs with cruel brutality. Ásatrú does not claim to be a universal religion or a faith for all of humankind. In fact, we don't think such a thing is possible or desirable. The different branches of humanity have different ways of looking at the world, each of which is valid for them. It is only right that they have different religions, which of course they do.

Answer 9

Stricly none, becuase they are based on dogma and not evidence. They usually sprind from a set of unsupported assertions in an ancient text, which is about as reliable a way of getting at the truth as reading tea leaves. However, of them all Buddhism would have to be the best. In its original form it did not teach of a god, because it assumed there is not one in the absence of any evidence. Instead it concerned itself with understanding the human condition, and specifically the origin of suffering and how it can be overcome.

Answer 10

I'm not sure I would call it religion but I believe along the lines of the New Age thing. I believe that Aliens from other planets came here millions of years ago and started playing around with stuff and masqueraded themselves as gods. I believe that they are keeping secret from us the fact that there is a Central Power in the universe, a Collective Consciousness that we can all tap into and achieve great heights in evolution.