Unsure of religion??????

Question

i am 13 and still dont have a religion. Most parent grow thier kids up and brainwash them w/ religion, but mine want me to have an open mind and make my own life. they dont want to force me to do something. then there are these christian freaks who run up to me in the hallway and sream, "YOUR GOING TO HELL!!!!" yeah of they start preaching to me in class about how christians are great. also, even though my school is public, my teachers incorpirate religion BIG TIME in the class room. heck a couple of weeks ago they had a god program thing where we had to go pary to god, our lord savior, and how great he is. now i really dont have a prob w/ christians. in fact my friend is a jehova witness. what are some religions i should consider trying out, studying, practicing ect.... dont push on me that i need to be a christian ect ect ect.. i want to keep and open mind!!!

Answer 1

Jehovah's Witnesses have the true religion. They are Christian (of course), but they are unique for their rejection of paganisms, use of God's personal name, and global preaching by every active adherent. No other religious organization can claim such purity of worship.

These facts about Jehovah's Witnesses are perhaps relevant to this question. The more one compares this Christian religion with others, the more remarkable it is shown to be.

1. Jehovah's Witnesses have no paid clergy. Yet they remain tightly organized with more than 6.5 million active Jehovah's Witness preachers (about 16 million associate themselves with the religion). Even fulltime preachers and workers at their branch offices are unpaid volunteers.

2. There is no elite class among Jehovah's Witnesses. Even the few 'anointed' among them enjoy no special privileges in their congregations on earth. An anointed person (one of those relative few with a heavenly hope) is not elevated above his fellow congregants in any way, and he may not even qualify for appointment as a simple 'deacon' or elder. There are no titles; EVERYONE is addressed as 'brother' or 'sister'.

3. No person benefits economically from the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses. Even the 8 to 20 men who serve on their Governing Body receive simply room, board, medical care, and reimbursement for certain personal expenses according to the exact same provision as every other branch volunteer.

4. About a hundred men have served on Jehovah's Witnesses' Governing Body committee during the past 125 years or so. The vast majority of them have spent the vast majority of their adult lives volunteering for their organization's purposes, and the vast majority have died faithfully and near-pennilessly while still under their legal 'vow of poverty'.

5. Amazingly, Jehovah's Witnesses did not splinter as a sect from some other religion. Instead, a truly tiny but sincere group of bible students studied only the Scriptures to determine the will of God. Thus their religion remains absolutely independent of and not carrying the sins of Christendom's history, yet carries the authority of Christ's teachings.

6. Despite the distortions of anti-Witnesses, throughout their modern history Jehovah's Witnesses have refused to claim divine inspiration or infallibility for their teachings. They have pointed to the bible (and not any particular translation) as the only inspired infallible means of knowing God's thoughts. For over 125 years, their teachings have been presented as merely the results of sincere bible research by imperfect but godly humans.

Answer 2

Don't forget, your parents have already brainwashed you with the ideals of America, right and wrong, and many other things. What gives them the right to tell you what is right or wrong, from their point of view? Shouldn't you be allowed to decide this for yourself? You're nearly an adult, shouldn't you decide whether you need to go to school, can drive a car, or run around naked.

Now, that aside, at age 13, it has been only a year since you BEGAN developing the ability for conceptual thought process. You have another 11 years before you are fully an adult, and your parents have kept a significant piece of information from you. Males don't reach it until age 30.

Are you going to Hell? Yes, just like everyone else does, including Christ, when you die. That is where you lay until the resurrection. AT that point of time, you will either be resurrected to judgment or to everlasting life on Earth, helping to rebuild it back into a paradise, than heading out into the universe to terrform other planets for humans who live forever.

At your age, you can not have any concept of what this means, as you have absorbed very limited data. You brain is collecting 40MBs per second of data while awake. At night, and only at night, you brain sorts, categorizes, and creates synaptic connections for the long term storage of this data. Your brain has enough storage space to create these connections to last at least 10,000 years, from what current science knows.

The only religion I can recommend to you are the Jehovah's Witnesses. As a witness, you learn things equally to the adults. You become a legal minister. There are no elitists, telling everyone else what to believe. No one gets paid and/or receives any financial benefit. The governing board of the multi national work serve in those positions only a short time, don't get paid, and live in two bedroom apartments in the residential building with the printing plant workers. Also, every witness attends the yearly conferences, not just the elite like other religions do.

As for the Bible, you will learn to use all Bible versions, as well as how to look things up in the ancient Greek and Hebrew. You will also learn about evolution and other beliefs.

I can guarantee you that if you do become a witness, you will get bombarded even worse than now. Uniformly, every religious group and government institution dislikes the witnesses, because they obey the laws, pay their taxies, and don't interfere in politics. People really hate do gooders.

Answer 3

You really should not worry too much about a religion, besides having an open mind is great.
Some people who are Christian may go to Church every day, pray and all, but if someone needed their help, they would not do anything, so they are not being good Christians. So it does not really matter the religion, what matters is that you act according to what you believe in, which doesn´t have to be strictly a religion.

Answer 4

Just some condolence to you, I am a Christian, but I don't believe you're going to hell for not being a Christian! I don't believe in hell. I think it's great that you want to discover new religions and learn about them. A very wonderful and inspiring book dealing with God is called Conversations with God. This book is about a man actually conversing with God through words- it is very interesting. In the book, God explains that the traditional Catholic values are not true. (Going to hell, the devil, etc) You could always look up information about other religions and I'm positive there are books about it. And remember, you don't have to be set on one religion right now, or ever. If you are confused, that's alright. In time you will find all about yourself and your beliefs. Good luck!

Answer 5

oh my gosh, thats horrible! you should really get your parents to complain about that because religion isn't supposed to be brought into the classroom AT ALL unless you go to a christian/catholic school. i totally understand what you mean though, religion is tough. there are a lot out there, so you should go to the library and get books on each one and follow your heart. i recommend Islam though. it's really not how it's portrayed in the media AT ALL. i'm very proud to be muslim, and if i had a chance to convert to any other race i wouldn't even think about it for a second. most of the things you hear in the media are not true. anyways, i dont want to preach to you! just keep your options open, go find out about all of the religions out there and pick whatever one you feel is the best for you, or you feel the most connected with.

Answer 6

all I can do is tell you to pray. I have studied many religions, been to too many churches and spoke to very intelligent people on the subject. READ. Educate yourself. God will speak to you and your open mind. I am sorry that you think that Jehova witness is Christian. God wants you to have a open mind. He also wants you to use your brain. Read the BIBLE . It is a history book. It has been proven. Jesus is the only human that was raised from the dead. budda and the others are still dead. I am sorry that you have had bad christian experiences, but dont count Jesus out because of a few situitations. I will pray for you.

Answer 7

Do your homework, and check out all the religions. I can't speak for non-Christian religions, but I went on a quest to find a religion several years ago, and just went to different churches each week to see what they were about.

Again, just from my experience with Christianity, if you're looking for something highly structured, go visit a Catholic, Episcopalian, Methodist, Lutheran, and Unitarian church.

For less structured services, check out Baptist, Assembly of God, and a Pentecostal church.

You'll really appreciate the journey, especially after you find your destination. When I did this years ago, I had a dream that I was in a grave, talking to Jesus, who was looking down at me. He was just about to leave when I said "wait! I haven't asked you which church I should go to!"

"It doesn't matter," He said, "just go."

I made up my mind that very night.

Good luck!

Answer 8

You are very scary to a lot of people. You are willing to think for yourself. Too many people make life decisions based on the little box their parents put them in at birth.

Selecting a religion is not necesarily about picking a GOD to follow. Perhaps picking a religion is about exactly what you are doing now. Thinking Freely.

The North Texas Church of Free Thought isn't any old church and you don't have to be in North Texas to belong.

Just Think Freely. Thier url is below.

Answer 9

im a christian, but open-minded. if you want to know why I believe in God as a Christian, Id being willing to send you my personal experience. You can e-mail me at [e-mail]. One thing you should know is that Christianity itself is very broad. Im a Methodist, which is way different from Catholicism (which I, personally, have a problem with). The one thing you need to keep in mind is that you have to feel spiritually connected to whatever it is you choose. Judaism is not one I would suggest, based on the fact that there are so many rules irrelevant to your connection with God, which is most important. You might want to look into Islam. Contrary to popular belief, there are many similarities between Islam and the popular religions of the western world (Judaism, Catholiciam, Protestantism). Buddaism is also one you might try, because they incourage open-mindedness and even allow you to celebrate other religions' holidays. Hinduism is not one I would suggest. It is polytheistic (belief in multiple gods), which I dont agree with. Also, they belive in reincarnation, so unless youre born a Hindu, you cant join. But whatever you do though, please dont become a scientologist or voodoo witchcraft follower. They are simply extremist who do not want to allow themselves to become attached to anything that they cant see or feel.

I wish you the best of luck, because I know what having religion in my life has meant to me.

Answer 10

look, im not gonna force a religion on you. all i know is that im Muslim and follow the religion of Islam. lately the media has given people the wrong impression of muslims ,, like were ALL lunatics that run around killing people. but thats not true at all,. islam answers many questions and its holy scripture (quran) is unchanged for over 1400 years and IS the word of God. Islam means peace. just research into it a lil and hopefully you'll find what you want...

and also.. what those people did in school is totally wrong and prolly against the law.

just keep looking. and choose the religion that best suits YOU. Do what you feel is right.
Good Luck :o)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam