Your beliefs and why???

Question

There are so many religions out there and I a catholic am curious to know your beliefs. What you do and don't believe. Why you do and why you don't.

Answer 1

I grew up in a Catholic family...though, we hardly spoke much of God...and even less of Jesus. We attended church, but it seemed boring to me growing up...and redundant in its rituals. I never read the Bible, and shortly into High School we became the typical Christmas/Easter mass Catholics (i.e. not going to mass any other time).

In college, I questioned everything and searched for truth. I, of course, considered the fact that if I had been born to a different family or grew up somewhere else, I would be a different religion. So, I questioned the validity of all religions, which obviously could not all be right and true. At the same time, I saw a lot of pain and sorrow in the world. I couldn't imagine that God existed if the world was the way it was.

Also at that time, I preceived two main motivating emotions in people - love and fear. I saw all other emotions and behaviors stemming from either love or fear. People doing some things out of love...and other things out of fear. At this point, I concluded that love was a good motivating factor and fear a bad motivating factor.

Then, I applied these thoughts to religion...and felt that the "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" was a pretty good philosophy that most religions held to.

Shortly thereafter, though, I turned on Christianity. As a "pseudo" Catholic (so-to-speak) turned atheist, I thought that "Christianity" was based on fear. In other words, "Do this..." else you go to hell. And "Don't do this..." or else you will go to hell.

It seemed very "fear" based...and I saw many in my family and other friends (mostly Catholics) who were driven and lived by fear. They were afraid of God, afraid of the devil, and most of all...afraid of going to hell because they hadn't lived a perfect life.

So, I decided my best bet was to prove that Christianity was a farce and/or a lie...in order to SAVE my friends and family members from their fears of dying and going to hell. As an atheist, I knew that there was no such thing as hell...and nothing to worry about with death...thinking it was simply eternal nothingness (which is a LOT better than hell!)

However, I struggled for awhile to determine the best way to attack Christianity...given all the denominations and what-not. But then I came up with my answer - the Bible! Surely, Christianity is a religion surrounding this book they call "the Bible". Therefore, I concluded, if I could read and prove that the Bible was a bunch of garbage, contradictory, and/or full of lies, then I could prove Christianity false.

So, in 1995, as an atheist, I sat down to read the Bible and prove it wrong. After stumbling through Genesis for a week, one day I flipped to the New Testament (wondering what it was all about). I had never read the Bible before, you see. Most "pseudo-Catholics" do NOT read the Bible...and they were forbidden to by the Catholic church until around 1970, or something like that.

In any event, that one fateful night...as I was about to fall asleep, I turned to Matthew. As I read the "42" generations in the first chapter, I grew more frustrated and nearly fell asleep. But then, the title of the next section said, "The Birth of Jesus Christ". I was astounded! I thought this whole book was about Jesus, but just now was His birth, nearly 3/4ths the way through the book! I awoke a little in excitement, thinking that I only really had to read this part of the Bible (the part about Jesus) to really prove it all wrong.

But, in a wild turn of events, that night I read through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...and at the end was so astounded and impacted, I broke down in tears. Tears of fear and tears of excitement. I knew with absolute certainty that everything I had read was true.

Ever since, it has been my passion to study the Bible and the share the truths in the Bible with everybody that I know...and even share it with strangers, who do not know the truth.

I have studied various doctrine and various denominations and what they believe, but I hold everything I hear or read outside the Bible in light of what the Bible says.

I am a Christian and love the Lord Jesus Christ.

I am saved by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ.

I am a child of God.

Answer 2

I'm Wiccan. I have been for about 8 years. Alot of people belong to a religion or change religions for emotional reasons. Mine was purely logical. Every person should be their own scientist. I am because I've decided that Wicca most securely fits my hypothesis for The Divine and all of Nature based on my observations, experiences and research.

For example. there are five elements revered in Wicca as the five elements in Nature. This might not make much sense to a scientists who says there are actually many more elements. But if you look at it this way... There are four building block chemicals that make up every living thing on this planet. The four elements are Earth, Air, Fire, and Water the fifth is spirit and envelops them all and stands for that which cannot be counted. Also the seasons are definate representations of this.

I believe the human body is a conscious representation of the earth. We have the same amount of Water in our bodies as the earth does. And we can interact with it's surroundings in both physical and spiritual ways. It's my theory that humans are Spiritual energy generators. The only ones.

Secondly, I believe in an afterlife because I have witnessed ghosts. Many Wiccans believe in Reincarnation, I'm not sure about reincarnation, it's iffy, I can't rely on it except if after death some souls became part of a collective energy that was then redistributed. Its only a theory with no basis.

The polarity of Nature is evident. That's another Wiccan belief. Night, Day, etc.

Answer 3

I was raised catholic and I am still in recovery! I believe that there is a fundamental ground of being that can be called God or Tao or the Great Spirit or whatever. There is no way to prove or disprove anything. I don't see any evidence that this God takes interest in anyone or anything in particular, in fact, it may not even be truly self aware... more like a pattern. When things die, they decompose and their parts are re-used. Leaves come back to trees, spring turns to summer. These changes make me believe that the spirit of each thing, soul, if you like is also recycled-- maybe as itself again, as in reincarnation, or as a part of a new soul. There is no likelihood of a heaven or hell in the traditional sense. But there may be ways that the soul recycles that are better or worse, possibly based on your belief of what happens when you die. As far as the various religions, it seems that they all have a common element: the need for secular control of everybody. This seems wrong to me. I feel that if there were a sentient diety who continually answered prayers and such, he would strike down the conniving ministers and haters.

Answer 4

I am a humanist. I believe that human beings are inherently valuable, with or without God; that it is good to help, love, and care for one's fellow man; and that, by working together, people can do amazing and wonderful things, and find some degree of happiness and fulfillment in this life.

I don't believe in the supernatural, mystical, magical or divine. I don't believe in God or in immortal souls. This is not because I don't think it might be nice if some of those things existed; it's just because I don't know of any evidence for it, and I don't want to succumb to wishful thinking and risk losing my grasp on reality.

You can call me an atheist, an agnostic, a freethinker, a skeptic, a naturalist, a heretic, or whatever else you wish. I don't really care about labels; what I care about are people.

I find religion fascinating; I find its ideas thought-provoking, its mythology captivating, and its art and literature beautiful. I simply don't think it's true; it seems rather too implausible to me. But you're free to follow your own beliefs, whatever they may be, as long as you don't hurt or persecute others.

Answer 5

I am Lutheran, and we are very similar to Catholics. Only I believe we are closer to Protestants. ONe major difference is we do not confess our sins to priests, we do not pray to the Virgin Mary. But we still believe in baptism, communion and most other things the Catholics believe. Basically we believe in leading people into a saving relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Peace and Love

Answer 6

I don't believe in the institution of religion. Where there is an institution, therein lies a bureaucracy. Perhaps there has always been an innate ability to sense a higher presence, I don't know, but it does seem that there is more to our mundane lives than just the mundane. I believe in Nature's way, all of its laws and phenomena. I believe there is no other way to explain Nature than to apply a concept, Religion, to all of its wonders we don't understand. Science is very closely related to Religion but yet is also on the very other end of the spectrum.

Answer 7

I'm Jewish, but have deviated from traditional Jewish beliefs a bit. I don't keep Kosher, or Shabbat or any of that. I was actually raised Karaite, so I wasn't raised believing the Talmud or any other rabbinical writings. I do believe that Jesus is the Messiah, but I do not know if he is God. But anything's possible.

Answer 8

I'm Tibetan Buddhist... because Buddhism makes the most logical, workable sense to me. If you're interested in understanding it, it would be far easier for you to read about it elsewhere, there's far too much about it to put in here, but a few short ideas:

Buddhism eschews the idea of an omnipotent creator being based on logic and observation of everything around us, altruism, wisdom, karma, rebirth, etc.

_()_

Answer 9

I believe in the Creator. I am not religious. I am a spiritual woman. Religion follows doctrines (followers of a religion) and spirituality is our own personal effort on building a relationship with our Creator. If any book of our higher power could say one thing it would be, "LOVE". If you truly love (Earth, animals, plants, each other) then you are close to our Creator.

Answer 10

I'm a nontheist.

God is irrelevant.

Logic and empathy are the basis of morality, not the mythology of our simian ancestors.

There are three distinct possibilities regarding God.

1. He doesn't exist. In which case, worshiping him is a complete waste of time which would be better spent actively working to create a better world around us.

2. He does exist, but doesn't care about humanity. In which case, worshiping him is a complete waste of time which would be better spent actively working to create a better world around us.

3. He does exist and does care about humanity. In which case, worshiping him would be contrary to his wishes because he would prefer to have us spend our time actively working to create a better world around us.

All three possibilities lead to the same conclusion. The existence of God is irrelevant.