so how'd you get your religion?

Question

what religion are you and how did you become faithful in that religion? something done, something said, just going by tradition of your fam...? curious to know, everyone I know says they believe in something and you should follow it but I never hear what made them believe in it in the first place

Answer 1

Short version:

I used to be really anti-Catholic. I began studying Catholicism intently, trying to prove it false once and for all. I couldn't do it, and instead became convinced through my research that it was the One True Faith, and I converted.

Answer 2

i was a christian-now a Buddhist.

follow your own ability to think rationally and compassionately and that's Buddhism.i don't have any God watching over me.i am responsible.it's upto me to do the right things.

i never could stand the "superiority of humans over all other creatures" concept that christians have. what does it matter whether you're a man,a dog,a chiken a pig etc? if u kill a life U KILL A LIFE.

ALL CREATURES HAVE A RIGHT TO LIVE.

+ christianity goes so much against my logic. i tried to make sense,tried to believe that God existed..but nothing works.

when we have a rational human mind why should we follow blind faith?
Buddhism is much more REAL for me.it lets u figure out for yourself. i asked a ques right on this site why Buddhism is the only religion that has not given an explanation for the worlds beginning.Buddhism helps me to be a good person.my education in other matters can be looked after by other subjects like science.
ALWAYS HAVE AN OPEN MIND is the motto of Buddhism.

i 1st learn about Buddhism when i was searching on whether there were any religions that don't believe in any God.now i have done a lot o reading and i have visited Buddhist temples and spoken with the monks there...

in Buddhism,things make sense...and if someone questions u about the teachings of Lord Buddha,u can answer those questions without having to refer any book.u can use your common sense and understanding.

Answer 3

Since the time I remember myself, I was always on a spiritual quest. I was brought up in an atheistic family but in a country where Christianity is the primary religion, so I visited churches at times, tried reading and understanding Bible, even became involved with Moonists for a while. In teenage years, however, my search took quite a different turn, and I started associating with hippies and trying to achieve "higher" level of consciousness through the medium of non-addicitve drugs. I also spent a little time in association of Sufis, peace-loving Muslims. That was the time when I came across the books On the Road and The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac, novels that introduced me to Zen Buddhism. That was the highest form of philosophy I knew at that time, and I used to ditch school and instead spend hours sitting under a nearby bridge reading the books. Sometimes I would hitch-hike and tell everyone who would pick me up that there was more to the life than just working, having families and dying, and they should look for perfection in life. Then one of them asked me what "perfection of life" was, and I couldn't answer, because I didn't know. That got me thinking more and I decided to find a Buddhist monastery to learn more, and I was actively looking when one day there was a knock on the door and there was that person selling Hare Krishna books. I was interested in reading a biography of the founder of their movement, so I bought it. I was also invited for a spiritual discourse, and when I heard the philosophy they taught, it all suddenly made sense! The soul, karma, reincarnation - "this is the place and the philosophy I was searching for all this time!" Then I started trying to apply devotinal service to the Lord in my everyday life, and today, more than 10 years later, I still do! :) Hare Krishna!

Answer 4

First, there was the emotional desire to get rid of nihilism. I needed a way to supply value beyond my own small will. I plumbed that well, and I found it rather dry. This was, and still is, a need of mine (in many ways, this is the goal of all western philosophy).

Secondly, there is reason, logic, philosophy, science, etc. The universe I look at has never struck me as the summum bonum of existence. The Big Bang and the Big Freeze both indicate a finite and temporal universe, which if we take the question seriously, must push any rational mind above nature, for whatever caused her must necessarily be above and beyond her, which is another way of saying supernatural. Philosophical and ethical questions and queries left materialism and atheism very impoverished to me. It can't work, and it can't supply morality to any degree (ethics must follow ontology, as one online novel I read put it, and if this is so, then how should I ethically treat something that is indistinct from soil?).

Thirdly, there are experiences I've had that are, frankly, mystical. I love logic, science, reason, math, etc. They are one of the most powerful tools we have to model reality, but they are exactly that *models*. I couldn't even validate my own existence with them (cogito ergo sum is really a rather shallow postulate and easy to question in our age). We have to mystically learn some things, and this is a difficult trait for someone like me, but it has happened.

Once I accepted the existence and identity of Christ, I also added the concept of divine revelation to my repertoire. This narrows down the search immediately, and the search then goes from Who? to How do I understand it?. This led me to trace Christianity through history and evaluate it as a historical religion with historical values (religions that are just dogmas are worthless; all religions must have a practical and mystical life that goes beyond books), which in turn led me to consider the Orthodox Church the historical church of Christianity.

So, having compressed the motives into those four basic principles, here I am :).

Answer 5

I am a Vedic Hindoo from India originally .
I was born in a Hindu Brahmin family, & followed the religion in a routine manner for the first 15 years of my life.
Thereafter I joined a Missionary Institute where we studied The Bible as a subject.I also read the Qor'an , Budhist & Jain literature.Compared them.
Finally I arrived @ the conclusion that Hinduism is the most liberal & enlightened religion.Since then I am following it knowingly.

Answer 6

I am a Wiccan, but I would NEVER say that you should follow my religion. There are many ways to approach the Divine. Wicca is only one path among many, and generally recognizes all other faiths as potentially valid and honorable paths -- yes, including atheism and agnosticism.

I became a Wiccan because one day, after several years of atheism, I had a personal experience of the Goddess that led me to explore theism again. Wicca was the religion that most closely suited my pre-existing values and the one that struck me as the most beautiful way for me to honor Her.

Answer 7

I am Kemetic Orthodoxy. I came to the religion several ways. I started by dreaming. The gods would come and talk to me in dreams. Mainly it was Aset. It would happen every time my husband wouldn't listen to Her. Then after my first son was born, he was a screamer. I never got sleep because he would scream all night. I prayed to his protectors to help him go to sleep for the night so I could get some sleep and They came to me and took care of him in the middle of the night. I got a great nights sleep after that. It was then I decided I wanted to learn about the religion. I took a class and found that it was right for me. I joined. No, I wasn't on drugs. I have never taken drugs, except ones from the doctor, in my life. My gods actually come and talk to people and guide them. I never had the Christian God come to me and talk to me.

Hugs

Answer 8

What "made me" believe as you ask, was DEATH, and NDE's. As for my "religion," I have none, for mine is the faith of the Father in heaven, who to me is my "name" on R&S. Atum, also called Amen, RA, and Khepera throughout the span of the last 6000 years.....How I came by my FAITH was to have "been" dead after a motorcycle accident and finding myself in "his" realm. Having been a very violent person who was a drug addict and alcoholic he "saved" me from this lifestyle and put me BACK into this one to be an EXAMPLE by "changing" my nature...., don't believe it? Look up the top #1 Irish hitman for the Italian mob out of Detroit in the 60's and 70's, whose nickname was "Red," and used to be on the FBI's Ten most wanted list. Only one "friend" in a long list of the worthless "I" used to hang around with......Is there a God? Like I could deny it .........

Answer 9

i was raised in an irish roman catholic household. for a period going to church was a drag etc...
(it was me being lazy more than anything else). i went to a catholic grammar school in which we had religious studies. the primary focus was on catholicism but we did learn about other religions and why we were different from them. after grammar school,and during it to some extent i didn't regularly attend mass,receive the sacraments etc and to be honest i didn't fully understand them,to a certain extent yeah but not in their entirity. after so long i moved to the states and got married. the girl i married well her parents were ex catholics and going through the stages of becoming pentecostal(mexican americans so the passion etc in those churches......was a big attraction for them). as when most catholics and non catholics become a different denomination than catholicism the main focus is usually to show them why not to be catholic adn so issues they didn't fully understand like the eucharist,papacy,the saints,call no man father were usual topics to put down catholicism. this began leading me to learn more about my faith and my church,in my extensive studies i have drawn closer to the catholic faith and have a better understanding and appreciation of what it means to be catholic,especially growing up in the north of ireland. so to this day i am catholic and gladly my wife remained catholic and was not attracted to her families church. she is now studying more and drawing closer to the faith,so despite the transaction of her parents turning from the faith and trying to bring her into the pentecostal way we both drew stronger to the church and to eachother. hope this helps your curiousity and god bless.

Answer 10

GOD showed me the way and i just walked it.Now involved in a wonderful relationship and fellowship with GOD.

John 3:16 says "For GOD so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoso ever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life".Ask JESUS to come into your heart and forgive ur sins and cleanse ur past with his blood.

With a simple prayer like above u can be saved.