For those of you who have belonged to more than one religion?

Question

What religions have you "followed",and what have your experiences led you to believe? What did you think about them then,and what do you think of them now? What led you to and/or away from them?

Answer 1

I used to follow religions looking for truth but I walked out of the valley of the shadow of death and realized it was all a charade after you emerge into the sunlight

Answer 2

Born and raised Byzantine Catholic... logic and study (formal and not) is what led me away from it. I also studied other religions in significant detail and it always came down to a lack of logic in the concept of the "omnipotent creator being" issue in monotheism. I became Buddhist because it makes the most logical sense. I was Wiccan for a time before I became Buddhist and I left it because the logic in Buddhism was less "swiss cheesed to death" by monotheistic dominance like most of the pagan religions and pantheons were. You don't have to try to patch together-again Buddhism like I'm seeing Wiccans, pagans, Asatruars, etc. trying to do after Christianity had it's way.

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Answer 3

When I went to divinity school, I had to study many religions extensively before choosing the religion I wanted to be ordained in. Along with Buddhism, which is not a religion, we studied many different Christian religions (which I was raised in), Judiasm, Islam, Hinduism, Native American, Taoism, Zoroastrianism, Gnosticism, Mithraism, Scientology, Wicca and different forms of Paganism. I'm sure there's more I've missed, but can't think of them off the top of my head. I found something good in all of these and I really had a hard time choosing one religion to follow. So I was ordained in the Christian faith, non-denominational and I did extensive studies in Buddhism and became a Buddhist priestess.

I do not believe in organized religion myself. For me, it was a lot of personal things that happened to me as a child that led to my disdain for the church. I was molested by a deacon of the church, my cousin was kidnaped and almost killed by a Sunday school teacher who killed 6 other little boys, the most evil, vile woman I ever knew was a pillar of her church, the pastor of my church betrayed my confidence and repeated things I told him. On top of all the personal issues, just open the paper. The church isn't a safe haven they want you to believe them to be.

That being said, I believe in God. I believe there is something good in every religion and I don't condemn anyone for their beliefs. People believe in what they have to believe in for this stage of their development. After all the studying I've done, I believe we all believe in the same God, we just refer to him by different names. All religions, even polytheism, believe in a supreme being that rules over all others.

Through my career as a hypnotherapist, I've changed a lot of my beliefs on heaven and hell because of things I've been told and I've read about. I'm not asking anybody to believe as I do, but I expect respect of my belief as I give them respect of their's. I believe everything happened to me for a reason and nothing happens by chance. Everything that has happened to me has made me a stronger human being and I use that strength to help others who come to me for guidance..

Answer 4

its a very long story
Methodism
then a nondenominational church in Calif
then a cult for 20 yrs WCG
then visited quite a few and backto Methodism in 96
it was revealed in 94 that it is ok to do Xmas and Easter but all talk and they wouldnt do it so we left

Answer 5

I have been to almost every denominational church, I have always left for the same reason. They didn't practice what they preached. I have not left God and his son Jesus Christ however.