Please tell me about your faith & did you change you beliefs during your life?

Question

Be open/ honest about your faith.I only ask that you respect people who are not of your faith, who answer this question. I look at judging people becuase of their faith as hypocraful.
Why I asked if you changed during your life.
Becuase I did. I became what some Wiccan's call a solitary. I prefer being called a Pagan. I still believe in God/Christ. This belief never wavered.

I was 30 when I changed.

I just wanted to say thank you all for your answers. I'm glad you found your path.

Answer 1

Despite being deeply spiritual, I don't swear alegiance to any religion. I believe that each person has to find their own Truth in their own time. Some people call it God or whatever, I just call it Truth. My beliefs have evolved over 17 years of pretty much constant study, self-reflection, meditation, and intense life experience. The main thrust of my life is spiritual, it's what I think about most of the time.

I believe that we are immortal beings. This, for me anyway, is the fundamental realization that starts people on their true spiritual journey. For me this brings about a certain sense of detachment, allowing me to see the world from outside the perspective of my experiences here within it. This detachment has been one of the most powerful tools for personal growth I have ever found.

The second fundamental realization for me was this: No matter what happens, I am going to be OK.

It may sound a bit silly at first but if you really put your faith in this idea it will change your life profoundly. It's not specific to any religion or lack thereof. Christians put themselves in God's hands, trusting in him to see them through safely. Its really no different. I have found in my studies that there is in fact little fundamental difference between all of the world's religions when you strip away cultural and historical bias. They all seem to be trying to describe the same thing. That one thing is what I call Truth and others call God, or the Mother, or Allah, or whatever you please.

I believe that Fear is the opposite of Faith. Where one exists, the other cannot. Fear is the only thing standing between us and enlightenment. Fear of letting go of the physical world. Fear of our inability to use our creative powers responsibly. Fear in general is the enemy of Truth, the enemy of God, and the enemy of Faith.

I believe we must respect the Truth of others. My Truth is no more or less valid than anyone else's. That I believe is one of the biggest problems facing humanity today; the mindset that in order for me to be right, everyone else has to be wrong. I hate to use the word selfish in this way, but I think people need to be a little more selfish with their spiritual thinking. Does it really matter what someone else thinks is true? Worry about you, and your spiritual journey and let other people be responsible for theirs. And have faith that eventually they will get there. It may take many lifetimes, but eventually they will get there.

I believe that we are divine beings. I suppose you could think of us as baby gods (he did supposedly create us in his own image), just taking our first steps in the universe. We are slowly evolving spiritually into the awareness that we are one with creation, one with God.

I believe that we create our own reality, that the universe is a reflection of our spirit. We create experiences in our lives that help us grow toward enlightenment. I believe in taking total responsibility for my creation. This is another potent tool for growth. To the extent which you take responsibility for your creation, you are empowered to change it. Conversely, to the extent which you deny responsibility for your creation you are powerless to change it.

Take for example the poor man who can't catch a break. No matter how hard he works he can't get ahead in life. Every time he manages to set a little money aside, some ugly problem arises to drop him squarely on his *** again. He is goes from job to job, possibly from lover to lover, trying overcome the obstacles that life keeps throwing at him and live his dreams.
When he learns to take responsibility for his creation, he asks himself "Why have I created this?". This is empowerment. By exploring his need to create this pattern in his life he may finally be able to break free of it. It may sound a little hokey, but this is my own true story. This is just one of the many self-destructive cycles that I have overcome through taking responsibility for my creation.

With this idea then we must accept other people's right to create. They have the right to create misery for themselves, or happines, or love, or death. All of these things serve a purpose in their spiritual journey and we have an obligation to respect that. If someone creates being a christian the we should support them in that and applaud them for being interested in their spiritual journey at all, not try to bash them down for believing differently than we do. Perhaps christianity has some unique perspective that they might benefit from at this point in their journey.

I believe in reincarnation. More specifically, I believe we will keep being born to this creation for as long as it takes for us to learn what we are here to learn and then we will go somewhere else in search of other experiences. This for me is fundamental. Your perspective changes radically when you take the focus off of this one short lifetime and put it on to a journey that may span millenia and many lifetimes. It prompts me to take an active role in my own spiritual growth....to make if the focus of my life here and to examine my experiences in a different light.

Well, you asked a doozy of a question and you got a doozy of an answer. Hope is was what you were looking for

With love,
Shane Kenyon

Answer 2

I changed my beliefs. I was raised Catholic, but early in my teens I learned about witchcraft. I sensed that it was not the correct path, and pretty much remained neutral about religion, until my 20s. Then, I learned about Islam, since a family member converted to it. Then, I learned about Mormonism, since a family member converted to it. So, I made a study of different religions, including different cultures around the world, and people who others call "primitive". I also learned the difference between cult, and religion.

All the while, while I grew and encountered joys and challenges in life, the deepest insights I had were always Christian related. So, I've learned more about Christianity than I ever thought I would, and I love my religion, even though I don't consider myself devout at all. In fact, one thing I love about it is it's teaching that the Lord never gives up on us, ever. That's good because I seem to need many second chances. I believe in Jesus Christ, and I am thankful and grateful to God for all of my wonderful blessings. And, I like the idea that Christianity encourages people (is supposed to) to care for the downtrodden, and weak. To me, this is the highest form of spirituality.

Answer 3

I was borned 92 (young, yes...) and borned in a Christian family. I go to church (still am) and praise God. Quite religious I was. But since the 2 past years, I consider that sometimes religion can hurt people. Reading some books, I began to think that religion is just a religion and not God. I still am a Christian and I do well in Church, but now I have a broader thought of the world and everything. I don't say bad things about other religion and I'm interested in Wicca. I see everything in a more "gray" way rather than seperated "black" and "white". :)

Answer 4

Sorry this happened to you. You have been receiving lots of advice, but I thought I would add my two cents because I don't believe either but I still feel there is value in what Jesus had to say. Can you find some point of agreement with your parents? If you agree with the idea, you can say that you respect Jesus as a philosopher. After all, he was the first to treat people as equals: women, children, the sick. He didn't reject people for being "unclean" which was big at the time. He had a new way of thinking about morality which said that you should even try to love your enemy. That was such a radical idea that they had to make a religion out of it! If you can communicate to your parents what you still respect about Jesus (if anything), it will be a start. Try to postpone the discussion about details until some future time, saying you want to think about it more and you're not ready to discuss it. Even Jesus had moments of doubt.

Answer 5

Yes, my beliefs changed many times, I however did not decide, hey today I am Baptist, tomorrow I will be Pentecostal. There is not enough space here to discuss them all, I have some information on my belief change on my profile then more in debt articles on my 360 blog.

In the beginning I just wanted to be Christian. I was told the bible was the word of God so I tried to find out what it said, way too many things did not add up so I searched for truth.

After many different beliefs I did come upon some people who actually took the bible for what it says and that it says what it means and means what it says.I had finally found truth as the bible describes it. Bible believeving bible toting christians that spoke where the bible speaks and stayed silent where the bible is silent. Those people still have a reverrance for scripture and I respect them.

Eventually 25 years later my beliefs began to change again instead of looking for the truth, I found errors in scripture and could not over look things that to the atheist has been plain all along. I will not bore you with all that as it only angers a lot of people and they send me hate mail for stating my truth.

I am now Wiccan I chose it because it matters not what religion one is or what church one is a member of or not, but only what is in our hearts. Wicca is a peaceful path that does not claim to be the only true path to the one and only god. It is a path where we follow our hearts and as long as we harm none, we are fine. No eternal hell not demons sent to torment us we try to live in peace and harmony with the land. We do no proselytize. We do not tell people who they can or cannot marry, we do not threaten people with evil if they do not do as we say. We just try to take care of ourselves and live and let live.

At first I fought my belief change and tried to be christian just my wife and myself,but since I was seeing the bible in a different light and no longer considered it the word of God that did not last long. I am solitary in practice but only because covens and groves are not as many and as open as churches. so I get my social needs met with people of like faith on the internet. I live in the bible belt and in my city and my part of Texas pagans are deep underground.

It is odd that you ask to be honest and open because that is all I can be and ever have been, but I get told daily I am not honest and open that I am hiding from truth and responsibility. I disagree of course, but some try to use my many belief changes against me saying I am immature and confused and unstable. That is their choice to belive that but my different beleif changes has helped me to know that I know what I know and not because I believe some man or group or doctrine, but because I have searched and experienced it.
BB

Answer 6

About 23 years ago I turned my back on christianity because it over promised and under delivered. A little over a year ago The Holy Spirit put a desire in me to start searching for the truth. I was led away from the bible this time and shown how the church has corrupted it. The gnostic gospels, especially The Apocryphon of John, opened my eyes to the truth. Everything that Jesus said and did was to draw our attention to The kingdom of God within us. After experiencing unconditional love and being shown absolute truth that clears up all the confusion, there is no going back. It saddens me just how much people fight coming to the Light. The bible and everyone who tries to follow it will remain ignorant of the truth because they are trying to mix good and evil together. Jesus corrects the errors in the bible in The Apocryphon of John. Be smart, believe Jesus, not Moses.

Answer 7

I became Born Again 1987, Its been a wonderful life serving the Lord. See its all Him and none me. So much of my sin has been washed away I JOhn 1:9, Im clean, Im at peace and I have hope:
Titus 2:13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

Answer 8

I was born into a family of latent and lax Roman Catholics and never really had much by way of a religious upbringing, although it was a spiritual one. I guess it was about 6 years ago that I "discovered" Wicca and began looking into it. Since then I've morphed into a bit of a hedge witch, staying solitary with the exception of my husband, who found his path when he was about 18.

Answer 9

During the recent issue concerning Iran and the captive British U.N.service personnel,
I heard someone say on the BBC that we must keep faith in the U.N., to help solve the problem, because it is the best (organisatioin) that we have.
I think this aptly reflects the feelings of the average follower of any religion, in any part of the world, concerning their personal faith, which almost certainly is ancestral, and belong just belong because of birth, having blind faith, as did, and so perhaps because of, their parents, whose ancestors may themselves have been influenced by missionary zealots, of strange (foreign) religions.
Born of pious Roman Catholic parents, ......I tried to accept their faith, but could not agree with various teachings of the church, especially it's concept of God. For me, God is the creator, and I cannot accept as God anyone who was created or born , whether by miraculous means or otherwise, be it Christ or Krishna.
How I became a Muslim : One evening after work in Kuwait, while I was walking on a pavement towards a main road, a car stopped across the street and a local young man rushed to me. He asked me if I was Hindu or Christian.I told him that my parents were Christians, but that I did not go to church. He asked me to repeat after him : There is no God but God, and Mohamad is God's prophet. Finding no fault with the statements, I did so. Congradulating me on becoming a muslim he joyously left to rejoin his missionary friends in the car, pleased with himself at what he had accomplished within a couple of minutes.
Once searching the internet for monotheistic religions I came across an article in an Australian Islamic website where it was mentioned that a learned Hindu will say there is only one God. It's good to know that at least one Muslim is enlightened concerning Hinduism. Unlike most people, including a majority of Hindus themselves.
Islam came to India in the seventh century, but it was not till the eleventh century that it entered the traditional heartlands of Indian culture. However, monotheism and the indescribable nature of God were by no means allien to India before the advent of Islam, as the sant tradition of poets and preachers emphasised devotion towards the nirgunam form of god. It could be that the deterioration into multiple god worship began with the influential trying to impress commoners by refering to exempleray advocates who were described as being munificent, benefactors and thus god-like, or reincarnated avtars like Ram and Krisna, of Vishnu.
I believe myself to be an Independent Monotheist Hindu. Independent because I do not believe in the rituals and ceremonmies of organised religion. Hindu, because I am Indian.
I believe there is a lot of knowledge in our ancient scriptures. That is why people from around the world come to India. Unfortunately many of them are misguided by ignorant and or unscrupulous teachers. An example is the version of the Gita, in which the translator insists that his is the only correct interpretation; he, and others like him are responsible for disillusioning and misguiding many who seek knowledge with open minds in our ancient scriptures.

Answer 10

i believed everything my parents and Sunday School taught me, until I was about 16 or so.

Most of the people that taught me did not live their religion at all - they picked and chose what they wanted. Like, it was okay to cheat or lie to their customers so long as they gave the correct percentage of the money to their church.

I think i am still spiritual, but i am not much for organized religion.

Answer 11

I was raised a catholic, noticed something was not quite right and became a protestant, then something was bugging me so I did some serious research and found out that the whole thing was made up, I repented of that sin and became a gnostic.

Blessed Be