Questioning your faith...?

Question

Have you ever allowed your curiosity to lead to an investigation of another faith or belief ? Where did it lead you? ...back to your original beliefs with stronger bonds, or to another you have found a connection. If you feel comfortable sharing...please do.

Answer 1

Yes
I'm Wiccan but i have and do continue to study && look into many major && quite a few minor religions and belief systems mostly because it interests me. and also because I can't believe that there is any one religion that doesn't have just a bit of truth in it.
but after a lot of time && interest in many different religions, my bonds to Wicca are even stronger than when i began :) but my respect for various religions grew to an even greater extent than it had been at before.
Blessed be.

Answer 2

Q: Have you ever allowed your curiosity to lead to an investigation of another faith or belief ?

A: I've done it a lot during 63 circuits of the star.

Q: Where did it lead you? ...

A: I know more about religions than I once did.

Q: back to your original beliefs with stronger bonds, or to another you have found a connection. If you feel comfortable sharing...please do.

A: It helped me know who and what I wished to be.

Answer 3

I've found that my spirituality has continued to grow and evolve over time. Some ideas/beliefs still resonate, while others no longer do.

The catalyst for my spiritual journey came when my brother committed suicide when I was a young teenager. He was a very evolved, sensitive, spiritual individual, and of course, I was devastated. The church, while very kind and supportive, also made it very clear that he was going straight to the pits of hell. I absolutely could not reconcile how a compassionate, giving, non-judgemental, loving person could be exiled for eternity to hell. Thus began my quest for answers.

I literally spent years studying different religions, reading religious texts, and basically soaking up all that I could. While I became educated in the world's religions, I still had no answers. I was looking in the wrong place. I had failed to look within, which for me, is ultimately where your spirituality and faith reside.

I began my true spiritual path twelve years after my brother's passing, and I've never looked back. I didn't abandon my original faith completely. I still believe in the Christ-consciousness and his teachings of love and compassion, but I could no longer embrace the dogma I was raised with.

In hindsight, I think I started questioning my faith a bit earlier. When I was six years old, I moved into an extremely active haunted house. Talk about a mind blowing experience! The church insisted the house was demon infested. (I didn't buy that one either.)

Answer 4

I love answering your questions.....I grew up in a Christian home. I went to private Christian schools. My family didn't go to church every Sunday but the school that I attended drilled Christianity into our heads. I still to this day know all the books of the Bible in order and can quote numerous Bible verses.

When I changed to a non dominational Christian school I met a girl there whose aunt was Wiccan. She was, at the time, studying Wicca. When I learned this it sparked something inside of me. I had never been a devout Christian. I couldn't get close to the religion eventhough when I was young I tried. As I got older I started studying all different types of religions. I guess at the time I was on the quest for the "right" one.

Throughout my studies I learned that alot of them shared the same basic concepts. Still unsatisfied I began studying the history of them. I found faults everywhere. Then I remembered the girl. Wicca.... that was a new one for me. I had always known that there were mysterious things in this world but I didn't know how to go about finding out about them.

I began researching Wicca, I went to a local book store and bought books on solitary practice. I also studied the origins. Still I was unsatisfied. Wicca wasn't for me either. But it had come closer than anything else. Then it hit me. Why do I have to follow someone else's religion and someone else's path? Why couldn't I make my own?

So I began studying the occult. I learned about magick, energies, Tarot, astrology, palm reading, mythology, etc. Now I have my path. I have my faith. Its unique and different from anyone else's and I am happy with it. I found peace. I don't claim that my way is the only way. I don't think that Christians are going to hell. Or Muslims or any other religion. I think that no matter what path you follow you can ultimately end up the same way. Religion is a man made thing. It has a purpose and as long as it fulfills that purpose I don't think it matters what particular one you follow.

Answer 5

I have studied many and drifted through my life only to find a stronger connection, why? Simple put i think we all need something to put our faith in and to believe in, without hope I don't think its possible to be happy or dream, hope and faith are at our core, that hope and faith can take many forms and be many things to people, to me it is God, to some faith, hope might be money, or just a better life, but we l have to have hope and faith in something. Its about finding what help you get through the hard times and the good ones, and at least for me I find the most hope and Comfort that things happen for a reason even though the answer is unseen sometimes, and that God does look out for each of us, just maybe not how we want things but they each lead us, and give us the choice to find strength and even more faith or become negative to us and drive us away.

Answer 6

I always question my beliefs; I don't question my faith in them. Why believe them if I'm not going to place my faith in them? However, I have many times changed what I believe, and some of the things I believe I understand more fully because I questioned them. I will always question, and always seek greater understanding. I have no doubt my beliefs will change in the future, and some I will come into greater understanding of. Neither I, nor anyone, nor even everyone collectively, will ever know or understand all that can be known and/or understood in this life, nor the life of all men taken together.

Answer 7

It wasn't an investigation because I was searching for another religion, but in order to stop people from using Zoroastrianism as an example of a less violent 'purer' religion.

What I found in my research was that Zoroastrianism was violent, preached violence, declared people who didn't believe in it as being infidels and ought to be killed, providing a version of Heaven and Hell, and switched the nature of those considered demonic as being 'good' and those angelic being 'evil'.

Once I did that, Zoroastrianism was no longer used as an example of a pure and good religion on that site. I would call that a successful study! lol

Answer 8

I actually started out a christian. I started questioning the religion I was brought up with and learned that paganism and Celtic witchcraft called to my heart particularly. It was for three years that I searched and I faced a lot of criticism and ridicule during that but I know that this is the religion that calls to me. It happened during middle school and to this day my mother does not accept it nor does anyone else in my family really.

Answer 9

Curiosity led me to Paganism, a religion I found a better fit for me than the one I was raised, Judaism. I just happened to come across a book on Wicca in a bookstore, picked it up and just kept on reading from there.

Answer 10

I have studied a little about other faiths, just so that I might understand people a little better. But I always come back to my original beliefs.