Why do you follow the faith that you follow?

Question

Not saying any religion is right or wrong...but I find it annoying that people only follow a religion because that is the household they were raised in..i decided for myself what I wanted to follow..

Christians...why do you follow Christ as your lord and savior? What makes you so sure about that?

Jews...why do you follow your faith as opposed to others?

Muslims why do you follow your faith as opposed to others?

Everyone else why do you follow what you follow?

I believe theres a reason you think one faith is correct..

I don't care if someone else asked this

Answer 1

I am an atheist because there is insufficient empirical evidence to support the hypothesis of a god or gods.

Answer 2

I was raised Catholic . At a young age I realized two things .
First that Catholics for the most part don't practice what they preach . Otherwise they would spend all their free time praying , going to Mass , and doing selfless deeds . ( I've seen Lesbian Nun Socials , Priests abusing children , Priests , Nuns ,and Catholic Lay people getting drunk while children starved ,etc.)
And the second thing I realized is that there were many , many religions and that each and everyone of them professed they were the one ,correct , true religion . ( Even if one of them WAS , only a small part of the world's population would be members of it . Seems that if that "God" were so great and "his" religion made sense , by now there would have been a majority of the world as members . And the majority of those people would have chosen this religion rather than being indoctrinated into by their parents or by force , and they would be extremly devoute .And the most intelligent, least superstious people would form the basis . Not poorly educated people from Africa and places like Pakistan .
I started reading the Bible and studying how it was formed . I read pre - Old Testament writings and the "lost writings" of the New Testament . I could find no evidence that Jesus is God . I could find no sense in the teachings of man having a "soul" and their being heaven & hell in the afterlife . I learned science contradicted much of the wiritings . I saw the Bible contradicted itself . I learned about the "Bad Popes" .I realized no good god would allow them to lead his church . I looked at nature and realized no good god would have designed the world so innocent babies , and animal go though intense sufferings . I looked at other religions such as Hinduism and found them to be myth ( poor science ) , and often politically based .
I decided to TRY to live a good a life as I can ( I try to make good decisions I can be proud of .I try to correct my mistakes . I try to follow the Golden Rule . I look to increase my Scientific Knowledge of the universe , especially including the psychology of man . In the unusual event there is any sort of "god" in the universe who cares how humans act , I am sure this will be satisfactory to him ( or her , it , or them .) .
Christian3412 , Why does "GOD" allow innocent people to experience horrible suffering such as being burned alive in an accidental fire or one such as the 9-11 attacks . Why does he allow cats to get hit by cars and suffer a long painful death ? Why did he design lions so they kill and eat baby Zebras in front of their mothers ?
And why did it take over 2000 tears for Cristianity to reach ( ALMOST) worldwide distribution ? What about the people since Adam and Eve ( LOL ) that never had the opportunity to even hear about Christianity . They are all burning in hell ? Right ? !

Answer 3

I admit I was raised a Christian.

I also currently proclaim that Jesus Christ is my Lord.

I also admit that my raising did influence when I came to Christ.

Yet, I readily have examined the beliefs I was raised with, I have dropped a lot of them, I have had serious doubts and questions about my faith. I am always open minded and listen to opponents of my faith. I think questioning my faith makes me grow as a human being.

I am also convinced that even if I was born in a different environment I still would be the person that I am. A person who searches for the truth. And I would have to make a response at some point in my life to, Who was Jesus of Nazareth? And I firmly believe that no matter what my raised environment was like I would objectively and rationally examine the different claims about the identity of Jesus.

And I believe that I would come to the overwhelming conclusion that the most logical and rational explanation concerning the identity of Jesus of Nazareth is that He is the Son of God.

I realize that if I was born in a different environment that this conclusion may have occurred at a later time in my life then when it originally did when I was younger.

Answer 4

As you'll hear the different reasons that people will provide you with for this question, I will try to summarize the main reasons into 1 comment to this question.

Reasons to follow a religion:
1. The speaker was very charismatic.
2. The people that follow it are very friendly.
3. Your parents believed it and drilled it into you as a child.
4. You were given enough evidence (or lies) to believe it, that you now blindly walk by that faith.
5. Free stuff.
6. You have nothing better to do.
7. They scared you into believing all other ways led to an unimaginably horrifying afterlife.
8. Just to get to know it better, or to know the people in it.
9. So you can sample them all.
10. You have reasoned it for yourself that this religion is true.

Of course there are countless other reasons, but in my experience, I have found these to be the most common. I, personally, went through 3, but ended in 10. I really have put the Bible through scrutiny, done my research, and I have been to every single passage that atheists, agnostics, and myself have pointed out that say the Bible is either lying or wrong, and I have found a suitable answer to each accusation. Therefore, I have found the Bible and Christianity to be truth.

Answer 5

As a Christians, I follow Jesus, and my faith is in Him-- nobody else. God has so many proofs shown in my life, therefore I believed. My religion has nothing to do with my faith, it is God Who gave me faith. My relationship to God is a faith that my religion is out of it. I don't follow the beliefs or my religion background but I believe the Word of God that is written in the Bible which simply I follow Christ not my religion.

Answer 6

I'm a Christian. I used to be a Witch. I became a Witch searching various faiths, I felt that Witchcraft and Wicca was the best "fit" for me. One day God touched me in such a way that let me know 100% for sure that He was the real God, and that I had been living in sin and living a lie.

I love God, and know that he's real and that his Holy Spirit lives inside of me. When I don't follow Him or do what I'm supposed to be doing, that something inside of me (Holy Spirit) makes me feel like I'm sinning..and I am. When you have God in your life, He lets you know what's what.

So my answer is..I follow Him because I can't NOT follow him. If I did, I would be blatantly rejecting the truth. How can I reject the God that created me? I don't know how everyone else does it, but I find it quite hard to ignore Him just by the very fact that I am here living and breathing!

Answer 7

I don't follow the religion I was raised in. I was raised Christian, and I'm not beginning to follow the Buddhist path. I am doing so because in my research, I have found that Buddhism feels very right and natural to me. In the readings I've done, I keep finding myself going "That's what I've always thought!" Doing zazen clears my mind. All in all, Buddhism makes me very happy.

Answer 8

Well I follow a bit of this faith and a bit of that faith. My own mix. I do it because it fits with my view of the world and my lifestyle.
I was brought up a catholic, but that has very little inflence on me now and my parents never pushed me to remain in that religion.

Answer 9

Asatru/Forn Sidr - I follow the faith of my ancestors as my grandfather did and those before him. They kept the faith alive in Norway even after the persecutions of King Olaf Trygvesson, who forced Christian conversions on the people.

Answer 10

I am a Christian, based on the fact that I am a Prodigal son. I was raised in the church, went on a decade of self exploration and chose to renew my relationship with Christ. In my decade of searching I discovered that living without Christ really is like living without lungs. It is true that Christ has and will be a part of peoples lives if you choose to accept him. I will say that I will not go back to the things I have done while living for myself and not living for Christ. I am willing to have people contact me if they seriously want to talk about the differences between living for ones self and living for Christ.

Answer 11

The only "faith" I follow is my faith in my ability to seek and find knowledge and truth.