NationStates Jolt Archive

I was just wondering, what religion people were born into, and what religion they are now. I was born Christian, and now I consider myself spiritual but not religious, though my beliefs are neo-pagan leaning.

I made this transition easily because of the pressure to be Christian in Alabama society. All my life I've had to put up with people going "Ooh... a Christmas baby. You were born on a very special day, you know." I actually "accepted Jesus into my heart" for popularity points in 3rd grade. Somewhere around that time I started questioning authority, and the religion I had been born into. I realized that if God existed, as he is portrayed in the Bible, he is cruel, heartless, and egotistical, and I refused to worship him anymore. Still, I refuse to believe there is/are no higher power(s), and that none of us have a purpose. That's kind of where I am today.

(Poll soon to be added.)

I wasn't born into any religion, and I don't have any religion.

Was a Catholic

hahah i know i know, stupidest one of all trust me.

Then god made me a diabetic, and i found a much kinder philosophy in mr karl marx, and i was a die hard communist for a few years.

Slowly bit by bit, reading geogre orwell, i found that communism due to its highly centralised goverment,
Is not so good....

Now im somewhere inbetween a Socialist and 18th centuray liberialist (not the way you americans think of liberal!!!)

Lutheran, born and suprized that I still am.

I was born Catholic. Now I am lacking in a religion and rely more on a moral system.

Lutheran, born and suprized that I still am.
Thats a form of protestantism, right?

I was born Christian, and still am. Looked and looked and found that all the evidence and arguments I heard weren't enough to convince me that God did not exist. More specifically, I am a non-denominational Protestant, though I lean towards the Baptists.

I was born into a strict Polish Catholic family, I stopped attending Catholic school at 7.

My family is now a mix of Agnostic/Catholic/Christian...with me being the "agnostic".

I did however dabble in Hinduism for a few years while I was dating my ex-fiance whose mother was Indian. I fell in love with Hinduism, and wanted to keep practicing, but failed to actually keep it up.

Roman Catholic at birth, now and forever!

Neither of my parents are religious, and neither me nor my brother are, so I guess my atheist status hasn't changed.

i was born into a family where we didn't really have a religion, but more like what the ancient north americans believed, and now i try to follow a form of thervada buddhism, but i'm really bad at it. i get angry too easy.

No religion now, never had one.

If by "born into" you mean the religion of my immediate family.. some flavour of Christianity for the most part, although really not all that dogmatic about it. There were attempts made to get me to buy into the whole God concept, never even came close to convincing.

No religion now, never had one.

If by "born into" you mean the religion of my immediate family.. some flavour of Christianity for the most part, although really not all that dogmatic about it. There were attempts made to get me to buy into the whole God concept, never even came close to convincing.

I mean, whatever religion you were forced to participate in, if any. For instance, at family reunions, I always had to participate in the blessing, and I was required to go to church on a regular basis, and I was baptized in a Christian church, you know, stuff like that, meaning I was definitly born into the Christian religion. (Though due to a divorce situation, I was torn between two different kinds of Christian religions.)

was supposed to be always catholic, ive never caught on to the faith itself, never cared for the crap it seems to produce, and that if there is a god, he aint a particualarly good one. i cant say i beilve there is a higher force, however belive our purpose, is whatever we make it to be, and that no force has power over our own free choice.

Do you believe you will have the power to choose where you go in the Afterlife?

(assuming there is one..)

Do you believe you will have the power to choose where you go in the Afterlife?

(assuming there is one..)
If there is an afterlife, I believe my actions now will affect where I go after death. If I live morally and make a positive difference in the world, I will be granted access to whatever afterlife or rebirth is the most deserved reward. If I am a scummy person, I'll go to whatever afterlife or rebirth is the most deserved punishment. Notice how I didn't state rather I believe in an afterlife or not. Which, by the way, I do, but I am unsure of what kind of afterlife it will be.

If where we go is based on how we act (ie, good deeds vs. evil lechery), as opposed to how we act and what we believe, then cool.

If where we go is based on how we act (ie, good deeds vs. evil lechery), as opposed to how we act and what we believe, then cool.
Exactly. Basically, I think the Christians would be onto something if so much of their religion wasn't based on the concept of, "If you don't believe what I do, you're going to hell."

Like all infants, I was born amoral and without religion. Nobody is born into a religion. They learn as they grow.

Like all infants, I was born amoral and without religion. Nobody is born into a religion. They learn as they grow.
Well, that's not my opinion, but okay then. :rolleyes:

wheres the option for not being born into a religion, but having one now?

i am catholic, born catholiic

Born Roman Catholic, still Roman Catholic, although far less devout than I had to be as a child.

Well, that's not my opinion, but okay then. :rolleyes:

Babies aren't born any particular religion. There is no genetic for "Christian". No infant comes out of the womb screaming "PRAISE JESUS!" or "ALLAH AKHBAR!" They come out screaming "FEED ME! IT'S FUCKING COLD!"

Or did you want to offer some proof that infants are born with religion?

Babies aren't born any particular religion. There is no genetic for "Christian". No infant comes out of the womb screaming "PRAISE JESUS!" or "ALLAH AKHBAR!" They come out screaming "FEED ME! IT'S FUCKING COLD!"

Or did you want to offer some proof that infants are born with religion?
By "born into" religion, as I said before, I mean a religion that is forced on one since birth. This DOES happen, and I must say, one would be extremely ignorant to believe otherwise.

I was born into a mostly non-practicing Protestant family. my mom is a christian, but is also a kitchen witch, and we have a few catholics here and there. I guess I was expected to believe in Jesus, at the least.

gradually I strayed and tried different things and now I sit at agnosticism. since that is more of a suspension of religious/spiritual belief rather than a religion itself, I put "other."

By "born into" religion, as I said before, I mean a religion that is forced on one since birth. This DOES happen, and I must say, one would be extremely ignorant to believe otherwise.
I think it would be more accurate to ask 'What religion are you now, and what religion were you raised under?'.

Well I was raised a Muslim and still am. If I were born to a family of a different faith, I have no idea how different my life would be.

By "born into" religion, as I said before, I mean a religion that is forced on one since birth. This DOES happen, and I must say, one would be extremely ignorant to believe otherwise.

That's not "born into", though. That's taught and usually doesn't stick until 3rd or 4th grade. I mean, my kids are being raised in the Jewish tradition with Islamic beliefs, but my 2 year old son has no clue what that means.

By "born into" religion, as I said before, I mean a religion that is forced on one since birth. This DOES happen, and I must say, one would be extremely ignorant to believe otherwise.

I'd say this happens to almost everyone. Note, I said ALMOST! Anyways, I was born Protestant but I am no longer. I am leaning towards Buddhism or Neo-paganism....STOP THE ISM'S PLEASE!!!! :headbang:

That's not "born into", though. That's taught and usually doesn't stick until 3rd or 4th grade. I mean, my kids are being raised in the Jewish tradition with Islamic beliefs, but my 2 year old son has no clue what that means.

You all know what the person meant. Why pick their grammer to shreds. She simply meant what religion is your family and what are you!!

I was just wondering, what religion people were born into, and what religion they are now. I was born Christian, and now I consider myself spiritual but not religious, though my beliefs are neo-pagan leaning.
I was born Southern Baptist and tried for many years to hang on to what I saw as worthwhile from tranditional Christianity. Finally, the cognitive dissonance got to me and I rethought everything, and developed my own set of beliefs ( which I call, for want of a better term, "science-based universalism." ).

Wasn't born into a religion, but I have always had morals, up until about 2 years ago they were left-wing/central morals, but recently I've seen myself more right-wing and i've noticed i'm a lot less compasionate and kind toward people nowadays, but now i have more money than I could have dreamed of two years ago. :)

I now call my morals Conservative-Republicanism. Its probably because I support the conservatives where i am now, in britain, but if i was american i would support the republicans

OK. Four grandparents. One Ukranian Orthodox, one Scottish Presbyterian, one Anglican, One Jewish. I am now atheist with agnostic tendencies.

My wife was born into a Roman Catholic family but is also agnostic. My son is being brought up with no direct religious teaching, but in a roman catholic society due to where we live.

Slowly bit by bit, reading geogre orwell, i found that communism due to its highly centralised goverment,
Is not so good....

Now im somewhere inbetween a Socialist and 18th centuray liberialist (not the way you americans think of liberal!!!)

Don't change your views based on one paranoid author.

Born into a Methodist family... Now Presbyterian

i was born into baptist but i am far from that now...now im a cross between wiccan and a religion i created

I am a Deist, in the classic, Enlightenment sense - meaning that any Religion "transmitted" (revealed) to/through humans is destined to get screwed up by humans.

However, if you need a good way to get rid of that pesky extra cash, then join a Religion.

Basically, "My God it too big need cash or be contained by the constraints of your religion."

I wasn't really raised into any religion, and was pretty much agnostic. Since then, I have slowly built up my own belief, basically made from a combination of spiritual belief from different sources, and adapted to fit in and integrate with my belief as a whole nicely, as well as the result of many hours of logical thinking from more points of view than I can count, and taking into account every single belief-related idea that have popped up into my head lately.

Sometime during the last winter, I began to think more independently than ever before. I basically built up a second world view, apart from my ever-changing spiritual belief-related world view. The second world view and it's belief was made using as much logic as possible, with merely an extremely cut down and "agnostified" version of my spiritual belief as foundation.

At first, the logical conclusions made a lot of sense, but were quite a bit depressing and basically crushed most of my will to live. Then, I thought a few layers deeper, and now I have ended up with something that both makes perfect sense as well as strengthens my will to live.

Since then, I have been slowly merging the two world-views and their beliefs, replacing piece after piece of more or less "unjustified" belief with the conclusions from all the logical thinking. Now I have a very dynamic belief, where nothing is concidered ultimate thruth, and no possibilities are completely overlooked. Everything except a thin, basic layer of "unjustified" belief (which is no longer concidered ultimate thruth) has been mostly replaced by logic.

I'm nearly done merging my two different world-views, and soon the next version of my belief, fREaKy Belief v0.3.0, will be ready. (too bad I can't distribute it for people to install on their brains. It would be fun to see the results. :D I guess open source belief won't be possible for quite a while...)

Born into christianity, now an atheist

"Dedicated" in a Unitarian-Universalist fellowship, spent a large part of my childhood attending a fairly liberal Presbitarian church, now Buddhist.

Born into an atheist family, but now am 'christianish'.

Other.
Was born into the Methodist church. I've no belief in the supernatural at this time. No religion.

I am a Catholic although ive only been Baptised so that makes me barely better than a Calvinist or Lutherian! :p j/k
I only go to Church once a year Christmas Eve and havent Prayed since i was 11 and that was for Gods help in finding my shoes(which were in my room somewhere)-Thats what i call devine intervention :p !

I was born Catholic.

Do you believe you will have the power to choose where you go in the Afterlife?

(assuming there is one..)

I used to be vehemently against the idea of reincarnation. Now I'm not so sure.
I don't believe in heaven or hell. Which really sucks because there are a lot of people who belong in the latter sphere.

I was born into a nice Protestant family and was happy... then when I was married, my husband abused me and the passage "The man is the head of the house as Christ is the head of the Church" gained a way different meaning for me. Got divorced and discovered Paganism. Coming out of the closet made me see Christianity in a whole new light.

Christian I was... Wiccan I am... May the God and Goddess bless you all

I was born to a Baptist father and a Catholic mother, and they decided to let the kids resolve the matter for themselves. My mom even encouraged me to seek out other denominations to see which one fit me. She now has cause to regret this, as any comparative study of Christianity leads inevitably to atheism.

I now call my morals Conservative-Republicanism

Oxymoron. Conservative Republicans have no morals.