Just out of curiosity I was wondering what religions the members around here were raised in, and how, if at all, it has affected your world view? I personally was raised by parents that were somewhat less than dedicated church goers, my father has never expressed any more than a passing religious sentiment, my mother however was raised a Jehovah's Witness and has always remained somewhat interested in them. I can honestly say my grandfather has had the biggest impact on my religious views, teaching me to be skeptical towards any groups that claims they have a monopoly on god. As to how my parents religious views have affected me, the only thing I can say is that being raised around Jehovah's Witnesses has made me insanely skeptical of any doomsday prophecies and the hypocrisy I tend to see in churches in general has driven me away from organized religion. At this point in my life I am not really looking to find another religion as I have never felt particularly empty with out it, I am however reading the Dao De Jing and as far as philosophy goes I am really digging it.
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That said, feel free to go where you wanna go and do what you wanna do with whoever you wanna do it with. I've always been a realist but I'm not the edgy type that hates the religiously inclined.
..not any more than I hate everyone else, at least. :]
I was baptised in a Greek orthodox church, that particular schism had the Antioch as major piece of canon, we don't really stand out as ethnic though...so meh.
I'm Agnostic (on an atheist scale of 0 to 10 , i'm > 9) . I like Mormons and Confucians
how it has affected me? I wish my dad showed me how to have a spine.
Ditto. They're kinda christian, but never talk or mention it or go to church. They've only mentioned their believe in "God" two times that I can remember.
I'm interested in Wicca/Paganism, but don't particularly believe in anything other than science and that as long as I live in an honest, moral way and be kind to others/a good person that I'll go where I should go when I die.
I have a friend who was bought up on jehovah witness followings. He liked it and swore if he ever went back to a religion, it would be that. But meh! Pass on that shit, shit on it as well.
Each to their own....That's what I say.
ie.
Murder you go to hell.
today
Murder you get 25 to life.
There is alot more to my theory than that but i would rather not start a religion debate. I still believe religion has its place in modern society though.
I would add more but I should sleep now.
That said, I ended up not bothering to go, and soon learnt about science and reason. My mind wandered and I thought about why people believe in a faith so much and were sacrificing aspects of their life for a person in the sky or the spirits around them. Talking of which, my Uncle has links to Native American Indians.
Fast forward from the age of 8 to around 20, and I have a very powerful spiritual experience with psilocybin mushrooms. I now believe in a spirit of sorts, and that there is extra-terrestrial life. I spoke with a God, who was of no gender, of no Nationality and no judgement. To this day it still effects me and what made it more engrained in my mind was that a friend of mine - her Mother was in a coma.
When she got out of the coma she described how she met God.
Now when my friend (whom I eventually fell out with, links to my ex etc) told me about this I said "STOP" and asked her to write down what her Mum experienced on a piece of paper on the desk in her room. I wrote down what I saw on her bed (the other side of the room) -a blue sketchy outline of a human figure, flanked by 2 smaller humanoid shapes. A telepathic language whereby certain words were translated and the feeling of being in Space, looking down on the Earth with complete paralysis until this spirit was ready to let you go.
We opened the paper we wrote on.
They were exactly the same. Chills still go down my spine when I think about it.
My Parents are open minded but don't believe in say, Jesus or the stereotypical view of God. The only time my Mum prays is when I or an immediate Family member is close to deaths door. She confessed to me that she last prayed years ago, until March when I was receiving death threats and the Police were involved.