Welcome to Gaia! ::

I'm suki, I'll be 18 soon and I'm not really sure what religion I am. :/ My family is methodist, but I have never stepped in a church in my life. Religion has never been a major part of my life so I'm left in the dark about it except what I've learned in class.
I believe in a presence, whether it be myself or a 'higher being' I am not sure.
If anything, I am extremely curious about religion and find it highly interesting! There are so many religions that are such a large part of many lives and plays such an immense role in history and today. I would love to learn more about them so I thought joining this guild might help (wee). ^^

I was born and raised catholic. Personally, I've never really thought of converting out of Christianity, but I haven't done enough research on the different branches to say I'm REALLY catholic. My parents would be okay with whatever, I think. My dad always says he's Catholic, but it seems like he just goes to church to get it over with. My mom wishes we could go to church more often. I wouldn't mind that. But I've always been "accepting" of other religions. I have some friends who are really narrow-minded and it bugs the heck out of me. Once, she convinced me to go to a bible study group, and they were all saying "get everybody to convert (but do it nicely)." I didn't like that. Anyways, I have friends from all religions. Anyways, I've always been curious about other religions. I have come to a conclusion that the Gods everyone believes in exist, but certain Gods answer different people's prayers.

hello! ^.^
My name is Jamie, my parents are christian, though they realy havent put to much an influence of that in my life, I know they are not tolerant of many other religions. My brother, has recently become mormon, I've learned alot from him. though I do not want to be mormon, it is still a very good religion. I believe in tolerance for almost anything ( I have little for picking on people or any form of true cruelty) My father is very narrow minded and rather mean so I try to stay away from him.(we fight to much when we are togther.) My mother, though nice is also very narrow minded and it drives me crazy that if you think of many gods or spirits your evil >.<. I have tried studieing many religions but have basicly failled at it, *is a slow reader with low comprehension skills >.<*
though I'm hoping that being able to have conversations about things could help me learn more and also help me decide what I would like to be. I've kept most of my beliefs to a Shinto thought because mostly it makes me fear the world the least *nods* ^.^

[Edit: I'm also 16!!! >.<]

Heey.
It's true, I think, that people are a composite of the other people that they've met, and the experiences they've had, in their lifetime.

My mother was raised in a Christian family, but in the time that I knew her, she wasn't religious. I don't think that my father was ever religious. He was an engineer for the good part of his career, and living in a modern age, I became very interested in science, as this was supported.

My eldest sister always seemed much wiser than me. She would try and rationalize people who quarreled, and such. Over the past few years, since she's moved out, I've found her music and books, which is good, but probably not relevent.
I probably haven't taken up as much inspiration from my other sister.

I've never been very good friends with a religious person, but not on purpose. In fact, I know of only two or three Christians, and noone of any other religion. One day, I read a book about Buddhism in my school, and I thought, well, that desire does indeed cause a lot of suffering, and that the eightfold path is probably a good guide, in general.

The other things that have probably shaped my life are:
I went to an international school in Indonesia for three years, and now I live in Australia, though I still can't get rid of my American accent.
My parents are divorced, my mom lives in America, and I live with my dad and stepmom.
My older (not eldest) sister's boyfriend had introduced me to Ultima Online and Baldur's Gate a few years ago, and ever since, I've enjoyed playing 'roleplaying' games, sometimes because of the lifelike ideals of some characters.

Anyway, I'm 15, and agnostic. I've learnt a lot about logic and debating over the past year, and I look forward to talking to all of you.

Hi, the name here I have will be fine. I'm a Canadian living in Japan. I was raised in a Seventh Day Adventist home. At the time, I never really enjoyed church, nor held strongly any of it's beliefs. About a year ago, I discovered forums, and with that all the religious bashings that took place on them. I wasn't particularly religious at the time, but I saw no reason for people to bash the religious, so I ended up defending not only Christianity, but the other major religions of the world as well.

This got me to actually studying the Bible once again, to find the answers to the questions or accusations of many other forum goers, and later I read Emotional Intelligence, and the later books by the same author, Destructive Emotions and Healing Emotions. Both were the chronicles of meetings between scientists, philosphers, psychiatrists, the Dalai Lama, and other Buddhists. The early results on meditation have been nothing short of very promising. So I could say I believe in secular Buddhism, as in a tool for helping me follow the commands of Christianity, which I became convinced in my research as both true and a message of love. Also secular Buddhism actually has a tried and true method of actually practicing and strengthening the beneficial emotions, while Christianity for the most part says the same, but doesn't go into any detail about how one can gain control over the emotions.

I am not a literelist Christian, and don't care to defend young earth creationism, the flood, or any other discrepencies between science and the Bible. Science is a useful tool, but one that is subject to the human will, so more important than science, is human compassion, or the spirits that people take on.

If people still believed the world was flat, and the center of the universe, but practiced compassion, tolerance, gratitude, humility, and confidence, then the world would be in much better condition then it is now. That is why I place the human spirit above science.

I'm interested in getting to know other religions as well, and seeing what they are all about. I do remember some of the ideas about Buddhism in my church were very wrong, and am willing to admit I don't know much about the other religions of the world. Cheers.

Hi! My name's Gabriela, but u can call me Gaby...
I was born and raised Catholic, but we were never THAT close to the religion.
I never thought of religion as an important part of my life, then when I started having religion classes (for the communion) I noticed some facts in the Catholicism that didn't fit in...(with me). I got my doubts and eventhought I tried to clear them, no one gave me an answer for my questions. Eventhought, I did the communion.
Later, when my grandma died, I finally realized that Catholicism wasn't meant for me, at all! I knew then, that I did't believe in a God. I have considered myself Atheist for almost 5 years.
After that, as I've always believed in the energy, the ki... I finally conclude that for me, that was the basic substance for creation: A vital
powerful energy which is far from anyone's knowledge or understanding. I think that this energy is all the same, for ones is called God, for other Alah...depending on the personification according to the religion, but as we are all made of the same will and force, we should all be one.
So, I've no religion, but I'm happy with myself.

Fortunately, my family and friends completely accepted this, we respect each others.

I really wanna thank this Guild for giving me and all of us the chance to express our ideas in an environment that we know won't jugde us! Tolerance is the clue of development in any subject!
And as I like to talk about this topic and listening to others' opinion (I might learn a lot from others!), feel free to PM me if you wanna talk, cuz I definitively want to talk, not to argue wink

Hello, my name is SyphaBelnades, or Paul (I'm a guy). My dad was raised Catholic and my mom was raised Methodist. Neither are particularly religious, so I didn't go to church for a long time. Eventually, my mom started taking me to the Unitarian Universalist church. So, I'm Unitarian.

Hi, my name is Josh. I was raised in a Christian home and school until about 3 years ago. I'm not sure what my religion is I'm currently studing Wicca, the history of Christianity and the history of Cathlicism. I do know there is a divine.