Why?

[Apacelull]

Why are you religious and why your specific religion? When did you become dead set on your religion? If you're not religious then why and when?


I'd like to make this a list rather than a discussion.  

[Semiremis]

Apacelull

Why are you religious and why your specific religion? When did you become dead set on your religion? If you're not religious then why and when?


I'd like to make this a list rather than a discussion.

Because I am.

After a long period of looking around I found that Roman Catholicism made the most sense to me.

I wouldn't call myself dead set on my religion.  

[Act of Random Kindness]

Born and raised Christian.

I gradually began to question life and Christianity still seemed to best answer the questions to me. I do concede thought that my upbringing made my decision biased quite a bit.  

[Voldemort point two]

Because I've had enough proof for me to believe that it's definitely true. I was raised Christian, and that might have had something to do with it, but it wasn't my parents that converted me for me; it was me.  

[Nattfodd]

Apacelull

Why are you religious and why your specific religion? When did you become dead set on your religion? If you're not religious then why and when?


I'd like to make this a list rather than a discussion.

I am religious because the religious philosophy I stumbled upon completely agreed with my previous notions, and emulsified them. I felt previously that I would not meet a religion that completely satisfied my mindset going in, and would not completely enrich my life throughout. When I came upon Thelema, I knew it was for me.

I became dead set on my religion about two years ago, and began collecting all important texts. I still am nowhere near collecting all of the important texts, different publishings for cross-examination, et cetera. I attended my first OTO open house + Gnostic mass less than a year ago.  

[kainhighwind2]

I was agnostic most of my life, but when I did some casual research on religion ( I've been turned off Christianity form all the elitist nutjobs out there) I came across Buddhism and fell in love with it. I was reading and thought to myself " Man, one of the only religions in the world to have NEVER had any kind of a holy war... They gotta be doing SOMETHIN right!" I was also highly intrigued, as it's the only religion I've found where you DON'T want to goto Heaven ( besides Satanism lol) So that idea just brought me in further  

[Shiori Miko]

When I was born it was my parent's decision to get me baptized Catholic along with my sisters. As I got older I questioned it more and more. About four years ago I admitted to my family I didn't believe and I was Atheist....they thought it was a "phase." Recently I've been researching Buddhism, mainly because I like how they conduct their religion. I wouldn't consider myself a Buddhist but I do follow the Five Precepts. I don't know enough about the religion to fully become a Buddhist yet.  

[TikiRocket]

I stopped claiming to be of any particular religion because I don't believe a religion itself is the right answer. Religion is a tool to guide and develop spirituality, but too often it becomes a crutch for people who feel they need their actions to be justified by a holy writ or commandment. Some people can successfully use the tool of religion to enhance their lives, but more often than not they use it to box themselves into their own prejudices and hatred, and I can't stand that.

I've done a lot of reading about different beliefs. What I am now isn't really a religion but a spiritual path defined by the things I have read and decided I could apply to my own life. Shamanism and "witchy stuff" hold a special place in my heart. I think Jesus and Buddha had some really excellent ideas. Taoism intrigues me.

I sometimes miss the framework of organized religion -- there is something immensely comforting in knowing where to look when facing a specific problem -- but the self-reliance I have learned as a result of what I do now, the ability to recognize I need to step away from people and go somewhere very quiet with a cup of tea to look for answers in myself, is something I wouldn't give up for anything.  

[Apacelull]

I guess I never said my "story."

My parents were never religious and I would never get into religious talks with them. When I was in middle school I started to wonder what my religion was because kids started to talk about it. So my grandpa died and he had a Shinto-buddhist funeral so I decided I was Shinto-buddhist. It seemed to be logical because everyone else's religion matched their parent's religion.

Since Shinto-buddhism doesn't really touch on creation too much, I decided to investigate on my own and so it wasn't hard for me to get away from my religion. I used to believe in an afterlife but after some biology classes I got steered away from that too. I still like buddhist ideals and such but spending your whole entire life to find enlightenment seemed like a bad idea.

So then in the begininng of high school (I think, or was it the end of middle school??) my other grandpa died, but he had an atheist funeral. It wasn't a funeral at all but a farewell party. It was awesome and I admired this grandpa much more than my other and that got me dead set on atheism. I call myself atheist but I am strictly agonistic. For practical purposes I call myself an atheist because agnosticism seems to give a better chance for the existence of a god.  

[quietstorm 2]

Raised a christian, experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit, Spoke in other tonges. had dreams and visions. Nothing man made about it I'm sold out/convinced that GOD exisit and my denominatin is less important then my relationship.

I'm of Pentscostal religion.  

[EmeraldWings]

Raised Catholic, but i only seriously got into it when i was a teenager, ever since people started challenging me on it, that's when i really started learning my faith, and the more i got into it, the more i loved it,
i also had the best instructors, and more then a library's worth of Catholic books.

i'm dead set on my faith for sure, i can't go back, i've seen and learned to much, it's hard for me to sum up my feelings and point of view all on one little post...i know the secret to peace, happiness, love...i know how to gain everything God wants of me, i know how to be good and holy...the only hard part is actually doing what i need to do to obtain those things...i'm getting there, slowly...but i wouldn't ever pick any other way,
the reason i can't change is because i know there is a God, i love Him, i don't deserve anything, and yet He gives to me so freely and lovingly, Jesus said He would one day return to His church, and so here i will wait, through thick and through thin, just like a marriage, i am in union with Jesus and His bride the Holy Mother Church, sure there can be error among it's people, but is that any reason to leave? i don't believe in excuses, so i never let anything shake my faith that way,
all God expects of me is that i keep on trying and that i follow His commandments, not just the ten commandments, but whatever i know He wants from us...it's not hard when you are driven by love, that is why our first lesson in life should always be love, if we can truly learn to love others, and to love God, then nothing seems impossible...

well, i guess i can sum it all up into one reason. the main reason i am dead set on my faith, and why i will never leave it, is because i can never abandon God. He is lonely for each and every one of us...and i won't be the one who makes Him feel that way...i owe Him everything, and He owes me nothing, and yet He gives me a millions times more then i give Him...He loves me and He died for me, even though i do not deserve it one bit, how can i reject that?

well..i can really go on and on...i enjoy talking about these things, but i know no one wants to read all that...so that all  

[Gornwen]

I would right now put a great emphasis on the difference between religion and faith, which for me are at least slightly different.

As Apacelull has touched upon, family has a lot to do with it. It's the ceremonies attached to the religion that count for much.

I was raised Roman Catholic. I'm culturally Catholic. I consider it an important part of my Polish/Czech heritage. It connects me with my family, gives me the holidays that mark the passing of the year. It constructs on I practice my faith. It gives me ways to mark rites of passage: birth, coming of age, marriage, death.

Faith... faith is a more tricky thing. I've flirted with several, from Neo-Pagan, to Conservative Christian, to Islam (Sunni and Sufi), in addition to my family's liberal/traditional Catholicism. The idea of a Walk of Faith has stuck with me from Conservative Christian, and I think that is the best way to describe my faith. It's a contest movement, self examination and search. Never fully settling, always seeking.  

[October Gray]

Because it is one of few that actually make sense to me.

I'm an irreligious or philosophical Toaist.

I'm not dead set on this religion.  

[Vasilius Konstantinos]

Born a Holy-Roller. Raised a Holy Roller. Rebelled. Went Jewish(Sephardi). Practiced for years. Went to Orthodox Christianity.

I am dead set on my faith as the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Faith.  

[comfylove]

I was raised Roman Catholic. Seldom do I still feel connected with the Catholic Church, but every now and then, it happens.

Then I turned Agnostic. I just stopped going to church because I was young, my mom was a new single mother, and I had no one to take me to church. When I stopped going, I fell out of faith and stopped believing. That lasted a very long time, until I was sixteen and my grandmother passed away from cancer. I decided if God existed, then he was a jerk, and I blamed him on all of the bad things that happened in my life. Then, I more or less became an Atheist andddd that lasted 4 years.

June 14th of this year, I was saved and am now a non-denominational Christian. Denomination isn't important to me -- Jesus is. Why am I a Christian? Hell, I don't know. I just love and believe in Jesus. Becoming a Christian was nothing that I did, but everything that God did in me. He called me to be his, and eventually I stopped ignoring him and started to love him.

ιη cнгιაт ąℓσηε ι ρℓącε мy тгuაт
ąη∂ ƒιη∂ мy ɠℓσгy ιη тнε ρσωεг σƒ тнε cгσაა
ιη εѵεгy ѵιcтσгy ℓεт ιт вε აąι∂ σƒ мε
мy აσuгcε σƒ აтгεηɠтн мy აσuгcε σƒ нσρε
ιა ιη cнгιაт ąℓσηε.