Beliefs?

Welp, since this thread was created while I was away at training hopefully you guys don't mind a gravedig.


I went to a Lutheran preschool and elementary school. I remember nothing but having a great experience there. The pastor was great, and all the teachers were as well. The church had the most beautiful stained glass windows. I still remember how they looked when the sunlight shined through them. Then the school's population dwindled and so it was time to find a new school. After all, all my friends were leaving too so I didn't want to be left alone.

Then I went to a "Christian" middle school. I put Christian in quotes because some of the attitudes there and beliefs were very bigoted and corrupt. I didn't like how they viewed homosexuals or people of other religions. They always made them seem like they lesser than we were, which is incredibly fucked up for a Christian school to say. It was also filled with pretentious snobby white kids who's silicone sally mom's would drop them off in their Cadillac Escalade or their dad's Porsche.

During this time I really started to doubt the existence of God. Whenever we had Bible class the whole time I would think "Ehh, I don't know about that." This went on for a couple years, just being on and off with my beliefs.

Then I finally went to a public high school. I was happier than ever being there. The school had a large population and I was finally able to hangout with people I liked. Being surrounded by people who believed in different things made me so much more open minded. It was also during this time that I had started to truly believe in God again. I started to believe more and more so as the years went by. I'm not afraid to admit that this one night in particular during basic that I was praying so hard to God to get me through it I started to cry. But hey, that's just what I belive in.

tl;dr I'm a Christian

 

So I'm a athiest.I was raised Christian go to church every Sunday goes to youth group on Wednesday. So I'm atheist but no one knows it because my parents and siblings are really religious. I still go to church every Sunday because I'm not ready to tell my parents and siblings.

 

I believe in the force.

 

Idk about religion really, but I follow a moral and political system that's pretty unorthodox. I'm an Anarcho-Capitalist. I don't really believe government serves any purpose but to control. I think private companies can do what the government does at a 100% better efficiency rate. I believe in personal responsibility and individualism, and believe charity and voluntary actions are what society should run on, not taxes threatened with violence. Voluntaryism, the belief that society should run completely in voluntary exchanges and choices.

 

Very rarely do I talk about anything so personal as this in a public setting, but there's a first for everything eh?

I grew up in a very religious family, we went to church every Wednesday for prayer, Friday for evening service and Sunday for morning service. It was a large church with an internet broadcast and there was a lot of people to meet, but for a long time we had to make a 4 hour drive to go to church as we lived in a different state. It was a weird situation, I hated riding in the car for that long, but I enjoyed the change of scenery it brought. After about 2 years, we moved to where the church was after my parents were both offered jobs in the area. It was a bit weird at first, I left the friends I had known for years to go live somewhere that the only people I knew were religious. At this point in my life I was about 11, had spent most of my time outside with friends, practicing Karate or playing video games. I wasn't exactly a bad kid, but at the same time I had already grown accustom to cussing when my parents weren't around because of a combination of the internet and my friends older siblings. I did thing's that are considered sins and although I wasn't proud of what I did I wasn't repentant either.

After we moved I found out there wasn't any good Karate dojos and since we would be moving into an apartment there wouldn't be a whole lot of places to play outside. Suddenly the majority of what I did became video gaming. I had already started going outside less and playing on the computer more, as there were times we would spend the weekend to go to church before we moved, but now it was pretty much all I had available to keep me entertained. The people I played with put ideas into my head about how I shouldn't have to go to church if I didn't want to and this that and the other so I listened. At that point I did anything and everything I could to not go. My parents finally let up and I went two years without going to church except for the odd holiday or to see a friend.

Eventually I decided to start going back to church when I was 15, mainly to see the friends I had made as I was also homeschooled. I never enjoyed church, I found that my view on things greatly differed from most Christians, I sought the logic and science in things and although I had seen things that couldn't be explained by science and were too perfect to be coincidences I was still very much a skeptic. I had seen things I labeled as miracles, I had even experienced a few, but nonetheless there was too many holes for me to believe fully.

That brings us to today, and what I believe currently. I believe there is a God, tho I find some of the things he does and does not do to be explainable. The Bible claims he loves us, all of humanity equally. Yet he lets the just suffer and the wicked roll in their heaping piles of money while maniacally laughing. hue hue hue. It claims he is a just and loving God, which is why I have so many issues with it. Every generation of Christianity seems to have a different definition of whats wrong and whats right, some say things like alcohol, substance abuse, masturbation etc. are sins, while others claim that they are all fine. I've come to the conclusion that the only way to justify that would be that every single human being has a different list of what is wrong and what is right. This seems absurd, however it wouldn't be the craziest thing the Bible shows us. I believe that evolution is real, however to believe we evolved from nothing is harder to believe than us being created by a God. In reality, there are a lot of scientific explanations in the Bible if you look hard enough, it doesn't say it out right but the facts add up, I know I've looked myself. But those are just words on a page, which require faith to believe which I find the hardest part of all. I wouldn't claim myself to be Agnostic, but faith is an ungraspable concept to me.

TL;DR I think there is a God, but I have difficulties believing everything there is to believe along with being a Christian.

Well, I guess I basically just wrote a mini my-life-story. I'd also like to add that I don't have any opinions on other peoples religions, you believe what you believe so long as it doesn't harm anyone else.

EDIT: Also apologies, I realize I jumped around a lot, I got lost in a train of thought near the end.

 

I was born a Catholic. Praying every morning, every night before bed, before meals, church, all of that. It's the way my mother was raised, except I took the religion way farther than she had, because as I child it was a way for me to cope with so many deaths of family and friends at the time.
My beliefs were forever put into question when I made a friend in middle school who was extremely abused and flat out lectured me on why it is impossible for God to exist.
Since then, I don't know what to believe. I identify as Agnostic and plan on raising my children as Catholic and seeing where they end up.
Anything is possible, I'm not going to say what does and doesn't exist. I truly don't know, and I'm not going to claim that I do

 

Welp, I was initially raised in the church as a non-denominational Christian, and after a little while became completely withdrawn from the church for a few years, though I kept my faith in Yeshua (Jesus) and G-d throughout that time. About 2 or 3 years ago, I started to feel a pull towards Judaism in my heart, and started to slowly learn a few things about it here and there, and 6 months ago, my mother found a Messianic Synagogue in a town that I happen to be somewhat nearby. It'd been a few months since we'd seen each other last, so we figured we'd make a day out of going to their Shabbat service to see what we thought about it. After my first visit, I absolutely fell in love with it. Three weeks in, I bought my first kippah, about 6 weeks in I bought my own tallit (Jewish prayer shawl), and about 3 months in, my mother found out that we are actually Jewish by birth, because my great grandmother was actually an Ashkenazi Jew from Germany. I've been observant for 6 months now, and have never felt more in touch with G-d. Celebrating Rosh Hashanah, fasting for Yom Kippur, putting up the sukkah for Sukkot, lighting the menorah for Chanukah; it's all been amazing, and really makes me feel more complete inside. And that's just the holidays; my rabbi's daughter has been dancing for 9 years, and has dance classes for Messianic and Israeli dance, which is extremely fun and a fantastic way to worship the L-rd. I also have recently been put into an administrative leadership position in my synagogue as the head of audio and video in the sound booth, and at the South East Regional conference, got the chance to do Havdalah in front of about 1'200 people.

Spoiler: Havdalah service

Overall, G-d has moved mountains for me and given me tons of fantastic opportunities to learn and grow.

TL;DR: I'm a Messianic Jew, by birth, and have been observant for 6 months.