Why did you choose the religion you did? Or if you are an atheist or agnostic, why did you choose that? Just curious?

Just curious. I seem to be asking questions on topics that often should be avoided: religion and politics. How did you come about in choosing the religion you chose?

And if you consider yourself non-religious or don't follow any kind of creed or dogma, is there anything else you do follow and do you still attend church? I only know of one kind of church where no dogma or creed is really in it, and that's the Unitarian Universalist church. Asked by musicholickgp 7 months ago Similar questions: choose religion atheist agnostic curious Society > Religion & Spirituality.

Similar questions: choose religion atheist agnostic curious.

Nobody "chooses" atheism. They simply realize they *are* atheist. To say that someone "chooses" atheism implies that they had a debate in their head - "Should I deny God or worship ".

That doesn't happen. Atheists do not believe in God. Period.

They do not decide whether or not to worship a deity, because making that decision would mean they believe there is something there to worship.

This is not to be confused with "Eclecticism" which is a formalized philosophy from a previous century and an offshoot of "Humanism", I believe. Being eclectic, alows one to pick and choose the best nuggets from all the belief systems and to be tolerant toward the religions of all as well as atheism and agnosticism. I have had many realisations in my life and often find them echoed in the spiritual beliefs of others later on.

I do not adhere to one specific creed nor do I consider myself a Unitarian. I am simply a work in progress like everyone else on the planet.

P.s. I began a search for truth after I found Catholicism lacking in many answers. The search continues but I'm more at peace about it now after 40 years or so.

Yes I have heard of it, and I think the majority of us are still trying to find the truth. Musicholickgp 7 months ago .

Thanks for your response, and I like your way of thinking, and I'm glad to know that you're more at peace now. Musicholickgp 7 months ago .

I was born into it and, although I have arguments with the established church (Catholicism), I can't in all conscience embrace another denomination.

I didn't choose anything. I simply adhered, step by step, and still do, to studies, teachings, techniques and information that resonated, like a tuning fork with a very deep place within me in which exists an undeniable drive to understand the nature of 'self' and existence. Sometimes the path is just to sit and listen, to be, to do what you do next, chop wood and carry water, garden, paint, dance, do what needs to be done.

That too is a path that when approached with conscious awareness is communication with our source. Sometimes the path is to know you do not know. That leaves us most open to greater truths about ourselves.

What we don't know gives us much more promise than what we think we know. My path has blossomed from within me and magnetized to itself a most remarkable kaleidoscope of lenses that fit together in new expansive ways as I live my life. A lifetime of searching and study has led me to a precipice in which my limitation ends and truth begins....in the unknown.

I feel that to embrace conclusions, no matter how grand, is limiting and against the true nature of our spirits. Therefore I will not accept religious doctrine from centuries ago when the living essence itself is behind my every breath. I could not diminish my vision to adhere to centuries old tomes of woeful, dark passages containing punishments for sinners and mourning the lowliness of man.

I find that god unloving, judgmental, limited and too possessing of human weakness. If many find solace in that belief, so be it. I find it oppressive and terribly heartbreaking.

Divine consciousness is a living, breathing, dynamic force that has positioned itself in the heart of its every creation, whether an Aspen leaf or a planet. It is fresh and new, right now. One must only have the courage to deny limitation to begin to listen.

Every human has a unique journey. Mine has been predominantly centered around Eastern thought and so many other amazing paths leading to information and experiences that are transforming. We are all works in progress.

We all are privy to all that the human spectrum of emotion and thought entails. But we each have to find our unique song, the dance that moves our souls, the connection to life that is our own. That, to me is divine will and the truest way to celebrate the limitless potential of the creator.To find one's own song to me, is the truest way to honor and love our Cosmic source, right here, right now...a presence that isn't bound up in books written centuries ago, or, if you're 'good' enough, waits for you in some far off heaven.

So that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

I am agnostic for the following reasons: It seems to me that science is sufficient to the task of explaining the universe. The evidence indicates to me that religion is man made. Nevertheless, I acknowledge that there is no way of disproving the possibility of something beyond the universe.

I do not attend church, but I do like a lot of religious music. I follow the dictates of my conscience. I believe in the so called "golden rule".

I do not attribute its origin to divine revelation, but to natural selection. It is an expression of the evolutionary adaptation of an instinct for fairness and kindness. Natural selection favored this adaptation because it fostered cooperation and mutuality in early humans, becoming the foundation for all subsequent morality and civilization itself.

The last 2 points aren't reasons. They are responses to the other questions in the details. I should have triple spaced.

My fave author said, "It doesn't matter if you go to church or not, you take God with you anyhow. " That means God is within you because that is how you are made in I was born in R.C. faith but left it at 13 yrs as I didn't like this endless emphasis on sin, sin, sin, all the time. People make mistakes and are mostly ignorant of what they are doing so I wouldn't call that sin, just stupidity.My mid-teen years were spent exploring various groups, books, and ideas until I finally met my match in:1 Book, "An Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramahansa Yogananda2 Book, "Divine Healing of Mind and Body" (The Master Speaks Again), by Murdo MacDonald-Bayne.

This is based on a series of talks at which time the Master Jesus appeared before the people, a "transfiguration" verified by all those present at the time.3 Sri Aurobindo's book, "The Life Divine" and other of his writingsThese books set the groundwork for a lifetime of inner guidance. By my late 30's I began to publish more of the works of MacDonald-Bayne - my life's callling no doubt. http://macdonaldbayne.homestead.com/Oct77Visit.htmlhttp://macdonaldbayne.homestead.com/prices.html html.

Mother had been raised Polish Roman Catholic. Father was initially Irish Roman Catholic. He lost his faith at age ten when his fervent prayers failed to save his four-year-old sister who had caught the measles from him.

Her father, blamed him for her death. However, he kept his atheism from my sister and me. As a boy, I had a deep emotional need for a relationship with God.

Even after being receiving the sacrament of confirmation from the Roman Catholic Church, still felt that something was missing and began a search for the Christian Church that could satisfy this hunger. None that I attended did. A friend from high school invited me to go with a youth group to attend a Mormon Church service.

Afterwards we met with the Church Elders. To my surprise, the kids, whom I did not know, were asking challenging questions like those I had been asking. These were LRYers, Liberal Religious Youths from the Third Unitarian Church of Chicago.

For a time the intellectual and social pleasures the Unitarian Fellowship provided supplanted spiritual seeking, but when I went to college after completing my military obligation my search continued. No longer limited to Christian concepts, I expanded my spiritual understanding to include several Eastern and Middle Eastern views of deities. Of course, my quest to appease an emotional emptiness was unsuccessful.

A number of life's vagaries and tragedies goaded my spiritual meandering through theosophies, mysticisms and other esoteric entities, and finally to Liberal Catholicism. Looking back over this journey, I see that I needed each of these elements at the time they and the people who accompanied them entered my life. I also see that none of them were intended to be the final answer.

I am still seeking that illusive final answer. I realize that it is a process of eclectically synthesizing one, and is not likely to be fully completed to my satisfaction. I have come to believe that the physical universe is contained within a Spiritual Universe, and that while we may conceive of an entity out there that we can petition, it doesn't work that way.My religious beginnings taught that God was a Trinity, The Creator, and the Holy Ghost.

They are analogous to thought, action and emotion. They are still my guides: open heart, open mind and a will to act.

Church of Christ is very simple...no change Bible. I like mostly nondemoninational churches...all can take communion, all accepted.

He chose me. He chased me down for six years and when I finally turned around, He was waiting for me with kindness and love. Fact is, Sovereign of the universe, cannot be moved, will do what He wants, Judge of all the earth .. .

I really didn't want that. But I did want the truth (one thing my mom' psychoses gave me was a love for the truth). The Unitarians merged with the Universalists in 1961 (if I remember correctly) to avoid both becoming irrelevant and non-existent.

But you're right about the utter absence of dogma there. I see the matter as one of a relationship. The relationship I have is with a person, with a personality, and there are things He likes (good) and things He doesn't like (evil.

) We've gotten around to calling this "dogma" but it's actually how He feels about things."Can two walk together unless they be agreed? " (Amos 3:3) Doctrine is important in that one cannot walk with the Creator without agreeing with Now, that said, one certainly has the right to ignore m completely and not walk with m and believe and say and do what one wants. But then one is kicked back to that "Judge of all the earth" problem.

I was raised a catholic. I like to read and educate myself and so I did. I found no evidence in the bible where Christ himself says I am God to the contrary , he always reference one greater than he.

I realized Christ was not G-d. This fact alone did not make me a Jew although I did geneological research and it turns out my family on both sides are Jewish. I have no religion but I have a G-d which makes religion ( all of them) alittle silly.

I didn't choose, my parents did it for me. But as soon as I got old enough, I stopped going. My parents said there was nothing better than the catholic religion.

Going to catcheism I usually got in trouble for coughing or going to confession at the wrong time according to the nuns. Plus the nuns spoke very little english and most of the time I could not understand them. Which again got me into trouble.My brother stopped going to church also.

My parents stopped when told donate to the church or stop coming.

Note the bearing on the current threads re 'organized religion' as contrasted w/ spirituality. " "If you are an atheist or agnostic, what would it take for you to believe in God" "How many of you like Religion and why" (11 answers) "If you had to convert to a different religion, which would you choose?" "Do you, as a believer of what ever religion you choose, believe Atheists are immoral? " "religion" "If Richard Dawkins doesn't care for religion, does he consider himself an atheist?

" ""Religion is for people who are scared of hell, and spirituality is for people who have been through it." comments? " (10 answers) "Deist, Agnostic, or Atheist? Which one are you, and why?" "What is the point of religion?

What good is it? How does it help you? What do you want or need religion?

Note the bearing on the current threads re 'organized religion' as contrasted w/ spirituality.

If you are an atheist or agnostic, what would it take for you to believe in God.

How many of you like Religion and why" (11 answers).

Religion is for people who are scared of hell, and spirituality is for people who have been through it. " comments? " (10 answers).

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.