How would you describe your religious or spiritual beliefs?   What is the path that lead you there?

I really enjoy reading other people's "journeys" along the path of life and their ideas about the nature of existence and the nature of reality.   I was raised to choose my own religion and spent a long time questioning and testing different belief systems.  I was an atheist for a really long time.  I was a scientist  professionally for 15 years, and in my quest for answers have become a theist-leaning agnostic.  I joined the Unitarian-Universalist church in 1986, as it really felt like "home" to me.  I would decribe my religious beliefs as a mix of a number of belief systems, primarily Eastern in thought, however.

What about you? :)

I was raised nominally Catholic, but that didn't "stick".  In my teens I started exploring other paths, was neo-pagan for many years and then Asatruar for several years.  That was ultimately unsatisfying and I re-explored Buddhism.  I couldn't absorb or relate to a lot of it before, but I was a different person then.  Now it makes a great deal of sense to me.  I've just begun the path again, so still feeling very new to it.

I'm am agnostic who probably really is an atheist.  I was raised in the Southern Baptist church and if the church doors were open then my mother made sure that my butt was on a seat.  My dad was a Quaker and my mom a Southern Baptist and unfortunately, she took me to church with her.  As soon as I was grown and out of the house I never darkened the door of a church again, except for weddings and funerals.  I do make exceptions for European cathedrals because of their history and beauty.  In fact, Notre Dame de Paris is my favorite place in the world, followed by Winchester Cathedral. 

 Edited to say that if I did decide to follow a religion, I would probably choose Buddhism.

I did my share of searching as well through my early years, and ended up a Lutheran.  By profession I'm a psychologist, so I'm a big question-asker, and take a more scientific approach to things.  I like the denomination because it's a "just the facts", strict, follow-the-Bible's teachings type of faith. 

In my searching I also found that I liked the Eastern religions as well, and actually, there's a lot of overlap between different faiths.

I want to answer this, but I have lots of appts today and also have my grandson---but I'm reserving this spot ;)  See yall later!

I was brought up as a mainstream Protestant.  We didn't really do anything particularly religious at home, though Mom played the organ at church and I was active in the youth group, etc.  My mom had grown up in a rather fundamentalist home and was eager to avoid in our home some of the unpleasant overly zealous things she had experienced while growing up. 

Looking back, I can see that even as a child I was somewhat of a spiritual seeker (though of course then it never occurred to me  that I was):  I loved attending Bible camp in the summer (a week-long, sleep-in-a-cabin-with-10-other-campers-and-a- counselor, do-crafts-and-swim-and-play-and-go-to-chapel extravaganza of fun and inspiration -- really!)  and spending time with relatives who were a lot more religious than we (my nuclear family) were.   At home we didn't have cable, but when I visited my grandmother I was able to watch some Christian t.v. -- and she listened to Christian music in the car (8-track tapes back then!), which was very inspiring to me.  She had a lot of religious books in her home, which I loved reading from when I'd stay overnight at her house.  As a teenager, I felt vaguely unsatisfied by my youth group at church; looking back, I think it was because I was seeking something spiritual and the group was mostly just a social group.  (We did have one awesome week each year of teenage church camp.)  I kept going to youth group, though, because at least there it was marginally spiritual and wholesome.  It was the 70's and early 80's and the rest of my world -- school , part-time job, etc. -- seemed sterile and superficial and hard-edged.

Once I grew up and moved away from home and became an adult, I stopped doing anything much that was religious.  I never stopped believing in God and even praying, though very briefly, every once in awhile.  I was still drawn to religion, though now on a more intellectual level; I read books about the great religions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, Confucianism, Jainism, Taoism, others) and was interested in all the cultural/historical  aspects of them.  At the time I lived in Mexico City, and I would occasionally visit a historic church or shrine as a "tourist."  That was always a very moving experience.  I knew next to nothing about Catholicism, but somehow when I visited Catholic sites I knew (felt) there was "something" there, something special, something that made those places unlike other, everyday, places ... something sacred (though I would have been unable to verbalize the feeling like that back then).

My sister, who had had a similar childhood, converted to Catholicism in the early 1990's -- but since she lived very far away and we practically never saw each other or even spoke on the phone, that fact really wasn't important at all in my life at the time.  I guess I felt mildly surprised when she told me (via postal mail) that she was converting ... but I wasn't disturbed or even moved much at all.  It just wasn't part of my world.

Fast forward to January of 1998.  I had gotten a computer and Internet a week or so before and was mildly interested (in a cultural, current events sort of way) the Pope's upcoming visit to Cuba.   I found good online coverage at www.ewtn.com.  My computer couldn't handle the videos, but I was able to listen to their radio station online.  They seemed to have a lot of interesting programming, so after the Holy Father's visit I kept listening ... which got me interested in more things spiritual, which got me reading more books and all.   I learned about the Church -- good and bad, graceful and grotesque, historical and mystical ... and I learned that what I had felt while visiting churches as a tourist was something real and alive.  And I wanted it.

Fast forward again to April of 2000, when I officially became Catholic at my local parish's (in Mexico City at that time) Easter vigil Mass.  Smartest, healthiest, most lastingly joy-producing thing I ever did.  So ... I am, by choice, a somewhat conservative, very orthodox Roman Catholic.

 I will stop here since I think I have been going on and on ... LOL, gotta let others talk, too.  :-) 

I wasn't raised any religion. My Mother is very opened minded and always felt we would decide

With that when My sister and I were about 7 & 10 we said we wanted to go to church. So she took us to A Lutheran church by our house we both went through Middle school. My Mother went just so she could be there with us.

As a High School kid I decided to try the Wiccan thing, again my mother was very helpful. Even took me to Salam and Bought me stuff for an alter and such

That lasted about a year or 2

After high school I did a Buddhist thing, even now many of my beliefs on how to treat humanity comes from Buddhism. I see a lot of Buddhism in Jesus' teachings even

Now and for the past years I have been a Christian. People ask and I say I am Grace-Based or emergent.

When I first started going to church I was going to a Non-denominational born again type church. And they almost made me run away screaming the way they treated me. I live with my boyfriend (Who was raised Jewish) and I am a bartender. And they had Nooo problem saying that I was NOT a christian since I lived with him, and That I could never marry him. And that My Job is Wrong and against the Bible. They even went as far to say that I could not be a member of their church because of it!

With that I started church hopping for awhile trying to find the right church for me. I didn't like the Ritual aspect of Episcopalian or Lutheran. I liked the community feeling of Non denomination churches, but I could not find a Fit.

Then I saw on Sundance channel "One Punk Under God" It followed Jay Baker (Jim and Tammy Faye Baker's Son) And his Church. He is a smoker with Tattoos all over him and It he preaches the what I like to call the "Message of Christ" which is GRACE! There are so many people who have found a home at his church, young to old, tattooed or not, gay to strait. It is a great place

Check out his web page here: www.revolution.org

His Church is in Brooklyn which is a little far from me, but I do take the hour drive every few months to hear him preach.

By the grace of God in February of this year a church started in my Town's High school.

It is still small with only 60 or so people who go there, but they are all About Reaching out to the Community and volunteering and all about grace. They are non-denominational, play great music, and are welcoming to anyone. It is such a wonderful church!

Check out their website here: http://www.journey2l2.org/

So yea, I am christian But not your Typical Christian. I believe anyone should be able to marry anyone they want, I am pro-choice, A bartender, and have tattoos.

But yea that's Me!

I was not raised in church at all  My mother was nominally a Methodist and my father a Baptist but we were not a churchgoing family, although I wanted to be.  I don't know when I started being interested in the Catholic faith, but it was a long time ago.  I did mess around with Wicca a little bit in my teens, but I'm basically a Christian.   I was wild and self-destructive when I was young and I tried being agnostic for a while, and I got married and divorced and after a lot of years and twists and turns, I finally entered the RCIA program ( Catholic instruction) and became a Catholic.  I'm very happy in my Catholic faith.  Of course, I'm in the South, so that makes me a real minority.  I can't imagine what it would be like to live where most of the people were Catholic!  But I kind of like that, too.  I'm happily in Mass every Sunday and Holy Dad of Obligation and DH, who has never been interested in church in his life after he got away from his mama and daddy, actually goes with me more than he doesn't. 

I was raised very strictly Roman Catholic.  I refused to get confirmed when I was in high school, and decided I was an atheist.  Over the years I have seen, heard and experienced things that have led me to the path I am now on.  Once, about 6 years ago, I had just had another really upsetting fight with my now ex-husband (he is an abusive control freak)...I was still *mostly* and atheist at this time....but really wishing that I wasn't so alone.  I decided to say a little 'prayer'...something like "is there anyone there? why do I have to suffer so much in my life? why am I being punished?...ect ect"  About a week later I was really trying to fight off this urge to read the bible. I felt like I was literally being dragged kicking and screaming to the bookstore where I bought a bible.  The following week it was the qur'an.  Then convos. with god threw itself off the shelf at me. Then Sylvia Browne's books started jumping out at me.  All kinds of books until I was led to the wiccan and pagan books.  I found God and Goddess.  I see them all around me.  I see them in the wheel of the year.  I see how life is a circle and how death is a part of life. And life is a part of death.  I know that we are each here to work on ourselves in some way, a theme in our lives...and we keep coming back to learn and grow one life at a time until we have learned and experienced all we can or want to and then rejoin God/dess.  Life is about living and overcoming or adapting to challenges.

I am a Pagan.  I am learning as much as I can about Wicca...who knows where my path will take me...All I know is that I try to listen when She speaks, I try to pay attention when He is sharing something with me.  Where They lead me, I will follow. 

Unashamedly.  Unafraid.

I try to live by Their Law as well as I can-  Love unto all beings.

Love is the Law.

('An ye harm none, do as ye will')

Hi, L.G., what a nice post idea!  Don't have much time but wanted to pass on an interesting website www.beliefnet.com  Has lots of interesting stuff for every religion and viewpoint and you can get daily messages sent to your email.  Worth checking out for someone with interests in what others are thinking and saying.

I am now New Age, belong to Unity. Started reading widely when a teenager, dabbled in many views of the Divine (also philosophy and quantum science) and settled on the least dogmatic and openminded thing I could find.  I believe that all religions serve a purpose, and all have a piece of the Truth but the Truth is so much bigger than any of them.  I guess the important thing is to feel comfortable with, and comforted by your faith, whatever it is.

Blessings, Margaret

I'm on a time deadline, so just a couple of quick comments. 

Beverly, I wonder how your life had been different if you had attended Quaker church as a child instead of the Southern Baptist church.  I don't know if you have checked out the Quaker church lately, but many of their churches are quite progressive.  There is one here I attended from time to time that is lovely.

Margaret, what you wrote about  all religions having value and Truth rings so true with me. :)  That's sort of the principle of Unitarian-Universalism.

If anyone wants to learn more about UU, see:

http://www.uua.org/

(Click the link for visitors)

I'll check back later when I have more time. :)

I often wonder as well how my life might have been different if I had gone to church with my dad.  Actually, he was not a regular church goer, but did attend regularly for a while and then stop and then start again.  The Quakers just seem to be lovely and peaceful, as compared to the fire and brimstone church I grew up in.  And my dad was such a kind and gentle man.   I know some Quakers are pacifists, but he was not, as he was a WW II veteran.  Why he chose to marry my mother is a question I will always ask.  But that's another story entirely!

I was baptised Catholic, raised Protestant, then attended Catholic high school. I have always considered myself Protestant but had a serious falling out with God some years back and my faith suffered. Over the last couple of years I have been trying to reconnect with God but with no formal religion involved. So, I guess the answer to the question is I consider myself spiritual now, just not sure about the religion part.

Dory

Wow--I loved reading about each and every one's reflections of how they arrived at where they are now.  When people share such personal information it makes you sort of spiritually bound, don't you think?

I'd like to share my journey.  My father and mother are both Christian, my dad raised in a Baptist non-churchgoing family, my mother in a Pentecostal church is your whole life family.  I was raised Pentecost.  I never had my hair cut, save for trims, until I was around 15.  I wore dresses only in elementary school, but my mother became lax as we got older and in junior high I was able to wear pants to school and shorts at home.  Church was intensive, loud, and "active."  People running up and down and around, people writhing on the floor, people speaking in tongues, people kneeling at the altars at the front of the church, yelling and crying--these were normal occurrences in the church I attended.  Sunday School wasn't arts and crafts time--we actually studied the stories of the Bible and it was much like regular school in that respect. 

Around 9th grade I decided I wasn't interested in church anymore and pretty much stopped going--only occasionally attending to placate my grandmother, who, at 84, is still a very devout Christian, but for health reasons doesn't get to go as often as she would like, but the church comes to her, so to speak..

I've always sensed "spirits" and as a teenager this ability--or what I felt was a curse at the time--was its strongest.  I KNEW there were ghosts--I could see them and feel them.  One particular told me stories of what happened to him.  If really freaked me out at the time because I didn't understand it.  I read everything I could find on ghosts, spirits, poltergeists, etc...going even so far as writing my high school senior research paper on the phenomenon.  I always knew there was more than the birth, saved, die, heaven or hell aspect of the religion I was taught.

Over the years I searched for something...I didn't know what I was searching for...but I kept looking.  I studied different philosophies like stoicism and existentialism, for example--and while I found redeeming qualities in these lines of thought they didn't match up to what I felt was true in my heart.  Then my grandfather died.  My grandfather was more to me than I could ever explain to anyone.  When he died at 77 of pneumonia I thought I was dying as well.  I was mad at God.  Furious.  Never mind that my grandfather was an old man.  Never mind that he was diabetic, had heart disease, and numerous other health problems.  God, my religion had taught me, controlled everything...so he must have killed my grandfather. 

This hatred for God propelled me on a spiritual journey.  I don't hate God any more.  Paganism opened my eyes to the circle of life and the wheel of the year.  Everything and everyone dies and nothing will ever change that.  I learned about some universal principles which every living thing must follow.  I learned about human motivations, human emotions, and perceptions.  I learned that as much as we would like to think we are all so different, we are all very much alike.  We all have needs and desires.  We all have faults and qualities.  I learned that we can either love and be loved or hate and be hated.  I wholly believe that what you reap, you sow.  Karma. 

In September 1997 Mabon I was initiated into a Wiccan coven.  At the peak the coven had 7 members and 4 initiates.  I left the coven at the end of 1999--it wasn't helping me fulfill my spiritual needs and I questioned the motivation of some of the members--it seemed as if they thought it was a "cool" thing to do rather than a lifestyle choice.   I now call these type of people "playgans."

My Wiccan solitary life was filled with study.  I celebrated the holidays and sabbats.  My pantheon was extremely eclectic.  Then something happened.  I connected with my spirit guide and reawakened my ability to communicate with some spirits, all quite by accident.  It isn't something I can force or even know it will happen, but I know it is true and it is right.  I've built my present belief system around what I believe is to be true.

I believe that there is no "God" in the sense of the word the way we use it--but a divine being/cosmic energy.  This being doesn't care about your day to day life, etc.  We are all just living beings--like the plants and animals, etc.  We reincarnate, with our ultimate goal being one with the supreme energy force.  To achieve that goal we must learn all of the universe's lessons--and the more difficult the life, the more lessons learned.  Some souls are older and more experienced at life than others--and it is obvious when one comes across a very old or very young soul.  There are many old souls who frequent this message board.

I still get to communicate with some of the dead, but not as often as I would like.  Some of the things I've learned from these spirits amaze me, while others are so mundane I wonder why the spirit would care.  I've had one experience with a person who was in a coma and soon after died.  I KNOW it isn't schizo or something crazy because the things I've learned from these spirits I could not have known at all.  It is pretty freaky.  I don't mind telling about any of my experiences, but this isn't the post for that.

Anyway, religion wise, I consider myself a New Age Spiritualist....since we have to label ourselves.  It is just what we do.

Tammy, your description of "God" fits my beliefs as well.  I studied with the School of Metaphysics for a couple of years and learned so much from them regarding soul progression.  My ideas about God I have just developed over the years, mainly through my study of molecular biology.  I learn so much about life, in general, through the study of science and nature.  If I had more of what I call "core faith" in my personality, I's commit to being a theist, but the "questioner" in me won't allow it. ;)

That's just it, LG--I cannot just accept something on blind faith--it has to be logical and fit with what I know to be scientifically true--the the extent of our planet's technological knowledge.  I believe that one day (if we don't kill ourselves first) we WILL have the technology to explain what we label as the supernatural--just like in the past people believed illness was caused by demons or God's wrath, while now we have the technology to know that illness is caused by bacterias and virus, etc.  People of the past believed that crops failed because of angry gods---but now we have the technology to explain why the crops have failed.   Just about all of the "supernatural" stuff people believed in the Middle Ages can be explained by science now.  It is exciting to think about what supernatural things we believe now will be explained by science and technology in the future--isn't it!!!!

I'm pagan.  20 years ago I started down the path of wicca, but abandoned that about 10 years ago.  Somehow in my spiritual journey I've become a hard polytheist. 

Tammy, what you've said is so much like how I think...only better said than I !!  LOL!  I am a solitary right now (still) but looking for a local group...some months back (probably around Midsummer) I met one of my Dad's best friends who is Wiccan.....She and I have become quite close friends!!  I may even start going to the 'Pagan Church' here in Ct.  It is in New London I think, they sponsor a lot of activities...She had stopped going for a while because she was caring for her sick father...he crossed and now she is thinking of going out there for the Esbats and Sabbats.....It is QUITE a drive for either of us!  There are a lot of 'playgans' around here....the ones who seem to get off on being as shocking and weird as possible and like to belong to the club....(kinda drives me bonkers)

Ah, well.  There's one in every family, I guess!  LOL!!

Wow, I feel very, very, very boring but here it goes.......

I was baptised, raised and continue to be Lutheran.  I currently attend an ELCA Synod Lutheran church, but go back and forth between ELCA and Missouri synods, as we move around the country thanks to the Air Force.  The things that we look for in a church family are diversity, openness to gay families, welcoming of us as visitors and music.  Ok, the music sounds shallow, but music can make or break it for our family!  LOL! 

I'm married to a life-long Catholic, but he attends church with me so that we can worship as a family. 

I've found this thread very interesting.  I hesitated to step in, because right now I'm in kind of what you could call a belief upheaval.  I grew up in the mormon church, and it's all I ever knew.  I vaguely knew some things about other religions, but I thought the mormon church was the one true church, and didn't really care to hear anything else.

I stopped going to church for a few months, mostly (if I'm being honest) out of laziness.  Then it seems like out of nowhere (or maybe not out of nowhere) I realized that the mormon church wasn't the only true church, and in fact had a lot of untruths.  At that point, I became a born again Christian.  But I also think that all religions out there have truths to them, and no one religion has a monopoly on the truth, and what is right.  I believe that there are many different paths to God.     

Brenda said:  But I also think that all religions out there have truths to them, and no one religion has a monopoly on the truth, and what is right.  I believe that there are many different paths to God. 

You hit the nail on the head for me.  That's exactly what I think, too but I'm not as articulate as you are.  ;)

Just because I happen to be comfortable with the Lutheran church doesn't mean that I believe it's the only true church and the only path to God and the hereafter.

Thanks, Bren!  :)

Mary wrote: Wow. Not what I expected to read under this topic.

Hummm...what makes you say that?

I feel similar to you about having ritual as part of the service.  I find a lot of meaning in the rituals done by my church, though not all congregations do them. :)  We have also incorporated some of the rituals into our daily lives, usually lighting a chalice during celebrations and dedicating it to a specific person or cause. :)

LIght a chalice?  I've never heard of that, though it sounds interesting.  Does the chalice have a candle in it?  Or maybe a wick floating in oil?

okay.. I'll jump in...

I'm still searching for my actual "religion".. but like many of you I think all religions really teach the same things... and all spirits/gods come from the same mysticism out there.

I grew up in a non-demominational protestant backgorund.  Momwas borna nd raised Methodist, dad no religion, we were on overseas military bases for a bulk of my childhood and attended the general protestant services.. in high school we stopped going, but I discovered Islam, and was a practicing Muslim for a few years.  Ramadan was a stuggle, and I think it made me a stronger person to undertake it one year.  I was blessed to have friends that would support me in my attempt and come to my dorm room after dark and celebrate the breaking of the fast with me :)

I didn't "do" any religion in early adulthood, although I did "study" some eastern religions in the writing of my master's thesis play ( a modern retelling of the medieval classic "everyman" using a multi-religious outlook).  THen I met and married the son of a Methodist preacher.  He is storng in his faith, something I truly can't fathom... just believing.  But ihave had some influence on him, and we're a lot closer in faith now than we we first met.  We attended a UU churhc for abot a year that had quite a few pagans, which is a spiritual base I'm now looking to learn more about.

Right now we attend at UCC/DOC church that is extremely liberal in faith and social/politics.  Personally,  I view Jesus and my relationship with him more in the Islamic context of one of the spirit's great teachers.  I think it was Tammy (?) that said his and Buddha's teachings were very similar, and that she believes that there is a spirit out there, just not not guiding us day by day... I think that sums up my general belief :)