Did you chose your religion?

[your_adress_here 11]

This is not a place to debate religion. I was merely curious how people chose the religion they practice.

[Zelgadis 638]

I was raised non-religious.

I have chosen Shintoism.

Not strict about it though.  But to be fair, almost nobody is a strict Shintoist.    It's a pretty casual religion.

ISF

[newyorkrunaway1 110]

i chose my own, i am buddhist

[miguelkuk 111]

I was raised roman catholic but gave it up as soon as I could think for myself

[panthersimcity4 162]

Well, my mom is Catholic and my dad is protestant so at first I didn't know what I believed. But after learning more about religion I decided to be Catholic.

[rawr APPLES 15]

My grandma wanted her family to be open to all religeons, so pretty much none of my family is religeous because of it.

I've had my share of different religeous groups though, for a while I went with friends to a christian church now I go to this Buddhist centre with my friend jessica everyonce in a while. its fun.

[ccecill 52]

I choose to be anti-theist. :l

[Explodingsims 3]

Well, I'm a Christian, and I was raised that way.

Although, to be honest, I find my faith slowly waning.

[Duke87 1,070]

My parents attempted to raise me Catholic. They failed. I stopped believing in god about the same time I stopped believing in Santa Claus (I don't mean that in a condescending way, I mean it quite literally).

So, put me down for "I was raised religiously but gave it up".

[LarksTonguesInAspic 28]

I was 'raised' Baptist, but had some serious issues with it. After being non-religious for a long time, I slooowwly took on a decidedly Calvinist belief, but I don't identify with a particular denomination.

[Bluebeard 0]

I was raised Catholic but after so many years of going to church my mother had enough of it thus now I ain't sure.

[cityhawk 12]

I was raised Baptist and remain Baptist to this day. I'm not one of those people who just stay the way they was raised because that's the only thing they know. My choice to stay Baptist comes from the Word of God and from informing myself about other religions.

[Meg 368]

I was raised Catholic until age 12, at which point my parents left the church and my siblings and I were glad to follow.   My beliefs now are mostly Buddhist.

[hummer0328 6]

I was raised Lutheran, and my family is still pretty religious, but that stopped for me after I started thinking for myself.  Now my beliefs are closest to Buddhism.

[tepodon 29]

never was religious in a western sense, of course living in Japan means basically practicing aspects of buddhism or shinto without acknowledging to be part of a particular faith. Like on new years when we go to temple, or when we buy good luck charms from shrines, or shinto tradition during weddings or buddhist tradition during funerals. Ppl in Japan have no strict boundaries on what they assume to be faith or religion, they'll just do anything that they feel is good. Ive pretty much lived out that lifestyle.

I think concepts of faith are different between peoples, i suppose in the west going to church and praying are aspects of a religious believer, but in Japan those aspects on a buddhist/*****o line are all part of daily life, whilst referring to a judeo-christian god on a daily basis are aspects of a religious zealot.

[Boggy1 45]

My grandmother was always open about religions. She brought my Mother up to have Christian ideals, but to be whatever religion she wanted. My Mother passed that onto me, and although I went to Sunday School and Services, I was free to not go and to choose whatever religion I wanted.

At about the age of 13/14, my Mother had a long talk with me about different religions. She was a Religious Education teacher, and so could give me some good advice on choosing a religion, if any. I decided that I didn't believe in Jesus as the son of God, and I was opened up to a variety of different religions and their teachings and customs.

I went through a period of absolute anti-Christianity, but cooled down. Now I consider myself a mixture of many different religions and ideologies. From Christianity, to Buddhism. At my core, I can probably be considered a deist. But that's just a small part of my spiritual nature. My Mother has remained an agnostic. My Father is a protestant Christian, but is not practising, and doesn't believe in the Bible literally. I think he only goes to Sunday Service for the choir and music

[Odainsaker 2,137]

My dad's side is Catholic, though he claims himself to be protestant, and my mom's side is Methodist. However, neither of my parents engage in all the dutiful religious practices and instead keep their own beliefs to themselves, and ours was not a churchgoing family and we have never had discussions on faith. Growing up local in Hawaii, we also did all the Buddhist and Shinto rituals local residents often adapt given the Chinese and Japanese cultural immersion, but that always seemed more about habit than doctrinal belief. Being Hawaii, there was also always the overlay of native Hawaiian religion and mythology, which, while no longer practiced in an organized way as the state kapu system was toppled long ago, survives as native family practices and traditions, often blurred with missionary Christianity. Our house, had crucifixes, Chinese gods, Hawaiian idols, shark deities, tiny wooden shrines, though we never seemed to do all the saint icons and candles my Catholic family members often had.

Despite the wealth available to "choose" from, there was never a choosing, and much of it was done out of custom than belief, not much different than customarily removing shoes before entering a home (and you will recognize a local home from the piles of shoes and slippers at the doorway). A Caucasian neighbor friend of mine was one of the few who regularly attended Sunday School, and even then I always thought it peculiar. I never could cogitate the purpose of prayer, even while watching my paternal relatives do it, and it was something I only ever performed as expected rote or proper social form in institutionalized settings like the Boy Scouts or Texas public high schools.  I am not particularly religious today, have a scientific outlook, and tend to speak of religions within their historical or socio-cultural contexts. My maternal grandmother is convinced my beliefs have been corrupted by my liberal atheist university professors (oh, please!), though as a conservative Christian she is also somehow a believer and practitioner of Western Astrology and Numerology, lol!

As fate would have it, my elderly neighbors on both sides of the house in Texas are Japanese-American, both also from Hawaii.  One is a devout Buddhist, complete with giant shrine in her home, and our sunny Texas days playing with the cats in the yard aren't complete without our neighbor's ritual chanting wafting through the oak trees.  Ironies being ironies, we learned later she also worked in a local sushi shop with the Baptist Japanese mother of my best friend, while my other neighbor's family was also a neighbor of one my close cousins back in Hawaii, which tells me that Six Degrees of Separation gets even tighter when dealing with the Asian community in South Central Texas.

Incidently, in my new Texas setting, the general religious environment is pretty much Hispanics following Catholicism, complete with prayer candles and saintly charms, and white suburbanites attending big box evangelical churches.  Both worlds seem very far removed from me.

[Patricius Maximus 236]

Most of my ancestors were Catholic. My mother was a freethinker and my father was an atheist, but neither of them tried to impress their beliefs on me, so I was not raised religiously.

I'm currently an atheist because I reasoned my way to that conclusion based on the current evidence.

[JakeMD 107]

I didn't choose my religion, nor do I believe in half of the things in it. I choose to have no religious affiliation.

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 1, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[saltandsauce 0]

i was raised Catholic and after losing faith i then became Catholic of my own accord, not indoctriination. (i practice it too)

most churches hereare Protestant and failing with old, dying populations so society's pressures are against faith. (when the priest of my church dies, the church closes forever with it)

my faith is pretty much all i have

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: Barbarossa

With the exception of some Catholic churches, it is difficult, even unlikely, to find a mosque or ashram or anything not Christian.quote>

Um... A Catholic church is Christian. Methinks you meant "anything not Protestant".

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 7, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[LarksTonguesInAspic 28]

I thought you were right the first time, but that's a whole 'nother thread.

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 7, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[panthersimcity4 162]

Originally posted by: Duke87

Originally posted by: Barbarossa

With the exception of some Catholic churches, it is difficult, even unlikely, to find a mosque or ashram or anything not Christian.quote>

Um... A Catholic church is Christian. Methinks you meant "anything not Protestant".quote>

Well, here in the U.S, Catholicism is often considered non-Christian, at least by most Evangelicals. Because, well.... GASP OMG IDOLATRY

I suppose the converse is true in Latin America, Catholic Europe or Orthodox countries.

[Rymac91 15]

I'm Catholic because my parents are Catholic.

I didn't have much of a choice for Confirmation(the point where my mom said I could get out of it if it didn't feel right disappeared as soon as I said when I wanted out, so I sorta regret even going through it in the first place).

Although I'm a pretty open thinker, I still believe in God, but I don't believe in some of the parts of the bible, and I dislike the choices of the church, so I'm leaning a bit away from Catholicism.

[bixel 1,228]

Yarrrrrr!!!!!! There be ODIN!

[Lambert14 0]

Was raised devout evangelical bible literalist, but by the time high school hit I was moving away from it. Now I am open ot all religions, see everything as having wisdom in it, and I think for mself instead of having a pastor tell me how to think

[Jerebannus XVI 7]

I didn't choose my religion but I chose my own non-religion if that makes sense, lol! I became an agnostic after I read the da vinci code, not because I believe the story, but because it opened my eyes and made me question things about Catholicism, I looked for the answers and when I found them I didn't like them, so yeah...I'm still very sympathetic towards catholics and I like going to churches (not to church!, lol there's a difference ) because I like the architecture, the paintings and the statues are so majestic, beautiful treasures they are

I'm not alltogether anti-religious, I consider myself to be a very spiritual person, I like reading pholosophy and metaphysics, fascinating stuff really. Oh and I've also had some exposure to pre-christian cults and so on, thanks to the pagan society at my university, I still don't have an opinion about that because I don't have enough information, so I don't know what it's really like.

There, my story.