~fuzzies-n-burnys confirmation~ (ritual, beliefs, attend, churches, experience)

[Saint Tigeress]

How is it that different people can feel different confirmations for particular beliefs? Some might be biased already, but I'm sure a lot are not. How can children?? Children who have not been pushed or pulled in any particular direction, who have walked in and out of many religious buildings and heard many different teachings, just all of a sudden know in thier heart that something is suddenly right? And if it is really right, why would it not be consistent with the feeling others have recieved?

Some of the people who have felt things such as this, have committed atrocities in the name of The Divine far more evil than any non-religious phycopath could hope, so what exactly is up with these burny-fluttery-fuzzys that people get in their heart/gut?

~*~I got this feeling about the LDS church when I prayed about it's truth when I was 11. i had already said other prayers many other times when the local Baptist churches asked me to.... and either nothing would happen or I would get a not-so-great feeling (but that usually came during the initial visit on Sunday). In fact, at this point in my life, being raised by a very religiously eccentric father who dislikes organized christianity, I had come to my own conclusion that I thought church was fake, and stupid. So why did i get that funky feeling that led me to a church I still believe to be the closest to perfect among christianity?? I was even angry with the church once when I was 15, and stayed so for a few years. But now that I am older and more mature, I still feel shockingly similar to how I did when I was 11 regarding the churches truth, although I now have a few disagreements Still too funky of a coincidence for me to dismiss as childesh/naive/immature ~*~

I'd like to hear any experiences others have had with this oddity, and what you think about it. Has anyone else recieved multiple ~fuzzies-n-burnys~ for multiple faiths?

[Katzpur]

I really can't comment, as I was raised LDS and my experience as a lifelong member was obviously quite different from yours. I loved reading your story, though, and I hope others will share their own experiences. I think it's really important that we can't insist that our own spiritual experiences are both real and valid if we aren't willing to accept that the spiritual experiences other people have are equally real and valid. My own feelings are that even though I believe the LDS Church to be true, God knows that not everyone will come to know Him by the same means. Somehow, I have never been able to bring myself to insist that if other people's spiritual experiences have led them in a different direction than mine have led me, that means they're wrong and I'm right. Maybe I'm going off in an entirely different direction than you had intended when you wrote your OP, but I would really like to hear from other people whose experiences may be similar to yours, but who found their place somewhere else entirely.

[Saint Tigeress]

Originally Posted by Katzpur

Maybe I'm going off in an entirely different direction than you had intended when you wrote your OP, .

Nope not at all!

I think it's really important that we can't insist that our own spiritual experiences are both real and valid if we aren't willing to accept that the spiritual experiences other people have are equally real and valid. My own feelings are that even though I believe the LDS Church to be true, God knows that not everyone will come to know Him by the same means. Somehow, I have never been able to bring myself to insist that if other people's spiritual experiences have led them in a different direction than mine have led me, that means they're wrong and I'm right.

That is one of the wisest things I've ever heard. I don't know if you realized how profound that statement was when you wrote it. Fur balls right back at ya!

[Rolling_Stone]

Originally Posted by Saint Tigeress

How is it that different people can feel different confirmations for particular beliefs? Some might be biased already, but I'm sure a lot are not. How can children?? Children who have not been pushed or pulled in any particular direction, who have walked in and out of many religious buildings and heard many different teachings, just all of a sudden know in thier heart that something is suddenly right? And if it is really right, why would it not be consistent with the feeling others have recieved?

Some of the people who have felt things such as this, have committed atrocities in the name of The Divine far more evil than any non-religious phycopath could hope, so what exactly is up with these burny-fluttery-fuzzys that people get in their heart/gut?

~*~I got this feeling about the LDS church when I prayed about it's truth when I was 11. i had already said other prayers many other times when the local Baptist churches asked me to.... and either nothing would happen or I would get a not-so-great feeling (but that usually came during the initial visit on Sunday). In fact, at this point in my life, being raised by a very religiously eccentric father who dislikes organized christianity, I had come to my own conclusion that I thought church was fake, and stupid. So why did i get that funky feeling that led me to a church I still believe to be the closest to perfect among christianity?? I was even angry with the church once when I was 15, and stayed so for a few years. But now that I am older and more mature, I still feel shockingly similar to how I did when I was 11 regarding the churches truth, although I now have a few disagreements Still too funky of a coincidence for me to dismiss as childesh/naive/immature ~*~

I'd like to hear any experiences others have had with this oddity, and what you think about it. Has anyone else recieved multiple ~fuzzies-n-burnys~ for multiple faiths?

My story is very different. I was raised Mormon, fell away and was even a hard atheist for a while. My path back to God led me to an understanding very different than what I grew up with.

As I see it, spirit is self-relecting and purposive energy that resonates or conflicts with other energies. This was impressed on me when I attended a memorial service for my mother at a Mormon church in another state. I never felt so uncomforatble in my life. It felt the energy there was in conflict with my own. My surgery for prostate cancer was more pleasent than what I felt there. On the other hand, when I go to my wife's church (Catholic), I don't get a sense of truth being present so much as a sense of the sacred, which I find quite refreshing.