Your Positive Religious Past

JustGeorge said:

In the time I've been on RF, I have seen a lot of posts in which people air grievances against a religion they were formerly affiliated with. And it makes sense. Some people have had some really awful experiences with a specific faith or a certain group, and sometimes it just helps to put that out there.

However, sometimes a person leaves a religious path on good terms, and I don't hear as much about that. Have you had an experience like this? Or, are there any things you are grateful for that a past religion or worldview may have given you?

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I left my atheist/agnostic path on good terms. it was a rural community with strong community ties. Everyone went to the UFA (United Farmer's of Alberta) the United Church Bazaar, and the last day of school picnic. The neighbourly attitude, despite some minor differences, (like Dad being an atheist) left me with some incredibly positive values. As an example, when my uncle died tragically in the middle of a harvest, within a day or two, there were 15 combines on his fields taking the crop off. When somebody passed, the men dug the grave by hand, and women brought the hot coffee, despite it being -30 C or so. We had a community phone line, and on cold winter days neighbours kept track of the school bus progress so kids didn't freeze out there.

That stuff, the values of friendship, honesty, good morals, etc. has stuck with me, despite 45 years now being Hindu. Rather than having a distaste, I treasure that past, but not in a sudsy way either.

I am a pagan omnist, I don't walk away from religion.

Where to begin.

I was Christian. I had great experiences at church and always felt welcomed and accepted by everyone there. It strengthened my connection to family and provided culture and sacred texts that I still find alluring. I respect everything about Christianity past and present.

At one point though, I gradually moved away from Christianity and became an atheist. It was necessary for me to abandon everything to truly realize the power of what I had before and how it had contributed to who I’d become.

I developed a Left Hand Path wordview over time. It began atheistic, then became theistic as I progressed in life and sacrificed certain personal attachments for the things I wanted more than anything. “Gods” felt more alive than ever before through myself and my actions, and I spent more and more time in the desert away from people. It felt magical, in a way. No, spiritual. There was this feeling of extreme spiritual significance in everything about it, from the clear as blue sky, to the most beautiful sunsets and star filled night skies, the relentless sun, the desert heat, the dirt and the rocks even, the taste of the air and the scents all around me, the mountains and the views of the land while standing upon them, the dried up riverbeds, the fauna and flora, the rare storms... I can’t explain it. It became my temple, the wilderness around me. I worshipped it as I worshipped my gods. This was the greatest thing about that time, the greatest feeling.

The LHP movements which contributed to my worldview provided some culture but also a framework for which I could understand, explore and accept certain sides of my human nature previously deemed forbidden not only by my previous religion but by society in general. For that I will always be grateful, even as I have moved away from these... basic ideas, and organized something far more suited to my own objectives.

This one particular spiritual katabasis was complete when I embraced God again as the highest and greatest God... though not through any one religion, and not through a monotheistic lens. My path is my own now and I no longer require middle men or interpreters to communicate to me the will of God(s) when I can just reach out myself... though I respect these people’s commitment and am often interested in what they have to say regardless. I do not require lecturing of other people’s reductive views of “right” and “wrong”, or what is “acceptable” or “unacceptable”, whether its coming from a priest or a politician, but again, depending on the interaction I can respect their commitment.

There is a saying. “I hold in one hand the sun and in the other the moon, I embrace the moon by day and the sun by night”. I do not see these areas of individual human nature as the sun or the moon, or these sides of collective human nature as day or night... but others do in a way, when they divide a complicated spectrum of thoughts and behaviors into two and call one side “good” and the other “evil”, so it is a beautiful metaphor. I accept the sun and the moon equally as who I am no matter the views of those around me.

My experiences with religions have been overwhelmingly positive and I value them all.

JustGeorge said:

In the time I've been on RF, I have seen a lot of posts in which people air grievances against a religion they were formerly affiliated with. And it makes sense. Some people have had some really awful experiences with a specific faith or a certain group, and sometimes it just helps to put that out there.

However, sometimes a person leaves a religious path on good terms, and I don't hear as much about that. Have you had an experience like this? Or, are there any things you are grateful for that a past religion or worldview may have given you?

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Here's an outline from an earlier thread.

JustGeorge said:

In the time I've been on RF, I have seen a lot of posts in which people air grievances against a religion they were formerly affiliated with. And it makes sense. Some people have had some really awful experiences with a specific faith or a certain group, and sometimes it just helps to put that out there.

However, sometimes a person leaves a religious path on good terms, and I don't hear as much about that. Have you had an experience like this? Or, are there any things you are grateful for that a past religion or worldview may have given you?

Click to expand...

Everything that wasn't Protestant Christianity.

Even Scientology I didn't have negative experiences. With the people yes, with the teachings no. Not at the time.

Most of it was useful to discovering more about me.

So I may criticize belief over science but all that spirituality got me here. It was all necessary for my spiritual growth.

adrian009 said:

What a fascinating word pagan is! What does it mean and where does it come from?

I see a lot of overlap between the Dharmic Faiths and paganism. Given Hinduism’s emphasis on tolerance, diversity and non-proselytising there’s an easy association between the two faiths.

I have connections with indigenous religions of the Maori and Japanese that have polytheistic dimensions; though both with an identifiable Supreme Being. Would Shinto be pagan in your view?

The image of wandering off with a lover feels a little pagan now I think about!

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To me, the word "Pagan" is an insult. It means that their God is false (heathen, idolator), and my God is real. It seems better to accept that others might be right.

Definition of PAGAN

Link says: "In Latin, paganus originally meant “country dweller” or “civilian;”"

Country rube who falls for any nonsense?

The link also says that the word "heathen" is a hearth dweller, that is, a country hick who would fall for any nonsense.

Paganism - Wikipedia

Link says that the first use of the word "Pagan" comes from the 4th century.

Sunstone said:

I took some very thought-provoking courses at uni in Comparative Religious Studies. At the time, a study by the Rockefeller Foundation had concluded that CRS was leading all comparative studies fields in terms of innovative new techniques of analysis, etc. It was the first time I heard the phrase, 'cutting edge'.

Doesn't sound like much, I know. But it was my introduction to the world beyond small town Midwestern Christianity, and it was a very positive introduction on the whole.

Sure beat my local hometown's tendency to substitute Bud Lite for wine for the communion.

Just kidding about the Bud Lite.

No one drank Lite. No one. It was Bud for the communion or no communion.

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"Lite" explains walking on water and rapture.

Seriously, it isn't what you drink, it is what you believe, and what you feel as you remind yourself of your beliefs.

Clara Tea said:

To me, the word "Pagan" is an insult. It means that their God is false (heathen, idolator), and my God is real. It seems better to accept that others might be right.

Definition of PAGAN

Link says: "In Latin, paganus originally meant “country dweller” or “civilian;”"

Country rube who falls for any nonsense?

The link also says that the word "heathen" is a hearth dweller, that is, a country hick who would fall for any nonsense.

Paganism - Wikipedia

Link says that the first use of the word "Pagan" comes from the 4th century.

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That is how I understand the word pagan too. It is a pejorative term used by Christians to label and denigrate anything that isn’t Christian. So I personally would avoid the word and speak of indigenous or native religions.

JustGeorge said:

However, sometimes a person leaves a religious path on good terms, and I don't hear as much about that. Have you had an experience like this? Or, are there any things you are grateful for that a past religion or worldview may have given you?

Click to expand...

I can’t say I had a good or bad parting with Christianity, first Roman Catholic then Eastern Orthodox. It was more like a drifting away from that and drifting towards Hinduism. Though even as a Christian I had Hindu beliefs.

I began to feel that Christian theology and cosmology didn’t make sense, but Hinduism did. I might have put aside my questioning of Christianity and accepted it as “mysteries” except for finally accepting being gay.

I could not accept the Catholic and Orthodox positions that it was fine that I was gay, just don’t have any same sex relationships. I was to live a chaste life, accepting this a a blessed burden from God. Seriously? This was the proverbial last straw. I could not believe in such a God. Well, that’s not entirely true... I believe he exists but is not worthy of my worship.

So, I think it’s just a matter of having walked away. I don’t think, like many other former Christians do, that it did me irreparable harm.

Clara Tea said:

"Lite" explains walking on water and rapture.

Seriously, it isn't what you drink, it is what you believe, and what you feel as you remind yourself of your beliefs.

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Sure. That's the case for most of the Christian traditions, along with the Islamic ones. But have you had a chance to run that notion of religion past a Zen monk yet? If so, what did they say about it's usefulness in describing what religion means to them?

There's a whole lot of religions in the world that do not make 'belief' core to their religiosity.