Poll: How Long Have You Been in Your Current Religion or Lack Thereof?

[Exaltist Ethan]

Initially inspired by this thread by @Seeker of White Light . If you have the time, go ahead and look at it for yourself.

I was completely wrong in one of my latest posts about not creating new threads. I got too much ideas for topics and I can't ignore them.

This should be an interesting Interfaith Discussion topic. And everybody can answer. If you are not part of a religion, simply tell us when you started to disbelieve in religion. I think based on that idea everybody should be able to answer this.

Okay, as far as myself goes... This is going to be confusing. I started to believe the idea "God is change" when I was 14, when I had my epiphany. My epiphany wasn't exactly that God is change, but rather humans are creating God through change - which is Earthseed's second tenet, "Shape God."

But I didn't know about the transhumanist or syntheist religions until I was about 26. And after that, I didn't realize that it all came from the early 1990's religion Earthseed until I was about 31 years old. My religion didn't find me, I found my religion by searching the Internet for transhumanist religions, then finding Terasem, and then tracing Terasem back to Earthseed.

I know all of this is very confusing. But right now I'm 33 years old. Since my original epiphany came to me, while I was 14, 19 years have passed. Even though I didn't know what to call myself while I was 14, and often told people I was agnostic, I consider the initial epiphany when I was a teenager as my initial conversion as an Earthseed shaper. Since I wasn't introduced to a religion by my parents, I wasn't proselytized but naturally adopted it, before I knew it even existed.

Earthseed is the basic idea that inspired many others. From Earthseed came Solseed, Astronism, Turing Church, Terasem and my very own Exaltism. All of these religions are classified as "Syntheist" religions, meaning, that we believe humans are creating God, rather than God has created us. Syntheism by itself can be viewed as a subset of atheism, pantheism, transtheism or possibly all three. However my theology adheres more to Syntheism itself than any one of those three. If I had to gauge I would say there's about 10,000 people in the world who adhere to the Syntheist-type religions, including myself.

So I intend on answering this poll "Longer Than a Decade", even though I've only been formally introduced to the same concept I believe and know about roughly two years ago.

TL;DR - How long have you been in your religion? If you don't have a religion, how long have you rejected religion? I know that can be hard to gauge, since some people are never in a religion. Do you think you will be in your religion, or without one, for the rest of your life? When you joined your last religion was it from natural conversion or from proselytizing? Answer the poll* and let us know how long you've been in your religion below.**

*(I realize that entire lifetimes are typically more than a decade long. I added the last option in the poll for people whom been baptized as an infant and never left their religion, or were raised in a nonreligious household and afterwards never joined a religion.)

**(Remember this is Interfaith Discussion. Share your own beliefs and where they came from here but avoid debating with others.)

 

[The Hammer]

14 years roughly.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

I don't exactly belong to a religion, and my beliefs have sort of evolved over time so it's hard for me to pinpoint a time when my current beliefs came to be. Some have been with me for over a decade, others only a couple of years. I would say my ontological and spiritual views came 3-5 years ago and have been more and more fleshed out since then.

 

[Heyo]

Initially inspired by this thread by @Seeker of White Light . If you have the time, go ahead and look at it for yourself.

I was completely wrong in one of my latest posts about not creating new threads. I got too much ideas for topics and I can't ignore them.

This should be an interesting Interfaith Discussion topic. And everybody can answer. If you are not part of a religion, simply tell us when you started to disbelieve in religion. I think based on that idea everybody should be able to answer this.

Okay, as far as myself goes... This is going to be confusing. I started to believe the idea "God is change" when I was 14, when I had my epiphany. My epiphany wasn't exactly that God is change, but rather humans are creating God through change - which is Earthseed's second tenet, "Shape God."

But I didn't know about the transhumanist or syntheist religions until I was about 26. And after that, I didn't realize that it all came from the early 1990's religion Earthseed until I was about 31 years old. My religion didn't find me, I found my religion by searching the Internet for transhumanist religions, then finding Terasem, and then tracing Terasem back to Earthseed.

I know all of this is very confusing. But right now I'm 33 years old. Since my original epiphany came to me, while I was 14, 19 years have passed. Even though I didn't know what to call myself while I was 14, and often told people I was agnostic, I consider the initial epiphany when I was a teenager as my initial conversion as an Earthseed shaper. Since I wasn't introduced to a religion by my parents, I wasn't proselytized but naturally adopted it, before I knew it even existed.

Earthseed is the basic idea that inspired many others. From Earthseed came Solseed, Astronism, Turing Church, Terasem and my very own Exaltism. All of these religions are classified as "Syntheist" religions, meaning, that we believe humans are creating God, rather than God has created us. Syntheism by itself can be viewed as a subset of atheism, pantheism or possibly both. However my theology adheres more to Syntheism than either one of those. If I had to gauge I would say there's about 10,000 people in the world who adhere to the Syntheist-type religions, including myself.

So I intend on answering this poll "Longer Than a Decade", even though I've only been formally introduced to the same concept I believe and know about roughly two years ago.

TL;DR - How long have you been in your religion? If you don't have a religion, how long have you rejected religion? I know that can be hard to gauge, since some people are never in a religion. Do you think you will be in your religion, or without one, for the rest of your life? When you joined your last religion was it from natural conversion or from proselytizing? Answer the poll* and let us know how long you've been in your religion below.**

*(I realize that entire lifetimes are typically more than a decade long. I added the last option in the poll for people whom been baptized as an infant and never left their religion, or were raised in a nonreligious household and afterwards never joined a religion.)

**(Remember this is Interfaith Discussion. Share your own beliefs and where they came from here but avoid debating with others.)

I answered "My Entire Lifetime" as I never believed in any gods. My self classification and the reasoning are more in flux. I can't remember how long I am an Agnostic but I only learned two years ago that that is the most precise term for what I don't believe.

 

[LuisDantas]

Sort of hard to delimit in my case.

I am an atheists all the way back to my birth (conception?), but that is not a religion nor a religious stance, just a reason to refuse some of those.

My interest in Dharma and specifically Buddhadharma goes back to 2000 or so, if not earlier. But it has changed a bit over the years.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I left Christianity since 2006.

Now open end, wild fox zen. Back to the wilderness.

 

[Altfish]

Over 50 years of being an atheist.
Spent my formative years being indoctrinated in Christianity, this lasted until I was about 14.

 

[an anarchist]

I left Christianity less than a year ago. I’ve been exploring eastern religion for like five years now, though.
Edit: all I know is that my beliefs will change because they will mature as I intake more knowledge.

 

[Quintessence]

Something something two to three decades depending on when one wants to say it "started." Could tell you were a young'un from the poll capping out at over a decade... haha.

And yes, I'll die as I am now. I figured myself out back in college and not much has really changed.

 

[syo]

My entire lifetime.

 

[ChristineM]

I am atheist, a stance i took after reading the bible at age 14/15. Im now fifty fluggle

 

[TransmutingSoul]

It has been a 38 year journey to date.

My wife the same time, my wife found the Baha'i Faith for us.

Regards Tony

 

[Secret Chief]

How long have you been in your religion?

About 25 years.

Do you think you will be in your religion, or without one, for the rest of your life?

Yes.

When you joined your last religion was it from natural conversion or from proselytizing?

Can one "convert" from atheism? Anyhoo, no proselytising occurred.

 

[Secret Chief]

14 years roughly.

Preceded by?

 

[Secret Chief]

Could tell you were a young'un from the poll capping out at over a decade... haha.

I know, that was barely last week.

 

[Kenny]

Initially inspired by this thread by @Seeker of White Light . If you have the time, go ahead and look at it for yourself.

I was completely wrong in one of my latest posts about not creating new threads. I got too much ideas for topics and I can't ignore them.

This should be an interesting Interfaith Discussion topic. And everybody can answer. If you are not part of a religion, simply tell us when you started to disbelieve in religion. I think based on that idea everybody should be able to answer this.

Okay, as far as myself goes... This is going to be confusing. I started to believe the idea "God is change" when I was 14, when I had my epiphany. My epiphany wasn't exactly that God is change, but rather humans are creating God through change - which is Earthseed's second tenet, "Shape God."

But I didn't know about the transhumanist or syntheist religions until I was about 26. And after that, I didn't realize that it all came from the early 1990's religion Earthseed until I was about 31 years old. My religion didn't find me, I found my religion by searching the Internet for transhumanist religions, then finding Terasem, and then tracing Terasem back to Earthseed.

I know all of this is very confusing. But right now I'm 33 years old. Since my original epiphany came to me, while I was 14, 19 years have passed. Even though I didn't know what to call myself while I was 14, and often told people I was agnostic, I consider the initial epiphany when I was a teenager as my initial conversion as an Earthseed shaper. Since I wasn't introduced to a religion by my parents, I wasn't proselytized but naturally adopted it, before I knew it even existed.

Earthseed is the basic idea that inspired many others. From Earthseed came Solseed, Astronism, Turing Church, Terasem and my very own Exaltism. All of these religions are classified as "Syntheist" religions, meaning, that we believe humans are creating God, rather than God has created us. Syntheism by itself can be viewed as a subset of atheism, pantheism, transtheism or possibly all three. However my theology adheres more to Syntheism itself than any one of those three. If I had to gauge I would say there's about 10,000 people in the world who adhere to the Syntheist-type religions, including myself.

So I intend on answering this poll "Longer Than a Decade", even though I've only been formally introduced to the same concept I believe and know about roughly two years ago.

TL;DR - How long have you been in your religion? If you don't have a religion, how long have you rejected religion? I know that can be hard to gauge, since some people are never in a religion. Do you think you will be in your religion, or without one, for the rest of your life? When you joined your last religion was it from natural conversion or from proselytizing? Answer the poll* and let us know how long you've been in your religion below.**

*(I realize that entire lifetimes are typically more than a decade long. I added the last option in the poll for people whom been baptized as an infant and never left their religion, or were raised in a nonreligious household and afterwards never joined a religion.)

**(Remember this is Interfaith Discussion. Share your own beliefs and where they came from here but avoid debating with others.)

40 years in the Christian faith and adding. Previously 28 years of.... no religion.

 

[Eddi]

This is difficult for me to answer.....

I was christened as a child when I was four years old, but I never considered this to be valid so I don't count from then

I got baptised in January 2020 but soon fell out of the Christian faith

But I re-joined it a few weeks back, with much greater enthusiasm than I had in January 2020

So in one sense, since January 2020 but in another since a few weeks back

So sorry but I'm not going to answer the poll as it cannot do justice to the intricacies of my situation

I don't see myself moving on from Christianity in the future

Not at all

 

[The Hammer]

Preceded by?

Catholic/Christian, it's how I was raised.

 

[Exaltist Ethan]

Something something two to three decades depending on when one wants to say it "started." Could tell you were a young'un from the poll capping out at over a decade... haha.

I thought people changed their spiritual / religious views more often. Was not expecting over 50% to say more than ten years, and if you combine that with the life timers, that's 70% of people saying they've been in their religion for at least ten years. Very interesting. Maybe I should have went "10 to 20 Years", then "20 to 40 Years" and then "My Entire Lifetime", although 40 years is well past my age.

Still, it's great to see so many people who are consistent with their values.

 

[mangalavara]

TL;DR - How long have you been in your religion? If you don't have a religion, how long have you rejected religion? I know that can be hard to gauge, since some people are never in a religion. Do you think you will be in your religion, or without one, for the rest of your life? When you joined your last religion was it from natural conversion or from proselytizing? Answer the poll* and let us know how long you've been in your religion below.**

I have been a Hindu for one year and seven months, so far. Honestly, I can see myself being a Hindu for the rest of my life. This is because the Hindu understanding of dharma in particular resonates with me so easily. Additionally, my spirituality as a Hindu is rich and fulfilling. My previous religion was Kemeticism. I adhered to it for about two months. What drew me to it were the deities, the idea of ma'at, and the ancient religion's air of serenity. Ultimately, a reconstructed or revived form of Kemeticism just did not have what I needed.