Your religion and your religious background

[Smoke]

Are you a convert to your religion, or do you follow the same faith as your ancestors -- or something else?

 

[TheKnight]

I was raised in a fundamentalist Christian background. Now, I believe in Judaism as an observant Noahide. I haven't, yet ,converted to Judaism. I'm not sure yet if I will or will not, but maybe when I'm older...

 

[whereismynotecard]

Lots of my older relatives are Christian or something like that.
Some of them are really in to it, while others just believe in god,
but don't go to church all the time or do prayers.

My sisters and I are the atheist generation. Our parents both
believe(ed) in God, but I'm not really sure of a specific religion.
My mom thinks her dad might not believe in god, but she won't
ask him about it.

 

[Madhuri]

I was brought up in the Hare Krishna community. Around the age of 15 I started to question things seriously and began discussing religion and spirituality with people from different belief systems including atheists. I have also spent time studying aspects of other religions and tried to be open minded. It has been an amazing influence. I've gradually departed from the Hare Krishna institution and am not interested in associating myself with any one institution. With all of my learning and experience I still uphold the Vedic scriptures as the highest and deepest knowledge, and so it is the basis from which I percieve the world. I find great value in these writings as they allow me to view the who world as lovable and equal to myself and this suits my nature very well.

 

[whereismynotecard]

I voted that my parents are of different religions, but I'm not really sure... Just to let you know.
I think my dad was Christian, but I'm not really sure. He got baptised and argued with me about
religion all the time. And my mom thinks there is probably a god, but not the Christian one.

???

 

[Madhuri]

I voted 'other' because I haven't so much converted religion as I have changed my perception of the religion and simply caste away the institutional aspect and label.

 

[Willamena]

Are you a convert to your religion, or do you follow the same faith as your ancestors -- or something else?

Convert.
No particular religion.
Something else.

 

[anupj]

earlier i did not know anything about religion, god, mysticism etc.
i just thought that something is there above us all, these thoughts were in my mind because of other people around me(my parents, relatives, etc.).
but i really did not know the purpose of this thing.
but in recent years i am studying hinduism(religion of my ancestors), and its various scriptures.
i have not yet entirely known what is god, and what is our purpose on earth but i am sure i will know this one day

 

[sandandfoam]

I was brought up as a Prod. It had little to do with God.
In the time and place I grew up that identity didn't have much to do with religion. It was confused with an element of Britishness and had more to do with what we weren't than what we were. It separated us from the community we lived in.
My father had been a Catholic but he let it go around the time of my birth. I always felt like we were outsiders, we had to travel miles for school and we had little to do with the kids around us.
My religion now is - umm - I dunno but I do think my desire to find one is probably rooted in my background.

 

[blackout]

I finally came back to mySelf after fighting religious repression as a teen,
then later falling deep into it for almost 10 years.

I grew up with a mom who while she was ever so sweet,
and truly meant well,
could not seperate her catholicism and traditionalism
from her "expectations" of us.

I was really more of a Self seeker/mystic/Carlos Casteneda type,
but it wasn't "allowed".
Fear and doubt constantly instilled,
(tarot cards... astral projection... divination)
I was also more of an artist of self...
but that was only "allowed" to an extent.
No body piercings, no blue hair, no tatts...
and because they were mostly supporting me... well.

Anyway, I don't know if my "religion" is a religion at all.
But I feel I'm at home in mySelf again.
Actually for the first time completely.
I am now free to touch mySelf... love mySelf... and other women as well...
all my taboos smashed to pieces.
After years of shadowy fear.
In the end, my journey into Catholicism... and out of church Christianity
was the death of me.
which was good.
Because I got to start all over at 40.
It's a great place in life to start over.

 

[BucephalusBB]

I was brought up christian. And "converted" to atheism. I quote "converted" as even though I was brought up as christian, I never really was... I think.
I see my father shifting towards atheism more and more, but as I do not know exactly where he stands now, I cannot vote for that option.

 

[te_lanus]

Me have Grown into my Religion, took years of study.

Me parents brought me up as a Fundamentalist. But me rebeled ata a early age, Went into Satanism/Occult did that for a few years, then went back to Christianity, and then Wicca, And now Me follow Me own Path

 

[Erebus]

My dad is an agnostic, my mum is kind of a neo-pagan christian.

I've tried various religions over the years but so far all of them have had something not quite right about them. If people ask me my religion I will usually say either Pagan or Luciferian as these are the labels of best fit. In reality though, I don't follow any set doctrine or deity, I just research other beliefs and "adapt" the parts I like into my own life.

 

[Storm]

Are you a convert to your religion, or do you follow the same faith as your ancestors -- or something else?

I was brought up with no religious identity, but have joined a religion, and I have converted to a new religion (though not necessarily organized) more than once.

I was raised nominally, but not really Christian. My deist father was a MUCH bigger influence, his insistence upon letting me find my own path most definitely included. I just put my own thoughts into Christian terms, because that's all I had been really exposed to, living in the Bible Belt.

When my parents split up (I was 10 or 11), I became atheist. Then I had my theophany, and since then, I've gone from maltheism to hard polytheism to henotheism to my own current bizarrity.

So, as... colorful as my theological journey has been, imagine my surprise when I finally sat down. looked at the 7 Principles of UU, and discovered there was a religion I'd believed in all along!

 

[Vile Atheist]

Are you a convert to your religion, or do you follow the same faith as your ancestors -- or something else?

Catholic -> Fundamentalist Baptist -> Agnostic -> Atheist

 

[monta]

Like a lot of atheists my parents are of allegedly different religions, my mum is church of England and my dad is catholic, my mums father was church of england but her mother was catholic , and in turn my grandmothers mother was catholic but her father was jewish. My dads family though are all catholic.

 

[Evee]

All of my Mom's family is Jewish, but you have to go back four generations to find one who believed in G-d. (Except for my cousin, who became Chabad, moved to Israel and is now a Torah scribe...)
My Dad's family isn't religious at all and that's how my sisters and I were brought up.
But now I believe in G-d! Yay!

 

[Nepenthe]

Moms is Russian Orthodox, my father was as well but he drifted away long ago. I don't know his belief system these days- probably some vague deism I suppose. My moms is still with the church. Both my father's parents were Russian Orthodox going back through their grandparents as well. My mother's mom (my baba) was Russian Orthodox and her father (dido) was a secular Jew. I don't know much about their parents or earlier but I know dido's father was from Hungary.

I was nominally Russian Orthodox and probably held some vague theistic concept until I was probably 4ish (that's about when we first moved and church was never visited again until baba died in '02)- though I consider myself an atheist as long as I can remember.

 

[Light On]

Grew up Non-denominational, still am.

 

[blackout]

I forgot to mention, my dad is pretty much agnostic I would say.

I don't think the whole subject of god in general interests him all that much.
It never did when I was growing up,
but he never got in my mom's way of doing her catholic/christian thing.
(though I kind of wish he had in some areas... where it affected me and my bro)

That is to say, I wish he had been more outspoken about his own secular perspective/s.
I really never knew what HE thought about a whole host of things.

A bit more counter influence... even privately... could not have hurt.