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Something that's made me curious is how people choose to convert to another religion. I think this community is probably well aware of what it's like to lose faith in religion and become atheist/agnostic. What I want to know is people who picked another religion (or converted from a secular childhood to a religion), what made you look at all religions you could have converted to and go "Yes, this is definitely the right one for me"? What was the "aha" moment for you or did it take a lot of searching? What I don't want:
RagnarokAngel fucked around with this message at 06:51 on Jul 16, 2014 |
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Jul 16, 2014 03:18
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 06:46 |
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I was raised as an LCMS Lutheran (among the most traditionalist of denominations). Up to and including high school, I didn't really think about my faith because it was comforting, I liked the community, and probably most importantly (although I didn't realize it at the time), bringing up even basic questions is a huge faux pas. Even today, members of the church will say that discussion is totally welcome, but that's a lie. The end result is everyone already there will tell you how you are wrong and you just out yourself as 'that guy' who maybe supports gay marriage or women in the priesthood. So coloring outside the lines was frowned upon. In college, I got a chance to do that without having to put myself on the line in front of my family and community. It was a really slow transition that was just a serious of critical thinking exercises and a huge mental effort to slowly toss out unresolvable cognitive dissonances and rationalize the ones that could be. So, it kind of started with, 'does God interact with the day to day lives of people. Does prayer actually have an affect', and the answer is probably 'no'. It was only years after I came to that conclusion that I saw Tim Michin's 'Thank You God', but it sums up how I arrived to that almost perfectly. So then we dig a little deeper and say, 'What about homosexuality?' Well, there is pretty tremendous evidence that you are kind of born that way. Beyond that, I was 'struggling' with homosexuality myself, which was a huge 'problem' for me in high school. I eventually started looking into the academic side of the bible, learned who wrote the various books, why they wrote them and the context under which they were written and came to the conclusion that one old, regional, jewish law and Paul's seemingly endless discrimination does not really reflect the teachings of the gospel Christ even a little bit. So, I tossed that. Other questions ranging from easy to really hard popped up. 'What about the flood'? What about Babel? What about Christ himself? I gave the existence of a God the benefit of the doubt, and asked, 'what really is the central message here?' What I ended up doing is I internalized the bible like so: The old testament books, barring the first 5, provide a historically questionable account of a pre-Christ era for the sake of context. The first 5 are...hosed up and range from 'history' to wackyland! The post Gospel books, specifically Paul's letters represent the interpretation of Christ's teaching, but they are just that: One, flawed dude's interpretation of the text and while it's really useful, it's not absolute. As far as the Gospels go, if it's written in red, I generally take it to the bank and cash it. I really like Christ, I think his teachings are great and it sounds like a dude I'd follow. His message of humility, generosity and love is absolutely fantastic and contrasts heavily with the entire OT which is a lot more about exclusion and punishment than it is inclusion and acceptance. So over the last decade or so, I arrived at what could probably be best described as Deism. I'm quiet about it, but enjoy talking to people about it who are willing to actually have a discussion. I'm willing to pivot my beliefs still and probably will be forever. I don't think that the LCMS church, or really any christian church is even close to 'right', and I think they do a lot of damage to what could be a really great faith, but like I said, bringing up a discussion of any kind is a huge faux pas, so I quietly keep my faith to myself. Canine Blues Arooo fucked around with this message at 05:46 on Jul 16, 2014 |
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Jul 16, 2014 05:10
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If you haven't heard of it, may I recommend you try out the sample of The Rage Against God, by Peter Hitchens? (Yes, the late Christopher's brother.) His journey is almost exactly what you're asking about: from childhood faithful to hardcore athiest, to going back to being a believer as a grown adult. I've been meaning to read the whole thing as the sample itself was enticing. Plus, how often do you see a testimonial that has an arc like that? (Not nearly as often.)
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Sep 30, 2014 11:58
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There's probably a bunch of new age chumps to ask this question in the Buddhism A/T thread.
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Oct 1, 2014 00:12
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Animism because kodama are kawaii.
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Oct 1, 2014 12:22
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 06:46 |
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changed my mind
lostdogcantstay fucked around with this message at 19:05 on Oct 1, 2014 |
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Oct 1, 2014 19:03
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