[MorbidTravis]

i am a strong believer, but i hate that ppl think im not because i like death metal.

[ohio_eric]

I'm a practicing Catholic and will keep practicing until I get it right.

I love that joke.


Anyway I was raised Catholic and went to twelve years of Catholic school. Even though my mom is a devout Catholic my dad never went to church and wasn't Catholic. He hated going to church. So I got both sides. My late teens and twenties were spent being like my dad and never going to church. Then in my thirties I realized that for whatever it was worth I am a Catholic and started going back to Mass and being more active in my church.

In so far as getting religion and just living by the ten commandments I would say no thanks. The most important and uplifitng thing in the Bible is Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. Now that's the good stuff. Mercy for the poor and to be peace makers and seek justice imagine if all Christians live like that. The world would be a much better place.

[deguello666]

I was brought up with no religion in the household per se...I think my parents classed themselves as " church of england ", but not practising..
I was always given the option to choose what religion I wanted to be, and never saw fit to follow anything up on that score, although I do feel that buddhism etc hold more of a charm over the likes of christianity etc....

I don't see anything wrong in anyone choosing whatever religion they do so...but my trouble is I just don't BELIEVE....in my heart of hearts, I would be doing myself an injustice living as a hypocrite....sure I could embrace ANY religion I wanted to, but it would certainly be a false embrace, so I choose not to...and I certainly don't feel I have a gap that needs filling in that area...

[Metal Ken]

Originally Posted by Zepp88

I also have little use for the bible, but I think that The Ten Commandments is one of the most important things ever written.

I'd say the last 5 are the important ones, and even then, they're common sense. Dont Murder, lie, cheat, steal & covet.

[Naren]

Originally Posted by Metal Ken

I'd say the last 5 are the important ones, and even then, they're common sense. Dont Murder, lie, cheat, steal & covet.

Yeah, if there's no God, then "don't take the Lord's name in vain" and "keep the Sabbath holy" are pretty useless commandments.

Sure, we don't know if the universe started from the big bang or from whatever, but I think that saying it "must be God" is not a good excuse to fall back on. It seems like the cop-out excuse to use because you don't know the answer. "Why is it this way?" "Uh... because God made it that way." People a long time ago had no idea why we were here, so they thought up the idea of God.

Like I already said, I won't rule out the possibility of there being a God, but like JJ said, it seems pretty unlikely to me.

And just because I don't have an answer for everything doesn't default the correct answer to being "God."

[Quicksilver689]

I'll give a brief version of my testimony...I first got saved when I was 17, and then lost my way for 14 years before coming back to the Lord in April 2007. I admit openly that I'm a Christian and that Jesus is my Lord and Savior. I was not raised that way, ironically - I'm the only Christian in my family from back home in Canada, although a few of them believe that there's a God, most either don't or don't care though. I admit also that for most of my life, I was very skeptical of anything about God, and had tried a few churches in my teens that were all about you fitting into their mold, which is the wrong way to share the love of Christ with people (it actually accomplishes the opposite - DUH, there's a shocker! ).

One thing that really helped me out when I was seeking answers last year was a book by Lee Strobel called The Case For Easter. I've since been reading a few of his other books on and off when time allows as well. What makes his books interesting is his point of view - he spent most of his life as an atheist and spiritual skeptic, and has backgrounds in both law and journalism (he was legal editor of the Chicago Tribune for years also), so he's very much a thinker type of person (for anyone who's ever done a Myers/Briggs kind of personality test, it means that he's a "T" type as opposed to "J", which means that his mind takes precedence over his feelings). I've spent the majority of my life that way as well, and I'm a Cisco networking engineer by day with a background in electronics, so I'm also very much a thinker type, though I've changed somewhat as time goes on. Another good source of answers for me has been GotQuestions.org.

I strive very much to be a happy and grateful Christian instead of a religious one, and yes there's a difference. I am also the lead guitarist in my church's worship band at a non-denominational church. I have found that a non-denominational church works better for me, because I also believe that unfortunately, denominational differences can often (but not always) lead to disunity among Christians. Not only that, but the churches I had attended on my teens were denominational, and I had zero luck finding one that would "set the truth forth plainly" (2 Cor 4:2) without judging me. The bottom line is that it's about Jesus and what the Bible says, and in terms of the big picture, church doctrine outside of what's written in the Bible has nothing to do with anything.

I lead worship because I feel called to do it, but not everyone is called to do it. There are tons of Christian musicians out there that play in secular bands because leading worship is not their calling (John Myung from Dream Theater is one of many examples) - and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

From my own experience, there's also a right way and a wrong way to share the Gospel and love of Christ with people...and ramming it down people's throats is definitely the wrong way. Unfortunately, there's a lot of that in the world...

Just thought I'd contribute...

[JJ Rodriguez]

Originally Posted by Quicksilver689

From my own experience, there's also a right way and a wrong way to share the Gospel and love of Christ with people...and ramming it down people's throats is definitely the wrong way. Unfortunately, there's a lot of that in the world...

That I can respect. It's when guys come knocking on my door or stopping me on the street that I want to punch them.

If people want to worship something, and it makes them happy, all the power to them, just don't shit on me for the way I live my life, or harass me when I have better things to do. I don't care if you're trying to "save me" or whatever, it's not like people don't know religion is out there, if I really wanted to join the church I'm sure I could find my way there.

[Nerina]

Originally Posted by JJ Rodriguez

That I can respect. It's when guys come knocking on my door or stopping me on the street that I want to punch them.

If people want to worship something, and it makes them happy, all the power to them, just don't shit on me for the way I live my life, or harass me when I have better things to do. I don't care if you're trying to "save me" or whatever, it's not like people don't know religion is out there, if I really wanted to join the church I'm sure I could find my way there.

Exactly.

[abyss258]

Originally Posted by stuh84

You know how people have epiphanies which make them believe?

I had sort of like a ray of light hit me, and I KNEW in myself that there could be no higher power. Fair play to all believers out there, but just like you know there is a God, I know there isn't.

I also don't follow the idea that because science cannot explain it (whether it will be able to or not), that the only other option is belief. There are many things that aren't explained by either side, I just spend my time not caring about either side, got much better things to do than devote precious time to a belief in something which has no tangible explanation.

Somehow, this exact thing hit me around a year ago.

I was raised as a Christian in a not so religious family (parents work a lot) and I just started to question everything. This lead to me searching around for different religions and ideas. After failing to find somethnig that I liked, I just started to make my own ideas on everything.

Now I'm 99.9% Atheist and .1% Agnostic. You just can't completely rule out things that are unknown, so I'll keep an open mind.

[TheMissing]

I don't follow any religion or faith, but I do enjoy learning about them and taking bits and pieces from here and there. But I still don't believe in a higher power, I only believe in what I can achieve with my own spirit and mind.

Rather than take up a belief system, or pray to whichever god, I'll just read what was taught, and maybe take a thing or two from it. I enjoyed learning about Wicca, I've read two books on the subject and it's the closest to actually liking a religion i've ever come to. I wear a pentagram(pointing up) around my neck, but I also have a Saint Christopher charm around my neck. I wear the upwards pointing pentagram because it represents the four elements, and the spirit (the spirit being the uppermost point), which I personally associate with my Transcendentalism ideas. And I wear the St. Christopher charm because it's my name, and he was a guardian (and apparently good with kids) just like me.

But I really don't tie them to religion, and I don't see the need to. I like taking moral lessons from here and there and applying them to my own life.

Now, when I mentioned Transcendentalism earlier, that also has no ties to religion. I personally have a strong belief in the human spirit, and the connections they can bring between two people (I've had strange things happen to me in the past that made me believe in that kind of thing). It's tough to explain my thoughts on it, as it's something I feel more than something I can talk about. But put it this way... Let's say like is like living in a canyon, you can choose to walk the canyon floor, and follow the path it has set for you, or you can look up, find a ledge or a walkway and think "How can I get up to that ledge?" So basically, instead of staying in the canyon, I feel inclined to work my way up to the ledge and be able to look around at a broader picture with greater understanding.

...Not really sure how to collect my thoughts on the matter, I seem to have better luck talking to people about it in person.