I was going through an experimental phase, spirituality-wise. Even back then, I had an urge to join some formal religion, but I was also going through a really serious anti-Christian phase.
I started reading about Islam. It had a certain appeal, especially the doctrines concerning humankind’s relationship with God.
I decided to try an experiment. If it worked, I would get myself down to the nearest mosque and talk to the Imam about formal conversion.
For three weeks, I behaved as though I were a Muslim. I dressed conservatively, wore a headscarf, and observed the dietary restrictions and five times a day, I pointed myself in the general direction of Mecca and, well, didn’t precisely pray, but meditated on God.
At the end of three weeks, I had a really intense craving for pork.
Needless to say, I did not convert to Islam.
I imaging God was highly amused by my little experiment.
Has anyone else ever done something similar? In the quest for religious enlightment or fulfillment, has anyone on the SDMB spent a period of time practicing a religion that they didn’t actually belong to in an effort to find out if that was the right faith for them?
I was an atheist for most of my rather unpleasant early life. One of the main factors for turning me away from any notion of God and, specifically, Christianity, were the nonny-heads who always tried to ram the same down my throat, including the professional theological nonny-heads on the idiotbox.
It gets quite complicated from there, but one major realization that I had was that we can distiniguish between the possibility of ahigher power as a separate issue from the God of the nonny-heads, and at some point I decided that evolution makes a lot of sense but that it maybe makes more sense to suggest that the self-designing universe came about due to some driving impetus above and beyond accidents, within accidents, within accidents.
So, really skipping a lot, I pray pretty often to my own notion of a higher power which sort of links the concept of the evolution of matter and energy and the evolution of life and conscisousness as examples of the same with the contention of the ancient Greeks that the cosmos is an immense organism, of which we are all parts, and the belief held by the Buddhists that all matter and energy are conscious, (of which all points of consciousness are but examples.) All of that said, when I pray, at which I slack at times, it often feels like a chore when I first hunker down and do it, but generally, although not always, feels better afterward. Sometimes I have to remind myself. (Sorry if that wasn’t hella specific a response to your question!) Peace, K.S.L.
I tried Christianity briefly when I was in college, having grown up fairly neutral-athiest (when I was little I thought I was Protestant simply because all the other kids were either Catholic or Jewish and I knew we didn’t do the same stuff as them). I went to a few meetings of Christian student groups and spent a couple of weeks reading the gospels. At the end of it, I was pretty certain that this wasn’t what I really believed in.
I kicked around a few different ideas for a while before settling into non-religious Daoism a little after graduation (basically, don’t tell the world what it should be. Is is the truth, while should be is a self-deluding fiction), which has served me well ever since.
I was raised in a very strict Christian home but for many reasons, it did not suit what I believed to be a love based belief. So I explored everything from eastern to earth based religions. I think you have to do that to discover what you do and don’t believe. There may be a local Unitarian Universalist group in your area. They usually have groups that study several religious beliefs, yet they believe that people can still come together despite their difference for the greater good. May be something you could look into ~ they may have some courses you would enjoy. I know my local one has Atheist, Goddess, Christian, etc classes through out the month.
I am, right now, as a matter of fact. I’ve been praying rosaries for three days now. On day one and two, it helped immensely. Today, day three, began very well and ended in huge crushing horror.
I’m still going to pray tomorrow. Maybe harder than I have. Also, check my sig.
I also fantasize about being Jewish often. Maybe I’ll try that one too.
Oh, I have dabbled a bit in everything- Scientology, Kabbalistic Judaism, Christian Science. Wicca/Paganism aside, most of them are just so darned similar- especially the ‘true stories’ straight from converts’ mouths about ‘seeing the light’ aka realising they’d chosen the true faith- that it’s hard to keep a straight face. Back to the comfy nook between atheism and secular humanism (on a good day).
Raised fundamentalist Baptist, then Presbyterian (my parents switched denominations when I was a kid). In my early to mid teens I read up on a whole lot of different religions and belief systems in an attempt to find something more satisfying than Christianity and that seemed truer to me. When I didn’t find it, I just invented my own religion when I was 15, based on what I believed at the time. Invented my own rituals and a holy book and everything. I was basically a deist then, with various other more specific ideas of my own on the subject. Then I just drifted off into agnosticism after I realised that nobody could really say for sure what’s going on. And it did seem kinda dubious to just invent a religion. LOL. I’ve been an atheist since I was 17.
Thea I admire your ability to try out a religion farther than many would. I don’t think I could ever gel with Islam for the most vaccuous of reasons: I look like crap in a do-rag, what would a head scarf do to my fair-thee-well looks.
( These same reasons keep me from ever joining a nunnery as well.) I want to be holy and stylish at the same time. Do these negate each other ( Besies the small fact that nearly all nuns turn into hags and walk like crabs.
Raised in a strict Catholic enviroment, I have never felt at home with their teachings, much to the chagrin of my family.
I haven’t tried any new-to-me- religions as there are no temples, shrines or synagoges within a reasonable driving distance from me, but I have interest in Buddhism (fascinating, but reading their works is like reading a tax form.), Hinduism (intersting, but I don’t think I could ever worship an elephant with many arms.), Pagan (I don’t want to be misconstrued as some teenie bopper), and a mash of a few others.
I try to take the cream off the top of all the biggies and just be nice to people.
I thought Judaism (the religion) was deeply tied into having a Jewish (the race) identity–the whole “God’s chosen people” thing. Or is this another difference between the Reform/Conservative/Orthodox groups?
FWIW, I was raised a nominal Methodist (as in “we go to church so we can say we go to church”). Was a devout atheist for college and have since developed an interest in liberal (yay John Spong!) Christianity. I’ve been checking out a local Episcopal church. Not sure if it fits yet.
Don’t lots of people convert though? Like from just general interest or by marriage? I think I remember that folks like Madonna and Roseanne have. Of course, maybe it’s only allowed for famous celebrities who only go by one name.
It’s certainly possible to convert to Judaism, though it certainly happens less often than most other religions. This is because we don’t actively seek out converts. In fact, a rabbi is supposed to give any potential converts three reasons why he shouldn’t convert.
But once you’ve gone through the process, you’re no less Jewish than any other Jew - and that applies to the cultural aspects as much as the religious ones.
I’d just like to point out that “G-d’s chosen people” doesn’t mean what some interpret it to mean. It means that Jews were chosen to carry out the 613 commandments.
I won’t get into the Reform/Conservative/Orthodox thing. But there is a huge difference, most of which is notable in how they observe these commandments.
Not too many people convert to Judaism, in proportion to those who convert to other religions, such as Islam. Unfortunately, many rabbis do convert people for marriage.
Roseanne Barr was always Jewish.
Madonna dabbles in Kabbalah, defined by MSN Encarta as: 1. mystical Jewish teachings: a body of mystical Jewish teachings based on an interpretation of hidden meanings in the Hebrew Scriptures 2. set of mystical beliefs: a set of secret or mystical beliefs
This hardly makes her a Jew. Jews are even advised not to study Kabbalah before the age of 40, because it requires a great deal of maturity and understanding of Judaism.
Kabbalah is also the reason you’ll see red string bracelets on the left wrists of Madonna, Britney Spears, and Paris Hilton for starters. Doesn’t make them Jews; just makes the bracelet somewhat of a pop icon, unfortunately.
I was raised Catholic, but it really, REALLY didn’t sit with me. Ever. I never believed it for as long back as I can remember, despite all the Catchecism and this strange first Weds of every month religious school thing my mom sent me to.
So, I was agnostic for a while. Then die-hard athiest. Then softer athiest.
After High school, I tried Wicca out for about a week, but decided it was too “everything is the world is good, nothing bad happens” for me.
From there, I went to Voodoo (well, kind of a mesh between Voodoo and Vodou). Quite enjoyed that. But I was still having problems with the whole One Supreme God thing (Voodoo has a lot in common with Catholicism, and I didn’t feel like going back all the way to the African base).
So, I’ve finally settled on Animism with Vodou leanings. Strange thing there.
Well, I tried being Baha’i for about 3 months before I converted. I don’t know if that really counts, though, because the only real change that made in my daily life was in saying the daily obligatory prayer. A great majority of the other laws of the faith, I was already practicing, and most of the beliefs of the faith were things I already believed. I did have a brief time when I wondered if I would be able to handle fasting for 19 days out of the year, but when I decided to convert, I decided that I would just do the best I could. Turned out to be not as hard as I thought.
Um, if you get that huge, crushing horror thing again… just go straight on into the next set of mysteries. Once you work through it, it’s actually kinda peaceful on the other side. If things are still to weird for you after that, you can just use the rosary to say the Jesus Prayer, and a Hail Mary on the Our Father beads (Jesus Prayer makes a lovely walking meditation, BTW)
When I first came back into the Church, I had a lot of qualms about praying the rosary, or about any prayers to the saints. My parents had sent me to a fund’ist Baptist school when I was in my early teens (seems they thought the bullying I was a victim of in middle school was a sign that I was a Bad Kid and needed to be fixed), and I had gotten the idea from them that asking people who were already in Heaven to pray for me was pagan. 'Course, this same school gave me the idea that every human being is born damned and will automatically go to Hell unless they become a fund’ist Baptist…
Anyhoo, the first few times I prayed the rosary, it was kinda freaky, but eventually settled in and got comfortable.
I go through phases when I’m praying the rosary daily, and phases when I don’t pray it for months, and I must say that I’m more at peace with the universe when I’m praying it daily.
As for the Jewish thing…
Father Francis says that in order to be a good Catholic, first you have to be a good Jew.
I dunno if this counts as “trying one on for size,” but about 15 or 20 years ago, I studied all of them to see if any of them would fit (“Does this religion make my ass look big?”).
This was before the Internet, mind you–or at least before I had access to it. So I got out reference books on what the history and beliefs were of as many religions as I could find, ancient and modern. All sects of Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, Wicca, the old Greek and Roman religions, you name it.
The only two I could find that remotely made any sense to me were Unitarianism and Shintoism. But they still required a suspension of disbelief in the supernatural, and I just decided, “Guess I’m a nat’ral-born athiest and there ain’t no gettin around it.”
Uhh…you’re converting to Nihilism?
I was raised Roman Catholic but it didn’t “take”. It always felt foreign to me, even though my entire extended family is steeped in it. I didn’t follow anything for quite a while after I moved away from home. A few years back my wife and I tried on the local Unitarian Universalist church for size and it has been a decent fit…good enough for my purposes. So we joined and are still there.
I tried vanilla protestantism for a while in my teens. No, ummm, “chemistry.” I appreciate religions as systems, as literary and philosophical constructs, and as poetry. A lot of work went into them, and I could almost see myself taking up this “lifestyle choice,” if you will.
I knew wouldn´t be able to convince myself to ignore my inner critic/cynic/skeptic. I accept that some people can make this CHOICE to believe.
Sometimes, I regret that it’s not in my psychological makeup to make myself believe in religion, to “let go” and hand the reins over to Someone or Something else.
Other times, I actually do engage in my own bitter version of religion: some God or Gods are out there, but I don’t agree with how they run their religions or the world, so we’ll just go our separate ways. Kinda like a conscientious objector.
( Besies the small fact that nearly all nuns turn into hags and walk like crabs.