When did you find your religion

In My Humble Opinion
1

Just curious at what age you identified with the belief system you currently follow.

For example:
Were you baptized into the Catholic church as an infant and continue to follow that faith? Did you realize it made sense to you at some particular time?
Did you spend years searching before realizing you were a Buddhist at heart?
Did you become an atheist directly after rebelling against your “family” faith, or after a comprehensive search of other faith systems?

Underlying this questions:
Do you think religious awareness occurs most lastingly at some stage of life?
Does infant baptism “take”?
Have most folk here practiced one “religion” throughout their entire lives?
Have you tried to see if others suited you better?
Do you anticipate doing so in the furure?

Me, baptized Catholic, realized I did not believe Catholicism while in grade school, figured out I was atheist in high school/college, and realized my beliefs fit in at a UU church in my 30s. Never took formal comparative religion classes, but did some (not incredibly extensive) reading on my own, mainly after college.

2

Well… this is an interesting qiestion with me.

I was raised Jewish. I actually had my bat mitzvah (I THINK that’s how you spell it). I went through years of “Hebrew School” (Learned not a single thing, except how to escape getting hanged…)
After that, I tried many different religions. I tried any religion that a friend believed in, and a few that nobody’s ever heard of. I’ve tried religions from book, in fact, one in particular that I still kinda use.
But my main religion now, and for the past two years, is Wicca. I found that Wicca is the one faith that I can actually understand in a way that applies to my life.
A few of my friends also join me in my belief, which is great, but there are still a lot of people who are very against us just because of what we believe. It’s not the “easy way out” people think it is, and it’s very fulfilling, to me.

3

Baptized as an infant into the Roman Catholic Church.
Also ‘practiced’ Orthodox beliefs (Mom was Russian Orthodox, converted to RCC to marry dad, but we still celebrated Christmas, Easter, etc., two weeks later with mom’s relatives.
Severe test of faith in Mass one Sunday (still in grade school) with the line “Wives, be subserviant to your husbands.” What the…? Nuh uh, no way, ain’t going there. Almost lost any interest in getting married at that point (got it back later when I realized the world had more that RCC-RO people in it - we lived in a very tight-knit community).
Became a closted agnostic at that point (would probably have been beaten for professing anything other than community standards).
Became open agnostic/free-lancer (explored other faiths) in college.
Still free-lancing.
Still haven’t found what I’m looking for.

4

Baptized a Catholic, raised by very casual Catholic parents. As an adult, I participate much more in the church than my parents do.

I never had a big crisis of faith. I have always been interested in other religions and have enjoyed learning about them because I am curious, but not so much because I am shopping around for a new one.

5

I am Jewish, though I consider more of my heritage than my religion. I grew up celebrating Christmas (one year my mother and I put a Star of David as the topper to our Christmas tree), hunting for Easter eggs and eating bacon cheeseburgers. So, not your typical Jewish upbringing.

I didn’t have a Baht(?sp) Mitvah, went to Hebrew school for only one year in grade school (last thing I wanted was twice the homework), I’ve been to temple for the High Holidays once, been to mass a few times, went to a Baptist service and a Christian Scientist once. I haven’t been exposed to any of the “Eastern” religions.

I’m really not one for organised religions, I just don’t seem them as being a Good Thing. It seems they are more about power and control than being a good person and following whichever faith. I am not sure my own beliefs have a definition, I believe there is something, but wouldn’t call that something “God”, I do believe in reincarnation and the evolution of the soul. I would have to say that all this came about when I was about 15 or 16. It wasn’t really a ‘crisis of faith’ or anything, rather the age when I started to think about the purpose of Life.

6

I was raised agnostic/atheist (my mom kept the family bible on the shelf with the Oz books and other fantasy) and ran into a group of people in High School who were into Young Life and other youth Christianity stuff, started going to meetings because they were cool and the girls were gorgeous, got sorta sucked into it and became what I think of as a non-demonimational Christian at age 16. Tried going to church a few times, but everybody’s interpretation of the four Gospels differed from mine so I just went back, reread them, saw that what I was doing fit Jesus’s guidelines, and left it at that.

7

If any mod/administrator stumbles by and wouldn’t mind tagging “religion” to the end of the thread title, I would be most appreciative.

8

I was born and raised in a religious Jewish home. I thought of it more as a way of life, not really a religion. A culture. I had no problem identifying myself with it, but eventually, through much turmoil and strain in life, I somehow landed on learning more about eastern culture, and found myself looking for certain things in my life.
I landed on Buddhism, more specifically, Zen Buddhism, and I have been practicing for some years now, only, I have recently (within the last several months) taken up studying the Torah again, in fact, I’m reading some Maimonedies now, and I’m realizing that one doesn’t really have to stray into other orchards to find the same great tasting apples.
Alas, I am comfortable with the life I’ve established for myself, and I see no need to change it.

9

I was raised in a relaxed Christian family, we went to church very seldom. I gradually realised that I didn’t see any need or evidence for a god, and sometime in high school realised I didn’t have any need for faith in one either.

So now I’m atheist. I’m not loud about it. It would break my grandparents’ hearts, so I just don’t go to church with them when they invite me, over the holidays. Not exactly a don’t ask-don’t tell, but they haven’t thought to ask, and I don’t need to tell.

10

well, my dads a preacher for the Chruch of Christ, so mom and dad took me there since I was little. I chose to be baptised (nobody forces you to. thats just wrong) when I was 9 (when I understood about sin and such). now I go all the time. its my choice to go really. my opinion about church and children is, take them. if they whine, take them. it goes the same with like showers when kids are little. sure they might hate it, but if you dont force em to do it when their little, they’ll never do it when they grow up. somebody I know will find that offencive, and if you do, thats your problem. I wont go around buttering up the truth like a lot of people do. facts are facts, so dont go off about em. and to you that could care less. good for you.

11

Oddly enough, it was my baptism that made my parents angry with the church and they quit.

Until that point, they had sclepped along with my domineering grandmother.
But the priest went on and on how I was now dedicated to christ and the church and no longer the property of my parents, and it was up to the god parents to rescue me if they ever quit the church.

They took me home before he was done talking and never returned.

12

I was baptized as an infant in the Methodist church to which I now belong. My parents were both casual Protestants – Mom raised Lutheran (Norwegian) and Dad Presbyterian, and they had us baptized Methodists as a compromise. (Mom would not attend the Presbyterian church because her loathed MIL attended there; Dad would not attend the Lutheran church because his mother – the loathed MIL – would have had a fit. Why, I don’t know.) Note the deep religious thought going into the choice of church. :rolleyes:

I was raised, however, in the Congregational church, because the Methodist church stopped doing Sunday School and my parents were not sheparding three children under the age of four through services. (Deep religios thought about the choice of church continues.) That’s the church I was confirmed in and attended throughtout high school. I attended a pretty liberal Catholic church all through college and law school, but quickly realized that while I enjoyed that church, I could never be a Catholic. When I returned from college to my hometown, I found that the church I had grown up in had hired a pastor who was so mind-numbingly boring and uninspiring as to make going to church a trial. And if it is, why bother? So I did some reading on various denominations and some “church shopping” by attending services at churches, and decided to go to the Methodist church. When I found myself becoming more interested in Methodism, I read up on it and decided it was probably the denomination best fitted to my beliefs and culture. So I joined the church as an adult.

As a moderate Christian, I never had a conversion experience – I was never “born again.” But I did as a teenager take the process of being confirmed pretty seriously. I then went through the typical late-teens period of doubt and questioning, but I have by and large been throughout my life a person of faith – even if the contours of that faith have changed and are changing.

I have read up on (and taken classes in) most major religions. I have studied the Bible both formally and informally, as a touchstone of faith, a historical record, and a work of literature. I am a Christian by choice and a Methodist by choice, and by informed choice. Yes, I was more or less raised in the faith I hold now, but that doesn’t mean that faith was not knowingly and voluntarily accepted. It probably goes a long way towards explaining why it has been the best fit for me, but my ending up where I began was by no means a foregone conclusion.

Does that answer your question?

13

Actually, it found me.

I was baptized Catholic, but not raised in the Church. The only time I went to a Catholic Church was for weddings, though I attended Sunday School off and on when I was a kid, usually wherever one of my friends went, or whatever was closest, so no particular denomination.

When I was in Jr. High, my parents took it into their head that I was a bad kid and needed to be straightened out, so they sent me to a hardcore fundamentalist Baptist school. I believed their line for a while. During that time, my stepdad befriended some Mormon Missionaries, the family got the teachings, I believed and wanted to be baptized. Didn’t happen, Mom wouldn’t allow it.

Somewhere around the age of 18 or so, I started reflecting on what I had been taught about God in the Baptist school basically, you’re born damned, and no matter how good a person you are, if you’re not “saved”, you go to Hell, but if you’re “saved”, no matter how bad a person you are, you go to Heaven. I basically had this idea that God really wants to roast the whole of humanity in everlasting fire, and that Jesus basically struck a bargain with His Dad that he would take the punishment for our sins, if He would allow the people who “accepted Jesus as their Savior” into Heaven. Thus I thought God was a capricious evil being.

I read a lot of books on a lot of other religions, including Islam, Bhuddism, the Tao, Wicca. I considered converting to Islam for a while. I tried an experiment- for three weeks, I behaved as though I were a Muslim. I wore a head scarf, and five times a day, I would point myself in the general direction of Mecca and sort of meditate about God. At the end of three weeks, I had an intense craving for pork. I ended up as a sort of self-styled Hindo-Shamanistic Bhuddist, with a twist of pagan.

But eventually, I started feeling a tug back toward the Catholic Church. But somehow it didn’t fit, my personal beliefs were more Eastern. A friend suggested Greek Orthodox, which I found appealing, but never got around to checking into it.

That lasted until I moved to Vegas, and promptly got a job on a psychic hotline. Yep, I was a live psychic. About the same time, I started having a lot of conversations with a neighbor who was a believing, but not practicing Catholic. Still trying to figure that one out. He gave me a seven day candle with the prayer to St. Michael, and every night for the next few nights, I would light it and say the prayer before I logged on to the network. My readings got longer, and more accurate (not that I was bad to start with, but I hadn’t had the Tarot cards out in a while before I started the job, so I was a bit, um, rusty). Which of course meant I was making more money. I had told my neighbor that I was considering checking out the Greek Orthodox Church, and he told me I should check out the Byzantine Rite of the Catholic Church first.

Then one night, as I was logging on, I suddenly felt this raw terror. I started shaking, crying, and I just couldn’t bring my self to punch in those last few numbers to get onto the network. I was actually in fear for my immortal soul. So I hung up the phone, and got down on my knees and renounced Satan and all his works. The next day, I opened the yellow pages and found a Byzantine Catholic Church, St. Gabriel’s, but it was clear on the other side of town. The pastor there told me about a Byzantie Catholic community that was closer to where I lived, using the hall of a Latin Rite church for their liturgies. The following Saturday evening, I went. There was this wedding… I found out later that the bride’s mother was Greek Orthodox, so she wanted to be married in the Byzantine Rite. Neither she nor the goom were part of the congregation. So, yeah, I crashed a complete stranger’s wedding. I kind of took it as an omen.

Also, the people in the congregation were so warm and welcoming, and once I’d been to the liturgy a couple of times, I was hooked. I felt that this was the way Christian worship was meant to be done. I entered the catechism program, was in and out of the Church, frequently having to go to Latin Rite churches because we didn’t have our own building, and liturgy was frequently in some far flung region of the universe, and that combined with my work schedule made it difficult to make it to what, by then, I considered “my” church. But we finally got settled into our own building a little over a year ago. I was confirmed last Easter, at the age of thirty-two.

That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

14

i was baptized and grew up orthodox. i’m still orthodox. i find it a good life path.

i’ve observed that at one time or another people will go looking for a path that will give thier life some stability. some people are able to live with a very structured path and others need a more fluid path.

15

rocking chair, you say you are orthodox, so orthodox WHAT? Christian, Islam, Jewish? Just curious, not actually my business.

I found my religion, as opposed to my denomination, when I was given Christian baptism as an infant. I grew up in the Missouri Synod branch of Lutherans. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it is VERY concervative. Women can’t be ordained, act as church officers, or participate as lectors, acolytes, etc. They aren’t even voting members of the congregation, although some local congregations ignore the rule.

As a young adult I started questioning the rules, and switched to another synod of Lutherans, which is known now as the ELCA(Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) Women are fully equal members of the church. Somewhat over two and a half years ago my congregation got a new pastor I couldn’t get on with, which is a whole story in itself, and I tried the other two ELCA congregation in town, and nothing clicked.

So I tried attending at the nearby Episcopal cathedral, because I had received an invitation to a neighborhood gathering there not long before. I liked it a lot, and the churches are not all THAT different. In fact the ELCA and the Episcopalians have just signed an agreement that puts them in “full communion” with each other. What it boils down to is that although they are two seperate denominations they agree on major points of doctrine, can give an receive Communion in each others churches, can call a pastor/priest of the other group, and so on. I have had contact with the Episcopalians on and off for a long time. While stationed in Korea with the Army I attended an Episcopalian service held by a Protestant chaplain, becuase “regular Protestant worship” was SO bland. And another Episcopalian congregation in town(not the one I ended up joining) made me feel welcome when I, along with a number of other folks of good will, aided them in their ongoing conflict with a local hate monger, Fred Phelps. I daresay HIS name is familiar to a lot of people all over the country(he is as evil as they come, ugh)

The upshot is that I joined the Episcopalian church last June. I like the services, the local clergy is great, including the priests from the other congregations, and something our retiring Provost said when I was going to classes really sounded good. Father Terrill said “Here you don’t have to check your brains at the door”

Whew! I NEVER have had such a long post before! I guess I pushed my button.

16

BIG BOO-BOO!!!

If rocking chair said they were baptized I guess that makes them Christian, doesn’t it? DUH!!! How I let that slide past the sponge that is my brain I don’t know. SORRY!
OK, so Orthodox Christian of what type? (I’m probably making some other mistake here)

17

Thank you so much, everybody, for your thoughtful responses. I think we have 14 responses, and i’ve organized them as follows.

-5 went from exposure to organized religion as children, to being atheist/agnostic/or otherwise no identification with organized “God-based” religion (Dinsdale, Nerd, richman, Mauvaise, screech)

-4 currently practice the same (or similar) religion they were exposed to as children (baker, rc, caesar, delphica)

-2 were exposed to one religion as children, explored various belief systems, and ended up back at (or close to) their original religion (jodi, thea)

-2 were exposed to one religion as children, explored various belief systems, and at present identify with a religion other than their original religion (soulsling, deiket)

-and 1 began as an atheist, identified with a religion for a period, and ended up an atheist again (ethilrist)

Acknowledging that the SDMB is a limited sample, I would be interested if we could get larger participation.

Any comments on my presentation of the data so far?
Suggestions for different/additional categories?
Objections to where you were placed?
Any conclusions we can draw? Hypotheticals we should explore?

One category I see absent is folks who were raised atheist, becoming lasting members of an organized religion other than UU.

Thanks again.

18

Sorry I wasn’t clear–I still consider myself a nondemoninational Christian. I don’t go to church or consider myself part of an organized religion because I didn’t find one that agreed with my interpretation of the New Testament.

I had an English teacher in high school who was an ordained minister; he pointed out once that he felt that organized religion was the greatest impediment to faith in our country.

19

Sorry, ethilrist. So, are you in the category I suggested was missing? Or would you like to propose your own phrasing?

20

I was baptized Catholic as a baby and went through the whole confession/Eucharist/confirmation thing. I went when I lived at home because my parents made me, and I resisted.

Went to college at the University of Notre Dame and was really searching there. I was very pro-choice at the time, so I wasn’t even sure I wanted to be Catholic, and many of my profs said I did not have a very Catholic mindset. I read a lot of Catholic theology, though, and learned a lot.

After college I became pro-life, and from that I decided to explore my faith more deeply. Through my reading I found that I agreed with Church teaching and I was impressed by the unbroken line going back to the Apostles. I decided to stay.

I’m still not the best Catholic, but I’m where I need to be, and it’s not because I was brainwashed by my family or being led around by the nose by the preist. It just all really makes sense to me.