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Have you ever changed your religion?

SubtleFighter

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It counts if you have switched denominations or if you have gone from a religious person to an atheist/agnostic (or vice versa).

What religion did you switch to?
What did you switch from?
And what was the reason for the change?
 

Amargith

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I dabbled. I was taught christianity at school - my home was atheist - so I tried it on for size since the teachers were prepping us for communion anyway. It didn't stick.

Then, when I was 20, I discovered Wicca. I did a serious study, even did my thesis on a book on Wicca, and tried it out for about two years. I didn't like the ritualistic nature and dogma, and my being automatically rebels to worshipping and creating great distances beween me and the supreme beings. So I became agnostic/spiritualistic/pagan witch instead. Many of the things I learned in Wicca, I still use for the practical part of the craft. But I follow my own spiritual discoveries now and have finally stopped feeling silly for having my own beliefs. Wicca was like a gateway to find what I was looking for though. Whereas Christianity was a way to connect with those around me, I suppose.
 

Standuble

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I was a Christian when I was young (at least in theory) as whilst I "accepted Jesus Christ into my life" etc. I felt no connection with any such higher power and never felt a diety was watching over me or exerting a presence on my inner world. I did consider other religions including Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. I eventually became an atheist and haven't really looked back. I'm a spiritual person in a sense (I utilise it a lot in my fiction writing) but I find it to merely be a character quirk with no real basis in the universe around me.

That said I'll probably convert again to the Force (probably a Sith but maybe a Jedi as well) if in some likely scenario it was found to exist. A galaxy with lightsabers, sorcery and the potential ability to transcend the universe is much more compelling for me than the generic mechanical space opera.
 

Andy

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As a child I was brought up in a nominally christian community. There was sunday school, hymns sung in the school assemblies and so on, but no hard sell. Other religions weren't represented, mostly just because there wasn't anyone around who followed them rather than any deliberate exclusion. They were something we learnt about in religious studies class rather in our daily lives. The village where I lived was probably >95% white.

Growing up, I never thought about god much until high school. I Studied religion up to GCSE level before I became quite sure I didn't believe any of it. Basically, the more I learnt about religion, the less convincing I found it.
 

kyuuei

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I was raised Christian, and switched to paganism in high school. I switched because despite the overall positive messages with the Bible, I felt there were far too many negative ones. I didn't believe that people who were never raised or exposed to Christianity were doomed to a fate of limbo or worse.

I haven't switched since then. My spiritual outlook has changed over the years, but not its principles. Wicca also became the initial inspiration for an alternative to major religions. I believe more ancient, simple arts had it right. I still do.
 

ceecee

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I was raised Catholic. I no longer practice anything and I want nothing to do with it or any other religion.
 
W

WALMART

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I was once a zealous atheist. Went to church as a lad wondering over the falsities seeping out every mind in the house.

Now I understand the human mind is just about predisposed to these abstract understandings of the universe. I enjoy religious studies far more than in the past, and if pressed, might identify as Buddhist. I think it's more of a keen interest, but you get the gist.
 

cafe

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I was raised Assemblies of God. It's, for lack of a better description, a Charismatic branch of Evangelical Christianity.

I haven't really changed religions. I have developed a certain degree of cognitive dissonance. On the one hand, I'm kind of agnostic. On the other hand, I am an Evangelical Christian. I believe in God, I pray. The Bible is still an authority in my life. But I don't believe being gay is a sin or in the Evangelical version of hell. I'm also politically very liberal and the climate of the Evangelical church right now doesn't suit me very well. So I don't go to church anywhere right now, which feels kind of wrong. So I don't know. Eventually I'll maybe figure something out. I've been conflicted about it for years now.
 

Redbone

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I was raised as a JW, but we stopped going before I was 10. Then I went back to it in my early 20s and stayed for close to a decade. I left because the hypocrisy just really killed things for me. I thought they were sincere and earnest so that was a pretty nasty blow for me. After that, I looked at other things...I kinda practice this mixture of paganism and what my grandparents, a kind of southeastern pan-Indian mix of beliefs, taught me.
 

highlander

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I grew up Catholic. I thought the services were rather boring, uninspiring and the views espoused overly conservative. I go to a non-denominational church now, which I think is much better.
 

Totenkindly

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It counts if you have switched denominations or if you have gone from a religious person to an atheist/agnostic (or vice versa).

What religion did you switch to?
What did you switch from?
And what was the reason for the change?

Well, I attended various denominations within the Christian faith, but they were all kind of conservative-valued and kind of evangelical, with Bible inerrancy as a doctrine.

I eventually shifted to a more theist existentialist or Christian agnostic POV, for lack of better descriptions for it. A lot of it overlaps for me. My broad values didn't really change, but I'm no longer being nickel-and-dimed to death by a lot of specific doctrines that I don't think are universal or that I think are misunderstood or misapplied. There has to be room for intuition within the faith.

What caused this shift?
1. Cognitive dissonance -- i didn't think the theology and doctrine I was being told was legitimate actually modeled the life experience accurately.
2. A need to acknowledge ambiguity in the world.
3. A refinement of the authorities of the Christian faith -- e.g., my understanding of the Bible and the writings within it and their origins changed.

I have a certain connection with [MENTION=4]cafe[/MENTION] that way. I still do pray sometimes, although rationally I'm not sure there is a god listening. A lot of the time, I feel like I've been "shaped" by life (and potentially God) but then left to my own devices as the person I have been shaped to be, simply because that is what I've experienced and I don't want to affirm something that might not be true. But I still pray. The best way to say it is that I'm not sure God is in the building nor ever was, but I'm going to live as in a way that happens to reflect God as he would be if he did exist, as best as I can, as best as I can see it, because I can't do otherwise without experiencing myself as fraudulent.

My social views are probably far more liberal than the environment I used to be part of, although I feel more like a moderate.

That said I'll probably convert again to the Force (probably a Sith but maybe a Jedi as well) if in some likely scenario it was found to exist. A galaxy with lightsabers, sorcery and the potential ability to transcend the universe is much more compelling for me than the generic mechanical space opera.

I can relate to that. :)
 

Ivy

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I grew up in a Primitive Baptist church. Primitive Baptist doesn't mean what most people assume it means- the "primitive" part is supposed to mean "original," like the first Christians. All singing is a capella, baptisms are teens and adults only and by immersion, usually in a natural body of water, and so on. Services usually consisted of people giving their testimony aloud, first the saved men, then the saved women, then the unsaved men, then unsaved women. I don't actually know if that's how the original Christians did things (I sort of suspect not) but that's how this church thinks they did, so that's what they do. Incidentally, the church I went to was primitive in the more usual ways, too- no heat or electricity, no running water (we used outhouses), etc. There was a lot of strife and fighting- my brother and I called them "Lord-offs"- and I think I actually had church-related PTSD from it. I avoided church for a long time but then got the urge to go back. I went to a Quaker church for a while but I didn't really identify with the congregation as much as I identified with the larger church's teachings. I now go to an Episcopal (American Anglican) church that is very Quaker-like, and I identify as both Quaker and Anglican but mostly Quaker. I'm like [MENTION=4]cafe[/MENTION] in that I'm also kind of agnostic, but the church I go to is very open to questioning.
 

Typh0n

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I've changed many times, but I dont feel like sharing the details.
 

Mole

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I was educated as a Roman Catholic.

So my first step at liberation was to free myself intellectually. So I studied philosophy at Sydney University where I learnt to refute the intellectual claims of Roman Catholicism.

My next step was social where I stopped going to Mass and the sacraments.

My next step was emotional, where I decided to openly sleep with the woman I loved, against the sexual teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.

My last and most important step was to understand the moral betrayal of Roman Catholicism. And the moral betrayal of Roman Catholicism was illustrated in the Judicial Enquiry into Institutional Child Abuse in Ireland in 2007, and in the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Abuse in Australia in 2013.

And now I have developed a critique of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and the New Age.
 

Mole

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Services usually consisted of people giving their testimony aloud.

Personal testimony is a hallmark of protestant churches.

And personal testimony is the authority in interpreting the New Testament (the Bible) in protestantism. And this form of authority is why there are thousands of different protestant churches.

And the USA being a predominently protestant country, personal testimony is taken as a form of authority in other areas such as mbti.

Mbti was made in the USA and so has a strong protestant tinge.

So personal testimony is taken for granted in the USA as a valid form of authority, while personal testimony is regarded as illusory by science and most of the rest of the world.
 
W

WALMART

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[MENTION=3325]Mole[/MENTION]

I presume you enjoy speaking. Perhaps you would sometime provide your critique for me/us regarding new age religions.
 

Mole

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[MENTION=3325]Mole[/MENTION]

I presume you enjoy speaking. Perhaps you would sometime provide your critique for me/us regarding new age religions.

The New Age is not very new. The New Age is a Romantic reaction against the European Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th Centuries.

So the New Age is a reaction against evidence and reason, freedom and equality.
 
W

WALMART

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The New Age is not very new. The New Age is a Romantic reaction against the European Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th Centuries.

So the New Age is a reaction against evidence and reason, freedom and equality.

Is there no reconciliation to be had between that which is felt and that which is seen?
 
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