Rather than asking "what religion are you", what I want to know is "how did you come to your current position regarding religious belief?"

No arguing with each other, no trying to impose your views on others, and no implying that your views are superior, please.

If the thread does devolve into that I hope it is quickly locked.


Anyways, I used to be a Roman Catholic. I was raised as one, baptised, went to a Catholic school, all my family on both sides are catholic going way back. I took it fairly seriously. I read most of the Bible (I can still recall quite a bit of it even now, more than many Christians), and went to church regularly.

I started to notice things, though. Most Christians I knew didn't seem to follow what the Bible said much at all. People walked into Church, mouthed the words, made the gestures, and then walked out and acted as if it hadn't had any impact on them at all (a feeling which only increased once I began to learn about history and world events)

Additionally, throughout my whole life and through my struggles with my disability and stuff, I have never once felt the presence or aid of any god, no matter how much I prayed. I became convinced that, if there was a god, he must hate me.

Sometime through grade 11, while studying philosophy and the various theories for why the world must have been created, I came across the notion that the universe need never have been created, something which had simply never occurred to me before. It really opened my mind. I'd found a reason (in my mind anyway) for why God need not exist.

What mattered is that the inclination to hate Christianity was already there for me (I disliked most Christians and believed that God must hate me), this was the catalyst. It is not, of course, absolute proof that God doesn't exist. I think God might very well exist, but then again he might not. The argument about the universe never having been created was my "reasonable doubt" (I have thought of many more reasons, since, of course) and I chose the side of not believing, because I wanted to.

But nonethelesss I found that believing in nothing at all was something I couldn't do very well. I became an agnostic, and over the years I've moved more and more towards paganism of a sort (I revere nature, and tentatively believe in the supernatural), although I don't cleave to any official pagan faith. Being alone among trees at night is the closest to a spiritual experience I have ever had.



So, that's why I believe what I do, religion-wise. What about you? :]