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Converts?


durmij
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So there have been a lot of religious posts going on. Practically nothing but, tbh. I was wondering, how many of us have changed from the religious views we where born into? Talk about where you started, where you ended up and why?

I would ask that people wouldn't try to convert others in the thread, but that's still going to happen.

I'll start. Born into the United Church of Canada (Christian), but when I went to a Catholic School, I actually started thinking of my own beliefs seriously. Explored westernized new age Buddhism, but found it just as constraining as Christianity. Tried my hand at a broad sort of Deism, but it still didn't feel right. Then I took a philosophy class and learned about the classic arguments for God and how bad they were. Turned into an Agnostic almost on the spot and hardened into an Atheist over a little time. Being getting more and more entrenched ever since.

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TBH, when I was growing up, we never really went to church or were very religious. I remember going to Sunday school a few times and I think it was through a Baptist church, but it didn't last long as my mom was a single parent to 4 kids and with 2 jobs during the week and part time 3rd job on weekends so we didn't bother to much with church. My stepfather is jewish,but only really practices on the holidays, which was cool because in our house we celebrated both Christian and Jewish holidays. As I got older though and thought about it, I've come to the realization that organized religion is just another format of control over the masses scaring them with eternal damn at ion of their souls if they don't follow their doctrine. Do I belief in a supreme being......yes. What do I call him/her/it......it doesn't really matter. Do I belief in creationism or evolution......I belief in both. I belief things had to start from somewhere in some forms and then evolved from there. If people need to belief in something that can't be proven to get them through the day that's fine....I however don't. I guess you could say my motto would be "Be good and do good work/s". If you think about it, isn't that what all the religions tell us to do anyway?

Edited by Coach
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Methodist (as a result of Methodist parents) --> Agnostic --> Atheist --> ???

 

At this point, I really just have better things to do than fuss over the existence of God(s) and the like. If I ever have to choose, I always go with Buddhist-ish because that's what lines up with my moral values the most.

 

Interesting question. :)

Edited by Kurdanak
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Methodist (as a result of Methodist parents) --> Agnostic --> Atheist --> ???

 

At this point, I really just have better things to do than fuss over the existence of God(s) and the like. If I ever have to choose, I always go with Buddhist-ish because that's what lines up with my moral values the most.

 

Interesting question. :)

 

I turned away from Buddhism once I started to learn about the organized side, but I do still hold a soft spot for anarchic personalized Buddhism. I still meditate from time to time, it's very helpful.

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I was born to hindu parents (quite religious tbh). I, myself was religious till the age of 12-13, I used to go to a lot of temples with my parents. Later with exposure to science (mainly chemistry and physics), I learned how to form ideas and evaluate them. I learned the importance of evidence and observation , which made me view my old religion as a placebo for psychological weakness. I can't really define myself as an atheist or agnostic, as people generally associate a wide range of meanings to the word 'god', I generally don't believe in god, but if someone believes in supernatural force (or something like that), I would say its more likely to be false than true.

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Agnostic/non-practicing protestant parents caused me to bounce around a fair share of different faiths. Probably the closest thing I am currently is a non-practicing Pastafarian.

Though I see the merit in more organized religions, my paternal side of the family instilled a strong aversion to any faith or ideology that engenders group mass. 

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I was born a Catholic, had a fairly liberal Catholic upbringing (though I did go to a convent school lol).

 

When I got to about 12/13, being fairly intelligent and a keen reader (probably like most of you) I began to doubt religion. I read a whole bunch of science, but it was the political texts I read that made me an atheist. Starting with the standard stuff, JS Mill, Rousseau, Marx etc I ended up reading the more self involved stuff like nietzche and camus and so on. Cut a long story short by the time I was 16 I would definitely have called myself an atheist and mocked religious people as stupid.

 

Then when I went to university I actually went back and studied religion and theology seriously. I think what pushed me to it is that a lot of my friends weren't from a Catholic background (I don't think any of them were) and their interest in it made me look up a lot of things. I decided I probably needed to know more about the religious tradition I came from.

 

Following that I studied a whole bunch of different theologies, though being honest mainly the western triad of Christianity, Islam and Judaism, with emphasis on the former.

 

I think at some point between 18-20 I started to go to mass and argue with the priest, who was a veteran Jesuit, who had become a priest after his wife died quite young. He was probably one of the most intelligent men I knew and lectured in languages and sciences at the university.

 

In any case I think I came full circle to not-very-serious Catholic. Certainly by American standards I'm very liberal, but I realised what a prick I probably sounded as a know it all atheist teenager and tried to keep an open mind to religious beliefs.

 

It certainly became apparent to me after talking to that priest a lot that the church was not the enemy of science, and in fact the opposite. The church is the world's largest funder of research and provides a third of all education and a quarter of health care globally.

 

That obviously isn't enough to make anyone believe in a god and I'm not here to preach, but for me the realisation broke down a lot of the personal objections I had to religion and allowed me to approach it in a less antagonistic fashion.

 

 

Err....

 

 

I mean PRAISE DIO!

Edited by Spite
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Priest of Dio

just because the Nazis did something doesn't mean it's automatically wrong

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I apologise for the long thread, but my story is rather long.

 

My entire family is Catholic with the occasional lapsed/non-practicing members. My parents are quite serious about their faith, and I also was for a long time. Throughout my youth and adolescence, I was somehow able to avoid the agnostic/atheistic conclusion that many of my fellow young people embraced, even I was well-read about all the alternatives, especially saecular philosophy.  

 

Nevertheless, Eastern Orthodox Christianity managed to pulled me in. I think the process began quite early in my life. First, know that Poles venerate the Icon of the Bogurodzica of CzÄ™stochowa. It is Poland's most sacred image. However, I always wondered about the origins of the Icon, since other Latin Catholics do not venerate icons. The Orthodox on the other hand practise the same veneration of icons. I eventually concluded that Poland's distinct character was the result of importing Orthodox praxis. My own grandmother attended an Orthodox church in her youth since the local Catholic church was too far away in the pre-war Polish countryside. She retained a few 'Eastern' features in her spiritual life, which only contributed to my inherent 'familiarity' with Orthodoxy.  

This alone could not convince to change my faith. Other factors played a significant role in my 'change'.

One thing I could not reconcile with reason is the notion of 'papal supremacy'. One man/group of bishops governing the entire Church just never felt right. I remember in my childhood asking my mother 'how many popes are there?'. It is natural for there to be more than one leader. I found the Orthodox objections to papal supremacy to be extremely convincing. Furthermore, the Orthodox absence of certain questionable Catholic practises and inconsistencies deepened my intent to convert. What pushed me 'over the edge' was my discovery of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church. It is a completely self-governing Orthodox Church whose independence is recognised by Moscow and the other Orthodox Churches. In other words, the Polish Orthodox Church is even 'more' Polish than its Catholic counterpart, since it is led by the man in Warsaw, not Rome, Moscow, Istanbul, etc. 

 

And why Orthodoxy and not irreligiousness? I have always had a desire to preserve the legacy of my venerable ancestors. My grandparents, great-grandparents and older were all believers. If we stop behaving like our ancestors we forget who we are.   

Edited by Klemens Hawicki
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I  was born a sufi with sufi family but i am now a salafist

Caliph of The Caliphate of Arabia. Caliph of the Islamic State of Arabia. Principle of The Principality of Chechnya. Grand Emir of The Emirate of The Caucus. Emperor of the Empire of Persia. Sultan of The Sultanates of Turkey and The Crimea. Czar of the Tsardom of The Balkans. Archon of The Archonate of Greece. Supreme Consul of The Consulate of Italy. Shah of The Shahdom Of Khorason

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Born a Christian. After that, bunch of shit happened.

The reward of 72 virgins pulled you in

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Caliph of The Caliphate of Arabia. Caliph of the Islamic State of Arabia. Principle of The Principality of Chechnya. Grand Emir of The Emirate of The Caucus. Emperor of the Empire of Persia. Sultan of The Sultanates of Turkey and The Crimea. Czar of the Tsardom of The Balkans. Archon of The Archonate of Greece. Supreme Consul of The Consulate of Italy. Shah of The Shahdom Of Khorason

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I  was born a sufi with sufi family but i am now a salafist

 

Did you self radicalise or did someone else tutor you? Which country are you in IRL?

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Priest of Dio

just because the Nazis did something doesn't mean it's automatically wrong

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I live in UK London

i was not radicalised i saw the  truth

Caliph of The Caliphate of Arabia. Caliph of the Islamic State of Arabia. Principle of The Principality of Chechnya. Grand Emir of The Emirate of The Caucus. Emperor of the Empire of Persia. Sultan of The Sultanates of Turkey and The Crimea. Czar of the Tsardom of The Balkans. Archon of The Archonate of Greece. Supreme Consul of The Consulate of Italy. Shah of The Shahdom Of Khorason

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I live in UK London

i was not radicalised i saw the  truth

How old are you might I ask? 

What do you mean you saw the truth? Did someone help you "see the truth"? What caused you to convert to wahhabism?

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Priest of Dio

just because the Nazis did something doesn't mean it's automatically wrong

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hey 14 is old enough

Caliph of The Caliphate of Arabia. Caliph of the Islamic State of Arabia. Principle of The Principality of Chechnya. Grand Emir of The Emirate of The Caucus. Emperor of the Empire of Persia. Sultan of The Sultanates of Turkey and The Crimea. Czar of the Tsardom of The Balkans. Archon of The Archonate of Greece. Supreme Consul of The Consulate of Italy. Shah of The Shahdom Of Khorason

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coz hes ageist

Caliph of The Caliphate of Arabia. Caliph of the Islamic State of Arabia. Principle of The Principality of Chechnya. Grand Emir of The Emirate of The Caucus. Emperor of the Empire of Persia. Sultan of The Sultanates of Turkey and The Crimea. Czar of the Tsardom of The Balkans. Archon of The Archonate of Greece. Supreme Consul of The Consulate of Italy. Shah of The Shahdom Of Khorason

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being a salafist means your a radical right spite

well anyway after reading the quran has made me realise that sufism isn't the right path.

However they are sunni and will be accepted to paradise

i think Al-qaeda and ISIS have made salafism a bad thing to be

Just like Nazis have made nationalism a bad thing

Edited by Abu Haddad
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Caliph of The Caliphate of Arabia. Caliph of the Islamic State of Arabia. Principle of The Principality of Chechnya. Grand Emir of The Emirate of The Caucus. Emperor of the Empire of Persia. Sultan of The Sultanates of Turkey and The Crimea. Czar of the Tsardom of The Balkans. Archon of The Archonate of Greece. Supreme Consul of The Consulate of Italy. Shah of The Shahdom Of Khorason

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In any case I think I came full circle to not-very-serious Catholic. Certainly by American standards I'm very liberal, 

 

I think this actually describes most younger Catholics. Most of the people from my Catholic High School are fairly progressive. I was actually the best man at my best friends Catholic wedding this summer. Advice to everyone in thread, do not miss a chance to go to a Catholic wedding. Amazing parties.

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