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What is your story (changing religion)
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Hello, i was just wondering how many of you change your Birth religion. If so then what is your birth religion and what religion you are in now. Just asking to have a picture of why people change it and what kind of difficulties they face. Just wanted to hear your story. Here is mine.
I was a muslim by Birth but when i reach 14, a struggle started in my mind, you can say a clash between religion and logical or rational thoughts. My mind was saying this cannot be like that but religion is saying another thing, which is totally contradictory to its own doctrine. When i went to uni, i get the chance to read lot of books and get good teachers, who help me to get clear understanding of this whole phenomena. Those first 2 years of uni were very depressing, my grades were going down because of my state of mind, so that was very difficult time also.But finally when i was 20 i became atheist with. So from last 2.5 years i am atheist. My close friends know this but its my family or public. Its only because when you are living in Muslim country you cannot say this in public, otherwise they will kill you before thinking what they are going to do :shocking:
Waiting to read some of your stories.
One more thing, by making this thread i have no intension to heart anyone feeling or religion, its just to read and discuss problem which they face when they try to change their path of life.
I was a muslim by Birth but when i reach 14, a struggle started in my mind, you can say a clash between religion and logical or rational thoughts. My mind was saying this cannot be like that but religion is saying another thing, which is totally contradictory to its own doctrine. When i went to uni, i get the chance to read lot of books and get good teachers, who help me to get clear understanding of this whole phenomena. Those first 2 years of uni were very depressing, my grades were going down because of my state of mind, so that was very difficult time also.But finally when i was 20 i became atheist with. So from last 2.5 years i am atheist. My close friends know this but its my family or public. Its only because when you are living in Muslim country you cannot say this in public, otherwise they will kill you before thinking what they are going to do :shocking:
Waiting to read some of your stories.
One more thing, by making this thread i have no intension to heart anyone feeling or religion, its just to read and discuss problem which they face when they try to change their path of life.
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I was brought up with Christianity and was very involved with the Presbytarian church of Wales as a choral singer, head chorister and also as somebody who read from the lectern. Of course, not the most fashionable thing to be when you're in school but it was my life and something which I was very involved with and very passionate about.
However, there were two things which I brought in to my beliefs privately to rationalise them to myself at the time.
The first was reincarnation. I did not like the idea of Heaven and Hell, the linear afterlife which Christians believe human beings face. On the topic of souls, I also didn't understand why only human beings have souls and what separates us from the animal kingdom.
Secondly was the idea of an all power male sentient god. I didn't understand how something male could have created the world. Either there was a goddess who created it with him, or this force was not gendered. man Christians see the androcentric labelling of God as 'male' purely for the function of something human to identify with, but in my eyes I took the idea instead that there was also a female god and it was her I felt closer to. Of course, this evolution of my beliefs is very 'unChristian', but I considered my goddess to have been left out of the Bible and the Bible to have been the written by man and thus she was left out for a reason.
I think I started questioning this when I was around thirteen/fourteen.
I started to go to college and because I was bullied in school, I rebelled and became distant from the church for a year, whilst still having Christian beliefs. When I was seventeen I lost my faith, had a huge slump and ended up in hospital for a few months because of something in the family and the death of a loved one.
So I actually spent those years recovering from depression. But I also became interested in Paganism and ideas surrounding it made more sense to me. I still consider myself to worship nature, although differently to how I did.
I also read on Buddhism and contrary to what some people say, there are aspects of Buddhism and Paganism which can be applied together.
My current views probably would be considered Pagan, though a lot of my ethics are influenced by Buddhism.
There's much more exciting things in life than religion, for example: mechanical things. If I made my own religion, it would be all about tinkering, and finely tuning things, and having an attention to detail. But I'd probably call it a cult, and make it exclusive, except charge people entry, the proceeds of which would be used to build excellent technology, which when it became redundant could be donated to charity.
Jet packs, flying cars, invisibility cloaks would all be fair game. I think I could be fanatical about that kind of thing.
People who own macs would be excluded
My dad, well fuck knows but he's an aethist like me.
I wish sometimes I did have a religion as I'd like to believe in something... but I don't so there we go...
From what my mam teaches me about Paganism (word?) it seems a lot fairer and chilled out that the rest of the crap I get shoved down my throat.
Regarding the thread, I'm sure everyone knows by now that I'm a British Pakistani ex-Muslim. I will write my little testimony in due course.
Sorry i did not get what that mean?
Oh, a messageboard, like this one, but for ex-muslims exists somewhere.
You know what goes well together? Milk chocolate and vanilla. M&S really hit the recipe spot on...
I changed to an atheist, mainly because I realised what a load of bullshit christianity is and what a pack of lies the Bible is.
Of course this was when I was actually old enough to think for myself without having all this religious crap shoved down my throat by the school and being forced to attend church. Typical religious style - catch them while they're young and naive and then spoonfeed our shit to them.
I went to a Catholic church and school, but never really believed any of it, even as an extremely young child. I was really into history and science, and so I knew a bit about different systems of belief in the past (Egyptians/Greeks/Aztecs etc) and never saw them as anything other than what some people believed. That and the fact that whenever I called any of them on their bullshit, which they were presenting as fact, they couldn't answer me. I mean come on, Noah's Ark ffs? Religious beliefs have always fascinated me, I've just never believed any of them. I really wanna learn more about the Eastern religions next, and so I might do that when I go to Asia.
:yes:
Though I have to say "fuck the atheist pricks who think they're better than religious people" after seeing too many 'Oh, we're much better than those religious stupid people' web pages. Seriously, do they not realise that they're just as bad if not worse than religious fundamentalists?
At least religious fundamentalists are under the impression they're doing it because it's right, atheistic pricks just spread their hate because it makes them feel superior. Important note for those who don't read or are too hotheaded to bother: I'm not saying that all atheists are like that, just the hateful prejudiced pricks
My daughter is currently agnostic, goes to a christian school and gets the whole 'speak to god through jesus' stuff fom my mum, the 'there are no gods' from me, and probably no comment from everybody else. She is learning about the romans at the moment and is confused as to where all the other gods went that the romans believed in and why there is now supposedly just one. I can see things ticking over in her mind and won't be too bothered what she ends up thinking as long as she's agnostic or atheist. lol
Years later I joined a pagan religion my dad made up called 'The church of the Yeti'. The idea was that if we got enough members to be federaly recognized we could get tax breaks for skiing and trekking trips... ERM did I say 'skiing and treakking'?... I meant 'mountain pilgrimages... yeah...
Unfortunatly there were some internal issues with the church, there were some irreconcilable differences that lead to a reformation with me leading up the protestant branch. That made for an awkward Junior year of high school. Come home from school...
Dad: "REPENT! Recant your evil heritic deeds! Return to the true path of the Yeti, cast thyself down before me and beg for redemption!"
Me: "Never! We are the true followers of the Yeti's call, it becons us forward to the mountains on the path of rightcheous glory! Join us or be damned!"
My girlfriend: "....I think we should see other people"
"Islam" is.
Can everyone please use the correct terminology! :banghead:
Also, nobodys comments have been anti-Muslim. If anything, they were anti-Islam.
You can be anti-Christianity without being anti-every-single-Christian-in-the-world... because we all know that not everyone follows their religion completely.
In that context I meant people who adhered to the Islam religion.
But regardless, who really cares? Tomatoes tomatos, etc. It's a public messageboard and except for those who really get pent up about things that don't matter like yourself, it's clear for all to see what I meant.
I think Namaste may be referring to this? http://www.ex-muslim.org.uk/
My brother was brought up with no religion like me, but became a born again Christian as an adult. He became very disillusioned with it though and several years ago found Islam and is now muslim. My nephew has since become Muslim too.
i never got into any religion at all and find the whole thing rather disturbing and dont understand it.
one of my sisters got christened in her early teens, the others went to catholic schools and then gave up on it all.
i guess im the odd one out but religion does nothing for me.
You may have started the thread but you can't control it, as you can see by Jim V and I'm With Stupid's little debate that seems to be about Einstein's personal beliefs.
To the original question though, my biological parents were Catholic (clearly not v. strict though or I wouldn't have been born - they weren't married) but they gave me to a C of E family who baptised/christened/whatever-ed me as a baby. I did look incredibly pissed off in all my christening pictures though which you'd think could be a hint that the God business wasn't for me.
Anyway, I'm now atheist cos I think the god-thing's all a load of bull. If the Romans and Greeks could believe so strongly in Apollo and all his buddies, how do modern-day Christians and Muslims know that their god is the ONE true god? :chin:
On a side-note, my brother got christened too & then decided to go be confirmed (or whatever it is C of E kids do when they're 14-ish), but now has decided he doesn't believe in God. Don't think my parents are very impressed with either of our religious beliefs.
Keep us updated if he changes his religion again
Fair enough (my hand is suitably slapped
I'll pull out the other comments into another thread.
It wasn't directed at you, I was stumbling (www.stumbleupon.com) at the same time and came across some really hateful anti-religious crap, that everyone thought was funny - but it was really no better than the anti jew comics we've all seen all over the web. Really, when will people learn. It just makes me really angry, because we're the generation that could have grown up without hate or victimising others - non secular society where people are guided by their own moral compass. But it has just led to a growth in an anti-religion movement that for most people is perfectly justified, and calling religious people stupid is fine.
Hope you didn't take it personally, it wasn't intended as such.
Then at 15 something unusual happened. Others would name it a "coincidence", but given the context I named it a miracle and so since I truly believe that a God exists, and about Jesus being part him/her. But I call myself a non-dogmatic Christian.
Christian because I believe in Christ, non-dogmatic because I'm against religious things being done because of tradition, and I'm against what's called "organised religion". I think everyone should have their own faith, and I'm incredibly annoyed by people who refer to specific bits in the bible as if it's a book of laws written by lawyers. I think it's the gist that matters.
Had a passing interest in buddhism for two/three years.