Religion

[Dark]

Yeah, you read right.

What is the religion of your parents and which religion did you finally end up subscribing to? Did you ever question your parents' beliefs or did you listen to them without putting up much of an argument?

Instead of atheists coming here and touting that they think all religion is useless (we know that's the position you're going to take, it's YCM), instead, to atheists: which religion, if you were forced to follow one, is the least objectionable? Which falls in line most with your moral code and disagrees least with your scientific principles?

I know that my parents never questioned my grandparents regarding religion, but as a child I started asking questions which, when they couldn't answer, made me start to think that their beliefs might not be based in science. But, in terms of worldly religions, I think Buddhism is the religion which, over the course of history, negatively affected the least amount of people - do tell me if I'm wrong.

[~ P O L A R I S ~]

I'm a Quaker now. 8D

But, in terms of worldly religions, I think Buddhism is the religion which, over the course of history, negatively affected the least amount of people - do tell me if I'm wrong.

Mao. :S

[Aerion Brightflame]

My dad is heavily catholic, like his family, which leads to some annoyingly racist comments. And my mother is CoE. Sorta of.

 

I will happily argue Religion with them, and if I wasn't... polite I would go into extended debates with my fathers side of the family. A lot of the time it's actually dispelling stupid misconceptions they have of other faiths, like Islam.

 

As for me: I believe organized Religion is intrinsically flawed to the point where it shouldn't exist, but I do have a sort of Relgious faith. I know there is an afterlife in a sense, but not a God.

 

Buddhism is probably the only organised Religion I could follow, because... the spirtual nature of it is more fitting for me than anything else.

[Dark]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Mao a self-proclaimed atheist?

 

Also, @Barty: How do you know that there's a definite afterlife, and what do you think it contains? Are you uneasy about believing in an afterlife that has no proof, since obviously dead people can't inform you about its existence or non-existence?

[The White Wolf]

My father is/was an atheist and my mother was a Christian. Now, she doesn't believe in that "God" but believes that the universe is, that it's alive in a sense. I believe that my father is still an atheist, not entirely sure. If not, he believes in the same thing as my mother.

 

At first when I was younger, I did believe in the Christian God, yes, but only because I was too young to understand science, I think. You could say as I got older that that belief "faded." I think I started disbelieving in God/gods in about the fifth grade, when I thought that biblical studies was ridiculous.

 

I've gotta agree with you on the Buddhism part, that's probably where I would go if I was forced.

[~ P O L A R I S ~]

Mao was raised by Buddhists and practiced Buddhism when he was young. He was pretty anti-religion later, but it still doesn't say much for bringing your kid up Buddhist.

That's not a very good example though, a better one is Pol Pot who did his crazy genocidal shit under the influence of his corrupted Buddhism.

I'm not anti-Buddhist or anything, I'm just saying that like other religions it can work out when done right but can go very wrong if twisted due to the intense and severe nature of religions in general. Buddhism is particularly intense, I'd pick Taoism over it any day.

[Βyakuya]

We're Buddhist, since it's a valued religion practiced in my home country. In my views, I see it more as a philosophy, as a way to follow in society while you attain respect and virtues so you can be a good person and have a fulfilled life. My mom tells me of heaven and God, but I don't think highly of those spiritual things. If I'm allowed to follow my way without a forced mandate and let myself go with fate and nature, then pretty much I can live as a fulfilled individual. People are free to believe what they believe in, but it's not meant to be debated or be shoved in anyone's faces. Even if there is a God, I'd still judge my actions and consider it whether it be virtuous or malice.

[Fusion X. Denver]

Both of my parents were raised in Catholic families, but they were pretty lax about it with my sister and I. They had us get our First Communion for our grandmothers' sake, then they let up after that.

 

I'd like to say I'm Catholic, but there's a lot of matters I disagree with the Church on. I feel like they're too restricted to the Bible's guidelines and are being close-minded to the changing world around them. Homosexuality shouldn't be considered as tainting marriage's "sanctity" and I shouldn't be free to stone my sister for planting her crops side by side or for touching the dead skin of a pig.

However, that seems to have subsided a bit with the new pope. He's a very likable guy and seems to have a more modern perspective of the present world than his predecessor did. 

But along with that, I'm not very devout. I only go to mass a handful of times a year and I don't really pray outside of church either.

And I will never give up meat during lent :T

 

I feel like religion is important because it helps instill faith and spreads good morales that act as the foundation on which society operates (but again, getting hung up on outdated societal conventions is a negative). That, and it upholds this sense of spirituality that I'm finding more difficult to spot nowadays, probably because it's often linked with humility. 

But I don't feel religion should be pushed onto anyone. If my son's an atheist, fine, that's his belief. I'll retain my belief that there's some sort of higher power out there somewhere.

 

Religion wouldn't be that big a deal if those people could just learn to respect each other's differences. 

[Tourmaline]

My mother and her family is Jewish and she married a Jewish man until he left us when I was two. From then on, she raised me to be religious, believe in God and share the sort of values she wanted me to have. She tried to make my brother and I believe in continuing the religion by having a Jewish spouse and Jewish children and that she wouldn't let us have it any other way.

    Until I was thirteen and a half, I had not questioned her and believed anything she fed me, regardless of absurdity. I kept my questioning secret, but she believed I was still the same person she always thought. She met my stepfather soon after who is Muslim and faced a lot of opposition from her family and was insulted to a point where we were homeless for two weeks, since we had been living in my grandparents's house thus far.

     A year and a half later, I came out to my mother about my transsexuality. I was initially introducing the idea and explaining how I felt to her by letting her understand I would let her time to acknowledge this surprise and that I would be there for her if she had some trouble accepting it. All she actually did was end up believing I was confused and twisted, telling everybody that I had been doing it for purely malicious reasons and attention. Essentially slander. She was putting an air of innocence to everybody but in private, was continuously questioning me about my religion and insulting me because I questioned God and became atheist. I was forced into a room with my parents one night where she was "apparently" possessed by an angel and was told I would be killed by God if I moved or spoke to anybody about that event. I was also being yelled at and calls a coward by my stepfather at the top of his lungs after closing the light/door and surrounding me. Following that, she was endlessly crying and asking me about my religion again, then started spewing stupidity like "if you don't believe in this, then you must think I'm insane," which, as usual, my white knight stepfather took as an opportunity to yell at me more and insult me more.

     The summer prior to that and the following were fraught with long nights if existential contemplation. Because I eventually grew nihilistic, I believed that God and Abrahamic religions were objectively false. I still do not believe in any inherent value in anything, but I realize that a person can create their own purpose of anything. Attributing a universal one to all is solipsistic and ignorant, as if nobody in the future would ever feel otherwise.

 

I am currently atheist, though. I do not believe in any supernatural entity to any extent and I find religion as a whole (in terms of the supernatural) absolutely deluded while blatantly exposing a personal flaw in the believer. I actually do not really care about what a person believes in, but I have grown overly hateful and recognize it. I would let my children believe in whatever they feel is true, though, and I know as a fact that I am not definitely correct in anything I have said of religious belief.

 

Had there been an instance where believing in a religion was obligated, I would prefer Buddhism or anything else that lacks a definite authority. The idea of an infinite substance in which all is under its jurisdiction is a sickeningly defeatist notion and I would never have it.

[Organized Chaos]

My parents were never really religious. We only really went to church for christenings, weddings, etc. My grandmother is a Protestant but never forced it onto me so I was never really influenced by my family. School probably changed my views a lot as I was depressed most of the time so eventually, I became a Protestant in hopes of finding something more in my life. That didn't really last long as I eventually came to the conclusion that religion isn't needed to make my life worth living. I once set up a small group based around worshiping Cthulhu and other Lovecraftian horrors, mostly as a joke and left no real impact on my life. 

 

In terms of now, I could mostly be considered as a Deist. I believe (this is putting it simply, my actual story of how the universe started is more complicated and more stupid-sounding) the universe was created by a powerful being that was so powerful that it could not control it's powers, it's powers going at random if you will. Immediately after the point at which the entity could control itself enough to create itself, it randomly exploded, creating the Big Bang and scattering pieces of itself which would go onto create stars, planets and everything else in the universe. By this logic, I believe that we should not worship the being (which I refer to as Bluchelm for some reason)  as it cannot control itself (just like the universe it created) so there is no point of praying to it as there is only a small chance it could answer those prayers. Instead, we should focus on changing the future, providing more possibilities and probabilities for the new people as nothing we make while we are alive will ever benefit us as much as it will benefit people in the future. We're not making the future better, nor are we making it worse as we have no control yet I believe we must accept that. We can hope for things but we must not rely solely on hope, instead realizing we are the ones who have the highest possibility of making a change. Bluchelm made the universe random as Bluchelm itself was, maybe to give us the opportunity to have free will or at least the notion of free will. Apologies if my theories are stupid and have many holes in them.

Organized religion is annoying, yes, but the people who bash it are most likely worse. I believe the sexist, homophobic and generally outdated parts are a bit silly but there's no point knocking the whole thing as it can enrich the life of people who have it and can at least give the right mindset. If I had to pick a religion, I would probably go for Buddhism or La Veyan Satanism (if it counts as a religion).

 

[Eury]

Dad is Catholic, Mother is Baptist. 

 

I myself am Pagan. I worship Thor as my main deity, but obviously worship the other gods like Odin and Freyr as well. I think quite frequently how one would get himself into the halls of Valhalla in modern times. Of course it is up to the Valkyries who goes and who does not, but still, not very many people die in battle these days. Maybe it takes being honorable and a good person? I have no idea. But oh how I want to die with honor and feast and drink with my ancestors in those golden halls. 

[Shradow]

My family is Lutheran, and I was myself for awhile. In fact, by the time I began questioning anything about it, I had already been confirmed. I'm atheist now, but I am entirely tolerant. I think everyone should be able to believe what they choose to believe in, and as long as no one tries to start a conflict about my beliefs (or lack thereof), they can express them however they want. As for myself, I do not know enough about enough kinds of religions to make a proper choice as to what I would believe if forced to, though I have always been interested by various kinds of mythologies, such as Greek, Roman, and Norse.

[D.A._Sakuyamon]

I guess I'm the extremely odd one out. I'm not going right up an essay cause that's boring and a waste of time n my honest opinion. I can though at least go into a little bit of detail.

 

Back before my brother died and my family was actually intact we went to church. I cant say what kinda church cause I don't really remember. Anyways, after his death my mom split and me and my dad stopped going. 

 

Through those early years I didn't think about much but as I reached my early teens I really started to try and look for my own answer. Much as I am now, I was an extreme shut in so I only had myself to think and ponder with. It's safe to say that because of it I'm a tad mad but whatever. With all the time I had thoughts of many possibilities on what my answer could be popped in an out. I had an epiphany of sorts when I found a gif of a yin/yang symbol. Obviously what I'm going to say next will be that balance was my answer. Or rather lets consider it the end result of my answer. This was around 2005-2006.

 

Anyways, so at that point I had my end result but I had no means to give reason why t was my end result. I couldn't just say "I believe in balance" now could I. What is the belief in balance if you have means of defining it. So it'd be many more years before I found the means to the answer I already had. It's a bit ironic that I would find my means while disbelieving in god. See, I really love super powers and the challenge of making sense to the unbeatable power know as omnipotence was something I just had to do.

 

So what do these two have to do with each other? Allow me to explain. See omnipotence is infinite power. The key word here is infinite. Or infinity if that's to your liking. What is infinity? It's in it's simplest terms a never ending number. So what would happen if I divided that never ending number by 2? Well, that's an obvious one. The answer is still infinity. What if I divided it by itself? It'd still be infinity. What if this, what if that, what if  did this here. All would still equal to infinity. And so this makes it literally the most balanced and imbalanced number.

 

Now my means to the end result "Balance" is there. What of it? Welp, we give life to infinity by saying that there are an infinite number of realities each with an infinity number of possibilities. I'm sure some of you have heard of the infinite universes theory. Well it's very much so like that. Of course now many of you will say there's a huge flaw in your belief. Your a literal contradiction. Now here's what I say to that.

 

While yes I do believe in everything on an infinite scale that doesn't however stop me from thinking on a singular level. The reason for this is because while there is indeed an infinite number of realities, "I" the me you'r reading from is a singular being in a singular reality. With this in mind and can keep my own personal beliefs on this reality while still on the whole believe in everything.

 

............

Welp, this turned out longer then I thought. <_< Anyways, I'll leave with this last note. "I don't claim to have all the answers, I just have all the answers "I" need."

[Kyng's Old Account]

What is the religion of your parents and which religion did you finally end up subscribing to? Did you ever question your parents' beliefs or did you listen to them without putting up much of an argument?
Ex-Catholic, converted Muslim Father, and a Protestant Mother. I ended up becoming a theist. My parents encourage the questioning, and we debate on the matter.

Instead of atheists coming here and touting that they think all religion is useless (we know that's the position you're going to take, it's YCM), instead, to atheists: which religion, if you were forced to follow one, is the least objectionable? Which falls in line most with your moral code and disagrees least with your scientific principles?
n/a to myself

I know that my parents never questioned my grandparents regarding religion, but as a child I started asking questions which, when they couldn't answer, made me start to think that their beliefs might not be based in science. But, in terms of worldly religions, I think Buddhism is the religion which, over the course of history, negatively affected the least amount of people - do tell me if I'm wrong.
To what my knowledge serves me, you're probably right. However I would determine my faith by something that appeals to me the most, not what said faith has done objectively. Maybe that is just me, though.

[Thar]

I was baptized and conformed, attending every church service in between. But only because I thought it was mandatory to worship God. Then I learned of other religions, including atheism. Atheism was really the only "religion" that actually made sense to me considering I never believed in an all-powerful being in the first place. So I chose that.

[~ P O L A R I S ~]

My mother and her family is Jewish and she married a Jewish man until he left us when I was two. From then on, she raised me to be religious, believe in God and share the sort of values she wanted me to have. She tried to make my brother and I believe in continuing the religion by having a Jewish spouse and Jewish children and that she wouldn't let us have it any other way.
Until I was thirteen and a half, I had not questioned her and believed anything she fed me, regardless of absurdity. I kept my questioning secret, but she believed I was still the same person she always thought. She met my stepfather soon after who is Muslim and faced a lot of opposition from her family and was insulted to a point where we were homeless for two weeks, since we had been living in my grandparents's house thus far.
A year and a half later, I came out to my mother about my transsexuality. I was initially introducing the idea and explaining how I felt to her by letting her understand I would let her time to acknowledge this surprise and that I would be there for her if she had some trouble accepting it. All she actually did was end up believing I was confused and twisted, telling everybody that I had been doing it for purely malicious reasons and attention. Essentially slander. She was putting an air of innocence to everybody but in private, was continuously questioning me about my religion and insulting me because I questioned God and became atheist. I was forced into a room with my parents one night where she was "apparently" possessed by an angel and was told I would be killed by God if I moved or spoke to anybody about that event. I was also being yelled at and calls a coward by my stepfather at the top of his lungs after closing the light/door and surrounding me. Following that, she was endlessly crying and asking me about my religion again, then started spewing stupidity like "if you don't believe in this, then you must think I'm insane," which, as usual, my white knight stepfather took as an opportunity to yell at me more and insult me.

That must have been excruciating. I admire your courage for sharing something so painful and wish you luck in finding peace and happiness.

[Tourmaline]

Thank you for your good wishes. I really do appreciate it.

 

I am mainly able to express what happened as openly as this because I have already retold the story several times to people in private. While I also hope my situation improves, what I wrote wasn't nearly the full story and, even if it was, there is still always fighting going on at my house to the point where I sometimes grow hateful of my parents when enraged. I'm usually alone when I let it out, though. Otherwise, I actually still try to spend time with my mother and be nice to her. I actually invited her out to eat with me last week and we did.

 

So I'm always trying to make things better in some way or make her happy, regardless of how she feels. Actually, she mentioned never wanting to see me again if I did transition, but I told her after that I'd be there for her no matter how she felt about me.

 

So really, this ties into the topic more personally for me because religion has been involved in a huge amount of the conflict in my life. I have slightly eccentric views because of my experiences.

[Cin]

My parents never held any religion although I was christened and went to a church school. My grandmother, her parents were Jewish (which is the reason my grandmother was born here instead of Russia).

To be honest, Christianity even though I was exposed to it from 5-11, never really struck up anything in me (and doing an A Level in Philosophy has made me more skeptical). I do believe in something after death, which I first found out I believed in, after both grandparents passed. Part of me doesn't understand why I feel that way.

 

I don't honestly know if any of the religions do connect with me in anyway.

[Raine]

My father is a very strong born-again Christian, while I am atheist, though i want to say agnostic or deist since I believe there might be a higher power just maybe not an eternal, always-existing, god who's so finicky or even currently alive or around.  

 

I value religion, it is a net good in the world. No matter how much xenophobia, fear of other religions, and moral restrictions it breeds, the benefits of the charity and good will, community solidarity, and encouraged ethical behaviors produce a greater good in the current world. People need something to aspire and look up to, religion provides that. All major religions provide that. Granted, they are occasionally taken out of context however not as often as they are not. Secondly, it allows people to deal with death, atheists are usually able to deal with the notion of death being an end. I, myself, find comfort in it, hell, maybe I'll finally get some sleep. But to others, there is a comfort in believing in a paradise and eternity, something that makes a less than perfect life tolerable. 

[Bull3tM0nk3y]

My mom is an anti-theist and my dad is a human secularist. So I'm an atheist.

 

I used to be an anti, but I realized I was an @sshole, and I was turning out to be like my mom who's a b!itch.

 

Now I think, if your beliefs aren't really hurting anyone or anything, it's fine by me. You can be a good person, and believe in something.

 

I hate some sections though. Like WBC. Also, I hate the ones who don't use modern medicine. It kills people.

 

Or when they feed a baby nothing but bible pages. Literally.

 

So yes, people can do harm with religion. But every religion has done something good in one way or another.

[Tentacruel]

Raised Protestant, still Protestant.  

 

Overall I'd say Buddhism is the most "helpful" Religion, due to it's non-controlling and peaceful nature (at least in theory), although if you want to include sub-religions or spin-offs Mormonism hasn't really hurt anyone and seems to churn out fairly nice people.  

[Bull3tM0nk3y]

although if you want to include sub-religions or spin-offs Mormonism hasn't really hurt anyone and seems to churn out fairly nice people.  

Works better for rich people.

[~ P O L A R I S ~]

I respect what religions do and how powerful an influence and source of strength they can be, but I feel like it's not good for kids and should have an age limit at which point people could objectively consider what option is right for them.

But yeah, forced indoctrination of kids is a problem when many religious themes and ideas are too heavy-handed for them to handle.

[CinnamonStar]

But, in terms of worldly religions, I think Buddhism is the religion which, over the course of history, negatively affected the least amount of people - do tell me if I'm wrong.

 

WW2 kamikaze pilots, the persecution of Rohingya Mulims in Burma, Japanese militarism, several (including bloody) conflicts between Buddhists, Taoists and adherents of Confucianism in Chinese history.

 

I'm not anti-Buddhist or anything, I'm just saying that like other religions it can work out when done right but can go very wrong if twisted due to the intense and severe nature of religions in general. Buddhism is particularly intense, I'd pick Taoism over it any day.

 

blessed

I can mostly agree with this personally. I decided for myself that there might not be any "better" or "less harmful" religions per se and that it primarily depends on what people do with them. Religion can do a lot of good if it's used to bring people together in a peaceful way, but a lot of harm if it's used to alienate others or even justify genocides, and any religious movement I can think of right now has gone both ways.

 

Buddhism in particular tends to be put into one large tolerant anti-authoritative chunk although it's as varied as any other movement. I've read a lot about Taoism and practised Zen Buddhism for research reasons (the latter is the one with a lot of mediation, but some people don't even view it as a religion). Those are good examples if you want to see how people put their interests and focus points differently. Not everyone will put the same weight on the same scripture/scripture part/concept, just like not every Atheist can be shoved into the same corner.

 

(Though I laughed when this topic came up after the one about YCM's new death. This is how to make the site active, huehue)

[Tentacruel]

I also feel the need to say that it makes little sense to blame a religion itself for doing anything.  A religion is merely an idea, or set of ideals and beliefs.  In the end it all comes down to people.  You cannot blame peaceful Muslims for the acts of terrorists nor can you blame peaceful Catholics for the Crusades.  (At least in my opinion.)

 

Any large group of people is gonna be corrupt as hell.  Religion, government, it doesn't matter. 

 

 

Another topic:  I find it funny how Protestants tend to either not know that they're Protestants and/or not know what it means at all.