Brewology

i am noticing a trend with probably 99% of the people on here being christian so my question to the brew community is this: Where you raised in the christian religion? and if you were why did you stay in it did you try out other religions before deciding on the one you currently practise? keep in mind that this is nto a debate about who is right and who is wrong in what they believe i am honestly curious. for myself i was raised in the southern baptist church an old school hellfire and brimstone church but right around 13 i started realizing that what they were preachign isnt what i truly believed of course i wasnt able to start exploring other religions until i turned 16 and went to college (dropped out got my GED and started college in the same year ) in college i studied Islam Judaism Hinduism Taoism Buddhism and Paganism out of all of them the only one that felt right and where i belonged and what i believed in my heart was Paganism.

Here's a question for you: Why do you believe in Paganism above the other religions that you've looked at?
Personally, I was conflicted over what I believed in. I was born into a Baptist family but I am currently non-denominational. Some people get so wrapped up into what they believe is right versus other Christian bodies... I don't think you go to Hell for hanging a cross with or without Jesus on it... There are many versions of Christianity and they are all subtly different, but the main idea is that God doesn't care about these little things because these little decisions are things that men decided, not God. I say this because I am a Christian and not any specific kind. I don't think there are any specific reasons why people join a specific version of Christianity, except the whole Catholic reformation ordeal. But do I know Christianity is the way to go? Yeah, I do.
For a while, I was really conflicted and struggling to understand my own beliefs. I wasn't sure what to believe and I had my doubts like many people do... But, I started going to a church every Wednesday (despite my family staying at home) and actually felt a whole new kind of emotion that I never felt before. For once in my life, I felt like I knew what I should be doing and I was doing it. The feeling was incredible. I wasn't prosecuted or lectured... It was just real people talking about real things. I started praying more and stuff and well, I had an amazing experience. People say that miracles don't happen anymore, but I saw one first hand. No, no body levitated, no one came back from the dead, and no water turned into wine... What happened, to most of you guys, may actually seem silly, but the feeling and realization that overcame my body was incredible whenever this happened. My mind cleared of all doubt and I was in complete confidence that God does exist and I am worshiping and living the way God intended....
I have some fish that live in a 10 gallon tank. Whenever I first got them, there were only 2 white clouds in a 1 gallon tank. They were awesome and eventually one gave birth and I saw a lot of little tiny fishies swimming everywhere. There were a lot of them and I knew I needed a new tank, so I switched them over to the 10 gallon tank. They grew to be adult size and a sickness plagued the tank. I'm not sure how, but they had pop-eye and I couldn't figure out why. Well, I got some stuff to clean their water and promote good bacteria and the fish became healthy again despite many of them having permanent eye damage... But, something was still wrong. One of my fish had what appeared to be scoliosis. He wasn't sick anymore, so I knew it had to be a physical problem with his back. He wouldn't swim, but he could still drift around. Every day after this, he got worse exponentially. He couldn't keep himself swimming and could not eat. This plump fish turned frail and weak as he was pushed onto the gravel for a few days. He couldn't swim. He simply could not swim. I'm not sure if you guys have fish or not, but if you see that your fish can't swim, you need to flush him because he won't ever. Once they hit the ground, they have no chance of swimming again. Well, on the last day, I knew I needed to take the fish out and flush him and it made me extremely sad because I hate whenever my fish die. I kept hoping he would get better, but he just got worse, so I knew I had to do something with him. Well, I figured that I would take a chance and pray for him and if he didn't get better, then I would stop his pain by killing him in an hour or two. I got his little net ready and I bent over by the tank and prayed to God and Jesus to help my fish. I was really doubting that anything would happen.... But to my amazement, whenever I opened my eyes to see the fish, he was gone. I was shocked. I looked everywhere and then with the other fishes, there he was, swimming. Now, you've got to understand that this fish had not been swimming for about 2 weeks and was at the bottom of the tank in the same place for a day and a half. He wasn't going anywhere. I knew that this was a miracle. I know some athiests say that God doesn't exist and miracles cannot happen and this is not proof of the existence of God, but it is. The chances of the fish being healed and back to normal was sooooo slim and then the chances that he would go back to normal during the time that I was praying was even more slim! There is just absolutely no way that I can believe he would have survived given the fact that out of all the time he could have gotten up and swam if he was fine, why would he whenever I was praying. God does exist and because I prayed to Him and Jesus, my fish was saved. Okay, okay, I know you guys may think that this fish thing is a little far-fetched, but it really happened. And I know you guys may think that it isn't a miracle because the life of a fish isn't that important or as important as someone dying of cancer, but this was a very important thing to me and I just wanted to share with you guys the proof that was before me that made me know God exists and that Christianity is the only way to salvation.

And by the way, the fish lived a good 7 or 8 months afterwards, at least. I couldn't tell if he died or not but one of my white clouds did and I think it was him. He could have lived longer.

i believe in Paganism over any other religion that i practised because it is where i feel most at home. i have never felt any kinship so to speak with christianity do i think they have soem good points? yes do i believe that there is only one god? no i dont because i see the old gods in every day life and to think that only one higher power created every thing is bogus in my mind atleast. i can walk outside at anytime of the day or night and just close my eyes and feel the different energies from the plants and animals around me. these are jsut my beliefs and i am nto tryign to knock anyones religion or say that any one religion is wrong there are thigns in all religions that people of other religions use to debase them. i'm not going to do that i feel anyone should be able to believe what they want and practise whatever religion they want without persocution from others. if youre christian thats fine by me if your muslim a jew hindi taoist or buddhist thats all well and good and more power to you if you have found somethign that you believe and will follow with your entire being then more power to you. i am a Non-Traditionalist Pagan so that right there makes me open to criticizm from traditionlist pagans. the shrot answer to your question crait is this the christian God never spoke to me like the Old Ones do. and yes you can all me crazy for sayign that they talk to me

Seriously guys

TL:DR lmao

Basically what Pun said lol, I grew up Southern Baptist and stayed with it just because it made the most logical sense to me. Not to mention I agree with full immersion rather than some water sprinklin'. That and I don't really like the idea of "trying out" other religions, it's not like its a shoe that you try on to see if it fits right lol. If you never wholeheartedly believed in Christianity then you never experienced the true essence of it imo. To each his own though.

Muslim,
oh and trust me, you people have probably known me or other people who are Muslim long enough to know that we're normal people who dress and act like you guys do (minus getting drunk and eating pork ) and that all of the terrorism stuff you see on tv is a bunch of people gone nuts, then actually being "islamic"

DCM, have you seen the video of the people who were trying to force the Muslim's out of their community because they were building a mosque or something? I don't remember any real specifics about the video, but we were watching it in my Western Civ class which was essentially a class about Judaism, Christianity, Islam and some "old" religions like Zoroastrianism. But anywho, during the Islam section we watched that video and I still remember the class erupting in laughter when one of the guys main points about why the Mosque shouldn't be built because he saw a sign somewhere that said "Allahu Akbar" like it was some sort of terrorist moto lol.

I don't think I'm allowed to post in this thread...

-DarkPacMan77-

why not DPM atheist? which is a valid religion i say the absence of belief is a belief in and of itsself @DCM i had some Muslim friends when i was in college one of my dormmates was Palestinian and through him i met the on campus Muslims and they were all cool people even if some of them were from countries who were at war with each other they all put the old country differences aside and came together

That would be correct dpm :p

Atheism is a religion, so you can post why you believe what you believe. As Irish has stated, this topic is not a debate topic, but a topic to post why you personally believe what you do. If you're an atheist, then you can still post why you believe in atheism versus religions that don't have Gods such as Buddhism. I would really like to hear how someone can disprove Buddhism.

i love Buddhism but when i was doing my whole soul searching thing i found that it just wasnt the one that i felt with all my being was the one for me. like all of the religions out there they all have there good poitns and there bad ones. hence the reason i am non-traditionalist pagan because while i believe in my religion whole heartedly there are soem points of it i abhor and try to avoid at all cost

I'm not Athiest. I don't identify with, correspond to, or act under any religion. The only religion I'm remotely tied to is the Baptist Christian Church, because I fix their electronics.

-EDIT- That is, to say, I am Agnostic, however, I do not associate myself even with that title. Religion in itself, through my eyes, more or less doesn't "exist".

-DarkPacMan77-

I'm an atheist. That is to say I don't believe in god. Or any other deity. Why? cause most religions encourage you to have faith and not to think. I prefer to think and question and doubt. That way I'm a bit more dubious when someone hands me that koolaid with the cyanide in it.

"God lives in your heart not your mind." - an exact quote from the guy talking to me the last time I was forced to go to church. That never rang true to me.

Also look at most of the major conflicts in the world. The Middle East is a perfect example of religious fervor gone wrong. 9/11 was religiously motivated. The crusades. Salem witch trials. All pointless religious slaughter.

That's what happens when people don't understand religion and try to act like retards thinking they're doing the right thing.