Hey, PM me about your questions sometime. Maybe we can discuss them. Or AIM chat, or something. *shrugs*

I am a Pagan. I turned my back on Christianity because my mother gave me a nasty view on it. I was forced into church, confirmation and the such. She tried to force her views on social issues on me like gays are wrong and abortion is the work of the devil.

I think I was a pagan since I was 6 because I had all their beliefs. I even celebrate the pagan holidays what Christianity converted into their own, like Yule/Christmas. I really think that Christianity is a awesome religion (Jesus really kicks ass!) and you can't go wrong with the ten commandments, but as long a people like my mother exist within it, I kind of feel turned off by it

So the only reason why you believe what you do is because your mother believes what she does so strongly?
How absurd.
There are 3 ways in which you can grow up in relation to your parents.
You can either:
1. Conform exactly to how your parents are
2. Conform exactly to how your parents aren't
3. Judge carefully on what is the good, and what is the bad, and learn from it.

Two of these ways, you're parents control how you act.

It would be foolish to be pagan simply because your mom was a bad example. Don't let that control you.

Im a Druid.
Ok I used to be a christian, but then one of my friends told me about paganism and it was just one of the most amazing experiences of my life. It was because I that I had always been a pagan, and I had never known it. Suddenly everything I believed in wasn't something I was just making up in my head, but something that a whole load of other people believed in too! It was amazing! I hear this is experience is known as 'coming home'. Yeah, so from then 'til now I have been a very satisfyed Druid, who truely feels at one with the world and nature : )
Ok now I don't have a problem with any other religions, but I just think that any religion that can only exist because of some text in a book is well, questionable. For pagans there are no old texts to base your life on, because the 'religion' is derived from nature.

EDIT: Oh, and none of my family is religious!

So in other words, you make it up as you go along.

Sounds like stuff I did as a kid.
Then I realized I was only decieving myself.

Not really, being pushed in a direction that I do not want to follow is not making look good to me. Everyone in my home community are like that.

I don't really believe in a lot of the social issues that hard-core Christians have, so I just walk outside of it. Pagans do not preach and try to spread their word, Christians do. Actually, some of the great religions of the world where almost extinct because of Christians 500-1000 years ago.

Negative. I am making nothing up.
I can understand how it may seem that I am though. As I say, I had all of these ideas about how life works etc, and then found that there were many other who shared the same view, called Pagans. I think that these views of the world came to me simply because I am a creature on this planet, and I believe all people in the world can awaken to what I would consider the 'truth'.

Like the Aztec religions? Or the polynesian head-hunters? Or the original druids? Or the american indian groups?
All of these were immensely violent cultures, built around war and violence.
Can you give any such examples of nice, peaceful groups who were "destroyed" by Christian evangelism?

Double Post:
Care to elaborate on what these are?

Okay I will elaborate a bit. Before I was a Pagan, I believed that animals were of equal value to humans, and that they should never be purposely harmed (unless you intend to eat them), and should be respected. I believed that all creatures and the earth itself shared a spiritual energy. Now this is something I believed because it was something I thought I could 'feel', thats as best as I can explain it. I also believed in reincarnation. It was what made sense to me. However these beliefs did not fit with christianity. For example, christians believe animals do not have souls, and they do not believe in reincarnation. The idea of heaven and hell made no sense to me.
So yeah, I was delighted when I discovered Paganism, I felt whole.

But, is all of it true?
Just because a lot of people believe it to be so, and have done so for a long time, and you agree with them, does not make it factual. :-P ( :flatearth101: )

Ok good, I'm glad you know where I'm coming from. And I agree, churches should be more intimate.

I believe it to be true because I 'feel' that it is real!
I can't tell you anything as a fact. I go by my feelings, but hey my 'feelings' could just be chemical reactions making me think things, but then again, maybe its something deeper than that. Well anyway, I trust in my feelings, so to me, what I believe in is very real.

I'm a Christian. My mom is Christian so I guess I just accepted the faith that she took. When I was little she always used to take us to church and when I saw her first get into it, it interested me at the same time. B/c of my faith I've been able to view things more positively. It has shaped me to be a better man but by all means I'm not perfect. If you met me you wouldn't know what faith I was b/c I keep it to myself. I don't talk about it ever unless someone brings it up or asks me.

Ah, but your feelings are predetermined by your previous experiences, which map out your emotional responses to stuff. Emotions and feelings are unreliable as an objective source of determining truth. ( :Neurology101::Psychology101: )

I hope Sassu doesn't get all angry at me for being this inquisitive in her thread. :P

And I see there are exclamation points in your post. Please don't get riled up. I am just saying and asking stuff.

EDIT: also... did you used to watch Captain Planet when you were young?

Excuse my exclamation marks, that is where I am getting excited, not angry. You may have a good scientific theory about feelings, but I think that they exist on a spiritual level as well. I realise it's irriatating when 'religious' types use spiritual energy in their arguements because it can't be proven or disproven, but that's just the way I think it is.
Oh and I did watch Captain Planet, heh, Hmmmmmm, well who knows, my whole life could be based around that mediocre cartoon!

I've always wondered about this point of view. Why would you turn your back on a religion because some people are practicing it incorrectly? Isn't it likely that there are some who call themselves Pagans that behave in ways that would be embarrassing to you? The religion is not about those people, though.

Christianity is not the behavioral patterns of people who call themsevles Christian. The only valid example of what a Christian should be like is Jesus himself, and you said yourself that you approve of him. Anyone can call themselves anything and yet behave anyway they choose. Judge an institution by what it is and not what it's supposed followers do.

I figured just as much about Captain Planet. You were born the same year I was. I used to be of the same sort of persuasions as you, to a certain extent. I guess I just could not find anything to substantiate it, and as such, it just became something fun to think about, but nothing more. I cannot also forget to credit my father for teaching me a lot about critical thinking. :D

As for feelings, I am finding it a rather interesting journey in my mind, as I delve into the deeper sciences, philosophies, and psychology, trying to pin down where exactly the spiritual may start and where the physical may end.


Wow, postcount+++ at this forum

Delving into philosophies and psychology hm? Heh I can tell you're that kind of person just from your signature! Ghost in the Shell does indeed raise some interesting points.
Well, I wish you luck on your 'spritual journey' if I may call it that!

I am into everything. :p
And thanks.

Those were not through evangelism though.
Those are all perversions of Christianity, not operating even within the most strict of interpretations of scriptures.
Let us also not forget that there ARE people who will call themselves Christians, but only to attempt to gain the support of the populace at large, or only do so because that is basically the "cool" thing to do at the time.

I like how there is a picture of Einstein on the "atheist's resource" webpage. Smart = atheist, right?

Einstein was actually quite theistic. He wasn't very religious, but there is plenty of evidence that he believed in God.

I don't know who that guy on the left is either. Looks like Newton - a strong believer of Christianity.

Newton.
Every image I have ever seen of Descartes has him with at least a small mustache.
Not to mention that Descartes has a more prominent nose not nearly as prominent a chin.

Although Einstein was more Deistic than anything.
And Newton cast off many tenants of Orthodox Christianity, such as claiming that the Trinity was nothing but a machination of the Church.

Heh, sorry. I edited. It could be Descartes, though. Even so, he may not have been Christian, but he was strongly theistic.

It's only modern scientists that are mostly secular, having been galvanized by Evolutionism.