Find a Religion

Another member posted their belief net results and here are mine:

So apparently my beliefs fit the Sikh religion. I was raised with a hodge podge of religions. When I visited my grandparents I was taken to Catholic Church, but not allowed to take part in communion. This was a very pointed exclusion. My mom’s family had their baptisms and funerals at their family’s lutheran church. W

hen I was in middle school we got involved with the local unitarian church, where I attended youth group. It was through the youth group that I learned about all relgions. The group visited Sikh temples, Muslim Mosques, Hindu Temples, etc. I loved it, but have always felt like it was more of a school than a religion or spirituality.

In high school my mother and I were involved in a Neo-Pagan nature sanctuary. I loved that there were many aspects of nature worship and we made many good friends. However, it was just too non traditional to me, and talking about faeries and the holly king felt like fantasy and not something that could get me through rough times or periods of questioning.

I finally want to find a place where I can question, share in community and feel at home. Maybe a religion could even help to center me and keep me grounded. I am careful not to ask for too much in a relgion, but am ready to find one that I can follow. I especially want to find one that I can raise my future children in. I don’t want them to have the same experience I did-of feeling like I didn’t belong to a faith.

1. Sikhism (100%)
2. Hinduism (96%)
3. Jainism (91%)
4. Mahayana Buddhism (84%)
5. Unitarian Universalism (84%)
6. Reform Judaism (83%)
7. Liberal Quakers (83%)
8. Neo-Pagan (79%)
9. Orthodox Judaism (78%)
10. Baha’i Faith (75%)
11. Theravada Buddhism (71%)
12. New Age (64%)
13. Islam (62%)
14. Taoism (59%)
15. New Thought (58%)
16. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (57%)
17. Orthodox Quaker (54%)
18. Scientology (51%)
19. Seventh Day Adventist (45%)
20. Secular Humanism (43%)
21. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (39%)
22. Jehovah’s Witness (39%)
23. Eastern Orthodox (38%)
24. Roman Catholic (38%)
25. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (34%)
26. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (31%)
27. Nontheist (20%)

I have been thinking a lot lately, and have decided that it isnt unreasonable to explore the possibility of a religion.

I have been a blank canvas for religion my entire life, and now feel I need something more to believe in, something that will help guide me day-to-day, and give me a greater sense of purpose.

Buddhism.
Im sure i could fit this into my life.
I believe in Karma, and meditation to some degree. Its just the materialistic thing i would struggle with.

When I was young, I was introduced to the Bahá’í faith when my step-father, who was a Bahá’í married my mother.

My mother was Christian, although I don’t recall the denomination. I think it may have been Lutheran or Presbyterian, but I really can’t say for certain. Maybe she was non-denominational.

Anyway, my mother was open to my sister and I experiencing other religions. I don’t recall if it was right away or not, but at some point we were attending Bahá’í school on the weekends. As I recall it, we were also attending Christian Sunday schools as well.

As a child, I was particularly inquisitive. I remember asking some of the more difficult questions as a child. You know, things like, who made God? why is God like this? why does God do that? In some ways, I think I was a bit smart alecky about it. Much of it is becoming a bit blurry now.

In any case, I often asked these questions at both my Bahá’í school and Christian Sunday school. What I think began to endear me to the Bahá’í faith at that time was the difference in the way certain difficult questions were answered.

In the Christian setting, there definitely seemed to be more reticence about the issue. The Christians didn’t seem to like me asking too many questions. When I stumped them, the most traditional answer I would get was, “That’s just the way it is, now stop asking silly questions.”

In the Bahá’í setting, there was much more encouragement. There were nearly as many times that the Bahá’í teachers did not know the answers to my questions either, but more often than not their response was something like, “That’s an interesting question. I don’t know the answer. Perhaps you could look into it and if you find out, could you tell me?”

So, in both situations, I was basically getting the answer, “I don’t know”, but in the Bahá’í situation, there always seemed to be a quiet confidence. An unshaken assumption that seeking out truth would not, somehow, deter me from finding God, but that it would rather help me to get closer to Him.

So, I think that by the time I was 11, I knew I was a Bahá’í. I believe my mother did not decide she was a Bahá’í until I was about 12 or 13, but my recollection of the specifics is getting rather fuzzy.

Anyway, that was my reason for becoming a Bahá’í then. Since then, I have found even more compelling reasons for following Bahá’u’lláh.

By the way, I’ve noticed that some Christians I have met sometimes get hung up on the name. Although, thankfully, it has been a long time someone has told me that I am going to “He..” before they know anything about me.

Please be aware that Bahá’ís fully believe in Christ and fully respect His station. Some Christians don’t understand how Bahá’ís can do this given some of the wording in the Bible.

If you are of a Christian background, I would first of all like to thank you for actually reading this far. You must truly be a seeker and someone who loves God if you have. I’d also like to say, if you can think of what it is about Christ that makes you believe He is who he claims to be, please apply those same rules to Bahá’u’lláh and see if they do not also apply to Him.

It just occurred to me that some people may believe that I decided to follow the Bahá’í faith, simply because my step-father did. I know that a number of people decide on religion, simply because their parents did. I’d like to say that while I did love my step-father, I didn’t really like him all that much for most of my childhood. My sister was the one who liked him. She is still Christian, by the way (last time I checked anyway, but I imagine she would mention something if that changed). I was, at the time, more endeared to my biological father, who passed away a few years ago. He had a Catholic funeral.

The Bahá’í faith encourages independent investigation of the truth. I have spent most of my life learning about life and spirituality and so far my connection with the faith has only grown stronger. Perhaps you will find God this way, too.

3 things i know though….

Im not Buddhist, im too materialistic.
Im not Christian as i don’t believe in God.
And… I’m not Pagan/Wiccan. I dont believe in the deities nor do i believe in Magick…

Probably no Religion out there will suit me. I will still keep looking for now though.

I’m currently searching high and low for the right path. I was raised a Jehovah’s Witness, and I’m glad and quite proud that I managed to escape from that controlling group. For me they are the definition of a lot of things that are wrong with organized religion today. But I still want to believe in something!

I have a few “requirements” for my religion, though.

1. It must not be organized in the way that you are required to join any organization or be registered anywhere to be considered a member/believer/whatever.

2. It must give men and women equal rights, be tolerating of homosexuality and not have a bunch of strict rules that do little more than distract from its true purpose.

3. It must be something I’m able to believe in fully, i.e. not too crazy, unlikely or fable-like.

4. It must not contradict modern science and the like.

I’m open to anything (as I know most religions can be interpreted into working with my conditions). I’ve decided to toss aside all my prejudices. I want to read the holy scriptures of the world, since I believe that anything that truly comes from God to us should speak to my heart and be easy enough to understand (or else the purpose of the text is defeated, right?). Currently I have started with the Qur’an. I think this is where one really should search, not just by reading descriptions of different people’s beliefs.
I wonder if anyone takes the same approach as me?

Anyway, I wish all who is on this mission good luck.

I’m really not sure at the moment, but I’m thinking Buddhism might be the way to go, from what I’ve read so far. Right now I would say I’m an Agnostic Theist (?) which basically means I believe there is a higher power but don’t know what it is or if it is really knowable. I was also baptised catholic.

So I’m going to research Buddhism, Agnosticism and Hinduism but I think I will end up being a Buddhist that believes in God – I have read that is not a conflict since Buddhism doesn’t really have a god. But my research may change all that.

That maybe i am just an athiest.

I want a religion – but maybe for the wrong reasons, maybe because im hoping it will be the good change i wanna see in myself…

I had gotten a comment on my previous entry on this goal, but it seem that the person who left it has since deleted their account. This is a shame, since I wanted to thank that person for their thoughts regarding Christianity.

Christianity is definitely on the table for me. I have managed to get over my prejudices against that faith that were based on the strange denominational cold war that went on in our house when I was a child. (I am sure interfaith marriages work for a lot of people, but not so much in our house when I was growing up—and my parents were just different kinds of Christians. What would the tension have been like if they’d been completely different religions? Eep!)

I am actually very conservative on a lot of things, so traditional monotheistic faiths are really ok with me.

I’ve been reading about Buddhism, writing Haiku, and doing yoga. This doesn’t count as “finding a religion”, but at least it’s a step. Next stop, local Japanese gardens on Saturday for a retreat from suburb life.