I was born and raised in a Christian family. I was baptized as a baby, and went through the Christian rite of passage of confirmation as a teenager. My parents are moderately religious, at least from my point of view. When I was younger they would take me to church and Sunday school every week. Currently, they hold a bible study with our neighbors every other week. I often find myself analyzing people’s actions, trying to figure out why they do certain things. This is especially true when it comes to reflecting upon my own actions and beliefs. At this point in my life, I do not believe in any one religion or deity. I have spent a long time thinking about my stance on religion, particularly the one I was raised in. I apportioned a lot of my …show more content…
My transition from moderately religious to agnostic/atheist was began mostly out of apathy and laziness. I just did not want to go to church every week. It was very boring, and I felt the hour or so spent listening sermons and singing hymns was just a waste of my time. As time passed I began to reevaluate my own beliefs. I had so many questions that needed answers, and I felt as though I needed to figure them out myself. There was also a period where I struggled with anxiety over what my parents would think when they found out I did not share the same beliefs as them. Once I told them however, they were very open and understandable and did not shame me for my newfound beliefs. I never felt as though I could not come to my parents when I had a question about morality or something of the sort. Many of my questions were answered by simply looking at what happens around the world every single day. Some questions were more difficult to come to terms with than others, such as the concept of death and what comes after. I imagine the idea of death and the afterlife is not as big a deal for people in religions like Christianity, where it is believed that when you die you will end up in heaven or hell. I once believed there was an afterlife waiting for me when I passed on. At first I was absolutely terrified at the idea that it would all just end one day, no afterlife, nothing, just darkness. After a long period of reflection on the subject, I finally came to a conclusion. Religion in general, arose from people's need to understand why things happened in the world around them. People needed to know why the sun rose over the horizon in the morning, and sunk back down at dusk. They needed answers as to why they were born, and what their purpose was in life, and what happens after death. The idea that everything that has ever conspired in the universe since its
I am an African-American woman who was raised in a Christian household. Growing up, I lived with both of my parents and my two sisters. We are a close-knit family. My parents made it their primary goal to instill in us religious beliefs by having us attend church
My beliefs are important to me. I wake up every morning with a cup of coffee in my hand and turn on the daily news. I see many problems occurring around the world, but most of us are too blind to actually do something to help. We are too blinded by our society's cultural that we can’t separate ourselves from the good and bad.
In the book, “Something Other Than God” by Jennifer Fulwiler, the author and main character, Jennifer, talks about her atheist background and how her opinion as she ages changes. Jennifer grew up atheist in a heavy Catholicism influenced town, and she completely rejected God. She talks about different experiences of religion being forced upon her and how uncomfortable she felt. She also mentions that was she was almost unable to be friends with Catholics. As she grows up she continues to feel this way, until she is a young adult. One day she feels the need to read about Catholicism. Fascinated, she continues researching, blogging, reading, and talking about the faith. Then she talks about what she discovers and some issues she has with the
refugees, and the second generation who were born here in the states. Finally, I feel now that I have the vision to work on myself to know more about my attitude, my future therapeutic values in the field practices. At the same time, I am planning to work more with my personal therapist on the values, beliefs, and emotions and I will be happy to know about myself more.
The soul of the world to me is my Religion, it has had an influence on my life for as long as I can remember. I was just a little preschooler when I was introduced to my faith, my parents sent me to a church camp after school for an hour or so every day. I had never had any real connections like many of the pastors claimed but I knew as long as I believed that good would come. For many years it didn't, yet I remained faithful. I always believed that if I remained faithful that nothing could ever hurt me, still with all my faith there were days where I questioned my belief. I wondered how any of this could actually be possible, if there was really a big man up in the sky watching me then why don't I ever see him. But as I grew older I learned
Fully half of the teenagers by the age of sixteen have had some strong beliefs that they believe in. The things I have believed in since I was sixteen have really made a huge impact on my life. My beliefs have really made me look on life at a different approach. Also the beliefs I have had since I was sixteen help me to become an outstanding individual. Some of the main things I believe in are God; nothing is giving to you, and memories.
There are multiple views on death and the afterlife and each view is different depending on the religion or belief that someone practices. Some religions believe in a heaven but not a hell, some believe in both and others do not believe in either. The religions that are practiced today were created by our ancient ancestors who had the ability to think beyond themselves. Practicing a religion and having an idea of death and an afterlife back in ancient times laid a foundation on how religion is seen and practiced today. Mesopotamians, Egyptians and Hindu’s created the concept of death and life after death through what they believed and practiced in ancient times.
Religion is an important aspect for understanding both life and death in many cultures. It provides a structure and set of moral guideline for many people all over the world. Religion especially plays an important role in the process of dying and in death because it is often what people turn to in their last days of life in anticipation of what, if anything, comes after life. While the belief in an afterlife is not consistent throughout all religions and cultures, many of them do believe in some sort of an altered state of existence or consciousness.
Manytimes one hears the words “and it changed my life forever,” or something to that effect; these words seem to be a bit overused and may have lost their meaning for some. So when I heard them from Jon, I must admit that even though he is a friend, I was a bit dubious.
My parents have always been extremely religious and I've been forced into the Catholic faith since birth. From church classes to prayer groups and regular mass, I was spending up to 8 in church each week. Since coming to TJ, I have little to no time to attend religious services. My parents have even tried to increase the amount of time spent because they think I will have "a stronger faith". The problem is that I don't believe in my religion. They never understand that attending church is absolutely boring, I fall asleep during the mass (which, I know, is extremely disrespectful), and have a sour attitude for the rest of the day. I don't enjoy attending services and it's extremely obvious to the other members of my church. I also don't agree
The biggest group of people that believe in the afterlife are the Christians (Sheler). For hundreds of years Christians have believed in an “afterlife” but they believe in two types of afterlife where both last an eternity. One is seen as good which they call heaven and another which is seen as bad is called hell. Both of these places have originated thousands of years ago during Greek mythology when the Greek gods rules the earth and the sky and the underworld. This is where the ideas of heaven and hell originated. Peoples view of the afterlife have henceforth changed in the evolution of religion and science.
Since I was not brought up in a religious household, I find it uncomfortable to discuss the topic with fear of being prejudged. Through this course and self-reflecting, I am realizing that it is necessary to further educate myself on various religions in order to obtain a more knowledgeable and pluralistic mindset (Adams, etl. 2013, pg. 229). I have always focused on my moral beliefs rather than being a religious or spiritual person. It is my opinion, that religion and being a good person or doing the right thing are separate concepts. Overall the most meaningful life lessons I have learned, are from the negative treatments I have experienced due to my own oppressions. Therefore, I would not want to be the reason for someone else’s discomfort or hurt so I am more cognizant of the things that I say or the reactions I give off. I would want others to feel accepted for their oppressions, and be comfortable knowing they will not be judged by the things they are not privileged
This is when my fear started to come out in front of my eyes. All the doubts and questions led to me not having a religion. I became very frightened. People just assume that if you don’t believe in anything you're an atheist. But that’s not true at all. What some individuals don't realize is that you're not an atheist but maybe you're still searching for answers. I didn't want this god or whoever to hate me. I didn't want to end up having to experience one of the consequences my family told me about. This didn’t stop my search but I was held back lots of times. I never completely agreed with any of the religions that I learned. If the religion was against something like homosexuals than I would get aggravated. One religion that I learned about was even against celebrating small holiday’s like birthday’s. I just couldn't completely agree. I thought that you had to completely agree with a religion to become it. Since I didn’t have a religion the afterlife started scaring more than anything else. I wondered if I would go to hell, get reincarnated, or it may just be like sleep. This is one thing that scares me up to this day. I want to know what happens in the afterlife. I want to be
Religion is something no one can ever take away from me; it informs the way I walk, talk, and even eat. Without such a structured lifestyle, the satisfaction I have with my life would cease to exist. Although my life is nowhere near perfect, I am much more grateful now that I recognize all that God has given me. I got baptized on December 28, 2013 into the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. That day molded me into who I am now, by washing away the baggage of my past.
The definition of religion is the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods(Merriam-Webster). After this semester I have come to realize that religion is a much more advanced, complicated, and personal definition. Religion can’t be defined in one word or one term because there is a lot that religion entails. There really is no concrete answer of what religion is and the definition varies among different groups of people and individuals.