What is your religion?

[Lumen_Astrum]

I never even had a friend which religion isn't close to Catholic. I'm close to a Baptist, an I.N.C. a Protestant, but I never even MET somebody who is far away on Christian beliefs. xD

[RemnantDream]

My bible teacher somehow found out *cough*facebookstalk*cough* that my friend and I were friends with Satanists so she decided to not teach from the book for a week but instead taught about Satanism.

Apparently real "Satanists" don't believe in Satan. They believe in nothing spiritual. Basically they're anti-Christian and humanist smooshed together. The key part of their religion is basically the opposite of the 10 Commandments.

However my friends really are Satanists meaning thatcthey do actually worship Satan. Well, more like follow than worship. They believe in God, Jesus, and Heaven but they hte them so they follow Satan instead.

[Lumen_Astrum]

I see.... sounds interesting. (but my parents will burn me if I ever became a Satanist, and I won't want to be one anyway. Just interested.)
I don't really know WHY or HOW they worship or follow Satan. It's just confusing. My idea of people worshipping Satan is kidnapping people and killing them O_O

[manga_otaku]

I go to a multi-faith school (I say go, I probably mean went now T_T), so I've met quite a lot of people with different faiths - Muslims, Hindus, Islam, Christians of all denominations, Buddhists, Sikhs, etc. Some like to impose their religions on others, especially is RS classes, but you get used to it xD It's also an all girls school, which makes it easier to speak freely about your own religion.
I think Satanists worship Satan in the same way Christians worship God and all that? xD

[Lumen_Astrum]

Maybe... I also go to a public school, and all religions are allowed... But usually, all that people care in here is GRADES, studies, and the like, so most of us don't care about it.

[manga_otaku]

I suppose, since school is for learning xD

[Camille]

I am an existential nihilist. Which is not really a religion, so I suppose officially I'm an atheist... Which is also not a religion. XD Basically, I'm not religious.

[choklitchan]

Non-denomenational Christian, here.
Though, it means more of a relationship than a religion, really.

Camille, out of curiosity, what's an existential nihilist believe? I think I heard the term before in European history, but I don't remember.

[Camille]

Camille, out of curiosity, what's an existential nihilist believe? I think I heard the term before in European history, but I don't remember.

The basic idea is that life and humanity are meaningless. There's no greater purpose to our lives and nothing special happens after we die. Wikipedia says: Existential nihilism is the belief that life has no intrinsic meaning or value. With respect to the universe, existential nihilism posits that a single human or even the entire human species is insignificant, without purpose and unlikely to change in the totality of existence.

[Pyonkotchi]

I never go to church, I hardly practice any faith, and my family has gotta be the worst at being religious ever cuz we never do anything xP
but i'm more or less Christian. probably like, agnostic sliding at the christian side of the religion scale, or something like that.

[KomiTsuku]

See, I follow my assistant's philosophy, d4ism. It is a very enlightening, guiding belief. Every time you have to make an important decision, you roll a d4. Odds, you do something smart. Evens, you do something incredibly stupid. Let the dice guide your life, fate be your master.

As you may have inferred, I'm not touching this topic seriously with a 39 1/2 foot pole. I keep my true belief very close to the heart, not the mouth.

[choklitchan]

Camille, out of curiosity, what's an existential nihilist believe? I think I heard the term before in European history, but I don't remember.

The basic idea is that life and humanity are meaningless. There's no greater purpose to our lives and nothing special happens after we die. Wikipedia says: Existential nihilism is the belief that life has no intrinsic meaning or value. With respect to the universe, existential nihilism posits that a single human or even the entire human species is insignificant, without purpose and unlikely to change in the totality of existence.

Oh, okays. I should have thought of wiki myself. Thanks.

[Sapphi]

I'm Protestant Christian... I attend a Baptist church because that's where most of my extended family goes traditionally, but I like to think of myself as non-denom. I don't think I've really studied enough denominations to accurately claim to have one.

I used to love God and all that but then I got to school and the people there ruined it for me. Going to a Christian school actually pushed me away from religion.

And my family pushed me away too. The older generations of my family are extremely conservative. I enjoy screamo/rock, tattoos, piercings, and dyed hair. They all see those as "sins". Since I plan to pierce a good portion of my face, get several tattoos, and dye my hair odd colors, I don't think I'm going to fit in at family reunions in the future..

I have struggled with these issues too. I went to a (Baptist) Christian high school which was basically more concerned with appearing good than actually being good, both morally and academically. A big factor was the pride of the original founder and VERY poor money management (actually, there is speculations that it wasn't JUST poor financial skills but actual fraud somewhere in there) but not everyone there was bad. It was still very depressing though.

It's also the same with the conservatives in my family. I've noticed a humorous tendency of Christians around the world and through different eras in history to pinpoint various things in their cultures and collectively decide they are just as sinful as murder, theft, etc. A lot of times I think they look at something that doesn't mix with their conservative culture and then flip through their Bible to try to find some kind of proof that it is "bad". Case in point, my cousin once dated a vegetarian girl and decided to go vegetarian too. Our family flipped. (We live in a town where hunting is popular and the local grocery store has deer heads sticking out of the wall.) My friend's dad found a verse in the Bible about "the weak eating vegetables" that was talking about something else completely and basically suggested that my cousin was weak in the faith

[GeneDNC]

Non-denomenational Christian, here.
Though, it means more of a relationship than a religion, really.

This

I am an existential nihilist.

and a bit of this. They don't usually mesh well.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

Well, I got massive exposure to a lot of different religions when I was young.

My parents are divorced, so I attended a Presbyterian church when I was with my mother, and I attended a Baptist church when I was with my father.

My grandfather is a Methodist preacher, so I attended a Methodist church when I was with my grandparents. My aunt and uncle attended Church of Christ, so when I stayed with them in the summer sometimes I would go there.

My conclusion was that different denominations in Christianity was stupid since they all seemed pretty much the same to me.

In addition to all that, one of my best friends and her family (who I stayed with almost as much as my own family) was Jewish - so I attended Synagogue with them on Saturdays!

Also, one of my other good friends was Catholic, so I usually ended up attending masses with her several times a year.

Finally, there was a large Hindu temple near where I lived, and I would often go and visit it to talk to the Hindu monks and look at all the shrines and statues. I liked it because it was quiet, no one was preaching at me, and you had to go bare-foot in the temple and it had the softest carpet! Plus I thought the orange robes of the monks looked kind of cool.

So, in case you missed all that, I attended Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Church of Christ, Catholic, Jewish, and Hindu worship services growing up. The take away for me? Well, even as I kid I knew that not ALL those adults could be right. Some had to be wrong. So basically, I came away with the belief that there IS a God, and he wants us all to be good to each other. I don't think we really need anymore than that. All the rest is just finicky details that cause people to fight and kill each other for no good reason.

Oh, and I picked up a belief in reincarnation from the Hindus, but I only believe in human reincarnation, I don't think you can come back as pig or cow or anything. And I think all that "past life regression" stuff is stupid. I don't believe you can know about your past lives during your current one. I have an elaborate theory and justification that I won't bore or annoy you all with, but suffice it to say it boils down to efficiency of souls and allowing God to sit back and do nothing.

So, in short, I got exposed to whole bunch of different religions growing up and basically came up with my own faith and a high tolerance for the beliefs of others.