[Stone]

As I was at church today the sermin was much diffrent than any other sundays, a couple people made testimonies about how they came to religion, what it has done for them and how religion delivered them from the blackest holes of their life. ... Each and every story amazed me and brought tears to my eyes.

I was wondering if anyone wanted to share there stories.

[johan]

I went to a friend's Bible study. He tried to include me even though I was not into religion at all. I was a pest and argued against "their" concept of God and even kind of messed his sessions up.

They were trying to get through C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity. Sometime after the Bible study sessions were all over, I read the book, and I really felt it gave me the kind of reasoning I needed. I kind of put the rest together after that.

I've drifted away from church, and I don't pray much. I feel that I've lost some of the very real connection I had to God, and I should get it back. I'm very lazy.

[dyermaker]

Prayer.

I tried it, and liked it.

If you want to, you should to. Whether there's a God or not, it's hardly a waste of time.

[bluetuesday]

i asked god if he was there and a voice said, 'yes'.

i didn't believe the answer so i started searching. and whenever i heard the voice and asked, 'who IS that?' he said, 'you know it's me'.

so i asked myself if i wanted it to be true; if there being a god made my life any easier. and when i realized it didn't, that knowing god brings more responsibility and tough decisions and sacrifice than the alternative, i knew the voice i'd heard could not have been my own.

[brashgal]

Two things convinced me:

I survived a bad car accident when I was 19 that I probably should not have survived. Escaped with a bruised shoulder and some broken teeth (wasn't wearing a seatbelt). The car was not so lucky, it folded in half. After seeing that car I felt that I had been saved for some reason - I wasn't sure why. A stranger pulled me out of the car and called paramedics and stayed with me until they came - proof that God is in men and I see examples of that behavior fairly often.

Although it sounds kind of hokey - the movie The Terminator plays into my belief - after seeing it I believe that I am probably here still to raise my children - that somehow they will be great contributors to society.

My son is still not sure if he believes in God. I think it is because he hasn't had anything sufficiently bad or good enough happen to him to convince him there is a God. He's gone from being a hard core atheist to an agnostic in the last year so I'm hopeful he'll have his own epiphany.

[loveregardless]

I'm not "religious" at all. Religion is man made and spirituality is Divine; and the true goal of "religion" in the first place. The reason for the creation of so many paths and the purpose of all "religions" is to arrive at the same goal is it not...so for me, I became "spiritual" when I realized the un-reality of "religion".

[tiki]

My parents.

I grew to incorporate it into my own life as an adult, although my parents really pushed me to go to church even as an adult. Now I go more than them. I skip every once in a while, but it's not really often.

My younger brother doesn't go and my parents never made him go while we were growing up. He was too busy trying to burn the house down.

But anyway, yeah, my parents made me go.

[Moose]

Originally posted by loveregardless
I'm not "religious" at all. Religion is man made and spirituality is Divine; and the true goal of "religion" in the first place. The reason for the creation of so many paths and the purpose of all "religions" is to arrive at the same goal is it not...so for me, I became "spiritual" when I realized the un-reality of "religion".

I think we know what she means.

For me, I was very young. I just took a look around and noticed everything around me had perfect balance. I knew and felt in my heart that all of this couldn't have been coincidence. I knew there had to be an explaination....My parents let me go to Church just to get me out of their hair on Sundays. That's where everything was explained to me and it made sense. They didn't try to over explain, or convince me, they just told me their story and I accepted it.

[tiki]

I agree with moose. For me, there was no question. I can look at the function of the human eye alone and know there's a god. There's never been a question for me.

[loveregardless]

in a strict Southern Baptist household and went to church, vacation bible school, awana, the whole nine yards as a child. But I never felt like it made sense to me, I said I believed it, but there was something very big missing from the picture. Luckily for me I had friends of many different religions as a child and got to experience a lot of culture and differences that most grown adults never do...once you actually spend time researching, learning, studying and just experiencing the many different "religions" in this world, you start to realize that they all have the same intention, the same purpose, the same goal and most times the same basic morals and ethics. It's just that being of any particualar "religion" and trying to assert that religion's dominance over another equally as man-made "religion" is futile and naive. They were all created by PEOPLE who interpreted an experience or a phenomenon, as people do, and thus formed a set of beliefs unique to their location, culture and place in time. All religion is an attempt at achieving enlightenment, at understanding and grasping spirituality. Limiting yourself to the confines of religion, is like thinking that the United States is the only country in the world because thats the country you grew up in. It doesn't make sense. And I'm not trying to insult anyones faith, just to say that it is the purpose, the intention, the teachings of each of these religions that are the point, not the specifics. Not the name by which you call your god or the method in which your worship them. All Gods and Godesses from all religions throughout history are referring to the same power. Divinity, God, Buddah, Christ, whatever name you want to call upon...it is the same difference. It is the same being. There is no reality in this illusion of "separate" religions...it is just another method in which we can discriminate and distance ourselves from others.

[Pocky]

All Gods and Godesses from all religions throughout history are referring to the same power. Divinity, God, Buddah, Christ, whatever name you want to call upon...it is the same difference. It is the same being. There is no reality in this illusion of "separate" religions...it is just another method in which we can discriminate and distance ourselves from others.

There are quite significant differences in many religions - but I do agree with you that we use these differences as a means to discriminate against each other.

[Dakini]

Originally posted by tikibrandy
I agree with moose. For me, there was no question. I can look at the function of the human eye alone and know there's a god. There's never been a question for me.

I have come to this understanding of the world of late, and it has made me a new, whole person for the first time.

However, I was wondering:

How do you deal with this when someone you love doesn't see this? How can it work? Its eating away at me.

(Maybe this is a topic for a new thread?) pls. advise.

[tiki]

Softly, very softly. I wouldn't push my religion on anyone. I may invite you in, but the ultimate decision is left to you.

With this said, I've had two boyfriends in my life that introduced religion and baptism all their own because of my beliefs. My fiance never knew God to the extent that he does now, because of me.

Hope that answers your question.

[loveregardless]

Of course there are many many differences in the SPECIFICS of each religion. That's because each religion was CREATED at a different time, a different location, by different people, different cultures, and were "sparked" by the observance of different "experiences" and phenomenon. But when the Hindu mother, the Christian father, the Jewish brother, the Wiccan niece, the Mormon sister, the Tao cousin, (etc.) say they're prayers to whatever god of whatever name, it is the same POWER hearing and answering all prayers. Divinity is not discriminatory against ANY of its children. It understands that as physically restricted humans with our limited abstract thinking abilities and our accumulated and "learned" thought patterns, we are incapable of all arriving at the same conclusions. You can't expect that a dark skinned Indian would worship a blonde haired deity. Nor that a red haired Irish person would worship a dark skinned deity, etc. etc. We limit our perception of true reality by forcing ourselves into categories of ANY kind. And by trying to limit true Divinity to any one name or face we are only insulting the true maginifescence(sp) of it's almighty and loving power for all creation, not just man kind even, nor just animal kind. The day that we realize that we are nothing more than another wonderful creature connected in all ways to every other living creature in the universe...the day the wool falls from our eyes and we can really say we "know" anything.

[Moose]

Live by example.