This is a strange topic for me to talk about, but letely it has kept spawning in my head. It's about Religion. What should I belive..?
It seems to me there's no way out. If I choose... the "wrong" religion.. I go to some bad place, as the case for a lot of religions.
For my life I was christian, but around the age of 13 I started to drift away from my beliefs. Looking past what my friend told me: "It's all about faith". is it? How can we be assured that some religions arn't just from Fairy Tail some bored guy made up.. So where do I turn? I tried to revert and get back on track with my religion. But i'm just digging myself into deeper questions and deeper darker thoughts of what may occur if I choose a... 'wrong' religion. So i'm simply asking.. what should I do?

What I've done is simply create my own beliefs as to what is and isn't. They don't resemble any doctrine I know of, so I don't go to any form of church.

Decide what you truly believe on big religious issues and if it nearly resembles a common doctrine, you can say that you are that religion, but you don't have to follow the guidelines of that religion to a tee, because it's all based on interpretation. And as for the heaven and hell issue raised by alot of religions, what makes me happy is just not believing in heaven or hell. And also, I think most religions are just easy answers for people who are too scared to come up with their own because they may not be as pretty as the answers in the Bible, or Kuran, or Torah. Or whichever book you follow.

this is something i've thought about every day. i am 15 right now and at this point in my life i am very confused about my religion. i am currently a christian and i guess i intend on staying that way but i still have my doubts. after all i'm only human. the way i figure it is, if i was brought up in a jewish home, i would be jewish. if i was brought up in a muslim home i would be a muslim. so the only real reason i'm a christian is because i was brought up that way. but i know what u mean when u say u don't want to end up in the wrong place. i rly try to stay w/ christianity bcuz i don't want to end up in hell but sometimes it's just so hard to stick w/ one belief. you'll figure it out eventually

i started to have thoughts like that when i was seven and since then i've decided to give up on religion. i think you should keep an open mind. like believe whatever you want but don't ignore what religion says. just be honest.

Actually, I've thought about this a lot. I mean, how do we know that our religion is the "right" one? I think that there is no one "right" religion but there is a right one for each individual person. So maybe Christianity is right for one person, while Judaism or Islam is right for someone else. I am being raised in a strictly Roman Catholic family, but I don't think it is where I belong. I'm still searching, but I think that I want to be a Quaker - they are really accepting of all people.

I feel that what you bealvie is what happens. God Love you no matter what. It took me a few years to find what i felt was what was perfect for me. You can try and go to say a youth group. Try differnt churches. If you dont like what is going on search for what you feel is right.
~Ashley~

well my dad once told me (asked me)... when you get on a plain do you know for sure that your going to land at the right destination? No you hop on a plain and hope that you make it where you want to go...its kind of like faith who knows if there really is heaven or hell and if you'll make it to heaven you just gotta lead your life in the way that you think is right and hope that you make it to the right destination

Also me personally I do not believe that there is a so called "wrong" religion...I've kinda made up my own belief that we all worship the same God just call him different names and praise him differently so I dont think you can go wrong

quote:

Originally posted by AaronAnarch:
Thanks a lot Sphinx for the advice. Oh and I was looking into the "The idiots guide to Religions".

Yay! You're welcome.

He wasn't created and he didn't become, he just was, or rather is

Oh and another thing that bugs me, how does someone become a... supreme being? Like God fr instance. How does someone just stay around sense... forever and just create us for the hell of it? it makes no sense. I'm afraid If I keep posting these comments I might get hit by lightning

The way I view it is that all religion by it's very definition worships a supreme being or aspects there of (as in a God of Lightning and what not) (with a few exceptions such as satanism and obivous crackpot stuff like scientology)

So because all religion worships the supreme being, who every one agrees there can be only one of there's no real conflict. It's all just style. As long as you live a good life and don't do to much of the "generallly agreed upon bad stuff" like rape and murder you should be fine

Thanks a lot Sphinx for the advice. Oh and I was looking into the "The idiots guide to Religions".

This bugs my also.
How do we know we've chosen the wrong one.

I really love this quote
"As for the validity of religion itself, people can argue back and forth about that their whole lives and no one will know for sure until it's too late to tell anyone, so it's important to go with what feels right to you."

And hell yeah i agree.
What feels right to you.
If there was a god, he would realise that you've tried to do the right thing...
That's what i belive anyway. I belive he/she/they/it knows that i've tried to find the right path, and if i haven't it's coz i tried and there's nothing else i can do.

I had the same question, and it still lingers in my head. I asked my parents one day, bad idea! My mom was in shock and my dad started saying all these crazy things about heaven and hell. Then he said that I should talk to a priest. I said he wouldn't answer my questions, and I would probably get mad at him and offend him. So I haven't asked the question, I am glad someone has though.

I try not to let things phase my perception. Honestly i've been looking into differnt religions. I've tried to find a good website explaining all the information on religions.

I think the most important thing in most religions is intent, so if you really do want to worship God and just aren't sure how, that's a huge start. As for the validity of religion itself, people can argue back and forth about that their whole lives and no one will know for sure until it's too late to tell anyone, so it's important to go with what feels right to you.

I have a weird suggestion. Read "The Idiot's Guide to World Religions" or something similar. Go for something simple and to the point and just learn the basics about as many religions as you can find. Learn more about your own religion and more about ones you know nothing about.

I'd also like to mention that who your parents are and what religion you were born into shouldn't play too much into these kinds of things. My mom was raised by two pastors and spent most of her childhood in the Church before finally, at 46, converting to Islam (but only after crazy amounts of research and going back and forth about it for a long time). Don't jump into anything, just research for a little while.