Welcome to Gaia! ::

I am a Roman Catholic. I am very religious, although my opinion about a few topics like contraception and celibary differ from the opinion of the church, especially the pope. I am interested in other relgions, too. Fascinating for me are religions with more than one god. Each of then as an own function, an own responsibility. And often you can see parallels between religions of completly different nations. Thats very interesting.

I was raised baptist, but I don't believe in what it dictates. On a trip to hawaii, i visited a shinto shrine and got interested in it. Returning to Rhode Island, I realized that there was nothing remotly resembling a shinto shrine in the entire state (not counting kamidana, or personal shrines in the home), so I essentially made my own religion by combining Shinto and a few parts of Buddism (mostly the parts about chi, karma, dharma, rebirth, transcendentalism, that kind of stuff).

I am a tired and true Roman Catholic who only disagrees with my Church's teachings on the death penalty (and that's only sometimes since I don't have a stroung stance on that particular issue). I also have a great deal of respect for orthodox jews and Judiasm in general. I like to study other religions; right now I'm furthering my knowledge of Islam.

I'm of the Buddhist faith and I am very proud of it. It was how I was raised and I don't think I'll be converting any time soon.

Basically, Buddhism started when a man named Siddharta Guatama ventured out of his plush and comforted life in the palace (he lived in India) and saw the suffering of the common people. He then left his wife, children, money, home, basically everything to find the meaning of life. After intense meditation and fasting, he came upon that meaning and then became known as Buddha, or the Enlightened One.

In Buddhism, we have a heaven and hell. Heaven is Nirvana, a state of selflessness and a life where you do not cause otehrs to suffer. In hell, one is tortured by demons depending on what evil they did. If you lied, your tongue would be sliced off. But there were also punishments and benefits for those when they wre reincarnated. If you, say built a Buddhist temple in a past life they would (I think...) be enjoy good eye sight in their next life. Should you strike your parents in your past life, you would be reborn as a humpback.

*Whew*

i used to be Catholic, but i'm against religion now. religious history (especially that of the Catholic Church) is very disturbing indeed. i think religion causes too many problems in today's world, and as long as religion is around problems will occur

I as raised Episcopalian, the closest protestant faith to Catholicism/ Anglican due to it was created as a break off from England in the War for Independence. Anyway, I have been researching other religions as I love to study ideas. I have been incorporating other beliefs into my own. Mostly from Islam. THe two are so alike it is hard to believe that most people don't know the two ideaologies are based from the same God.

I'm an adult convert to Mormonism after being a cradle then very lapsed Catholic. I'm very active in my church and encourage my children, not force them, to participate and think about their spiritual development. My kids are all Mormon too, but the rest of my family are still Catholic. Each to their own - we all find our own path.

I'm not religious at all.
I was raised a Christian. My mother brought me to church almost every sunday. She taught me how to pray and it became a habit. Then as I grew, I stopped believing. I found (still find) a lot it unlogical. It was about the age of 12.
My mum was very sad and she kept believing that I was a Christian deep down.

But I do love reading about ancient/old religions.
Greek mythology, Nordic, Roman, Wiccan, old Egyptian, and so on.
They inspire me to make some really great novels, short stories, and so on. I find the stories exciting and really creative. My favourite has to be old Greek.

The blood-line always confuses me though.