I was baptised into the catholic church, made my first reconcilliation , first holy communion etc....attended mass and religious education classes as part of my catholic girls school curriculum.
My grandmother is a pentecostal christian, one of my aunties is a born again christian, another is anglican, most of the others catholic.
Thats how I grew up, learning about only the catholic faith, had a friend whose father was a morman minister, their family encouraged me to attend with them, I did a few times, went to the sunday school, attended my friends baptism (scared the **** outta me! I thought they were going to drown her!!!) was all very interesting but I never took much notice of the actual differences between religion IYKWIM.
Year 8 religios studies, my wonderful teacher asked us how many religions did we know of, we brainstormed and then paired off to each research a different religion....that was my awakening....I started to question the whole "one true god" idea, how could there be one true god if there were so many different religions, each believing that THEY are the RIGHT one?? cue normal teenager angsty stuff, left school, didnt go to church, believed religion was the root of all evil.
My mother had begun her own "awakening" her psychic awakening of sorts and started down the wiccan path, I thought it was all a load of rubbish, but read some of the literature and also her womens studies information....it all really appealed to me, especially when I got into the whole history of how the catholic church was brought about, the massacre of women who were midwives/doctors (or just had a brain!) by the patriarchal society using GOD as their excuse...I wont go on, but I guess I can identify as a pagan.
I believe we are all a part of GOD, (for want of a better description) the multi consciousness, all there is etc...we all have the power within ourselves to be a better person (godlike) whatever our beliefs or religion.
its not that I dont believe in GOD, I dont believe in organised religion.
Sad but true is the fact that my born again Christian aunty will have limited contact with us and would never stay the night with us as we are in her eyes "devil worshippers"
Another sad fact for me is that in MY life (im not saying this true of everyone) most of the people Iknow who are in Organised Religion, need it as a "crutch" of sorts.
I was raised by athiests and as a teenager explored christianity. I was christened and confirmed into the C of E when I was at school as I went to an Anglican school, however I decided a few years further down the track that I didn't really subscribe to that belief system.
I then looked at other more Eastern based religions and once again found that nothing struck a chord. I also decided that I didn't like the idea of organised religion at all.
I have returned to being an athiest and don't believe in any higher being. I believe in humanity and have very strong values and ethics that I live my life by which includes sensibility for our species, planet and lives. I guess it comes closest to being described as Inclusive Humanism.
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