Very very cool thread. I have only skimmed some of the replies, but will come back and read more thorougly.

Anyway, here is my story. My whole family, from all sides is Catholic. So I was baptised, went to Catholic schools (both primary and secondary), got confirmed at age 11 (most Catholics get confirmed at around 15-18, but I wanted to do it early - not for religious reasons but because I hated my name, and when you get confirmed, it is like a second Baptism, and you get to choose another name for yourself - I know I was young and silly). You can probably tell from this that my parents were not that strict about the whole thing (then again, many Catholics seem to just do things "for show" IYKWIM - I don't mean to offend anyone, I am just talking about the mentality of "I can do what I want as I will confess it all on Sunday morning anyway", as discussed in anohter thread).

For many years, I wanted to be Catholic. I wanted to belong and to this day I kind of envy people who feel this sense of belonging and community in any church (or anywhere else for that matter). I went to church every Sunday until my mid-twenties, until I could no longer deny that I felt like a hypocrite. I wanted to believe it all, but I just couldn't.

So what do I believe? Well, I believe in the Force (seriously, until the Star Wars prequels came out and they started going on about midichlorians, I really thought that this was the best explanation about the nature of the Universe that anyone had ever come up with). I believe that the Universe is too vast and amazing and incredible for any human to ever be able to describe it properly to anyone else or even to themselves (like trying to describe a 4 dimensional cube - we just don't have the capacity). I believe that religions started because people tried to describe the nature of the Universe to each other in the best ways they could. Ao in a way, I believe tha tthe Force is God. I believe that Jesus had more perception about the nature of the Universe than anyone else and tried to tell people what He knew. So in a sense, I am still a Christian, as I fully believe in the teachings of Jesus. I believe in miracles. I believe in evolution (or intellgent design - as another poster put it). I used to practice Wiccan spells, and I see these the same as prayers, just more ritualised. I pray every day to Mary the Mother of Jesus, as She is what I was raised with. To me, She embodies the Female power and I find it easiest to connect with the Universe through Her. I believe that we are put on earth to learn a specific lesson, and are reincarnated into new bodies until we learn the lessons of life, then we can break free of the cycle and become higher beings (this is what I think Heaven is).

(Okay, hope that doesn't sound too weird.)