Personal Narrative: My 5 Beliefs Of Religion

To say my faith life has been completely revamped in the last year would be an understatement. I had views and ideas about faith that seem somewhat vile to me know with the experiences I’ve had. From just lectures to the retreats my spiritual side has gone from that of a holiday catholic to a Campus Ministry Student. From little things to big ethic topics I’ve changed in a multitude of ways, my Spiritual Autobiography looks like looks like someone else wrote it compared to any year before it. I think faith is one of the most important aspects of our life and it took me until last year to realize it.

I grew up going to Church with family and friends until I was around the age of 8 when my parents just stopped going as much and eventually it came to a halt. I honestly don’t believe that I really knew anything about God besides that I believed in him because my parents did. As I grew older and got involved in heavy drinking to a point of no self-control and doing things I would regret when sober I began to hate myself with a deep passion. I didn’t know why I would do the things I did and continue to make the same mistakes even after I felt the gut wrenching feeling the following day. It was when I was older that I found out about a friend of the family molesting me as a child and everything just made more sense as to why I was so overly sexual and

I am an atheist, but it wasn't always that way. My entire life there was a constant pressure on me to accept that there was a supreme being that created all. Even at a young age I couldn’t bring myself to fully believe this. I continued grasping for straws because, just like every other religious person, I was scared of the “consequences” that would come with not believing. My Non-Denominational Christian Church promoted telling this to everyone, even children.

I became a Christian in 1982 while in high school. I had never attended church prior to Easter 1982. I found something interesting in the whole of the service and decided to read a Bible. The Bible made some sense to me. I had a few questions about some of the stuff that had happened and was given Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell. Well that answered most of my questions. I was also given Mere Christianity which answered more questions. I felt convicted by the Holy Spirit and asked G-d to come into my life and forgive me of my sins.

Honestly, I didn’t think I would continue my Judaism much after my bar mitzvah. I went to a high school where I was the only one who was Jewish, and my Judaism was not embraced. I was introduced to the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization a Jewish organization that helps people find their Jewish identity and take part in leadership activities at the beginning of my junior year. By joining in my junior year there were already friendships created, and I was confused by the whole situation. The confusion would not last long because I was soon immersed in such an inclusive and accepting environment. Sure enough, due to my immediate ambition to make a difference in this organization, I was almost immediately elected to a chapter board position. From

Ethics are what I believe are the foundations of human life. These principles guide us as we grow into adults and throughout the course of our lives. I personally believe that in general, everyone was born with the will to be and do good. No one is born to hate or do evil upon themselves or others. I believe they are taught that and grew up around instances that had influenced them.

Religious/Spiritual Identity(R): On any given day my own religious/spiritual identity hovers somewhere between atheist and agnostic. However, I was baptized and raised Catholic for the first eight years of my life and I went to church and Sunday school weekly. I made my first confession and communion through this church. When I was a little bit older my Mom decided to start taking us to a Presbyterian church. We went to this church less frequently than we used to go to the Catholic one, but my sister and I still attended a children’s bible study on Wednesday nights and went to services on Sundays with our mom. In addition to these religions, I am also fairly aware of how the Southern Baptist churches operate. In other words, I am familiar with

I spent from kindergarten to eighth grade at a Catholic school. I learned about both the Bible and the Catholic faith and never saw them at odds with each other. After eighth grade I attended Wayne Christian. I was shocked at how uneducated these Christians were on their fellow believers, claiming that the Catholics were not Christians. I try to dispel their ignorance with education such as explaining the Catholic perspective on Saint Mary, sainthood, and certain rites of the Church. Day after day I corrected them on Catholic beliefs, me against a whole school of people. I eventually had to leave the school because the people were to set in their ways. That is when I challenge something that outraged me.

I am writng these thoughts and addressing it to you, Kyle, not with the intention to come to an agreement (in fact, I would be very upset if a Christian would completely agree with my point of view), but to listen what you have to say and learn from you. To get the knowledge not only about the religion, but about how people live their life, and you Kyle, are insightful, in my opinion. Although our opinions are far apart I still can tell that I enjoy listening the ideas and standards you propose.

While I believe it is important to be able to work with any clientele regardless of their, sex, race, or religion. I would like to approach my education with a Christian world-view. As I myself carry a Christian perspective, I would like to continue my education in the environment that enriches this perspective. I hope to gain further education that instills these values that I can continue to maintain in my future career as not only a professional counselor but as a child of God.

Dawkins signifies, to many, that the deity is an outmoded myth in the modern world. The author

My personal beliefs are interventionist. I feel social conditions are substantial factors in creating barriers and that it is society's responsibility to dismantle them. Discrimination in society plays a large role in who can participate in activities, for example in wrestling you wouldn’t expect individuals with limited mobility to be active in the sport. With a proactive, student centered, open minded, differentiated instruction approach we can dismantle the barriers that are created by society, thereby reestablishing equity for all. Referring back to my example I have witnessed blind, deaf, and congenital hand deformities perform exceptionally well in wrestling with the encouragement of coaches, teachers and parents. I have seen these barriers

As a person that had a religious upbringing, I think it is interesting to view myself where I was and where I am at this moment in time. I do not have a religion; in fact, ever since I was around 15 years old I rejected religion immensely. My mother and the rest of my family used religion as a way to “put me in my place” as they would say. Right now, I see religion as just that; a way to keep people in order. I’ve always been an inquisitive person, someone that strives for the truth, and anything that hindered me from doing so I refrained from putting my trust into it. With that said, I went into this interview with low expectations. I’m not too keen on things that put me out of my comfort zone, but one thing that being in college has taught is that in order to grow sometimes you are going to have to be uncomfortable. Since I got to Old Dominion in 2014 there has been this Christian group on campus that has been more than persistent in harassing me and some other people on campus. I never considered giving them the time of the day until this assignment required me to interview someone from a culture group that I do not share a membership in.

My belief is that the Bible is the holy book, and the only book one truly needs in this world we live in. It gives us all the information we need, we just must take the time to read and understand it. My belief is that the Bible holds principles and lessons that every human on this earth should learn and adopt. I believe the Bible shows us the way and provides an outline for how we should live our lives. I believe the Bible gets misinterpreted all the time because everyone has their own opinion that they think is right, but God’s word reigns supreme over mortal thoughts and opinions. I believe the whole reason that the Bible gets a bad rap is that people try to shove religion others’ throats and preach the holy book in a way that it was not

Have you ever really thought and pondered if there was a higher up power? Let me start off by saying I