Personal Narrative: Religion Vs. Religion

To begin, this is my worldview and how I view the world. I do not believe in labels because it hinders a person from their full capability. I do believe in the understanding a person not just by their appearance but by who they are personally and behavior. Anyone can appear appealing and charismatic, but only a true follower of Christ has like a special glow about them, which is rare in my world. I have learned that it does not matter what denomination, ethnicity or upbringing a person comes from as long as they know The Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus has done miraculous things in the past and in the present. Since I am on this Earth until I either die an earthly death or Jesus comes back, I try to live my life to the fullest.

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.

When it comes to my worldview, I feel pretty confident in what I know and what I stand for. I grew up in a Christian home, therefore I have been pretty consistent on what I believe in for my whole life. Some of the preceding questions really made me think though about what I really believe and how I am actually living. Although I know what my worldview is, it is not always easy to make sure that I am fully living it out.

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

it was late, and my ears were still ringing from the scream-fest my mother decided to have with my dad.

8 billion people in the world and how many do you think are the same? none, no one in this world of 8 billion people are the same there is always something that makes someone different from someone else identity is one of those things that make us different. There are other things that make us different like fingerprints, hair, clothes, ect... but one that no one has is our full identity some people might have part of it but not all. Identity is the one thing that can make us who we are fully. Identity is defined as "the fact of being who or what a person or thing is". When I think of identity, I immediately think of my religin. My religin Is my identity. I identify myself as a child of god. I have gone to church all my life and I think

What kind of person would I be Today if I did not have my Catholic faith? The past two years I have often asked myself this question. Starting my seventh grade year of school I had a difficult time with the girls in my grade. I was ignored, left out, talked about, I always seemed to be alone, and I only had one friend in my class. My eighth grade year seemed much worse because my friend switched schools. I became very close to switching schools multiple times that year; however I managed to stick it out until high school. My freshman year all my new friends were into the boys. It bothered me because most boys would not talk to me because I wanted to stay pure. Through all of this I kept my faith and it lead me through it. At church on Sundays

I don’t really have a religion. It’s crazy, I know. I’m surrounded by people who insist I should believe. But why? Why should I be forced into one singular religion where there are flaws? I’m not an atheist, though. I think there might possibly be a divine being (or beings)? I guess you can say i’m agnostic? My father was raised in a christian home but that didn’t stick. He’s been fascinated with different religions, so he’s not really “tied down” to just one. That’s why I’ve never been to a service until today. (Is it even called a service? See, I don’t know!) I’ve only ever been in churches for weddings and those events have happened to me a staggering three times. So, yeah. I’m not experienced with this at all. So obviously I thought, “Hey,

I grew up in a Christian home where my faith really shaped who I am, my ideas, and...how I view the world and life. There’s one lesson in particular that...is an ongoing process and it’s kind of a struggle sometimes to remind myself of but I thought it’d be really cool to share it with you today.

After years of being under religious manipulation and control, I a rerouted myself into a path of new adventures and learned to have an authentic relationship with God. My life changed, I found a new identity. I obtained the courage to break through the binding religious chains and experienced a new life. My experience stirred a new vision to voice messages that shine light to those blind spots- things or people that become a blockage for living our life with purpose. In my case, the constant condemnations, the judgement, the control of my emotions and thoughts I allowed others to have over my life, robbed me from living to my full potential. I no longer had a unique identity, I had become a religious puppet at a very young age. Fortunately,

After my parent’s divorce we moved to Newton. It was so much more different than what I had experienced up to that point in my life. Previously I had only been exposed to a viewpoint about the workings of the world and it’s inhabitants. From the start of my life I had been told that all people knew in their hearts that there was a god. Those who claimed they didn’t know there was a god were simply denying the lord’s power in order to continue sinning. However, as I spent time in this new place I immediately learned that not everyone had the same strict ideas about the world. Through many years I went on with the same ideas I had always held. All this changed when one friend of mine was willing to challenge my ideas.

When I was young, I grew up in a Christian family, My notion was that God created the universe, and Jesus Christ is my lord and savior. During this time I thought most of the world believed in Christianity as well not knowing about other types of religions. Nevertheless, this changed right around the beginning of middle school where I learned about other major religions. Moreover, I was pretty shocked to realize that most of the world believed in a different religion. Now as an adult, I have the knowledge and respect of other people's religion. After reading chapter 4 I am able to understand other religions and the similarities between each of them. Examples including, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all being monotheistic religions. Or how

I have been a part of the Catholic religion since the day I was born. As a Catholic from birth, I believe in not only praying to God, but to many different saints and people in Heaven. There have been many times in my life and in my family’s lives where we needed to pray to a saint or a family member who has passed away. I do believe that hear my prayers and answer them. It plays a crucial role in the way I act, the decisions I make, and the people I hang out with. To begin with, it has changed the way I live my life, down to my view of the whole world, how I treat others, how I handle myself.

If we are certain about any one thing about religion, it is exactly what we make of it. That is to say that when Christians speak about God or the bible they speak only about what they find important and pertinent, whether to themselves alone or all of Christianity. Any new Christian speech seems to be paradoxical in both the fact that it threatens the validity of the religion by calling into question scripture or other church ideas, but also allows a breadth of new believers. I'd like to delve into when this question is portrayed as a completely new idea brought into Christianity and when it is used to shed a new light on a preexisting concept, How do humans reconcile new ways of speaking about God and what kind of problems that arise from

Growing up in a Catholic home, going to a Catholic grade school, and attending Mass every week all resulted in everything being handed to me. Receiving a religious education was a given, and did not truly matter to me. When it came time for high school, I started attending Timberland High School, which was a complete shift. I went from a class of sixty to a class of five hundred and I was in shock. I knew zero people and it was all up to me to make friends and fit in. At first everything was fine, but as the weeks went on I realized that I felt miserable. I remember crying in the bathroom every morning before leaving for school because I was so alone. I told my parents that I wanted to switch schools and they agreed to send me to St. Dominic