My Religious Odyssey
You can take the girl out of Catholic School…
Most people grow up with some type of belief system. Judaism, Christianity, Islam and even Agnosticism are some examples. It wasn’t until I had a child that I realized that religion was just man’s way of explaining God. Even as a kid, however, I always believed in a higher being. Not just because of my very heavy-handed Catholic upbringing. I questioned many things about my religion. Since I loved science, I was confused about how the “Big Bang” and Adam and Eve coexisted, but I always knew that God existed. I had no scientific irrefutable evidence – I just had faith. You know how they say everything you ever really need to know you learned by first grade? Well it
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Catholicism had a profound influence on my life. It’s almost hard to explain to someone who has not had the same experience. Since I attended both Catholic school and church, Catholicism had a total indoctrination in my life. My brother attended church with us, but went to a magnet public school, instead of St. Margaret’s. There was a BIG difference. He attended classes outside of school to study for his first communion and confirmation, but the experience was much less intense.
When you are both Black and Catholic, one’s religions and cultural identities are sometimes at odds. God is viewed as a very strict paternal figure and seemed very distant and removed to me as a child. I heard about and talked about God every day, but I didn’t really have any real relationship with God. But because Catholicism has both a lot of structure and fit in well within the constraints and confines of order (I was good at following rules), I had few problems embracing the Catholic church and its rules and tenets. I also loved the beauty and ostentation of most Catholic churches. St. Margaret, still to this day, remains in my memory, one of the prettiest churches I’ve ever seen.
It wasn’t until I turned eleven that I started to question certain beliefs. I wondered why only Christians got into heaven, why I couldn’t be an altar girl, and why nuns didn’t have the same power as priests, even though they did the majority of
My parents have discovered a different religion since then, one even closer to God, and me not being religious drives a wedge between us. I believe that if I hadn’t gone to catholic school, there would be a possibility of me being religious, as I would have been taught a different mentality than Catholicism regarding religion.
Defining Religion "Religion is only the illusory sun which revolves round man as long as
Ever since man has chosen to write down his history, organized religion has been a prominent topic and has influenced and shaped all people’s lives. There have always been believers and non-believers. Since the beginning, non-believers have been persecuted by inquisitions, prosecuted by witch trials, and murdered by stoning and crucifying for even questioning the “truth” about a supreme being and supposed crimes against that being. Religion had a purpose in earlier times to explain life, but today science provides more concrete answers. Religious beliefs are old and outdated and people should trust the scientific facts that have been proven, not what has been
Developmental psychologists have provided evidence that children are naturally tuned to believe from figures of authority.A child’s brain is set-up to believe what is told by elders, even if what is told is nonsense. Children usually acquire the religious views of their parents.
I went to Catholic school because my great-grandmother influenced my mother to do so, arguing that the values that I would learn there would not compare to anything else. As a single mother, she took as many advices as possible on how to raise me, especially coming from the most important person for her. However, my mother has never considered herself a devout catholic, or religious person whatsoever, and although she enrolled me in Catholic school she tried to give me as much religious freedom as possible so that I could find my own spirituality when the right time merited it. I was raised with a hybrid of religious and liberal values, and while I consider to have a strong pillar of moral values based on what I learned in Catholic school,
The rules and regulations of Neivanism are carved onto a glacier on the outside of the first settlement. If the ice begins to melt, the rules are just re carved.The Neivanists follow a certain set of rues based on good human nature. The main three rules of their religion are, 1) Not to kill another human being 2) Hladgunnr is the only true god 3) Never take more then you need, and if you have more then enough you give it to someone less fortunate. If a person follows these three rules they will be considered a good person.
I think I always knew that my beliefs were not actually my beliefs, but I always told myself otherwise. I didn’t want to be the lone person in the family who didn’t believe in God. I was afraid of being looked down upon, since everyone I knew followed these stories and loved to do so.
Growing up in a Catholic household there were many rules and beliefs I was taught to just accept. As I got older most I truly believed and tried to live my life by. Others I questioned. I started high school at Holy Family school my freshman year as a varsity cheerleader thinking I was “on top of the world.” it was the first time I had finally felt I had some sort of freedom.
At the time I had no idea what it meant to have faith or a God, I’d think nothing of what I’d learned and believe them to be just
During elementary school I decided I wanted to move in with my father who did attend church religiously every Sunday morning. Catholic mass was awful and difficult to understand. My father put my brothers and I through communion and made us participate in church bible study to further understand the religion. As I got older my views on Catholicism had gotten worse, I started hating going to church. When the nuns called my age group to have children’s church my father forced me to go, they took us to a room that had no windows and was always cold. The nuns made us read the old testament in the King James Bible version and I always had a hard time reading and understanding it because of the way it was written. This experience made me hate and
Christianity is the religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Most followers of Christianity, called Christians, are members of one of three major groups--Roman Catholic, Protestant, or Eastern Orthodox. These groups have different beliefs about Jesus and His teachings. But all consider Jesus central to their religion. Most Christians believe God sent Jesus into the world as the Savior. Christianity teaches that humanity can achieve salvation through Jesus.
It was only when I became slightly older that the topic of religion came up more frequently in my household conversations. I was still under the impression that all of these stories I had been told were more or less true, but my parents’ atheism soon caused me to begin questioning whether or not I actually believed what I was hearing in school. I started to doubt that there was a God, simply because my still impressionable mind was
I grew up in a Catholic family and believed the teachings of the Catholic Church insofar as they agreed with my reading of the Bible. As a teenager, Jesus became real to me at summer camp; I was introduced to the Charismatic movement. While at college God began calling me to Christian leadership, culminating in my engagement to Kevin.
Spirituality plays a very sub sequential role in my personal life. First of all, spirituality helps me govern what is right and what is wrong in my life. Many of the decisions that I make everyday, I believe are a direct result of my spirituality. For as long as I can remember I have been raised to believe that I should live my life the way God would want me to live it. Therefore, whenever I have a decision to make, I have to consider, what is right? And what is wrong? Second of all, it also helps me to feel more secure about what will happen to my spirit once my life here on earth is over. I believe that there is a better place for our spirits once we leave this earth.
What religion am I? In my life, I have been told many things about my religion. My mother is a Roman Catholic, while my father is Jewish. I have learned about both religions, and I have tried to practice both as best I could, but I am now faced with the decision; which one am I?