How often have you changed your religion?

Principessa

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Americans not losing their religion, but changing it often

(CNN) -- Ingrid Case was a devoted church-goer as a child, not only attending Sunday school, but also serving as an acolyte at her Episcopalian church in Greeley, Colorado. "Basically, it's the priest's assistant," she explained. "You carry a cross in front of them, get the things they need to perform the service, scurrying around doing what they need." But after college, Case drifted away. She didn't feel like she fit in socially at the Episcopalian church in Princeton, New Jersey, and found herself uncomfortable with some of its theology. "I began to see there were some things I wasn't able to get on board with fully. I don't like the traditional Episcopalian focus on the afterlife," she said. Today she's a Quaker. She got involved with the Society of Friends, as the denomination is formally known, through the man who later became her husband, Nat Case. He wasn't raised a Quaker either, she said, though he went to a Quaker-run boarding school as a child. Her shift in religion was gradual, said Case, 41, a freelance writer and editor in Minneapolis, Minnesota. "It wasn't so much 'You people stink and I am out of here,' as 'I like this better and this is what I want to do.' "

Case isn't alone. More than half of American adults have changed religion in their lives, a huge new survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found. And there is no discernible pattern to the change, just "a free for all," one of the lead researchers told CNN. More than four in 10 American adults are no longer members of the religion they were brought up in, while about one in 10 changed religion, then went back to the one they left, the study found. Just under five in 10 -- 47 percent -- have never changed faith. Some have switched more than once, and a small number have changed three times or more, according to the study.

Have you changed from the religion you were raised in?
How often have you changed your religion?
What prompted you to change religions?

REM I couldn't resist :cool:
 

B_Nick4444

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at twelve when I realized that church teachings, if examined critically, scientifically, were bogus -- I became an atheist

at fifteen a prep school buddy introduced me to Zen Buddhism, I became intrigued, and learned about the rest of Buddhism

at about sixteen, or seventeen, I began to realize that a lot of experiential states I had been falling into, were taking me "outside of myself", following thought, or yoga, or meditation

as these grew stronger, or more intense, I suddenly "realized" (an experiential process, not a reasoning one) what the Carpenter from Nazareth, the Native American vision quest, and Prince Gautama were pointing to, and acquiesced

I can now call myself a Christian, a Buddhist, et al

 

BirdinMo

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I was raised a Baptist. Droped it at age 16. I think I do not need a set religion. I know what I believe and that is MY choice. I'm not going to choose one religion and only believe what they tell me.
 

LMX

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I was not raised under any religion. I am an atheist and have always been an atheist. My parents, as far as I know, are the same.
 

D_Martin van Burden

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I grew up without a denomination no matter what my mother would have you to believe. We would say grace before eating on the major holidays, and I remember praying as a child, but that eventually fell out of favor. We attended a Southern Baptist church in our hometown for a short while, and then we just stopped going.

I have been an agnostic for many years, though it has only been recent that I have grown comfortable with the title. The real challenge for me isn't even to lay claim to having morals, or to work to see myself as something very small in a large cosmic universe. My personal possession of a spirituality isn't an issue; the religious fundamentalists are trying to tell me that I'm wrong, misguided, etc. The real irony is that for their belief systems to hold, they must trust in faith. When someone else doesn't practice or preach the same type of faith as they do, there's a problem. I am trying to stay unafraid of defending my beliefs and using rational arguments and logic to bolster what I think is going on. At the same time, I'm trying to show spirituality instead of positing that it's there. It's a tough fight, but I like it.
 

Wish-4-8

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I was raised Catholic. Then I got really into it, on my own, only to discover that 95% of the people who call themselves Catholics are not true Catholics. Most are uneducated on the church dogma and they follow cultural and traditional rituals rather than Catholic teachings.

I could never be athiest or agnostic but I do not subscribe to a religion per se. I have looked around at Christian religions and the "born again" types and have found problems with all of them.

Now I just believe what I believe and dont judge people on what they choose to believe. Some people really need to believe in something because they cannot be good on their own.
 

Hot stuff

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I would class myself christian though do not pertain to a church, and have strong empathy for muslims and jews alike, I perceive them to be very much branches of the same monotheistic faith. At the same time my thoughts are in constant flux and embrace all opinions. Would be equally happy if there were no written book at all or history of God and we all believed in our God through the sky the sun the oceans the wind the weather the mountains the forests the fields the harvests through humanity and a harmony and respect thereof.
 

BigDallasDick8x6

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A lot has been said about this news article (not necessarily on here). I actually think it's a good thing that people don't stick with the religion they are raised in, but think about it and CHOOSE. What a shame to just be a certain religion because your daddy was, and his daddy was, and his daddy was.....
 

whatireallywant

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As a child I went to a Baptist church and as a teen I went to a Church of God. However, when I was 17 - this was the time when the Moral Majority was starting to get a lot of attention - I quit going because of the kinds of views the Moral Majority types (including many at the churches I went to, as well as my relatives) had, particularly the sexism and sexual repression.

I didn't go to church again until I was in my early forties and decided to give Unitarian Universalism a chance. I still go to UU churches when I go to church, but often I just sleep in. :biggrin1:
 

Principessa

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Growing up my parents let me choose what religion i wanted to be, needless to say i didn't choose any.[/QUOTE] I know a few people that did that with their children and they all seem to have done as you have which bothers me. I understand not being 100% satisfied with any one religion. I just don't understand the narcisissm that sometimes goes with it.
 

D_Cock_Hudson

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I have never changed mine, though my grandmother moved from the Church of England to become Presbyterian, the local priest moved from Church of England to Catholicism and two childhood friends of mine moved in the reverse direction. To say nothing of those who convert at or before marriage.