How'd You Get Here

Well... My parents are Lutherans and I was baptized when I was born, but it was just a tradition. Most people in Finland are Lutherans and most babies are baptized, but at least to my family... it doesn't really mean much, except the fact that in the baptism the baby is given his/her name.

Even though my parents are Lutherans, they're not at all religious. When I was little we never went to church or anything like that. I did go to the confirmation camp when I was 14, just like most kids, and back then... I even felt the need to believe. It just wasn't "my thing" I guess, coz I was never able to "find God", or however you want to put it. I've thought about these things so much... I've read all kinds of books... I've learned about other religions... And it's just not my thing. I'm fascinated by the oriental religions, especially Buddhism, but I really don't see them as religions, they're more like philosophies to me.
I don't deny the possibility of the existance of some kind of a god/goddess/gods/godly creatures/etc... I just don't have the need to be a part of any religion or believe in anything religious for that matter.

 

I was put in a Roman Catholic school from K-3, at which point my family could no longer afford the tuition, because the school kept raising it. The transition made me happy, because all I ever learned there was that people who believe in Jesus Christ don't respond constructively to reason. I got a lot of grief there, and more than one teacher threatened to beat me. Luckily this was in the late 80s, and it was already long illegal.

We were forced to go to the adjoining church every friday, where we were put through your standard sit, stand, sit, kneel, stand, sit, stand, kneel, sit, stand, sit (just kidding, kneel!) ordeal, and the audience participation call-and-response crap that inevitably ended with "thanks be to god". Even as a child in the 3rd grade it was completely obvious to me that most of what the priest was saying was totally meaningless to nearly everyone in the church, including himself. I only ever saw his interest manifest as the collection plates started going out right after he doused the first 4 rows with putrid smelling incense, and the organs were turned up so that nobody would leave their seats to avoid the plate, since a hymn could erupt at any moment.

There was a time, during those 4 years, that I actually believed what they were telling me. I suppose that lasted for about 1 year. By 3rd grade, I had shifted priorities from caring about the religion classwork to caring about the literature classwork. At this point I was sent to the 4th graders classroom for reading class, since I had surpassed my own class. In retrospect it was obvious that this would happen, since way back in 1st grade, on orientation day, when everyone else was asking questions about the fastest way to get to the church doors from the classroom, and where the cross was as you enter the room, my first question was "when are we going to learn how to read and write?"

Since I consistently failed the religion portion of the classwork I was consistently considered to have an "attitude problem" and my mom would yell at me for not doing the work, since that resulted in her having to come in for frequent principal-parent-teacher-conferences.

Skipping ahead, I remember those days with fondness, if only because I was a child. I don't regret having been forced to go there. The school is an empty building now, although the church half is still in use. I remained friends with several of the kids from that place, even after I left and they stayed. I met many of them in the local high school, after not seeing them for years and years. They seemed to have gotten through the other 5 years of that school without being permanently brainwashed, so in general I consider it fortunate that their curriculum was so half-assed. Otherwise we may have a geometrically larger number of soldiers for the Army of God today.

Skipping more ahead, I'm a Taoist now and have been for many years, although that's more of a life philosophy than a religion. Except for the nutcases who think that the secrets of immortality are in the Tao Te Ching. In the interim time, I have experimented with all sorts of strange beliefs, including Qaballah, Buddhism, Voodoo, and Sufism. Sufis are neat, but I don't live that kind of life. Voodoo is neat, too. They don't have any problem whatsoever with inventing new gods and throwing away old ones. Hell, I think pantheism is generally more sensible than monotheism. What better thing to worship than everything as a whole?

 

We were christian
I dont know
Wisdom

 

i was baptised anglican, when i was about 8 i was sent to a christian school.. im not sure on this but i think its catholic.. was forced to go through it for 4years and at times i did believe in something.. but in the end the way they went about things has left me to quite despise the idea of being religious.. i now seem to call myself atheist, but after reading a bit here im more related to agnostic i guess.. would say agnostic atheist but some people fight the idea of that being possible.. more reading to do..

 

I put in 12 years at a baptist school, so I definitely feel your pain