Have you chosen the correct religion?

I am one of those people who has not decided on one religion. I was born into a Catholic family. At age 7, in preparing for my First Communion, I asked my mother why we had to confess our sins to a priest rather than directly to God. The questions kept coming and my mom grew increasingly irritated. The final straw was when I was preparing for confirmation and they gave us a questionnaire. "Which is more important in your life: family, friends, school, God." I made the mistake of answering the questions truthfully as the 13-year-old I was, and my mom ended up forcing the priest to let me take it again "and this time answer the questions RIGHT!"

After that, I was certain that I was an atheist. If there couldn't be open discussion about the beliefs a group is supposed to hold -- even within the group -- then it must all be made up. Right? And with the certainty that only a teenager can have, I proceeded accordingly. While attending university, I would listen to evangelists that visited. Their strange analogies -- lumping video games and rock and roll music together with homosexuality and murder as some kind of equal "sins", I became even more convinced that all was made up.

I was confusing religion with the existence of God, which are two different things. Religions are entirely man-made (and in few cases women-made) constructs. As I grew older I observed a bit more of what the world has to offer. I noticed that religoin makes people feel better about themselves, and gives them goals to work toward in being better people. I see that it gives people a sense of community. I see these as good things. I also saw that in the birth of my kids, they seem like miracles to me. And I see that there are some things in the world that do not seem like they could be complete accidents. The sheer complication of the process of being born seems like it must be guided by more than pure science - a little luck, or a little prayer must help it along. I also believe that people, to a certain degree, reap what they sow. So there is some kind of karma.

This leaves me with a mix of believing that there is a being or force that is supernatural and guides nature in some way. I obviously cannot return to being Catholic.(They think I'm going to hell for a number of reasons.) I tried the Episcopal Church, because as the US branch of the Anglican Church it's like "Catholic Light". You have the traditions you know, but a lot less guilt. And priests can be women, gay, or married. But, there is still this whole virgin birth to God's son thing, which seems taken straight from Greek/Roman mythology to me. This makes sense and all, given the location of Christianity's development, but still, it doesn't seem of divine origin to me, even though the teachings of Jesus are certainly worth reading and even following. Then I checked out Judaism. The thing I like about it is that everything is open for discussion and interpretation. (A little of this would have gone a long way for me in my youth.) However, there is still the reliance on the Old Testament, which is clearly full of man-made rules that have become less and less relevant over time. None of the Abrahamic religions are particularly worried about treating women as equal partners to men, which the world demonstrates is more important than any of us thought when I was growing up. (Countries with greater participation by women in the economy and politics are more stable and prosperous than ones with less participation, companies with women in leadership are more likely to invest in their communities and less likely to make risky decisions -- some even say the most recent stock market crash could have been avoided if more women had been involved to steer away from risky derivatives. And If you give a family living in poverty additional money, it is more likely spent on the home or the children if you give it to the woman, where the man is more likley to spend it on himself. These are just a few trends.) Plus, why would God intentionally marginalized any of his people, let alone more than half of them?

So, I am in the middle of no where. I make sure to give thanks for the great life, family, and material comforts I have been given. I make sure to help those less fortunate, and I try to be open to others who are not like me. I think this is what Jesus said, and although I'm not completely in agreement with the Son of God thing, I think his words are wise. I also take some items from Judaism. For example, I try not to engage in or even tolerate gossip. It's important in Judaism, and I think it's important in life (and way harder to do than I would have thought). I haven't yet found a religion that suits me, but I try to be a good person.

I just thought of this day(s) I had once, and thought you would enjoy hearing about it. I work and live in the Middle East. So, I had to go to Morocco once for a week or so. My last day for the trip was Thursday. So, I got up in the morning and attended a Hindu "service". I don't really know why it was on a Thursday, nor do I understand if it's a weekly thing or if it was for a special occasion. One of the consultants working with me was Indian/American and a Hindu, and invited me so I went. It was really mesmerizing with the chanting and the candles/incense, etc. All of the people were equal and sitting on the floor and seemed to not need the book (which was no help to me in Arabic and Hindu!) Somebody played tiny finger simbals to keep the rhythm. It was very relaxing and I can see how people felt a sense of community. THey all had tea afterward.

THen I went back to the hotel, met another colleague and we went to visit the huge mosque in Casablanca, which holds tens of thousands of people and is rumored to be slowly sinking into the sea. It was beautiful. We walked around in the cool and quiet space and since it's right on the water and is all naturally lit, you can see how people feel spiritual in that space. That night, my flight was at some stupid late time like 4:00 am. I live in Egypt, so I arrived home in the morning and was on the way from the airport through the streets, which were empty leading up to Friday prayers, and by the time I got home, the noon prayers were starting. My husband is Jewish, so that afternoon, we lit the candles for Sabbath. It's always weird to do that in a Muslim country, because the way you know it's time is that you hear th eIslamic call to prayer. Since I hadn't been to sleep since Wednesday night, it seemed like all one day: Hindu service, huge mosque, noon prayer, Jewish Sabbath. I kind of liked it, although I have never been any of these religions.

I don't believe so. I believe that the Holy Spirit only revealed knowledge to the prophets and the apostles, and that we learn what we know by reading them. This is what Paul taught.


Ephesians 3:3-6
3 that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. 4 By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight [b]into the mystery of Christ, 5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets [c]in the Spirit; 6 to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel

Acts 17:11
Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.


This is in direct contrast with Moroni 10 in the BOM where Mormons are told to pray to be given the knowledge of whether this was truth. When you get on youtube, you find all kinds of "testimonies" from Mormons asserting that when they read and prayed, that a "feeling of peace" comes over them. All kinds of religions experience exotic ecstatic feelings, and since they disagree with each other, not all of them can be true.

Well, the Hebrews passage is about faith. The Matthew passage is about belief. They really are two different qualities.

Belief is the quality that comes from debate and logic and examination of evidence. Faith comes from experience and fulfilled hopes.

I never have problems with my belief that Jesus came to earth in the first century, fulfilled OT prophesy, worked miracles and left behind apostles. I haven't worried about those kinds of matters in decades. But f-a-i-t-h is another matter.

Faith is the quality in which I get up in the morning determined to treat my employer and my co-workers in such-and-such way, even when it appears that my daily bread could be in jeopardy, or my pride is damaged or any other things that I value might be taken away from me.

But even faith comes with practice. It isn't something that is just handed to us.
Even the apostles, when they asked Jesus for more faith in order to become more forgiving--(that requires faith!!!!) was sent out to work for it.


Luke 17:4-12
4 Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”

5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

6 He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.

7 “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? 9 Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”