Are you destined to believe what you believe?

[Wilson1an]

I have, for as long as I can remember, wonder which religion best fits my beliefs. My family and Country home land is mainly Roman Catholic. However, it didn't quite fit with me. I've looked into Jehovah witness along with others branches of the Christian believe. and Although I've been influence a lot by the message portrayed by Jesus and his loving and forgiving nature... All the rules and regulations and demands that came with it didn't fit well with me and I couldn't understand why.

[Wilson1an]

@Wilson1an For a while now, I've been looking into the Wicca/NeoPagan belief system which somehow has caught my attention. And from the little I've gather it's beginning to look like I'm pretty close to finding something I can actually click with.I'm trying to learn as much as possible but there aren't many people I know who follow Wicca or Earth based beliefs

[ClueLou]

Wanted to learn more about voodou at first but information is limited on that practice.

[Sesshomaru26000]

in the pagan community i learned they had storys like mine where they found that pull to the old ways. i think thats where i get that feeling of community when i talk with other pagans even as diverse as we are we all have a lot in common in our journey to where we are.

[Sesshomaru26000]

great question, like you early on i felt really close to the gods of Egypt to where most of my childhood games involved them and i can remember drawing them esp horus in my sunday school class lol but truthfully i always felt a pull to paganism going through catholic teachings as a kid they held no meaning, but as a got older and learned that european history didnt start with just the christains i felt like it was a home coming when i discovered the Celtic Gods and as i talked with more people

[XOccultistsForChrist]

Cool piercing!

[wimvandenberghe]

You seem like a very open person, but I have a number of objections. First, you presuppose the existence of a "soul" when no such thing has been proven to exist. Second, you presume some kind of predestination for that "soul" to move to a particular religion. What or who does this predestining when the contradictory god-concepts in these different religions are supposedly the ones doing this predestining and why does it almost always happen to be the religion of the parents and/or culture. Ctd.

[wimvandenberghe]

Third, split-brain patients, i.e. people whose connection between the two hemispheres is severed for medical reasons, have to different personalities in both hemispheres whereby one hemisphere can express a belief in a god and the other hemisphere can express a disbelief in that same god. (See the work of V.S. Ramachandran on split brains: watch?v=_DCSJdhy3-0). This contradicts the idea that there would be a "soul" above and beyond the brain moving it into a certain kind of religious direction.

[wimvandenberghe]

* two different personalities

[wimvandenberghe]

Fourth, why would you be destined into a religion like for instance Islam or Christianity that sets up rules that should be followed otherwise some form of eternal punishment awaits you. Are you saying that if you are destined into this religion this becomes true for you? And if it doesn't, why would your "soul" be pushed into something that imposes unnecessary fear of a non-existent hell or damnation?

[wimvandenberghe]

Fifth, I appreciate that a belief can make you feel good and it's not something I would want to take away from you, but don't you care whether your belief is actually true rather than whether it makes you feel good?

[wimvandenberghe]

I apologise in advance if I sound too clinical and analytical about all this (it's often seen as unnecessarily confrontational), but then that's what I am. ;-)

[DarcnessWraith]

Aye that is a good question...when I was young I look for things I was in some other religion before I came to Odinism and I never been happyer. but I never put thought I was put here for a reason but I could have...hell I'm open minded I pick somthing I'm happy with and I like know more about other religion...my dad with the cross my mother is a Wicca same with most of my family and some are jews..I am the only Odinist

[FATEISKNOCKING]

I truly believe i was destined for this. i was always waiitng for something big and life changing to happen in my life and for the past few years i've been kinda just waiting around for it, now i know what it was. to connect with my spirituality and wicca.

[WyattKaldenberg]

Very good question. I have thought I was born here for a reason. Even when I was a kid, I had dreams where people total me that I was expected to do certain things in this life. However, I never thought whether or not we are fated to think the way we think. I have to think about that.

[odin422]

Great questions. i'll have to reply in detail 2morrow 2 tired now...