Have you changed from the religion that you were born into?

Pascal's wager is a poor reason for religious faith.
It's not the same thing as agnosticism, which is a much better and more rational position to take.
 

I was raised in a religious Protestant family with all the customary church-and-Sunday-School attendance but much to both families' dismay, I got engaged at 18 to a Catholic. To get my future mother-in-law off my back, I attended conversion classes but constantly got into arguments with the priest conducting the classes and got myself kicked out. End of conversion, followed soon after by end of engagement. So I ended up a few years later married to a man who had spent eight years in a Benedictine seminary studying to be a priest, but left before his final vows. By the time I met him, he was an atheist. I would call myself a cross between a heathen, agnostic and Christian-at-Large. I try to live by the Golden Rule (not *always* successful, I'll admit) and I think that's religion enough for me.
 

Does one have to "practice" religion? Can't one simply BE a Catholic, Methodist, Protestant.....whatever?

Josiah, can you give us the definition?

Guess I don't get it. Maybe explains why I don't believe in any "mystic" entity.
 
Falcon said:
Does one have to "practice" religion? Can't one simply BE a Catholic, Methodist, Protestant.....whatever?

Josiah, can you give us the definition?

Guess I don't get it. Maybe explains why I don't believe in any "mystic" entity.
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Rewriting your question a bit, I would assert that you cannot be born a Christian although you can be born into a Christian family. Each individual must confirm their commitment when they reach the age of reason. Baptism confers membership of a church but does not confer faith.
 
In Catholicism, baptismal records exist in the church and there are rites of passage like confirmation.
It's more complicated in the Jewish religion. In a mixed marriage, if the mother is Jewish, the children are considered Jewish, as it's a matriarchy. There are other more complex factors too, but that's the obvious one I'm aware of.
I would imagine other religions like Lutheran and Protestant, work the same way as in Catholicism It would depend on baptismal records registered in the church, how the children are brought up.

To me religious affiliation means belonging to a specific church and means something different from faith, in that you can be a Catholic by birth, but no longer practice or believe but it doesn't take away from your ancestry.

But it's worth researching the subject for anyone who is interested in the details.
 
Baptism certificates in OZ indicate that the person has been baptised into the "one holy and apostolic catholic church" and is recognised by all denominations with the exception of those that require adult baptism.

The list of denominations recognising the certificate include Anglican, Catholic, Orthodox, Congregational, Lutheran, Presbyterian and Uniting (formerly Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational). I was baptised as an infant in a Methodist church but as an adult applied for membership of the Uniting Church. I could have applied for confirmation as an Anglican or a Catholic but in every case my baptism as a Christian would stand. However, baptism is not a magical process. It does not make one a Christian.

In my roundabout way, I am saying that I AM a Christian (existential statement) but I worship in the Uniting Church for the most part (affiliation, tradition and custom). I also occasionally partake of the Eucharist in Catholic and Anglican services.
 
I was born into a staunch Presbyterian family. Marrying a catholic was one of the worst imaginable crimes that you could commit - I have known people to be disowned by their parents and family for doing it.
I had too much religion forced down my throat as a child, and I soon rejected it. We live a religion free life and the children have not been baptised.
 
Capt Lightning said:
I was born into a staunch Presbyterian family. Marrying a catholic was one of the worst imaginable crimes that you could commit - I have known people to be disowned by their parents and family for doing it.
I had too much religion forced down my throat as a child, and I soon rejected it. We live a religion free life and the children have not been baptised.
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On my mother's side of the family was a cousin who was disowned by her Southern Baptist parents for marrying a Methodist.......the new husband hadn't been "totally immersed", only "sprinkled" and therefore wasn't a "real" Christian in their eyes. We were raised very, very Protestant and every one of has married a Catholic. My sister-in-law just about sits at the right hand of the Pope and all of her six kids married Protestants. She and I have a good laugh over that occasionally.
 

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