How have your beliefs (religious) helped, or hindered your life?
829927
My beliefs as a Christian Witness of Jehovah have helped me.\n\nI used to smoke, but when I learned God's view of this, I quit. That has helped spiritually, financially, and physically.\n\nI feel much better about myself, and am not as shy as I was before becoming one of Jehovah's Witnesses. I used to be so shy I would hardly speak to anyone.\n\nI also have gained a great deal of comfort from knowing what the Bible teaches, as well as having drawn close to God and his Son.\n\nThis is in addition to knowing what the future holds for me and my loved ones, and the earth and its inhabitants will finally be brought into the condition Jehovah originally purposed.
168223
How do you do? I'm an agnostic.
1103439
I don't think there is any point where you can just *decide* to believe.  At least, I never found a way too.  Instead, I researched different religions, and tried to determine which ones would have positive effects on me.  Once I found a few that I thought might work, I put them into practice. When nothing clicked, I moved on to another.   After going through this several times, I realized that I DID have firm religious beliefs, but they didn't come from any one religion.  Mine come from Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Wicca, to name a few.\n\nI think calling mine a "path" is very accurate, because I am constantly searching for Truth, and I will follow it wherever it leads me.
351345
I've lost loved ones and never blamed god or karma or the weather. I stopped believing because I couldn't stop laughing at the sheer solemn folly of religion.  (They really don't like it when you laugh in church.)
612945
i have not yet but i would like to i find study different belief systems help[s me to understand mine more and makes it easier to understand where people are coming form why they think a certain way.  also when i have a better understanding of there Religion it make s it easier for me to open up my heart and talk to them about the Love God has for them sorry i kind of got away form the question. no i haven't study the koran but i intend to for the reasons stated above\n\nas i read the anwswers above mine i apologize for other Christian  insulting you , that is not right
224519
The only person who can keep you from living your life to the fullest is YOU.  Naturally we all want to shift the blame and responsibility onto someone else -- the government, the situation, our family, maybe even god.  Start taking responsibility for yourself.  Why don't you start a grassroots agenda for something you care about?  Start reading the news, and find an issue that you care deeply about.  Nothing will make you fill more fulfilled than helping those in need.  \n\nI have to ask...you're not actually *hearing* god, are you?  If so, you really need to tell a professional.  Please, please don't let anyone convince you that it's normal to hear a voice in your head.  That's not a religious issue, it's a mental health one.
700225
I have been on both sides of this issue. I was raised to believe, but rationally I could not except the idea that God was the judgmental insecure fruitcake my religion portrayed him as.\n\nSo I stopped believing.  Then this happened to me.\n\nSeveral years ago I had an unusual experience concerning an uncle, a distant relative who lived over a thousand miles away. \n\nWhile driving my car I suddenly felt the unmistakable presence of this relative that I hardly even knew. He was more like someone I had heard about than someone I knew. It was very strange; it felt as though I was momentarily lifted right out of my physical body. I seemed to be suspended somehow beyond space and time, bathed in a love so intense It felt like I could have just disappear into it at any moment if It would have let me. It only lasted for a few seconds, but it seemed to last forever at the same time. I realize how crazy this must sound. The experience was so strong that at first I was afraid I was loosing my grip on reality. I finally managed to chalk it up to an over active imagination.\n\nThree days later I got a call from my aunt telling me that this uncle we are talking about had gone into a coma and died the day I had the experience. It felt like ice water had been poured down my back when she told me this. I had lost any real ideas of God or faith and had become somewhat of an atheist. Needless to say this experience caused me to rethink some of the conclusions I had come to. \n\nI feel blessed to now understand that even in our darkest confusion something loves us so much that it went out of its way to assist me and bring me back to a state of absolute certainty about Gods love for us.\nDuring the experience it seemed like there was a vast amount of information that I was somehow allowed access to. One thing that I came away from this experience understanding beyond any shadow of a doubt was that any Idea that God is unhappy with us or would judge or allow us to be punished for any reason is simply impossible. \n\nI can’t explain the love I felt with words. They simply don’t make words big enough or complete enough to do this. The only way I can begin to convey this love to you is to say that there was simply nothing else there. Nothing but love. No hint of judgment, no displeasure of any sort. It is as though God sees us as being as perfect as we were the day we were created. It is only in our confused idea of ourselves that we seem to have changed.\n\n I hope this is of some help to you. Good luck. Love and blessings. \n\nYour brother don
1172685
A lot, actually.  (but then they weren't atheists anymore after that).\n\nI think for some people, they don't believe in God until something happens in their life that puts it all in perspective.  You might walk away unscathed from a bad car accident that killed everyone else in the car, or something along those lines.  Or, you may just have a moment of extreme weakness and beg for help, from anyone or anything.  There are a lot of ways for that to happen.
416584
I made a mistake years ago. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and due to certain events which occured, I was arrested. (Nope, never claimed to be perfect.) My spouse had the opportunity to clear things up and get me out. Unfortunately, Spouse used the time to go to another state and have an affair with one of our best friends, who was also married, leaving our child here. My lawyer told me shortly before I was released. \n\nThe anger was the worst. In fact, I realized I wasn't hurt much at all. That told me what I needed to do. I filed for divorce. We had been on different pages for a long time anyway, and now there was no trust, no respect. God never said I had to put up with that. \n\nWithin those few days, I lost almost everything. I had no home to go to. We had a large house but I packed up the most important belongings and they fit into a coat closet at my brother's house. My baby and I stayed with him while I finished up my final semester of college, then took the first job that came up so I could be independent. We moved within three months. Quite by accident, we found a wonderful person who was very happy to join our little family, who wasn't put off by the past troubles, and who shares my faith. \n\nI realize that part of what happened was due to my choices. But I also know that God was using the situation to force me to make new and better choices. I did the right thing, and I have been rewarded with a wonderful new life.
479244
I think God/Nature protects most of us from knowing the things we cannot handle, but I seek all the answers I can find. Tell me! Show me! Teach me!
600798
I once was a religious person but something in my faith wasn't right so i decided to give up on God. I ve started rading phylosophy and got to the idea that God doesn't help us and religion is for the ones that are weak. But let me tell you something. It isn't all about believing. YOU NEED TO DO SOMETHING. And you have to work hard to achieve the real faith.If you have a Bible open it and read something. You will find out that only weak persons give up faith not the strong ones.
962452
I'm a lifelong atheist with two young children, and my wife is an agnostic with spiritual leanings. \n\nI learned from being a teacher that most people are fairly ignorant about their beliefs, and very sensitive. I discuss whatever my older (6) son wants to talk about, and I'm careful not to commit to any point of view. \n\nI do tell him, when we're discussing anything supernatural, that I don't believe in it, but that many people do. So for instance, when we're near a church, he's sometimes interested in what the building is for, and I tell him enough to satisfy his curiosity. \n\nI've actually recently been considering taking my kids to religious services of a fairly wide variety in order to give them the opportunity to compare and contrast for themselves. If they want to believe differently than I do and I repress that, they will simply resent me. \n\nI would draw the line at hate groups.
346862
It was a process for me, over time. I stopped going to church, after my mother died, and *they* {the christians} told me she no longer had time for me, and I shouldn't 'try talking to her...so followed no path, or religion for many years after that.  Was pretty PO'd at God...didn't matter which one..\n   After I got married, and was pregnant with my son, my husband and I started going to a little baptist church. I can't really say I had any problems with that church, the people were nice, good to us. But it just didn't ..DO anything for me..\n  I started reading up on other religions...and realized, they were all saying, pretty much the same thing. Just said or called it by a different name. And came, again to the relization, that I'd had as a child, that I really don't think any ONE religion...is Right, or Wrong.  They all have the same message...underneath..it's just how the 'People' interpret it..and they allll interpret everything, in about 20 different ways or more..LOL \n  So then they add 'rules' 'regulations' 'laws'...until the real message, get's lost in a jumble of un-related context, which confuses the heck out of everyone, until their numb in the mind and just follow blindly along, out of fear.\n  The Power's that be, gave us..FREE WILL for a reason..So that we can think for ourselves, and seek out the truth on our own. I think everyone's Truth, is their own...I think everyone's journey, is their own personal walk through this life, and every life. It's what you do with it.
248793
I was never really in the "broom closet" but when I made my decision to walk this path, I didn't try to convince anyone else that I had made the right decision, and I think that made a big difference. If someone was upset or didn't think I was making the right decision, I let them own those feelings, and didn't make a big deal out of trying to get them to see my side. I just simply stated that I appreciate their concern for my well being, and knew they really cared about me, but that I was free to make my own decisions and this is what I have chosen to do. I think because I didn't get fanatical and try to make everyone see what I saw as right for me things went easier. Also I had my facts straight, I knew what I believed and was comfortable asnwering questions about my faith and what I believe to be true, and if I didn't have an answer I went and figured it out and came back later and told that person. It was important to me to be able the questions that I knew would be asked, like why I chose this path, what my core beliefs are, how I practice my beliefs, etc.\n\nRemember, you dont have to try to convince anyone that your way is right, we are definatly not here to prostelyize, and you have to do what is right for you in the long run.
414803
EDUCATION !!\nThan of course you can judge and think by yourself looking up the religious things..\n(I don't sound educated at the moment..but I'm tired !)
1040465
i don't feel like i try to push my faith down anyone's throat..... i answer questions with my honest opinion... i hope that i might open someones eyes, or make them question things a little deeper, or help them see something more clearly..... hard to imagine anyone has changed their faith, but maybe some faiths have been strengthened, and some narrow mindedness has been weakened...... btw i am a christian.... :) and there are lots of narrow minded christians that i hope become less narrow minded....lol
377420
My husband believed as a child, lost his adoptive father and then decided their must not be a God.  He was eleven.\n\nAt age 31, he went to jail for a crime he says he did not commit.  He sat and looked at his life, the steps that got him where he was.  Whether he committed the crime or not he had done some other pretty heinous things.  He realized most of this started when he stopped believing.  He started to read the bible again and asked God to show him what to do with this mess he called his life.  He repented and accepted Jesus again and while he still struggles, he has been freed from the accusations mostly, and lives a better life now.  It was not a miracle, a lightning bolt, or a burning bush.  It was God wanting him to turn his face back to Him.  He will come to you in many ways, just keep asking and talking and loving Him and your neighbor as yourself.  Blessings.