I was raised without religion. Grew up fairly militantly anti-theist, think Atheist with a 'hell is immoral infinite punishment for finite crimes' chip on his shoulder.
Took the Mormons to bring me to Christ; their theology defines hell as the distancing from the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The outer darkness, where even the Spirit cannot comfort you is hell.
Now that I believe, I am in a place where judgement seems wise and necessary. Still not sure about our visions of the afterlife, mind you, but more agnostic on that front than judgmental at this point. I like to think of it as learning enough of the mystery to know that I cannot know.
Still leaves me a heretic in the eyes of most of Christianity, though. There's little denying that the Latter Day Saints are a 'Cult for Christ.' Whether this makes them false prophets or just another revivalist sect is an open question to my mind. Especially since it's abundantly clear that Joseph Smith himself was a flawed charismatic preacher, who was 'touched' in ways that would land him in a psych ward today. I settle for judging them by their fruits. They're good people who I am happy to number myself among.
(This isn't to say my journey is over, spiritually speaking. I feel like due diligence as regards mainline Christianity is in order. Specifically, the Eastern Rite Roman Catholicism my late Aunt earnestly suggested I explore, the Irish Catholicism of my Maternal Grandfather, and the Eastern Orthodox faith which I find Mormonism uniquely unsuited to critique.)
My grandparents were deeply religious, so were most of my ancestors (part of the quaker movement). My dad was a hippy and didnt really buy into god so grew up believing his own thing.
He told us to believe in what we felt was real and to discover that on our own. One of my siblings ended up going to church every wed, sunday, getting involved with the community, etc, the whole 9 yards.
I am envious of this, I truly am. When I tell them this, they get offended like I am making fun of them or something.
I want to believe, so I would subscribe as a agnostic. Basically what my dad thought.
I believe there is something more, is it some singular entity in the clouds judging me for every decision I made in my life. I dont think it works like that.
Telling me im going to hell for not believing doesnt sound right either.
I think the phrase, that god exists in all of us makes sense. And that perhaps someone did walk this earth saying that and telling us we have to love each other. Thats the only way forward as a species, what we have is a path of self destruction.
I suppose im pretty close to finding out the truth now. Everyday is a struggle with the parathyroid.
What I seek is a explanation that unites all religions, and the ancient aliens does that. The bible does appear to be a curated collection of much older, more ancient stories.
I have since asked my father about my aunt's journey through Catholicism. Here's what I learned:
According to him, our family were Ukrainian members of the Catholic Church at the time of the schism. This means they chose the Pope over the Patriarch of Constantinople. This made them practicing Roman Catholics, with a dispensation to conduct Byzantine Rites; members of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
My Grandfather was a member of St. George's in NYC. (You can see from the website, that the church continues to worship and communicate primarily in Ukrainian.) The Ukrainian language was presumed.
My father (and my aunt) attended St. George's parochial school & services-- while not being fluent. As second generation Americans, they never learned Ukrainian. This caused them both considerable angst, as their peers were recent immigrants, or 1st generation Ukrainians-- all of whom spoke Ukrainian as their primary language, if not being bi-lingual.
My Aunt changed churches (but not communions) when she moved upstate, choosing a mainline Roman Catholic church, where her interest in the Eastern Rite (due to our family heritage) saw the introduction of Eastern Iconography to her parish, which had many parishioners of Eastern European ancestry.
I have a catholic bias and want you to join us of course. And I have a bias towards the older more traditional stuff. So I think your Aunt might have been onto something. But yeah, I encourage you to keep doing your due diligence as you described and will pray for you.
Catholicism has been a pillar of the Western Tradition. I find it hard to argue with the faith of Tolkien and the 'men of the West.' Philosophically, even though Descartes drove me up the wall, I find myself forced to re-examine and duplicate his process. For, as Pascal suggested, there's nothing to lose and eternity to gain.
Again-- (as ever) I have to judge the tree by its fruits.
I was raised without religion. Grew up fairly militantly anti-theist, think Atheist with a 'hell is immoral infinite punishment for finite crimes' chip on his shoulder.
Took the Mormons to bring me to Christ; their theology defines hell as the distancing from the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The outer darkness, where even the Spirit cannot comfort you is hell.
Now that I believe, I am in a place where judgement seems wise and necessary. Still not sure about our visions of the afterlife, mind you, but more agnostic on that front than judgmental at this point. I like to think of it as learning enough of the mystery to know that I cannot know.
Still leaves me a heretic in the eyes of most of Christianity, though. There's little denying that the Latter Day Saints are a 'Cult for Christ.' Whether this makes them false prophets or just another revivalist sect is an open question to my mind. Especially since it's abundantly clear that Joseph Smith himself was a flawed charismatic preacher, who was 'touched' in ways that would land him in a psych ward today. I settle for judging them by their fruits. They're good people who I am happy to number myself among.
(This isn't to say my journey is over, spiritually speaking. I feel like due diligence as regards mainline Christianity is in order. Specifically, the Eastern Rite Roman Catholicism my late Aunt earnestly suggested I explore, the Irish Catholicism of my Maternal Grandfather, and the Eastern Orthodox faith which I find Mormonism uniquely unsuited to critique.)
My grandparents were deeply religious, so were most of my ancestors (part of the quaker movement). My dad was a hippy and didnt really buy into god so grew up believing his own thing.
He told us to believe in what we felt was real and to discover that on our own. One of my siblings ended up going to church every wed, sunday, getting involved with the community, etc, the whole 9 yards.
I am envious of this, I truly am. When I tell them this, they get offended like I am making fun of them or something.
I want to believe, so I would subscribe as a agnostic. Basically what my dad thought.
I believe there is something more, is it some singular entity in the clouds judging me for every decision I made in my life. I dont think it works like that.
Telling me im going to hell for not believing doesnt sound right either.
I think the phrase, that god exists in all of us makes sense. And that perhaps someone did walk this earth saying that and telling us we have to love each other. Thats the only way forward as a species, what we have is a path of self destruction.
I suppose im pretty close to finding out the truth now. Everyday is a struggle with the parathyroid.
What I seek is a explanation that unites all religions, and the ancient aliens does that. The bible does appear to be a curated collection of much older, more ancient stories.
Which eastern rite out of curiosity?
I have since asked my father about my aunt's journey through Catholicism. Here's what I learned:
According to him, our family were Ukrainian members of the Catholic Church at the time of the schism. This means they chose the Pope over the Patriarch of Constantinople. This made them practicing Roman Catholics, with a dispensation to conduct Byzantine Rites; members of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
My Grandfather was a member of St. George's in NYC. (You can see from the website, that the church continues to worship and communicate primarily in Ukrainian.) The Ukrainian language was presumed.
My father (and my aunt) attended St. George's parochial school & services-- while not being fluent. As second generation Americans, they never learned Ukrainian. This caused them both considerable angst, as their peers were recent immigrants, or 1st generation Ukrainians-- all of whom spoke Ukrainian as their primary language, if not being bi-lingual.
My Aunt changed churches (but not communions) when she moved upstate, choosing a mainline Roman Catholic church, where her interest in the Eastern Rite (due to our family heritage) saw the introduction of Eastern Iconography to her parish, which had many parishioners of Eastern European ancestry.
Hey, thanks for sharing.
I have a catholic bias and want you to join us of course. And I have a bias towards the older more traditional stuff. So I think your Aunt might have been onto something. But yeah, I encourage you to keep doing your due diligence as you described and will pray for you.
Thanks.
Catholicism has been a pillar of the Western Tradition. I find it hard to argue with the faith of Tolkien and the 'men of the West.' Philosophically, even though Descartes drove me up the wall, I find myself forced to re-examine and duplicate his process. For, as Pascal suggested, there's nothing to lose and eternity to gain.
Again-- (as ever) I have to judge the tree by its fruits.
Ukrainian. The family in the old country were Catholics, as far as I know.