I was raised a Christian but I’m questioning my belief in God

Christians aren't Christianity

Find your own belief .. Sadly, a lot of things that God is is hardly represented by Christians since most Christians HAVENT READ THE BIBLE.

Christianity as a community is nothing more but a band of idiots with loud voices .. They were once persecuted, they became the persecutors, and now they're disappearing into mediocrity ..

Intelligently look for what you believe in .. Buddhism is actually less of a religion and more of a philosophy .. Meditation, is not exclusive to any religion or religion at all.

Many things have been done in the name of God, Allah, George Washington, Hitler, Blues, Reds and any other banner people can come beneath .. The actions of those who follow a belief is not the belief itself .. That's where you must decide

I'm pretty sure if there was a God, Allah, or Santa .. They wouldn't want you to believe in them because your parents told you to. They'd want you to find them yourself ..

Any person with a working brain has thought of the question of whether or not God is real, and if he is, why are his people so angry all the time? And of course other questions which I'll not go into now.

No one can prove or disprove the existence of God, and maybe blind faith works for some people, but not for most. Most of the Christians and Muslims I know have stuck by their religion because they have experienced miracle after miracle that they cannot rationalise using logic. Not trying to start a debate or anything here, but what agnostics and atheists refer to as 'blind faith' isn't always blind faith. It's often backed up by the inexplicable blessings one experiences through religion. You won't be able to understand it until you have experienced it. Many say they're tried, but the thing is that they try with the belief that "nothing will happen because God isn't real", so how is that really trying?

I agree with you though, on the topic on why can't Christians just shut up and let things be. The Bible, if read properly, is full of love and blessing. The most effective prayers in the Bible were whispered and barely audible, not screamed out loud for everyone to hear. I get it, you're proud of your religion. So what? I think that with questions such as yours, pertaining to religion, the answers can only be found within the Holy Scriptures, and it's something between you and God (if you choose to believe that there is a God).

Mmm lastly I hope I didn't sound offensive in this answer HAHA I promise I had no intention to offend. My advice to you would be to thoroughly form an opinion on religion based on nothing but yourself, your experiences, and what you read in whatever Holy Text you choose to. NEVER EVER rely on the opinions on others, because then it's not really yours. Sometimes people twist the words in the Quran or the Bible and then it just sounds really bad.

Good luck to you and I hope you find peace in this matter :)
It will never be completely resolved, but hey life is too short to ponder on the dead end mysteries of the Universe. Just live life through as best you can, and I believe everything will come clear eventually if you just stopped every once in a while to think about how beautiful everything is. :)

Keep questioning your faith, keep questioning everything. That's a good thing, as long as you question and think rationally about things.

It may be that you're in the totally awesome space where you get to look at things and say "Is this really working for me?" That's a healthy skepticism that works with anything. It challenges us to constantly be aware of what's serving and hurting us. If you feel that this spiritual orientation isn't working for you, then go find another one and explore. This IS a test, but there are no right or wrong answers. :)

It is clear that you may believe whatever you want. But as a christian myself, I would feel sad if you'd give up your christian belief. I see you have a lot of problems with the conservative christians around you. I live in the Netherlands, and I have problems with them here as well. For me it is important to distinguish God Himself from the religion the people made of Him. Of course there has to be religion, the Bible is clear about that. But read the Bible, and you'll know that christianity today is not what christianity Biblically should be. Christians today seem not to understand that belief is something personal. They tend to judge everybody on whatever they think is wrong, and they neglect the christian duties. And that is definitely not what christians should be like. So I personally criticize conservative christianity and went on believing in God the way I think the Bible/God meant it to be. So I think it's useful for you to realize that christianity today isn't focussed on God, while it should be. Christianity today doesn't represent what God meant it to be. So you really should give up on christianity and believe in God the way you think the Bible/God wants you to. Another thing to realize is that belief is something personal. So actually it doesn't matter if you believe in God the way you think it's good. Of course for God it does matter, but believing the way today's christians do, is definitely wrong. And of course, for today's christians it also matters, since they like to judge as much as they can. But you shouldn't care about their judgement. If you really believe in God, it'll make you stronger and less vulnerable for judgement. So just hold on to God, but step out of today's christianity, and pray for christianity to change.

well dear you, at some point in life, it is very understandable to question our beliefs, mostly in religion. I don't think most Christians even know what a Christian is suposed to do and what it truly the religion about. Im from Canada and i know for sure it is really different from the US (feel free to inbox me if you want some details). Believing in God is a very personal thing, of course you will get influenced by people around you but you must sit and think about it all by yourself. Beliefs can never be truly wrong, i actually have a very strong opinion about God and Heaven, but if someone believes in it, I have nothing to say. There is no rightor wrong answer. Just believe in what makes you feel good, comfortable and mostly safe. Also you shouldn't be judging Christians that much, it is kind of a stereotype. Jews, Muslim, Buddhists can be loud too, they're all human and i don't think being loud has a thing to do with religion. Again, if you dont feel good in that religion because of their beliefs, well it is normal,but thinking that Buddhism is only about meditation is wrong. You have to belief in the Nirvana and Brahma, etc.you can't eat meat or celebrate any holidays like we do. Anyway, just take the time to learn more about religion, i would love to help you by inbox. Have a good thinking :)and dont forget that beliefs exist mostly to comfort people.

I believe that religion is one of those things people should chose when they think they're ready. I can see why a Christian would take their children to the church, but at the same time I think they should introduce them to other religions. I'm from Portugal and here religion still plays a big part in people's life. Many of our holidays are related to catholic church. However, when I turned 17 I felt the need to find out about Buddhism, and so I went to yoga and meditation classes with a buddhist lady I knew. At the time I thought Buddhism was the perfect "religion" if you can call it that, but later I wasn't so sure. You see, I think many religions have the same principles, love, peace, good, union, and all those ideas, and what I noticed was that whether I went to a Buddhist temple or to a catholic church, I would find people who talked about these principles but didn't live up to their words. So I stopped trying to define myself as a christian or a buddhist, and I just started to practice what I believed in, without putting a lable on it. I sometimes read books about different religions because they help me look at the world from different points of view, but I don't feel the need to lable myself and I think no one should feel it. Just follow your beliefs and try not to judge a religion based on its followers, but on its values.

You can always change your mind. Try to learn about new religions. Maybe you'll find something more intresting.

wow, what great answers. this helps me more than you know. thanks to all of you.

I have found that when I talk to people they either have that "blind faith" factor or they don't.

For me I always had more questions than their were answers and everyone seemed to be like such a hypocrite. That people could pick and choose which of the laws of god they could follow or would follow; but if you chose to sin differently than them you were damned for eternity.

Those factors made me realize that the cost of religion and the "blind faith" factor didn't make sense to me. I had to pass on the whole religion idea. It has actually made me a better person. I value people doing good more than an approval from a man in the sky watching everyone.

It's normal to doubt. Don't think questioning means you'll stop believing in a god. some people do, some people don't. some people find a different religion, some people don't. what matters is to be peace with your decision! I am not religious but I feel like I'm constantly searching for something... and I am actually at peace with that. I love learning about different viewpoints. have you ever been to a unitarian universalist church? they are a 'church' that is all inclusive (even atheists)

Is the religion itself the problem? or is the people who believe in the religion the problem? Think about it. I'm a muslim. The Quran does provide punishments for adultery and stealing, but we believe Allah also wrote this23:96 " Repel evil with that which is best: We are well acquainted with the things they say."Also,23:53 "But people have cut off their affair (of unity), between them, into sects: each party rejoices in that which is with itself."23:54 "But leave them in their confused ignorance for a time."Even with these verses, people still break up into sects and repel evil with evil, which equals evil. Which ends up with people like Osama Bin Laden. As well as for the people who say why does God allow people to suffer are these verses:23:55 "Do they think that because We have granted them abundance of wealth and sons,"23:56 "We would hasten them on in every good? Nay, they do not understand."23:62 "On no soul do We place a burden greater than it can bear: before Us is a record which clearly shows the truth: they will never be wronged."23:63 "But their hearts are in confused ignorance of this; and there are, besides that, deeds of theirs, which they will (continue) to do,-"Just because Allah gives someone wealth and sons, doesn't mean he has the support of Allah.Unfortunally, with people like Osama Bin Laden, and those people you talk about, they jusr use religion for their own personal benefit, and not actually follow it, like when it says not to join up sects. It is not the religion which is the problem, but the people, get it? Everyone is individuals, and has free will, and they choose to do this. But it is not the Way, but it is of their own choosing, not required itself, get it?

I was raised in a strict Roman Catholic household and am now not part of any religious organization, though I love to learn about various spiritual beliefs from around the globe. I guess I could say that my life practice most closely resembles that of Buddhism, but I've never gone to a temple or joined any particular buddhist group. You can be spiritual without being religious. You can learn and take from the teachings of various religions and apply them to your life and not belong to any of them. Believe it or not, the first time I came to this realization was after my mom set up a heart to heart with one of the priests that had known me since childhood (because she wanted to save me from hell... but I won't get into that). He was very understanding and accepting of the fact that I was questioning my beliefs and trying to understand things from my own perspective, and we got into a long discussion about the native Americans and their belief in the great spirit, and how there were many similarities between that and the Christian faith. That made me realize that if you get past all the details, the rules, the scriptures, the names, all the faith-based religions are essentially the same. They are people with their own set of mythologies of how things came to be and stories that are supposed to teach a moral lesson. When people join churches and temples and other organized religions, they are simply connecting with others who share the same faith (more or less) and doing so for a sense of community to share with othersand raise their children with like-minded individuals. Some of these people go overboard and become activists, or become so tightly attached to their sense of religion that all others must be wrong, all others are going to hell, etc. They will cherry-pick from their scriptures to find quotes that support their beliefs and use it as proof, or rather as justification for being right about a particuoar topic. The problem is that, in doing so, there is no context. They lose the greater meaning. They forget that the whole point of it all is that we are supposed to care for each other, help each other out, contribute to society in a beneficial way... instead of learning from each other we tear down those who do not agree with us. These people become the very same individuals that the prophets and leaders warned against, who they called out for being hypocrites. They get caught up in the rules and think that's their ticket to a better afterlife instead of making this world a more heavenly place to live. Try not to get caught up in the labels, or what others do. Learn from the scriptures (all of them), hear their stories, and apply those to your life in a way that makes you a better person. Serve others in need in the best way that you can. Then it will all start to come together and make sense. To paraphrase thd Buddha, don't believe what you're told to believe - only believe that which you've learned to be true for yourself.

I use to be an agnostic kinda of viewed life more like an atheist but I couldn't prove there was no god.....I made a choice to put God to a test I ask God if human life has any significance or meaning did everything happen by a mechanical combustion call the "big Bang". I decided the only way to know is to read the bible of course some atheist would say religion brainwashes people but from all the churches I go to I never got told what to do nor does the God of the bible tell me I have to choose him.....I read in 1st timothy 4 12-13 and I found out what my significance on the earth was but that's not where it ends....I put God to the test and said if you really what to use me in this way use my mouth to speak to these people and something came over me I started preaching it was weird I was still skeptical I still didn't believe....as I was walking out some guy stood up and wanted to give his heart to the lord and after that some guy I didn't even know came up to me and started to quote that same scripture from timothy it was dead on it kinda of freaked me out.....im not telling you what to believe at the end of the day just do what gives you peace and go from that....