Believing in a Religion?

dude you are going about it the right way why should you do something that you are not comfortable doing just for the sake of not upsetting your family it's your choice and your's alone to make if anything you should just study all the different religions and pick what you feel suits you the best if any at all

I believe in God but not a religious God. At one point I was agnostic, and I don't know what really changed my mind, honestly. But the journey always starts within yourself. I found the Tao Te Ching to be a great book in discovering things about myself and how to deal with everyday situations, though it doesn't say one way or the other whether to believe in God. But it was a great start on my journey. Actually, I read The Tao of Pooh (yes Pooh Bear) first. Stop thinking so much about it. Don't stress it. What you ever believe is what you believe and NO ONE should make you feel less of a person because of it. Read everything possible about religion. Read the bible, the Koran, the Torah, the Tao. Go to the library and get books on different religions, or you can even search on line. I hold to a personal belief and I find it more rewarding then working myself around an established religion.

There is nothing that says you must or must not believe in God. Even the bible will say that you don't HAVE to believe in God. That we are given free will.

Good luck on your journey.

Believe in whatever you want. It's a free country.

However, if you say that you are more agnostic than atheist...I suggest you read the books of the three major religions in the world, the Bible, the Quran, and the Torah and look there for insight. Maybe the words contained within its text will help you seek a path for a religion. Just take a look at them...and then decide if they sound like something written by man.

Don't believe in anything just for the hell of it. I'm sorta like you, I don't believe in organized religion but I do have my own beliefs. I do believe in God, but not the traditional god that some people believe in. I see God as a function of our frail human minds, not as an omnipotent ruler with divine power. The unknown is God. If you think about it, whatever we cannot answer, that is God. I do not believe in a "will of God" we make our own destinies and are free from control. I'm actually still trying to figure it all out, but what I do know is we were not put here by mistake, life is too precious to be worthless. If we are here for no reason, to live, reproduce, and die, why live? There's gotta be something more to it than that, and that hope is what we are given by God, and what we live for. How can you put something so intangible into scientific words? And even if you could, why would you want to?

I don't think it's a matter of how to believe in God it's a matter of getting your head around the concept. My daughter's Sunday school class approached it this way.

Take a glass of juice, add a single drop of water to the juice. Can you see the water? Can you taste the water? You know the water is there because you put it there but you can't see it or taste it.

You can't see the wind but you can see the effect wind has on other things like trees.

If you're interested in reading the Bible I'd suggest reading the book of Mark first because it gives you a general overview of Jesus and the early Christian Church. But I'd also suggest going to church. Any church will do. Each Christian church has it's own flavor. Since you're starting out go to a different one each Sunday and see which one feels more comfortable to you.

The more time you spend reading the Bible and interacting with Believers the more you will be able to answer your own question.

Religion is based on faith. There are no hard core proofs for a God or Jesus either. What can I say? The more I looked for proof of a divinity, the more convinced I became that there isn't one. I can understand your wanting to believe. The idea of eternal life is very seductive. But if you are looking for empirical data, you are out of luck. All that we have are some "sacred texts" attesting to a God. Every civilization and culture throughout history has had one to which are attached supernatural powers. People either buy into the idea or they don't. I wish you luck on your journey.

I do believe in God, Jesus, and everything the Bible has to say. However, I have also read the Torah (Basically the old testament but with a few books Christians are not generally exposed to), the Quran, The Book Of Mormon, and even the satanic bible, as well as a number of other religious texts.

Long ago I gave up on organized religion. I grew tired of a preacher standing at what I deemed God's pulpit in God's house, admonishing his congregation for their apparant lack of contributions and the need to give more, to fund meaningless mission trips to already Christian countries and unneccessary additions to church buildings which were rarely used. Organized religion is simply another way for one person to legally steal money from others, and put it to useless tasks, and all done in the name of God.

Now, I do my Bible study and prayer and worship from the privacy of my own home, in my own time, and on my own terms. For I believe that God does not care if you worship him, pray to him, speak to him, and love him from His house or yours. Basically, God just wants you to realize that He is there for you, and that He always will be when you need Him.

Believe how you would choose to believe, not how people would have you believe. You won't get points taken off in Heaven for this.

You are not alone. You can't force yourself to believe something that you don't believe. If there was a god, he would be proud that you are able to think for yourself.

I used to be agnostic, but after a while, I knew that the only reason I wasn't atheist was to please other people, which is not the way I normally roll.

PLEASE for the sake of your own sanity - pick up a bible and DO read it. It will definately become clear to you afterwards what you are meant to believe. Also if you are so inclined, please read other books of worship. You never know, you might learn something about human nature. :)

For starters, faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; ...if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen which are true. Best advice...read. Study all things you can. You won't agree with everything you read, you may find some merit here, some truth there. Check out mormon.org. They have some neat ideas about this too. But it's ultimately up to you. What do you WANT to believe? Don't let people TELL you what to believe. Decide for yourself what is true.

~I am also confused. Ive always wondered "Why is God always a boy. Why cant God be female. Someone I can relate to." I began reading different books on religion and I found my answer.

This is my advise to you. Go to your library and take out some different books on religion. Do not read the bible: read books ABOUT the different religions. Christianity is not the only religion out there. maybe you just aren't Christian. Look into Jewdaism, Hinduism, Budhism, Islam, and even the Earth Based Religion of Wicca. They all believe in some form of deity. Maybe you can relate to one of them better than Christianity.

In my opinion, they all worship the SAME god, but they see him/her in a different light and honor him/her in different ways.

Good luck and God Bless