What method did you use to form your belief system?

Or did you form it at all? If your belief system came from an external source like a book, or a preacher, a family member or friend....you may want to consider that you haven't been using your own sense of right and wrong to determine what your own beliefs are. You don't need external sources to tell you. In fact, believing in something is not something you choose at all. I can have all the faith in the world that the sun will be purple tomorrow. I can claim to believe it all I want. I could probably convince somebody somehow to believe in the same thing, but doing those things will ever make me actually believe it. Belief (as opposed to knowledge) only comes from substantial personal evidence or experience that tells you that things are either most likely or very likely a certain way. That is the way our minds were created, and if your mind was created by divine creator, then that creator probably programmed our minds that way for a reason.

Research.

Reading about various religions, exploring them, debating them with learned people (pastors, reverends, priests, imams, etc. - after all that I am still alive :) ). After all these years of searching I became an atheist because I found that all religions preach the same thing. The words are different, language is different, etc. but the meaning is the same. The more I looked the more a lack of evidence for god. Then again, that is just me.

personal experiences but unlike a lot of people i didn't reject public officials just because of the fact that they are public officials, if they say something i agree with i believe it. On the opposite side of the spectrum i use reason and don't blindly believe a book written thousands of years ago

I feel God's love and hear Gods voice. I ask Him for direction and wisdom and he gives it to me. I have blessed assurance that when I die, I will be in Heaven living in a Home that my Father created for me. He talks to me all the time, he created me with a plan and a purpose.

We have conscience, we have creation.

I could never do enough good works to get saved, so Jesus died for me. I am a sinner, so all I need to do is confess to my Father who will forgive me.

I have peace

Hodgepodgification.

I started Methodist, hung out around Jews and Catholics, asked too many questions ended up Athiestic, ended up Wiccan, got yelled at by Methodists and Evangelicals, ended up Pagan, started wandering the country.

And well, here I am. Picked up things here and there along the way. Kept what works, dropped what didn't.

Once, I told a friend that he could actually make a mountain disappear if he spent all night truly believing it wasn't there.

The next morning he called me, upset that he had wasted his whole night trying to reshape his horizon. His words were: "I knew it would still be there!"

I believe one should first find the Truth within themselves this way they may see It in others and the writings of others as well. If you can't see It within yourself, how could you possibly find It anywhere else either and Truly Know It To Be The Truth?

Rejection of most statements by most "authority" figures...religious and otherwise. I have always tried to figure things out for myself since I was 18.

intuition plus knowledge from the sages plus meditation plus inspiration plus prayer

love light and swimming in water oh and eating a good chocolate

Personal experience.

Searched and read many many books.

Logic and reason for 500 Alex.

amen.

xoxo
:)

I was raised protestant (pentecostal church).
I was forced to go by my father many times a week and rebelled when I was in my early teens.

I've witnessed miracles in my life, some of my own (falling off a porch when I was 4 landed on my neck, bitten by a brown recluse spider -prayed for by over 20 people then taken to hospital and right before the doctor saw me the bullseye and bite disappeared) My uncle has had 3 strokes, and replacement of a heart valve, also his heart was not pumping right and was going to need a pacemaker, but my family prayed for his healing and he has gone home on fathers day to be with his 4 and 6 year old.

I also took a comparative religion class earlier this year that helped me define my faith more.
We studied hinduism (I mainly disregarded), field trip to contemporary buddhist temple (liked the teachings and methods for mindfulness, but lacked the God/Creator aspect), studied African religions.. Asian... etc.

I think the biggest thing for me was learning that throughout time, no matter what, people have always believed in a higher power that controlled their lives.

I also have a strong pull towards God. Once atheist, C.J. Lewis said that he felt that at night if he would stop his studies that God would overcome him because he was pursuing him so strongly. He fell to the floor and accepted it, that a divine creator wanted a relationship with him.

For me, I just know. I can feel it, I can sense it.

Once you get to actually know God, it is real.
Sometimes he speaks to random people who don't believe and shakes their world. It took a relationship for me to be able to feel and hear him.

Basically, I just tried to get closer to God. The closer I tried to get to Him, the closer he came to me.

Yes, but there are facts of what has happened in the past, and what evidence there IS of a higher power. You can not imagine that one moment there is nothing, that not even space exists and then somehow it's all just THERE with a bang. How you'd like to believe that, but it's just not possible...
The big bang...psh, it's all started by the little athiest boy who didn't want to believe...and got others to support him.


As far as religion in general and choosing for yourself... The facts are there, and the religions are there from birth. WE get to choose for ourselves. Beauty of America... Say you're born into a Catholic family and want to be a Jew. You don't HAVE to stay Catholic. They teach you what they will, and it's up to you to go out and learn Judaism if you want (idc if that's spelled wrong). You're a Jew and want to be a Christian... It's up to you to make that decision. YOU can decide your religion... You don't have to choose the ones your parents did.
-Tanner

Asking questions. Studying history, philosophy, mythology, comparative religion, and anthropology. Researching that which resonated with me. Talking to people with different belief systems.

And above all? Personal experience.

I had to look to the resources around me, and find the answers for myself.

I was "born' into the Roman Catholic religion considering my family is practicing Roman Catholic. But I do have spiritual gifts in my family, meaning I have psychic relatives, so that's how I know of astrology and new age beliefs.

What made me leave the RC Church was because I didn't understand all the "sacrements" and really disagreed with a lot of it. I went to school with many Jewish, Buddhist, and non-Catholic Christian kids (being I went to public school) and always wondered if they believe differently and what I'm being taught is supposedly the way everything is, then why do others believe differently?

In high school let's just say I found something about myself and the majority of the religious right doesn't agree with it. Learning how a loving church instantly rejected me and who I am, I came to the realization not everything they are saying may be right. I became more universal in my later high school years, more of the "spiritual deist non-religious" person and when I began college I started looking deeper into new age beliefs, Gnostic Christianity being one of them. From then I started looking into Buddhism, Wicca, Pagan/Earth-based religions, tried a little bit of everything, questioning each belief and researching extensively from many points of view, and I found myself back to my universalist ways.

When I learned the Catholic Church accepted that being gay may be biological but its still "sinful" unless they are single forever or marry someone of the opposite sex that really did me in. Needless to say, that's how I feel about Christianity. Its really not a loving religion like people think it is.

I always believed in God though. I never abandoned my beliefs. Even as I prayed to Jesus, Mary, the Saints, learned of the Pagan Gods and Goddesses, and learned of Sophia from Gnostic Christianity. When I learned of her and remembering my prayers to Mary the Queen of Heaven it just instantly "clicked". Now I maintain my belief in Father and Mother God. I'm more of a spiritual gnostic now and probably will be for a long time. I still have aspects of Buddhist, Wiccan, and Catholic beliefs in me though.