What is your birth religion and current religious status?

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Originally Posted by Dr Eep

It's just so great to see such refreshing honesty!!

I was going to say; Born Pure - tarnished by religion!! Although that is not quite true.

My life more like;
- Born pure
-Believed in Santa and God
-No longer believed in Santa but still believed in God
-Still believed in God but wished he was more like Santa
-Learnt that you need faith to believe in God
-Promptly set about breaking many of the rules set by God
-Commit, agonize, justify, time, numbness - true sorrow if caught out.
- repeat above process ad nauseam
- caught between thinking it'd be easier to be atheist and knowing that there must be more than just this life
- Therefore a christian, by the skin of my teeth - just in case!!

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I enjoyed that, Eep. :)

Thanks - Virgil!

Born from Christians.

Became an Atheist in my early teens.

Became a Christian when I was 24, and my life has been Blessed ever since!

I'm 100% American.. Bloodlines from England, and German.

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Originally Posted by Jtolj

Also, racial makeup.

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I'm catholic with all my heart. Maybe my soul is a little atheist too but mostly catholic.

Racial makeup, well...

Complications to no end but my family consists of Austrians mostly. But our forefathers include people from all over Austria when it was still under Habsburg rule.

Every people is Muslim in creation (fıtrat, essence). I'm still Muslim.

I am a Turk. I don't know exact percents but i don't know any other blood in my roots.

"Every people is Muslim in creation" just as everyone who does not die believing in Christ is doomed to eternal damnation.

Grew up as a more active Christian than my parents.
Now a kind of Zarathustran, mainly because no monotheist arguments that I understand provide a satisfactory explanation of evil, (and atheist arguments don't provide me with a satisfactory explanation of anything.)

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Originally Posted by Whifflingpin

"Every people is Muslim in creation" just as everyone who does not die believing in Christ is doomed to eternal damnation.

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not really basically what he probably means to say is that every child is born pure and free of sin and until they hit puberty if the die they get a one way ticket to heaven regardless of what their religion is, afterwards it gets more complicated.

Mmmm Im a complicated one I was born a muslim and I am a muslim althouh I have flucuattion is just how much I practise but I always belive the main bits and the quran. Anyway ethnicity I usually but down MYOB however here it goes:
1/8th irish ( catholic if thats of any intrest) 1/4 gordie ((Church of E) means possible scottishness?somwhere in there ) 1/8th scouse and they are a muddle and half( how do you explin the liverpudlians?) . lets see 1/2 delta egyptian which means quite likly to have greek, roman,turkish and all the dozens of other invaders mixed in there nearly 100% sure family founder was an arab who left part of his family in egypt as he followed the army and never came back -if you listen to my dad I have realtives ( going back 20 generations or more) strung out from iraq to morroco, we would be the egyptian branch ( one of my ansestors kindly traked down and recorderd every birth death and marraiage of our branch right back to the founder but I havent seen this book myself though.

Protestant, but no longer practicing in a church sense. I still do believe in a higher being, Providence, God but I am constantly questioning all existence and our mortaliy "...try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue." ~Rilke~ Also, regarding our mortaliy, as Hamlet states ".....The undiscover'd country, from whose bourne No traveller returns,...." posses many questions.

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Originally Posted by Virgil

Born and still Catholic. I'm of Italian ethnicity.

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Virgil, Did you ever read Evelyn Waugh's novel "Brideshead Revisited"? Interesting thoughts on Catholisism. If you read this novel or saw the miniseries I wondered what your thoughts were on Waugh's ideas. I later read he ultimately converted to Catholisism, but I may be wrong. Must check his biography online.

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Originally Posted by Obliv!on

(eg. Most people in Germany are of the German ethnicity), while reciprocally, most people of that ethnicity reside in that country (eg. Most people of German ethnicity live in Germany)

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no we aren't, no we don't :)
heehee, I know it's was only intended as a random example, but I can't help splitting hairs :) We never use terms like ethnicity and race when talking about our own country or immigrants to this country. We do use it when talking about 'ethnic minorities' in other countries, e.g. the U.S., the Balkans etc (in an 'academic' sense) but it's not a label people identify with or would use about themselves (as in, we wouldn't say "My ethnicity is Germany" or whatever it is you say)
I think the point is that "ethnicity" only figures in immigrant-built countries (i.e. the U.S.) or countries that have very large minorities (e.g. because they were founded by the colonial powers without taking tribal boundaries etc. into account)

what's "racial makeup" got to do with religion?

religion: none, didn't get baptized as a baby and still haven't
ethnicity: probably "none" as well, alternatively: German or 1/4 Czech, 1/4 probably Dutch, 1/8 unknown (Russian or Polish)

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Originally Posted by Janine

Virgil, Did you ever read Evelyn Waugh's novel "Brideshead Revisited"? Interesting thoughts on Catholisism. If you read this novel or saw the miniseries I wondered what your thoughts were on Waugh's ideas. I later read he ultimately converted to Catholisism, but I may be wrong. Must check his biography online.

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I read and own the mini series in DVD. I love that book and movie. I know he converted to catholicism, and while I see references in the novel, I have not learned or picked up his specific ideas. I never have studied Waugh anywhere, but I have read that wonderful novel.

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Originally Posted by SleepyWitch

We do use it when talking about 'ethnic minorities' in other countries, e.g. the U.S.,

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I have been told that the largest ethnicity in the US is actually people of German descent. However, I know of only one person who claims it. I wonder if because we have faught two world wars with Germany that most German immigrants have cast off that identity. Plus the large waves of German immigrants were aound mid 19th century i believe, so could be over 150 years ago.

I would have thought it's people of British descent, but I don't have any statistics (It's just a general impression, maybe it's only because the British were among the first settlers, so we tend to think they're the biggest group?)
The point is, in the U.S. everyone is originally from somewhere else, so 'race' and ethnicity probably matter much more to people than over here because it's something their identity is based on to a larger extent??? You know what I mean?

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Originally Posted by Virgil

I have been told that the largest ethnicity in the US is actually people of German descent. However, I know of only one person who claims it. I wonder if because we have faught two world wars with Germany that most German immigrants have cast off that identity.

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I think it just depends on where you are, there's an enormous amount of 'Germans' where I live and I'm talking statewide, regionwide really because I know SD and MT and MN have a lot of Germans as well and none of them feel the least bit awkward about admitting that. In fact I have a little German in me, along with Norwegian, Swedish, English, a tiny bit French and an even smaller amount of Scottish, Irish and Welsh...the English side of the family apparently got around a lot. ;)

I'm Lutheran 'by birth' and by choice, with a few Dieist leanings.

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Originally Posted by Idril

I think it just depends on where you are, there's an enormous amount of 'Germans' where I live and I'm talking statewide, regionwide really because I know SD and MT and MN have a lot of Germans as well and none of them feel the least bit awkward about admitting that. In fact I have a little German in me, along with Norwegian, Swedish, English, a tiny bit French and an even smaller amount of Scottish, Irish and Welsh...the English side of the family apparently got around a lot. ;)

I'm Lutheran 'by birth' and by choice, with a few Dieist leanings.

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You may be rght Idril. The mid west has a larger contigent of people from German and Scanadinavian ethnicity. While where I'm from we have a larger Italian and Irish contigent.

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Originally Posted by Virgil

I read and own the mini series in DVD. I love that book and movie. I know he converted to catholicism, and while I see references in the novel, I have not learned or picked up his specific ideas. I never have studied Waugh anywhere, but I have read that wonderful novel.

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Well, I found your post and the section I was thinking of after I wrote you last in Lawrence post. So ignore that part of my post. I should own the miniseries, too. Loved it! Got it from my library on loan from another library so I only had a weekend to watch it. I would have watched it twice, but too long to fit two viewings into that short a time span. I loved the book as well. Much to think about. Poses many questions on religion. I have been thinking about it since I watched it weeks ago. The miniseries was so well done - don't you agree? It followed the book just about exactly. BBC did a fine job!

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Originally Posted by Janine

Well, I found your post and the section I was thinking of after I wrote you last in Lawrence post. So ignore that part of my post. I should own the miniseries, too. Loved it! Got it from my library on loan from another library so I only had a weekend to watch it. I would have watched it twice, but too long to fit two viewings into that short a time span. I loved the book as well. Much to think about. Poses many questions on religion. I have been thinking about it since I watched it weeks ago. The miniseries was so well done - don't you agree? It followed the book just about exactly. BBC did a fine job!

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I loved it. It was the best mini series I have ever seen.