You may be interested in this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_AmericanQuote:
Originally Posted by EdwardJ
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You may be interested in this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_AmericanQuote:
Originally Posted by EdwardJ
Hi Virgil, thanks for the link. There is some interesting info there such as this:Quote:
Originally Posted by Virgil
Presidents with maternal German ancestry include Richard Milhous Nixon (Nixon's maternal ancestors were Germans who anglicized Melhausen to Milhous).[54]
I did not know neither that Nixon was half german nor that his mother's family had "anglicized" their name. Maybe that partly accounts for all these english surnames? Still, there are just too many english surnames out there. The greatest part of them are definitely not "anglicizations". ;)
Another factor that may play a part in this is the fact that many people who are only part german (like Nixon) claim to be of "german ancestry" (which is partly true, of course) and disregard (or fail to mention) the rest of their background.
But in the end it is still unexplained in my opinion. Too many people who claim german ancestry, too few german surnames.
Born and raised Catholic but have spent most of my adult years in nondenominational and then many reformed Christian churches. In the past year, I've thought of returning to the Catholic faith but while in the process of examining it more closely, I found myself doubting any belief in religion.
You identify as Russian-American? Were you raised in Russia before moving to America?Quote:
Originally Posted by Antiquarian
I was raised in the Reform Jewish tradition, but also attended a Conservative synagogues sometimes I believe.
I was a "cultural Jew" for awhile with a belief in G-D. I was a Deist for awhile. Eventually I became a privately-practicing Reform Jew with a strong spiritual, cultural, and religious devotion of Judaism, but in all fairness I haven't attended synagogue since this change of heart. Though I plan to.
Ah, I was asking because at least two sets of my great grandparents were from Russia, another set was from Austria, and another from Poland. I identify as Jewish-American or an American Jew.Quote:
Originally Posted by Antiquarian
Russia kicked out my family during their pograms, so I see no reason to identify with a country who did that. I was curious what your reasons were for identifying that way.
i'm a Filipino, and given that the Philippines is a Catholic country, well, i was baptized a Catholic shortly after birth (the concept of which i do not agree with since i believe that baptism should be a matter of choice). i went to a Christian school for elementary though, and thus grew up with those beliefs as opposed to knowing prayers like Hail Mary and others by heart. I have found this Born Again concept or at least the part of it that i was exposed to, a bit restricting and horizon-narrowing (no offense to others on this forum), since at my old school they immediately dismissed non-Christian things as wrong, i.e. immediately dismissing the theory of evolution as wrong and baseless and claiming that only Creationism is the truth, which of course i beg to disagree with... we didn't even study Buddhism since it was immediately regarded as worshiping "false idols", and this fanaticism (an extreme case, more like) were the main reasons i decided to switch schools for high school. (do forgive me, i'm ranting.)
so i guess, as of the moment, i am a baptized Catholic, i grew up with this Born Again concept, and right now I'm looking for somewhere to belong.
hey amanda isabel. kamusta na diyan sa baguio? i'm born and raised a roman catholic but i never go to church. the last time, i think, was a school policy so i had to attend.
I was born and raised atheist, or more accurately without any religious or philosophical beliefs.
I became a Christian several years ago but stopped practising a year and a half ago.
Status: Deactivated due to disuse.
My religion? None. I'm an atheist from a family of lapsed Christians (apart from my mother who is also and atheist, and my dad who doesn't really care.) But I did grow up receiving some religious education, and for a while I think I really did believe in God . . . but then I discovered philosophy and science. Ethnically I'm white, from South Wales, UK. I've no idea if I have any "foreign blood" someplace.
I was born into Islam. Both my parents are Indians [Mum is a Trinidadian and Dad is a Guyanese], but they both were born and grew in the West, like me.
So, I grew up in Islam, and I'm still an avid Muslim, Alhamdulillah [praise Allah]
My parents were divorced, my father atheist and my mother Christian. As a child I believed in God but was atheist for my early youth. I began attending church and believed for some time, but at the same time half didn't believe. Descartes, Plato and Pascal all three helped restore me to faith in God, and also some experiences I had. Now I am not strictly any religion but mainly Hindu, or rather Vaishnava. I believe Visnu and Buddha are both real, so I guess I am a mix between Vaishnava and Buddhist.
I was born a Protestant Christian. However, my faith has since faltered and I've been reduced to an agnostic, if that.
"I was born a Protestant Christian. However, my faith has since faltered and I've been reduced to an agnostic, if that."
Strangely self-deprecating phrases. Why not say "I was born a ..., but then grew up and blossomed into an agnostic" ??
I had no religion at the time of my birth.
I was born the son of 4 Cohen grandparents. By tradition, a Cohen is not supposed to marry a convert, therefore it is safe to say that I am probably the closest thing to "pure" Jewish, in terms of blood. I am of course an Atheist, though I don't consider myself one, since atheism seems to be forming itself into its own little religion, based off quasi rhetoric and hypothetical science, and I prefer to associate myself with nothing.
I started out a Presbyterian. In very general terms, I am now something of a believer (although I hate to pigeonhole myself) in Christian Mysticism, ala St. John of the Cross, St. Theresa of Avila, etc.
Basically you take the Christian experience and mix it with panentheism.
Or, in philosophical terms, you begin with Plato, steer towards Spinoza, then head ultimately towards Whitehead. That’s about where you’ll find me.
Definitely it is best to follow one's own path, with one's heart and conscience as guide. If you are true to yourself you can't go wrong, and believing anything that doesn't make sense by what is inside you is falsely following externals.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dori
You are right that it is definitely better to be positive. However, faith is a good thing. It is infinitely precious, to use The Mother's words. For instance love is inseparable from faith, and the two are the highest possible avenues of the spirit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Whifflingpin
This is a good point and of course one that came to mind to me as well. In fact, people aren't Christian, or Hindu, Or Muslim, or anything, because whether or not we are a soul, we are not this body. The soul or atma is unlimited by any characteristics such as religion, race, gender, etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by PeterL
How wonderful! I also in many respects began with Plato. I have yet to study Spinoza in detail and I've only heard Whitehead mentioned. . .Quote:
Originally Posted by Chester
Christian Mysticism sounds so interesting! You'll have to do something to contribute. :)
Well i am from a (sunni) muslim family. But i am into islamic mysticism like sufism. My ethnicity is Somali (African), havent been there though.
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I generally hold people of genuine faith in high regard, for some reason or another. It's difficult for me to fathom how I, at one point in time, was actually a Christian. I miss my former self. :( Those were the good ol' days (these days are also good, but in a different way, if that makes sense). But who knows what life will throw at me next. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Whifflingpin
I was born a pagan to Christian parents. As an infant, faith in Christ was created in my heart through the Holy Spirit in the waters of baptism. As a child my parents raised me to know the Christan faith as it is taught in the Bible and confessed by the Lutheran Church.
As I grew I studied the Scriptures myself and examined my beliefs and what was taught me in light of what the Bible said. I came to be personally convinced that what was taught me as a child was in keeping with the truth. I am currently a Christian who believes the truths of Scripture and acknowledges the Lutheran Confessions as found in the Book of Concord to be a faithful exposition of these truths.
As far as ethnicity (because I believe the thread asked this too), I am a fourth/fifth generation American of mostly German ancestry. I am 7/8 German, 3/32 Bohemian and 1/32 gypsy.
In the following, Dori, I am making some totally unwarranted assumptions - if I make sense, then good, if not then ignore me.
"I generally hold people of genuine faith in high regard, for some reason or another."
I would say that there is no intrinsic merit in faith, or belief. It is the behaviour that arises from that belief that matters, at least to other humans. For example, the faith that inspired Francis of Assissi was the same that inspired Torquemada, and both held that faith equally deeply. God may judge them to be both the same, who knows? I would admire St Francis, but would hold Torquemada in very low esteem.
"It's difficult for me to fathom how I, at one point in time, was actually a Christian."
As a child you believed what you were told by people whom you trusted. How could you not?
"I miss my former self. Those were the good ol' days "
They were days of certainty, when you accepted the beliefs of those around you and felt a strong sense of belonging. Once you start to question those beliefs, you are on your own, with no certainties and with divisions from those close to you whom you have been brought up to love and respect. This is not comfortable.
"(these days are also good, but in a different way, if that makes sense)."
Of course it makes sense. It's good to be secure and accepted, but it is also good, and even necessary, to break away from security and test alternatives.
Don't hang on to a belief that no longer makes any sense to you, and don't feel bad about abandoning such a belief.
On the other hand, if there is something you feel you ought to believe, but don't, then act as if you believed it. "La coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connait pas" Sometimes the heart grasps a truth that the brain cannot. Behave as if you believe, and then either the belief will come or you will see that the belief is simply wrong.
I was never formally introduced to any religion, my parents were technically atheists and considered their religious background to be merely a cultural curiosity, and I was raised to think of religion as such.
My father, ethnically Italian, was raised Catholic, but abandoned his birth religion regarding practice - culturally, though, he is still tied to it. My mother's family is basically divided between Russian Jews (her maternal line), many of whom are expatrioted and live abroad, and between South Slavic (mostly) Eastern Orthodox (her paternal line). Culturally, she considers herself Russian first - and is all into all that panslavic stuff - and only then a Jew. She wasn't really excited about my decision to consider myself culturally a Jew despite being Italian, especially given that she tried to bring me up the way it would have the least possible influence on me. :(
Isn't this bit of the forum supposed to be about literature?
I am an atheist, as is my family, and I also live in a fairly irreligious region.
It's interesting, my family is Christian but I was never raised to believe anything. We never prayed, read The Bible, went to church, or even talked about it at all. I'm an Atheist one day and an Agnostic the next nowadays. I have an interest in Buddhism.
I'm of Ukrainian, Native American, Irish, French, and Dutch descent.
That's wonderful! Buddhism is the best religion.Quote:
Originally Posted by timbeau
If it was never even mentioned, how do you know?Quote:
Originally Posted by timbeau
We had religious stuff in the house and I also remember having to pray when staying over at my mom's grandmother's house growing up.Quote:
Originally Posted by dzebra
I should've said that my parents never raised me in a religious household, because that's what I meant.
Actually, I wasn't much of a Christian until a few years ago. I believed in God, of course, and attended Sunday school at one point in time, but that's about it. I was also baptized at birth. Then, once I was about 14 or so, I started attending a Youth Group at the local church every weekend (I had an ulterior motive, mind you. There was a certain young lady that convinced me to attend.) Then I evolved into a devout Christian. Two years have since passed, and now I am constantly being occupied with questions of certaintly and such. It suffices to say that I question almost everything these days. That is my story in a nutshell. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Whifflingpin
Really? Could you elaborate? I'm quite interested in what you have to say. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by NikolaiI
The closest contact I've had with Buddhism was when I studied it as a part of the "World Religions" unit in my global history class.
I wasn't trying to just ask an annoying question (I realized after posting that it may have sounded that way). A lot of times, things are communicated without words, and I was trying to imagine how Christianity was communicated without words in that setting.Quote:
Originally Posted by timbeau
Yep, I know what halacha says about it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Antiquarian
Being Jewish is not something one chooses (except in the cases of conversion), however, what one can choose the extent to which one is going to, to say so, "culturally care" about that fact. My mother, for example, is the kind of person that simply does not care; I, in the other hand, would like to have something to do with it culturally (not religiously), for example I like to hang out with other Jewish people, attend cultural events or go to lectures that are somehow connected to the Jewish issues or even religion, study Hebrew at the local synagogue, etc. Herein, essentially, is the seed of destruction in the relationship between my mother and me - she does not care, but would also prefer that I do not care; she does not deny, but nevertheless does not want to be reminded (especially by her own daughter); and to top it all, as we live in Italy and my father is Italian, she thinks my behaviour as described to be "politically stupid", in a way, because she believes it might lead to identifying myself with a minority in my own country, making "potentially unwise social connections", because "who knows when the next shoach or similar sh*t might happen". Also, she loves to remind me that now that I am officially an adult [I am 18], everything I do or say is taken seriously and carries certain weight, and that if "you publicly and openly, be it by your words or social connections or anything, mark yourself as a Jew now, rather than Italian, it might be impossible to de-mark yourself in the future, and G-d knows if there might appear some circumstances under which you will want to de-mark and de-associate yourself with all that", especially given recent and not so recent history, politics, etc.
In a way, she is right - what we talk about here are not merely religious feelings or lack thereof, but one entire cultural dimension about it. She thinks that being "culturally Jewish" is stupid in my case, potentially unwise, and that I am totally silly for studying Hebrew, hanging around with Jewish friends (some of whom happen to be children of influential Jews in the city, which is another problem for my mother) and making such "social connections", as she says, and stuff of the kind. Which are really nothing special, a bunch of my friends who are also perfect "Italians" as I am do the same thing by being somehow in contact with some other roots, but my mother seems to be the only one to have a problem with it. :(
I went off-topic, though. (We can chat over PM, if you want to hear more of my lamentations. :D ) The simple answer to the question posed would be - born in an atheist family, currently an atheist. If we talk exclusively about belief.
There are different kinds of Buddhism. Pure Land Buddhism, or Shin Buddhism, comes from Japan, as does Zen, which comes from the earlier Ch'an Buddhism, from China. In Pure Land Buddhism, the Pure Land is the Other Shore, which one reaches by saying "Namu Amida Butsu," just like crossing over. There are many different Buddhist Scriptures, mantras, and sutras.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dori
The Heart of Wisdom Sutra is a good sutra.
Buddhist practice has different rules for lay people and monks. Buddhism emphasizes many things, especially since it is so vast. All Buddhists should practice ahimsa, which is nonviolence, which means not eating meat or killing any living thing.
catholic, waiting for rabbi,(in our city there is no working synagogue, there is a library, in synagogue, but library is moving to new place) but that could take few years.....
Hey.
My mother didn't bring me up to believe in anything as she wanted me to be independent and have my own views. I'm not of any religion and I don't believe in God, but that doesn't mean I don't believe in some other aspects of religion. And I certainly don't completely pass off religion as rubbish like some people do. I enjoy learning about other religions and cultures.
My racial makeup is simply White/Caucasian.