What is your birth religion and current religious status?

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Originally Posted by EdwardJ

Hehehe frankly I doubt that americans would be "ashamed" of having german ancestry. Some americans even seem to be somewhat of german wannabees. :D

I have also never understood these statistics. If you pick up any phone list (even one from Iowa, for that matter) it seems that english surenames are in the majority. Maybe they just consider themselves "german"?

Take a look a this: http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/c2kbr-35.pdf --

Ancestry is a broad concept that can mean different things to different people; it can be described alternately as where their ancestors are from, where they or they parents originated, or simply how they see themselves ethnically.

Maybe they just "see" themselves as german?

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You may be interested in this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_American

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Originally Posted by Virgil

You may be interested in this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_American

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Hi Virgil, thanks for the link. There is some interesting info there such as this:

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.

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Originally Posted by Antiquarian

I was born Russian Jewish and am still a practicing Jew, though not Orthodox, as I was raised.

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You identify as Russian-American? Were you raised in Russia before moving to America?

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.

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Originally Posted by Antiquarian

No, I grew up in the US and in Western Europe, but in a Russian community. Absolutely, I identify myself as Russian-American. Not Russian - I have visited, but not lived in Russia - but as very Russian-American. All our food was Russian, our customs, our friends and family. All Russian Jewish.

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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.

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.