Thursday, February 23, 2006
Influences
In the interests of others who are not as involved in the ongoing debate about abortion or do not want to get involved, here's a new subject. I have been thinking a lot about how people are influenced in their lives. What makes a person a Methodist for example? Was it family, parents, influences in college, etc.? A combination seems fairly logical, but are there people who only go to church to "keep up with the neighbors?" How much do we really decide by ourselves, without a tinge of experiences or childhood pressures?
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Religion is influenced mostly by parental intervention at birth. With the onset of Puberty I think that's the point your faith is either set, or you begin to find one that better suits you.
... As I sit and ponder my response, I realize that with religion initally it's influence, but the end it is Faith. and that is as personal and unique as your fingerprint.
as far as other, less controversial influences, Like college. Money was a deciding factor. I had to pick a KS college because out-of-state was astronomical. KU is closer, but they treated me like I was just "supposed" to go there because i'm from Johnson County. One of the Dean's of Engineering helped cement my decision to go there.
To top off, everyting in your life, from family to Driving to work, influences your life. It's how you deal with those influences that makes you really who you are.
For me, I stayed Catholic because it was the only thing that made sense. Protestants are confusing. :-)
I am studying the history of Religion in America and believe me, Catholicism is just as confusing as protestantism.
Yeah, but we were confusing first! :)
Each religion has its own nuance to make it unique. Thank the Reformation for that. Catholics did not want to look like Lutherans and vice versa. So they added and altered all their traditions to make sure you could tell they were the "real" Christian church.
And it digresses from there.
Catholicism isn't odd to us because when you spend 30 years in the church, and CCD and First communion & Confirmation and Baptism etc. You pick up on the sublties. Like when to sit, when to stand, and when to kneel.
I'd tend to call Catholicism "complex" rather than "confusing." Not to say that a person can't get confused when learning about it... I sure have.
But the depth of Catholicism is unbelievable. It's like once you understand a piece of it... you start to realize that piece is actually made up of millions of smaller pieces that are all integral to the piece that you just learned about.
It's neat.
Sounds like hogswallop to me.
As far as I can tell, people generally are what they were raised to be, or else they move in a direction that does not directly contradict the direction they were raised.
Every once in a while you'll have someone going completely against their upbringing. When that happens, 2 things are likely. 1st, it probably won't last more than 10 to 15 years. 2nd, they'll be REALLY involved in whatever contradictory behavior they engage in.
Very interesting thoughts. I am intrigued.
I'm old....I was raised Catholic....I have experienced other organized Christian religions....I sometimes miss going to a service of some sort, but it's not for the religious aspect of it....it's for the sense of fellowship and belonging. Unfortunately, real life barges in on that all too often, and out of all of them, I've found Catholics to be the rudest and "holier than thou" out of the bunch. Maybe I'm generalizing a bit too much, but that is my viewpoint on organized religion as a whole....for myself, I prefer to appreciate life on my OWN terms, rather than on the terms that strangers have set up for me, and try to raise my children to be considerate people with minds of their own. They have been taught Christian beliefs, but I will not teach them that one church is better than another. That is teaching them to be prejudiced.
Something I thought of I wanted to say.
Don't confuse Faith and influence. My father, for example, has a strong faith in God, but not in the church. Therefore despite being raised as Methodist/Southern Baptist, converting to Catholicism for Mom, then leaving the church after the divorce, he's never lost his faith in the Almighty. He has, however never had any influences govern his actions once that influence left.
Well,
I was also thinking of experiences that happened to us that led us to where we are right now. For example, if I had not left Southwestern College because of my bf at the time, then dumped him a few months later, would I be a biologist right now? Also, that's true about religion - you can totally not believe in a religion, or adhere to it, but still believe in an almighty.
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