Your faith timeline.

[Antonio the Sixth]

0: Baptized Catholic
0-10: Occasional Mass attendance, occasional Sunday School, at least one retreat
8: First communion
9-12: Burgeoning interest in politics, history and philosophy leading to increasingly left-wing conclusion, growing awareness of the Church's reactionary role throughout modern history and rationalist critiques of faith. Also, puberty.
12-13: Becomes agnostic.
14-17: Attends a very conservative Catholic high school while in the midst of one of the most right-wing presidencies in France. Anticlericalism intensifies.
19-20: Emotional interaction with others reaches a new degree. Highs and lows ensue.
20: Begins regular correspondence with Nathan that goes on to this day.
22: Major crisis in moral self-image. Growing interest in moral philosophy leads to rediscovering Christian ethical principles.
25: Begins quasi-weekly Mass attendance.
26: Begins occasional prayer.

27: Stops going to Mass due to global pandemic. No religious practice to speak of, except for eating fish on Friday.

[Big Abraham]

Infancy: "dedication," a common practice in Quaker church. Also baptised at a later date
Age 12: up till this point, I was a regular church-attending Christian with family. However, I soon became agnostic-atheist around this time, after a very short period as a "doubting Christian"
Age 15-16: "rediscovery" of Christianity, started studying theology and reading the Bible more, but didn't really attend church. Tried to rationalise belief in God
Age 17-18: "rediscovery" failed, quickly lapsed back into agnostic atheism, which I assumed as a "default" position
Age 21-22 (now): stuck in an uncomfortable "middle ground" between agnosticism and generic Christian theism. While lacking in genuine religion, I find myself susceptible to spirituality and the more philosophical/ethical elements of Christianity. Battisa's description of himself in August as "agnostic but Christian-leaning" probably fits me quite well. Not sure where I'll go from here.

[satsuma]

Southern Baptist mother, Catholic father, they never joined the same church but agreed that the kids could be Baptist. I've attended Mass plenty of times and stayed in the pew during Communion as non-Catholics do.

3-4: I remember believing in God in early childhood. Mom said I once claimed that everyone had their own God. Not even sure what heresy that is, probably just childhood solipsism.

6-7: Around this age, I believed my prayers were being answered, but in retrospect just an active imagination. Big contrast to my teens, when I was getting silence on the other end of the line. Baptized age 7 when I could express to Mom I was serious about being saved and not just trying to be a big kid.

10-12: Reading through the Bible a chapter or 2 nightly, this was kind of the peak of my taking religion seriously, kicked off by reading The Purpose-Driven Life. Due to biblical literalist sermons, I was satisfied to calculate that the Creation story was around 4000 BC. At 12, a classmate came out as gay, which didn't really challenge my faith... We weren't close and though I thought it was sinful, it was clear that other boys' teasing of him wasn't a Christian thing.

15: A growing interest in science caused by reading some books on the natural sciences... and I have to admit, some r/atheism-type memes on Facebook, really shook my beliefs. If I couldn't be Young-Earth Creationist, might as well be completely materialist, believe Jesus was just a man, no afterlife, the whole deal. Mentally I became an atheist, and I shut up about religious topics because my beliefs would be unacceptable to my parents.

It caused some anxiety around religious topics for several years since I still attended church services when I was living at home. But no one pays much attention to the bored young dude in church with his mom so whatever. I learned to enjoy the music and the sermon even if I thought it was malarkey. Mom switched to a "community church" with my aunt and cousins, but they're still Baptists in all but name.

I'm 26 now and haven't attended church all year due to COVID, work, and other stuff going on. Also as my political views evolved, I've been a closed book on that too... I kinda hate talking and especially hate getting into debates and sensitive subjects offline.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Grew up in a family strongly - no, utterly - influenced by various forms of Protestantism (Methodism; specifically Primitive rather than Wesleyan, Welsh Calvinism, Low Church Anglicanism and the Welsh Baptist tradition: all very Old Testament) and with a basically ecumenical and pluralistic attitude towards them all. Always had an interest in it all and always a believer. Owned an illustrated Children's Bible and read it regularly as soon as I could. Argued with the Vicar at the village primary school, which was (of course) CofE, because he was frequently wrong about scriptural matters. After I became seriously ill for the first time - I was ten - I found this background to be a useful way of making sense of things. A decade after that, I had a series of medical emergencies and nearly died; more than once in a very short space of time, actually. Certain things happened during the worst part that constitute (I suppose) what would usually be called A Religious Experience, and without it I do not think it particularly likely that I would have survived. Making sense of that is an ongoing activity.

[Sol]

I've basically been a wishy-washy 'open to believing, but not really able to believe' person all of my life, barring an early adolescent atheist phase. Was raised as a Unitarian so that probably reinforces the status quo.

I'd honestly like to have a spiritual belief system of some kind but I don't know what that would be.

Perhaps the Calvinist God has decided I'm not part of the Elect.

[Mr. Illini]

0-18: Baptized Catholic, attended Sunday school, attended Church weekly, not overly spiritually engaged but did have a personal relationship with God

18-20: Became more spiritually engaged, studied the Bible and Catechism more closely, became interested in social justice aspects of the faith, bordering on liberation theology, became involved in mission work

20-23: Drifted away from attending Mass, focused on a more personal relationship and spirituality, experienced a good deal of doubt, religion played a much smaller role in my life

23-Pres: Returned to the Church partly for cultural and identity reasons but also to find a source of hope during some difficult times, maintained focus on personal relationship with little focus on Catechism

[Red Velvet]

Born: Got Baptized as Catholic.

Child/Pre-Teen: Had catechism classes during Saturdays, for two years. After that did the communion.

Teen: Distanced from religion, just don’t care.

Adult: Still don’t care. I guess God can exist but if not that’s okay.

[Beet]

Age 14- Exposed to nondenominational Protestantism after watching Billy Graham, began an extended flirtation. Age 28- Fully committed to nondenominational Protestantism.

[°Leprechaun]

Swedenborg.

[SWE]

0-11: Baptized Catholic
11-21: atheist

[If my soul was made of stone]

0: Born into a fairly New Atheist-leaning family
4-5: Attended preschool at a Baptist church, briefly considered myself part of their faith cause it felt like the customary thing to do in that environment but never really bought into it wholesale or investigated any part of it.
6-15: Garden-variety smug suburban New Atheist with a condescending view at best of most religious folk. Developed an interest in Buddhist and Taoist thought and incorporated some of it into my personal philosophy but never felt it proper to commit to either system in full.
16-19: Became interested in various pagan traditions through my dilettante studies of ancient history, prehistory, anthropology, and the 20th-century counterculture, as well as the strange spiritual associations that I encountered in my slow and arduous journey to discover my gender identity. Briefly attempted to commit to believing in a deity or deities a few times before quitting due to lack of conviction or a suspicion that they were more like tulpas manifested from my insecurities than genuine celestial beings. Shopped around for a tradition that might suit me but was turned off by the dominance of TERFs, Neo-Nazis, and feel-good revisionist hippies in all the circles I became aware of.
20: In response to a period of extended interpersonal turmoil and an inability to crack many philosophical questions I had been wrestling with since my early teenage years, committed to my current personalized eclectic pagan path. My beliefs have evolved since then, but the core tenets remain.
21-present: Tried practicing magic for the first time with fairly ugly results. Started looking for groups of like-minded people again, still looking...

[afleitch]

0: Born into a fairly New Atheist-leaning family
4-5: Attended preschool at a Baptist church, briefly considered myself part of their faith cause it felt like the customary thing to do in that environment but never really bought into it wholesale or investigated any part of it.
6-15: Garden-variety smug suburban New Atheist with a condescending view at best of most religious folk. Developed an interest in Buddhist and Taoist thought and incorporated some of it into my personal philosophy but never felt it proper to commit to either system in full.
16-19: Became interested in various pagan traditions through my dilettante studies of ancient history, prehistory, anthropology, and the 20th-century counterculture, as well as the strange spiritual associations that I encountered in my slow and arduous journey to discover my gender identity. Briefly attempted to commit to believing in a deity or deities a few times before quitting due to lack of conviction or a suspicion that they were more like tulpas manifested from my insecurities than genuine celestial beings. Shopped around for a tradition that might suit me but was turned off by the dominance of TERFs, Neo-Nazis, and feel-good revisionist hippies in all the circles I became aware of.
20: In response to a period of extended interpersonal turmoil and an inability to crack many philosophical questions I had been wrestling with since my early teenage years, committed to my current personalized eclectic pagan path. My beliefs have evolved since then, but the core tenets remain.
21-present: Tried practicing magic for the first time with fairly ugly results. Started looking for groups of like-minded people again, still looking...

How have you been practicing your paganism? What grounds you: is it earth and nature based, spiritually based?

[If my soul was made of stone]

0: Born into a fairly New Atheist-leaning family
4-5: Attended preschool at a Baptist church, briefly considered myself part of their faith cause it felt like the customary thing to do in that environment but never really bought into it wholesale or investigated any part of it.
6-15: Garden-variety smug suburban New Atheist with a condescending view at best of most religious folk. Developed an interest in Buddhist and Taoist thought and incorporated some of it into my personal philosophy but never felt it proper to commit to either system in full.
16-19: Became interested in various pagan traditions through my dilettante studies of ancient history, prehistory, anthropology, and the 20th-century counterculture, as well as the strange spiritual associations that I encountered in my slow and arduous journey to discover my gender identity. Briefly attempted to commit to believing in a deity or deities a few times before quitting due to lack of conviction or a suspicion that they were more like tulpas manifested from my insecurities than genuine celestial beings. Shopped around for a tradition that might suit me but was turned off by the dominance of TERFs, Neo-Nazis, and feel-good revisionist hippies in all the circles I became aware of.
20: In response to a period of extended interpersonal turmoil and an inability to crack many philosophical questions I had been wrestling with since my early teenage years, committed to my current personalized eclectic pagan path. My beliefs have evolved since then, but the core tenets remain.
21-present: Tried practicing magic for the first time with fairly ugly results. Started looking for groups of like-minded people again, still looking...

How have you been practicing your paganism? What grounds you: is it earth and nature based, spiritually based?

It's evolved quite a bit with the evolution of my personal experiences, philosophical ideas, and exposure to various faiths, but remained grounded in nature and physicality mainly, as with what little we can know from my aesthetic touchstones in prehistory. I have yet do do much in the way of ritual because I get stuck trying to synthesize everything into a singular expression of everything I seek to convey, but I have devised a handful at various times with various influences. Mostly I attempt to commune with nature and pray semi-regularly, with other trappings being a constant work in progress or having failed for various reasons.

[PSOL]

Shopped around for a tradition that might suit me but was turned off by the dominance of TERFs, Neo-Nazis, and feel-good revisionist hippies in all the circles I became

Ok I’m actually interested in what this looks like.

I mean, I knew beforehand that Wicca has a strong following by Radical Feminists, but I assumed that there would be several known parallel groupings accepting of/for Transgender folks like some all-gay communes I’ve heard about.

Feel-good revisionist hippies? Uh, could you explain that further?

[If my soul was made of stone]

Shopped around for a tradition that might suit me but was turned off by the dominance of TERFs, Neo-Nazis, and feel-good revisionist hippies in all the circles I became

Ok I’m actually interested in what this looks like.

I mean, I knew beforehand that Wicca has a strong following by Radical Feminists, but I assumed that there would be several known parallel groupings accepting of/for Transgender folks like some all-gay communes I’ve heard about.

Feel-good revisionist hippies? Uh, could you explain that further?

Even in the traditions that do support queer folk I'm turned off by the emphasis on heteronormative conceptions of fertility and gender duality, which I feel is by nature exclusionary of other experiences. By "revisionist hippies" I'm mainly referring to the revisionism among some sects that they claim to be a genuine continuation of ancient traditions even though most knowledge of them is very incomplete and indirect, there are no known actual continuations of their old faiths, and Wicca et cetera are 100% recent creations. I have no problem with them lacking that historical element, but the act of pretending to have it rather turns me off. There are other general vibes that I get from that sort of person that are hard to articulate but nonetheless rub me the wrong way, but then again I've always been a highly contrarian person and skeptical of organized groups in general.

[Figueira]

0-8: confused
8-14: anti-religious phase
14-17: anti-anti-religious phase
17-20: anti-anti-anti-religious phase
20-present: saying I'm Jewish but not really doing anything

[°Leprechaun]

It would be interesting to see people comment on how their religion views impact their political views. In my case I see a lot of overlap. I gave up the beliefs that I was spoon fed as a child before I realized how liberal I was politically.

[Squidward500]

0-15: “Christmas and Easter” Catholic
15-21: Practicing Catholic
21-25: Non denominational Christian while attending Catholic Church. Don’t recognize popes authority
25-26: depression and irreligion
26-present: looking into ancient Greek religion a bit

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

It would be interesting to see people comment on how their religion views impact their political views. In my case I see a lot of overlap. I gave up the beliefs that I was spoon fed as a child before I realized how liberal I was politically.

So far I wouldn't say that rejoining Catholicism has significantly altered my political views, but rather articulated some opinions I had 'felt' for some time. I realized how conservative I am politically?
But really it's been only three months or so. Things are happening so fast these days. A lot of this might look silly in a few years' time. Funnily today marks also exactly half a year since I joined Talk Elections.

[afleitch]

It would be interesting to see people comment on how their religion views impact their political views. In my case I see a lot of overlap. I gave up the beliefs that I was spoon fed as a child before I realized how liberal I was politically.

So far I wouldn't say that rejoining Catholicism has significantly altered my political views, but rather articulated some opinions I had 'felt' for some time. I realized how conservative I am politically?
But really it's been only three months or so. Things are happening so fast these days. A lot of this might look silly in a few years' time. Funnily today marks also exactly half a year since I joined Talk Elections.

Do you think you are more conservative than your age group? You seem really young. Like not supporting SSM (?), just seems really weird for someone so grounded. Or is it just an Italian thing?

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

It would be interesting to see people comment on how their religion views impact their political views. In my case I see a lot of overlap. I gave up the beliefs that I was spoon fed as a child before I realized how liberal I was politically.

So far I wouldn't say that rejoining Catholicism has significantly altered my political views, but rather articulated some opinions I had 'felt' for some time. I realized how conservative I am politically?
But really it's been only three months or so. Things are happening so fast these days. A lot of this might look silly in a few years' time. Funnily today marks also exactly half a year since I joined Talk Elections.

Do you think you are more conservative than your age group? You seem really young. Like not supporting SSM (?), just seems really weird for someone so grounded. Or is it just an Italian thing?

I definitely think I am more conservative than my age group (although not more right-wing); I am 19 years old. My discomfort with civil marriage in general is admittedly extremely weird and not really an Italian thing. But if you want to go about it, I've just checked and according to a 2020 Eurispes poll 77% of Italians aged 18-24 support SSM. Thanks for saying I am "so grounded", anyways.

[afleitch]

It would be interesting to see people comment on how their religion views impact their political views. In my case I see a lot of overlap. I gave up the beliefs that I was spoon fed as a child before I realized how liberal I was politically.

So far I wouldn't say that rejoining Catholicism has significantly altered my political views, but rather articulated some opinions I had 'felt' for some time. I realized how conservative I am politically?
But really it's been only three months or so. Things are happening so fast these days. A lot of this might look silly in a few years' time. Funnily today marks also exactly half a year since I joined Talk Elections.

Do you think you are more conservative than your age group? You seem really young. Like not supporting SSM (?), just seems really weird for someone so grounded. Or is it just an Italian thing?

I definitely think I am more conservative than my age group (although not more right-wing); I am 19 years old. My discomfort with civil marriagein general is admittedly extremely weird and not really an Italian thing. But if you want to go about it, I've just checked and according to a 2020 Eurispes poll 77% of Italians aged 18-24 support SSM. Thanks for saying I am "so grounded", anyways.

Which ones? Anyone you know in particular?

[2952-0-0]

0 - ~20: nothing in particular, was never raised anything, but vaguely aware of things like karma. There was a teenage militant atheist phase.
20 - 25: had some on-and-off interest in Christianity, leaning towards Anglicanism in general, but not committed at all.
25 - 27: started attending Catholic church, and was gradually immersed in the environment and teachings.
27 - present: Mass-attending Catholic. Has a soft spot for Pope Francis, but thinks James Martin should lay things off a bit.

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

0-5: Lutheran
5-present: Baptist
Started taking my faith more seriously in my early 20s.

[Diabolical Materialism]

As a kid I went to both Catholic and Primitive Baptist churches. I was baptized in the Catholic Church but was never baptized by the Primitives as they only conduct adult baptisms. I think that conflict between being a member of fairly traditional, and conservative Catholic church (at least by post-Vatican II standards) and what is probably the most hardcore extant Calvinist denomination currently in North America has defined a lot of who I am as a person.

Sometime in middle school I started questioning Christianity and the concept of God in general and never really got over the fundamentals of that debate. I generally consider myself apathetic to the concept of god, and publicly identify as an atheist or agnostic. I still go to Easter, Christmas, and Ash Wednesday mass in addition to the occasional passion play. I guess I'm something of a lapsed Cultural Catholic, but I feel like a Puritan at heart.