Quote Originally Posted by Miss Z
I have been to church about 3 times in my life, and I have to say I found it extremely depressing and in a way, a little offensive. You could tell the 'regulars' were looking at us as though we didn't deserve to be there, and they never once spoke to us or passed us a hymn book or anything. They are the sort of people that have put me off having any faith in religion.
I'm sorry you had such a bad experience...it's never easy to feel like you're being singled out...I don't have faith in any religion either...I just have faith in God. My experiences have led me to accept the Christian viewpoint as my own, but my faith is not in the 'religion' (i.e. the routines, ceremonies, rituals, hymns, etc.). In short, I worship Christ, not Christianity. Everything I hear in church, I question and research for myself before I adopt it into my own beliefs; if I find that my beliefs were wrong, according to Biblical truth (taken in context), then I change my opinion. If I can find no written support for a claim, I retain my old opinion.

The thing with a belief system, whether it's religious or not, is that we each think we're right. If we thought we were wrong, wouldn't we believe something else? We would not go on believing we are wrong about something. That's against human nature. If you have a different belief system from mine, I would expect you to uphold the values of your system, not mine. I would also hope you would hold me up to the standards of my system, and not yours. I do try to hold myself accountable to my own standards, but I admit that I fail at it a lot of the time. I'm just happy that my belief system has a component to it that involves forgiveness when I mess up, and I try not to abuse that privelege.

Oh, and thanks CathyBogart for clarifying the pagan origins of those Christian holiday symbols