Got me questioning my own faith...

[moondaughter]

This whole incident started out by me talking to my dad about religion. Something we actually talk about often; my dad practices Quabbalah magick and does not understand my more primitive studies. And I was explaining to him the difference between Wicca and Paganism. He was aghast. "You can pick and choose? You can re-write rituals to fit YOU?!? I don't understand! So you can just look at something and say 'I like this, but I don't like this, so I'm not going to do that'? What gives you, YOU the judgment to decide what is going to work in your life and in you rituals?!?!"


For a whole fifteen minutes, he had my seriously questioning my whole life philosophy. I was borderline freaking out! But then I got some wisdom well beyond my years from I don't know where. So I told my father that the adaptations that were made were made to benefit me personally, get me more involved with the universe and the energy that I was projecting. He still didn't quite understand how I could pick and choose. So I told him, that simply put, it was making conscious decisions to better my faith. Which is that not what one does when they are choosing their own faith/religious path.


So I was just wondering your guys' thoughts on this. Have any of you ever had a conversation like this? I thought it was a rather insane conversation...

[Jen]

I'm not a teen but I'd still like to reply. People who do adhere to strict religions do seem to have a problem understanding and relating to the freedom of paganism.
Ordered religious doctrine is a HUGE part of Judeo/Christian/Muslim faiths.

I think I am the perfect person to pass judgment and to decide what is going to work in MY life. Better me than anyone else.

I'm gonna say something now which is probably the reason I shouldn't pop over to the teen room.....

I think you're lucky to be able to have conversations like that with your dad. It's important to know your mind and conversations like that do make us question beliefs and re-think things - which is a GOOD thing in my opinion.

[moondaughter]

I totally agree. I love these conversations with my dad. However, he generally is respectful of my religious choices, as I am of his. So this new thing of basically quizzing me on my religion was just a shock.

[wolfsbane00010]

I agree with hedge. It is supposed to be like those freakin' new mattress' you see on the TV. They are supposed to be able to fit you personally. IF people were forced to do something in a religion they didn't want to do, then they would loose faith, which is why I think Paganism is one of the greater religions. I know I am only 14 and still a kid, but according to everyone I know, I am smarter than 2/5ths of the terachers at my school. And yes, I use the...*TEMPERPEDIC! That's what their called!* analogy when explaining this to other people.

[moondaughter]

ha ha... I like that analogy!!! I will have to remember to use it, if you don't mind me stealing it?

[wolfsbane00010]

Well....I have it copyrighted and you'd have to pay a 25$ royalty fee...But sure, you can use it ;D