religion

I used to believe…

As a child I was terrified of vomiting...especially in public. The only place, besides home, I felt safe was in church, because I knew God would never allow me to vomit in church!
One day as we were leaving church after mass, we saw that someone had vomited on the steps. From then on, I became afraid of going to mass also.

i used to believe thqat the biggest cloud in the sky was heaven... and i thought that when the sun went down, and u could see stars.... they were al the ppl that had died, looking down on us

I used to believe…

When I was young, I was fond of using "I swear to God", as it was commonly used at school. Then my parents told me that this was "using the Lord's name in vain" and that this was very bad. Having been told how powerful God was by my friends at school (I didn't go to church, but they did), I refrained from even THINKING the words "I swear to God", because I was terrified he was going to smite me. This carried on for a couple of years, until I finally realized that the other kids had continued saying it and God didn't fry them.

I thought god was a shrinky-dink butterfly for about a year or two when I was a kid. I immigrated to Israel from Russia when I was six and to learn the language I was sent to a religious day camp. The only word I picked up (probably because it was repeated to often) was god, and then we made shrinky-dinks. The two got tangled up in my mind because my parents had never even mentioned god to me before and it was the hardest concept to grasp when you're six years old and don't speak the language you're being preached to in. The ordeal I went through when I lost said shrinky-dink butterfly was the only crisis of faith I've ever had and I've since been enjoying a decidedly god-free life.

I used to believe that because nuns usually took a different name for religious purposes that priests had to have a religious themed last name. This was due to having a priest named Father Cross. When he was replaced with Father Donahoe, I was stunned. I guess I was expecting something like Father Church or Father Altar.

I used to believe…

My grandfather died when I was 7. When we went to the cemetary, I noticed all these graves that said 'INRI' on them. Since I wasn't ever raised religiously, I figured that Inri was just the last name of some really big, important family whose members were all buried in that cemetary. Then my Catholic friend told me differently.

I used to believe…

once I heard my dad say "God dammit!" and this lead me to think God and Dammit were actual people. So when I'd go to sleep I'd imagine them just talking ("hey God!" "what, Dammit?") and maybe building a person or two. also, I imagined God as looking like a friend of my parents'.

i used to think that god or someone was sending me secret messages through the trees. the way it worked was i'd look at various trees' branches and find "letters" hidden in the tangle of branches and leaves that would spell out a message. sometimes the messages were just regular greetings, or comments about things i had done, but sometimes they predicted stuff that would happen in the future. once i got really scared when i thought i saw "beth will die," because she was my babysitter & she was awesome. but beth was ok....

I used to picture God as George Washington.

I used to believe…

My parents were fundamentalist Baptist. We were told, as young children, that when you died and went to heaven that your bodies would be like Jesus's.

They MEANT that it would be like his body after the ressurection: healed; float; fly; walk through walls; etc.

BUT to me, it meant that we'd all be floating around heaven naked and we'd all look like Jesus, which was o.k. for the guys but how would the gals handle this and how would we recognize anyone?

I used to think that when I went to church and everyone said "Thanks be to god." that everyone was saying "Thanks, Beeta God." I thought that "Beeta God" was the priest, who was pretending to be God, and was crazy, so everyone was just humoring him.

I used to believe…

When I was at my grandparents one day as a child, my grandmother was watching "It's A Wonderful Life" and I had heard that everytime a bell rings an angel gets its wings. My grandmother had a collection figurines and bells so I grabbed a bell in each hand and shook the bells over and over for minutes until my grandmother finally asked me to stop. But in my head I pictured an endless line of angels waiting and I wanted all of them to get their wings so i just kept ringing.

I went to a Catholic school, even though I was Presbyterian, and one of the boys in my class asked why I didn't do the Sign of the Cross when we said prayer. I said 'I don't believe in that part,' and before I could finish he stood up on a desk and shrieked 'MARY DOESN'T LIKE JESUS!'.

From then on, I did the Sign of the Cross anyway.

I used to believe…

As a child 40+ years ago, my family would drive many hours on the New York State Thruway to the MA Turnpike to visit my 'Bubbie' (grandmother). She was an Orthodox Jew. I really believed that prayers I said to G-d on the MA Turnpike somehow had more power than those I said at the Temple, my home or the New York State Thruway. I thought my communications with G-d were really and truely only 'heard' by Him when I saw the "Welcome to MA" sign during my family's travels to Bubbie's house.

I used to believe…

when i was,like,7 i thought a soul was like a soldeir, so even now when i picture heavan, i think of a load of soldeirs doing exersises...
for some reason want to be recarnated into a sqirrell

I used to believe…

In the LDS (mormon) faith, when you are baptized a prayer is said and then you are submerged, when i was little i used to think that they put you under the water and said the prayer while you held your breath..it scared me stiff until i witnessed the baptism of my older brother