Religion Personal Religious Affiliation, Then and Now

Raised Church of England. I'm net sure I ever really believed it*. I still had to go to church until I was 12 because of family but I was allowed to take a book with me to read during the service (I used to take Harry Potter with me :p ). I was going along with getting confirmed and my family didn't insist on me going to church anymore when I said I did not want to get confirmed.
Thought I was atheist because according to my CoE primary schooling, if I wasn't a Christian I could only be an atheist (other religions didn't exist). Anyway, when I was about 14 I discovered paganism. Started identifying as a wiccan (small "w" ) when I was 15 but realised when I was 16 that wicca wasn't for me.
So now I just bumble along my solitary pagan witch path and I'm quite happy with it. I feel like I'm coming up to a crossroads though. But I'll deal with that when it comes.

*I can remember asking the Sunday School teacher who God's wife was. I also know I spent a large part of my childhood in a dilemma about whether I wanted to go to Heaven or Hell. Obviously, I was supposed to want to go to Heaven but I was told that animals can't go to Heaven so I thought that meant all my pets were going to Hell and I didn't want to go to Heaven if I couldn't see them again.

For an explanation for what I mean when I say small "w" wicca see the spoiler:

Wicca is a mystery tradition of which you have to be initiated into a coven for. It's very difficult and takes a lot of dedication just to find a coven and then a lot of training before you're even initiated. But there are a lot of books out there which say they are about Wicca - but they can't be because of the nature of Wicca being a mystery tradition.
So small "w" wicca is the wicca out of said books. I'm not saying that people who follow the wicca out of the books don't have valid beliefs (heck, I thought I believed it and I still do take some things from it), just that it is different from the Wicca of the coven-initiated traditions.
So in general, when people (or rather pagans or those with an interest in paganism) on the internet, or even in real life, they will differentiate between Wicca (meaning coven-initiated mystery traditions) and wicca ( meaning the far more accessible wicca from books that most solitary wiccans follow) .

It's just pagan politics. :p
 
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FortyTwo said:
And what if you're talking about the small-w-wicca and it's at the beginning of a sentence? :p
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Then it would be "Small-w-wicca" or "Wicca (small-w)" or "Wicca (non-initiatory)" or even not bothering with the capital letter :p
 
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I feel like I should probably point out that I've spent a lot of time on pagan forums and the initiatory Wicca vs non-initiatory wicca thing comes up a lot. So on pretty much all of them it's required to differentiate between the two unless you want to start a blood bath.
(It's mainly the initiatory Wiccans who look down upon the non-initiatory wiccans and class them all as fluffy-bunny, Silver Ravenwolf - devotees, rebel teenagers. Which obviously isn't true but to avoid the blood bath it's just easier to make the distinction. )
 
kibbleforlola said:
I assume you wouldn't capitalize it, the same way you wouldn't capitalize bell hooks, even at the beginning of a sentence.
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Why don't you capitalise bell hooks? What ARE bell hooks?

Annia, do you get confirmed in CoE? I thought that was only Catholicism. I went to a CoE school but clearly didn't pay attention :p
 
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bell hooks is a feminist author.

I wasn't ever confirmed, I think I was the only one in my year that didn't have the ceremony. Most girls I knew were just excited to get an extra middle name.:p
 
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Sidhariel said:
Wicca is a religion, and in my country we capitalize religions when we write their names. Has nothing to do with being superior..
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We also capitalise names but bell hooks isn't, apparently!

I think a person/a group of people should be able to set conventions of how they are described, within reason. It doesn't seem a big deal to refer to wiccans with a small w and Wiccans with a capital W, if that is what both groups want :)
 
I was brought up Christian, although my parents always encouraged me to think for myself. But now I'm doubting it and I don't really know what I believe at the moment, though right now I would still say Christian but kind of leaning towards agnostic, if that's possible. :iiam:
 
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alligatortears said:
I was brought up Christian, although my parents always encouraged me to think for myself. But now I'm doubting it and I don't really know what I believe at the moment, though right now I would still say Christian but kind of leaning towards agnostic, if that's possible. :iiam:
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I went through this at one point, actually. Just go with the flow and believe what you feel is right. :)
 
FortyTwo said:
I went through this at one point, actually. Just go with the flow and believe what you feel is right. :)
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Thanks :) It's difficult having been brought up to it isn't it (assuming you meant you were) cause it's hard knowing if there's some real reason for wanting to believe in it, or just the effect of being taught it as a child, and that it's a nice idea that there's a God looking out for you (which makes me feel like I'd rather it was true; but wanting it to be true isn't a logical reason, of course). It's really strange, because some people are so sure of their belief in God(s) and others are so sure they will never believe it, and yet when we used to go to church I'd see people who had so much faith and I'd be there feeling kind of silly because I never felt like I 'got it', but it's not like God could choose to exist to only some people, which is what it felt like. And it's just weird to believe something all my life and then consider giving up on it you know?
 
I was raised Catholic, and remained so until I was about 18 or 19. Then I started reading about the history of the religion and noticed that much of it didn't make sense. About that time I also got into feminism, which made me realize just how sexist the church is. I no longer wished to be part of it, but still needed something, so I turned to spirituality and eventually Mahayana Buddhism. After about two years, I let go of that and began questioning everything. I'm now an atheist.
 
alligatortears said:
Thanks :) It's difficult having been brought up to it isn't it (assuming you meant you were) cause it's hard knowing if there's some real reason for wanting to believe in it, or just the effect of being taught it as a child, and that it's a nice idea that there's a God looking out for you (which makes me feel like I'd rather it was true; but wanting it to be true isn't a logical reason, of course). It's really strange, because some people are so sure of their belief in God(s) and others are so sure they will never believe it, and yet when we used to go to church I'd see people who had so much faith and I'd be there feeling kind of silly because I never felt like I 'got it', but it's not like God could choose to exist to only some people, which is what it felt like. And it's just weird to believe something all my life and then consider giving up on it you know?
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Ah, I wasn't raised Christian but my parents always told me I could believe whatever I felt like. At one point, several years ago, I had a great interest in religion and started seeking out different belief systems. I had always believed that there was a god who created the universe, but when I started questioning it, I guess I started clinging on to whatever I could.

Yeah, it's a nice idea that God is watching out for you, and there is plenty of merit in it. I don't disagree with theology in itself. Certainly you'll understand if I say that the way some people take it is less than fun, especially when they use it to harass others. But inherently, belief in God or gods is not a bad thing.

Oh! And it's okay to question your beliefs. Everyone has at some point. Regardless of what you decide you think, you'll come out of it being more strongly devoted to how you feel. So yeah, it's weird to believe something all your life and then consider giving up on it, but it's also weird to not believe something your whole life and consider taking it on. :p I get you there. In my case, it made me less inclined to believe after I examined everything at face value, but that won't always be the outcome.
 
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I was raised Roman Catholic and despite being totally screwed up by it, at the same time I did receive some benefit from it with regard to right and wrong.
 
Digger said:
I was raised Roman Catholic and despite being totally screwed up by it, at the same time I did receive some benefit from it with regard to right and wrong.
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I like to think I got something out of it too. I'm just not sure what yet :p
 
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