Hi everyone, first I would like to thank Destee (and family) for providing such a warm positive and informative site
Okay, so basically I am a young woman who lost a relative at the beginning of this year and although it was something to be expected it still came as a shock to me. This affiliated with a few other events have led me to think about becoming more religious or spiritual even. My issue however is I am having a hard time choosing whether to follow Islam or Christianity; my background is traditionally Christian and though I know the main stories I cant say I was ever really brought up to actively practice it. I've never attended Sunday school or really looked at the bible and now that I am trying to study Christianity I am having difficulty grasping the concept of the Trinity such as how can Jesus be God and be the Son of God? I too find myself wondering whether Jesus really is God and whether he sacrificed himself for our sins?
After doing some research on the origins of Christianity I discovered some things that I had never known before. I discovered that in the early days after Jesus' death there seemed be two kinds of Christianity; one was an extension to Judaism and were basically Jews (and gentiles) who had accepted Jesus and believed that he would bring in the Kingdom of God. They still kept to all the commandments, believed in the Sabbath and circumcision and stuck to Jesus' teachings. The other came about after the apostle Paul (who previously acted as a persecutor to the followers of Jesus) claimed to one day have a vision of Jesus in which he was temporarily blinded. After this vision he went on to preach in Jesus' name even though some of his revelations were contradictory to Jesus previous teachings, he too added onto the teachings and had never even met Jesus; furthermore he allowed for pagan traditions to be included bringing to you the Christianity that we have today. I suppose you guys probably already knew this but I certainly didn't.
Right now I am currently feeling Islam along with the idea that there is but one God and Jesus were only a prophet. However something inside of me is not allowing me fully to convert I am not sure what it is. Some people view Islam as a violent religion because the Quran along with the Prophet Mohammed's life contain quite alot of violence therefore it cant possibly be from God. Christians believe that Mohammed was a fake prophet. In addition ex Muslims claim that Islam is nothing more than a cult with political aspirations hidden under the guise of religion. So I am not sure where exactly to go.
With all that said I was just wondering whether I could ask some questions
I would like to know whether there any Muslims or Christians on this site?
Did you always practice this religion if not why did you decide to switch?
Are there any ex Christians or Muslims?
Also why do you believe what you do?
Or perhaps you dont believe in organised religion and are instead spiritual; so what do you practice and what led you to this?
I know these questions are personal so you don't have to answer if you dont feel too. I am just looking for other peoples' perspective on things as right now I feel really alone .