I've actually been mulling over a post like this for a while.  I thought about it a lot when Scott Adams was blogging heavily about religion, and now Elliot is asking why people choose a particular religion.  So contained below are my rambling thoughts on religion and faith, which may offend some religious people.

First I should say, I'm not exactly a religious person.  Actually, my family is kind of interesting from a religious perspective.  My mother belongs to a Congregational Church.  My eldest sister is sort of Catholic.  My middle sister is Jewish.  The youngest of my sisters is agnostic (and actually celebrates Festivus).  My cousins on my mom's side are mostly Lutheran.  I have a cousin on my dad's side who is a Jehovah's Witness.  Basically, we're working off the theory that as long as one person gets in, then the rest of us can get in through a referral.  Maybe I should become Muslim just to round it all out.  I'll have to think about that.

Elliot's premise seems to be that most people join a particular religion because of some sort of revelation.  I'm a little more pragmatic than that.  I think most people join a particular religion because of convenience and because it fits their current cultural norms.  After all, how else do you explain why so many people "convert" when they get married?  One spouse simply takes on the religion of the other because its convenient, and so they can both partake in the mutual support of a single church.  I think it's also important to note that I think religion and faith are two very different things.  I'm talking about religion here.  My thoughts on faith are at the end.

It's the conversion question that always gets me with religion though.  After all, if you were truly devout to your old religion, and really believed in the tenants of that church, how can you just give them up and switch, and miraculously say you believe in an entirely religion?  For those people who were religious, and no longer are... what made you stop?  Mostly I would say that it is because your religion was inconvenient to your life, or you decided that the support you received from your church wasn't enough anymore.

How else do you explain all the cafeteria Christians out there?  I am of the belief that there are really very few true Catholics in existence, despite how many people self identify themselves as such.  Being Catholic is especially difficult because you don't get to decide what you believe.  The Pope tells you.  Catholicism is really an interesting institution in America given how down right undemocratic it is.  Are you a Catholic who uses birth control, or who is pro-choice?  Well no, because if you do either of those things then you're not Catholic.

Many Lutherans for instance are ex-Catholics.  Its a more convenient Catholicism... not as many rules, more democratic church structure, but still a lot of pomp and circumstance depending on what church you belong to, which many people like.  Actually, I've always found the diversity in Christianity rather amazing.  It's interesting that so many people can all read from the same book, and yet all draw different conclusions about what it means regarding how to live their life.

And fundamentally, that's why I don't belong to any sort of organized religion.  I was raised Christian, and to a certain extent still self identify as that, but I don't go to church any more.  I have a hard time being handed a book, and then being told what it means.  Either give me the book, and let me decide what it means for myself, or tell me what I should do without the pretense of the written guide.

That's not to say that I'm not faithful.  And I don't mean that in a Madonna/Hollywood way.  I live my life in a very Christian way as far as how I interact with others, and respect people and life in general.  I'm also very curious about the nature of the universe.  I marvel at how our universe works, and see God in much of nature.  There is much that has not been explained, and may never be explained.  I wonder about how it all started, and see divine creation there.  I think many people do.  But religion isn't about those things... in my view at least.

Organized religion is about finding other people who believe what you do, and supporting each other in your shared belief.  In that way, religion is all about culture and society.  It's about building a community of people who share something with you, and who you want to do things with.  Faith on the other hand is something you as a person have... and I certainly don't mean to demean anyone who has devout faith, as I think its a wonderful thing.  But faith isn't about a specific church, or even a particular religion.  You can have faith and not have a religion, but you can also have a religion and not have faith.