That was around the age I found paganism by doing acid. So complicated and changing. I didn’t join any groups about it or anything though.

I was raised catholic and was deeply invested until I left over a variety of grievances around 20 and spent some years agnostic before entheogens brought me to my current beliefs by way of pantheism

And yeah in my 30s I’m considering looking for a religious community that fits well with the fact that I’m quite happy with my beliefs on the divine

OK, so Lemmy (or at least this corner of it) skews pretty hard toward atheism. That doesn’t match a typical IRL sample of people. OP, I think you should try to find some online spaces dedicated to different religions and see what people there have to say.

As for me, I was also non-religious at 25. A close friend, on the other hand, decided to join a church singles group, mostly for the community. I think a lot of people get into a religion for the community aspect. Some religious institutions have special groups for new/questioning people or young adults, and virtually all of them have volunteering groups of some sort.

You can also read books about different religions and see if anything resonates with you. I’ve done a little of this. It didn’t really lead my anywhere, but I’ve met people who got started that way.

You could also explore a particular religion for the heritage aspect. If your grandma was Catholic or your family came from a historically Buddhist part of the world, you could explore that. You might not end up believing in any of it, but at least you’ll know a little more about your heritage.

edit: also, make sure you get perspectives from people who are actually part of the religion when you’re exploring. I was raised Catholic, and it was ridiculous how many silly things the Protestants thought about us. A lot of the criticisms were outdated or straight up inaccurate, which was funny because there were plenty of current things to criticize (hello, scandals in the news?) I’m not trying to scare you away from Catholicism, most priests are normal non-abusers and it works for some people.

I was raised Catholic, went to Catholic school until my parents got divorced in 2nd grade.

I remember being very young, probably around 6, and realizing what fiction was. A lot of things which did not make sense to me I just waived off as me being young and was told I would understand when I was older suddenly were revealed as just… Lies. I think Santa Claus waa the start, but within a couple of days I realized that the Easter Bunny and tooth fairy were lies too. The “government” is not some all-knowing benevolent entity that makes sure everyone is nice to each other. The claims companies make in TV commercials are lies. And there is no God.

The world suddenly got a lot scarier, but still felt more… Right. More real.

Aa I grew older and got more exposure to other religions, I realized that religion emerges from 2 aspects of human nature. First, we want to understand the world around us. We want to know where the ground beneath us came from, where we came from, why we exist, etc. Second, there are always people looking for opportunities, who are willing to lie (or otherwise hurt others) to get power and resources for themselves.

There are some good lessons to be learned from religion. Jesus overturning the tables of the moneylenders for example. This could be my own personal bias, but when I read the Tao Te Ching it seems to me like Lao Tzu was an autistic person who used “The Tao” as a way to solve the double-empathy problem.

But also a lot of religion is just old fiction. From the days before the internet and copyright laws. Imagine a Star Wars or Harry Potter fanfiction website, then imagine that those people can only communicate physically and in a world where most of them cannot read or write, and these communities persist for hundreds or thousands of years.

I really like going down the rabbit holes at the intersection of archeology and theology. There are plenty of books that did not make it into the Bible, and even the books that did make it in have different versions and translations across history and sects. A lot of what we think of as modern Christianity comes from Dante’s Inferno rather than the Bible.

So all this means that the messages tend to be inconsistent. Even when the actual text remains the same, the way those texts are interpreted and used in practice can vary significantly. So it’s really more about you interpreting and applying things for yourself than the actual texts, and this is something you can do just as well with any other piece of art.

At 25, I was largely agnostic. Less so than I was even younger,but I had that kind of gotcha attitude like pushy asshole atheists do - at least from a hindsight perspective. My whole spiel was that I was smart, but I didn’t know quantum physics or what makes a tree grow or whatever other niche thing, and therefore I couldn’t know that there is no god/s or other powerful being. Therefore I was agnostic.

I’m still in a similar ish boat, just without the pedantry. But I’m also leaning more anti-theist these days. Perhaps that’s a little more of a political stance, but as much comfort and community as a place of worship can bring, it also creates so much of this us vs them mentality. Which is a shame. Like you, OP, I really like places of worship as a location. They’re beautiful and serene. I heard a massive organ play in a gorgeous church in the US and it brought me to tears. But… The words that are taught there sow disfunction in society.

I grew up hanging onto the words of religious people in my life and never really questioning their actions.

At 25, and even a bit before then, I started to realize that these people’s words don’t matter no matter how they try to pretty them up for worship services. Their actions matter more.

And I realized that the actions of these people almost never matched what they preached on a Sunday.

So yeah, I’ve been cautious of religious people since then.

I’m a preachers kid. By 25 I was a full atheist. A decade later I still am. I will have nothing to do with religious people. I’ve learned those people can’t be saved.

At 25 I was fervently anti-religion and was obnoxiously vocal about it.

Before then, I grew up in a politically conservative and very catholic house, and didn’t know anything outside of that. To me, that was normal. Turned 18, joined the military, and started seeing more of the world. That was an eye-opening time for me because for a while I was living and working in the deep south while also making friends who were very left leaning. What I saw was that Christianity seemed to mostly be home to the meatheads, racists, nationalists, and gun nuts.

Since then I’ve had an on-again-off-again relationship with religion, but at 55 I’ve more or less decided that it’s not for me and it never really was. I don’t care what other people practice anymore, I avoid discussions about it, and I walk away when anyone starts preaching to me. Whenever the door-to-door preachers come to my house (yeah we get those in my neighborhood) I just politely tell them that I’m very comfortable with my spirituality and thank them for stopping by and saying hello.

I’ve always been an atheist and I still despise every form of religion. I avoid religious people like the plague. I’m 39 years old now.

The indoctrination of mental illness, mainly via child abuse (Gotta coerce em while they’re young and vulnerable to effectively suppress and corrupt their critical thought!) and terrorism (“if you don’t do/believe this you’ll suffer unspeakable horrors for eternity”).

At 25? Where I settled now.

• Religion can provide a loving, peaceful philosophical framework to live by. Some of the most wholesome, kind, generous people I’ve known are devout.

• People’s brains are all wired differently, and this works well for some.

• It’s cultural. You can’t just throw away that huge part of someone’s background

But.

• Some of the most unspeakable things in my personal life happened in the name of religion.

• Ive seen it ruin families, and kick rationality out of groups and instill hate in its place. Not in news feeds; with my own two eyes.

• What’s more, some religions reinforce idolization and “worship” of people, which is extremely dangerous.

So I’ve settled on this:

• …I respect other people’s faith, especially in people I respect in person. People do what they do, you know? They have their own perspective of the world, and I’m not going to presume to know better.

• And I keep in mind that religion is more philosophical for many. And that kind, devout people won’t push it on you.

• But I am under no obligation to share it. I’m sure as hell going to push back against idol worship, anti-science thinking, bigotry, political cultism and so on, but not cross the line to their belief in God or the afterlife or whatever.

• …And I have no interest in it myself. It doesn’t fit my brain.

This was a journey, though. For a long time I was an “apathetic Christian” because it felt like an obligation, even though Christianity made no sense to my systemic view of the world. I would have never dared admit I was agnostic or atheist when I was 18, not even to myself.

I like religious art and spaces – in fact in undergrad I wrote my final thesis on Spanish depictions of religious visions in the 17th Century – but I don’t have any faith personally. I’m 33 now but at 25 I felt similarly. I suppose I’m technically a hard agnostic since I don’t think it is possible to prove or disprove the existence of God.

Growing up, several winters a church we didn’t even go to provided us our home heating oil. As well as the food pantry we used being run by a nice catholic lady. That gave me an initial positive view of church in general. I did a bit of church at a young age then none until I was in my early 20s. When you find a church of any kind that is run by benevolent people, it’s a nice thing to be a part of. The social/networking aspect can be pretty helpful. The former for your mental health, the latter for your overall life. Whether you completely buy into the religious aspect is less relevant than the time/opportunities you’ll get with the people. Again, this heavily depends on finding the “right” church for you. Right means different things to different people. For me, I liked the “all are welcome” accompanied by the pride and trans pride flag at mine. That gave me the confidence to walk into my first service. Everyone is/was kind and really just getting through life together. Granted, I still only attend a few times a year. Usually when I’m feeling particulary down. I’m 31.

I’m an atheist and a member of the Universalist Unitarian church. If you have one near you, I recommend checking it out. I like to call it the church of social justice. The sermons are akin to TED talks, the money goes to all kinds of charities (often local), the music (at my church) is live and fun.

I was raised Jehovah’s Witness so I’m very familiar with the brainwashing and scams. I understand why so many people in places like this are disdainful of all religion. I also see churches as a potentially valuable third space and action hub when done right.

I believe that religion, at its best, gives us the vocabulary to express experiences that are beyond words. They spill over into music, song, art, poetry, and ritual. At the largest moments of our lives, we can feel disoriented by experiences for which we have no context; extreme loss or love, the birth of a child or the shock of illness. Religion can give us a connection to countless generations who have shared those experiences. It can give us a connection to something larger, outside ourselves.

Religious institutions can offer a social fabric that is often missing in modern life. There is no other place I can think of where you find a single room filled with families, children, elderly, across ways of life, incomes, and all sharing equal parts in one purpose.