What influenced your political/religious views?

[Mr.Bitty]

Most of us define ourselves as left or right or somewhere in-between. Some people start out as one thing and eventually become the other. Many things can influence our political identity such as our parents, our education and our life experiences.

In my case my mother is an conservative and my father a liberal. I took after my father and my sister took after our mother. I was raised Catholic and became an Atheist. My sister remains a Catholic. Needless to say there are some pretty interesting and heated discussions that take place when we are all together.

My education played a part as well. I became a liberal when I was quite young but remained a believer until I was in college. I feel higher education freed me from the chains of religion and I consider my atheism as part of my political identity as many theists consider their religion as part of their political being.

My life experiences have taught me that conservative politics and religion [especially when they are mixed] are harmful to humanity in general and deadly in cases such as religious wars. For me at least liberalism offers a much more humane and decent world than conservatism offers. Others of course have different views. What are yours on the subject? What was the largest influence on your political/religious views? Care to discuss it?

[zolace]

My conversion to conservatism was the result of taking an economics class in college and realizing I was on the losing end of every argument of every issue with my conservative hubby .   

In short, like most folks I grew up when the follies of liberalism became self evident.

[zolace]

“If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at forty you have no brain.”

Churchill     

[noviapriani]

I was a liberal, voted for Jimmy Carter, voted for Teddy Kennedy against Carter… Couldn't vote for Reagan… But Reagan impressed me because he was a leader… But as I've said before what really changed my mind was when I had my first black girlfriend and how my wonderful liberal friends treated her and I… I learned don't listen to a liberals words, watch what they do… They didn't want me to bring her to parties or to their house and the few conservative friends I had didn't care, treated her with respect. And over the years, the most racist people I've ever met are liberals, yet after their rants, they always have to point out that they aren't really racist…

[noviapriani]

Religion, I was an atheist, when I was very young I figured out that Christians didn't do what the Bible said, and I thought the best way to go after them was to know the Scriptures better than they did, in essence fight fire with fire… And over the years I've watched as a lot of atheist just belittle and ridicule Christians, but do it with no knowledge of the Scriptures and very simply that Christians do not pay attention to it… You actually have to argue the point with more knowledge, get them to question their faith by showing them where their faith is wrong… But as I was going through the Scriptures I kept finding little things that after a while, my thought was well the church that was described in the Scriptures either existed or did not and it was provable, there would be a church that did the things as described or the whole thing was a lie…

[noviapriani]

And to my surprise, I found that church…

I didn't come to religion because of belief or faith…

I found it with knowledge.

And surprisingly, the church is based on knowledge…

Hos_4:1 Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.

Rom_2:20 An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.

1Ti_2:4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

2Ti_3:7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Heb_10:26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,

funny isn't it, it's not about faith or belief, it's about knowledge.

[tsoPANos]

“If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at forty you have no brain.”

Churchill     

ohh that's a good point!
Actually I used to be liberal on my early teens, and I slowly converted to conservative on my late teens.
Now, after many years I am still conservative.
Actually, what really influenced me was the fact that I was always religious, and my religion makes me love my country.
Usually, the libertarians and generally the left, don't like patriots and they consider them as internationalists.
However, I don't think a state which helps the poor is a bad idea. 

[sana8410]

I grew up in a conservative Republican farm family. My Grandfather had been a county commissioner and my dad was politically active. My only brother was an Army vet and very conservative.

I ran for and won the Youth Governorship of Ohio as a republican.

But the VietNam war changed my perspective. I saw government hurting, not helping America and students, not older leaders, fighting the good fight against a war for no cause.

Still, I was a moderate, voting for Nixon, Ford, Reagan.

But their policies left too many folks behind and helped the richest too much. By the end of the Reagan presidency I was still a moderate but the country had moved so far to the Right I was seen as a liberal.

And so it is today. I am a moderate in the world of right wing political insanity. It is difficult for me to imagine (not really looking for a fight here) how any thinking person could support the policies of the American political Right today.

So now i am a liberal...who knew?

[PeanutCoins]

I grew up in a conservative Republican farm family. My Grandfather had been a county commissioner and my dad was politically active. My only brother was an Army vet and very conservative.

I ran for and won the Youth Governorship of Ohio as a republican.

But the VietNam war changed my perspective. I saw government hurting, not helping America and students, not older leaders, fighting the good fight against a war for no cause.

Still, I was a moderate, voting for Nixon, Ford, Reagan.

But their policies left too many folks behind and helped the richest too much. By the end of the Reagan presidency I was still a moderate but the country had moved so far to the Right I was seen as a liberal.

And so it is today. I am a moderate in the world of right wing political insanity. It is difficult for me to imagine (not really looking for a fight here) how any thinking person could support the policies of the American political Right today.

So now i am a liberal...who knew?

If you were old enough to vote for Nixon;   what branch of the military did you serve in?  If not, how did you get out of the draft?  Does your brother still call you a slimy pinko?

[TrailingComet]

My parents are extremely liberal and very political. They taught me how important it is to fight for liberty and the things I hold dear.

[PeanutCoins]

Having worked in the Executive Branch when Ronaldus Maximus was in the White House (with Gary Aldrich and Ollie North); I found my idea of true leadership in Reagan. I grew up thinking that Jack Kennedy walked on water, and it's taken me a lifetime to realize that it was all just window dressing.

[umair127]

Anyone who is a Christian, if they were born in the Middle East would be a Muslim. When it comes to religion people generally accept the religion they are taught without question. Those here who rail against Muslims, would be very good Muslims if they were born in the Middle East instead of in the West.

[zolace]

Came outta High School looking for something different. Had always been one who didn't wanna dominate, or be dominated. Joined the Libertarian Party. Convinced parents to join as well. I hadn't read Ayn Rand until some 10 years later, and then still later dabbled in Von Mises. Still not quite satisfied with him. But better than most. Then Hayekian who no longer posts, kinda re-introduced me to the Austrians. Rothbard/Hoppe in particular were pretty close to the way I feel.



Try and be as much a menace to those who wish to dominate as possible.

[BitCoinNutJob]

I went to a city state secondary school in UK in the 90s and was raised in a single parent (mum) family = average success in life possible at best.   Rarely will anyone come out of that situation and have high success in life.  I know this from watching everyone around me in the similar situation achieve more or less nothing.   All these children's great potential was wasted because of the rich monopolizing resources and creating horse shit societal structures.  The rich children are either not better or marginally better vs the poor children but the rich get better everything.

So after having this experience it was pretty clear to me that as regards the nature/nurture debate in psychology, nurture was getting extremely overlooked & nature extremely over hyped.

My first thoughts were communism (like alot of people) but seems like we cant practically achieve this yet so anarcho capitalism is the answer for coming decades imo because i believe it can create the best egalitarian society.

So my life influenced my political views.

Conservatism or authoritarianism generally has no connection to actual life energy - Try some deep meditation and  this becomes clearer.  We are spinning around the universe on a rock and could get taken out by a meteorite any second, think about it.... there is no control.

[robbyd86]

I was raised Christian, went to church every Sunday til I was 18ish.  When I started to really think about things I figured out that it wasn't for me.  I've never liked politics, and never been one side or the other.  I think they are all terrible.  Not really sure what influenced that way of thinking, I guess it was just my own observations.

[Lethn]

I found I regularly got into arguments ( Surprise surprise ) with republicans and the like on the internet and I could never agree with the kind of things that were being said in my country either which quite frankly I consider bullshit so I eventually started researching all kinds of political viewpoints that mainstream politics likes to pretend doesn't exist.

People like Ron Paul were the obvious lot that got me started and I definitely like Libertarianism but as I'm learning more and more I keep feeling that we will inevitably have to tear down our whole government system and start over fresh because it's so corrupt. I also found I couldn't stand religion a lot because of what people came up with to justify their violence so eventually I found and I think I've settled into Anarchism because I haven't completely disregarded the idea of some kind of more powerful beings ( I seriously doubt they'll be gods but idiots may well think they are ) but I refuse to worship them or acknowledge them as gods. I don't really fall to Anarcho-Communism or Anarcho-Capitalism I'm somewhere in between, I think I'm more of an anarcho-individualist for this reason, people can do whatever the fuck they want as far as I'm concerned as long as they don't force people into it or try to assimilate them into a group.

All sorts of reading on the internet and just general exploring is what got me where I am today and also helped me find Bitcoin.

[Balthazar]

[Bonam]

Religion: First time I tried to read the first page of the bible. I was like 6. I read the first page and couldn't do anything but laugh. Atheist ever since.

[Mike Christ]

I took a peek outside of the bubbles of academia and traditionalism and realized that worshiping a deity of any sort, whether in the form of God or man who calls himself "the government", always ended well for the deity and always ended bad for me.  Of course the deity wants me to believe I can't live without him, that's his bread and butter.  If you ask me, liberalism and conservatism are mostly two sides to the same coin: both agree people should have a ruling class, both believe the ruling class will lead them to the "promised land", both believe the ruling class is absolutely vital to human existence for no real reason (usually citing "so it has been so it shall always be!" which is a logical fallacy)...they just don't agree on what that ruling class should do.  (Which is funny, since the ruling class decides what it wants to do on its own anyway.)

I don't think we should have a ruling class, and that's how I exited mainstream politics and entered libertarian philosophies.

Religion was a more primitive form of politics where a God or a pantheon represented the ruling class and people made up whatever they wanted to enforce against others; this was usually coupled with a king who ruled by divine right from the gods, which many rulers still claim to do.  Nowadays it's more of a social thing (unless you're in the middle east, where religion and politics are still indistinguishable), so I really don't think it matters if someone is religious or atheist, since they probably practice secular religion anyway.  If anything I can be considered non-religious, which very few people on this planet can actually claim to be.

What I find hilarious is when someone insists we must all be equals, yet still believes we should have a ruling class.  What greater inequality is there than that?!  It's so hypocritical that I'm surprised they haven't collapsed in on themselves and formed a miniature black hole of hypocrisy.

[hackjack]

And to my surprise, I found that church…

I didn't come to religion because of belief or faith…

I found it with knowledge.

And surprisingly, the church is based on knowledge…

Hos_4:1 Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.

Rom_2:20 An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.

1Ti_2:4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

2Ti_3:7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Heb_10:26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,

funny isn't it, it's not about faith or belief, it's about knowledge.

No, it's not - and these passages actually prove that. It's not general knowledge they extoll, it's "knowledge of God", and "knowledge of the truth" ( very often "truth" and fact are not the same thing) .  Essentially, the only "knowledge"  it's being based on is knowledge of the doctrines of the church. That's not actually knowledge. It is actually the very definition of faith. I'm not saying there's something wrong with faith - just don't confuse it with knowledge.