Have you ever had a radical, sudden and lasting change in your beliefs?
What were your beliefs before, what were they after?
What caused it?

i realized i really had to change my way of thinking when i sobered up.. i use to blame everyone and everything for my problems then i realized throught 12 steps i made my own bad choices i just needed a scape goat when i was drunk..

Hey Stevil! Is that like "Evil Steve" mixed up? I've never seen you in the religion section - welcome!

am not evil am steve .. stevil weas a part of my past.. and thanks for the welcome

Have you ever had a radical, sudden and lasting change in your beliefs?
What were your beliefs before, what were they after?
What caused it?

Great questions. The spiritual awakening as the result of the 12 steps were radical to me at first. It was like God on training wheels to me at first. It was sudden when it happened to me. The spiritual awakening of a God of my understanding was radically different than the saving that I got when I was ten years old. The lasting part came from even if I screwed up I could keep my sobriety and clean time. It was funny because at first I really thought it was a cult. Especially after the nine months when I relapsed. I mean the pink cloud was so beautiful but when the Polly Anna and the Mea Culpa faded I was challenged. I had become so institutionalized that when the truth after hit me square between the eyes that I really was an alcoholic and an addict by seeing the cross and skull bones in the glass I just completely surrendered. It was so awesome that I could see the truth with my own eyes and finally the denial of the truth released it grip on my life. AA and NA had planted the seeds even through the cloudy haze and they just budded like a flower. I was like this butterfly that emerged and the cocoon that was my life just fell away like a discarded shell. Radical, sudden and lasting; I couldn't have said it better.

the metamorphosis of pregnancy, delivery and birth of each of my children.

going to war and seeing death and distruction

Wow, Alex. That is certainly a you just you had to been there to experience it. When my sound came out to me while I watching the Twilight Zone on tv in the waiting room was different when I was with the mother the second time in the delivery room. I with the mother at conception in both cases but only got to be at the delivery in one. When my son came out all red and they told me this is your son was different when I was with my daughter and she was all grey. I was so relieved when the doctor put the sucker squeezer in my daughter's nose then she breathed. I thought she was a still birth. What was weird with the first birth and the doctor had said earlier was that my wife had a large tumor. Even though my wife had called me about every foul language word she knew before the birth atleast during the second birth we both knew that she was pregnant.

Mine developed slowly, over a number of years. The trigger was when I was 15 and my grandmother gave me a bible she had found in her attic. I read it all the way through, realized there was a LOT I didn't understand, and started over.

Now I've read it cover to cover seven times, and I've taken the time to do a lot of research into other religious writings.

About ten years ago, I came to the conclusion that it's all a bunch of hooey -- a good way for some people to manipulate and control other people, a good way for institutions to take money from the gullible and the trusting, a good way to prevent large masses of people from thinking for themselves.

I haven't seen anything in those ten years that would make me perceive the situation otherwise.

And I'll be the first to admit I could be wrong about everything, but I haven't seen one shred of actual evidence -- yet -- to indicate it.

And I'm not about to live my life for the glory of a fictional character, unless it's Green Lantern.

It's a long time ago,

But I am clear I unconsciously believed or existed in an exclusively 'I' generated perspective of life.

I'm just as clear that our firstborn changed that perspective radically, and from where I look at it today, it changed it almost almost instantaneouly.

Like a revelation, the 'I' remained there, making noise in the background, but the 'we' started occupying the foreground as a newly 'chosen' way of being. One that nurtures and frees energy up. One that is always clear and purposeful. One that is inspiring and life giving.

Thanks for the question 'massagetrade'. Coincidentally, that firstborn of ours just got married this past week-end, and that was the jist of my message to him during the reception.

Mine was pretty sudden. I cried for days just purging every bad thing I ever did. When they talk about the scales being lifted off the eyes, that's exactly what happened to me. My entire perspective and life changed during that time. It's amazing what a gift that was!

Yes. When my Mother & Grandmother passed on. It changed me forever & my basic belief structure was rocked to it's foundation. Damaged beyond repair. I realized too much & did a complete "about face" in my philosophical beliefs. I will never turn back nor will I ever change what I am now.

Peace, Love & Wisdom

I forgot to answer part of the questions.
All apologies!
I was raised Mormon, went to Catholic school & at the time of my Mother & Grandmother's passing, I was Buddhist. Most know what I am now & I will never change.

Peace, Love & Wisdom

I grew up in a non-religious household. When I was 5 yrs old, I believed in God. I still reflect on that belief; whether it was a natural/innate belief or if I picked up that belief from my loving, catholic grandmother and the religious world around me.

The only time I got on my knees to pray to God was when I was 8 or 9. I was lying in my bed looking through my skylight, and this overwhelming came over me. I got out of bed and prayed to God and said something along these lines while tears rolled down my cheeks:

"I do not know if you exist, but if you do, then show me and I will follow your will. If not, then I will live my life the best way I can and I will live it without you. If you do not like this, then it is your fault, since you gave me my mind to use." I was a deist at the age of 9 and did not even know it

Even since then I have been a freethinker and non-theist and grappling with atheism, agnosticism, and diesm.

Currently, I am an atheist-deist. To me it is a process and not an absolute. I may never arrive at a label, but I will enjoy the pursuit

whn i was homeless due to drugs and alchohol.I hit rock bottom so I prayed.within a week I had a job and a home.i'm still confused about God.

YES I HAVE HAD A SUDDEN AND LASTING CHANGE IN MY BELIEFS.

BEFORE I HAD NO BELIEFS BEFORE I HATED EVERYONE INCLUDING THE CREATOR. AND I REALLY HATED MY SELF. IT ALL STARTED IN THE YEAR 2000 WHEN I WENT INTO RECOVERY FOR DRUGS. AND THEN ABOUT 4 YRS LATER I MET MY SPIRTIUAL TEACHER AND HE TURNED MY LIFE AROUND TOTALLY. IF WERENT FOR MY TEACHER I WOULD STILL BE ON THE BLACK ROAD AND NOT ON THE RED ROAD LIKE I AM TODAY.