What Is a Belief System

My religious belief system is rooted in Christianity. I grew up as a Catholic and I now consider myself to be a non-denominational Christian. When I was younger my family rarely went to church this was mainly due to the fact that my mother and father divorced when I was 2 years old and because of restrictions placed on divorcees in the church, my mother could not participate fully during church services (receive communion, sacraments, etc.). This led to what I call the largest void in my life. While I was baptized Catholic and received my first communion as a Catholic, there was not a consistent effort placed by my parents to get us to church. Because of this and the fact that my parents both worked, I did not really have a moral compass growing up. This lack of direction caused me a tremendous amount of pain and heartache in my later years.

I define a religious belief system as a belief in God or a higher power, participating in worship services or activities and understanding and living by a moral code that is outlined in your worship. With that said, my beliefs fit tidily in to the above definition. I am a Christian and as such, I believe in God and his son Jesus Christ. I believe Christ came to this world to walk among us and feel the human experience. I believe Christ died on the cross and rose again 3 days later. I believe that Christ died for me and others like me so that we may have eternal life in heaven. I believe through the many writings in the Bible that I have a good handle on what is expected of me as person and as Christian as it relates to my behavior, the way I treat others, etc.-. God did a pretty good job of outlining his expectations for us in the Bible.

Now that you know what I believe, you can see that my belief system is certainly a religious belief system. In fact, to add to this, I pray nearly every night for my children, my wife and all of those that are important to me. In reviewing my belief system, I think I acquired the different aspects of my religious belief system over time. As an example, I knew that prayer was a key part to my religious beliefs from an early age. I remember as a child getting on my knees with my mom and our grandparents and saying my prayers. It was not until later in life that I understood the moral aspects of my belief system. I mean I always knew right from wrong but I did not always do the moral thing. I never had a conscious that kept me from the gray line that I crossed oh so many times. As a result, bad decisions plagued my early adult life. Don't get me wrong here, I never robbed a bank or anything like that, but I did make questionable choices and decisions that probably would never have been made had my moral conscious been in existence. As time went by and I got married and had children, the moral aspect to my belief system evolved and I feel that today I am pretty complete.

The benefits and disadvantages of having my belief system are pretty far ranging. The benefits are such that I always feel like God is watching over me and no matter what happens in my life, I know he will always take care of me...that's definitely a benefit. A disadvantage to my belief system is that it is pretty easy to break rules that have been mandated through scripture. For instance, I agree it is never nice or good to gossip about people- I hate it when I see or hear people doing it. However, there are times when I catch myself doing this thing that I cannot stand. This is just a small example but I think it illustrates the point. There are so many things that can go against God's word and whether or not one meant to "break" the rules, it's still a violation. The obvious disadvantage is that unless you are perfect, you are going to break the rules or sin. In fact, part of this belief system is the whole notion that each one of us is born imperfect and will sin no matter what. But again, that is why we have Jesus. I know he died on the cross for my sins.

The role of tradition in my religious belief system is pretty huge. I remember as a child