I was born and raised Christian - Lutheran to be very specific, but the path never really fit me completely. When I started exploring mixed avenues six years ago I found a world full of possibilities and also a world full of prejudice. My mother supported me because she thought it was a "phase" I was going through; my father gave the hell and brimstone speech over and over and over again...
Anyway, I believe in Christ, just not Christianity. Like all other religions it is man made and will never be anything but. Now, faith, however is not. And what I believe, my faith, is that the gods exist because we give them power through worship and veneration (even Christ - possibly one of the most venerated of all time) and that no matter what we believe, who we give our thanks to - it all goes back to that one supreme being whom created everything. Be it the Christian's One God, The Great Spirit, what have you. Therefore I do not believe in heaven or hell. I believe that we are reincarnated - an evolutionary process of learning. The more we learn the closer we are to attaining our goal of Nirvana, the Summerland, etc. One of the theories floating around out there is that once human beings have learned everything there is to learn, instead of merely journeying to the Summerland forever, they raise to the status of god/goddess. A fairly decent example of this is the lore about Taliesin - he was "The Merlin" of Brittain, but he is also a Celtic God of Bards. Now, I don't know if I exactly believe that, because as humans we have a lot to learn, but what I have picked up on is that when it comes to magic or faith, don't discount anything just because it seems "illogical". The best way to describe this is when I think of spirituality I envision a bicycle wheel. The spokes are different paths, beliefs and religions and they all lead to one center - the hub - God. In the bible (yes I am getting extremely technical here) it says "worship no other god before me" - which isn't saying that the other gods dont exist - NOR is it calling those other gods idols. When the bible says worship not idols, it means do not worship money, or trees or that cute little statue on your altar... All in all I believe that the bible is a collection of myths meant to teach us morality and reinforce our faith. I certainly don't believe that it should be followed to the letter. Just for example - if it should be followed to the letter which version do you go by? And try to place it into chronilogical order. It is just like the mythos of any other religion - written and rewritten by man.
Think on this for just a second - paganism was around before humans had a word for "God" or "religion" or "spirituality". Humans were born seemingly with inherint faith. I believe that God, no matter what you call God by, is the one who gave that faith to us (along with the gift of free will). Before Christ, the bible or any of that there were Druids, Shamans, Witches - look at any ancient culture and you will find it. With the birth of Christ and the spread of Christianity, the Church absorbed pagan tradition in culture to try to wipe out paganism. The Church drew some aspects of paganism within itself to appeal to the common people - to keep them from dancing around the Beltaine fires, or to keep them from making Samhain sacrifices (please substitute these particular High Days for appropriate, corresponding High Days of your beliefs). Candlemass came from the Celebration of Brighid (Imbolc) - as did "St.Brigid". The easter bunny, eggs and all of that tradition came from Ostara - the pagan celebration for fertility and springtime. Carving pumpkins at Halloween is a tradition that was once associated with the ancient Druids. It is said that dressing up, or carving pumpkins to "scare away evil spirits" was once done to scare away Druids... And lastly, but not least there is Christmas. The day we celebrate Christmas, so I have heard from a few very scholarly Christians is not the day Christ was born. And isn't it ironic that Christmas Day actually comes closer to Yule - or Midwinter - the longest night of the year. Yule was originally a Norse tradition - spread to other pagan traditions where the celebrants collected holly and ivy and decorated their Yule log with them and candles to make wishes for the new year. And the celebrants usually decorated a tree - the recreation of the passing of the old king to make way for the new king (oak and holly). This particular tradition blended well into Christianity for some reason. I have more examples - that go back to Adam and Eve, which just lend to my argument that one should NOT live by the bible because it was written by man... Please feel free to add your comments below.
"For this is the thing the priests do not know, with their One God and One Truth: that there is no such thing as a true tale. Truth has many faces and the truth is like to the old road to Avalon; it depends on your own will, and your own thoughts, whither the road will take you, and whether, at the end, you arrive in the Holy Isle of Eternity or among the priests with their bells and their death and their Satan and their Hell and damnation... but perhaps I am unjust even to them. Even the Lady of the Lake, who hated a priest's robe as she would have hated a poisonous viper, and with good cause too, chid me once for speaking evil of their God.
'For all the Gods are one God," she said to me then, as she had said many times before, and as I have said to my own novices many times, and as every priestess who comes after me will say again, "and all the Goddesses are one Goddess, and there is only one Initiator. And to every man his own truth, and the God within.'" ~Morgaine, from, "The Mists of Avalon"