a.) How has your family, friends, and community affected my religious beliefs?

              I am a young man who believes in God, however I am not extremely religious.  I never attend church.  I don't read the bible.  I do believe in him though.  I believe in after life, and I truly think that our souls will live on forever.  These particular religious beliefs of mine have been influenced by my family, my friends, and my community.

             My father gave up his faith at the tender age of thirteen.  He completely stopped attending mass and church for several reasons, the main being that he was always threatened by nuns and priests that he was going to Hell for committing all these silly sins.  The sins that he committed weren't evil at all; it's just that my dad grew up in a time period where Catholicism was quite brutal and strict.  My mom didn't grow up in an extremely religious household, but she was still raised to believe in God.  Both of my parents's upbringings have caused me to be a believer in God but not in a religious way.

              My friends are always stating, to myself and all other peers, their religious beliefs.  A lot of my friends don't believe in any sort of God.  In fact, a good amount of my friends are complete atheists.  I even have Jewish friends who label themselves as "Atheist Jews".  Inherently, my friends's negative attitude toward religion has given me even more reason not to attend church on sundays.

              My community is not very religious either.  I live in the Bay Area.  In Berkeley, we champion the "freaks".  I'm not insinuating that these freaks are bad people, but I'm merely suggesting that the majority of my community's citizens are not religious but rather scientists and innovators.  I do, however, attend a catholic high school, though, so St. Mary's has influenced some of my faith in God.

           Needless to say, my family and friends and community have influenced my religious beliefs.  Thanks for tuning in to the J Rik on the Mic blog.