Consistancy and Fluctuation of beliefs

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To begin, if you don't already know, my beliefs fall into the broad category of beliefs all called Christian. I've fluctuated between belief and disbelief more and more violently over the years. I have both been a Theist and an Atheist. What I'm wondering is, how many of you fluctuate in your beliefs or are your beliefs generally consistent for long periods of time? Also, if your beliefs do fluctuate, what usually triggers that fluctuation?

I'd prefer to say that my beliefs "Evolve", in other words they change very slowly but fairly consistantly over time, and just like with Evolution you don't really notice the change unless you look far into the past.

Being able to question your beliefs make you better person, not the belief system itself. If you have fundamental beliefs that you don't question that just makes you a drone.

My beliefs (christian mainly) have always fluctuated. Ebbed and waned. But most recently a tragedy almost anihilated them completely. I'm hanging on to them by a thread but I have hope that after I recover they will be even and ever stronger.

I've always held a dichotomous duality
of faith in some apparently impossibilities
(though no worse than what most religious
folk accept), and extreme skepticism - applied
to everything, but most especially my own
faith.

The only major fluctuation of my beliefs was when I rejected the Bible as truth way back in the 4th grade. While that moment had a build-up of spiritual frustration before hand (The concept of Heaven and Hell struck me as contradicting God's perfection) my belief in Mother Nature as the essence of God, and that the Creator created the Universe and set everything in motion at the moment of creation (instead of micromanaging everything), has remained stable to this day.

I pretty much identify with you and 0_equals_true on this one

My beliefs have fluctuated over the years. As a child I held to a combination of Christianity and Buddhism, while subsequently this came to be untennable; my position on evolution has been fairly changeable, as has my position in relation to the afterlife. There have also been times when I have been apathetic to the point where my faith has been barely in existence, as well as times when I have seriously struggled with certain issues.

When your beliefs do change, what is the trigger? I find that many times I believe myself to be logically deciding to change, but my actual incentive is more emotional in retrospect.

I question my beliefs every day, as do other people question me on my beliefs regularly. But my beliefs always stand up to the questionings. And that, in turn, makes them stronger. And they're partly made up of inner knowledge, not just things that I happen to believe. If there's still someone on WP who hasn't heard me say this, my beliefs have only withstood the trials of my life because I believe in Jesus, who is real, not some system based only on ideas. My mind wavers as much as anyone's, but Jesus keeps proving Himself over and over in my life, so I can't deny Him.

So, questioning one's beliefs doesn't always lead to changing them. It can lead to reinforcing them, when the answers come back fully sufficient every time, even if not always right away.

But to answer the opening question to this thread, I've been the same kind of Christian since I was 4 years old. (I'm 28 now.) My core beliefs never changed. Although I sometimes rebelled against them, I still knew the truth.

Yes my beliefs change quite a bit. Sometimes drastically, I'll have a whole set of beliefs that I've been settled on and believed totally, then wham, suddenly some contradicting logic or something I missed or a change of attitude or anything can totally flip everything I thought I knew. I'll question everything about my beliefs and do a complete 'makeover'. I'll be annoyed and ashamed of how wrong I think I was and it would also be exciting like a fresh start, open to new ideas and learning more.

This has happened very recently.

Or possibly I just have a cluttered mind.

I also am this way. I have to say that it is, for me, a tormented way to live.

I am obsessed with religion. The problem is, I can't find the one that doesn't feel contrived. I wish I were one of those people who grew up with a religion that met their needs. Or found one that met their needs. However, my mother has always completely re-invented herself every few years as well, so that I grew up with a few religions. Namely, that of whatever man she was with at the time. She would even try to change ethnicities and cultures.

I feel very disconnected now, as if I am just watching the world, from the outside.

So, I do convert. Sometimes very briefly. I find religion fascinating. For a while, a long time ago, I did have a faith, but now I'm drifting.

When I told my counselor about this he said that I seem to have an identity problem of some sort. I forget how he put it.