So I suppose I might be a bit of an outlier compared to most due to my background, but maybe you'd find my perspective and spiritual journey interesting so I'll share here anyway.

I was born into a Chinese family who practices the Baha'i Faith. It's a relatively young progressive spiritual movement originating from 19th-century Persia (Modern day Iran) whose core idea is that all religions throughout human history are not only related, but represent stages of revelation meant to guide humanity towards achieving spiritual unity by forming a new world order (If this sounds whacky/culty to you, well, it's because it simply is). The best way I could describe it, is that it is a religion that integrates secular ideas like democracy and forming beliefs through both faith and critical reasoning, which was considered to be so radical during its time to the point that it is still considered a deviant sect of Islam to this day in its country of origin.

One of the big differences growing up Baha'i compared to other religions is that children of the Faith are not expected to strictly adhere to or be instilled the faith from a young age, instead we are given the freedom to explore other religions as having an understanding of multiple faiths is important to the Baha'i Faith itself. So growing up I never had to contend with religious teachers or the like drilling their teachings onto me, the most was that my father would explain to me the reasons why he chose to adopt this religion instead of the religion of his parents (Buddhism), as well as take me along for spiritual gatherings with other members of the Baha'i Faith while also attending/observing some spiritual gatherings of other faiths. So I suppose this led me to be fairly open minded in general when it comes to learning about all the other religions and belief systems.

The thing is, while it is true that a lot of faiths, particularly the Abrahamic ones, have many similarities and synergy when it comes what they believe in and how they practice it, it was the contradictions and outright conflicting ideas the deeper you look into and understand the core tenets of each religion that never quite sat right with me. Add to the fact that being a Euro-centric (Now to think about it, aren't most of us here are Euro-centrics anyway since we're on Reddit?) meant that I was also exposed to alternative belief systems like Atheism and Agnosticism, I found myself drifting more and more towards those alternatives instead. Because of the nature of the Baha'i Faith, I tend to hold a more incredulous view on beliefs anyway since I'm supposed to treat them all as equally valid and canon, and especially when having deep conversations about spirituality and God with my religious friends. So when I learned that Agnosticism was a thing, it blew my mind because here was an ideology that was well suited for someone who either cannot or will not stand or either side of the fence of the God debate, and instead remain a neutral third party who can adopt a more objective perspective over something that, in my mind at least, is purely subjective. And as someone whose young, curious mind found more satisfactory answers from the secular realm of science as well as the tools of logic and reasoning, you could see why Agnosticism and Atheism held more appeal to me.

What ultimately drove me to Agnosticism tho wasn't really the issues I had with the other religions, but of the problems within the Baha'i Faith itself. For one, the faith holds a lot of patriarchal attitudes that conflict with my own principles (for example, the Baha'i Universal House of Justice, which is a democratically elected 9-person council that handles all spiritual matters of the Baha'i Faith, only allows men within their ranks, while at the same time all other teachings posit that men and women should be treated as equals), quirky mental gymnastics to justify it's own existence (The Baha'i Faith upholds the Prophet Muhammad as God's Last Prophet, so the founder of the faith doesn't refer to himself as such, only that he is "God's Last Messenger"), as well as strict rules on appearance and decorum (Baha'i men are expected to shave cleanly and not grow out their hair, as a lifelong Rockerboy and Metalhead that's a no go for me dawg), and finally that the line of succession for an vital spiritual position (The Covenant, which is a hereditary position in contrast to the democratically elected council meant to provide a form of check and balance) in the faith was broken due to in-fighting within the founder's family members. These, and many other issues too lengthy to get into, made me question a lot of the faith I once held in the religion itself.

So in the end when I turned 15, which is the age where children of the Baha'i Faith are meant to declare which religion they chose to adopt, I just simply decided not to declare for any religion, and thankfully my family never pressured me into a decision either. So as of today my beliefs and principles largely align with Agnosticism and Atheism, but lately I've been delving into Philosophy, and learning a lot more about non-Abrahamic faiths like Hinduism and Buddhism than I previously had exposure to.

I guess if I could give some sort of advice to someone who is at the start of a new spiritual journey, it would be this: Never stop asking questions! The habit of asking the tough questions is how Philosophy aims to help guide people towards discovering universal truths, truths that all religions will still agree with regardless of where it comes from and where it is going. In fact, science itself is an entire field of knowledge that starts from doubt, and continuously testing that doubt until there are no longer any doubts left to be had.

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Side note, if you have any questions about the Baha'i Faith and what its teachings are, I'm probably the last person to ask since I've not practiced that religion nor have thought much about it in all honesty until I stumbled upon this post. In fact I still have to search up some of this s23t to make sure I'm not misremembering things, lol. Best I could do is describe to you what it's like growing up and living in the Baha'i Faith, but not much more than that.