Wow, to be the daughter, or stepdaughter of a pastor, I sure can see why it might be hard to come forth with anything "out of the ordinary", to use that phrase freely. So what are your beliefs then? Non-denominational adherent of a specific religion, or just a free spirit who doesn't want to classify herself either by denomination or religion?

But you more or less don't directly adhere to that faith? My parents are not religious themselves, and they always said I could just follow whatever I thought suited me best. I did belong to the Lutheran faith most of my childhood and teenage years, which is the most common faith in Finland. My parents never objected it, but they grew tired of my never-ending questions about philosophy and theology, because they weren't really the type of people who spent time thinking of things like that and therefore didn't really know what to answer me xD

Mostly I feel uncomfortable defining myself as a Buddhist, since some of my views might not be like other Buddhists, but in Buddhism of course like in any religion various people hold a huge variety of different world views. I guess what I get from it is a feeling of unity when I go to the temple, and it gives me the energy to keep searching for ultimate truth, and not just throw in the towel and conclude "nope, there isn't anything out there". That's kind of what I did a couple of years ago and just stopped searching. But I'm not going to give up that easily ;)

I guess you could say I'm very good at debating, whatever the subject, but in comparative religion we generally never take a stance at the philosophical aspects of religion. We never ask ourselves questions like "Is there an afterlife?", or "How can evil exist in a world governed by a benevolent higher power?". We might ask ourselves "What is the Mormon explanation for evil?", or "What is the Hindu explanation for evil?", but we never try to find answers to those questions ourselves, it's not really our goal :P I myself am more or less agnostic, although I did convert to Buddhism some time ago since my girlfriend is Buddhist. Might as well, since Eastern Asian religions are the things I'm focusing on in my studies, and practicing those religions gives me more insight than just being an academic observer ^^

No, I'm not the lead singer, I'm just the bassist ;) And comparative religion... well, at least that is what they would call the subject in the UK or the USA, or perhaps "religious studies". In Northern Europe though it is a bit different than those subjects. A direct translation of the subject would be "science of religion", but that might seem inaccurate because in English when people talk about "science" they usually mean natural sciences. We study religions of the world, everything from major religions down to folk religions and shamanism, as well as religion as a phenomenon, with subjects like psychology of religion, sociology of religion, anthropology of religion, and things like that :P It's a very broad subject, but not to be mistaken for theology. I usually get the question "Oh, so are you going to be a priest?", when I tell people what I study. No, studying comparative religion doesn't give me the qualifications to be a priest anywhere, except I think in Sweden ;D

Yeah we have had three gigs so far. We usually have one every second month :D And no, I did study English and literature for one year, planning to major in English, but I have switched now to comparative religion, in which I think I will go all the way to a PhD, since studies in this subject are so much fun, which also makes it easy for me ;D

Oh you are already in your third year at college? That is awesome! And you are already going to prepharmacy? TIt really has been a long time since we last spoke :D

I'm doing well :D A lot has happened ;) I'm a university student of comparative religion, I'm a novelist, and I'm in a band too, where I play the bass ^^ You can check us out on https://soundcloud.com/colonistfin

How about you, what have you been up to?

Hi! Yes I do remember you :D And yes, my profile pic is so good, and I hate taking pictures of myself, so I haven't wanted to change it xD that picture is like almost five years old, so I have changed over the years ;D

how are you!

Happy Bday!! (here too,lol)
Have a great day!! <3