characters

When I was younger, I always used to believe that Monks would marry Nuns, and that NO ONE ELSE could do so. This also supplied me with a reason as to why they dressed so funny. Little did I know that to marry was a big no-no for these religious people.

Anon

When I was really little my mother told me that Jesus was in everything. Of course, I interpreted that as meaning that he made up the mass of all things, such as the inside of the walls, and that's how he knew everything a person was doing and whether they were sinning. When I was about 7 or 8, I cut my arm on a rock, and a layer of my skin was coming off. I was really scared because I was unaware that people had "layers" of skin, and I convinced myself that I had found Jesus. I tried to peel of the rest of my skin so I could meet Him, and apologize for all my sins and that he had to live inside of me, but it was too painful and I gave up. Then I started to cry because I was worried Jesus would be mad at me because I couldn't free him from my skin.

Amy L. M.

I used to believe that Catholics were not allowed to eat pistachio ice cream. Where did I get this silly idea? I was brought up in a strict Catholic household -- with lots of aughts and naughts. In my young mind, anything my mother DIDN"T like, was "anti-Catholic" or not allowed.

LBryar

My parents never taught us to be very religious, once when visiting my grandmother, she put us to Sunday school.

After the lesson grandmother asked us what we had learned, and I pointed at my little brother announcing the only thing the lesson had left in my mind: "you are Jesus Christ, God's son!"

Obviously, my brother was the only person I had heard to be referred as "son", so of course he was Jesus.

the sister of Jesus

I used to think that Dementors were what nuns became after they died.

Nancy

I was raised by my uncle who I used to believe was God. I thought when he went to work he sorted through lists of good and bad people, and then faxed these lists to Santa.

Rettie

In Denmark, a very common cuss word is Satan. My mum wasn't religious, but didn't care for her son to cuss, so she told me that if you call his name, he will come for you. I'm 21 years old and still get chills when someone cusses.

Anonymous

when i was little (although this continued to a surprisingly late age) i believed that jesus was born on dec. 25 and died on easter OF THE SAME YEAR. it made sense because no one ever talks about when jesus was a little boy. but i could never work out how he grew up so fast, but i figured it must be because he was magic and stuff.

karen, ny

Until a few months ago (and we are both 13) when discussing 'Joseph and his technicolour dreamcoat', my friend realised that that story and many others including Noah are all actually in the Bible and not just made up by writers and composers.

Snap-hiss

One Christmas eve my brother convinced me that the pope was Baptist. He told me everytime our dad used the expression "is the pope catholic" that he was really using it to say no instead of yes. On Christmas morning when asked if I liked my presents I responded "well, is the pope baptist." I recieved many confused looks and my brother laughed histerically.

Anon

When I was little my friend and I made a plan to take over the world. Back then we believed that God and Jesus ruled the world, and they lived in a house on a cloud. The plan was to fly up and tip the cloud over so God and Jesus would fall out, and then we could take over the cloud house and have koolaid and pool parties.

Rebecca

When I was about 9 My Uncle told me "God is just." I would get upset, asking him to finish his sentence "Just what?!" Since I only knew on definition of 'just'.

He always laughed at my frustration.

God is just awesome.

I used to believe that God was the fairy godmother from Disney's Cinderella.

Danielle

I used to believe that if Jesus lived in my heart then the devil must live in my rear end because thats where all the nasty stuff in my body was.

Lizz

At some point in my childhood, the subject of Henry VIII came up, along with the fact that he had some of his wives beheaded. I asked my mother why, and she said -- without providing any other context -- "Because he was Catholic". It's important to note here that my mother was not some kind of raving anti-Catholic bigot, she just somehow neglected to take into account that my brain at that stage of development was incapable of grasping the historical context of the Catholic church, its policies on divorce at the time, and all the other political factors involved. In any case, I subsequently spent a portion of my childhood believing that Catholics were horrible, scary people who cut their wives' heads off.

John

I used to believe that weathermen would get in a rocket with a scroll in hand, and fly up to Heaven to ask God what the weather would be like for the week. Then they would write it down and come back to Earth to report it.

Kayla

I thought "Virgin Mary" was actually "Verge 'n Mary" and that Verge was a nickname for Joseph.

Rachel

When I was a kid in the 80's, I watched a lot of "Family Ties" and the "Back to the Future" series.

Like any being that I was not able to physically see, such as a character in a story, I used my imagination to create an image of what I though they looked like.

I envisioned (and believed) God as having the face of Michael J. Fox.

Andrew

I asked my mother one day,when i was very young, "mommy...where is God?" she said " he's everywhere honey". For many years after that...i imagined him, sort of Zeus looking, curly-haired and bearded, Surfing in Hawaii, sitting in a Cafe in Paris, all the time wearing sunglasses (he didnt want any one to know it was him...he was secret-agenty about it).

dudeman

I used to believe that it was unfair that i had to go to church (Jesus's House) and that he was mean because he never came to vist me at my house!

Melainie -Darwin,NT