What are your struggles, if any, with belief systems (moral, societal, religious)? How have you overcome them?

I was raised in a somewhat conservative family--don't talk about sex, don't think about it, and you better as hell not ENGAGE in it.

When I was young, I was a hornball (nothing new there) but also unable to cover my tracks--at several points, my parents found my huge stash of printed erotica, or my porn links, or my dirty emails.... and they were very concerned that I was a pervy whore of the worst kind. They would tell me all kinds of things that gave me anxiety and guilt over who I was and wanted to be.

Once I became older and found a larger community that also enjoyed and embraced the things that I do, I was able to start working through those emotions and come to grips that, simply, my parents just don't know everything there is to know about sex--and that's okay. There is no scripted formula for happiness, and my path was just as valid.

I am happy with who I am now but I do remember, very easily, what it is like to simultaneously love what you do but hate yourself for loving it.

I don't have any religious qualms because I wasn't raised that way, but my immediate family still managed to make me feel ashamed and embarrassed about having a strong interest in (kinky) sex. I still have trouble sometimes because I think "Oh no, what if my family learned about this side of me??"

Actually part of the reason I want to move to another country is so I can feel safe reinventing myself haha I'm even afraid to wear a pretty dress around them for fear they'll comment on it and aggravate my complex.

When I was a teenager my family actually expressed relief (and possibly gladness?) that I didn't have any boyfriends. I didn't because I was shy and depressed and ashamed-- not because I didn't want one I wanted more than anything someone to be honest with emotionally and sexually.

But I finally have that now so I just want to leave them behind and live the life I want to live.

I was raised liberally and never struggled, but I was actually raised Jewish and converted to atheism. I found that I did not agree with the Jewish faith, or any other, for that matter, and I now identify as "non-religious, does not believe that there is a higher being." In terms of sex, however, my faith/upbringing has never made me feel conflicted in what I was doing. Sex is something pleasurable, and I never felt that it was related to how I felt about religion or my upbringing at all.

I was raised up with no actual "belief system" in place though my parents have their faith. Therefore, growing up, I was able to make up my own mind about what I thought and believed in instead of being told this is how it is.

That said, my mom is super open with me (she's christian.. I think, I don't follow anything..) Anyways, I have never had an issues or stuggles with anything when it came to sexual stuff.

I was raised Catholic and still practice, but I'm quite liberal - I sometimes refer to myself as an "Unorthodox Catholic." Even as a bisexual, I've never had any tension between my faith and my sexuality. The church can be useful for spiritual guidance at times, but I definitely don't take everything they say as law. Sexuality to me is a part of life that's meant to be celebrated and bring us closer to God and each other. In fact, my feelings about spirituality and sexuality have a direct relationship - on days when I'm having doubts or feeling down, thoughts about sex and pleasure tend to make things worse, while when my faith is strong, I feel much more positively about my sexuality.

My parents raised me as a christian and sent me to Catholic classes a long time ago, but it never mad sense to me. When I turned into a teen I became an atheist. I believe in being my own master. So being an atheist I don't struggle with religion and sexual conflict, never have. Although I sometimes have certain philosophical conflicts regarding sex. I guess I am still trying to determine my core philosophical beliefs.

I don't really have a religion when I was growing up. I don't really have one now either, but most of my mom's family are christians. They always say how bad I am because I don't think the way they do.

The early part of my childhood was spend in the Catholic denomination, then in a non denominational christian. However, I always had a problem with how they viewed sex and intimacy not the other way around. Now the religion I have and hold dear encourages sex and sexual exploration. The way I interpret it, sex = continuation of the species.

I was pentlecostle when I was younger, my mom made me go and it traumatised me, I never wanted to go back into a church!

That never affected me though. There is one thing, sometimes when I have sex I sometimes get weirded out when I think of dead friends or relatives that are watching me from heaven or whereever they are, lol.

I'm an atheist, raised by liberal atheists. Admittedly, my parents are somewhat more conservative about sex than I am, they're super cool with gayness (two out of their three kids are gay), and don't support the sexual double standard (they think cheating on a partner indicates douche-baggery in either sex, and that honest promiscuity is impractical, not that they judge people who are honest and promiscuous), but they tend to think of kinkiness as inherently related to pathology or trauma, and they tend to take a second wave feminist view of all pornography (I personally dislike a lot of the practices that exist within the porn industry, but there's definitely absolutely non-sexist, healthy porn out there)

I never really struggled with guilt or shame about my sexuality, except for a little guilt when I was significantly younger over being submissive (I was raised by feminists and I'm a feminist myself) but I eventually realized that feminism is about both sexes having the right to be whoever they feel they are, and that my being a sub wasn't connected to my being a woman. I'm just a submissive person, there are dominant women, and submissive women and dominant men and submissive men.

I always knew that my kinkiness wasn't related to my being "fucked up" in any way, and so never felt bad about that.

I was raised in a communist family with pretty strict morality. I was taught never to exploit another person, to respect women and to be honest in all of my relationships, both personal and economic.

That sounds perfect, doesn't it? Well, we all have our kinks and I have mine.

It took me a while to work through the cultural aspects of sex - you know, men "have" women. As soon as I understood that women could "have" men just as much as men "have" women, I stopped worrying about sex.

That said, I am a one-woman man. I don't cheat and don't lie. It has made my life much simpler - and I've met some wonderful women!

If God thought sex was evil he wouldn't have invented it. People are too hung up on sexual sin while they ignore things that actually do harm, like greed. Which act is the true sin -- having an orgasm, or heading down to Walmart and turning a blind eye to the living conditions of the people who work like slaves in Chinese factories, just to save a couple of bucks?

I never really thought about what my parents would. Mom was more religious, step-dad uncaring, but it was weird. I remember that the moment I turned 17, I started realizing what a dirty old woman my mom is. Many questions left unanswered.

I was raised by a catholic mother. She had us attend all the rituals early in life, but as soon as I became a teenager, I rebelled and haven't practiced since.

My whole family, except my brother and me, is Catholic. My mom had us baptized as some Christian religion, apparently because it was cheaper. I don't really care, since I do not believe at all. We stopped going to church and stuff when I was 7. I prefer it that way, because it gave me an opportunity to look at believing and not believing, and deciding which I wanted. The one thing that really irritates me, though, is how people will treat me like I am scum for not believing. To me, religion is not directly linked to morals. I am a good person, I know right from wrong. The only thing my parents have taught me is really morally wrong and I will be judged harshly for is masturbation, which I never cared about anyway. My parents wouldn't be offended if I came out as a lesbian or if they found out I was in an orgy or something like that.

I remember seeing a poll on a forum I went to, and it was asking Atheists which crimes they had committed. It had stuff like theft, murder, rape, arson, and other crimes listed. There was no option for having never committed a crime. Stereotypes suck.

I have had people treat me differently after finding out that I am an Atheist. Like, they just found out I torture animals or something. Pretty much, you believe what you want, and I will believe what I want, without either of us forcing our thoughts on each other.

Even as a Christian, I've never seen any problem with enjoying any aspect of sex - even masturbation. However, I have never had sex with anyone other than my wife, and I intend to keep it that way. I know there are a lot of users on EdenFantasys that haven't had similar experiences, but I will only speak for myself.

I wasn't raised in a faith, strictly speaking. I am the one who suggested we go to church when I was a kid. I have struggled with a few things in the past but I am slowly working through them one at a time and have laid a few to rest. Hopefully, permanently.

It took me a while to get over my stigmas about sex. I used to feel awful for letting my boyfriend pleasuring me and exposing myself to him, but I've realized that it made me happy and I was being safe.

I was brought up in a broken family, so that didn't help things. Trust wasn't much of an issue once I got to know my boyfriend really well, but the fear that what we were doing wasn't as "special" to him was a fear for a while. The fear of my mom finding out was paralyzing and my dad is so disconnected from most of my life, so I was never really worried about it. Now that I've told my mother that I've "done things" (I used those exact words, no details), I feel empowered. It's nice to be clear that I'm in control of my own body and that I'm be responsible for what happens to it.

I was raised in a very strict, conservative Christian household- that means everything, not just sex. My 'talk' equated to don't have sex until you're married, the gays are sinners and going to hell, bisexual men are highly likely to all have AIDS and every time they saw a butch oh God, the things they would say. Not the them but to me- she is a woman, she should dress and act like it. She has her hair cut like a man, that's so ugly. She's gay, I'd better not ever see you hanging around someone like that.... yeeahhh... Add to that after I moved out and wasn't quite as freaked out by liking women- and the evil, evil butches- I was living with two gay men as roommates. I started to open up and dress more butch and one of them pretty much would parrot what my parents said but directed at me- you're a woman, dress like it. God made you to look like a woman, don't dress like a man! Well that slammed the door shut on gender expression for a decade for me. I actually didn't begin to unlock that portion of myself again until I found Edens and the supportive environment here. I followed some of the people here which led me to blogs of those that present outside of society's gender norms.

I left Christianity for a very long time before realizing that they were not behaving as the bible states a Christian should. I have gone back to my faith but I live it according to the bible, not the pseudo-Christian bastardization of the bible. I do so as a kinky, queer, genderfluid, tattooed, pierced butch.

As a postscript, my parents have come a long LONG way but I still struggle sometimes, though less and less frequently, with my masculinity because of the things they said when I was younger and the way they were so transparently reviling and disgusted by anything that wasn't hetero normative.

If never really struggled over issues with sexuality. I was loosely raised Catholic. I had to go to CCD (because my mom thought I should be educated in what my family traditionally believed) until I made my confirmation, but my parents never really enforced religion at home. Once I was confirmed I was allowed to believe whatever I wanted and now I'm agnostic/atheist/human ist depending on my mood. I was definitely not raised conservatively, but I wouldn't call it liberal, either.