Who's Faith Is It Anyway?

Ah! Once again, my friend, I see you've nothing better to do than to make your way to my lair to see what's going on here. Unfortunately for you, you've caught me in a surly mood.
I've just been insulted because of my point of view on an issue that is not, in my opinion, relevant to salvation, by someone who apparently thinks everything is a salvation issue. And as if this weren't ugly enough, this person can offer absolutely NO biblical support for their point of view. And when I asked for a scriptural basis for this person's beliefs, they could offer nothing except more disparaging remarks.
Wow. How does that happen? What kind of person will attack your opinion about something, just because it differs from their own? An even better question is, what kind of person believes what they've always been taught without having checked out those beliefs by testing them against scripture? Sadly, I think this is a case of confusing scripture with tradition.
The exact issue at question isn't relevant to this particular rant, but it is a rather hot topic and I'm sure I'll have much to say about it in a future post, but for now the question I put to you is:
Where does your faith come from?
Is it truly yours, or are you simply a parrot repeating what you've always been told? I don't know of anything more depressing, frustrating, and infuriating, than to meet someone who believes what they believe because it's what they've been told to believe. If you find yourself guilty of this, dear reader, I can not encourage you strongly enough to study! Read your Bible! Question your beliefs! Your parents are human! Your sunday school teachers are human! Your pastor is human! Your Elders and Deacons are human! So what? So they are every one of them flawed. None of them are perfect. And everyone of them have their own bias and opinions which they are all too happy to spread to others.
Now this is NOT to say that I don't advocate listening to the advice or opinion of wise and godly men and women. And I'm not saying we shouldn't listen to our parents. The Lord knows I expect my children to listen and to believe what I tell them. But as they get older, I will expect them more and more, to take my advice, or my teaching, and compare it with what they read in their Bible. Believing what your parents tell you is fine until you become an adult, but by the time you get there you should have learned how to think for yourself! Or at the very least, how to read! So I encourage you my newly found friend, question everything. Ask yourself why you believe what you believe. I encourage you to read your Bible, to read books by christian authors, and to pray, asking God to reveal His Will to you through your study of his Word. Grow out of your parents' faith. Make your beliefs, your Faith, your own!