Hi guys!
After being religious for one year I've decided I've had enough. I don't want to be controlled by religion. The problem that I'm facing is that I cannot stop thinking about God. Deep in my heart I still believe in all of it, God, the Bible as the inspired word of God, etc. I don't get why I'm so emotional and attached to this idea, I guess it's because it's given me comfort for so long. But after a year of prayer and seeing God do nothing about my problems I've decided it's not worth going down this route anymore. I look at the world and all the violence and suffering, and wonder why a loving God is doing nothing about it. In my head I don't believe any more, yet my heart doesn't want to let it go. How can I transition? I've been jumping back and forth from agnosticism to theism so many times over a period of 4 months. Thanks for any suggestions.
Regards,
George
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You have posted in an incorrect area. The mods will probably relocate the post for you.
Any path out of religion necessarily included education. Education is the bane of religion.
The more you know, the less you are going to believe. I suggest you look at some of Bart Erhman's lectures on YouTube. He was once a Christian but through years of study is now a self professed atheist. This is a good place to start....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IPAKsGbqcg&t=1527s How Jesus became God. (Part 1 of 3)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhM5lbVBgkk&t=21s Who wrote the Gospels
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfheSAcCsrE&t=326s Misquoting Jesus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvKxJc-huEA&t=29s Jesus Interrupted
Hey friend, I u understand your struggle. I'm some .mishmash of pagan/agnostic/atheist. For me, like cog said, education is what helped me learn all the bullshit of the bible and history, so start there. I adore Seth Andrews, over on the thinking atheist. He has some talk vids on YouTube that are informative and funny and a great place to try
RE: Seth Andrews, Another great suggestion. The information is out there but you have to put out the effort to learn. You have to be motivated and curious to wriggle your way free of religious tentacles. .
Seth Andrews: Christianity Made Me Talk Like an Idiot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URr0O9aHW38&t=1990s
David Fitzgerald is another good source: Jesus, Mything in Action w/ David Fitzgerald
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMNc-tQW-E8
Why/how is a "Non-Atheist" posting in the Hub?
How is a "christian" posting here? His profile................unless he chose "atheist" then later changed his profile? Shades of the trick Breezy pulled once?
@George Re: "After being religious for one year I've decided I've had enough."
Really??? You were "religious" for a WHOLE year? Seems rather an odd thing to say...
1. How old are you? Five? Six years old?... *scratching head in confusion*...
2. What were you prior to being "religious"? Spent the first years of your life living in some strange "limbo", and then woke up one day and decided, "Hmmmm... I think I want to start trying out that whole "religious" thing I hear everybody talking about. Sounds like it could be fun."
3. Re: "I don't get why I'm so emotional and attached to this idea, I guess it's because it's given me comfort for so long." Hmmm.... Now I'm REALLY confused. Let me get this straight.... You lived however many years of your life without ever bothering with religion, and then one random day about a year ago you decided to give it the ol' college try. Ummm... okay. Sure. Whatever. BUT, then you spend that entire year praying about things and seeing no results in your prayers. Yet, you say it has given you SOOOooooooo much comfort during that time that you are having trouble breaking away from it.... *cocking head to one side*... *raising one eyebrow*.... Ummmmm.... Are you SURE you really want to stick with that story?
4. Oh... And, again, how/why is a theist posting in the Hub???
Call me a daisy, but I'm guessing you really did not think this whole thing through very well prior to jumping into the deep end of the pool here without your arm floaties.
(Edited to add point #4.)
@George
Perhaps your confusion lies that, a part of your brain realizes that any and all god ideas are completely unevidenced, and completely unevidenced ideas should not be acted upon. But you are very emotionally invested in your particular god idea/concept that you did accept without evidence.
Furthermore, out of all the things humankind has investigated and devoted a lot of energy and resources in attempt to "evidence" (with the bulk of the effort really being trying to convince without evidence,) religions/god as a whole has to be near the top if not the top.
All those 1000's of years and billions of people trying, and still, zero real, actual, actionable evidence.
Where meanwhile... our understanding of everything else in life has grown leap and bounds. We have little devices that fit in our pockets that can give you the answer to almost anything as fast as you can ask the question, and can certainly calculate anything very quickly, frequently in less time then it takes you to press a button. Not to mention these devices allow near instant communication with anyone in the world that also has this device and proper connectivity, and these days, often times for free or close to it.
God, (any god) is not evidenced.
It really is that simple.
"God" remains just a human created, completely unevidenced idea, and should be treated as any other completely and very thoroughly investigated, unevidenced idea.
At least you identified part of the problem, which is how it brought comfort to you. I went through something similar as you and what helped me was to watch atheist videos online in order to identify the fallacies that might have a hold of your brain. It helped me to let go of my religious past once I saw my erroneous way of thinking.
@Negan
YES! Now THAT is a kickass name and profile pic!... *thumbs up*...
I assume you have watched the walking dead Tin-Man? What was it? End of season 5?
That guy, (his profile pic,) killed several of my favorite characters in that series in part with that bat in the picture. I actually stopped watching walking dead shortly after. (Mainly because the wifey insisted she was done with it.)
@Logic Re: Negan/Walking Dead
Yeah, the wife and I watched it for several seasons. I finally got tired of the nonsense after Rick (and Carl) had MANY opportunities to simply kill Negan where he stood. Simply pull a trigger, and they guy was a goner. But, instead, they chose to give some sort of long speech to give him plenty of time to avoid being shot/killed. Well, that, and the fact that everybody seemed to have limitless supplies of ammo, and I NEVER saw any ejected shell casings or mag changes when EVERYBODY was firing on full-auto during the firefight scenes. For all of their fantastic zombie special effects, the technical adviser on the shooting stuff was a total waste of a paycheck. (In my opinion.)
As for Negan, I do agree he wasn't exactly the most wonderful person on the planet. Still, there is a part of me that has to admire they guy's insight and psychological control in that environment. I may not agree with many of the things he did, but I do understand his motives/methods under those conditions. Truth be known, I actually had more respect for Negan than I did for Rick in a few situations. Rick was way too wishy-washy for me in many cases. Daryl, on the other hand, was one of my favorites. Like a guided missile. Point him toward the target and let him loose.... *chuckle*... Anyway, even though Negan may have been what some folks would consider "a monster", one has to admit he was a fantastic manipulator and an absolute MASTER of Psy-Ops.
ALL: You know, since I became an Atheist, movies about the supernatural, monsters that go bump in the night, spiritual stuff, and the rest just aren't interesting any more.... (Let's Start a New Thread)
I'm kind of in the same boat. I was raised Catholic and Lutheran, we jumped around a lot, but I'm really having serious doubts about god. My mom says it's just cuz of my age and everyone gets this way around high school and college but a lot of shit jalust seems so fake and so easy to explain...but other stuff not so much. I can't let go of some of the history and stuff? And it's scary to think about there not bein a heaven imo