Hi, thank-you for starting this thread. I grew up with strong Christian beliefs but lost faith at around the age of 17. After losing faith I suppose I was a bit hippyish and looked to new age stuff for inspiration, then went to the other extreme of being a vocal atheist and cynic. It's hard to put into words, but I've since regained faith, though not via any established religion. I see 'god' as something more abstract, I see forces of good and evil in the world. I see 'god' as the life force, energy that moves through all living things, and it's up to us how we use it, for good or evil. It's something I feel very strongly. When I'm around those with bad intent, I can sense that negative energy very strongly. I've found new levels of compassion for people, and it has made so many of my everyday interactions go better by approaching everyone with love and recognition of everyone else's struggles, their humanity, and trying to see what's going on behind the energy they're putting forward (some people are just to be avoided though!) I'm just wondering what you think about all that, this idea of 'good' and 'bad' energy. I haven't studied Zoroastrianism in any detail, but it seems to relate to this principles within this faith.
I also have a different question for you about the loss of religion in people's lives. Many social commentators are claiming that with a loss of faith in organised religion, people are turning to alternatives to religion, such as gender identity ideology or other types of social justice extremism. There's talk of trans people being 'sacred', for example. And if you know much about transhumanism, there is a lot of quasi-religious terminology and imagery used. It seems there are a lot of movements and causes striving to reach a kind of 'utopia' or 'holy land', but with cult-like features, where any kind of questioning or dissent is forbidden, and people are shunned for not going along with the prescribed views. I wonder what your thoughts are on the replacements people use for religious faith, as I think it's extremely toxic. I personally think it's entirely possible to be an atheist/humanist etc and not turn to such substitutes for religion, to be clear. I have a lot of respect for someone like Ricky Gervais, for example!
I have one more question that I've just thought of. Do you think that if you grow up indoctrinated in an established religion, then if you leave that faith you will always feel that there's something missing and have to replace it with something else - a belief system or even an addiction or obsession? I suppose this relates to the question above in some way, but more than that, I can think of friends I had at school who weren't brought up with faith, and they had no interest in it. Do we create a need for faith by telling kids that there's a god and indoctrinating them in a religion? Do some people have no need for faith if they've never been raised in it? I suppose I'm questioning why I feel the way I do about 'god', when someone who wasn't raised within a faith might never really think about it. Thank-you if you have time to answer any of this.