AIBU to wish I were religious?

[religiouslychallenged]

Name changed as I never thought I'd be anything other than a stoney atheist (and it's a hell of a lot of fun to come up with new names, pardon the pun).

Can't help but feel on some level desperate for religion. I poked fun at people who were heavily emotionally attached to the concept of God, mostly to do with premarital shagging. Now I wish I had something I could dedicate myself to as much as folk dedicate themselves to God and religion. Anyone else?

It doesn’t have to be true belief at the moment. You can just try finding out more about it. The same way you would about a particular kind of music or a field of knowledge. Have a look into it and see if anything develops.

If you want an intro to Christianity you could try watching The Chosen. It is a tv series (drama) about the life of Jesus. You download The Chosen app and can watch series one for free. They are making series two at the moment. The different Christian denominations all seem to approve of it, so it won’t push in you in any partisan direction.

It is a little bit American at times, but still very good, and at the very least it will improve your general knowledge for a pub quiz or trip around an art gallery.

never heard of the chosen , stripes but ill give it a go. thanks for the rec

[quote religiouslychallenged]@Blueberries0112 why was there pressure to wear modest clothes, and why would that have been attractive for people to turn to your religion?[/quote]
I don't know, I guess it is like seeing Trump signs on a nice beautiful yard and you see how well people take of things and care about things so you think maybe this trump guy is a good thing.

blueberries guess i just don't see modesty as particularly attractive (pardon the kind of irony in that) to a religion. did that affect yuor self esteem at all, being expected to look a certain way

Well your atoms and physical make up have certainly existed well before you were born but doesn’t give me that much comfort in basic science. Reincarnation is a bit more than that and requires the concept of souls etc

clarence do you think your soul is totally isolated from your body? ive got a core feeling that im kind of just a personality lumped into some flesh, but am also weirdly attached to the idea that this form is me

@religiouslychallenged

blueberries guess i just don't see modesty as particularly attractive (pardon the kind of irony in that) to a religion. did that affect yuor self esteem at all, being expected to look a certain way

No not really, I didnt really care, it is just cloth. But on the other hand, Jessica Simpson struggled being a Christian singer . Her breast was too big and they kept telling her to tone it down and she tried every ways possible but couldn't . she can't help if God gave her big breasts. I know it hurt her self esteem

blueberries didn't even realise Jessica Simpson was christian, only heard all the "dumb blonde bimbo" shit which i guess proves your point. it is just cloth but it's also a bigger thing n often blokes aren't the one told to cover up

Strange I’m replying without updating and you’ve already said what I’m thinking and looks like I’m copying! Must be on the same wavelength. I’m definitely atheist but it’s not a conscious .decision. It’s an absence of faith rather than something in its one right. Am actually jealous of believers but can’t force it. Might come eventually but I doubt it

zeenews.india.com/home/jessica-simpson-is-too-sexy-for-the-church_324872.html

clarence i guess i also feel a bit weird about the fact that im quite athiest rather than agnostic. i guess it seems to be the flip of the coin to religion whereas agnosticism isn't taking a side which makes more sense as i have absolutely no evidence or knowledge towards religion or anything really.

The concept of souls freaks me out though as it brings into question more pressing and divisive shit like abortions, like if you have a soul before you're born and if that soul is always attached to one specific body or if your kids are predetermined

I like the Chosen, Stripes!

OP this is a good thread. I like your honest questions and your respectfulness towards others. Thank you. I'm probably what you'd describe as a full on dedicated Christian, but it doesn't mean I have life easy or that I have all the answers, or that all my prayers are answered - my experience is that God doesn't work like that as some kind of celestial vending machine. But this faith makes sense of it all for me. It makes sense of beauty, of reason, of the incredible mathematics of the universe, of consciousness and of the innate moral sense we have of humans (ie, hurting others is bad, kindness is good - I get that not everyone acts on this but for me evolution alone doesn't make sense of our moral absolutes - another discussion maybe!) For me it simply makes sense. And for me it's Christianity because it's the only faith where God gets into this mess of a world with us and understands our pain, so we can know a more profound level of his love and presence. I'm a person who likes to read around, to seek evidence, to not go blindly into things and for me the life, death and resurrection of Jesus are all based in good robust historicity as are the biblical writings.

Faith brings me the heights of joy and the depths of peace when times are tough, which is a lot of the time for me. It's a beautiful and profound mystery, but a relationship based in perfect love where I know who I am, it's more than duty and more than simply a sense of community. It's all based in a living hope that sustains and inspires and keeps on sustaining through all the dark times. It's a love that never gives up on me.

You have some great questions - would love to try and address some but it's the middle of the night so I should maybe try and sleep. Just wanted to join the thread.

blueberries "makes the congregation lust" fuck sake. if you lust its on you not her, to stop her singing is f'ing riduculous.

"celestial vending machine" love that!

It's a love that never gives up on me. what about if you lived in sin, or did immoral things though? if god loves you no matter what you do, where is the motivation to do good? is the only root cause to do good a desire for praise or a ticket into heaven? sorry lots of questions and im trying to be more wary of not putting people on the spot or being too open about my viewpoints now, but im curious as to some of your viewpoints.

how do you see god as understanding our pain?

Someone religious tried to convert me to being agnostic rather than atheist. And I eventually caved in to the concept that how do you know for certain that there’s nothing? She was very persuasive! But is false science let’s face it. Science works on the basis of evidence rather than there isn’t any otherwise I could say anything and say you can’t prove it’s not true

I’ve decided I’m a reluctant agnostic, basically I want to believe but just can’t. I’d love to, you’re not alone op 🙂

clarence can i ask why she tried to convert you to agnostic? is it just because it was less abrasive to her own religious beliefs?

i often think if because i dont believe in god, if it turned out he exists would i be accepted into the afterlife for doing mostly good things (mostly) or is being religious in the right way a total prerequisite

like if catholic God is the "true" one, will protestants get booted out for not believing in the right way (or muslims, jews, buddhists etc)

ozzie "reluctant agnostic" can i ask what shifted you from either religion or athiesm? is it just the thougth you cant prove either?

I certainly couldn’t prove anyone that their God doesn’t actually exist. How could I? Would be a fools errand. They should be proving to me that they exist rather than the opposite. But not here to slag religious people off. Like I said I kind of wish I was

also odd recommendation n won't be to all folks taste but the song "if i believe you" by the 1975 pretty accurately explains my viewpoints on religion (as much as a 5min song can). worth looking at the lyrics even if you hate the band haah

It wasn’t a real conversion attempt. She was just a Christian and realised she couldn’t convert me straight to that so settled on and would be satisfied by just making me agnostic. Met her travelling and were both heavily pissed by then!

clarence hahaha the best way to be when discussing the nature of the universe! did she have any good points about why you should convert to christianity at all? im always desperate to find something that i struggle to argue with (tho im an argumentative bitch so few and far between these days!)

@religiouslychallenged

"celestial vending machine" love that!

It's a love that never gives up on me. what about if you lived in sin, or did immoral things though? if god loves you no matter what you do, where is the motivation to do good? is the only root cause to do good a desire for praise or a ticket into heaven? sorry lots of questions and im trying to be more wary of not putting people on the spot or being too open about my viewpoints now, but im curious as to some of your viewpoints.

how do you see god as understanding our pain?

I think God's love never giving up on me is not at all tied to what I do. I can go and mess up and treat others badly and generally be rubbish but God will still be there loving me and pursuing me, just as a parent doesn't give up on their child, because they love them so unconditionally. That's because God's love is founded on grace; God does not only love because we love or worship him, God's love is not conditional - it is simply there. As for the motivation for me, that is also not to do with reaching heaven or a desire to be praised by God. It's more a response to God's love from the depths of me - in experiencing this profound love, I want then to echo it in my actions towards others. It's nothing to do with a sense of scrambling to the top, it's more a longing to model myself on Jesus because his words and actions have impacted me so much. It's not for points if you see what I mean.

As to God understanding pain, it's because I believe that Jesus is God incarnate, come to earth as a human being, experiencing all that we experience and then the very depths of pain and sorrow on the cross, in a great mystery whereby he took all of the world's pain, evil, sin, crap upon his body. Thus he is not some far away chap sat on a cloud raining down thunderbolts and being generally annoyed and arsy with humanity, but is someone who has actually been there, gone through it and so identifies with it in a unique way. In the depths of my own pain - I live with long term degenerative disease - I find consolation in his understanding which is birthed in love.

Now, sleep really is calling

madhairday i guess i feel like if i came down to earth, experienced the world's pain and died then i'd feel some kind of moral duty to help the earth out of it (as god would supposedly tell me to do). but ive not seen a big change that shows empathy or understanding which makes me question if he exists.

also - might be wrong but wasn't jesus jewish? how does that factor into everything, e.g. why would he believe in a different religion if he was actually god incarnate?

sorry if am pushing too hard, just curious as to where i see the "plot holes" i guess (not sayin they are just that i see em like that is all).

Jesus was Jewish yes. Christians are followers of Jesus Christ. We believe Jesus was the son of God who was sent to Earth for our sins.
Jews and Muslims don't believe he was the son of God, although Muslims do believe he was a prophet. (Not sure on the Jewish stance)