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?

God doesn’t ‘do’ these things. He expects people to reconcile and live peaceably, He expects us feed our neighbours, He expects us not to torture others. Death and suffering is unfortunately part of the condition of having human life.

See; it’s this. I find this quite victim blaming actually. How are children experiencing child abuse expected to reconcile and live peaceably This is the equivalent of “you’re not praying hard enough” and excusing loads of appalling behaviour as the condition of human life. It’s listening to this that made me see - He could stop it. He won’t. Either because he wants to punish a child or because he is not real. And I stopped it myself.

Back to humanism, there is no god aspect at all.

raininsummer what do you do in sunday assemblies? is it a bit like adult sunday school?

I know what you mean OP, believing in a higher being, gives so much strength and courage to people.
I believe in God, was raised in religion and try to live my life as a “good” person, as God has instructed me to. But I don’t automatically seek solace from God in the way I see other family members do. I wish I had that feeling as it gives those people patience and ease knowing God will take care of them and their problems.

The other thing about believing is that you do get a strong sense of community, of belonging to something, having a common goal, looking out for one another.

iampicklerick yeah i also wonder about people who aren't able for whatever reason to practise their religion (like for persecution reasons maybe). are they not doing enough for god?

just read a bit on humanism the now though this was my personal favourite criticism "Early-20th-century critics such as Ezra Pound, T. E. Hulme, and T. S. Eliot considered humanism to be sentimental "slop" (Hulme) or "an old bitch gone in the teeth" (Pound)."

‘stripes guess i wish there was an equivalent bible and ritual where i agreed with all the ethics and thought it sounded plausible. seems like a happier existence to just be able to believe in something and relate to folk about it’

Yes, that’s the crux. We have had 2000 years of thought and tradition built up around Christianity to build this enormous community of people who use it as the basis of their lives.

There’s not really a secular alternative to that.

Sunday Assembly is usually a philosophical question and more like a lecture or presentation and you walk away uplifted. It’s very empowering.

Conway Hall do some very good zoom lectures too.

onepotato do you think youd believe in god if you werent raised around religion? im curious as i think my upbringing probs made a difference to my religious thinking and i wonder how much of it is going along with what your culture agrees with (i hold my parents political views for example).

picklerick ill look into sunday assembly. always keen to talk about or learn about ethics and philosophy. i think religion is fascinating stuff it just has so many flies in the ointment for me. keen to learn tho

Being a Christian isn't about being "good" though. Its recognising how deeply flawed we are and that we make mistakes all the time. I think a lot of non-Christians get defensive feeling like Christians are judging them but a true Christian should be so aware of their own flaws (sin) that they don't judge others for theirs. In fact the Bible tells us not to.

Of course there are judgmental Christians out there that give Christianity a bad name but Jesus didn't condemn anyone, he befriended prostitutes, ate with thieves (tax collectors) and despised religious hypocrites.

@Sarahtops

Seriously, look at the Quakers. I'm not a Quaker, but I used to teach them a lot in RS and I'm a little bit in love with them. Bonus, you don't even need to believe in God to be a Quaker!!

But they constantly come up on the right side of history... they fought against slavery (helped on the Underground Railroad), helped rescued Jews in WW2, have taught equality between the sexes for centuries, fought for better rights for the poor, been bloody good employers, the list really is endless!

That was what I was going to suggest. They fight tooth and nail for justice and equality, have peacefully silent meetings and a fairly non-hierarchical structure, and some branches are not particularly interested in the supernatural, while some are entirely non-theist, so you don’t have to switch off your rational doubts and bludgeon yourself into belief in an invisible entity who shows curiously little interest in his creation.

Most of the times I have seen an elderly wheelchair user being arrested, usually with ten other people handcuffed to the chair, at an anti-arms dealing protest, that person has been a Quaker.

@Lougle, when you say you ‘can’t cherry-pick Scripture’, are you saying that the Bible for you isn’t a hotchpotch of human documents arising out of vastly different communities over a long historical period, but the literal word of God? Isn’t that the most clear possible example of “ blind faith’?

an old bitch gone in the teeth" (Pound).

Haaaa! And can you imagine the uproar if someone said that in print about the Lord? Therein lies the difference. They encourage debate, it’s not right way vs wrong way to be good and people aren’t elbowing each other to get the top spot in heaven by being the goodest. I’ve been to humanist weddings as well and they are all about love. At least try it on and see what you think.

pokerfaced are quakers the ones who dont believe you shouuld ever cause physical harm even if you or your family are being attacked?

picklerick thats true i like a religion where you can get a bit sweary and argumentative as u can probably tell from my posts!
any more info on humanism im keen on hearing if you have wisdom to impart

Fittata

For recognising that I do think you are a good Christian actually. You’re right, it’s not about outward actions.

Because we have 'free will' now

God used to intervene, now doesn't (according to the book - I never thought God intervened)

laurie ive read a lot of stuff on hard determinism where people dont believe freewill exists at all. i wonder if any of those people can be religious.

how did god intervene if you dont mind me asking

In answer to your question OP I don't really "visualise" God but more feel Him as a loving presence. I cannot "see" Him in my mind's eye at all. I guess if you believe that He is the creator of the universe you realise that He is beyond your understanding. Great is the mystery of faith!

It reminds me of that quote about your brain - if the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we could not

I know my experiences sound absolutely crazy if you've not experienced something like that yourself. If my younger atheist self could see me now she would be very shocked!

I've been atheist for years, though quite pious as a child.
A few years ago I took part in something called the Atheist Prayer Experiment. For a month atheists undertook to pray every day, to ask god to send a sign, to help them believe.
I did it as sincerely as I could. I talked to my imaginary god figure at length. I wanted to believe my mother, father and sister still existed somewhere and we could meet again one say. Then I realised if that was true, then this god being was also allowing hideous deaths, the rape and killing of countless women, the abuse and torture of children, poverty, war... Yes evil is in people but if god created us and sat back and watched, he'd be insane.
I realised atheism was the only position possible for me.
I look at trees, at flowers, at nature. I think about the stars. That's enough.

look at trees, at flowers, at nature. I think about the stars. That's enough. i like that cooroo. i like that a lot. if i hold people to the standards of "watching bad things and not stepping in is as bad as doing them yourself" then i guess i shouldnt hold god to a different expectation, if he loves me

fittata harbouring your best guess, how do you think he made the universe and where do you think he is. is he just a spirit or is he in outerspace. serious question, im curious

How did they pray, Cooroo? What method did they use?

Is one way of observing faith preferable over the other, stripes? Can you get more God if you pray a certain way?

Looks like even faith is elitist.

@Stripesnomore

How did they pray, Cooroo? What method did they use?

I dint think any rules were set down. Just to spend quiet time asking god for a sign. I used to kneel by the bed, say the Lord's Prayer and then just start talking - "Please can you help me find you? Let me see mum, dad and Bid again. Show me there's some purpose to all this..."

Hit post too soon...
Two or theee people in the experiment claimed they had found god. Listening to the interviews they seemed to have been very much on the verge of this before.