Believing in God

[TooBusyByHalf]

On an earlier thread I asked where does belief in God come from? I got lots of really helpful replies, recommended reading, and people telling me the stories of how they came to believe.

The more I read (and talk to people - though that part still makes me squirm a bit!) the more I come across the view that you can't reason your way to faith. You can rationalise it when you get there but the faith part seems to be pretty much you either feel it or you don't.

Which is depressing, because I want to feel it but I can't. And I have no idea really how MN can help me with this one or why I've started another thread on this topic except that I have no-one to talk to in RL about this and lots of you have been really nice to me before.

Haha! I quite like diving, that would be good too

Actually if you're still here, could you tell me what you thought of religion for atheists? I've just started reading it - doing a recce to see if it might be good for DP. Do you think it might help?

Oooh - I don't know. I think his point is to take the useful aspects of religion and apply them to (secular) communities/lifestyles IYSWIM.

It's probably ironic that it nudged me into a religion ( although Buddhism is surely the least 'religious' of the religions and sometimes classed as a philosophy rather than a religion)

One of the things I liked was the author's claim that wanting the comfort/hope that comes from religion is a natural and healthy human thing rather than a failure to become a fully developed adult. I mean, many an atheist asserts that they don't need a god/set of rules/belief in an afterlife/likeminded community.

I might return to this book. I read it quickly and missed a couple of chapters.

That could work. I'm not hoping to convert her to anything at all, just to maybe see that not everything to do with all religions is inherently bad; and maybe that my wanting to do religion is not a weakness.

It's pro-religion IMO. But you're the best judge of how she'd feel about being asked to read something. It might be better to be patient. She might even notice a positive difference in you and decide for herself that there might be something in religion after all.

She will normally read most things I've read eventually (and vice versa) - though not the Christian stuff obv - so I'm not worried about that.

I'm hoping she will just come round in the end but a bit of gentle prodding from an ' hi dependent source' mightn't be a bad thing...

Hi dependent?! Independent.

TooBusy,
Just to suggest more books for your reading list - the 'Bad Christian' books by Dave Tomlinson, and 'Jesus Freak' by Sara Miles. These books really helped me develop my liberal, wishy washy faith and I think might be useful for your partner to read too. Do you know about the Inclusive Church and Affirming Catholicism websites too? I would recommend googling if not.
Exciting times! Will be following your thread with interes. Best of luck

I just wanted to say you are a lot braver than me. The only time I tried to rise the subject with dp he was so horrified and angry that I dropped it and never went back to the conversation again. I don't have any christian connections now I have a young dc and can't slip away to evening christian events (too tired too!). Good luck OP.

I'm just popping in to say hello, as I'm in a similar sort of position of having come to the fairly horrific realisation that even though I've spent most of my life shuddering at the thought of Christianity (and growing up in Northern Ireland with atheist lesbian parents one of whom was culturally Protestant and the other Catholic, I've seen a lot of the really unpleasant side of Christianity) I'm feeling increasingly drawn to the CofE.

For the past month I've been going to a small midweek lunchtime service, and really like it, although every now and then I feel really odd and want to run away a bit.

I've been reading Tokens of Trust and love it.

Hi jasper I'm having a bad day so will come back tomorrow but just wanted to say hello

And yes, all of niminy's book recommendations are good.

Hi Mousey thanks for the reading tips - my pile is getting bigger and bigger. Time to buy a(nother) Kindle. [lost the last one :(]
No chance at all of DP reading anything at all though for now!

lordylor thanks. you are not the first person to call me brave, and I don't feel it at all. But having just had the biggest upset this weekend I now know why so many of you warned me. I don't know what I was thinking. I knew DP was very anti-religion but somehow I'd persuaded myself that it wouldn't be so bad. Anyway, it's my DP who's being brave now, and we will work through this together.

But if you want to find God without telling your DP, and without going to church or other events, that will be ok too - I think God would understand. There are websites, and prayer apps, and books, and you can talk to God anytime anywhere.

Jasper That's probably quite a unique position to be in! My DP is probably like your mums, so I can understand a little bit what it must be like - though perhaps they will be supportive? Are you finding it hard to tell anyone in RL? I haven't told anyone in RL except for DP, and that certainly hasn't encouraged me to spread the news further! But then all my friends (bar one actually) are atheists - mostly very hardcore and several ex-RC, damaged by nuns wielding canes in RC schools (all over the world) in the 1970s... so not an ideal social context to find support.

MN OTOH has been absolutely brilliant. I've been on MN for many years but only sporadically until the last few months when I've had the most amazing support from so many MNers - some whom I've just come across once but who have posted something thoughtful that has changed the way I think about something, and one who has put up with me wibbling on for hours, and everything in between - so many people, being so wise and so generous with their time, it's really heart-warming.

Do tell us more about how it is going for you if you'd like to, it helps me anyway!

It's not too bad for me, because I've been going to a Unitarian church for years, without in any way identifying as a Christian, but most people on the outside don't really know the difference.

Just popping back to say thanks so much to you all for your support and advice.
I'm leaving MN for a while.