Brought up atheist but feel a pull to something bigger

[saltnvinegarpringles]

Just that really. I was brought up an extremely staunch atheist but always felt there was something bigger. I feel very drawn to churches and I often say a quiet prayer to God, but I don't know who or what God is. I don't feel a connection to organised religion. I would like to explore faith but I don't really know where to start. Anyone else out there like me?

Are all Christians mind readers now or just you two?

You're not getting what I'm saying - it's inbuilt, nothing to do with the mind, everything to do with the heart and soul.

I always tell people who are investigating the Christian faith to start with Jesus. Of course there are things especially in the Old Testament that we can find difficult to reconcile but that is because we have had 2000 years of Christian culture. But when we get hold of who Jesus is and what he has done things start to make sense.

Are you telling me how I feel?

Alright, heart and mind reader?

Telling other people what they think and believe deep down is incredibly arrogant and presumptuous. And in my case, inaccurate.

@AnorLondo Big words, but thankfully I've been around the block a few times and it's all water off a duck's back to me now.

What, arrogant and presumptuous? What else would you call telling other people what they think and feel despite knowing nothing about them? Far more insulting that anything I've said.

Sorry but it’s obvious

@AnorLondo I'm not sure what you're trying to gain out of this exchange - you've just charged in with your horns lowered.

So what do I feel?

I simply don't like it when people tell others how they think and feel. And assume that just because they feel a certain way, everyone else must secretly deep down feel the same way. That any legitimate criticisms people might have about a religion or belief system must mean that secretly deep down they "have god" or whatever. You can faux-innocently head tilt all you want, it's arrogant and insulting.

I’m not going to get into an argument. OP asked a serious question so we’ll attend to that

I agree MariEllie.

OP has said she is not interested on Christianity so not sure how telling her to read the Bible is helpful.

In my case, that particular revelation came later.

I recommend reading John's Gospel ie the book of John and Peter. Also look for an Alpha Course around you. It's interactive and informative.
Many blessings.

Don't try and learn faith go and experience it. Pray and read the bible (or whichever holy book you want)
I'm a Christian and it gets me so cross when God or all Christians get the blame for what men or humans have decided to do in its name. In my opinion there is nothing wrong with any of the organised religions. It provides guidance when it is needed. The problem comes when people are allowed to do things in its name that goes against its teachings. As far as I can see, all organised religions teach love and peace to all. Anything else is not following the teachings of that religion. That's down to man not God.

And? You are not OP. She has said she is not interested in Christianity, that she's not comforatble with it, that she doesn't want to do an Alpha course. Why can't people respect that instead of insisting on pushing Christianity and disparaging other suggestions that have been made?

I think if you read OP’s posts she said she does not believe not that she is not interested. I don’t know why you take it on yourself to answer for OP when she can answer for herself .

Oh my it has kicked off on here a bit, I'm sorry!

It is not strictly true that I'm not interested in Christianity. I certainly do feel very at peace in churches (Catholic, Anglican, etc). However (aside from Christian and other organised religion based beliefs I find problematic), I do not believe that Jesus died for our sins and was then raised from the dead, which is kind of the fundamental point of Christianity as I understand it. I've never felt any kind of pull to or affinity with Jesus. Out of interest I have read the bible but I've never found anything in it that really speaks to me.

I do chat to God, in my own head, and I do pray, but who or what God is I don't know. I am open to attending church to see if it's for me, but based on the above I feel that it wouldn't be.

I always love the Blake quote, “Jesus Christ is the only God, and so am I and so are you”.

i think it’s so important where someone is trying to find a path to respect all those available. Of course everyone thinks their path is the right one (otherwise they generally wouldn’t be following it). There’s a million and one paths to follow, the trouble is it’s quite difficult to find some.

it’s important to respect others paths, most have a truth within them, for some people the vessel it’s put in is important, others less so.

spirituality (whether a formal religion of an inner knowledge) is not something to sold. Never consider there is one right and everything else is wrong in universal terms, such certainty can only ever arise on a personal level.

Have you thought about doing an Alpha course . They are there to explore God and not to indoctrinate you. Go along. I loved it when i did it.

Of course it’s okay to love the quote and there are a million and one paths but the question is what is true? I am a Christian not because it was ‘sold’ (we believe salvation is given by grace) but because I have investigated and found it is true. When you are seeking a path you investigate. I found Christianity to be true both historically and experientially. I certainly wouldn’t base my life on something that I didn’t believe is true

RTFT

I guess the question is “what is true?” Everyone of any faith and those of none, we generally believe that they have found the truth. And in many ways every single one of them is right.

I more than just love that Blake quote. I believe that is true, man is the most divine of beings capable of become like God/the divine/the All etc. to me Jesus was a man, real or symbolic who realised this, who became enlightened, he realised his Christ consciousness just as the Buddha did or as King Arthur did in his tales.

it’s a pity mainstream Christianity destroyed so many of these paths in the West or rather caused them to become occulted, in many cases, literally demonising them or wiping out entire cultures which were also Christian, just not the right kind of Christianity.

the trouble with this was evidenced up thread, if it’s not mainstream Christianity, you’re embracing the devil. But this adherence to this vessel being the only one that contains truth has separated many from their spiritual birth right, different people will connect to different vessels, to different presentations of the one truth, for people such as yourself you will connect with the Christianity vessel which contains the truth although is not truth itself, others to say Egyptian gods and goddesses. Others to man. To many extents the vessel itself doesn’t matter, most people just need some allegory to understand the absolute truth. None of the allegories are better or worse, they just offer different ways to connect.

different people will find the same truth but in lots of different wrappers, does it matter if you marvel at Jesus turning water into wine, or dedicate yourself to turning lead into Gold? Does it matter if you read the story of the Flood with Noah or the earlier version with Gilgamarsh? Does it matter if you miss the polytheistic references in the Old Testament when holding onto the One God? Can you understand the Old Testament (and elements of the New without understanding the cultures in which the various stories were conceived, without understanding Hebrew? Without understanding Gematria? Can you understand the New with a literal Hermeneutics? Can you understand Revelations without an understanding of the Roman Empire, contemporary symbolism and all of the above. I would suggest the Bible isn’t the best place to get to know Jesus as mainstream Christianity presents him unless you keep things really cursory, I would suggest reading many of the other gospels written about the same time which have not been altered as much and destroyed by mistranslations. Maybe then Christian’s wouldn’t have spent millennia contemplating why a camel was passing through the eye of a needle.