How do you deal with religious guilt?

[AprilsOrangeSpring]

Hi, This is my first post on this site. I'm not super good with words, but I hope this makes sense..

I was raised super religious, and I do believe in God.
I attempted once when I was younger, but I failed.

I never felt guilt before my first attempt, because (in my view) I was just looking for peace. I wasn't harming anyone, or at least I didn't think anyone in my life at the time would care. I didn't believe God would punish me for feeling like this.

However, since then I've been dealing with a lot of guilt and it's preventing me from making a decision on whether or not I should attempt again.

Specifically I've been feeling a lot of religious guilt. Part of the reason I was in a bad mental state the first time, was because I felt like a horrible person. I keep being told that God will hate me and that I'm "ungrateful" for the gift of life. I don't have any qualms about suicide other than this guilt. I just want to know how to deal with it.

Is anyone else feeling the same thing?

 

[pthnrdnojvsc]

Imo life is not something to be grateful for.

And I don't believe in any god

 

[escape_from_hell]

The gratitude for life thing gets to me.
I am susceptible to guilt as well. II guess deep down I wish we could just work hard, the just world was not a fallacy, and we can triumph with the right attitude and spirit.
Sitting down and chanting the mantra like "look, you have food to eat! be GRATEFUL" and stuff like that does not help. Just makes me feel even more guilty. Guilty for not being grateful enough for the gift of every moment. Extreme anxiety.
When you go somewhere 'relaxing' like a spa, yoga, a church, motivational speaking, whatever it may be, that is often one of the recurring themes. Stop being such an ungrateful shit, that's your problem! And I just feel that much more awful.

You can only use the gifts god gives, or are we also responsible for every imaginable faculty? God gave you life, but where does the misery and lack of gratitude come from? Why aren't you able to 'pray good enough' to feel the great gift and gratitude. It always comes down to, we are at fault. Yet we can't seem to help ourselves. So maybe god just wants us to suffer. If god wants anyone to suffer, what recourse could they possibly have? There is no escape.

Maybe the real test is seeing how much we put up with before opting out? Maybe this is all the deception of the devil. The faith is supposed to be that god is not this evil torturer. Maybe the faith is the calling through the suffering and fear of death to just end it and join god. I don't know. God has never spoken to me when I've tried. I've probably blasphemed the holy spirit, sadly. I regret that. I don't even know how one does it, but it seems that blaspheming the holy spirit is basically lacking faith and being ungrateful for life and the gifts? It's a rough circle. How to cultivate gratitude. But it could be too late and we are just damned already.

This could be hell. Why is it not 100% suffering? Maybe at some point it will come. But "trying hard" and getting nowhere is another form of hell and suffering maybe we must go through.

 

[BardBarrie]

Hi, This is my first post on this site. I'm not super good with words, but I hope this makes sense..

I was raised super religious, and I do believe in God.
I attempted once when I was younger, but I failed.

I never felt guilt before my first attempt, because (in my view) I was just looking for peace. I wasn't harming anyone, or at least I didn't think anyone in my life at the time would care. I didn't believe God would punish me for feeling like this.

However, since then I've been dealing with a lot of guilt and it's preventing me from making a decision on whether or not I should attempt again.

Specifically I've been feeling a lot of religious guilt. Part of the reason I was in a bad mental state the first time, was because I felt like a horrible person. I keep being told that God will hate me and that I'm "ungrateful" for the gift of life. I don't have any qualms about suicide other than this guilt. I just want to know how to deal with it.

Is anyone else feeling the same thing?

Personally I'm not religious, so I don't feel such guilt in this context.

However, if it helps: know that a truly loving God would never think negatively on one of its own creations unable to cope with the reality said God created.

 

[LaughingGoat]

I was raised super religious, and I do believe in God.

Which religion were you raised in?

 

[AprilsOrangeSpring]

Which religion were you raised in?

I'm not sure if I feel comfortable sharing that on here.. I'm sorry... Why though? I might be able to share that information without mentioning my religion idk

 

[Alltheywanted]

I'll just say I'm happy I got rid of it.

 

[Forveleth]

I was raised very Catholic and later converted to generic "Christian". While lots of preachers, teachers, and pastors have told me that suicide is "wrong", studying the Bible a bit has shown me again and again that God forgives all no matter what we do, which therefore has to include suicide. So, I have no guilt about it. I am forgiven no matter what. No exceptions.

I also believe that God is all powerful and all knowing, and if this wasn't somehow part of His plan for me, He would not allow me to die.

 

[AprilsOrangeSpring]

I was raised very Catholic and later converted to generic "Christian". While lots of preachers, teachers, and pastors have told me that suicide is "wrong", studying the Bible a bit has shown me again and again that God forgives all no matter what we do, which therefore has to include suicide. So, I have no guilt about it. I am forgiven no matter what. No exceptions.

I also believe that God is all powerful and all knowing, and if this wasn't somehow part of His plan for me, He would not allow me to die.

This is usually my view. Everyone around me keeps saying "God is forgiving and kind" until it comes to this. From my experience with God, he's taken mercy on me everytime I sinned because of my suffering, why would this be the exception?

I guess I just have to keep working through it, because there's still a part of me that's been brainwashed to believe that He could never forgive me.

 

[LaughingGoat]

I'm not sure if I feel comfortable sharing that on here.. I'm sorry... Why though? I might be able to share that information without mentioning my religion idk

No worries, just because different religions have a different "god" in the sense of how it acts and views humanity, as well as what are the parameters for eternal punishment. Even between the Abrahamic religions or different sects of one religion, there is too much variation in beliefs for anyone to answer this from a general theistic perspective.

 

[Lady Laudanum]

I was baptized when I was a kid. However, I renounced my religion when I was in my early teens. It was one of the best decisions I've ever made.