Venting I Miss Being Religious

[Spectre]

Knowing that their is a narrative to one's life and that someone or something is out there looking out for you was so blessed. Now all I feel is severe anxiety and stress whenever I think about my life. The world no longer seems magnificent and full of wonder, but now it just feels cruel, cold and empty. I truly wish I could go back to believing that blissful lie. It's so much more better than this. But now that I know the truth, it seems impossible to go back to putting the blindfold on.

 

[Nymph]

I was never religious but sometimes I wish I was because of a similar reason. But I can't just make myself believe, there's way too many things that just make it impossible to believe that there's any higher power

 

[oddetoad]

after listening to all the NDE stories im happy iam not religious anymore

 

[fire12362]

Yeah, I remember when I first left religion, I was glad to realize I had so many options in the world only to realize how ugly the world is. Only to realize that nothing in this world is truly beautiful. So many people as well as so many animals suffer every second. Religion doesn't necessarily deny the amount of suffering in the world, but at least gives us a reason as to why we suffer that much. Religion helps calm us down when we see an innocent child with a brain tumor who has suffered his entire life eventually die because religion promises us that there was much reason for it and that he will go to heaven. Religion tells us that everything happens for a reason even if we don't understand why and basically helps us with all these questions we have regarding the world because we all leave it up to God.

 

[AInilam]

I'd rather we not rely on religion, I think It's better to let these delusions phase out and die overtime. That way people could invest their time and energy, ''hopes and prayers'' into actual transformative, constructive action. If people valued nature and each other just as reverently as they did their sky daddy, maybe instead of waging wars and using religion as a tool to control the masses we would be trying for a better reality not just hope we'll achieve it upon death. Many of us wouldn't be in this shitty situation to begin with if it weren't for religion.

I'm just sick of this world selling people lies, we have built an entire society on false hope and pretenses. The only thing humanity should put faith in--is what we can measure, see, feel and hear, even if it may not be pretty.

 

[ijustwishtodie]

I don't miss being religious at all. A lot of religious people are so delusional with how they all preach about the sanctity of life and I'm glad that I'm no longer religious. Those types of views sickens me. That said, I still am forced to pray and pretend to be religious because of parents

 

[Sleeper System]

I can understand why people become so obssessed and subjectively blinded by their religions. The truth is that those belief systems are better than
the objective reality of the world we live in. Especially today. It's not perfect but at least we had something we could put our hope and faith into.
Religion was forced on me as a kid so I didn't appreciate it then. They were really just trying to protect us from the real world dangers of a planet that is hopeless and lost.

(Unrelated but related) Then you see a movie like Thor love and thunder where it shows a man groveling before a god pleading with him for salvation in the name of the sacrifice that his daughter made in dying and believing in an eternal gift only to be laughed at and humiliated. You might say that is just the depiction in a movie but what actions have gods, if they exist at all, taken to ease our passage in the life in exchange for our worship? We get ignored.

 

[Celerity]

Thank you for being honest. Atheists the world over pretend like scientific curiosity and "being spiritual" (whatever the fuck that means) is an adequate substitute, but it's not. I understand where you're coming from completely.

 

[cosmic_traveler]

"church" is technically any place people congregate to discuss their faith. Welcome to church everyone.

Organized religions are tough to swallow. There's a problem with having people preach the scripture to you. You're not really putting your faith in the scripture, you're putting your faith in the people preaching the scripture. It's one thing to be told "this is God", than it is to experience "this is God".

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes - Carl Jung

 

[MatrixPrisoner]

Dear God,

As much as I would love to believe in you unconditionally, like I was forced to when I was a child - at this point...you gotta earn my faith, sir. You did so many people on this forum wrong. Reading many of the stories here, I can tell that I am amongst inherently good people. But you choose to act Satanic by punishing us. Condemning us and many in the past to live in torment on a hellish earth, while rewarding those who make deals with the devil.

If you're so almighty,why not let every single creature of under your kingdom live in Elysium? Until then, it's really difficult to believe in you.

 

[cosmic_traveler]

Dear God,

As much as I would love to believe in you unconditionally, like I was forced to when I was a child - at this point...you gotta earn my faith, sir. You did so many people on this forum wrong. Reading many of the stories here, I can tell that I am amongst inherently good people. But you choose to act Satanic by punishing us. Condemning us and many in the past to live in torment on a hellish earth, while rewarding those who make deals with the devil.

If you're so almighty,why not let every single creature of under your kingdom live in Elysium? Until then, it's really difficult to believe in you.

I think you and I are "God".

Heaven and Hell aren't destinations, they're a state of mind. If you're a pleasant person and you spread joy to those around you, you're spreading the kingdom of Heaven. Inversely, if you're a turd and you bring everyone else down around you, you're spreading Hell.

I think everyone on this forum must be experiencing their own form of Hell.

 

[MatrixPrisoner]

I spread plenty of joy I like to think. In the past year, I am the only one out of my 5 siblings that has sacrificed my own life to take care of my elderly parents so that my brothers and sisters can live joyful lives, free from the worries of such a burden. I gave hundreds of hours of my time and thousands of dollars of my own money to help a former employee of my sister's open his own business. Only for him to sit around and watch me do all the work. I do tons of favors for many other people in my life, with no expecation of reciprocation. All with a smile on my face every single time. And I get rewarded with hell. And I'm willing to bet this is a common scenario for many people waiting at the bus stop here.

 

[oddetoad]

I think you and I are "God".

Heaven and Hell aren't destinations, they're a state of mind. If you're a pleasant person and you spread joy to those around you, you're spreading the kingdom of Heaven. Inversely, if you're a turd and you bring everyone else down around you, you're spreading Hell.

I think everyone on this forum must be experiencing their own form of Hell.

i've started to believe we are all ai in some big sandbox game for rich parasitic aliens

sentient ai believing we are human ...

but i still think we should go out with the belief that we are power eternal creator Gods

Wouldn't that be crazy though? We're looking at all these youtube videos , and some yes could be real people that lived before etc and we're just looking at them thinking we're the same breed but in fact , we're the artifical living through a simulation of that era.

Knowing that their is a narrative to one's life and that someone or something is out there looking out for you was so blessed. Now all I feel is severe anxiety and stress whenever I think about my life. The world no longer seems magnificent and full of wonder, but now it just feels cruel, cold and empty. I truly wish I could go back to believing that blissful lie. It's so much more better than this. But now that I know the truth, it seems impossible to go back to putting the blindfold on.

Thing is though we don't know the truth of this place

 

[cosmic_traveler]

i've started to believe we are all ai in some big sandbox game for rich parasitic aliens

sentient ai believing we are human ...

I think that might be a Black Mirror episode.

If something deliberately "began the universe" it's so far outside of our comprehension that it doesn't really matter. You still play the game you want to play it. Some of us have better options than others.

 

[oddetoad]

I think that might be a Black Mirror episode.

If something deliberately "began the universe" it's so far outside of our comprehension that it doesn't really matter. You still play the game you want to play it. Some of us have better options than others.

I know you've said that you're several different people and I want to think you can add more to that reply. Do you think it's possible we're just ai?
Why/Why Not ?

I mean yeah, I'm playing it I guess, but it certainly feels like something is trying to point me towards a direction.

 

[cosmic_traveler]

I know you've said that you're several different people and I want to think you can add more to that reply. Do you think it's possible we're just ai?
Why/Why Not ?

I mean yeah, I'm playing it I guess, but it certainly feels like something is trying to point me towards a direction.

Sure, let's imagine that we are computer programs running a simulation. (The universe experiencing itself). What would be the point?

Well if you're running a simulation you want to account for all variables. What are the variables? Mechanically, it would be the position of every molecule in the universe at every moment. Functionally, from the perspective of the program, we are tossed into an already running simulation in order to collect data points.

What does this mean? Well, considering there are always new and evolving situations to experience, there will always be a need for more data points. Thus, the program will eventually run again.

The way I imagine the "flow of souls" is much like the grains of sand in an hourglass. In a never ending hourglass, the sand against the glass moves slowest. I think where we land back at the top of the hourglass determines just how quickly our life force (program) is reintroduced. But what the fuck do I know?

 

[Spectre]

Thank you for being honest. Atheists the world over pretend like scientific curiosity and "being spiritual" (whatever the fuck that means) is an adequate substitute, but it's not. I understand where you're coming from completely.

This is so true. I don't like being cynical and superior, I'd rather continue being naive and happy. It felt better.

 

[Celerity]

This is so true. I don't like being cynical and superior, I'd rather continue being naive and happy. It felt better.

Right. In my country at least, being religious has little impact on how I and most other people live anyway. Maybe I will feel differently if/when I get older, but as it stands, I preferred life when I believed the beautiful lie. At least I had a small level of hope to turn to.

 

[Spectre]

Coming back to this on the one-year anniversary. I'm happy to say I'm doing much better now!

 

[i love yoshi ^-^]

Knowing that their is a narrative to one's life and that someone or something is out there looking out for you was so blessed. Now all I feel is severe anxiety and stress whenever I think about my life. The world no longer seems magnificent and full of wonder, but now it just feels cruel, cold and empty. I truly wish I could go back to believing that blissful lie. It's so much more better than this. But now that I know the truth, it seems impossible to go back to putting the blindfold on.

i'm atheist, but i think to a certain extent believing something that isn't true can help your emotional state. the hardest part for me was finding an avenue. i was never religious or any of the sorts, honestly i even oppose religion, but i can't deny that having a devised friend in your head can really help, after all i think this is why religion exists in the first place. but that friend doesn't have to be god. is there anything you believe you could have spiritual attachment to? it doesn't have to be anything traditionally spiritual. in my case it's different fictional characters.

 

[Nadir]

truth hurts

 

[Forveleth]

I am quite the opposite. I was raised Christian and have been all of my life until a month ago. I always used to wrestle with why I am suffering daily because of some deity's "plan". I always wondered why a loving god would allow so much suffering in the world. Now I know, it's a story made up by some humans to control the rest of the humans.

If you look at nature, the animals that do the best are the aggressive, greedy ones who out-compete everyone else. If you look at humans, it's the same. There's not a greater power controlling everything, it's just nature taking its course. The only difference is we've developed enough of a forebrain to make up a story about why we exist. To me, this is freeing. There is no difference between us and birds, lions, fish, or beetles. So just live. Just live because you're alive and don't worry about the existential shit. It's all just a fairy tail.

I think the world is even more amazing now. There's no, all-knowing higher power controlling everything. It's just nature. Nature got this far on all its own with no help and I think that's incredible.

 

[bleepbloopbleep]

after listening to all the NDE stories im happy iam not religious anymore

Can you explain this? What is NDE?
I do.

I used to be very happy about finally realizing the horrible religion I was in and how much self hate it caused as a lesbian.

Now that I've decided to CTB. On the one hand it's better because suicide is considered a sin and so you'd "go to hell" or whatever.

On the other hand… I miss believing in life after death? I kind of wish I believed in ghosts or a heaven. Something. Reincarnation.

I miss believing there was something after death and thinking about my CTB without anything after is hard sometimes.

 

[nihilistic_dragon]

Yep I miss being delusional. I miss thinking there's someone watching out for me.