Is there anyone struggling with their religion?

[Kritish]

So, f*** the Church.

I love you.

 

[Logan's Runt]

I love you.

t::heart:

 

[Dope Nose]

GAH, faith should be a stuggle. You should constantly question and expand your beliefs. Anyone who just accepts what they are told is a simple automaton. The advantage you have is that you live in the information age and there are endless resources available to help you find answers. Just don't lose heart and stop believing in anything. Give it some time. God will find you.

what you're describing sounds like the exact opposite of faith.

 

[GoldenAgeHero]

Ever consider that the church might be, *gasp* wrong? Think for yourself man, whatever that leads you to think.

I've been questioning the role of church ever since i stopped going back in '03, I just don't want to feel like the black sheep of my family.

 

[Logan's Runt]

I've been questioning the role of church ever since i stopped going back in '03, I just don't want to feel like the black sheep of my family.

So, f*** your family.

 

[Kritish]

So, f*** your family.

Let's make babies.

 

[Kelly]

niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiccceee.....lol

 

[Logan's Runt]

Let's make babies.

So, f*** me. t:

 

[GoldenAgeHero]

So, f*** your family.

is that your answer for everything


seriously,im looking for wise advice woman

 

[Kritish]

is that your answer for everything


seriously,im looking for wise advice woman

Tell um your gay, they’ll forget that your going to hell because you don’t believe in god because they’ll think you’re going to because you pound ass.

 

[Logan's Runt]

is that your answer for everything


seriously,im looking for wise advice woman

Believe me, kiddo. Having been through religion struggles that turned into family struggles, and the whole nine yards... those two posts I just gave you are wise advice. You're never going to be happy with any path you take in life until you say f*** what anybody else says and walk the path that is right for you.

 

[GoldenAgeHero]

Believe me, kiddo. Having been through religion struggles that turned into family struggles, and the whole nine yards... those two posts I just gave you are wise advice. You're never going to be happy with any path you take in life until you say f*** what anybody else says and walk the path that is right for you.

heh,I find myself getting to that point. but what happened to you and your religious duel?

 

[Kritish]

heh,I find myself getting to that point. but what happened to you and your religious duel?

I don’t know about her parents but I still keep in contact with mine, we avoid the spiritual. They know that I’ll only set foot in a church for a wedding and that’s it.

 

[Logan's Runt]

heh,I find myself getting to that point. but what happened to you and your religious duel?

Oh, its still going on a bit, but its past the stormy part, if that makes any sense. I did a lot of religious study, both of Christianity and other religions (as they interest me very much) but as soon as I let go of the guilt associated with "abandonment," and was free to objectively analyze it, I found a lot of peace. I found a lot of mentors who had similar experiences within the churches, some who found places of peace within and some who had to leave.

I still haven't 'landed' in regards to religion but I've at least become confident that it's ok. I have my evolving ideas about the Ultimate and whatnot, but I refuse to let concern with Ultimate Reality cause me the pain it did when I was within the church- no one should live the way I did.

As far as family, I realized that either I'm incapable of properly explaining my ideas/beliefs or they are incapable or unwilling to accept that religion is more complicated for me than it is for them. Either way, I decided I wasn't going to let them put kinks in an already difficult journey. I had a long talk with the members of my family whose opinion mattered to me, explaining simply that I cannot explain right now what's going on, and that they need to either trust that I'm actively working on a solution, or I'd be forced to push them out of the way of where I was going.

 

[Symbiote Hulk]

I've had some problems, I try to keep my catholic faith...You guys might think I'm crazy but this is if you guys never thought about it.....

Makes you think, are we real?

Think about the Matrix. What if this isn't real...Some people believe that God created this universe and that he's watching us. What if that wasn't God, what if let's say Jesus wan't the son of god and was something else (Anything like an advanced alien, cyborg from the future, magician).

What if God lied, maybe he isn't the almighty, maybe there's someone even more superior to him, might be an evil God toying with us, then come down to earth and say: "I am God, guess what? I lied! I never gave a ***** about you guys! You're all *****ed! I'm sending an asteroid here in 23 hours!"

Another, idea. What if history was a lie? What if our elders or something else was covering things up to hide something. What if evolution was a big lie made by an organisatation, how do we know WW2 happened. How do we know Australia exists? WHat makes you think you're not part of an experiment where every single person in the world is studying you, watching every move you make. Maybe you part of a holigram. How do you know there's not a little sneaky gremlin in the back of you're head that always stays out of you're sight, that does not show up on mirrors and cameras and nobody told you that bastard was always behind you. If you tried to reach behind your head, it would simply dodge it or go through it.

How do we know stuff actually happenned on TV? Maybe it's just photoshopped by some Global CEO to keep the world from going to havoc....

I know this sounds like paranoia, and it's a bit depressing or something like that but when you think about it: ANYTHING is possible

So yeah, there's a big chance that there is a god, there's a big chance that there's none, and there's a big chance that it's something else.

 

[Logan's Runt]

So yeah, there's a big chance that there is a god, there's a big chance that there's none, and there's a big chance that it's something else.

My current idea is that whatever is out there- Ultimate Reality is my term for it- has to be more complicated than any religion can depict. What the bible says may be true but incapable of grasping the entirety and thus lead people astray. (Jewish Kabbalah struggles with this kind of concept in the idea of the ten Sephirot, or aspects of God.)

I mean, try to describe a fourth spatial dimension. (Exclude time as a possibility) You can't do it because you don't have a concept of any space but three dimensional space.

What I'm saying is, my idea of 'god' as you have it is a hands off approach, because to try and quantify an entity that is supposedly beyond human concept is to do injustice to that entity inherently. If god does exist, it is in a way we cannot conceive and should not concern ourselves trying.

 

[OctaviusINC]

SymbioteHulk, I know what you mean, but just trying to think that way pretty much makes me insane. Even if that's true, whatever, enjoy life, even if it's a giant matrix hologram.

I used to be religious(Christian) when I was a child. When I was 5 or 6, I was curious about religion and prayed everynight to a virgin mary statue in my room. Once I remember, after church I prayed to their Mary statue, and their were flowers placed in front of her. When I layed out my hands, 2 pedels slowly fell and landed perfectly in the center of my hands. Now I don't know if that meant anything, but it made me believe more for some reason.

Years passed and I'm simply not very religious anymore. I don't have any holy statues or prayer cards or anything like that. I was raised by a single mother, so growing up was rough, and every relative my mother and I seemed to have were simply dying(I lost my aunt, uncle, grandmother, and even my dog in about 6 months) My mother would pray and cry every night to God. Nothing came but death. So I just stopped believing. I figured if I wanted something done, I gotta do it myself. God isn't going to help me. Only I could help myself.

So as "after school special" as this may sound: I don't believe in God, I believe in me. I strived for good grades, I got a job, I bought a car, I went to college to make myself a successful person. So far, I'm doing great. No worshipping included. Though I do believe there's something more, well, I'll be sure to find out when I'm dead. But for now, I'm gonna live.

 

[Super Kal]

to be honest, I did in 2004... struggled almost the entire year, and near the end of the year, I had planned to commit suicide at the end of the week. Those last 3 days of the week really changed my life around through my family and personal life... had some extremely personal connection to my God on the third day, and I decided not to kill myself... He showed Himself again through my father the next morning.

Since then, my faith has never been stronger than it is now.

 

[GoldenAgeHero]

My current idea is that whatever is out there- Ultimate Reality is my term for it- has to be more complicated than any religion can depict. What the bible says may be true but incapable of grasping the entirety and thus lead people astray. (Jewish Kabbalah struggles with this kind of concept in the idea of the ten Sephirot, or aspects of God.)

I mean, try to describe a fourth spatial dimension. (Exclude time as a possibility) You can't do it because you don't have a concept of any space but three dimensional space.

What I'm saying is, my idea of 'god' as you have it is a hands off approach, because to try and quantify an entity that is supposedly beyond human concept is to do injustice to that entity inherently. If god does exist, it is in a way we cannot conceive and should not concern ourselves trying.

but what if god wanted to simplify his being and his role in our lives,would'nt he choose to make it easier for us to understand who he is and his purpose with us?


you do make sense,something i never understood tho was th epeople who wrote the bible,saying that what they wrote were the words of god said to him by god himself. now how can man who are imperfect say such a thing? is it possible for one to believe in god and some how hear him speak?

 

[Logan's Runt]

but what if god wanted to simplify his being and his role in our lives,would'nt he choose to make it easier for us to understand who he is and his purpose with us?


you do make sense,something i never understood tho was th epeople who wrote the bible,saying that what they wrote were the words of god said to him by god himself. now how can man who are imperfect say such a thing? is it possible for one to believe in god and some how hear him speak?

In my idea, the way that the Ultimate is involved in the world as we know it is very different from traditional ideas. I don't even perceive of god as a person figure. I don't think of the Ultimate as having 'thoughts' or 'emotions' specifically. Maybe I stray into eastern religions here... more... the universe wants goodness, in general. Less concern with people knowing god as they know a friend/king/whatever, but people understanding how the universe functions insofar as their part in it, and the differences they make by their choices.

A big issue I have with religion is the need to define and quantify everything, which is probably why I'm most comfortable outside a belief structure. The god that I believe in wouldn't be overly concerned about people's perception of the entity 'god' -- wouldn't be that vain. That god would be alright with some people not thinking it existed at all, as long as they could conceive that their actions effect others. That god would be concerned with sentient beings choosing to live positively instead of negatively, so in that sense would have desire, I suppose. It all gets very mucky. But its a lot like a dream, these concepts. If you think about solidifying them too much, they disappear, but if you relax and muse about them, they lead to more and more areas of exploration.

In short, its ok to theorize.

 

[Logan's Runt]

you do make sense,something i never understood tho was th epeople who wrote the bible,saying that what they wrote were the words of god said to him by god himself. now how can man who are imperfect say such a thing? is it possible for one to believe in god and some how hear him speak?

I don't put any Truth value on what's in the bible, personally, so I can't say much to that. But I would venture that my concept of Ultimate Reality would jive with the idea of people writing the bible through inspiration- people can become wise to some ultimate truths in the universe, absolutely, and could write it down. I just don't think the bible is an example of that, on the whole.

 

[S_H_F_4839]

I believe in God, I believe in Jesus, I do not believe in what the church has turned into this day and age. Its run like a business with no feeling, or empathy for our world today.

I agree with this post, this is the main reason I stopped attending church, when it changed from lets help people to lets help ourselves I lost interest in the attending church part, I still have faith and believe but, I think if Jesus returned He would give the modern day church a good kick in the pants.

 

[Ghostvirus]

I agree with this post, this is the main reason I stopped attending church, when it changed from lets help people to lets help ourselves I lost interest in the attending church part, I still have faith and believe but, I think if Jesus returned He would give the modern day church a good kick in the pants.

The last church service that I attended wouldn't let people that weren't paying members participate in communion.

Evidentely the body, & blood of Christ now comes with fee.

 

[S_H_F_4839]

The last church service that I attended wouldn't let people that weren't paying members participate in communion.

Evidentely the body, & blood of Christ now comes with fee.

The last one I attended you would get looks if you didn't put money in the plate when it was passed to you. There was actually a guy that got kicked out of church for taking money out of the plate when it was passed to him.

 

[GoldenAgeHero]

In my idea, the way that the Ultimate is involved in the world as we know it is very different from traditional ideas. I don't even perceive of god as a person figure. I don't think of the Ultimate as having 'thoughts' or 'emotions' specifically. Maybe I stray into eastern religions here... more... the universe wants goodness, in general. Less concern with people knowing god as they know a friend/king/whatever, but people understanding how the universe functions insofar as their part in it, and the differences they make by their choices.


In short, its ok to theorize.

sounds as if the universe is self-aware in a way,but what isour funtion in the universe tho?