Relationship with God? An unbeliever's questions...

[Rainagain]

I can imagine everyone on here having a Sherry in real life somewhere when the god who makes all happen pops in all smiling and friendly.

Be like an old cowboy film, trouble in the saloon!

Made me laugh anyway....
.

[micmacin]

I too have been searching for the truth.  I was raised Catholic and while I still take comfort in some aspects of the Gospel, the hypocrisy lead me to study " Comparative Religion."  I soon came to the conclusion that any one Religion only had part of the truth.  I believe together we might get closer to the truth, like the strength of corded rope but, in the middle and not at its frayed end!  I too believe that there is a higher source, a Devine I guess but, our ability to grasp this knowledge is embedded somewhere in the part of our brain that we don't use!! 
So, what do I believe in?  For now, without a shadow of a doubt, I believe in the power of LOVE and that's it!!!!    Amen

[Rainagain]

In the words of a song I like....

'There are no gods and precious few heroes'

But kindness, or love or something like that would certainly get my vote.

[Rainagain]

Not sure I can square love and kindness with my instinct, which is 'Bash the unkind'

Might get it on a T shirt.

Might start a new religion.

Probably won't.

[ah]

Not sure I can square love and kindness with my instinct, which is 'Bash the unkind'

You know what, I think maybe they fit together very well. You aren't about to get a T shirt that says 'Ridicule the kind' any time soon, right? Kindness is a topic that engages you, whether it's there or it's missing you think about it as something that exists and is worth mentioning.

A person who's unkind doesn't, in my unhappy experience they see kind impulses as pathetic and to be bashed, not even worth a mention. When someone is unkind they enjoy it, with no urge to intervene unless it's to make matters worse for everyone.

Might start a new religion.

Probably won't.

If you do, please make it a hilarious one. Dark, beyond ridiculous, and beyond redemption. 

P.S. You could be a prophet. You've already got the big mad hair and beard.

[Rainagain]

Ah,

I had to lose the beard, and the luxurious eyebrows as my younger daughter visited and got upset, 'Dad, you look like a homeless person!'

Her boyfriend has a beard, but mine was the feral version of what he has.

It was a bit raggedy to be honest, I regret not having a better beard growing gene, but there it is.

I've been chuckling to myself about 'bash the unkind'

It could be a rock band, or a viking name like Odin one eye.

If I had a second t shirt it wouldn't ever be 'ridicule the kind', might be 'I have issues'

Or 'mostly harmless'

Today I should be wearing 'bad day, please back away slowly and avoid too much eye contact'

I've discovered I've basically been done over by yet another person and I'm struggling with that knowledge today.

Where was my hyper vigilance when I needed it? Makes a right fuss most of the time but let's me down when it could be useful......

[Erebor]

  Rainagain, thank you for your funny comments - they made me smile. Bash the unkind, indeed.

[Erebor]

I think my boat is most like Woodsgnome's, a lot of my CPTSD comes from the so-called Christian stuff I lived through. I say so-called because there's many different ways for abusers to twist the Bible into something that lets them get away with literally anything, and if one is not lucky an entire church can get behind them.  In my experience abusers (and enablers to a maybe lesser extent) look much more like super-duper perfect God-fearing Christians than the honest people in churches do.  My NPD-F was beloved by our cultic church... and I am rapidly losing my ability to say semi-nice things about them all. Quite angry. Would like to call them names. Horrible people giving kids forced baptisms and exorcisms.

Anyway, onto something less triggering.

I always tried very hard to be a devout believer, but I've come to realise that the foundation for my 'faith' isn' faith. It's fear of doing the wrong thing, being punished, being 'bad'.  So I came to the conclusion that I'd need to let go of it, because if the God of the Bible IS real, then as a God of love he wouldn't want me to be living out a fake relationship based on fear.  I also can admit now that I don't really have any sense of a relationship with him, although some pretty miraculous things happened that helped me get away from FOO and at the time I used them to bolster my sense of God being there. But remembering them doesn't really help me much now, in somehow 'making' a spiritual relationship happen.

I'd quite like to build a stone circle, or something like that... but I'm scared of facing spiritual doom for 'doing the wrong thing' and engaging in something 'pagan'. This is all very engrained in me.

Anyway, best wishes to everyone.

[woodsgnome]

Recently I've discovered some fascinating takes on the story behind most religions, but rather than try and go there, I'd just like to point out 2 books that are packed with sage advice on how to still take religion/spirituality somewhat seriously but with a much lighter, and to me far more sensible, tone on topics that have been mangled in the hands of the narcissist sorts of control freaks found in too many churches and most cults. The books:

1. HOLY RASCALS: Advice for Spiritual Revolutionaries, by Rami Shapiro...down-to-earth practical (and sometimes hilarious) look at finding spiritual depth while not getting trapped in the parts that denigrate common sense and are abused by church 'authorities'.

2. CRAZY WISDOM, by Wes Nisker. An excellent overview--well, okay, a romp, really--through a wide variety of Eastern/Western sages, holy fools, tricksters, and more. Like Shapiro's approach, this is a great way to see past the furrowed brows of the religious elite whose ultra-holiness is so twisted that it barely resembles what they say they're about.

There are more, but these two stand out for their originality and light-hearted but well-grounded approach as they, and their readers, search for what really matters while avoiding the traps of the holy bullies who dominate the scene.