To become irreligious: a paradigm shift.

[Trailblazer]

The biggest hurting was abandoning Jesus. Twenty years without Jesus, who I loved as a kid. Now, I'm reading the bible again and I feel returning to Jesus.

I was not raised as a Christian or in any religion so I never believed in God or Jesus. I became a Baha'i in my first year of college but I was never very religious or close to God and that is a long story.

Suffice to say that never read one page of the Bible until I started posting on forums about nine years ago and I never thought much about Jesus until I started posting to Christians on forums. After that I had to read parts of the Bible in order to engage in discussions and debates, so I have read parts of the Bible.

Why I have a heartfelt connection to Jesus I cannot really say, but I do, because in times of trouble I always cry out to Jesus and God. Perhaps one reason for these feelings is what Baha'u'llah wrote about Jesus, which sums up my thoughts and feelings about Jesus and what I believe was His mission.

Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 86

 

[syo]

Why I have a heartfelt connection to Jesus I cannot really say, but I do, because in times of trouble I always cry out to Jesus and God.

I did that as a kid. When at age 20 I stopped believing in Jesus in order to become atheist, I withered.

 

[Trailblazer]

I did that as a kid. When at age 20 I stopped believing in Jesus in order to become atheist, I withered.

Did you make a free will choice to 'become' an atheist, or did you just stop believing in Jesus?
Even if I wanted to become an atheist I could not 'choose' to become an atheist since I believe in God, Jesus, and the other Messengers of God.

 

[syo]

Did you make a free will choice to 'become' an atheist, or did you just stop believing in Jesus?
Even if I wanted to become an atheist I could not 'choose' to become an atheist since I believe in God, Jesus, and the other Messengers of God.

free will. i thought then that that was proper to do, since atheism was consider logical.

 

[danieldemol]

@Xavier Graham SA I have been in a similar situation to you, because I no longer believe God intervenes in the material realm.

It made praying pointless, and yet I still found it comforting.

So I just indulge myself when I feel the need for a little comfort then go back to planning how to rise above my situation.

Over time I have felt the need less, but still do it when it suits me, after all an indifferent God allows us room for a little harmless self indulgence here and there.

In my opinion.

 

[Trailblazer]

free will. i thought then that that was proper to do, since atheism was consider logical.

I do not think atheism is any more logical than theism.
Either one can be justified but neither one can be proven true or false.

 

[nPeace]

I am in a stressful situation.
So, I tried meditating, as I do. Usually, though, I would meditate in the presence of the Trinity imagined before me. I’d meditate to all three of them individually, and then all three of them combined, open up and chakras and stuff. Presently, I’m considering becoming a deist. I was saddened that I was no longer having that perceived intimate connection with God. I just did a simple breathing meditation in its place.
Later on that day, I was still stressed. Instinctively, I got on my knees to pray and beg Jesus Christ for help. Then I remembered. I’m not sure I believe. Well shoot, so I prayed a pathetic prayer “Jesus, if you are real, stop me from becoming an apostate and help me out please!” That’s all I prayed, usually I’ll spend a lot more time in prayer.
I got up and realized what I had to do in lieu of praying. I had to craft a plan. I had to proceed with caution. I had to think for myself! I had to get myself out of this situation. My whole life, I have just prayed for help and then trusted that God would take care of it. Haphazardly have I plowed through existence, assuming God has saved me time and time again. I have near death experiences, times where I’ve called out God to save my life, and I did not die. Surely, I thought, God is real. I have to accept I am still here due to what man calls luck, and not God. Absolutely terrifying.
I’m just beginning to realize that it is a paradigm shift going from a theistic belief system to one that is not theistic. It is not a switch I can just turn off.

If you are sincere at heart, humble, and thirsting for the truth, God will answer you, and draw you to him. If not...

 

[Subduction Zone]

If you are sincere at heart, humble, and thirsting for the truth, God will answer you, and draw you to him. If not...

That claim appears to be false. There are countless ex-Christians that did this and were not answered. By the way, this is an evil example of "Blame the victim" ideology,.

 

[rational experiences]

When you realise planet earth and it's natural heavens a human's assessment and human word use inference was God. God didn't do it to you.

So the fear of life is seen as humans doing all purpose as a human. Knowing every human problem is owned by greedy rich lying human men.

Just humans like the rest of us. But feeling powerful by owned human conditions.

We have no control whatsoever over them. Never did.

So we meditate as a self knowing our life is self control. We know it is and we live it and we apply it by choice.

The choice control yourself first not others was why religious practice was honoured by so many humans.

 

[Brian2]

I am in a stressful situation.
So, I tried meditating, as I do. Usually, though, I would meditate in the presence of the Trinity imagined before me. I’d meditate to all three of them individually, and then all three of them combined, open up and chakras and stuff. Presently, I’m considering becoming a deist. I was saddened that I was no longer having that perceived intimate connection with God. I just did a simple breathing meditation in its place.
Later on that day, I was still stressed. Instinctively, I got on my knees to pray and beg Jesus Christ for help. Then I remembered. I’m not sure I believe. Well shoot, so I prayed a pathetic prayer “Jesus, if you are real, stop me from becoming an apostate and help me out please!” That’s all I prayed, usually I’ll spend a lot more time in prayer.
I got up and realized what I had to do in lieu of praying. I had to craft a plan. I had to proceed with caution. I had to think for myself! I had to get myself out of this situation. My whole life, I have just prayed for help and then trusted that God would take care of it. Haphazardly have I plowed through existence, assuming God has saved me time and time again. I have near death experiences, times where I’ve called out God to save my life, and I did not die. Surely, I thought, God is real. I have to accept I am still here due to what man calls luck, and not God. Absolutely terrifying.
I’m just beginning to realize that it is a paradigm shift going from a theistic belief system to one that is not theistic. It is not a switch I can just turn off.

Maybe you are like the drowning man who calls to God for help and refuses to grab a life buoy thrown to him from a ship because he is waiting on God to save him.

 

[InChrist]

I am in a stressful situation.
So, I tried meditating, as I do. Usually, though, I would meditate in the presence of the Trinity imagined before me. I’d meditate to all three of them individually, and then all three of them combined, open up and chakras and stuff. Presently, I’m considering becoming a deist. I was saddened that I was no longer having that perceived intimate connection with God. I just did a simple breathing meditation in its place.
Later on that day, I was still stressed. Instinctively, I got on my knees to pray and beg Jesus Christ for help. Then I remembered. I’m not sure I believe. Well shoot, so I prayed a pathetic prayer “Jesus, if you are real, stop me from becoming an apostate and help me out please!” That’s all I prayed, usually I’ll spend a lot more time in prayer.
I got up and realized what I had to do in lieu of praying. I had to craft a plan. I had to proceed with caution. I had to think for myself! I had to get myself out of this situation. My whole life, I have just prayed for help and then trusted that God would take care of it. Haphazardly have I plowed through existence, assuming God has saved me time and time again. I have near death experiences, times where I’ve called out God to save my life, and I did not die. Surely, I thought, God is real. I have to accept I am still here due to what man calls luck, and not God. Absolutely terrifying.
I’m just beginning to realize that it is a paradigm shift going from a theistic belief system to one that is not theistic. It is not a switch I can just turn off.

It does appear you are in quite a predicament. It’s not like you are completely ignorant concerning God and who Jesus Christ is or that you don’t know the gospel or truth from Gods word. Many have known, at least on an intellectual level, yet have turned away. The dilemma is, then what...or where do you go? How does one replace the Living Creator of heaven and earth?

From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?”
But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” John 6:66-69

 

[Clara Tea]

I am in a stressful situation.
So, I tried meditating, as I do. Usually, though, I would meditate in the presence of the Trinity imagined before me. I’d meditate to all three of them individually, and then all three of them combined, open up and chakras and stuff. Presently, I’m considering becoming a deist. I was saddened that I was no longer having that perceived intimate connection with God. I just did a simple breathing meditation in its place.
Later on that day, I was still stressed. Instinctively, I got on my knees to pray and beg Jesus Christ for help. Then I remembered. I’m not sure I believe. Well shoot, so I prayed a pathetic prayer “Jesus, if you are real, stop me from becoming an apostate and help me out please!” That’s all I prayed, usually I’ll spend a lot more time in prayer.
I got up and realized what I had to do in lieu of praying. I had to craft a plan. I had to proceed with caution. I had to think for myself! I had to get myself out of this situation. My whole life, I have just prayed for help and then trusted that God would take care of it. Haphazardly have I plowed through existence, assuming God has saved me time and time again. I have near death experiences, times where I’ve called out God to save my life, and I did not die. Surely, I thought, God is real. I have to accept I am still here due to what man calls luck, and not God. Absolutely terrifying.
I’m just beginning to realize that it is a paradigm shift going from a theistic belief system to one that is not theistic. It is not a switch I can just turn off.

Sometimes I meditate to contemplate the depths of my own stupidity (wow...that runs deep).

Earlier today, I knew that a car was going to go past me very fast and that I should not change lanes. About a couple of minutes later a car went by at about 120 miles per hour in a 40 mph zone. If I had changed lanes, I would have had an accident. When I thought of the car speeding, there was no way that I could see or perceive the car. So, what caused me to sense the car coming? God? Some intelligence in the universe? My own brain sensing a future event?

Some people's reasons for believing in God don't seem to make sense. But, there is something weird out there, and I cannot explain it. I am a scientist, and it goes against everything that I was taught. Yet, I must believe in ESP, because I have no choice. Events like this keep happening to me. If ESP is real, why can't God exist? Maybe God is real?

 

[Clara Tea]

Maybe you are like the drowning man who calls to God for help and refuses to grab a life buoy thrown to him from a ship because he is waiting on God to save him.

Well, if they hadn't tossed an anchor, he would have grabbed it.

 

[Rival]

Must you throw out the Biblical God wholesale?

 

[Brian2]

I am in a stressful situation.
So, I tried meditating, as I do. Usually, though, I would meditate in the presence of the Trinity imagined before me. I’d meditate to all three of them individually, and then all three of them combined, open up and chakras and stuff. Presently, I’m considering becoming a deist. I was saddened that I was no longer having that perceived intimate connection with God. I just did a simple breathing meditation in its place.
Later on that day, I was still stressed. Instinctively, I got on my knees to pray and beg Jesus Christ for help. Then I remembered. I’m not sure I believe. Well shoot, so I prayed a pathetic prayer “Jesus, if you are real, stop me from becoming an apostate and help me out please!” That’s all I prayed, usually I’ll spend a lot more time in prayer.
I got up and realized what I had to do in lieu of praying. I had to craft a plan. I had to proceed with caution. I had to think for myself! I had to get myself out of this situation. My whole life, I have just prayed for help and then trusted that God would take care of it. Haphazardly have I plowed through existence, assuming God has saved me time and time again. I have near death experiences, times where I’ve called out God to save my life, and I did not die. Surely, I thought, God is real. I have to accept I am still here due to what man calls luck, and not God. Absolutely terrifying.
I’m just beginning to realize that it is a paradigm shift going from a theistic belief system to one that is not theistic. It is not a switch I can just turn off.

It is not a switch you can just turn off and it can be scary to realise that you feel as if your faith is slipping away. God can take care of you even when you feel like this.
At this point you can embrace your new found lack of faith feeling and maybe slip out of belief and jump off Christ's hand. Some people do that I hear.
I advise you to turn back and choose to believe even if you don't feel the faith as you may be used to feeling it.
Jumping off will usually come with taking on other beliefs, such as deism, but the experience of faith is not always the same on the journey and the reality of Jesus should not be discarded too easily.
Job's wife advised Job to curse God and die, but he did not and God drew Him closer in the end.

 

[an anarchist]

Must you throw out the Biblical God wholesale?

I’ve always believed the whole Bible to be literal. I’ve asked around on this site a bit about knowing when something is not supposed to be literal, but it don’t make sense to me. If I can’t believe the whole thing to be the literal word of God, I can’t just accept some of it. It doesn’t make sense to me Christians who are Christians and believe the Bible to be allegory. Is Jesus’ death supposed to be just an allegory too? But, obviously I’m missing something as most Christians are not literalists.
I am extreme I’m my thinking in all things, so if I’m not a 100% literalist, well I guess I must throw out the Biblical God wholesale. I don’t understand how I can partially throw out God.

 

[Rival]

I’ve always believed the whole Bible to be literal. I’ve asked around on this site a bit about knowing when something is not supposed to be literal, but it don’t make sense to me. If I can’t believe the whole thing to be the literal word of God, I can’t just accept some of it. It doesn’t make sense to me Christians who are Christians and believe the Bible to be allegory. Is Jesus’ death supposed to be just an allegory too? But, obviously I’m missing something as most Christians are not literalists.
I am extreme I’m my thinking in all things, so if I’m not a 100% literalist, well I guess I must throw out the Biblical God wholesale. I don’t understand how I can partially throw out God.

I mean, must you be a Christian? Are there no Jewish interpretations you can go with, or just do your own thing?

 

[an anarchist]

I mean, must you be a Christian? Are there no Jewish interpretations you can go with, or just do your own thing?

Well I’d like to think I’m just trying to hit a reset button. I’m open to Yahweh being real. But I’m also open to Him not being real. I’ll have to study Jewish interpretations, as well as continue studying religion elsewhere, in my search for God.

 

[Subduction Zone]

I’ve always believed the whole Bible to be literal. I’ve asked around on this site a bit about knowing when something is not supposed to be literal, but it don’t make sense to me. If I can’t believe the whole thing to be the literal word of God, I can’t just accept some of it. It doesn’t make sense to me Christians who are Christians and believe the Bible to be allegory. Is Jesus’ death supposed to be just an allegory too? But, obviously I’m missing something as most Christians are not literalists.
I am extreme I’m my thinking in all things, so if I’m not a 100% literalist, well I guess I must throw out the Biblical God wholesale. I don’t understand how I can partially throw out God.

The problem with claiming that the whole Bible is to be taken literally is because that is one of the fastest roads to atheism.

I don't think any Christian takes the Bible100% literally.

 

[The Hammer]

Must you throw out the Biblical God wholesale?

Yes. The abusive father role is. Is a bad look for any God.