What do you REALLY believe?

[the last yatto]

my point

[Eve]

Is it weird that I sort of wish I did believe in something, even though it's silly/stupid/total bullshit? 

No, after I stopped actively practising Catholicism, I felt like I should be practising something. But trying to force myself to believe a specific set of something didn't/can't work either. Now, although I occassionally feel "naked" without some sort of spiritual package to wrap myself in ("Catholic guilt" coming back to haunt me or some such thing), I've pretty much come to terms with the fact that trying to believe something is even more pointless and empty than believing in something that may or may not be real.

Yes, this exactly.

[East Coast Hustle]

I admit, the need to have some sort of universal meaning/higher consciousness/personal essence/whatever is completely mystifying to me.

Isn't life amazing enough and interesting enough as it is?

[trippinprincezz13]

I admit, the need to have some sort of universal meaning/higher consciousness/personal essence/whatever is completely mystifying to me.

Isn't life amazing enough and interesting enough as it is?

I'm more in line with this sort of thinking now (not that I didn't believe that before, but there were also religious under/overtones), but having been raised in a religious family setting, there is still some residual need for spirituality/religion I need to shake off.

[hooplala]

In my family we never discussed religion.  It just never came up.

I remember when I was about six, taking a tour of a church and having my mom finally explain what that crucifixion business was all about.


So yeah, I don't really have any sense of spirituality or belief.  It's just not a big deal.

Mine too.  My sister and I got sent to Sunday School, but just so my parents could fuck on Sunday mornings.  They didn't care what we learned there.

Although my dad WAS somewhat horrified when I told him at 14 that I didn't believe in God, so...

[Eve]

I admit, the need to have some sort of universal meaning/higher consciousness/personal essence/whatever is completely mystifying to me.

Isn't life amazing enough and interesting enough as it is?

I think the intention behind it is to keep yourself in prospective and to remember that there are bigger things than you. Personally, I think that can be done without a deity, but some people need that.

If you were responding more specifically to the post above yours, I chalk it up to a lifetime of being told to believe in something (or else). CCD teachers never appreciated having John Lennon quoted at them in response.

I subscribe more to the second line of your post.. in ways that make me sound kind of hippie-ish, so I tend not to advertise them.

Anyway, I'm not saying I want to adopt some kind of blind faith, just that it often seems as though I'm supposed to. But I'm not about to sit in church* and parrot some crap back and forth with the priest** if it doesn't feel right. And it doesn't.

*or wherever

**or whoever

[East Coast Hustle]

how about if I dress up like a sexy nun...would that help?

[Elder Iptuous]

I admit, the need to have some sort of universal meaning/higher consciousness/personal essence/whatever is completely mystifying to me.

Isn't life amazing enough and interesting enough as it is?

Of course it is amazing and interesting, but that's only because of our ability to be amazed and interested.  our consciousness is what lends this awe.  So the ephemeral nature of that is disturbing to many people.  completely unacceptable to others.  I, personally, no longer feel the need to cling to the notion of an afterlife for myself.  (i accept my boundaries, both spatially and temporally.  asking whether i exist after i die goes in the same category as whether i exist 10 feet to the right of my body)  I do, still feel the need to believe that there is some sort of  universal awareness (however different it might be from my own) that will maintain the 'amazing' and 'interesting' unbounded by time.

[Eve]

how about if I dress up like a sexy nun...would that help?

Yes, infinitely.

[Eater of Clowns]

Not at all.  I have felt great loss from abandoning my protestant christian beliefs.  They say ignorance is bliss, but knowing that all is right and good and there is some benevolent entity in control that loves you personally is one hell of a comfort.  i miss that terribly.
oh well.... 

I definitely differ on this point from a lot of the former Christians in this thread.  While I went through all of the sacraments and rituals of Catholicism, one day I just really thought about it and said "Wait a second, I don't believe any of this," (side note: this is also how I decided I'd no longer be straight edge).  Then I looked back and realized I never had.  I'd just been force fed it.  So my tendencies, such as the language I use or the morals I hold, are very much a product of something I was never really all that into to begin with.  Ultimately the sense of "right" and "wrong" instilled in me may have been as important to my perspective as the sense of "maybe" I later developed.

I forgot precisely what my point would be.  I didn't start typing with the intention of just talking about myself.  I'll use this:  Organized religion doesn't just deal with the deity question and comfort in that regard, it also provides a, frequently comprehensive, grid through which one may see reality.

I realize now I could have more concisely said all of that by just pointing to the section of the quote above in bold and saying I agree.

Eater of Clowns,
failing this thread.

[trippinprincezz13]

Anyway, I'm not saying I want to adopt some kind of blind faith, just that it often seems as though I'm supposed to. But I'm not about to sit in church* and parrot some crap back and forth with the priest** if it doesn't feel right. And it doesn't.

*or wherever

**or whoever

I haven't been to church in a little over 5 years, but last month we went to my boyfriend's cousin's wedding - very traditional, church service then reception at country club (I liked the Utah guns and booze wedding we went to a lot better, for any number of reasons). Instead of just a short wedding ceremony, it was a full mass and despite the length of time since I've been to church, it was almost scary how automatically my brain knew every response to everything the priest said. Of course, I was sitting with my boyfriend and his three brothers, so it was more like the ADD pew with a combination of "Oh god! Get me out of here before I kill myself/fall asleep!" So we all stopped back at our apartment for a beer to clear the brain before heading to the reception.

Just goes to show how deeply ingrained a lot of the rituals can be in one's mind whether one believes it/agrees with it/whatever.

[trippinprincezz13]

I definitely differ on this point from a lot of the former Christians in this thread.  While I went through all of the sacraments and rituals of Catholicism, one day I just really thought about it and said "Wait a second, I don't believe any of this," (side note: this is also how I decided I'd no longer be straight edge).  Then I looked back and realized I never had.  I'd just been force fed it. 

When younger, any questions that went against the religion we were raised in were essentially met w/ the equivalent of "STFU". We were to believe what we were taught and that was that. Got older and started thinking for myself more, reading about other beliefs etc. and little by little the pieces began to fit less and less.  Plus being told "questions your parents is a sin", "being depressed is a sin", etc. as an explanation for why doing something was wrong didn't really help either.

Having been raised Christian, I kinda use it as my reference point in that  - if there is an "all-loving" god that expects you to know who/what he/she/it is, exactly how to act to please it, exactly what to do to worship it, etc. or else YOU WILL BE PUNISHED FOREVER just seemed both contradictory to me and if "god's" that much of an asshole that it expects us to know everything about it or else "fuck off, no matter how you act as a person" why the hell would I want to spend eternity with that kind of god anyway?

Hope my ramblings made some kind of sense.

[Cainad (dec.)]

I admit, the need to have some sort of universal meaning/higher consciousness/personal essence/whatever is completely mystifying to me.

Isn't life amazing enough and interesting enough as it is?

^This pretty much sums up my thoughts on the issue.

I have a friend whom I intentionally keep in the dark about my spiritual beliefs, or lack thereof, because I'm pretty sure she looks down on this attitude. Our friendship might be ruined if I was clear with her.

[Elder Iptuous]

so does she know about your ordination?

[Cainad (dec.)]

so does she know about your ordination?

She'll find it on Facebook eventually. Maybe.