Loss of faith

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- Villiage_Idiot
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Loss of faith
OP - September 26, 2014, 08:51 AM

For the people on here who have genuinely believed in a religion, before doubt set in: Do you miss your religious faith?

The security of an afterlife, the protection of God, the feeling of being loved by Jesus, or the karmic belief that people who hurt you will suffer for it.

Religion is full of confusing, fear-mongering, and downright damaging beliefs, but there are good aspects too. Did anyone have good experiences with their religion, and do you miss them?

Personally, for me, losing my faith was soul crushing. I just wonder how others felt?

The misspelling in my name is intentional, because I'm an idiot and I can't spell properly. But I'd probably also say that even if it was a mistake. Does that clear things up?
- yeezevee
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Reply #1 - September 26, 2014, 09:04 AM
Quote from: Villiage_Idiot on September 26, 2014, 08:51 AM
For the people on here who have genuinely believed in a religion, before doubt set in: Do you miss your religious faith?

The security of an afterlife, the protection of God, the feeling of being loved by Jesus, or the karmic belief that people who hurt you will suffer for it.

Religion is full of confusing, fear-mongering, and downright damaging beliefs
, but there are good aspects too.
Did anyone have good experiences with their religion, and do you miss them?

Personally, for me, losing my faith was soul crushing. I just wonder how others felt?
I will answer rest of your questions but give me some good aspects from a religion or any religion Villiage_Idiot. I will show you that those aspects are very little to do with that religion....
Do not let silence become your legacy.. Question everything
I renounced my faith to become a kafir,
the beloved betrayed me and turned in to a Muslim
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Reply #2 - September 26, 2014, 09:14 AM

Quote
I will answer rest of your questions but give me some good aspects from a religion or any religion Villiage_Idiot. I will show you that those aspects are very little to do with that religion....

The belief in karma... People who say or do nasty or ignorant things will eventually suffer for their actions. They will suffer until they have learnt to be more compassionate to others.

Now, when some ignorant prick hurts me, there is no guarantee of justice. This person will never care that they've hurt me, and will just keep hurting others without consequence.

The misspelling in my name is intentional, because I'm an idiot and I can't spell properly. But I'd probably also say that even if it was a mistake. Does that clear things up?
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Reply #3 - September 26, 2014, 09:25 AM

The second thing is the feeling of being loved.

Many Buddhists pray to those who have already achieved Buddhahood for guidance, similar to the way Christians pray to Jesus. This feeling of being loved and cared for no matter what is a beautiful feeling.

Even if you are an outcast to society and everyone hates you, those who were wise enough to achieve Buddhahood realize that you are trying hard on your spiritual path and that is the greatest thing you can do in life.

When I was younger, in high school for example, I couldn't have given a shit that I was unpopular, because being respected by the Buddhas was far more important than being respected by everyday people. Normally, it hurts a human being when people don't like them, but my religious faith completely over-rid that. I've heard Christians say that with God they're never alone. That's how I felt.

The misspelling in my name is intentional, because I'm an idiot and I can't spell properly. But I'd probably also say that even if it was a mistake. Does that clear things up?
- Villiage_Idiot
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Reply #4 - September 26, 2014, 09:28 AM

The third thing is existence beyond death. I had very little fear before, because once you die there is just another re-birth, and since I'm living a moral life, my re-birth should be a reasonably good one. Now that I don't believe in and existence after death, there is an underlying sense of fear about my own survival that I had never felt in my life before.

The misspelling in my name is intentional, because I'm an idiot and I can't spell properly. But I'd probably also say that even if it was a mistake. Does that clear things up?
- yeezevee
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Reply #5 - September 26, 2014, 09:28 AM

Quote from: Villiage_Idiot on September 26, 2014, 09:14 AM
The belief in karma... People who say or do nasty or ignorant things will eventually suffer for their actions. They will suffer until they have learnt to be more compassionate to others.

Now, when some ignorant prick hurts me, there is no guarantee of justice. This person will never care that they've hurt me, and will just keep hurting others without consequence.

Hello V_I., I guess that is from hindus., I would love to see the verses from their religious book/s Here is the link for you for ALL RELIGIOUS BOOK/SCRIPTURES http://www.sacred-texts.com/ please locate books of Hinduism and show me where it says that.

Now what all one is doing there with such assumption which appears to be enforcing themselves with a "+Ve enforcement" of a belief.. Right now I don't have time., but will be back in 2hrs., and I will show you in long a run how such +enforcement without checks and balances harms their society.

Do not let silence become your legacy.. Question everything
I renounced my faith to become a kafir,
the beloved betrayed me and turned in to a Muslim
- suki
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Reply #6 - September 26, 2014, 10:32 AM

Quote from: Villiage_Idiot on September 26, 2014, 09:28 AM
The third thing is existence beyond death. I had very little fear before, because once you die there is just another re-birth, and since I'm living a moral life, my re-birth should be a reasonably good one. Now that I don't believe in and existence after death, there is an underlying sense of fear about my own survival that I had never felt in my life before.

It has the opposite effect on me, worrying about whether myself or my loved ones are going to survive death gives me lots of stress, like am i living my life correctly, constantly questioning my thoughts and actions, whereas accepting that this life is all theres is gives me a feeling of sadness but also a feeling of relief.. Im a bit weird lol
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Reply #7 - September 26, 2014, 10:34 AM

Awareness of death makes you feel alive.

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Reply #8 - September 26, 2014, 12:16 PM

Quote from: suki on September 26, 2014, 10:32 AM
It has the opposite effect on me, worrying about whether myself or my loved ones are going to survive death gives me lots of stress, like am i living my life correctly, constantly questioning my thoughts and actions, whereas accepting that this life is all theres is gives me a feeling of sadness but also a feeling of relief.. Im a bit weird lol

On the plus side, you don't have to imagine that billions of innocent people who have never harmed anyone are going to be tortured for all eternity just for not being muslim.

`But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
`Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.'
`How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.
`You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.'
- Villiage_Idiot
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Reply #9 - September 27, 2014, 04:03 AM

Quote
Hello V_I., I guess that is from hindus., I would love to see the verses from their religious book/s Here is the link for you for ALL RELIGIOUS BOOK/SCRIPTURES http://www.sacred-texts.com/ please locate books of Hinduism and show me where it says that.

Now what all one is doing there with such assumption which appears to be enforcing themselves with a "+Ve enforcement" of a belief.. Right now I don't have time., but will be back in 2hrs., and I will show you in long a run how such +enforcement without checks and balances harms their society.

Here are some links from the site you requested:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/bits/bit-int3.htm

http://www.sacred-texts.com/nth/shinn/gol/gol05.htm

To be honest, I don't know the exact places in Buddhist scripture where it talks about karma. The Buddhist scripture canon is much larger than the Christian and Muslim ones. I've only ever read compilations of the teachings of Buddha. (As a side interest, I see that many Christians don't read The Bible from cover to cover, is this the same for Muslims and the Quran?"

But I did have faith in my spiritual teachers and faith in those things brought me a great sense of power and comfort before doubt set in. I think in many cases religion is taught a little differently to how it is written and not many follow their religion to the exact scripture. It doesn't matter how down-to-the-letter authentic the things spiritual teachers teach are or not, it still felt good.

Quote
Awareness of death makes you feel alive.

It upsets me when I see people who've only managed to live short, unfair lives before dying. I used to believe that justice would all work out in the end and their next life would be better. Now, I feel an ugliness about everything that makes life less enjoyable. If I'm honest, life felt better when I believed in an after-existence than it does now. I felt like life will always be second best now to what it was when I had total religious faith.

The misspelling in my name is intentional, because I'm an idiot and I can't spell properly. But I'd probably also say that even if it was a mistake. Does that clear things up?
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