Trying to understand religious people

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- justperusing
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Trying to understand religious people
OP - September 29, 2014, 07:30 AM

So I grew up in a Christian family and was always very confused about my religion. I went to sunday school and was taught Bible stories and such, but they all just seemed like fairy tales. They seemed nearly indistinguishable from the greek mythology I read at school mixed in with a few Aesop's fables. I always wondered where the evidence was that any of these miraculous things happened.

I did eventually try to convince myself that Christianity was real when I grew frustrated with a purely materialistic view on life. I tried so hard and would pray that God would help my unbelief, but I just never could honestly believe. Now that my girlfriend has broken up with me over not sharing her religion and hearing her say she is 100% sure that Christianity is true, I am really curious what convinces people that these religions are true. Like what exactly are these "spiritual experiences" that people harp on? How can someone feel like they have a relationship with their God?

I mean, I sometimes would look at the stars and feel a sort of ecstasy at the amazing cosmos and I used to attribute that to a spiritual kind of experience or feeling about God. But I mean I never felt any sort of feeling that felt out of the ordinary where I just felt God had to be there.

Being at Christian college, everyone talks about how Jesus has changed their life and everything. They all seem so certain and I have no idea how they possibly can be. Maybe there is some sort gene or some genetic disposition towards spirituality or religion that I'm completely missing. I just never have truly believed in a God and wouldn't know how to if I tried.

Anyone who has truly believed can explain to me religious experience? Like when you were believer why did you think there was any truth to religion at all? Did you ever feel like you had a relationship with a God? I seriously could never take an idea seriously unless it was shown to be at least plausible, so I was always confused as to why religious people around me talked as if the existence of a God was a given. I just want to understand why those around me so strongly believe in what they believe in without any sort of evidence or convincing logic.

"I moreover believe that any religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be a true system."
-Thomas Paine
- Villiage_Idiot
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Trying to understand religious people
Reply #1 - September 29, 2014, 09:00 AM

When I was Buddhist, I used to pray to the beings who've already achieved enlightenment to help guide me. These "Buddhas" are rather similar to how I've seen Christians pray to Jesus. I think they can both be likened to having imaginary friends.

The Buddhas, or Jesus, or God is a friend who will never stop caring for you, who will protect you after you die, who will always love you. I felt like I was never alone.

This actually had real world consequences. If someone was nasty to me, I barely felt any hurt at all, because this person was going to pay eventually for their actions. When I used to pray at night, I actually felt a "presence". It really felt like I wasn't alone.

I think of it this way. When you have a sex fantasy, the other person in your fantasy is an imaginary friend. If you stop to tell yourself this person is imaginary, you'll likely ruin the whole moment. The person isn't real, but that doesn't stop them helping you have an orgasm. God isn't real, but that doesn't stop people feeling his "touch".

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?
- moi
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Reply #2 - September 29, 2014, 11:27 AM

One of the things cinema teaches is suspension of disbelief. Would a carefully curated series of films in beautiful cinemas wean people off religion?

Imagine building incredible cinemas everywhere instead of religious buildings!

When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.

A.A. Milne,

"We cannot slaughter each other out of the human impasse"
- cosmicdancer
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Reply #3 - September 29, 2014, 01:57 PM

Fear and insecurity are amongst the top motives for being religious.

Followed closely by family /community /upbringing.

IMHO
- cosmicdancer
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Reply #4 - September 29, 2014, 02:00 PM

Confirmation bias is also such a wondrous thing. A believer will not need evidence to condem the "false" beliefs of others but will make a thousand excuses to protect his own. Lol
- justperusing
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Reply #5 - September 29, 2014, 05:56 PM

Hmm so it would seem it is just a rare fantasy that you are actually encouraged to perpetuate... And I get the fear/insecurity reason because once I decided it just didn't make sense and I should jettison it, I began to be scared of hell. I just wondered if there was something I was missing to the whole thing and I somehow couldn't see the truth of these religious claims and I would be punished for it. Probably the closest I ever came to actually believing was when I thought about the consequences for being wrong. Fear can really fuck with your rational faculties.

Perhaps that's why those who fear death have a much easier time believing. The fear corrodes their judgement to where they will accept anything as a get-out-of-death card

"I moreover believe that any religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be a true system."
-Thomas Paine
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