IDGAF. Seriously, the only time I even talk about religion is when I’m super high and one of my christian friends wants to annoy me. But it’s all in good spirits, we have friendly arguments. I never really feel like I lack anything just because I don’t have a faith. It might be because I never really had it in the first place. I grew up in a household where no one really cared about these things. My parents are Hindu, but when I told them (around the age 9-10) that I can’t believe in this stuff, they were fine with it. Unlike many in the comments, I’ve never really met anyone who was directly hostile/weird towards me just because I’m an atheist.
Occasionally find myself envying people with faith and wonder how my life is different than theirs.
The thing is, there’s nothing stopping you from having faith. But do keep in mind that you want to have faith in something that is not shitty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gongthis one seems nice. Promotes meditation, physical exercise, as well as peaceful civil involvement in society helping others and doing good, which will help you reach spiritual enlightenment.
So while I personally like and prefer having a yawning void where some other people have faith, I generally recommend this religion to people who prefer having faith. If this one isn’t to your liking, perhaps research what other non-shitty options are there.
And as a general pro tip when going with the faith option: please, no fanaticism.
Edit: I’ve read some more on this, and this religion has some shitty postulations too. Well, keep looking out.
Well, it has been outlawed by China’s government since they didn’t like that the religion actively promoted civil political engagement and simply doing good.
The main difference between a cult and a religion is that the cult’s founder isn’t dead yet. Falun Gong’s founder is Li Hongzhi, who is alive but is around 72 years old so it’ll probably make the transition to religion relatively soon.
Everyone occasionally notices that they’d prefer a comfortable lie over a difficult truth. You need to choose which you value more: truth or comfort. It’s not an easy question.
I still fool myself, but not in this particular way. It means mostly that I can’t use “the gods did it” as an excuse. I find other excuses.
Spoiler alert: most people don’t really have faith, especially the ones screaming at you loudly how much they have it.
When you realize that, you’ll see that people are a lot more similar across all religions - authentic/thinking people from any background at all on one side, vs. those who merely “inherit” their beliefs without every really challenging them at all on the other.
Right now there are many people leaving a religion and going to atheism so much like lemmy/kbin it has that “early-generation” ring to it, but give it a few hundred years and dumb people who inherit it will just as dumbly smash others over the head with that non-religion as people have for countless millennia with past religions.
My advice: KEEP QUESTIONING! If you happened to come from a Christian or Muslim background, there is 1 Thessalonians 5:21 that literally commands that, therefore asking questions is in no way contradictory to whatever “faith” means - and anyway how could someone have that if they did not even know what it meant?
I agree, I think that a lot of people who are raised that way are afraid to question. Hell is a pretty terrifying consequence for those who believe there’s even a possibility that it’s true. So I think a lot of them are trying to go through the motions just to rest assured that if they call themselves Christians and followed certain rituals that they’re safe.
Deciding I didn’t believe in hell was the first step and the rest of my faith quickly unraveled after that.
What’s really weird - and I hope you take some comfort in this rather than be offended - is that you stand with Jesus in thinking that. I know, extremely ironic right?! :-P
“Do not heap heavy burdens upon others without offering to lift a finger to help them…”, “Pay the worker their due wages, immediately not waiting until some other day…”, “Consider the poor and alien among you as one of your own…”, a lot of Christians would be shocked, Shocked I tell you, SHOCKED (well, they shouldn’t be all that shocked) to find out what lays hidden in that B-I-B-L-E that so many claim to cherish.
Like somehow the church-going, cis-het family-man with 2.3 kids and a picket fence Obama is the Spawn of Satan while the oh-so-pious Donald tRump who shits on gold toilets and doesn’t even drive his own car in NYC but instead flies above the common man on a heli is “God’s Man”, as well as a “true man of the people”, “he gets us”? (to be clear: by “us” I mean “them”) Uh… nope. The Bible has a few things to say about False Doctrine as well… flee from it!
So like, even if you believed in hell, and in fact all the more so if you do, then that’s all the more reason to not be a bigoted asshole, not less!
Jesus was okay with honest sinners - but the ones he HATED the most (in fact, the ONLY ones He hated), with an absolute PASSION even, where the Karens of His day, aka the “super-Christians” of the time, loudmouthed bigots who literally killed Him b/c he kept trying to like feed the poor and shit, claiming that they were just as good as the Religious Leaders (and in fact way better).
There is some sunk costs fallicy involved here, with people being terrified of having wasted part their life in addition to wanting to stay out of Hell.
I can’t think of anything I do that Jesus would frown upon. Leviticus? Yeah, I eat shellfish and the like, so probably he’d frown, but I think the main complaint from Jesus would be that I haven’t given up all my worldly goods and helped the sick and poor enough – and I don’t think he’d be all that mad, regardless. It’s not like I’m trying to make profits off money-changing in front of the temple.
Doesn’t doing all of the things you want to do still make you a slave, spiritual or otherwise, to a human invention? Your desires are created by yourself or others.
It can be a touch alienating; there’s a swath of rituals you’re now not a part of, either because you’re actively excluded or because you just no longer fit there (talking about church events and the like).
Conversations change just a little bit too–in the same way monotheists look at polytheists funny when they invoke more than one god, atheists wind up looking at any theist in the same fashion. By that token, when people realize you’re atheist, they look at you as a bit damaged–my bestie’s cousin blurted out “tf is wrong with you?” when I admitted I was atheist, for instance. In the US it only takes a look at some states’ laws on eligibility for public office to see that for some, the only thing worse than having a different faith is having none at all.
It can also be kind of disorienting; you spend quite a bit of time recalibrating your moral framework–what you consider right/wrong and why you take those positions. In this regard, it can be a bit draining too, dedicating so much of the processor sitting on your neck to a kind of reconfiguration.
Lastly and perhaps the worst drawback is how limiting it can feel: when there’s no longer a higher power to feel guarded by, you’re left with the realization that there’s just your own little mortal self and it’s depressing lack of influence.
But ultimately, I’ve found it kind of rewarding: ditching the need for a creator figure (and later, the concept of an afterlife altogether) has freed me of that dissonance that occurs when injustices or random tragedies occur. When you no longer lean on the idea that there must be an inherently just or attentive higher power, those bad things become a little less nerve-wracking.
And while I lose a some rituals and venues through which to connect with others, it’s a drop in the ocean compared to what’s still out there.
And that powerlessness we’re left behind with eases when we recognize there’s other kinds of power that come through community (nebulous as that concept feels right now).
For me, it was kind of like taking off a pair of sunglasses you forgot you were wearing. Faith tends to put a tint on everything that after a while just becomes normal until you take off the glasses and see what the world actually looks like and you realize the sky IS blue and the grass IS green.
I was born into a religious family and on the outskirts of any serious involvement with a church…I never really “felt” anything as a kid or ever later despite summer camps and bible school, so it was just this weekly burden and this unnecessary layer of thought to wade through in everything I did, so when I started working my way out of religion it was a massive weight off my shoulders.
I still consciously do good where I can, still give to others in need, etc…I still try to be as kind and empathetic to people as I can regardless of their beliefs, but now with the knowledge that I’m doing it just because it’s what I believe is right to do, not because it’s tied to a rule book.
The amazing part for me was rereading the Bible with no one there to tell me “well you see that passage really means ___”. It is a totally different book that way. All my favorite stories growing up had this edge
I can’t imagine going through life thinking that everything I love and/or desire will send me to hell or whatever. Imagine living in fear because you think someone is watching and judging you. No thanks.
I don’t see any advantage to having any kind of religious faith. Seems like it just limits your options and gives you nothing in return.
I think you’re actually looking for a different question to ask - “what do people with faith have that I currently do not?”
For me, personally, I found it to be a sense of purpose. In reality, life has no inherent meaning; we reproduce and hope to pass on our genes before we die. That is the one common denominator across all life on Earth. Faith tends to be an easy answer for giving purpose because you now live for God/Jesus/Yahweh/Allah/etc, and have guidelines for what one should strive to have in life. It’s an easy way to avoid having to face such a thing and I honestly don’t blame people for it - take away all the human elements of it and life is just hard, boring, and meaningless. Faith gives an answer for everything and provides a guide on how one should life live, for better or worse.
However, there’s an upside I don’t think people realize in realizing that life has no inherent meaning: you get to decide what is meaningful in your life. You get to choose the people who you want to care about in your life, what you want to aspire to be, what you think is worth living for… you get to find and create your own purpose, rather than an external influence telling you how to do so. It’s not easy doing that, and it will be a struggle… but if you’re struggling towards something more in life, whatever that may be… then that’s a beautiful thing to strive towards.
I am a Christian, and was raised that way. I’m going to be thorough in my explanation, since the quality of the other answers aren’t all that great, and hopefully at least something here will answer your question.
I attend church on Sundays and listen to a pastor talk about the bible and how to improve myself morally. This is a hit or miss, as far as both helpfulness and enjoyment goes. Every week, I go to “life group”, which involves discussing the bible, and hanging out with, a small group of friends. I’ve gotten to know them well over time and I always enjoy meeting. I try to have a personal quiet time each morning where I read the bible and pray a bit, it’s relaxing.
Generally, a faithful Christian will tell you that the Holy Spirit makes them want to do good things. Typically, when someone gets “saved”, they suddenly have a much easier time being kind and loving others.
The goal of Christianity, as far as I am concerned, is primarily to convert others and to grow my own faith/virtues. I want to form strong relationships with fellow christians so that we can encourage each other to do good things and discourage bad things. I want to form strong relationships with non-christians because I [1] genuinely care about them (see: holy spirit) and [2] to convert them.
The act of being and becoming a Christian is supposed to be entirely voluntary. I do not feel as though I am a slave to some rulebook. I chose my own beliefs, and it is easy for me to follow the moral principles which I think are right. I hold some beliefs which are counter to what most other christians believe, but I have received minimal pushback for these beliefs from the community I have chosen. (pro-lgbt, sex-positive, annihilationism).
I choose to surround myself with a community of other christians which I can always rely on. It is pretty easy to make friends in the churches which I have attended. I’m in college, and it was easy for me to get multiple strong friend groups just by joining organizations at my school.
Hope you have a wonderful day. If you want to ask more questions you are welcome.
The biggest thing I’ve noticed is not having a large community to feel a part of. Those I know who are active in church communities tend to have a more active social life. I have close friends for sure, but I do miss that sense of greater community and cause.
The only other thing I feel acutely is the sense of being all on my own and the decider of my own destiny. There’s no leaning on faith as a crutch during tough times.
This is literally the only thing I miss, having gone from very religious to very not. There just aren’t really comparable alternatives that make socializing so easy.
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I have a lot more free time than I otherwise would.
You mean other than religious people looking shocked when I tell them there is no God?
It doesn’t.
IDGAF. Seriously, the only time I even talk about religion is when I’m super high and one of my christian friends wants to annoy me. But it’s all in good spirits, we have friendly arguments. I never really feel like I lack anything just because I don’t have a faith. It might be because I never really had it in the first place. I grew up in a household where no one really cared about these things. My parents are Hindu, but when I told them (around the age 9-10) that I can’t believe in this stuff, they were fine with it. Unlike many in the comments, I’ve never really met anyone who was directly hostile/weird towards me just because I’m an atheist.
The thing is, there’s nothing stopping you from having faith. But do keep in mind that you want to have faith in something that is not shitty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong
this one seems nice. Promotes meditation, physical exercise, as well as peaceful civil involvement in society helping others and doing good, which will help you reach spiritual enlightenment.So while I personally like and prefer having a yawning void where some other people have faith,
I generally recommend this religion to people who prefer having faith. If this one isn’t to your liking,perhaps research what other non-shitty options are there.And as a general pro tip when going with the faith option: please, no fanaticism.
Edit: I’ve read some more on this, and this religion has some shitty postulations too. Well, keep looking out.
Pretty sure Falun Gong is a cult last I remember.
Well, it has been outlawed by China’s government since they didn’t like that the religion actively promoted civil political engagement and simply doing good.
The main difference between a cult and a religion is that the cult’s founder isn’t dead yet. Falun Gong’s founder is Li Hongzhi, who is alive but is around 72 years old so it’ll probably make the transition to religion relatively soon.
I mean I have very negative views towards both concepts sooo ;p
Everyone occasionally notices that they’d prefer a comfortable lie over a difficult truth. You need to choose which you value more: truth or comfort. It’s not an easy question.
I still fool myself, but not in this particular way. It means mostly that I can’t use “the gods did it” as an excuse. I find other excuses.
Spoiler alert: most people don’t really have faith, especially the ones screaming at you loudly how much they have it.
When you realize that, you’ll see that people are a lot more similar across all religions - authentic/thinking people from any background at all on one side, vs. those who merely “inherit” their beliefs without every really challenging them at all on the other.
Right now there are many people leaving a religion and going to atheism so much like lemmy/kbin it has that “early-generation” ring to it, but give it a few hundred years and dumb people who inherit it will just as dumbly smash others over the head with that non-religion as people have for countless millennia with past religions.
My advice: KEEP QUESTIONING! If you happened to come from a Christian or Muslim background, there is 1 Thessalonians 5:21 that literally commands that, therefore asking questions is in no way contradictory to whatever “faith” means - and anyway how could someone have that if they did not even know what it meant?
I agree, I think that a lot of people who are raised that way are afraid to question. Hell is a pretty terrifying consequence for those who believe there’s even a possibility that it’s true. So I think a lot of them are trying to go through the motions just to rest assured that if they call themselves Christians and followed certain rituals that they’re safe.
Deciding I didn’t believe in hell was the first step and the rest of my faith quickly unraveled after that.
What’s really weird - and I hope you take some comfort in this rather than be offended - is that you stand with Jesus in thinking that. I know, extremely ironic right?! :-P
“Do not heap heavy burdens upon others without offering to lift a finger to help them…”, “Pay the worker their due wages, immediately not waiting until some other day…”, “Consider the poor and alien among you as one of your own…”, a lot of Christians would be shocked, Shocked I tell you, SHOCKED (well, they shouldn’t be all that shocked) to find out what lays hidden in that B-I-B-L-E that so many claim to cherish.
Like somehow the church-going, cis-het family-man with 2.3 kids and a picket fence Obama is the Spawn of Satan while the oh-so-pious Donald tRump who shits on gold toilets and doesn’t even drive his own car in NYC but instead flies above the common man on a heli is “God’s Man”, as well as a “true man of the people”, “he gets us”? (to be clear: by “us” I mean “them”) Uh… nope. The Bible has a few things to say about False Doctrine as well… flee from it!
So like, even if you believed in hell, and in fact all the more so if you do, then that’s all the more reason to not be a bigoted asshole, not less!
Jesus was okay with honest sinners - but the ones he HATED the most (in fact, the ONLY ones He hated), with an absolute PASSION even, where the Karens of His day, aka the “super-Christians” of the time, loudmouthed bigots who literally killed Him b/c he kept trying to like feed the poor and shit, claiming that they were just as good as the Religious Leaders (and in fact way better).
There is some sunk costs fallicy involved here, with people being terrified of having wasted part their life in addition to wanting to stay out of Hell.
Pretty well, it lets me do things Jesus frowns upon and actually enjoy my life instead of being a spiritual slave to a human invention.
I agree, I don’t need some 2000 year old book to dictate how I live my life.
I will live my life on my own terms and if someone has a problem, they can respectfully leave my life.
I can’t think of anything I do that Jesus would frown upon. Leviticus? Yeah, I eat shellfish and the like, so probably he’d frown, but I think the main complaint from Jesus would be that I haven’t given up all my worldly goods and helped the sick and poor enough – and I don’t think he’d be all that mad, regardless. It’s not like I’m trying to make profits off money-changing in front of the temple.
Doesn’t doing all of the things you want to do still make you a slave, spiritual or otherwise, to a human invention? Your desires are created by yourself or others.
That’s not what being a slave means, at all, so no.
It can be a touch alienating; there’s a swath of rituals you’re now not a part of, either because you’re actively excluded or because you just no longer fit there (talking about church events and the like).
Conversations change just a little bit too–in the same way monotheists look at polytheists funny when they invoke more than one god, atheists wind up looking at any theist in the same fashion. By that token, when people realize you’re atheist, they look at you as a bit damaged–my bestie’s cousin blurted out “tf is wrong with you?” when I admitted I was atheist, for instance. In the US it only takes a look at some states’ laws on eligibility for public office to see that for some, the only thing worse than having a different faith is having none at all.
It can also be kind of disorienting; you spend quite a bit of time recalibrating your moral framework–what you consider right/wrong and why you take those positions. In this regard, it can be a bit draining too, dedicating so much of the processor sitting on your neck to a kind of reconfiguration.
Lastly and perhaps the worst drawback is how limiting it can feel: when there’s no longer a higher power to feel guarded by, you’re left with the realization that there’s just your own little mortal self and it’s depressing lack of influence.
But ultimately, I’ve found it kind of rewarding: ditching the need for a creator figure (and later, the concept of an afterlife altogether) has freed me of that dissonance that occurs when injustices or random tragedies occur. When you no longer lean on the idea that there must be an inherently just or attentive higher power, those bad things become a little less nerve-wracking.
And while I lose a some rituals and venues through which to connect with others, it’s a drop in the ocean compared to what’s still out there.
And that powerlessness we’re left behind with eases when we recognize there’s other kinds of power that come through community (nebulous as that concept feels right now).
For me, it was kind of like taking off a pair of sunglasses you forgot you were wearing. Faith tends to put a tint on everything that after a while just becomes normal until you take off the glasses and see what the world actually looks like and you realize the sky IS blue and the grass IS green.
I was born into a religious family and on the outskirts of any serious involvement with a church…I never really “felt” anything as a kid or ever later despite summer camps and bible school, so it was just this weekly burden and this unnecessary layer of thought to wade through in everything I did, so when I started working my way out of religion it was a massive weight off my shoulders.
I still consciously do good where I can, still give to others in need, etc…I still try to be as kind and empathetic to people as I can regardless of their beliefs, but now with the knowledge that I’m doing it just because it’s what I believe is right to do, not because it’s tied to a rule book.
The amazing part for me was rereading the Bible with no one there to tell me “well you see that passage really means ___”. It is a totally different book that way. All my favorite stories growing up had this edge
Freedom of thought freedom of self and a set of morals that place the well-being and happiness of others as a top priority.
Hate to be that guy (What am I saying? I love being that guy!) but: affect*
I love that guy, too!
I can’t imagine going through life thinking that everything I love and/or desire will send me to hell or whatever. Imagine living in fear because you think someone is watching and judging you. No thanks.
I don’t see any advantage to having any kind of religious faith. Seems like it just limits your options and gives you nothing in return.
I think you’re actually looking for a different question to ask - “what do people with faith have that I currently do not?”
For me, personally, I found it to be a sense of purpose. In reality, life has no inherent meaning; we reproduce and hope to pass on our genes before we die. That is the one common denominator across all life on Earth. Faith tends to be an easy answer for giving purpose because you now live for God/Jesus/Yahweh/Allah/etc, and have guidelines for what one should strive to have in life. It’s an easy way to avoid having to face such a thing and I honestly don’t blame people for it - take away all the human elements of it and life is just hard, boring, and meaningless. Faith gives an answer for everything and provides a guide on how one should life live, for better or worse.
However, there’s an upside I don’t think people realize in realizing that life has no inherent meaning: you get to decide what is meaningful in your life. You get to choose the people who you want to care about in your life, what you want to aspire to be, what you think is worth living for… you get to find and create your own purpose, rather than an external influence telling you how to do so. It’s not easy doing that, and it will be a struggle… but if you’re struggling towards something more in life, whatever that may be… then that’s a beautiful thing to strive towards.
I am a Christian, and was raised that way. I’m going to be thorough in my explanation, since the quality of the other answers aren’t all that great, and hopefully at least something here will answer your question.
I attend church on Sundays and listen to a pastor talk about the bible and how to improve myself morally. This is a hit or miss, as far as both helpfulness and enjoyment goes. Every week, I go to “life group”, which involves discussing the bible, and hanging out with, a small group of friends. I’ve gotten to know them well over time and I always enjoy meeting. I try to have a personal quiet time each morning where I read the bible and pray a bit, it’s relaxing.
Generally, a faithful Christian will tell you that the Holy Spirit makes them want to do good things. Typically, when someone gets “saved”, they suddenly have a much easier time being kind and loving others.
The goal of Christianity, as far as I am concerned, is primarily to convert others and to grow my own faith/virtues. I want to form strong relationships with fellow christians so that we can encourage each other to do good things and discourage bad things. I want to form strong relationships with non-christians because I [1] genuinely care about them (see: holy spirit) and [2] to convert them.
The act of being and becoming a Christian is supposed to be entirely voluntary. I do not feel as though I am a slave to some rulebook. I chose my own beliefs, and it is easy for me to follow the moral principles which I think are right. I hold some beliefs which are counter to what most other christians believe, but I have received minimal pushback for these beliefs from the community I have chosen. (pro-lgbt, sex-positive, annihilationism).
I choose to surround myself with a community of other christians which I can always rely on. It is pretty easy to make friends in the churches which I have attended. I’m in college, and it was easy for me to get multiple strong friend groups just by joining organizations at my school.
Hope you have a wonderful day. If you want to ask more questions you are welcome.
The biggest thing I’ve noticed is not having a large community to feel a part of. Those I know who are active in church communities tend to have a more active social life. I have close friends for sure, but I do miss that sense of greater community and cause.
The only other thing I feel acutely is the sense of being all on my own and the decider of my own destiny. There’s no leaning on faith as a crutch during tough times.
This is literally the only thing I miss, having gone from very religious to very not. There just aren’t really comparable alternatives that make socializing so easy.