Subject: RE: Help a non-believer understand Originally posted by ChineseDemocracy Tony, I was thinking about your very open and heartfelt post earlier in this thread. The part that popped out at me was this one: "In the summer of 2006 I was at a friends wedding in a church and I remember sitting there mocking God endlessly while sitting in church. I was calling him the most vile and hateful things because of my anger inside towards being duped by religion. It's hard to explain, but I was really angry towards religion." Do you think it's possible that you were just in really bad denial? When I thought about those sentences you wrote I likened it to the hard-right conservative types that preach hardcore family values...but then end up being philanderers or closet drag queens.(J Edgar Hoover, we're lookin' at you) I guess what I'm getting at is, who would get so angry at "God" if they didn't already believe He (or She) existed? It seems to me it was only a matter of time before you found what worked best for you. Your comfort zone is believing in God. While I'm not a religious guy, I am happy you found religion/God, and that it helped you be a better person. btw, that said, I want to tip my hat to Clempson and his earlier posts that sum up a lot of what I see with religion. Doing right and avoiding wrong, in my opinion, should have nothing to do with religion, God, etc. It should stem from an idea that's been around a lot longer than any of the major religions: Treating people the way you'd like to be treated. Nothing more nothing less. Being able to put yourself in a less fortunate person's shoes. Good question, and I hadn't really thought about it before. I was very "certain" there was no God and that it was all man made garbage at the time, yet as you mentioned, there I was in church essentially "praying" to God telling him how much of a loser he was. lol That doesn't even make sense, now that I look back. I do know that my Dad passing away a year earlier had elicited a lot of emotions in regards to my beliefs. I felt very strongly that when somebody died it was just a light switch and you were no more. However, when my Dad passed away this didn't reconcile with me very well inside because I didn't want it to just be a light switch. I really loved my Dad (still do) and we were very close, so the thought of him being nothing more than a rotting shell in the ground really didn't sit well with me. |