(no subject)

[pensnest]

Beast and I were for some reason having a talk about religious belief yesterday. We are in accord on the subject.

But I am curious. If you believe in God - *how*? How do you do that?

I honestly can't remember.

Comments

[laughingrat]

Hard to say. I vacillate between believing in some kind of unifying Good (or god principle, I guess), being bloody furious at God for letting horrible shit happen, and being completely indifferent to the concept altogether. It's really automatic, not something I can switch off and on. Upbringing, maybe? Were you raised religious at all?

[pensnest]

I was baptised, and I dare say I probably went to Sunday school (can't remember much of my childhood), and when my mother was killed (I was nine) my father explained that she had "gone to Jesus", which was about as comforting as anything can be in such circumstances. I remember trying *really* hard to be good, and praying a lot, in my early teens, and I gradually gave up doing that. I was pretty much agnostic by the time I got married (at twenty-two), and now I'm atheist.

I think I've got from the position of 'automatic assumption of the existence of God' to 'how can people reconcile these obvious contradictions', and where I stand now I just find it really hard to understand faith. Yet I know quite a few people who *do* believe, and I keep wondering how.

[laughingrat]

Yeah, I grok you. I'm actually with you all the way, intellectually, but there's some little thing in me that keeps, occasionally, recognizing the existence (real or not) of a deity. Go figure. I'm sorry you lost your mom at such an early age, that's really awful.

[pensnest]

Thank you. I wonder if maybe it's because it would be so *nice* to have there be a God—because it would!

[turlough]

That's something I've wondered about myself. I've never believed in any sort of deity, not even when I was a kid - we were brought up in a completely nonreligious home, and the whole mindset is completely foreign to me.

[pensnest]

I know that when I was young I never questioned the assumption that there was a God. But, when I *did* begin to question it, the assumption gradually unravelled into nothingness as far as I was concerned. Yet plainly that doesn't work for everyone—there must be plenty of believers who *do* look at the contradictions but believe anyway. It kinda baffles me, but sometimes I'm almost envious. There's a lot of comfort in believing God is there.

[dixie-chicken.livejournal.com]

I can't not. It's something I feel like I've always known in my heart. That's the only way I know how to explain it.

[pensnest]

See, I've forgotten what that felt like. I know I used to believe.

[raynedanser.livejournal.com]

oooo - How. This is a good question!

[pensnest]

Yeah... when you ask Why, people end up talking past each other, I wondered if this would make more sense.

[raynedanser.livejournal.com]

And you usually end up with things about "faith" and and... Ok, so faith makes it real?

Yes, I am cynical. :D

[pensnest]

It can get a bit difficult to make much of an argument that goes (essentially) Faith Good! No, Evidence Good!

[raynedanser.livejournal.com]

Yeah.

[zillahseye.livejournal.com]

I used to believe in God and now I find it really, really difficult. But then, I suck at taking shit on faith.

[pensnest]

I know I was quite devout as a teenager, and am the reverse now. It's sorta strange. I'm not sure exactly what the process of change was—I suspect I didn't start looking at irreconcilable facts until *after* I'd ceased to believe. I think perhaps I'm someone who likes proof, too.

[giddygeek.livejournal.com]

I am an atheist, but a friend told me once that it's like how they believe in gravity. You know intuitively that there's a reason things don't fall up, and then someone explains gravity, and it all makes sense.

To which I say, "But you can prove gravity exists," so I'm circling back to my original point. *G* But I remember that analogy, because it made some sense to me--I could at least identify with that feeling of oh that's how the universe works.

[pensnest]

Ah, that is interesting. I think I can grok that, too. Thanks!

[adelate]

I'm not really decided on the subject, but I know I believe in something. I feel safe and looked after. I don't know why, but I just have this feeling like everything will be okay.

[pensnest]

I kinda feel like that about life, too. :-)