(January 3, 2019 at 5:12 pm)DoubtingHerFaith Wrote: Hi, I'm new here, I'm 24 female and I was raised christian and then stopped believing and became atheist and that was too depressing for me at the time so then I was agnostic and researched a little into other religions and then got majorly into New Age, and then came back around to following christianity 3 months ago because New Age was mostly lies and I thought it was demonic and I missed how I felt when I was little and everything was easy and I could just trust in Jesus, except I had forgotten why I stopped believing in the first place and it's because I have mental disorders(bipolar II, borderline pd, depression, introversion) that made it impossible for me to be the good and perfect Christian I wanted to be. and now I'm back in the same position and it seems like God created me with no chance of being able to be good enough just to damn me. and I really really don't want to believe in Christianity. help please
Oh I will be honest though, I'm scared of the prophecies in Revelations about the Mark of the Beast because I can totally see how it could be an RFID chip and I know the possibility of a New World Order, One World Government is definitely the direction we're headed in and merging with technology and it freaks me out. I don't see it as being a good thing for humanity sorry to say and that might upset some people here but I don't trust giving that much power to the most power hungry of us humans. they unfortunately usually don't have benevolent intentions(think Psychopaths....high level psychopaths.....I don't trust the low level ones and definitely not the high level ones lol)
First off, you don't "leave" a religion, one simply realizes the claims are not true. You leave a building, you leave a country, but holding a religion are god belief is merely holding a position. If new data comes in that causes you to rethink a position, then you are giving up on that position and taking up another position.
And that is true when people take up another religion or god belief and give up on the one they held prior.
And there is nothing to be scared of about the mythologies of any holy writing. If you are not scared of threats of hell made by Muslims who quote the Koran, then it should also be easy to understand why you are not threatened by Darth Vader or Lex Luther.
Humans in ALL of antiquity worldwide had various versions of afterlife punishment/reward motifs. Even the religions of Asia had stories of what would happen to you in the after life if you did good or bad.
The good news is there is no hell to burn in, but there is no heaven either. I accept that I didn't exist before I was born, and I will not exist after I die. That does not make me fatalistic, or pessimistic, nor does it mean I advocate lawlessness or violence. It merely means I accept our finite reality.
I still want to live, I don't want to die. I still value non violence and common law and empathy for others. I simply see no magic or divine source to nature.
You go to a movie knowing it ends but you still go and enjoy it. You go to a music concert knowing it plays a last song, but you still go and enjoy it. You read a good book knowing it has a last page, but you still read it. You get a pet cat or dog, knowing they wont live as long as you do, but you still love them, and when they die, you mourn them, but eventually you may even get another one after that.
I still have family and friends I love. I still fear pain and a prolonged death. But I don't fear a fictional afterlife anymore than I fear my non existence 4 billion years ago when I also did not exist. I still value non violence and obeying the law, but like I said, I see no magic, nothing divine, and no god helping us. If humans want help, the only ones we have are each other.
