A Serious Question For Theists

[Confused Ape]

If you want me to say why I'm muslim and not sikhi.. I will! But I don't think that you care ..

I'm interested in knowing why.

I believe on God because...

I can feel God all the time.. when I'm sad and when I'm happy.. and when something bad happens to me.. I start thinking why ?! what do you want me to see?! and then I know the wisdom behind it..

I had a dream about Apollo and, in the dream, I knew he was a god. I also had an experience where the Earth was a goddess. Somebody posted an interesting article in another topic so I'm going to copy and paste most of my reply here because I think it's relevant.

This guy: http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2014/06/10...es-in-god/

From the article about the atheist who believes in God.

It seems to me that there is an offstage and an onstage quality to my existence. I live onstage, but I sense another crew working offstage. Sometimes I hear their voices “singing” in a way that’s as eerily beautiful as the offstage chorus in an opera.

My youngest grandchildren Lucy (5) and Jack (3) are still comfortable with this paradoxical way of seeing reality.

Most grownups don’t have the transparent humility to deal with the fact that unknowing is OK. But Lucy and Jack seem to accept that something may never have happened but can still be true.

I know what he means in those bolded sentences. I'm very much aware of the offstage existence because I can sense that, deep down, my unconscious mind is dreaming while I'm awake. If I tune into it I get experiences like the Earth is a goddess. I believe you when you say you can feel what you interpret as being God but, from my point of view, your experience is purely subjective the same as my experience of the Earth being a goddess was purely subjective.

now you tell me what makes you an atheist

Ever since I was a child I've been interested in comparative religion, mythology and folklore. I then discovered Jungian psychology. Humans have experiences of something which they interpret as being one deity or another. If these experiences are objective reality it means that every god and goddess humans have worshipped must be real which makes nonsense of religions promoting their deity as the only one which exists.

In my personal world view things don't have to be literally true in order to be symbolically true. If someone believes that a deity is supporting them through a crises it's a symbol of them drawing on their own inner strength etc.

and how did that affected your life and made you a better person?

I'm aware that there is a dark side to human nature but I don't regard it as original sin or the result of giving in to temptation from demons or whatever.

Timeline Of Human Evolution

We are biologically programmed to be humans but some of the programming comes from millions of years ago. Behaviour patterns which would have been useful to ancestors who were reptiles or early primates living in trees aren't always useful to us now. For example, conflicts over territory are very common in other animal species but do we really need them in the 21st century when our species is armed to the teeth with lethal weapons rather than just being armed with teeth?

I try to be aware of the dark side of my own nature and not give in to it. Jungian psychology works for me although it's not everyone's cup of tea.

The Shadow In Jungian Psychology

The shadow is an archetypal form that serves as the focus for material that has been repressed from consciousness; its contents include those tendencies desires and memories that are rejected by the individual as incompatible with the persona and contrary to social standards and ideals. The shadow contains all the negative tendencies the individual wishes to deny, including our animal instincts, as well as undeveloped positive and negative qualities.

The stronger our persona is and the more we identify with it, the more we deny other parts of ourselves. The shadow represents what we consider to be inferior in our personality and also that which we have neglected and never developed in ourselves. In dreams, a shadow figure may appear as an animal, a dwarf, a vagrant, or any other low-status figure.

The shadow is most dangerous when unrecognized. Then the individual tends to project his or her unwanted qualities onto others or to become dominated by the shadow without realizing it. Images of evil, the devil and the concept of original sin are all aspects of the shadow archetype. The more the shadow material is made conscious, the less it can dominate. But the shadow is an integral part of our nature, and it can never be simply eliminated. A person who claims to be without a shadow is not a complete individual but a two-dimensional caricature, denying the mixture of good and evil that is necessarily present in all of us.

One group of people projecting their own dark natures onto another group of people has led to all kinds of horrors in history. "They are a threat/evil/not fully human etc. so must be eliminated." Humans are the only animals who fight each other over beliefs - "My religion/version of this religion is THE TRUTH - convert or die."

remember we can always share ideas with a nice conversation.

I'm always interested in what people believe even if I don't believe it myself. Your beliefs obviously mean a lot to you and I regard them as having value for you if they helped you deal with the loss of your babies. I'm sorry you had to go through that.