Is it a constant struggle to keep believing?

[FreeTony]

I found it harder to follow my faith when things are too good/easy. Even so i never doubt that thier is a God. why? Because when we Ask/Seek/knock for the Holy Spirit, The Spirit literally lives with in you. It is hard to doubt God when you have to deal with Him daily.

This ties in with study I read a while back (I'm trying to find it but can't at atm). People tend to be more religious in bad times, I guess in desperation.

So you never think "Is this actually God creating this feeling inside my brain, rather than just the brain itself"?

[Tonus]

So what was it like? Were you constantly having doubts, or could you play mental gymnastics and ignore these for large periods of time? Or just assume it was true and not really think properly about it?

It felt normal. No doubts, and the mental gymnastics did not feel as such. Yes to the third question. Then again, I was raised a Jehovah's Witness, and they are a very insular group that works very hard to enforce a specific worldview among the membership that makes it easier to swallow the company line. If you have the deep subconscious acceptance that god exists, the question never comes up because OF COURSE he exists. That makes the rest of it easier.

I think for me, the subconscious belief fell apart long before I finally accepted that I did not believe in god, because for me there wasn't much of a fight. I drifted from the organization, always promising myself I'd return, and one day realized that I was never going to return because there was nothing to return to. It was at that point that I began to read 'forbidden outside sources' to learn about the WTS, and it was after that when I decided to read atheist books and websites.

There was probably a period there where I tried to keep the structure of faith from crumbling. It probably didn't help that I kept pulling bricks out of it. :o Hey, they told us to question what we read and heard. They probably didn't intend for us to reach the conclusion that I did, but that's just how it goes sometimes.

[ronedee]

So what was it like? Were you constantly having doubts, or could you play mental gymnastics and ignore these for large periods of time? Or just assume it was true and not really think properly about it?

It felt normal. No doubts, and the mental gymnastics did not feel as such. Yes to the third question. Then again, I was raised a Jehovah's Witness, and they are a very insular group that works very hard to enforce a specific worldview among the membership that makes it easier to swallow the company line. If you have the deep subconscious acceptance that god exists, the question never comes up because OF COURSE he exists. That makes the rest of it easier.

I think for me, the subconscious belief fell apart long before I finally accepted that I did not believe in god, because for me there wasn't much of a fight. I drifted from the organization, always promising myself I'd return, and one day realized that I was never going to return because there was nothing to return to. It was at that point that I began to read 'forbidden outside sources' to learn about the WTS, and it was after that when I decided to read atheist books and websites.

There was probably a period there where I tried to keep the structure of faith from crumbling. It probably didn't help that I kept pulling bricks out of it. :o Hey, they told us to question what we read and heard. They probably didn't intend for us to reach the conclusion that I did, but that's just how it goes sometimes.

Tonus - you as many, partially blame others(religion) for your lack of faith.

In all seriousness.... what do you expect of God? Without religion, just you and Him, one on one.

What are [you] personally lacking (in any way), that He needs to come here and prove to you? Not about others, or generalizations about babies dying in Afica....I'm talking individually. You.

What do you need from God?

[Anomalocaris]

RE: Is it a constant struggle to keep believing?

Probably not. Idiocy comes effortlessly to the idiots. But wisdom takes work even for the wise.

[Tonus]

Tonus - you as many, partially blame others(religion) for your lack of faith.

On the contrary, Ron. I am grateful to those who, while seeking to instill me with an unquestioning trust in religion, nonetheless unwittingly gave me the keys to judge it more thoroughly. I don't blame them for my lack of faith. I thank them, in a way.

In all seriousness.... what do you expect of God?

I don't expect anything of god, in the sense that I no longer believe that there is a god. I cannot ask anything of someone who is not there. With that belief no longer in place I am free to reshape god as I think he should be, but that is just fantasy scenarios where I can use as many colors as I want and paint outside the lines without any concern.

To me, the best image of god may be the deist version that creates the universe and then lets it develop however it will. He demands nothing of us and we expect nothing (more) from him. No limits, no rules, no one to blame but ourselves, and no one to stop us from being all we can be. There may be variants of god that are more involved and more "good" and more fun, but those all require some level of giving up who I am because he's always got a hand on my shoulder.

[Ksa]

I found it harder to follow my faith when things are too good/easy. Even so i never doubt that thier is a God. why? Because when we Ask/Seek/knock for the Holy Spirit, The Spirit literally lives with in you. It is hard to doubt God when you have to deal with Him daily.

It's hard to hold on to your fake faith when the Qur'an clearly mentions in Surat An-Nisā' 4:171 that Jesus was never killed nor crucified. You know the Muslims wouldn't make such affirmation unless it was true

Still worshiping men and stones? You disappoint me Drich.

I still can't wrap my head around it, the phrase son of man is so often mentioned in the Bible...and you still think Jesus was God. Son of MAN son of MAN.

[Anomalocaris]

In all seriousness.... what do you expect of God?

Existence. So simple and yet he disappoints me. And he calls himself omnipotent.

[Drich]

I found it harder to follow my faith when things are too good/easy. Even so i never doubt that thier is a God. why? Because when we Ask/Seek/knock for the Holy Spirit, The Spirit literally lives with in you. It is hard to doubt God when you have to deal with Him daily.

Yet another contradiction


.

not a contradiction. Paul identifies this condition in Romans 7 by saying we are slaves to sin.

14 We know that the law is spiritual, but I am not. I am so human. Sin rules me as if I were its slave. 15 I don’t understand why I act the way I do. I don’t do the good I want to do, and I do the evil I hate. 16 And if I don’t want to do what I do, that means I agree that the law is good. 17 But I am not really the one doing the evil. It is sin living in me that does it. 18 Yes, I know that nothing good lives in me—I mean nothing good lives in the part of me that is not spiritual. I want to do what is good, but I don’t do it. 19 I don’t do the good that I want to do. I do the evil that I don’t want to do. 20 So if I do what I don’t want to do, then I am not really the one doing it. It is the sin living in me that does it.

21 So I have learned this rule: When I want to do good, evil is there with me. 22 In my mind I am happy with God’s law. 23 But I see another law working in my body. That law makes war against the law that my mind accepts. That other law working in my body is the law of sin, and that law makes me its prisoner. 24 What a miserable person I am! Who will save me from this body that brings me death? 25 I thank God for his salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So in my mind I am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful self I am a slave to the law of sin.

So long as we live this life we according to Paul will serve our master sin, even if we are able to acknowledge God.

---

I found it harder to follow my faith when things are too good/easy. Even so i never doubt that thier is a God. why? Because when we Ask/Seek/knock for the Holy Spirit, The Spirit literally lives with in you. It is hard to doubt God when you have to deal with Him daily.

This ties in with study I read a while back (I'm trying to find it but can't at atm). People tend to be more religious in bad times, I guess in desperation.

So you never think "Is this actually God creating this feeling inside my brain, rather than just the brain itself"?

No. The Holy Spirit acts and gives revelation apart from what we can initially understand. How could this be possible if the Spirit was a manifestation of ones own thoughts?

---

I found it harder to follow my faith when things are too good/easy. Even so i never doubt that thier is a God. why? Because when we Ask/Seek/knock for the Holy Spirit, The Spirit literally lives with in you. It is hard to doubt God when you have to deal with Him daily.

It's hard to hold on to your fake faith when the Qur'an clearly mentions in Surat An-Nisā' 4:171 that Jesus was never killed nor crucified. You know the Muslims wouldn't make such affirmation unless it was true

Still worshiping men and stones? You disappoint me Drich.

I still can't wrap my head around it, the phrase son of man is so often mentioned in the Bible...and you still think Jesus was God. Son of MAN son of MAN.

Are you still pretending to be an atheist while you quote from your holy book?

[ronedee]

To me, the best image of god may be the deist version that creates the universe and then lets it develop however it will. He demands nothing of us and we expect nothing (more) from him. No limits, no rules, no one to blame but ourselves, and no one to stop us from being all we can be. There may be variants of god that are more involved and more "good" and more fun, but those all require some level of giving up who I am because he's always got a hand on my shoulder.

Why can't He be what you've described here? He is for me.

[Tonus]

Why can't He be what you've described here? He is for me.

He is, in a sense. Believing that he is not there isn't different from believing he was there and left us to our devices, at least in terms of how I live my life.