@fmf saidUnlike the speaker, I did not feel profound loss [in my case the process of "loss" was very gradual] and I did not suffer depression or feel despair and fear. Indeed, for me it felt positive. He also had a kind of exuberant post-comedown post-healing high about what he called "reality" that seemed more emotional and more bouncing-back hard than anything I went through.
More thoughts later.
-Removed-I have dropped the Christian label myself. The name is becoming synonymous with all manner of evil - extremism, greed, sexual misconduct, lying false prophecies and false doctrines. If not evil then it is associated with complacency. On this site if you were to ask how many would stop and help a stranger in distress, the atheists would raise their hands and the Christians would remain silent.
While they do not deny that you must do good works. The Christian doctrine now actively preaches that it is the result of the Holy Spirit and works which God has for them to do. How does this translate into real life. They would never say, because it is a pretty lame and embarrasing to say it. Their good works is all the things that they do all day. If they go to work and work well, thats good works. If they drive on the road and follow all the rules, thats good works. If they look after their family, thats good works, and say hello and good morning to everyone, thats good works. Working in the church is good works. This is nothing short of a ludicrous and nonsensical interpretation of the gospel of Christ and the Apostles.
What is even more damning is that pastors teach their followers that doing to good works that Jesus recommended, like feed the poor, help the needy, visit the sick etc etc is attempting to earn salvation by ones own efforts and that is condemned in the Bible.
So . I have lost that Christian religion. If someone one asks, I am nothing.
-Removed-I was born and raised a Catholic. Grades 1 thru 8 were at St Matthews School in Dorchester, Massachusetts . Baptism, First Confession, First Communion and Confirmation, with a lot of church. I was a very devout child, regularly praying and striving to understand spirituality. In grade 6 I asked the nun teaching religion class why god would create people who he knew would not believe in him and thus would be sent to hell. She could not answer and sent me to talk to the monsignor. I was told "You just have to believe". I said "That's not enough".
Even at that young age I was certain that god would be logic personified and anything not logical could not be of god. I still believe that. The Christian god began to appear quite illogical and likely manmade.
About the same time I could not help but notice the incredible level of hypocrisy among supposed Catholics in my neighborhood. Professing a spiritual belief but only acting that way when at church on Sundays convinced me that they really did not believe in god. It was all for show, nothing more. After 8th grade I only went to Catholic church for weddings and funerals.
My family moved to Texas when I was 15 and I checked out many other Christian groups over the years but it was the same hypocrisy with different packaging.
I moved from Atheism to Agnosticism to Polytheism and even Satanism (for a very short while).
I now consider myself to be a seeker of truth with a leaning towards the philosophy of Buddhism
BTW I really like that REM song
-Removed-You have lured me out of my record-setting silence on this forum, long enough to comment on the topic. First, hello to all.
Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait once said something like this: “I lost my job. Well, I didn’t really lose it. I know where it is, it’s just that when I went there, some other guy was doing it.”
He then went on to talk about losing his girlfriend.
Contrary to that, I ask, if you miss it, have you really lost it, or just misplaced it? It seems to me that missing something you lost is a way to keep a place for it in your heart, while it is gone in search of that place, perhaps looking in all the wrong places.
And there is the truism that when you find it, it will be in the last place you look, so go look there first.
All I have said on the subject (after saying a good many other things) is that when I introspect on the matter, I find no belief in deity, one way or the other. Logically, I’m not supposed to believe in the existence of a deity whose existence entails logical contradiction, but it is clear that this might only be a failing on my part that many others find not to be a problem.
I will report on any further progress.
Oh, and I recommend Alan Watts.
-Removed-Far be it from me to geester your dive but...
In the song, Michael Stipe sings the lines "That's me in the corner/That's me in the spotlight/Losing my religion". The phrase "losing my religion" is an expression from the southern region of the United States that means losing one's temper or civility, or "being at the end of one's rope." [wiki]