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I'm not religious. There is no combination of words in the English language that you can use to convince me otherwise.
Sometimes, though, I wish there was. To admit anything else would be a lie.
Christianity is on the rise amongst bitcoiners, and I sometimes think of my own experiences with religion because of this.
I grew up in America with the Greek Orthodox church. I was an alter boy, and I went to Greek school after normal school. We were taught Greek culture, religious topics, language, etc.
The church was my social center. More than that, it was an aesthetically pleasing place.
The Byzantine iconography. The smells of incense. The feel of the pews. The beautiful hymns chanted in Greek. The taste of the Eucharist.
As a youth & young adult, the divine liturgy was an experience for the senses. I wanted to believe. The idea of a greater power watching over us is very powerful. It gives a man purpose.
Alas, I could not believe. I do not believe. It's not me.
True believers show up every Sunday, but there are also the ones present for the social aspects. It's what they grew up with. They go through the motions, live their lives as decent humans, but are likely too afraid to confront their beliefs.
I couldn't respect myself if I did this. I can't be inauthentic to myself and to the true believers in attendance.
Being honest with myself meant leaving the church. It was like denouncing the club, removing myself from a social circle that was the foundation for much of my life.
It left a space that I've done my best to fill.
I think the world would be a better place if everyone lived by the general teachings of Jesus. If we were kind to others. Love your neighbor, forgive people, and all that. This is decent human behavior.
I try to live my life this way, but it is not easy.
This post isn't a cry for help. Deep down, I'm not trying to be convinced. Much like my journey with the carnivore diet, and diet in general, only my own experiences will convince me. I remain unconvinced.
I'm glad some of you are true believers, and I wish you peace and happiness on your spiritual journies. ๐งก
Replies (31)
It is a completely individual journey, just like life itself. I don't enjoy churches because I don't feel like many there get that. Religion is a tool to try and explain and implement sets of values which are universal and higher then ourselves. It can become corrupted, and many who practice don't truly understand the underlying principles.
God itself, and whatever higher power there is which governs all of our lives, cannot be. Buddhism is in my opinion the most straightforward explanation of these higher ideas. But the lack of myths, compromise, and community makes it unappealing to many.
I question if Jesus is on the rise or if some perverted form of Christianity is on the rise.
Iโve got a similar story. Itโs funny, my parents donโt ask me if I go to church but I can tell they want me to go. Iโm waiting for the day they ask me why so I can have a real conversation with them. I suspect they go because โthatโs what you doโ but like you Iโm not going to go just to check a box. Or so other people see me there. Most of these people donโt know why they are there themselves. They just know that they are expected to go.
Religion is funny like that.
I have fallen into and fallen out of a faith journey on multiple ๏ฟผoccasions. Itโs very hard to maintain. And itโs ๏ฟผmore than just Sunday to Sunday, itโs a daily task that can be discovered uniquely on your own while still retaining all the myths and symbols from an organized religion that you grew up with.
Thank you so much for sharing this note
I always mention the book โThe Invisible Churchโ by McGehee Thomas. ๏ฟผitโs not a fix by any means, but a way of looking at the church, religion, and faith with a new perspective
This is more of a timeline than a bell curve of my spiritual journey.
Convinced of what? That God exists?
What do you think religion is?
This sounds like when nocoiners say they canโt be convinced Bitcoin is money because there are mean bitcoiners on Twitter.
Believing in God has nothing to do with how humans act. We live in a fallen world; humans are flawed.
Thank you for your honesty. Thank you for sharing. Wish you peace and happiness too.
Same. I was an acolyte in the Lutheran church.
I actually went through the confirmation process TWICE in two different denominations because we moved and they did it at different ages!
Interesting. Thx for sharing!
There is something missing though right? What created the beginning? Iโm looking right now, but churches are packed with programmed drones from the left.
As quantum electromagnetic beings we must have the courage to seek Christ within ๐.
Iโm not religious myself but find myself pining for that sense of connection, to others and the universe.
I think the cultivation of ritual leads you to the sacredness of everyday life. Iโm not sure a belief in God is necessary. But intentional cultivation of that relationship to the sacred feels lacking outside of religion.
Iโve wondered if I could enact a God into being, not dependent on belief, but through ritual.
Jesus is King!
The more โreligiousโ a Christian becomes, the more humble, sacrificial and loving he desires to be.
My return to the faith started with the wish that I could, inside, do so. fwiw. ๐ค
I go to the beginning, are we created or spontaneously life started? Build from there.
Christianity is only a subset of religion...it's not the only religion.
Decent human behaviour is certainly the crux of life. May the spirit of the universe be with you ๐ซก โฉ๏ธโ๏ธ
I wish you peace and contentment on your spiritual journey as well Mandrik.
I have felt many of the same things. My own journey led me to Cosmotheism.
"I think the world would be a better place if everyone lived by the general teachings of Jesus."
Although you may not see it, the answer is right there. You can't exist in the world without assuming good and evil. What is truth, if not that which leads toward the good?
I enjoyed this post. Thank you for sharing. I grew up without a father, suffered from chronic pain, and lived a life of sin as I tried to escape the pain. I came to Christ when I prayed to Him in a last ditch effort before ending my life. He answered two massive prayers in the matter of months. Two things I had tried to attain for twenty years. I couldn't deny what had happened. I started reading the Bible during the lock downs. I found it to resonate as truth (even with all the unbelievable events that take place)
Interesting place to find yourself in. I guess leaving is the right thing to do in that circumstance.
Do you believe in God in any fashion?
Who do you think Jesus is?
Reading this I wondered if you had ever read Nikos Katzanzakis' "autobiography" 'Report to Greco'? Been years since I read it; but IIRC, his journey took him through atheism/socialism/Buddhism/ and at the end, back to Orthodox Christian. In the '70s I was with a group of Buddhists visiting his grave in Heraklion and read his famous epitaph: โฮฮตฮฝ ฮตฮปฯฮฏฮถฯ ฯฮฏฯฮฟฯฮฑ. ฮฮต ฯฮฟฮฒฮฟฯฮผฮฑฮน ฯฮฏฯฮฟฯฮฑ. ฮฮฏฮผฮฑฮน ฮปฮตฯฯฮตฯฮฟฯ". (I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.)
Thank you for sharing
@Mandrik - Rumi here resonates with me.
โI belong to no religion. My religion is love. Every heart is my temple.โ
What you believe informs how you interpret your experiences, but you believe your experiences inform what you believe, so you limit your beliefs to what you can experience rather than aiming at believing what's most true. The Truth is self evident, and when believed, leads to new experiences. As long as your highest aim is being convinced by experiences, your beliefs will be controlled by your experiences instead of by what's true. If you decide to aim your highest aspiration to believe what is most true, that is, what is most real, it will lead you to new experiences. Because, "The truth will set you free, but not until it's done with you." Whether or not you're convinced about anything is irrelevant if you believe the lie that experience is the highest form of truth.
What you believe informs how you interpret your experiences, but you believe your experiences inform what you believe, so you limit your beliefs to what you can experience rather than aiming at believing what's most true. The Truth is self evident, and when believed, leads to new experiences. As long as your highest aim is being convinced by experiences, your beliefs will be controlled by your experiences instead of by what's true. If you decide to aim your highest aspiration to believe what is most true, that is, what is most real, it will lead you to new experiences. Because, "The truth will set you free, but not until it's done with you." Whether or not you're convinced about anything is irrelevant if you believe the lie that experience is the highest form of truth.
Mandrik
I'm not religious. There is no combination of words in the English language that you can use to convince me otherwise.
Sometimes, though, I wish there was. To admit anything else would be a lie.
Christianity is on the rise amongst bitcoiners, and I sometimes think of my own experiences with religion because of this.
I grew up in America with the Greek Orthodox church. I was an alter boy, and I went to Greek school after normal school. We were taught Greek culture, religious topics, language, etc.
The church was my social center. More than that, it was an aesthetically pleasing place.
The Byzantine iconography. The smells of incense. The feel of the pews. The beautiful hymns chanted in Greek. The taste of the Eucharist.
As a youth & young adult, the divine liturgy was an experience for the senses. I wanted to believe. The idea of a greater power watching over us is very powerful. It gives a man purpose.
Alas, I could not believe. I do not believe. It's not me.
True believers show up every Sunday, but there are also the ones present for the social aspects. It's what they grew up with. They go through the motions, live their lives as decent humans, but are likely too afraid to confront their beliefs.
I couldn't respect myself if I did this. I can't be inauthentic to myself and to the true believers in attendance.
Being honest with myself meant leaving the church. It was like denouncing the club, removing myself from a social circle that was the foundation for much of my life.
It left a space that I've done my best to fill.
I think the world would be a better place if everyone lived by the general teachings of Jesus. If we were kind to others. Love your neighbor, forgive people, and all that. This is decent human behavior.
I try to live my life this way, but it is not easy.
This post isn't a cry for help. Deep down, I'm not trying to be convinced. Much like my journey with the carnivore diet, and diet in general, only my own experiences will convince me. I remain unconvinced.
I'm glad some of you are true believers, and I wish you peace and happiness on your spiritual journies. ๐งก
View quoted note →
I understood this:
Every body wants to do "his own thing".
But what we are all doing is following the culture other people prearranged for us.
The music you listen, the movies you watch the genres you like everything is made before you, for you in order for someone to make money and it's now a part of an algorithm.
Since you were raised as a Christian you probably remember when the child Jesus stayed in the temple and his mother was searching for him in their company, among the others children.
But he wasn't there.
When his mother asked him, he essentially answered her: "why you think I am your cultural product?"
Of we can "divide" our selves I could say we are: 1/3 genome, 1/3 cultural product and the outcome of the behavior our parents passed to us, 1/3 our own decisions.
So, about this last 1/3 now ๐
it's very easy for "it" to bow to a culture or to our intimate desires.
I came to understand that we can be truly free when we do not live a life coming from human culture a human ways. So only from the divine.
Of course Christianity, throughout the history got molded with ethnic cultures and regional traditions but this is what it is.
While I am far from saint ๐
I believe that if there is a God, the best way we have to worship him is through Eastern Orthodox Church. It's clean from ideology and virtue signaling.
You can do and go where ever you want, you ll still follow a culture made by others trying to connect with people with the same culture.
The "I made it my own way" statement I think is an illusion.
I m sorry I said so many things ๐
