Bttt
If you don't believe in God where do you get the strength to cope?
by Miss.Fit 151 Replies latest jw friends
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redvip2000
was told recently by a friend to pray to god for help and he would comfort me. My first impulse is to pray. But now I find myself hesitating.So where do you get your strength from to face your adversities?
Why not pray to the Sun instead? No, i'm not joking entirely. At least by praying to the Sun, the confort that it provides you is more palpable. When you get up in the morning and you step outside, you can actually see the Sun. It comforts you with its warmth, it helps you grow food that you need, it makes you feel better by giving you a nice sunny day. Along with all of this, the good news is that when you pray to the Sun, your prayers will get answered at the same 20 percent rate as if you pray to god, so it's really a win-win situation.
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designs
There are 15 wars ongoing in religious countries, prayer certainly helps...
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MissFit
I have found that when I am stressed I still automatically send up a quick prayer for strength. I realize that nobody is listening but I think it is more of a reminder to me to reach down into myself for my inner strength and endurance.
Does anyone else here still pray without thinking but accepting that no one is home?
Just wondering-Miss.Fit
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jgnat
Things are interesting now with my rational mind fully activated again, and while continuing to be involved in my church of choice. I am more than reason, and I still get great pleasure from worship. I have no problem praying. I did it before, I do it now. I certainly won't hesitate to pray for a distressed friend, when they ask for it. I may not pray for healing, but I might pray for peace and reconciliation.
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LisaRose
Yes Miss fit, I do sometimes pray, it's sort of an automatic reflex I guess. While I don't believe in God, I don't feel I have to give up on spirituality, prayer is just a way connect with the spiritual, it's a kind of meditation. You still your thoughts and put aside your everyday concerns and that is a mentally healthy thing to do.
I imagine the hard core Athiests think I am wrong to do so, while the hard core Christians probably think I am going to hell for blasphemy, but I am all for doing what works. If praying gives you comfort or makes you feel better, why would you stop? You might want to look into actual meditation, there are a lot of health benefits to it and you might find it is even better than prayer in some ways.
We all have our own path to walk to move on from being a Jehovah's Witness, so follow your path, let others do what works for them.
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jgnat
LisaRose, LOL. There are days my daughter panics and looks at me like I've got horns growing out my head. Even my choice of jewelry has shifted. I might wear a gold cross I like, but I always layer it with other spiritual symbols like stars or leaves. I am also fond of the DNA spiral and the native circle of life.
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LisaRose
Yes, it's hard to explain to some people, being a JW teaches you very black or white thinking, but if you find comfort in some of the rituals of religion why do you have to completely give them up? It's obvious that religion fills a need of some sort, or it wouldn't be so common, the trick is to take from it what sustains you, while leaving the abusive, negative aspects of it behind at the Kingdom Hall.
If you look at church as a community of like minded people, grouped together for mutual support, working towards the greater good, then what is to stop you from attending, even if you don't believe in God? If you look at prayer as a useful ritual to engage a certain part of your brain and get you in touch with your spirituality, then why would you need to give that up? I get that a lot of Athiests don't feel comfortable with the woo, but I am not one of them. If someone asks me to pray for someone they love, I don't really see that as an opportunity to brief them of the logical fallacies of belief. I say I will, because to me it just means I am thinking of them and hoping for the best. I don't think it's likely to make any difference, other than it makes the person who asks feel better, but that is no small thing in my mind. Cold logic is not very comforting, is it?
I think there are probably quite a few Athiests that attend church. I was thinking of joining one, it was a more liberal church. The pastor was not at all bothered by my lack of belief, she estimated about 40% of the congregation was Athiest on any one Sunday, the next week, same 40%, different people, lol. A lot of former JWs miss part of their former life, no doubt that is partly why some go back. So if that is true in your case, why not find a better church instead of giving up church altogether? I do think religion should fit you, not the other way around.
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MissFit
Thank you for your responses
That makes me feel better. I am trying to keep an open mind. There are still a lot of things Im relearning or looking at in a different way.
Getting rid of the notion that the fate of the world is on my shoulders and that there is a God judging everything I do has been very freeing.
I don't rule out a possibility of a creator but I am inclined to think he doesn't give a flying fig about what I do.
Miss Fit- who is learning to rely on herself.
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frankiespeakin
Yes these are life changing beleifs which we must come to terms with, glad to see gaining more confidence.
Here's something on the subject of being in an existential crisis that many of us have faced:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_crisis
An existential crisis is a moment at which an individual questions the very foundations of their life: whether their life has any meaning, purpose or value. [1] This issue of the meaning and purpose of existence is the topic of the philosophical school ofexistentialism......
An existential crisis is often provoked by a significant event in the person's life — psychological trauma, marriage, separation, major loss, the death of a loved one, a life-threatening experience, a new love partner, psychoactive drug use, adult children leaving home, reaching a personally-significant age (turning 16, turning 40, etc.), etc. Usually, it provokes the sufferer's introspection about personal mortality, thus revealing the psychological repression of said awareness.....
In the 19th century, Kierkegaard considered that angst and existential despair would appear when an inherited or borrowed world-view (often of a collective nature) proved unable to handle unexpected and extreme life-experiences. [7] Nietzsche extended his views to suggest that the so-called Death of God - the loss of collective faith in religion and traditional morality - created a more widespread existential crisis for the philosophically aware. [8]
