Current Events > What does it feel like to be very religious?

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I didn't grow up with much of it so it always baffles me to see how seriously people take it.

Probably like a

Define very religious.

You mean like a fundamentalist?

Damn_Underscore posted...

Define very religious.

Like if you were filling out a survey, it's the space between "religious" and "extremely religious."

Damn_Underscore posted...

Define very religious.

You mean like a fundamentalist?

Where your life revolves around your religion. Not just something you do on a Sunday

I'm a Christian, but I don't participate in church meetings or events.

Just mass on Sundays whenever I can.

As someone who did grow up with it, I'm not sure it feels very different from someone who didn't. You get the odd person who claims they really feel it in their every day life but if you were to observe them going about their day, it seems unlikely that they are thinking about their faith that often.

It's like believing in any other thing you don't really know for sure. Or even not believing in it. It feels normal basically unless you go out of your way to be strange about it and actively try to feel it even when the situation doesn't call for it.

As someone who was raised in a Southern Baptist household but is now agnostic, I remember taking comfort in knowing that I had unassailable truth, but now recognize that as more of a Dunning-Kruger effect. I was so enthusiastic about God I wanted to learn more about Him and the wonderful world He created, and the more I learned about the world and my religion, the less confident I became about it.

I was there. It requires distorting genuinely positive feelings.

Glad to be alive = Praise God for creating you and this world.
Grateful for what you have and your health = Praise God for giving you an able body and not being destitute
Happy being around others = Socialization through the Church
Something doesn't go well = Let's pray about it
The worse things get, the more you must be grateful for what you have, and forgive those who have transgressed against you.

I still believe in the moral teachings of forgiveness and gratefulness of life, but I feel that being religious gets in the way of actual positive change that affects people's lives.

Sansoldier posted...

I was there. It requires distorting genuinely positive feelings.

Glad to be alive = Praise God for creating you and this world.
Grateful for what you have and your health = Praise God for giving you an able body and not being destitute
Happy being around others = Socialization through the Church
Something doesn't go well = Let's pray about it
The worse things get, the more you must be grateful for what you have, and forgive those who have transgressed against you.

I still believe in the moral teachings of forgiveness and gratefulness of life, but I feel that being religious gets in the way of actual positive change that affects people's lives.

That's more along the lines of one I'm talking about. I remember in high school we had to read poems we wrote, and this girl wrote about how much she loved God and how people saying he doesn't assist makes her faith stronger. It's like some people feel their gods in their souls. I tried going to a church to see what it's about, but just got really confused.

Feels good in a positive way

was raised to believe in god (dedicated to my local church) and still do

havent always had faith, there were a few years I didnt even think of god

but something always seem to pull me back to faith
I read the Bible once in a while, but try to live life as well

The "extracurricular" activities like summer camps, vbs, family trips, bbqs and etc were all very fun, everyone is kind even if they dont like you or think youre weird. But boy did my dad waste so much of my time shoving church down my throat. It wasnt just Church on Sunday morning but Wednesday nights as well and then there was also Awana (sunday night). A program where they made you memorize bible verses weekly, had what was basically a mini sermon, though we did get gym time for stuff like dodgeball and every year we had a wooden car derby. I felt tinges of being religious and prayed but never thought I felt like the others did. I only sang in church not because I "felt the holy spirit" but I just enjoyed singing. When I got to highschool age I starting half ditching. They had three different time slots at my church and my dad always wanted to go to two of them. So I would stay for one sunday school session or sometimes half of one. After that I would sneak off to a separate building no one used after 8am sessions and would go read comic books and take teachers candy. But I still think it was mostly a waste of time. The amount of sleep/homework/friends I could have been spending time with instead. Ever since my family split up I have never gone regularly, just here and there with mom to make her happy.

Bags of sand.

Squall28 posted...

Where your life revolves around your religion. Not just something you do on a Sunday

tbh I think about theological matters a lot

Made me a bit paranoid as a kid because I thought God was watching over me 24/7. So always had him in the back of my mind whenever I swore or looked at porn (discovered it when I was 6 years old).

Whenever I prayed at night I'd imagine the spiritual power entering me and cleansing my sins. Idr if I felt butterflies or anything like that but it did make me feel like i let go of the burden of my previous sins and could sin some more the next day

Used to go to church on Wednesday evenings. A program called Awana. I thought it was super boring tbh but I didn't want to go to hell so I didn't make a fuss at the time. Dont remember the lectures all that much. There was some type of leveling system and rewards (like toys you can get at chuck e cheese lol) iirc. I don't think I ever made it to the high levels. I suck at memorizing verses.

Stopped believing in God when I was like 12 years old but didn't openly state it to my parents until I was 14. We had a lot of arguments at the time . After a few months (or a year or two) of casual arguing I pretended to believe in God again and got baptized. Just didn't want any more trouble plus it seemed to make my parents happy.

Ratchetrockon posted...

Whenever I prayed at night I'd imagine the spiritual power entering me and cleansing my sins. Idr if I felt butterflies or anything like that but it did make me feel like i let go of the burden of my previous sins and could sin some more the next day

Best take on religion ever lol

I'd say the biggest functional difference between atheist CEmen and myself is that I cannot play video games where the objective is to "use the power of friendship to kill God."

It's like being an ideologue, I'd imagine.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


Religion inherently has its restrictions and they vary from person to person even within the same faith.

As a Christian, I don't go to church on Sundays. I don't feel that I need to validate my faith by revisiting the same narratives over and over again. (And, selfishly, I don't like getting up on Sunday morning.) But I have enough respect for God to not play a video game which casts a fictionalized version of Him as the villain. Another Christian, who has the dedication to get up and go to church on Sunday, and who loves and respects God as much as I do, can beat a Persona game on Saturday and joke the next morning, "Who am I even going to church to worship? I killed God last night."

Religion is like having food restrictions. It's like being the person who has an allergy to peanuts. Or the individual who engages in a vegan diet. It can completely redefine who you are. But for the most part, you really only see minor differences from one person to another.

FortuneCookie posted...

I'd say the biggest functional difference between atheist CEmen and myself is that I cannot play video games where the objective is to "use the power of friendship to kill God."

That's a lot rarer than the common meme implies it to be.

FortuneCookie posted...

Religion inherently has its restrictions and they vary from person to person even within the same faith.

As a Christian, I don't go to church on Sundays. I don't feel that I need to validate my faith by revisiting the same narratives over and over again. (And, selfishly, I don't like getting up on Sunday morning.) But I have enough respect for God to not play a video game which casts a fictionalized version of Him as the villain. Another Christian, who has the dedication to get up and go to church on Sunday, and who loves and respects God as much as I do, can beat a Persona game on Saturday and joke the next morning, "Who am I even going to church to worship? I killed God last night."

Religion is like having food restrictions. It's like being the person who has an allergy to peanuts. Or the individual who engages in a vegan diet. It can completely redefine who you are. But for the most part, you really only see minor differences from one person to another.

"I can commit all kinds of sins in video games, but damn I could never play a game where you kill a god"

And how fucking disgusting to compare your choice in mythology to a food allergy. Your God does not exist. If God was actually real, you'd know what he wants instead of thousands of different interpretations that pick and choose what really matters, and swear their unprovable beliefs are much more real than all the other unprovable religious beliefs in the world past or present. Faith is really selfish and stubborn when you think about it.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

For me and others it's more a fear of what if we're not good enough even though we believe the "proper" things. It just made me more anxious, tbh. Evangelicals suck like that.

Personally, I find there being nothing when you die a much more comforting thought than the chance of being sent to everlasting torment or an angelic paradise.

I can also appreciate Christian universalists that believe we'll all eventually be saved and given some type of happy after life with God. It's one of the older theological currents too. Hell, I find annihilationism to make more sense than going to hell forever too.

I mean even if you go to church on Sundays and not much else that sounds like youre very religious or basing your life around religion to me

Bags of faith

hockeybub89 posted...

"I can commit all kinds of sins in video games, but damn I could never play a game where you kill a god"

And how fucking disgusting to compare your choice in mythology to a food allergy. Your God does not exist. If God was actually real, you'd know what he wants instead of thousands of different interpretations that pick and choose what really matters, and swear their unprovable beliefs are much more real than all the other unprovable religious beliefs in the world past or present. Faith is really selfish and stubborn when you think about it.

You're proving my point.

Your inflammatory response isn't because you're an atheist and I'm a Christian. That's the pretense. Your high-minded and aggressive behavior is the underscore of who you are as an individual. If we were all atheists, you would still have an impulsive need to pick a fight with someone for differing with you on one issue or another.

hockeybub89 posted...

"I can commit all kinds of sins in video games, but damn I could never play a game where you kill a god"

And how fucking disgusting to compare your choice in mythology to a food allergy. Your God does not exist. If God was actually real, you'd know what he wants instead of thousands of different interpretations that pick and choose what really matters, and swear their unprovable beliefs are much more real than all the other unprovable religious beliefs in the world past or present. Faith is really selfish and stubborn when you think about it.

Shut the fuck up

FortuneCookie posted...

You're proving my point.

Your inflammatory response isn't because you're an atheist and I'm a Christian. That's the pretense. Your high-minded and aggressive behavior is the underscore of who you are as an individual. If we were all atheists, you would still have an impulsive need to pick a fight with someone for differing with you on one issue or another.

Yes, that's correct. Not sure that's much of a point. People who are atheists are definitely capable of being wrong on non-religious matters and they are not above getting criticized.

You still compared religious choice to a food allergy and have a shoddy rationalization for buffet Christianity. What makes your interpretation of the Christian God more correct than anyone else's? What if God can't look past all the murder you commit in video games, just because you refuse to kill beings that are kinda sorta like God? And if everyone is different, then lots of people have to be doing it wrong, even assuming Christianity somehow was proven to be the "correct" religion. You just wish really hard that you got it right and everyone else didn't.

Garabandal posted...

Shut the fuck up

This should be the default response for hockeybub89.

It was blissful.
The saying of "ignorance is bliss" is really true.

Bags of sand

FortuneCookie posted...

You're proving my point.

Your inflammatory response isn't because you're an atheist and I'm a Christian. That's the pretense. Your high-minded and aggressive behavior is the underscore of who you are as an individual. If we were all atheists, you would still have an impulsive need to pick a fight with someone for differing with you on one issue or another.

Damn, closest I've seen someone else come to figuring out the culture here in some time.

Reimu posted...

Bags of sand.

.... God damnit.

You can greatly benefit from a religious structure in your life because it represents something bigger than yourself and brings meaning to your day-to-day empty existence.

You listen to the tales and romanticize, how you'd follow the path of the hero. Boast about the days when the rivers overrun, how you'd rise to the height of your halo. Listen to the tales as you rationalize your way into the arms of the savior. Feigning all the trials and the tribulations, none of you actually having been there.

Saxon posted...

You can greatly benefit from a religious structure in your life because it represents something bigger than yourself and brings meaning to your day-to-day empty existence.

Is that how you cope with your otherwise empty existence? I'd always wondered.

probably being scared and angry a lot

You get to throw out all morals and shield yourself from accountability because you hide behind your god. Speaking from growing up in catholic school.

Whatever you do, don't be an arrogant Atheist.

Be a humble Agnostic instead.

Saxon posted...

Whatever you do, don't be an arrogant Atheist.

Be a humble Agnostic instead.

What if I want to be an arrogant agnostic? I don't know and neither do any of you...

I can't believe people still feed Saxon.

It's funny what people think it's like who have no idea what religion is like and whose only life experience with it is reading negative articles.

Unless you are a kid being forced to go (like I was), and choose of your own will to go, then it's a very freeing and comforting experience that can give your life purpose.

I know that by my own account the witnessing of my mother. She's the sweetest person in the world and accepts everybody for who they are. But without her religion she would be very sad person and gives her the will to go on.

Reimu posted...

Bags of sand.

/thread

hockeybub89 posted...

"I can commit all kinds of sins in video games, but damn I could never play a game where you kill a god"

And how fucking disgusting to compare your choice in mythology to a food allergy. Your God does not exist. If God was actually real, you'd know what he wants instead of thousands of different interpretations that pick and choose what really matters, and swear their unprovable beliefs are much more real than all the other unprovable religious beliefs in the world past or present. Faith is really selfish and stubborn when you think about it.

This is such a garbage post, why did you write this?

In the past I was very religious and experienced fervor, with all its intoxicating effects. For deeply religious people it feels amazing. Having become an atheist eventually I also feel its a very scary thing because of how much it actually clouds judgment and any rationality. Not trying to be an edgy atheist, being religious is far from the norm at all where I live so being very religious is seen as being the weird one. I just think discussion between the groups is basically useless. They just dont think the same and never will.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


SCP-7179 made me realise that if consciousness persists after death then God had better have a seriously amazing afterlife lined up. Our mental state is not built to last that long. When we become desensitised to all available stimuli (which wont even take 1000 years, let alone infinity) we come unravelled. If anything, oblivion is a kindness.