Can someone please make me understand how believing in God feels like?
There. I said it. Wait. WAIT! I'm not trying to be funny or disrespectful. In fact, this has been THE question that NO ONE has tried to answer in a logical way. As I don't believe in God or Jesus as people define them (Son of God, miracles, yada yada yada), this has been sort of a mystery. You see, I see religious people and I sit there and think... I don't get it. What is it? What made you believe? What possibly made you believe all the stories, the dogma, the weird things that people do in Church?
What made me ask this question and write this post - which will sure make us lose a shitload of readers but, again, was not my intention - was simple.
I was having dinner with my boyfriend last Friday and the nice dude who was our waiter was talking to us. I don't know how the theme got there, but suddenly the waiter was talking about how he suddenly dropped out of everything and turned to serve God.
"There is no better peace but that of God's" - he said.
Hm. Really? Damn, I totally disagree! Peace for me is being at the beach, alone with my thoughts, having a cool beer and watching the sunset. That's a peace that NO one can give me. I've been to church. I've listened to many Garden Variety Preachers go at it. Hard Core. Not one has given me any iota of peace. Oh yeah, I did read the Bible. Not one piece of peace there as well. In fact, all I thought was... women are nothing in this book, dammit!
So... Why? What made you think that way? Do you at one point get filled with some kind of great feeling and feel it's God? What kind of peace are you talking about? Did you feel lost at some point so now God is telling you the way? How can you tell apart the fact that maybe you just were droning along in life and now you think that some guy upstairs is guiding you, when all it really is your brain just thinking straight for once?
Really guys. Believing in God = Faith, right? So tell me, please, how does it feel like. What is having faith? And please, don't give me Bible talk. No. I need a strong rational argument. Believing in God feels like this and this and this, because this and this.
I don't want the normal if you believe in God then you will go to heaven storyline. Nope. I'm not even asking WHY you believe in God as much as HOW do you feel while doing it. Is it a need? Is it that you feel some kind of reward or you think you have a reward? Does that poor sap have peace, really? Why?
Why????
Hopefully someone will write back. I have... faith?
5 comments:
In my experience, people make the grave mistake of equating God with the Rules of the Catholic Church – and that could be the source of the confusion behind your question. The concept of a God is a very personal belief that you develop for whichever reasons; the Church is an institution and instrument of power.
Just as we all have our own notions of success and peace, people also have their notions of what God is. The problem arises is forcing that belief on others. Think of it this way: You didn’t like it when that Internet guru friend of yours told you that your definition of success was wrong, did you?
As to WHAT IT FEELS LIKE to have faith… well, please pardon the crudeness of my answers, but I assure you I mean this in the most respectful and loving manner possible. I think you’ve felt faith before:
- Faith feels like what you probably felt when your mother underwent that horrible accident and came out fine
- Faith feels like what you probably felt when you had that pregnancy scare and were ready to accept the situation with undying love
- Faith feels like what you probably felt when you said “Fuck it” to the corporate world and did your own thing, against all odds
- Faith feels like what you probably felt when you discovered that your man is your soul mate
I bring up these examples because they are all well documented here at WAS. These are deeply personal situations that you decided to share with all of us… situations over which you had no control all but left the matter in God’s hands, not the Church’s.
Happiness? Trust? Contentment? Satisfaction? Peace? I have no idea, but I think that in your case in particular, your faith is what makes you strong.
Wow... You made my eyes almost leak there for a minute. Hehe. Thanks dude.
From the bottom of my heart, that is the best answer that I've ever gotten about this, ever.
...or from an atheist pow;
The concept of God is a very personal belief that you develop for whichever reasons; what you felt in all those instances was your body and it's chemical highway functioning properly.
Faith sometimes feels like dopamine/endorphin.
its chemical highway. /using the apostrophe properly
I would like to reply to something RestrictionsApply stated in a post....”The concept of a God is a very personal belief that you develop for whichever reasons” Interesting......In childhood, they call that sort of thing....an imaginary friend, and is usually a cause for concern.
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