How do I give myself over to GOD? (Harry Potter, disciples, Apostle)
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I've always been agnostic, but I would like to change. People seem like they are so happy when they firmly believe in GOD, and the precepts of a particular religion. I would like this happiness and ability to affirm/ continue on in the face of negative struggles. How to I become a believer?
Note: In general I have always been a very skeptical person and an outsider. You could type cast me as a loner who once had goals, but who ultimately fell into depression. I now have goals again related to employment, but for everything else I'm just generally unhappy or bored. I think religion could change this, but I am such a firm disbeliever...Help
Don't be too naive, now! People who firmly believe in GOD can be very crazed, sour, sad, etc too. I've witnessed it many times. What makes people happy is that they tie their believes with happiness. Simple as that. They expect themselves to be happy, "if they believe", so they make it so. But the Dalai Lama is firmly happy, without firmly believing in GOD. My dog is very happy, without firmly believing the precepts of any religion.
In the face of negative struggles, many of the crazed are very happy. In the face of native struggles, many of the sane happy are very happy.
Being alone can often cause depression, because your body is trying to get you to avoid/dislike being alone.
what is this "everything else" that you do as a loner?
Apologies everyone. I was off my 300mg anti-depressants and was feeling down. I was trying to wean off them myself over the course of a few days, but it didn't work. Meh. I fell much better now though...unfortunately, I have no urge to give myself over to a higher power anymore. Well, actually, I guess it wouldn't be so bad, but it would need to happen naturally...
“The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”
― T.H. White, The Once and Future King
Believing in gods doesn't make them happy, that some of them are trained to think that believing in GOD/Power/Immortality/Tribalism/Hope/etc should make them happy is what makes them happy.
Being in groups provides their bodies with comfort, participating in events provides them with peace, experiencing a wide variety of new things provides them with glee.
I've always been agnostic, but I would like to change.
I'm just generally unhappy or bored. I think religion could change this,
but I am such a firm disbeliever...Help
Interesting.
Btw, I'm against organized religions.
I commend you for just wanting to do 'something' to get happy, whatever it is!
So...
If I were in your shoes this is what I would do:
I would surround myself with the writings of only people I respect...that are 'believers'.
They don't even have to be famous...there are many dvds on Netflix of staunch
atheists that did intense research and later became believers...watch a couple of those.
If I wanted to lose weight, I would surround myself with Exercise, Health,
even fashion magazines, testimonials of people who were successful on diet changes, etc.
See if their writings start influencing your views...I would also , stay open to the fact,
these people don't seem to use logic...but have had a direct experience of some kind...
I would not listen to Bible thumpers saying God might send you to an eternal hell...sigh.
Obviously, they are following beliefs similar to throwing virgins into volcanos.
Ah, a good book on that is 'Cosmic Consciousness' by Dr. Richard Bucke circa 1900...
a non-religious study of historical figures that experienced life changing moments.
Oh, and I happen to like the movie/docu online for free...'The Star of Bethlehem'...
A lawyer takes Kepler's studies that NASA uses to this day ...to come up with amazingly eye-opening 'proof' let's say...there is an Intelligence at work out there!
Again, not exactly 'religious'.
Last edited by Miss Hepburn; 05-01-2016 at 07:27 AM..
Interesting.
Btw, I'm against organized religions.
I commend you for just wanting to do 'something' to get happy, whatever it is!
So...
If I were in your shoes this is what I would do:
I would surround myself with the writings of only people I respect...that are 'believers'.
They don't even have to be famous...there are many dvds on Netflix of staunch
atheists that did intense research and later became believers...watch a couple of those.
If I wanted to lose weight, I would surround myself with Exercise, Health,
even fashion magazines, testimonials of people who were successful on diet changes, etc.
See if their writings start influencing your views...I would also , stay open to the fact,
these people don't seem to use logic...but have had a direct experience of some kind...
I would not listen to Bible thumpers saying God might send you to an eternal hell...sigh.
Obviously, they are following beliefs similar to throwing virgins into volcanos.
Ah, a good book on that is 'Cosmic Consciousness' by Dr. Richard Bucke circa 1900...
a non-religious study of historical figures that experienced life changing moments.
Oh, and I happen to like the movie/docu online for free...'The Star of Bethlehem'...
A lawyer takes Kepler's studies that NASA uses to this day ...to come up with amazingly eye-opening 'proof' let's say...there is an Intelligence at work out there!
Again, not exactly 'religious'.
This is some of the WORST advice I've heard. Using this method one can convince oneself of anything. If you want to convince yourself of alien abduction then surround yourself with literature from people who have claimed to have experienced it. If you want to believe that a spaceship is coming to take a select group of humans to another planet, surround yourself with people and literature of those who once didn't believe this but who now do.
Personal experiences are some of the worse ways to accumulate evidence of anything. Search for real evidence and follow the evidence where it leads.
No, actually it is not up to us. That is God's domain to reveal Himself to us which He already has done. The Sacred Scriptures reveal to us that God is spirit and fills heaven and earth and that "not far from Him is each one of us since in Him we are moving and living and are" and "He gives to all, life and breath and all."
Those "Sacred Scriptures" were written by men who wanted to tell us how they perceive God.
This is some of the WORST advice I've heard. Using this method one can convince oneself of anything. If you want to convince yourself of alien abduction then surround yourself with literature from people who have claimed to have experienced it. If you want to believe that a spaceship is coming to take a select group of humans to another planet, surround yourself with people and literature of those who once didn't believe this but who now do.
Personal experiences are some of the worse ways to accumulate evidence of anything. Search for real evidence and follow the evidence where it leads.
What, you're not into confirmation bias?
Confirmation bias is great. It helps me believe what I WANT to believe, rather than what is likely to be true.
I am rather curious myself. I have only ever seen three atheists that became believers (or something like that) and the reasons were always rather poor ones and seemed to be more looking for an excuse to believe what they had an inclination for anyway. There was NO 'research' (as we do in looking into the claims of religion) involved at all. I would be interested to see an example of someone who researched their way to belief.
It is actually quite possible - start with the I/d argument (like Anthony Flew) pick Christianity because of the Bible looking broadly reliable. That's the way the argument is supposed to go. But it actually seems to go another way:-
Life is lacking something - religion seems to supply it. Pick a religion, or one of the denominations and find an excuse to believe e.g morality is a real entity aka God; fear of hellfire in lurid paintings.
On the other hand, deconversion does often happen through research, and very regularly research intended to validate belief factually. Sometimes the doubts build up and a small thing - something unpersuasive in itself - like a pal of mine seeing a minister buying medicine instead of praying to be healed - can release the floodgates of disbelief.
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