Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Ah, Cruithne. Let me assure you that for 30+ years I was definitely an atheist. My encounter in deep meditation instantly changed all that and it took decades to convince my intellect that there is a solid plausible scientific basis for it.
I know you have told me before that you were once an atheist.
What throws me about it though is from other posts I have read, you seem to have an extensive knowledge of the bible. Particularly the New Testament and you are very engaged with the life of Jesus it seems to me.
Unlike myself who, to be frank, was bored rigid by bible stories as a child. I also was very consciously picky about the stories when I heard them. Not about Jesus himself so much, but some of his stories didn't always make any sense to me. The prodigal son for example I always thought was a spectacular example of bad parenting with a terrible moral.
In my mind (and you can tell me if I'm wrong here ) I think you probably carried those bible stories around with you as an atheist. And you found a way to weave it all back into your life at some later date using, as you say 'a scientific basis' to convince yourself it had meaning. Could it not be possible that your knowledge of Christianity had a lot to do with it?
I know you have told me before that you were once an atheist.
What throws me about it though is from other posts I have read, you seem to have an extensive knowledge of the bible. Particularly the New Testament and you are very engaged with the life of Jesus it seems to me.
Unlike myself who, to be frank, was bored rigid by bible stories as a child. I also was very consciously picky about the stories when I heard them. Not about Jesus himself so much, but some of his stories didn't always make any sense to me. The prodigal son for example I always thought was a spectacular example of bad parenting with a terrible moral.
In my mind (and you can tell me if I'm wrong here) I think you probably carried those bible stories around with you as an atheist. And you found a way to weave it all back into your life at some later date using, as you say 'a scientific basis' to convince yourself it had meaning.
I understand you are perplexed by my adoption of a modified Christian narrative. That was the result of following a spiritual template within all the preceding speculations about God from the earliest days. You could call it an evolution of the avatar template for the promulgation of belief in God. All the less sophisticated versions followed the same general core - overcoming our animal urges. The Jesus narrative describes the true nature of God and it perfectly matches the consciousness I encountered. As you can imagine, I knew without a doubt that it could never have been my consciousness or unconsciousness or any combination thereof! That is why I adopted Christ.
I understand you are perplexed by my adoption of a modified Christian narrative. That was the result of following a spiritual template within all the preceding speculations about God from the earliest days. You could call it an evolution of the avatar template for the promulgation of belief in God. All the less sophisticated versions followed the same general core - overcoming our animal urges. The Jesus narrative describes the true nature of God and it perfectly matches the consciousness I encountered. As you can imagine, I knew without a doubt that it could never have been my consciousness or unconsciousness or any combination thereof! That is why I adopted Christ.
I don't really understand your reasoning but I won't question you further on it. I do remain fascinated by the human condition and how we all arrive at our own individual worldviews.
Sorry, but the reasons are not something I find it possible to articulate.
If I were to see God, I could say it's 100%.
To be so confident, you must've engaged in some reasoning process. Can you explain that process?
What would cause your confidence to drop, to 80% for example?
I understand you are perplexed by my adoption of a modified Christian narrative. That was the result of following a spiritual template within all the preceding speculations about God from the earliest days. You could call it an evolution of the avatar template for the promulgation of belief in God. All the less sophisticated versions followed the same general core - overcoming our animal urges. The Jesus narrative describes the true nature of God and it perfectly matches the consciousness I encountered. As you can imagine, I knew without a doubt that it could never have been my consciousness or unconsciousness or any combination thereof! That is why I adopted Christ.
How did you make that determination? Also, assuming you could do so, how did you eliminate all other possible explanations?
It does. Fighting can be just telling your story. I think you do a great job of describing belief post fundamentalism.
Thanks L8. I always appreciate reading your experiences with escaping fundamentalism. I'm just sorry you've had such a rough go of it with your family.
It seems like you're asking me why I came to believe in the existence of God again? Am I correct? If not, just ignore the following ...
Once I sort of mellowed out of my knee-jerk hard-core atheism, having obviously been released from my former fundamentalist bible beliefs, I became keenly aware of how much the concept of God I'd been taught and believed made very little sense, with or without the bible, and how much cognitive dissonance I'd carried around with me for decades. Having the freedom to explore different concepts of God allowed me to see that there were ways to understand God's existence that weren't irrational -- to my way of thinking, at least. Didn't mean any of them were true, or completely accurate, but it opened me up to the possibility.
Essentially, what I settled on over time, is that our existence, and specifically consciousness, lean me, personally, toward believing that life/consciousness is, in some way, in the very fabric/foundation of our reality. That to me, is God, no matter how I slice it, and I am very interested in exploring more of a moment by moment awareness of and connection with that.
Significantly to me, I have had a sense for many years, that something is guiding me. I was being crushed by my religious mindset, but never was aware that it was that religious mindset that was the culprit. I can look back and see the bread crumbs that led me out of that, and into the freedom I now enjoy. I would agree that emotions play a part in all of this, and I'm good with that. It makes sense to me that since emotions are part of our conscious experience, they're a tool to be used to explore our reality. I'm not going to cut that part of me off just because some others insist that I should. My religion used to try to do that, and now it seems that some atheists want to do that, too. I'm no longer willing to be controlled by others like that.
That's it in a nutshell. My consciousness is all mine, and no one can stop me from exploring it in any way I choose. I think God is available to me there, and that I experience God there. I feel energized by that, in a very positive way.
I know of atheists who have 'become believers'. I don't know how long it lasted though. I was once drawn into this 'Christian' thing. I very quickly saw through it and withdrew. One of my more embarrassing moments.
I went to a 'church' and the 'pastor' gave a dramatic and passionate spiel and called on people to come up and I was drawn in. Right there the fraud began to show when he basically accused me of using drugs - which I did not. I thought "wait a minute, this guy is speaking with the power of God and gets me wrong?" It wasn't long and I was gone.
It seems like you're asking me why I came to believe in the existence of God again? Am I correct? If not, just ignore the following ...
Once I sort of mellowed out of my knee-jerk hard-core atheism, having obviously been released from my former fundamentalist bible beliefs, I became keenly aware of how much the concept of God I'd been taught and believed made very little sense, with or without the bible, and how much cognitive dissonance I'd carried around with me for decades. Having the freedom to explore different concepts of God allowed me to see that there were ways to understand God's existence that weren't irrational -- to my way of thinking, at least. Didn't mean any of them were true, or completely accurate, but it opened me up to the possibility.
Essentially, what I settled on over time, is that our existence, and specifically consciousness, lean me, personally, toward believing that life/consciousness is, in some way, in the very fabric/foundation of our reality. That to me, is God, no matter how I slice it, and I am very interested in exploring more of a moment by moment awareness of and connection with that.
Significantly to me, I have had a sense for many years, that something is guiding me. I was being crushed by my religious mindset, but never was aware that it was that religious mindset that was the culprit. I can look back and see the bread crumbs that led me out of that, and into the freedom I now enjoy. I would agree that emotions play a part in all of this, and I'm good with that. It makes sense to me that since emotions are part of our conscious experience, they're a tool to be used to explore our reality. I'm not going to cut that part of me off just because some others insist that I should. My religion used to try to do that, and now it seems that some atheists want to do that, too. I'm no longer willing to be controlled by others like that.
That's it in a nutshell. My consciousness is all mine, and no one can stop me from exploring it in any way I choose. I think God is available to me there, and that I experience God there. I feel energized by that, in a very positive way.
I always enjoy your insightful witness, Pleroo.! It may not add to your confidence that God IS guiding us, but my experiences leave no doubt about it. Thank you for sharing.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
) I think you probably carried those bible stories around with you as an atheist. And you found a way to weave it all back into your life at some later date using, as you say 'a scientific basis' to convince yourself it had meaning. Could it not be possible that your knowledge of Christianity had a lot to do with it?
...
It may not add to your confidence that God IS guiding us, but my experiences leave no doubt about it. Thank you for sharing.
