BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality Atheist What if..............?

I just don't want my children to ever feel like I used to feel, and how I was made to feel about myself.

When I attended the Catholic Church I was NOT ALLOWED to take communion because even though I had had MY previous marriage annuled I refused to fill out any of the 20 double sided pages of the minutely detailed annulement form and pay how many hundreds of dollars to get his previous marriage annuled, then wait for maybe up to 5 years for them to decide on it! When the Priest began to really push for me to get my daughter baptized I just could not bring myself to do it. I began thinking why am I bringing my kids to a Chruch that does not even think I am good enough to let take Communion?

Since then I have really been questioning all I have believed until now, exploring and trying to find the right path for myself.

"WHY didn't I question anything before now?"
That just about ripped my heart out. (If that sounds dry in any way, it wasn't meant to.)
I always thought, if it were going to be a god I could understand, the very people who are the hardest to convince are the ones this god should want the most. The ones who couldn't buy the atrocities and call it love. And the ones who would never accept "it's a matter of faith" as the answer to a logical question. And those who would never believe they have the right to tell another person how to love/dress/speak/live.

"Questioning", if we were to apply it to everything in our life would really make the world so much better, don't you think? Just think about how much the average, everyday person just ACCEPTS WITHOUT QUESTION.

I actually think about that a lot, and it worries me.

Sadly, more and more people daily just accept the way they are, the way they think, they way they are told to think. It scares me.

There's a set of shivers that'll not be leaving anytime terribly soon.

When you begin to question, really question "Have I been deeply believing fairy tales all of my life?" it can be a profound and disturbing experience.

It has changed my life in subltle ways so far. A good part of my life and my social life was tied up in my Church and church activites. Going to Church, attending social functions, doing volunteer work, cleaning the church, etc. Now I do not have that. It has helped some having all yoladies to talk to about so many differnt subject, LOTS OF GOOD MINDS HERE, .

But the good changes have been this sense of freedom of my spirit, not near the negatives in my life about trying to be who I am not. A black cloud that used to seem to surround me is gone.

Well, given my druthers, the afterlife I want is reincarnation.

Other than that, I'll trust the assumption that whatever powers are deciding that are fair and have a broader view of things than we do from down here. I see the different religions looking at G_d (which I guess reveals which religion is mine) as similar to the story of the 5 blind men and the elephant. One, examining the tail, decides the elephant is a lot like a snake, and so on. Each has a part of the truth, but even if you add up all the different concepts, they don't add up to the actuality of the whole. I was raised Christian, and one of the reasons I became jewish is that one of the principles is that there is no need to convert others. They alsready have their piece of the truth. Another thing I like, is that, on questions we'll never know the answers to, Judaisim sort of shrugs and says "Dunno." A grand debate among very learned men is presented and you are left with the responsibility of choosing for yourself which one you favor or choosing to shrug yourself. What matters is what you do with what you are given. The powers understand your weaknesses. They put them there!

How's that for a response?

DJC
www.donnajcarty.co.uk

I've never been very good at saying "dunno", unless I absolutely have to. What you're saying makes more sense to me than some other things I've heard, but I, of course, think only I need to understand my weaknesses. And then fix them. Who wants to keep a weakness?
I certainly like the "no need to convert others".
And Moon, what you said makes me glad that there are places like this. It still amazes me that it exists, this place where everyone can meet and talk this way. And that is why I am so in love with the human brain. It's incredible.