Any advice for someone losing his faith in religion for the second time?
It isn't that I'm losing my faith in god altogether but there's way too many things in christianity I can't get past and make no sense to me.
I think the only thing keeping me drawn to it now is a great fear of damnation, which is also the reason I'm losing faith..
you don't have to subscribe to a religion to keep faith in god or have your own spirituality
make your own religion
you have as much right to believe and practice however you wish as any person or any group
just because it's done a lot doesn't make it the only option for you
>>17134611
How to free myself from fear of hell? I still work to be a good person but I have that fear still that that isn't enough to save me from hell if it does indeed exist
>>17134640
do you want hell to exist
if the answer is yes, then play by your rules
if the answer is no, then it doesn't have to
if your response to the prompt is 'it doesn't matter, there's one anyway' then you need to rethink what you want out of your spiritual life and why you feel obligated to believe one exists
fear of eternal suffering is powerful
but it doesn't have to exist if it affects you negatively
>>17134655
No, I absolutely don't. I'm a person that wouldn't even wish hell upon people like hitler or the worst person I can imagine.
>>17134640
>How to free myself from fear of hell?
There are a few different forms of hell in various religions. You're afraid of the Christian hell, possibly due to your cultural upbringing, but you have just as much reason to fear the others. They're all silly.
>>17134689
>I'm a person that wouldn't even wish hell upon people like hitler or the worst person I can imagine.
Then why worship a god that would punish you infinitely over a finite sin? If that's your only real reason for hanging on, then you're not a true believer in the first place, and god (if he exists) will know your true thoughts. Believing out of fear, as opposed to love, isn't true belief. It's blackmail.
>>17134590
Wish I could help OP.
Faith always seemed nice in principle.
But I always wondered what kind of God would allow my life to unfold as it did?
>>17134689
sounds like you know what you want then
i can give you a wish for good luck, somebody
>Wattersonfag has no god
>>17134590
Have you read John Locke's "On the Reasonableness of Christianity", by any chance?
>>17134590
Hi OP. I had a lot of trouble with this when I was younger, too. only you can decide what's right for you, but since you asked, I'll share what helped me. I read and pondered a lot of work that Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan wrote. Accepting the vastness of an expanding universe, the infinite nature of time, and the power of randomness helped. Reading more about the history of religions made me understand how humans have used religion to explain what they don't know- and in the worst cases, have used it to further their own interests and biases.
It took a while, because it was scary to let go of the notion that there is anything beyond death. I've accepted that just as there was nothing before birth, there is nothing after death. It makes me treasure my life now and the people I am lucky enough to meet and love during the time I have.
Again, I'm not trying to make you reconsider or lose your faith, but just relating some of the stuff I mused about which helped. Fathoming the cosmos is fairly spiritual for me, though.
>>17134640
>goes on 4chan
>afraid of hell
>>17135106
>I've accepted that just as there was nothing before birth
You sure about that?
>>17135101
No I have not
>>17134590
you could believe in god without religion
>>17134590
Find a church that is light on doctrine and strong on individual communion with God and others - Unitarians, Church of England, Quakers, Reform Judaism, Buddhism.
