| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Luna" |
| Date: |
19 Sep 2004 01:45:11 PM |
| Object: |
Spiritual feelings |
I think the feeling of spiritual fulfillment is a big part of the reason
that people continue to practice religion or hold on to a belief in a god
or gods. Faith makes people feel good, in a specific way that they
believe they can't get from any other means. My theist friends describe it
to me as a feeling of connectedness with something bigger than themselves,
a feeling of warmth, safety and reassurance that everything will be alright.
I get the same feelings from other things in my life, from helping people,
from being with my family, from meditating and enjoying nature.
Contemplating the fact that every particle of my body once made up stars,
and that when I die and decompose my body will be one with the earth and
eventually part of the stars again, gives me a fulfilling feeling of
oneness with the universe. I don't feel like I'm missing anything by not
believing in god.
--
Michelle Levin
http://www.mindspring.com/~lunachick
I have only 3 flaws. My first flaw is thinking that I only have 3 flaws.
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| User: "Ike" |
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| Title: Re: Spiritual feelings |
19 Sep 2004 07:19:15 PM |
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"Luna" <lunachick@NOSPAMmindspring.com> wrote in message
news:lunachick-01C4D0.14440119092004@news5.east.earthlink.net...
I think the feeling of spiritual fulfillment is a big part of the reason
that people continue to practice religion or hold on to a belief in a god
or gods. Faith makes people feel good, in a specific way that they
believe they can't get from any other means. My theist friends describe
it
to me as a feeling of connectedness with something bigger than themselves,
a feeling of warmth, safety and reassurance that everything will be
alright.
I get the same feelings from other things in my life, from helping people,
from being with my family, from meditating and enjoying nature.
Contemplating the fact that every particle of my body once made up stars,
and that when I die and decompose my body will be one with the earth and
eventually part of the stars again, gives me a fulfilling feeling of
oneness with the universe. I don't feel like I'm missing anything by not
believing in god.
You remind me of the hillbilly joke: They said cheer up; things could be
worse, so I cheered up, and things got worse.
--
Hillybilly dingdong choochoo
Hillybilly dingdong choochoo
Hillybilly dingdong choochoo
Choochoo eisenbahn
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| User: "AnotherObserverŪ" |
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| Title: Re: Spiritual feelings |
19 Sep 2004 05:53:35 PM |
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Luna <lunachick@NOSPAMmindspring.com> wrote:
I think the feeling of spiritual fulfillment is a big part of the reason
that people continue to practice religion or hold on to a belief in a god
or gods. Faith makes people feel good, in a specific way that they
believe they can't get from any other means. My theist friends describe it
to me as a feeling of connectedness with something bigger than themselves,
a feeling of warmth, safety and reassurance that everything will be alright.
I get the same feelings from other things in my life, from helping people,
from being with my family, from meditating and enjoying nature.
Contemplating the fact that every particle of my body once made up stars,
and that when I die and decompose my body will be one with the earth and
eventually part of the stars again, gives me a fulfilling feeling of
oneness with the universe. I don't feel like I'm missing anything by not
believing in god.
Sure, once you realize that spirituality is an extension of the
emotions programmed into your mind by virtue, experiences and DNA,
it's quite enjoyable to relinquish the myth and embrace those still
mystical qualities within. Knowing what they are and where they
originate in no way lessens the pleasure to be had from them.
--
Davidwd
~~~~~~~~~
irreligionist
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| User: "Uncle Dollar Bill" |
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| Title: Re: Spiritual feelings |
19 Sep 2004 06:46:59 PM |
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On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 18:45:11 GMT, Luna wrote:
I think the feeling of spiritual fulfillment is a big part of the reason
that people continue to practice religion or hold on to a belief in a god
or gods. Faith makes people feel good, in a specific way that they
believe they can't get from any other means. My theist friends describe it
to me as a feeling of connectedness with something bigger than themselves,
a feeling of warmth, safety and reassurance that everything will be alright.
I remember the feeling quite well. Being dissociated, I can recall
that feeling at will just by stepping into a religious persona. The
only reason religion was any part of my life at all growing up is
because I happened to be born into a Christian family. That's what
religion gave me, my family. My family did not exist outside of the
context of their religion, it just didn't happen. My parents and
sister still don't, as far as I can tell. I miss them. Even though
we speak from time to time and proclaim our familial love for each
other, I haven't been in the same universe as them for quite a number
of years. It's kind of difficult to explain my meaning, but explain I
keep trying to do. It's like when you're with someone, and you both
know the same things and you both agree about the world, you're there
_with_ each other. But when it's someone with whom you have nothing
in common, with a very different perception of the world, you don't
feel like you're even living on the same planet. When I remember the
days that I was a child growing up, still a Christian because I had no
knowledge of any other choice, I knew my family then. I knew them and
they knew me. I hugged them, felt them, interacted with them. A
little something inside me tugged up against a little something inside
them because we were the same. I was one of the tribe.
Now when I go home, it's like I'm some alien anthropologist going to
study "out in the field" so to speak. I have nothing in common with
them any more except DNA. Even my childhood comes differently from
their mouths than it does from my memory. I feel like Carlos
Castaņeda's "don Genaro" who's lost his way home (to Ixtlan) and, no
matter who he meets that looks like who he used to know, can never
find it again. Like don Genaro, when I meet someone I grew up
knowing, it's like they're not even there any more. They speak and
babble about phanstasmical meanderings, they try to lure me back into
their religion, they try to make me stray from the path my life has
become.
Sometimes, it's tempting. Sometimes I'd lose my soul just to have
one more day back in "Ixtlan" (or in my case, Jerome, PA). To have
those feelings again, to experience the sense of knowing where I
'belong' in the world, and how I relate to the rest of the world
through my family. But overall, I really can't go back. I just
can't. It's impossible. Not unless I suffer some severe brain trauma
or some such.
There was a time when I could look upon a picture of Jesus and bask
in the afterglow of religious devotion and heavenly adoration. A time
when I could look at my grandmother and see "Jesus" all over her face
and yearn to have that same imprint on my own face someday. But it's
over, the gig is up. The game is finished. Time to wrap up the tents
and move this circus on. :-(
I get the same feelings from other things in my life, from helping people,
from being with my family, from meditating and enjoying nature.
Contemplating the fact that every particle of my body once made up stars,
and that when I die and decompose my body will be one with the earth and
eventually part of the stars again, gives me a fulfilling feeling of
oneness with the universe. I don't feel like I'm missing anything by not
believing in god.
Thanks for sharing these thoughts & feelings. It's nice to think
deeply from time to time, isn't it? :-)
--
L8r,
Uncle Dollar Bill
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