should I be an atheist or religious?

[Aupmanyav]

What is meant by personal God is a God Who is conscious of His creation, Who has a Mind, a Will, a Purpose, and not, as many scientists and materialists believe, an unconscious and determined force operating in the universe.

Yeah, I agree with Shoghi ffendi. No personal God, no manifestation, no Abdul Baha, no Shoghi Effendi. Can any thought be worse than this?

 

[eik]

"should I be an atheist or religious?"
Given that you appear to fall into the classical definition of atheist, presumably from already being an atheist, then you could experiment at being religious to see if it fulfils the void that you clearly experience from your nihilistic beliefs. What I mean is that if your arbitrary nihilism doesn't appear to you to be the morally correct solution, you could let go of it for a while and try something else, provided it's not a cult. And there's the danger of "religion" in this day and age. You should not be afraid to make your own inquiries, and you will also find many will accept a genuine inquirer.

 

[hkkb]

"should I be an atheist or religious?"
Given that you appear to fall into the classical definition of atheist, presumably from already being an atheist, then you could experiment at being religious to see if it fulfils the void that you clearly experience from your nihilistic beliefs. What I mean is that if your arbitrary nihilism doesn't appear to you to be the morally correct solution, you could let go of it for a while and try something else, provided it's not a cult. And there's the danger of "religion" in this day and age. You should not be afraid to make your own inquiries, and you will also find many will accept a genuine inquirer.

thank you for your help! I will definitely ask around, I'd be thrilled if people would accept my questions about their religion but I had no idea if that would be appropriate to inquire to members of a religious community about. I don't personally have any nihilistic beliefs, I'm strongly against nihilism, but I clearly do feel a void in the community surrounding my beliefs, so trying out a religion sounds exciting! I just assumed most wouldn't welcome an atheist in their midst, but I'll talk to some local religious figures, perhaps see if I can email them or something. thanks for your input

 

[Aupmanyav]

The void will remain till we solve the ambiguity of existence and non-existence.

1. THEN was not non-existent nor existent: there was no realm of air, no sky beyond it.
What covered in, and where? and what gave shelter? Was water there, unfathomed depth of water?
3 Darkness there was: at first concealed in darkness this All was indiscriminated chaos.
All that existed then was void and form less: by the great power of Warmth was born that Unit.
Rig Veda: Rig-Veda, Book 10: HYMN CXXIX. Creation.
'Nasadiya' hymn (Na+asat = Not non-existing, double-negative for some reason )

 

[tayla]

place God as the most important thing in my life

How can someone do this if they don't believe there is such a person or thing as God?

 

[Trailblazer]

How can someone do this if they don't believe there is such a person or thing as God?

I don't think they can if they don't believe in God.

 

[Aupmanyav]

but say I also: think that religious communities are in general a positive thing, pray daily, place God as the most important thing in my life, think that religious belief is most likely a positive thing, and think the stories I've read from the Christian OT/Jewish Tanakh are true.

Religious belief is not a positive thing. It is the cause of strife in the world, a race for numbers (between the two largest). It is a desire for domination. Why can't one be a nice, law-abiding person without believing in God? You can do what you do after praying even without praying. The stories in scriptures are not history. You have only seen the edited versions. The others have been systemically burnt down or erased.

 

[Karolina]

Have you ever considered attending a 12 step group? They believe in a higher power, but they don't call it God.
I attended those groups for many years while I was a member of my religion because they don't conflict with religious beliefs.

This is what I was going to recommend. And you do not have to have a substance abuse problem to benefit! I attend a group for codependency, which basically means people pleasing, seeking external validation, problematic relational boundaries, etc. It has been super helpful and life changing. My group is specifically affiliated with my current church, but most aren't.

 

[Trailblazer]

This is what I was going to recommend. And you do not have to have a substance abuse problem to benefit! I attend a group for codependency, which basically means people pleasing, seeking external validation, problematic relational boundaries, etc. It has been super helpful and life changing. My group is specifically affiliated with my current church, but most aren't.

I attended ACOA (Adult Children if Alcoholics) meetings for years and after that I attended CODA (Codependents Anonymous) meetings for years. That was back in the 1980s and 1990s. Those groups helped me a lot. I used to be really codependent but not anymore. I now have boundaries between myself and other people. I believe that is so very important in any human interactions, even on this forum. People can say whatever they want to about my beliefs, but they cannot hurt me because I have boundaries.

 

[hkkb]

How can someone do this if they don't believe there is such a person or thing as God?

I definitely get how saying that God is central to my life when I'm not a believer is confusing, and to people with religious belief, possibly also insulting. It's hard for me to find the most accurate possible words for what I'm attempting to express, so I apologise. Religious words seem to come the closest.
Personally, I don't think that existing as a being or force has anything to do with whether or not something is real. Every decision I make, I try to make it in service of God, I ask for His direction, I try to find Him in every single thing in every moment of every day. God is the only thing that matters, God is meaning. I pray often, about everything. I want my life to belong to God, I want to do His will. God is equally real whether you believe or not, He is the God of non-believers so He talks to non-believers too, even if they don't know it's the voice of God.
It's difficult, but I believe atheists CAN have a relationship with God. That being said, I hope I can make clear that I do not aim to use religious language flippantly, and I endeavor to always improve my words and make them more accurate wherever possible. Learning from various religions has given me the vocabulary to more honestly express myself and I am forever indebted to the legacies of those religions for that. I know my conception of God is very different, so I hope this conveys the gratitude and respect I have in being able to use that word until such a time I find one more truthful and more functional.
I believe there is SOMETHING (even if it's a figurative something) in the place that people are describing as God, or else how would people collectively label it and know it as such? And for what reason would God be the wrong word to describe that thing we've labelled as God? God is whatever it is that people are collectively referring to when they say God. So He is irrevocably true in that sense.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

say I believe the following: there are no beings responsible for creation, there are no omnipotent or omniscient beings, there are no supernatural powers or forces of any kind, there are no such thing as souls, and there is no afterlife.
but say I also: think that religious communities are in general a positive thing, pray daily, place God as the most important thing in my life, think that religious belief is most likely a positive thing, and think the stories I've read from the
Christian OT/Jewish Tanakh are true.
Do I have to be an atheist?
I think that it's a more "correct" lifestyle to be part of a religious community than to not; even if every member of the community doesn't agree on every single thing, I think it's beneficial for any people living together in one area to have a roughly shared set of values.
However, I'm not exactly going to just fake having religious belief and pick a religion to convert to, and I think perhaps a religious community wouldn't be the right fit for me anyway, as obviously I look at things considerably differently than (I assume) believers do.
What is the best solution? I'm trying to find the best path forward on what I guess you could refer to as my "spiritual journey" and I appreciate any input!

I'm kinda confused. You don't believe in a being responsible for creation but believe the OT is true as well as it being more beneficial to be part of a religious community?

Maybe you're an atheist trying to settle discrepancy between people believing in god and seeing it as positive while at the same time can't be involved in that positivity insofar you don't want to fake your your beliefs about god.

Or you could be an atheist that looks for a community that mirrors the religious one you're accustomed to.

Either way, if you don't believe a deity exists, you're an atheists. There's nothing wrong with being a theist, though. Nothing wrong with disagree and agreeing with christians about issues. If god to you is christ, it's between you and christ. If it's god, between you and god. However the case may be, I do see a contradiction.

Could you clarify?

 

[hkkb]

I'm kinda confused. You don't believe in a being responsible for creation but believe the OT is true as well as it being more beneficial to be part of a religious community?

Maybe you're an atheist trying to settle discrepancy between people believing in god and seeing it as positive while at the same time can't be involved in that positivity insofar you don't want to fake your your beliefs about god.

Or you could be an atheist that looks for a community that mirrors the religious one you're accustomed to.

Either way, if you don't believe a deity exists, you're an atheists. There's nothing wrong with being a theist, though. Nothing wrong with disagree and agreeing with christians about issues. If god to you is christ, it's between you and christ. If it's god, between you and god. However the case may be, I do see a contradiction.

Could you clarify?

yes, I will try my absolute best to clarify any contradictions I make, and I will start with an apology for both the past and future failures of my abilities to express myself as well as my vocabulary! you're right that I don't want to lie about my beliefs in God so I'll try to be accurate when I describe my beliefs.
I read Genesis and found it to be true, and yes Genesis describes Creation by God, and it is true I don't believe there is a being responsible for creation, but I do still have a conception of God, and, though He's not a being, the story Genesis tells of God creating the universe is still something I believe to be true. I just started reading a Bible I found, I'm not sure what the Christian interpretation of it is supposed to be or what it actually means or anything, but from my worldview of having no religious education and with my own idea of and relationship with God, I found it true.
To attempt to elucidate my idea of God, first I should say that I think personifying God is a choice. However it seems to be a very good choice to me, though I certainly can't say I know it's the best or only good choice. On top of that, I probably also have different ideas about what the non-personified God is, but despite those differences, Genesis is not somehow untrue when I read it, compared to if I believed. When I read it, to me it didn't say "God was a being and a force who made the Earth" it just said He did it, it was left open ended enough I guess that I could interpret it in the way I did? I saw the God I believe in in the stories of Genesis, non-literal though He may be.
And to attempt to elucidate what value I place on the text of Genesis, I will say that I believe those stories are stories that every human being who has ever lived knows whether they know that they know it or not, and I believe these stories have been told since we first communicated with one another, since we were first humans, from the dawn of civilization in countless incarnations, that these stories are something at a genetic level in human beings, inherent to us, not invented by us, and I believe that by telling them over and over across time and locations and cultures and religions -including the religions of the OT- and every possible human variable, we have rendered them true to the extent of our greatest current capacity. we've chosen and re-chosen the words we use each time we tell the stories, the words that are most true stay the same and the parts that aren't right are improved upon as they're changed to fit better. When I tell a child a fairy tale (many, if not all, of which are just as ancient as the stories of modern religions, and therefore similarly rendered true by time, even if addressing a different moral level) I pick the book that tells it in the way that I think makes it a good story! For some people that means as close to original text as possible, for some people it means the version where the damsel rescues herself. Over time the one that's true for the most people remains the prevalent version, but people can continue interpreting always.
The texts of the OT have had enough falsehood rendered out that they read as true even if you don't believe in the theology of the incarnation of the stories, the words have been picked enough times to be able to express the truth even to all the vastly different people with vastly different beliefs who believe the OT. and still, new translations and editions are published, study is still done, things still reinterpreted, made more true by the combined wisdom of every single human who has told the story. and EVERY human being has told the story.

 

[Callisto]

say I believe the following: there are no beings responsible for creation, there are no omnipotent or omniscient beings, there are no supernatural powers or forces of any kind, there are no such thing as souls, and there is no afterlife.
but say I also: think that religious communities are in general a positive thing, pray daily, place God as the most important thing in my life, think that religious belief is most likely a positive thing, and think the stories I've read from the
Christian OT/Jewish Tanakh are true.
Do I have to be an atheist?
I think that it's a more "correct" lifestyle to be part of a religious community than to not; even if every member of the community doesn't agree on every single thing, I think it's beneficial for any people living together in one area to have a roughly shared set of values.
However, I'm not exactly going to just fake having religious belief and pick a religion to convert to, and I think perhaps a religious community wouldn't be the right fit for me anyway, as obviously I look at things considerably differently than (I assume) believers do.
What is the best solution? I'm trying to find the best path forward on what I guess you could refer to as my "spiritual journey" and I appreciate any input!

I think there are a few things to unpack. Firstly, you're adhering to a monotheistic notion of religion ("religious communities are in general a positive thing, pray daily, place God as the most important thing in my life, think that religious belief is most likely a positive thing, and think the stories I've read from the
Christian OT/Jewish Tanakh are true.") which doesn't apply to various other religious. Likewise, there are different theisms other than monotheism. Most familiar after monotheism and atheism (which, the latter, has different forms of) is possibly polytheism. These three generally frame discussion of divine force(s) in terms of anthropomorphism (personified representation) but there are other views which do not, some examples - pantheism (1, 2), panentheism (1, 2), theistic humanism (1, 2).

A community, religious or otherwise, is a collective of like-minded individuals coming together for a shared purpose. So personally, I wouldn't recommend joining any group just for the sake of having some manner of companionship as ultimately it's not going to be fulfilling and may only serve to augment your feeling of needing something. Finding a community that is in line with and fulfills what you're seeking may take some searching before found. Explore on your own, see what views and practices you encounter along the way. I think it's good to seek community but it's good to be mindful that finding one may not be immediate.