From Christian to Atheist. Confusion and depression

Hey! I just have to reply cause what you’re saying resonates with me so much. My family growing up wasn’t very religious, we rarely went to church, in fact I’ve seen the inside of church mostly in the form of a funeral service. But when I got to college I became more in tune with my faith and what I want to believe. Now that I’m out of college and have a wider view of the world I just want to tell you that no matter what you do or do not believe spiritually, what’s going to determine your own happiness is the type of person you are. I wouldn’t put so much emphasis on “am I going to heaven or hell” and instead think of it more as “am I good or evil person.” You don’t have to believe in any god to be a good person, and just cause you believe or don’t believe isn’t gonna make you a good person by default. It’s truly your actions and how you treat others that matter most. I hope that made sense and helps you out a bit. 💛

Would you like to talk about it ? The concerns, thoughts or maybe if you get to know something useful or better, would you like to research on it?

@Skyfrappe

It's natural to question ones faith, but what is important is why you are questioning it.

The question I would ask is what in regards to being religious and having a religious mentality, has you questioning your faith. Is it because of a specific part of the doctrine that is preventing you from acting in a certain way, that your friends are not religious and are doing things that you feel you shouldn't be participating in if you were religious.

What is the difference in your life between being religious or an atheist. Does being an atheist absolve you from the responsibility of being a good person. Does being religious mean you are not "fun" to hang around with because you are considering consequences. Too much of anything can become bad even with something like religious zeal. Perhaps you just need to adjust your expectations of what being a "good Christian" is.

Ultimately, it is a decision that you have to make for yourself. Personally, for me there is more value in believing in something rather than believing in nothing and being familiar with a belief system that I grew up with, causes less doubt and crisis of faith than trying to follow a religion that I am unfamiliar with and have no community ties and/or support with.

Grew up in a religiously open household (my mom super pagan but I had no idea until I was an adult) I started going to a Baptist church at a very young age. I was a "good Christian girl". Things changed as I hit my teen years and I learned about other religions and started questioning things. Thankfully the youth pastor at the church I was attending at the time welcomed my curiosity about other religions and faiths. His advice when I wanted to stop attending church and go to a more "spiritual outlook" than the normal Christian beliefs was "As long as you are pure in your heart and lead a loving life who is to say you cant go to heaven" the way I took that is if you are genuinely a good person and do your best to love the life you love and love your fellow earthlings you'll be just fine.

Hello,

I can relate, I was forced to go to church as a child and be baptized, my parents never went with me. I don’t ever remember them going at all.

When I got involved in a serious relationship I felt the pressure to get baptized again. I don’t know what I believe in

Hi, @Skyfrappe,

I'm sorry that you felt a lot of pressure to be a good girl and that religion was forced on you as a child. It was forced on me, too, but growing up, I got to learn more about the beauty of the Catholic faith. (Now, I'm not trying to convert anybody, lol, I'm just explaining the reason why I didn't become an atheist.)

I understand your fear of hell. Sometimes I doubt my salvation, too, but I remind myself that nothing I do will earn me my salvation because I can't be good and do good all the time. My motivation for actually trying is because Jesus did a great thing for me by securing my salvation, so I wouldn't worry about going to hell.

I don't expect you or anyone to agree with my belief, but I do hope that you find the peace you're looking for.

And of course, I am praying for you

I think you dont believe that story god. But you believe some spirtual thing that exists in the world. Once I was like that.

If the science couldn't find something, that does not mean that it is made by god. It means that the science have less experience.

The religions are trying to explain the god by two things:

1. Enchanting that there is heaven

2. Scaring that there is ***

This is their technique from the beginning. Can you think this as proposing a girl for marriage. This looks soo bad. Right?

Now think is it Good or Bad by your own perspective.

@Skyfrappe Very understandable, Sky! Pressure of any kind suffocates and limits, and even frustrates us.

But I see that you are so brave to have endured all the pressure all these years and you are looking to live a life honest to yourself. To not believe something until or unless you truly believe it from the heart. That's amazing of you, I'd say.

Well I can understand. As an atheist I tried to convey my feelings and share my doubts with people on this platform too but either they had a very good life so they don't wanna question the existence of god or they just fear that superficial being. Its a pity that we atheists have not problem with theists but theists disregard us as if we are some disease.That says alot about that immoral superficial being,his so called religon and his followers.

It doesn't matter what religion you choose, they are all share the same basic principles, the most important thing is to be human with compassion, you can find what you really believe in your heart, it's not about what religion is right or wrong, it's about that spiritual connection that you can get your energy from.