No Stupid Questions

Occasionally find myself envying people with faith and wonder how my life is different than theirs.

The thing is, there's nothing stopping you from having faith. But do keep in mind that you want to have faith in something that is not shitty.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong ~~this one seems nice~~. Promotes meditation, physical exercise, as well as peaceful civil involvement in society helping others and doing good, which will help you reach spiritual enlightenment.

So while I personally like and prefer having a yawning void where some other people have faith, ~~I generally recommend this religion to people who prefer having faith. If this one isn't to your liking,~~ perhaps research what other non-shitty options are there.

And as a general pro tip when going with the faith option: please, no fanaticism.

Edit: I've read some more on this, and this religion has some shitty postulations too. Well, keep looking out.

How does not having three butts effect your life?

I am a Christian, and was raised that way. I'm going to be thorough in my explanation, since the quality of the other answers aren't all that great, and hopefully at least something here will answer your question.

I attend church on Sundays and listen to a pastor talk about the bible and how to improve myself morally. This is a hit or miss, as far as both helpfulness and enjoyment goes. Every week, I go to "life group", which involves discussing the bible, and hanging out with, a small group of friends. I've gotten to know them well over time and I always enjoy meeting. I try to have a personal quiet time each morning where I read the bible and pray a bit, it's relaxing.

Generally, a faithful Christian will tell you that the Holy Spirit makes them want to do good things. Typically, when someone gets "saved", they suddenly have a much easier time being kind and loving others.

The goal of Christianity, as far as I am concerned, is primarily to convert others and to grow my own faith/virtues. I want to form strong relationships with fellow christians so that we can encourage each other to do good things and discourage bad things. I want to form strong relationships with non-christians because I [1] genuinely care about them (see: holy spirit) and [2] to convert them.

The act of being and becoming a Christian is supposed to be entirely voluntary. I do not feel as though I am a slave to some rulebook. I chose my own beliefs, and it is easy for me to follow the moral principles which I think are right. I hold some beliefs which are counter to what most other christians believe, but I have received minimal pushback for these beliefs from the community I have chosen. (pro-lgbt, sex-positive, annihilationism).

I choose to surround myself with a community of other christians which I can always rely on. It is pretty easy to make friends in the churches which I have attended. I'm in college, and it was easy for me to get multiple strong friend groups just by joining organizations at my school.

Hope you have a wonderful day. If you want to ask more questions you are welcome.

I don't handle loss well. To religious people it's temporary because they believe they'll reconnect in the afterlife. To me it's permanent and I haven't found a good way to cope yet.

This is a very open-ended question. I think most people view faith as a spiritual thing. Having faith in a god or gods, but if you believe in something strongly enough, it’s possible you have faith in that.

Gravity is kind of a stupid example, I’m going to use it anyway. If you have faith in the laws of gravity that means you genuinely believe and respect the laws of gravity.

As someone who left religion, but has a pretty good memory of what it was like, didn't really make any big difference in my life, other than getting my Sundays actually free.

It's kind of hard for me to describe since it's just normal for me. I guess think about all the times you're not actively thinking about what God thinks about this or that, or you're not actively talking to him, or whatever, and then just imagine that expanding to fill all your time.

Having faith in God is great. Everyone can. I suggest going to an iUPC church and see what it’s all about.