Ask Lemmy

I think you're describing agnostic beliefs, believing there might be a god but not conforming to any religion and basically otherwise being an atheist.

(Not too be confused with Gnostic beliefs, which was a branch of Christianity)

Sound like .

You might as well abide. Or not.

Because I've been playing the audiobook of Eiji Yoshikawa's Musashi for my wife, here's a line from Musashi's Dokkōdō, the "way of walking alone":

Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on their help.

I grew up as a Lutheran Christian in a small, conservative town—and attended Sunday School/summer Bible camp for many years—but became an agnostic after I began questioning things at 16 years old. About a month after that, I became an atheist. I've been one since... so almost 14 years.

Unfortunately, I was afraid to tell my parents, so I still went to church with my family almost every Sunday until I left at 18. I was also still effectively forced to be anacolyte/perform piano/sing in the choir/attend most other church activities. Fucking painful.

I still haven't told my parents, though, and probably never will; it'd cause more pain than anything else, sadly.

I don't generally believe in a "higher power", despite having religious parents, I never really understood it... I just don't get how people can genuinely believe that there is a higher power that is somehow watching over everyone. That's not to say tat religion is a bad thing. It's not, in fact most non-radicalized religions have genuinely good teachings, be it Christianity, Buddhism or Islam (and others, again I'm not too into this stuff, these are just the religions I can speak semi-confidently about), they all fundamentally teach the same basic things, don't be an asshole, live modestly, help others, etc... (yes I do know it's MUCH more complicated than that).

That's the way I ultimately see the "higher power", as a way to get people to be good members of society by making them believe that there is a higher power that will bless them if they are.

There is no reason why anyone has to make the same mistakes I made. There is no god. Just skip to the last step and save yourself so much agony.

just fly solo as a good human

The older you get, the more serious you want to take it. Being true to yourself etc.

But the more serious you take it, the harder it gets. In the end, I'm afraid it's not doable.

I don't see much difference. You're still choosing to believe in a fairy tale, you just don't like the current available stories.