The Struggle in Letting Go of Faith

[stromboli]

Not being a believer in free agency, I think that people wired a certain way are going to leave religion anyway. I never stopped being a critical thinker, and I was in the Navy for my formative young adulthood. All my brothers went on missions. Now with the internet, there is a peer group that didn't exist 20 years ago. This forum represents a peer group that reinforces non religious ideas. given an alternative to the reinforcement of religion and feeling uncomfortable in it, young people especially are going to look elsewhere. By far the majority of those leaving are the young.

Given the continual eroding of religion intellectually, I think it is inevitable there will be a decline. People like the pope are continually exposed for their backwardness and hypocrisy, something that didn't happen previously. In Mormonism, the outright hypocrisy of the church's stance on (now) homosexuality and (then) race, has exposed the church for what it is. When I was a teenager in a small rural community, everything centered on the church. Speaking against it or doubting was tantamount to social suicide, so there really weren't any options.

[DeathandGrim]

It is tough too. I was brought up mostly Christian (My father's a Deist so he never brought up religion) so I have still have lingering superstition in my mind about this and that.

Of course a quick rationale with myself to quell this superstition works but still it's tough sometimes to let go of your old ways.

[trdsf]

I think the only really difficult part of my evolution from belief to rationalism was that I had to let go of the idea that I would see departed relatives again in an afterlife.  It was very much losing them all over again.  I'm at peace with that now, but at the time, it was difficult.

[Savior2006]

I think the only really difficult part of my evolution from belief to rationalism was that I had to let go of the idea that I would see departed relatives again in an afterlife.  It was very much losing them all over again.  I'm at peace with that now, but at the time, it was difficult.

I came to grips with that when I considered this. I'll always have their memory, and I'll act in ways that keep their memory alive. My granny wanted me to be decent person, so I'm trying to be a decent person. No bribery of heaven needed.

Yeah it sucks that I won't meet friends and family back in the afterlife, but that also means none of them are going to be thrown into a pit of fire for being different than me either.

Yeah, that helped quite a bit.

[Munch]

I think the only really difficult part of my evolution from belief to rationalism was that I had to let go of the idea that I would see departed relatives again in an afterlife.  It was very much losing them all over again.  I'm at peace with that now, but at the time, it was difficult.

That's something I've had to adapt to as well. When my grandma died, I remember hugging my cousin, saying to her she was with our grandpa now, I didn't even question otherwise then.
When my dad died, my thoughts on these things had begun to change to, but I didn't say anything to anyone.

The ironic thing now, where I am in my life, is that the people I love the most, my mother, my brother, my boyfriend's, I've come to accepting about there being no afterlife, and know one day I'll either have to say goodbye to them in that knowledge, or lay on my own deathbed with them over me thinking it.. yeah it's a tough one, just something I don't like thinking about.

I'd far sooner just enjoy the time I have with those I love while I have it.