What to do when you've lost your religion?

Seek That which is seeking.

'What we are looking for is what is looking.' St Francis of Assisi.

originally posted by: BuzzyWigs
a reply to: WarminIndy

I understand. Still, I think you are showing a defensiveness that is uncharacteristic of you, and that you are projecting "feelings" and "thoughts" onto the OP that are not warranted.

Being confused and overwhelmed by new information and alternative ways of thinking does not equal "depression" or "a cry for help" in the manner that you perceived it.

Is he not asking for help?

This is from the OP

i lost my religion along time ago after some traumatic events. but now i've been asking people in my life what to do, im lost. im not sure what to believe anymore.

He says he is lost and asking for help not to be lost.

That indicates more than just wondering about what to do, he is really searching for an answer to help him find his way.

The feeling of lostness came after trauma.

He is feeling lost. You and I both tried to help him not feel lost, but we did it because we both care enough to help. And the reason I posted the verse from Isaiah is because it describes what he is feeling "we are like blind men, groping at the wall in darkness".

All of us have been there.

But his experience of coming out of the Catholic church, I can't help him with as I have never been Catholic. I can't help him there. And apparently he isn't getting help from his girlfriends (maybe they just aren't the kinds of girls he needs?)

a reply to: SSFFlood

Greetings SSFFood,

i still wear my st michael, but i feel thats only out of security. idk just wondering if any one has any advice.

If you look at my avatar you will see a stick in my left hand and a stone in my right. I carried those around with me for a couple of years. Now they're in my underwear drawer.

You might try going a couple of years without discussing religion or gods, then see what you think.

a reply to: SSFFlood

Funny, I just go done writing this, just to write it out, and I come onto ATS after years and find this thread. Here you go.

… How to start something. When you have an idea, when you have that spark that there is something grand in your mind. How doe one decide the manner in which it is to begin. This, apparently, is how I've decided to start mine. Also, here at the beginning I want to say this. I have no proof for anything contained within this work. I have done do dedicated research. I also don't claim ownership of any ideas I write. People may believe the same as me, some will not. I don't know that I'm the first to think this way so I won't say I am. It also focuses strongly and almost solely on Western belief systems. But this is what I believe.

The world is too complicated to be black and white, one way or another, this or that. Everything call true or law break down at one point or another. We live in a world of grays. Just as infinity lies between 0 and 1 it also lies in gradients form black to white. For most this means the posibilities are endless. Anything is possible. While this is true I don't want to look at the gray area, because for me the gray area is the path to follow to get the point where infinities meet. It is in those areas where truth is found. 0 or 1, black or white, these are where truth is kept. The path we navigate to get there holds meaning only to the individual taking it because there are infinite ways to get from point to another. Let me show you the what I came to know as my path, my way to truth.

I was raised Roman Catholic. I went to catholic grade school and high school. I went to church and was an active member of it's community. And even though I don't call myself Christian or catholic anymore I love the way I grew up, but sadly that is also what drew me away from that path. I grew up, I grew into myself and needed to find a path that worked for me. It started with this question. How could it be that God made us all unique, made many cultures, races, nations, planets, galaxies, the entirety of the universe, and expect everything to follow one way? Why give us choice and place us in an ultimatum to either us it or not?

Through asking myself questions like that I came to who I am today. There are too many questions to right and no real answers. But while my path changed my faith didn't I still believe there is a God, and only one God. But then I started to wonder how each religion claimed to have the right one. There can't be a right and wrong one with only one to begin with. I don't remember how or when the idea came to me, somewhere soon after high school, but my theory on religon and God boils down to one idea. All roads lead to Rome.

That idea is where my mind took off. All paths lead to God. Could this be it? Is this how it works? So I made myself a little list and yes each path ultimately leads back to one force. Each path being limited to what I knew at the time, mostly Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Oddly enough they all lead back to the God of Abraham. But them why are the three so different if they all come from the same source. Why are Islam and Judaism so stringent compared to Christianity. This all bothered me for a long time. I did a great deal of reading and Bible study so why wasn't the answer apparent.

Then one day again it hit me. I saw it in the Gospels and in Hebrews. That after Jesus the Old Testament was fulfilled. The strictness wasn't needed anymore and it boiled down to just 2 rules. Love God and Love your neighbor as yourself. And those too pretty much cover every rule of the old testament and really show the trust God has in people to find their way back to him. Of course it didn't just end there. How was I, a kid from Pennsylvania able to see that and no one in 2000 years had. It isn't black and white. Any path that leads us back to God is the right path. Cultural and Societal things added to the sacred books aside, if someone needs a stringent path to follow to have their life in order, the path is there. If you are ready to accept freedom and responsibility for yourself then that path is there too.

I felt real good with my way and what I had discovered. But it didn't last because now I had a new problem. Sure I knew how to be good, and I want to be good. But how could a good and loving God damn those which he loved unconditionally to eternal torture of their soul. That doesn't seem right or good at all. And for that matter how can God be partial to good or evil at all if God needs to be capable of all things. For God to be God it must be capable of all things, and maintain balance between them at all times. God must be neutral. That is why having faith is so hard. That is why it hurts so badly when you can't understand the world around you and why bad things happen. To love God unconditionally with all your mind, body, and soul and know that if everything is to keep in balance it can't be returned. That is the true challenge of having faith.


I guess working on what a soul is and how it works it the next part of my path. Thanks for reading. I hope it can help bring you clairity.