I wish that I had a Faith

What an interesting post and points of view.
I have a complete faith in God and Jesus Christ. I had a deeply profound experience when I was 15 and have known ever since then that God exists and loves me very much. I consider myself very fortunate.

I don't think I have the capacity to believe in a God either.

I sometimes think it would be nice to have the comfort of prayer and that feeling of 'belonging'

Mind you I had to leave Sunday School as we were asked to draw the inside of a church and I didn't know what that looked like!

Whitewavemark2

Peasblossom

It’s one of the things I looked into. The philosophy was good but, like I said, it didn’t seem to work in practice.

I wouldn’t say the humanists I encountered were any more likely to put the common good of humanity above their own wishes and desires. Or that they treated other people particularly well.

On the other hand, they weren’t any less likely to adhere to their ‘faith’ than anyone of the others.

No better, no worse.

Humanism doesn’t make you a better person, only your actions do that.

Fanny I m like you it’s not about finding a religion it’s about finding a belief and that is vastly different I had a blind belief when I was young before I started asking questions and looking for answers then my belief wavered in the end religions are just different paths to same place and it’s the place not the route there that I find impossible to achieve

Oh gosh I didn’t mean to do that quote thing I m not sure how I got onto that please ignore it

My grandfather was headmaster of a Church of England school, and my mother therefore had to go to church a lot - three times on Sundays. It put her off for life. She told me that the only aspect her confirmation that she was interested in was the dress. My father had no interest in religion either, though like me he loved hymns.

Nevertheless, we were taken to church as children because they thought we should know about it, if only to reject it.

BlueBelle thank you! That's put it brilliantly!
Yes, many of the Routes are so appealing and attractive; and I understand what's going on, and their purpose and context etc (the human bits), but the Destination (the important bit, the actual God stuff) just doesn't seem achievable, or feasible.

Kate1949

I used to have a faith. I was forced to have one by my Irish Catholic parents. I believed it all. Priests and nuns were cruel and frightening, taking great delight in terrorising small children.
I no longer have a faith. Life has taught me that there's no one there. I do however love churches and cathedrals.

My attitude is that all faiths are good. The big, big problem is the people in it...

What an interesting thread. I am not a believer, I don’t think I ever was one although I attended Sunday school regularly (various ones, Baptist, Methodist etc). My mother had a Welsh chapel upbringing and I have the remnants of that in I am fairly po-faced about doing anything to excess like gambling.

The very fact that there are so many faiths makes me think there is no overarching One who is looking after us all. I am attracted to the likes of the Quakers and I love churches, but those are the outward trappings, not the faith itself.

I guess I agree with WWM2, and my faith is in humans.

I know someone told me once that the reason why Christianity isn’t more popular (for want of a better word) is that it’s so simple ie just be nice to people. I told a Christian friend that I looked on myself as a Christian as I believed in Christian principles but he said I had to believe in in the existence of God the Father, God the Son and Godthe Holy Ghost, which I didn’t so I’m not. I do feel a very deep spirituality of some kind but I can’t quantify it. I’m quite happy with that.

I believe every single one of us inherently, knows there is a God. Many choose to ignore that feeling. This is God, fanny, giving you a nudge. It’s not about church buildings, made up of men and their own rules, putting people down, making them feel worthless. It’s about Jesus, who is Head of the church. He died on Good Friday. ‘Good’, because He rose again on Sunday. No one has ever done that before! He has told us that everyone can be with Him in the new life He has planned for us, but we have to want and accept it. This is Christianity. He won’t force it on us, as the religious institutions do. We don’t go to church anymore either, and haven’t for nearly nine years. They are full of arrogant judgmental hypocrites living in their self righteous bubbles! Well, at least in my local ones. I would just start by praying to God on your own. He is listening.?

I can confidently say that doesnt apply to me discodancer.

Yes, isn’t this an interesting thread. During my teenage years, which is often when you question and try many things, religion included, I went to a few different churches, but didn’t feel at home anywhere. I forgot all about the spiritual side of life until my own children were born, then spent some time at the local church, my children went to Sunday school, but still I found it hard to believe in an actual God, a supreme being, and the busyness of life with four small children took over.
I’ve read with interest the description of humanism, which is, I’m sure, the caring lifestyle that most people aspire to. It doesn’t require the existence of a God.
I think BlueBelle puts it well, that the routes are achievable but the place seems unrealistic without the Leap of Faith. That Leap eludes me. I wish it didn’t.

If the rituals or ways of living your life appeal, why not make a list of what you like from the religions you mentioned and find a way to incorporate them in your life?

I have faith, I don’t do religion.
Another one who is a little dismayed with some of the hypocrisy witnessed. Not everyone has faith and that’s fine although I am certain they would sleep easier if they did.

DiscoDancer1975

I believe every single one of us inherently, knows there is a God. Many choose to ignore that feeling. This is God, fanny, giving you a nudge. It’s not about church buildings, made up of men and their own rules, putting people down, making them feel worthless. It’s about Jesus, who is Head of the church. He died on Good Friday. ‘Good’, because He rose again on Sunday. No one has ever done that before! He has told us that everyone can be with Him in the new life He has planned for us, but we have to want and accept it. This is Christianity. He won’t force it on us, as the religious institutions do. We don’t go to church anymore either, and haven’t for nearly nine years. They are full of arrogant judgmental hypocrites living in their self righteous bubbles! Well, at least in my local ones. I would just start by praying to God on your own. He is listening.?

??? have you read my posts?

I agree WWW that it’s our actions that make you a better (or worse) person , but it was the disparity between what people said they believed was right or true and how they actually behaved that I couldn’t reconcile.

I suppose I think that when someone holds a belief there may come a point when what they want to do personally will conflict with that belief. For me, when in that situation the belief is deliberately put aside to suit ourselves, then the whole thing becomes invalid.

I know that sounds extreme but that is, perhaps what we call ‘keeping the faith’.

It’s hard to put into words what I mean without fingering any one religion or ethos.

I suppose the nearest I came to finding people who really believed so that their whole lives were lived to that belief was in Lhasa.

They really believed that their actions in this life would influence the quality, reward and and retribution in the next life.

It influenced every thought, action, word of their present lives.

But I still couldn’t get further than a doubtful maybe.

WWW. Sorry, no. Only your first line. As I said “ many choose to ignore that feeling”, and search elsewhere.

Sorry, too many w’s !!

Yes Fanny, I feel very much as you do.
I come from a very chapel family, so Sunday school every week, and then chapel. Even when I was little, I had very little sense of being taught anything, I think it was more of a social club for my gran and all her friends, not that they weren’t all good women.
Many years later we had neighbors who belonged to a less mainstream religion, I can’t remember what it was called. People trailed in every evening for prayer meetings, and they have to be among some of the most unpleasant people I’ve ever come across. He was a bully to his subservient wife and children, and his temper was terrifying.
So I don’t think I’m looking for a religion, I just would love to believe in something. I think I have an open mind, but have just never felt that reassurance that something is there.

I was brought up in the C of E. We went to church regularly and I was confirmed but when I reached 16 or 17 decided that it wasn't for me.

My parents continued to be church goers until my father died. A little while later my mother went to the nearest one, not the one that they usually attended because she couldn't drive. She told me afterwards that she started to cry and that no one came up to her to see if she was OK and whether she needed anything. She was a believer, so much so that shortly before she died (Alzheimers) and the local curate came to say prayers with her, she remebered all the words of the Lord's Prayer and said them with him.

When we moved to Suffolk, my OH applied for planning permission to use the large garage and workshop for his own work as a furniture restorer. The council were going to grant permission when a campaign was got up by the wife of the local vicar. She was spreading stories about how it was going to be a furniture making factory. He was granted permission for 2 years and when he re-applied he was given his file so he was able to see what had been written against his original application.

This is the C of E in action as far as I'm concerned.

I studied RI at school for my O' Levels and found it interesting. But I do not understand how people can accept everything in the Bible as gospel when sections have been omitted and much has been lost or changed in translation over the years.

Humanists believe that the solutions to the world’s problems lie in human thought and action rather than divine intervention.
I can't swallow that because I have had too many strange experiences where I definitely felt I was being guided. Divine intervention! I think the universe and the spiritual plane is way beyond human understanding. People have tried to explain it through religion.
There is a force of good and a force of evil, which we call God and the Devil. Man chooses his own path, but which force he is guided by is his choice. Spirits (angels, ancestors) can guide us if we want them to. Dark forces can guide people if they choose that life.
Man does not fully understand it all until he passes into the spiritual world.
I can't put all this into a box belonging to any one religion really.

Dinahmo you judged all Christians by the actions of one , and one woman was able to destroy your faith ? I think not, you must have have doubts before ,

Another one who simply doesn’t need to believe in any type of deity. I have a set of moral principles against which I try to live my life, and like everyone else of all faiths and none, I fail regularly. I have some close friends who are committed Christians and whom I love and respect very much but in general in everyday life I see nothing in the lives and actions of many so-called committed believers that I envy or would want to emulate.

I'm not sure that I do need to believe in any diety.
I just think that maybe there is an element of myself that is lacking
That's why I'm attracted to Catholicism, they seem very attuned to the spirit.
I've never understood what 'God the Spirit' is.
I think that I've always had a belief that faith is a human made construct to fulfill a human need.
I would love to be wrong