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	Re: Of course! vanilla_tiger 2007-05-01 10:17 pm UTC (link)
	Dude! Can we swap faith systems? I keep listening to atheist arguments and saying "That makes perfect sense" but every time I try it out I end up thinking "ooh, God's going to be so pissed off with me for this" which is kinda incompatible with atheism. /Muslim who regularly laments her belief in God because of all the crazy religious guilt she can't get past. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: Of course! kadath 2007-05-01 10:24 pm UTC (link)
	Took me years to get over the "ohshit god's gonna be pissed" reaction. Eventually, you come out the other side. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: Of course! vanilla_tiger 2007-05-02 11:02 am UTC (link)
	Good to know there's hope out there. (Reply to this)(Parent)

Re: Of course!

t_boy
2007-05-02 01:59 am UTC (link)

Huh. I agree with a great number of atheist arguments and for some reason I don’t think God will be pissed off with me.

Which arguments, by the way?

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	Re: Of course! rimrunner 2007-05-02 02:02 am UTC (link)
	You and me both. Or, well, I have many gods, so the pissed-off-ness can be spread around. Is that Angkor Wat in your icon? I was there in January. Totally awesome. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: Of course!

t_boy
2007-05-02 02:12 am UTC (link)

Yeah, it is. Haven’t been there, though.

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	Re: Of course! chaimonkey 2007-05-02 10:11 am UTC (link)
	Seconded. I believe God expects me to explore my faith. If we're not doubting, we're not believing. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: Of course!

t_boy
2007-05-02 11:20 am UTC (link)

I don’t know what God wants of me, really. I mean, he’s God and he hasn’t said anything. About my personal performance, I mean.

Me, I generally find that after all the rational arguments and philosophical treatises, I basically face a choice — am I a Muslim or not?

Answer seems to be “Yes,” so far. Mind you, not a good Muslim, but them’s the breaks.

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	Re: Of course! chaimonkey 2007-05-02 07:24 pm UTC (link)
	Eh. Who can seriously say they're "good" at their religion anyway? We're all human. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: Of course! snarkivist 2007-05-04 09:47 pm UTC (link)
	pester. Duh. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	Re: Of course! fionnabhair 2007-05-02 05:29 pm UTC (link)
	Abelard: "By doubting we come to enquiry, by enquiry we come to truth." I'm not actually especially religious myself, but Abelard's idea always sounded pretty intelligent to me. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: Of course! chaimonkey 2007-05-02 07:23 pm UTC (link)
	And the great thing about spiritual growth is the little tag at the end: rinse, wash, repeat. (Reply to this)(Parent)

Re: Of course!

vanilla_tiger
2007-05-02 10:46 am UTC (link)

Well, to be fair, I generally think God's not too happy with me no matter what I do. My brain decided to mix up all its crazy into the God-fearing part, so probably the problem's more with me than with anything else.

No specific arguments come to mind. It's more whenever I talk to atheists I can't think of a decent counterargument. I try out atheism and feel pretty good until the "oh crap. God." moment.

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Re: Of course!

t_boy
2007-05-02 11:17 am UTC (link)

Then you’re not ready to let go. I dunno. I don’t generally get far with atheistic arguments, other than the fact that I’m pretty happy believing in a transcendent reality.

Mind you, my impression of a lot of atheistic arguments seems to be more that they’re geared for Christianity itself, not them other world religions. YMMV, of course.

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	Re: Of course! antimatterspork 2007-05-03 07:34 pm UTC (link)
	That's because (especially in the US) the religious folks that the Atheists are arguing with are are all Christians. (Reply to this)(Parent)

Re: Of course!

bluenakedlady
2007-05-02 07:23 pm UTC (link)

I had the same thing. I was a Christian for a few years and, I'm sad to say, not one who kept it to herself. I was all too happy to spread The Word. I lapsed (or jumped, while cackling madly) and it took me years to get rid of "Oh shit. God."

Been a buddhist for 5 years and I still have the occasional "Oh bugger, God's going to be so pissed off at me...If he exists." Unfortunately, Budda's silent on that subject.

Apparently I'm supposed to question everything. So I do, with distressing regularity, and every so often I miss that certainty of knowing there was a god who loved me no matter what. Because it really is rather hard to sit there and go "Er...Buddha? Little help here?" and all the bugger does is smile at you mysteriously.

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	Re: Of course! rosehiptea 2007-05-03 06:16 am UTC (link)
	I can so relate. I used to be an Orthodox Jew (yeah, I had pester's lifestyle, only I was nice and decent to people on the internet) and leaving left me with this crushing guilt, even though on most days I don't think G-d even exists. Yet I still would have to force myself to type his name with a vowel. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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