Religious Guys

[Lord Byron]

Hello all.

Since infancy, I've been raised in a "Christian" family that went to church and my parents were always pushing my siblings and I to be better Christians. I've recently told them and myself that I no longer wish to have anything to do with it; they're disappointed but understanding. I've just moved away from home too and am trying to reconstruct a life for myself.

However, I'm really having great difficulty in letting go of the faith background, with regards to purpose and whatnot. I read Chase's excellent article on 'The Purpose of Life from a Practical Point of View,' but in some way I don't want to let go of what I've been raised with. I feel like there is a God but I don't want to have anything to do with him if that makes sense. The sense of believing in a God is different from just being raised with that being the truth, however. I'm a discerning individual, and if I felt like it was all nonsense, believe me, I would have left it long ago, and never looked back.

This pertains to Girlschase not only with regards to seduction and learning and practicing it without the imposed religious guilt, but also for life, and whether I should stick with the faith if it seems true to me, regardless of if I want to or not.

So really, I have to ask for help from you guys - religious, spiritual, atheist, agnostics, and anything in between - for advice on getting on with my life. How do or how can I part ways with my acknowledgment of God, without feeling like I'm lying to a part of me that holds a deep acknowledgement of there being a God.

This is pretty difficult for me right now, so any perspectives on the issue would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Mr.Rob]

Hello Lord Byron, I can definitely relate to you here for the fact I've had to dealt with similar issues myself with regards to spiritual adherence and the type of lifestyle GC promotes (not a bad one at all but obviously quite distasteful for a hardcore Christian to aspire towards).

I've seen instances in my life and others in which I believe there's no way to explain the chain of events that occurred except through providence intervening.

I wasn't raised super hardcore Christian but Christian nonetheless. I was pretty crazy in my high school years (lots of drinking, drugs, and borderline thug activities. No sex believe it or not Lol.) and so I wasn't a hardcore Christian through my actions. However the year after high school I went through some health problems that I believe were God sent because they forced me to quit abusing drugs/alcohol, man up and straighten my life up.

Back then I could give a damn about being Christ like however after that episode of seeing the love god has shown towards me (or at least that's the story I like to tell myself) I can't just tell my creator to fuck off entirely so I can put my dick in some warm holes.

My perspective is that the bible was written mostly by flawed HUMANS in which not every single word out of the bible is what God truly cares about. Adultery is simply breaking a promise to be true to someone. And sexual immorality isn't really defined in the bible and fairly open to interpretation. Now this is all a story I tell myself but so is what your parents and everyone else that follows the dogma of Christianity say with regards on how to live your life.

You also have to think for yourself and not let what the average Christian say steer your away from having a relationship with your creator. Even King Solomon had fall outs with God in which he took refuge in prostitutes however God still blessed him with great wisdom (those facts may be out of order but you see where I'm going with this).

Chase gave me an interesting comment with regards to how the bible doesn't actually say much about sex prior to marriage.

I was raised a Roman Catholic, so just about the strictest of Christians outside of some fundamentalist sects, and I don't do anything half-assed so I was about one of the most devout you'd find. One thing I *did* always struggle with was the no-sex-before-marriage thing; I've read more or less the entire Bible, and I realized after a while that neither Jesus nor any of the prophets of the Old Testament come out and forbid pre-marital sex. They're against homosexuality, and they're against "sexual immorality" (which isn't really defined), but the instructions to avoid fornication stem entirely from the religions they inspired (read: other men who came after them) rather than the original teachers themselves (although there are some parts of the Old Testament specific to women; see Deuteronomy 22:20-21 on that; neither Testament generally places restraints on straight men's sexuality, outside of vague immorality warnings in the Epistles).

Personally, my philosophy is, unless a follower is producing his own original teachings in addition to the message he carries forward, and these teaching have themselves been weighed by his own followers (or otherwise tested in the real world) and found worthy, he's probably not someone to listen to automatically just because he associates himself with the teacher.

I don't agree with everything Chase says in this article but its still a worthy read with perspective on the same matter http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...=FGHXvMQz6SqdHqpehv95Cg&bvm=bv.74649129,d.b2U

One thing I have trouble coming to grips with is how is the "average" Christian male supposed to go about his dating life and feel like he's landed his "dream girl" whilst being in scarcity with women. Then without proper experience on building and maintaining a sexual relationship go and have a fantastic marriage.

It seems to me it would be better to have the experience in having an awesome relationship that you could carry into building an awesome marriage as opposed to the guy that has little experience and then sacks up with some girl that was "all he could get" and then mess up in creating the proper power dynamic and is then as a result is putz shamed by his wife for the rest of his life.

Now I don't have a ton of life experience, especially when it comes to relationships so I'm sure that's not a realistic argument however from the little knowledge I do have it would seem WISE to have experience in such area prior to shacking up with a girl for the rest of eternity... Wisdom comes from God after all.

Anyway this is too long and ranty so I'm going to stop here but what I'm getting at Lord Byron is if you don't feel totally right abandoning God altogether don't. You'll have cognitive dissonance anyway as a result.

What I invite you to do instead is form a relationship with God and do your thing anyway. Tell yourself a story that allows you to have both in your life.

Interesting thread, good luck dude. Cool to have you here.

-Rob