God obeys his mother

[buffettphan]

1 hour ago, Rose0101 said:

My current psychotherapist told me on one of the days I was having a religious extacy, "you look like you've been touched by an angel".

 

Not that that means anything, but he doesn't think my religious convictions are delusions and encourages me to pursue them.

 

I find that prayer has helped me a lot more than medication and professionals

 

You need a better psychotherapist.   

 

Someone suffering with religious delusions needs a qualified secular therapist, not someone who encourages and enables them.  

 

[sdelsolray]

48 minutes ago, Rose0101 said:

Some of it I don't know... some of it is delusion I assume....but I used to be a sociopath, now I have compassion.... I used to need to be restrained, not in years, I used to be miserable all the time, now I feel great joy at times....the evidence is that something good is happening from prayer

 

Conflating coincidence or correlation with causation is a common human thinking error.  You conclude your improvement is caused by prayer, more specifically, caused by prayer to/with a character from orthodox (i.e., Catholic) Christianity - Mary.

 

Prayer is a subcategory of meditation.  I suggest an experiment:

 

1)  Pray as you usually do.

2)  Instead of praying to/with Mary, pray to/with something or someone else, perhaps your cat, or a distant point far out in space, etc.

3)  After trying this several times, analyze whether these prayers (with different foci) help make you feel better.

 

As a research item, you could study meditation and the documented ability of humans to effect some of their brain functions by use of meditation.

 

After this experiment and research, you may conclude that the focus of your prayer/meditation efforts is not a single choice, but that many choices work equally well.

[sdelsolray]

1 minute ago, Rose0101 said:

I tried praying to woden, Thor, Frigg, and Freya and didn't get the same results

 

Try again.  

[mymistake]

26 minutes ago, Rose0101 said:

All I know is without a power greater than myself, I'm screwd

 

 

Sounds to me like somebody has been training you to be helpless.  (I hope they do not expect you to pay them for the privilege.)  Imagine what would happen if your self-esteem improved enough that you could be your own "higher power"?

 

I only mention it because you did ask for help in finding secular motivation.   

[buffettphan]

 

20 minutes ago, Rose0101 said:

I just think that spirituality could help you guys be more happy

 

I'm plenty happy enough, thank you.

 

 

19 minutes ago, Rose0101 said:

having a spirituality can create joy, peace, strength, and religious ecstasy,

 

 

Being self-reliant creates joy, peace, and strength.  I'll take a pass on religious ecstasy.  It's a "high" that I do not want and it comes with a lot of baggage -- just like any other kind of addiction.

 

 

19 minutes ago, Rose0101 said:

if being an unbeliever makes you happy, less bigoted,  and more compassionate, then I don't want to change that...

 

and please don't try!  Thanks.

[buffettphan]

40 minutes ago, Rose0101 said:

what about religious ecstasy with a force that created all the galaxies in the universe, without scripture, Dogma, or anything that leads a person to fear hell or judge and condemn?

 

I don't buy into any kind of "religious ecstasy with a force that created all the galaxies in the universe."  That'd be abiogenesis.  Then there's evolution, chemistry, physics, biology, etc.  Science.   

 

Even though this source is Wiki, it does have some good insight on religious ecstasy.  I do not want any altered state of consciousness.  Any euphoria I feel, I want it to be from something that is real -- not from my altered state of mind.     

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_ecstasy

 

 

 

40 minutes ago, Rose0101 said:

How could that be harmful?

 

An altered state of mind is a mind that is not thinking clearly -- which can lead people into making bad decisions and doing unwise things.

 

My two cents.

[buffettphan]

 

27 minutes ago, Rose0101 said:

I would have never made that promise or been honest with him had I not had the conviction that it pleased God and the spirit people.

 

So, I'm seeing positive results from faith.

 

 

Look, I am a live-and-let-live kind of person, as long as someone's religious/spiritual/other beliefs don't infringe upon or harm anyone -- individually or as a society.   So if you believe that your spirituality keeps you from doing harmful things to yourself or others, by all means, keep at it.  The good you see as coming from the "spiritual" I see as coming from one's self -- a higher power that has nothing  to do with the supernatural.

 

(I am off to spend some time with my grandkids, so I won't be back here anymore today.  Hope you have a good day.)

 

[★ Citsonga ★]

2 hours ago, Rose0101 said:

I just think that spirituality could help you guys be more happy... I don't want to see you become Christians, because the Bible is a book that creates bigotry against pagans, homosexuals, and unbelievers, but having a spirituality can create joy, peace, strength, and religious ecstasy, and I'd like to see everybody have that, but I'm not promoting the Bible in any way... I noticed you all haven't made personal attacks, that is most noble of you, I can see you just want to help, thanks for your advice....if being an unbeliever makes you happy, less bigoted,  and more compassionate, then I don't want to change that...

If having what you call spirituality helps you be a better person and you're not trying to force religion on others, then I'm fine with that. To each his own. Some ex-christians here also have a version of spirituality and there is even a sub-forum on the board called "Ex-Christian Spirituality."

 

As for myself, I don't buy into spirituality in any real sense of the word. Trying to adopt it would be pretending to believe something that I don't believe, and such pretending would not make me happy. Thus, ever since discovering that Christianity is a crock, spirituality is not for me. I am much happier just living an honest, decent life than I would be trying to fake something.

[★ Citsonga ★]

Don't worry. It's very rare for someone to get banned on this board. You'd have to be a full-fledged jerk or get caught doing something really dishonest or repeatedly break the rules of the board to get banned. Just having different views won't get you kicked off. You're welcome here.

 

[LogicalFallacy]

1 hour ago, Rose0101 said:

But I find that christianforums will ban me just because I promote prayers to Mary and the Saints... I kid you not, I've been banned from multiple Christian sites just for promoting the spirituality of praying to Mary and the Saints....

 

Christians are not known for their openness and tolerance on the whole.

[pratt]

i vaguely recalls someone like Rose101 some years ago. 

 

probably some serious mental issues and disappeared after being challenged on his belief. 

 

he is better off with a professional pyschiatrist than seeking answers or affirmation from folks in this forum. 

 

we are not nasty per se but many here would not tolerate non logical bs stuff

[sdelsolray]

20 minutes ago, pratt said:

i vaguely recalls someone like Rose101 some years ago. 

 

probably some serious mental issues and disappeared after being challenged on his belief. 

 

he is better off with a professional pyschiatrist than seeking answers or affirmation from folks in this forum. 

 

we are not nasty per se but many here would not tolerate non logical bs stuff

 

You probably missed much of the conversation with Rose0101 over the last few days since he chose to terminate his membership twice in one day, each time removing his prior posts.  Some of his posts remain because they were quoted by other members in their responses.  

[TheRedneckProfessor]

1 hour ago, pratt said:

i vaguely recalls someone like Rose101 some years ago. 

 

probably some serious mental issues and disappeared after being challenged on his belief. 

 

he is better off with a professional pyschiatrist than seeking answers or affirmation from folks in this forum. 

 

we are not nasty per se but many here would not tolerate non logical bs stuff

He was recently incarnated here as popeadope.  Before that he was fattymatty.  I think there have been a few other incarnations as well.  I reckon it's difficult to keep track of one who is so out of touch with his own self.

[Fweethawt]

B-I-N-G-O-!