Leaving religion and finding faith

-- I found this article a few years ago -- Ronna Detrick, expressing my own view perfectly!

"Something has changed within me.

Something is not the same

I’m through with playing by the rules

Of someone else’s game

Too late for second-guessing

Too late to go back to sleep

It’s time to trust my instincts

Close my eyes: and leap!

- Defying Gravity, from the musical Wicked

When my beliefs, those long-held religious and doctrinal tenets I’d known since a child, started niggling at me, changing, and frankly, just stopped working, it felt as though the very ground beneath me was slipping away.

The image that often came to mind was of some brave soul crossing a rickety wooden bridge. It swings dangerously over a deep, cavernous space, sparsely protecting her from what’s below. As she gets closer to the other side, she realizes the just-traveled planks are disintegrating beneath her feet. She runs, scrambles, claws and then leaps (at the last possible moment) to the security and safety of firm ground. And simultaneously, what was left of the bridge, her previously-trusted stability, falls into oblivion. She sits winded and stunned on the other side, aware that her fate hung in an incredibly precarious balance – and she survived.

More than once I have been suspended over seemingly impossible situations that have caused me to grasp frantically for any solid ground. Childhood issues. Infidelity. Broken trust. Leaving the church. There is more, of course. This is enough.

My circumstances were/are not, in any way, more difficult than anyone else’s. And, like many others in such places I turned to my religious beliefs – certain that “all things work together for good.” But the bridge felt wobbly. I felt shaky, unstable, and ambivalent. And when push came to shove, literally, the firm foundation of my faith completely fell apart.

Right then and there I had to choose: return to a life of unquestioning, uncomfortable silence or leap into the unknown.

I leapt. And, in so doing, survived.

I also found faith.

In my religious tradition, faith is understood as a system of beliefs upon which one can (must) stand – firmly, resolutely, without question or doubt. It is something within which I (must) place my confidence and trust; something that resides outside of me and usually presides in authority (God, a pastor, a man).

What I needed, however, was confidence and trust in something within; frankly, I needed to have faith in myself. I had to make the leap. There was no other choice.

I’m not the only one who has stood in such places. Do you feel the ground beneath you starting to shift? Do your beliefs no longer provide you the sure footing they promised? Do you know how to cross the gaping chasm between significant life/belief questions and answers that no longer satisfy? When circumstances occur in life that defy the staid, safe tenets of religious dogma, do you know who and how you will be?

Frankly, there are no easy answers to these questions. The scrambling ensues. And ultimately, all you can do is leap.

To let go of seemingly rock-solid answers in search of more meaningful questions is not an abandoning of our beliefs; it is faith.

To adventure bravely across treacherous waters, confident that your own strength will carry you is faith.

To trust that old stories can have new meanings, assumed truths can be queried, and that you can remain standing in the midst is faith.

To leap when everything in (and everyone around) you tells you that gravity is irrefutable is faith.

And faith will not let you down.

I took the risk, stepped onto that swaying bridge, ran like hell, and didn’t look back. And I continue to stand strongly in my doubts, knowing that they are the very things that enable my beliefs. I am endlessly letting go of more and more that I’ve held sacred, dear, or sacrosanct. And I am forever leaping – trusting that when I land I will step forward, confident and empowered, defying gravity time and again.

This risking, doubting, letting go, and leaping is endless. Solid ground is a myth; but the endless, soaring flight of faith offers a stabilizing loft that sustains, emboldens, and yes, defies gravity over and over again.

Go ahead: make the leap. Have faith. I’ll be waiting for you on the other side. Here, take my hand…

It’s time to try

Defying gravity

I think I’ll try

Defying gravity

And you can’t pull me down!

"Christmas belongs to anyone who wants it, and just because I gave up believing in a god doesn’t mean I gave up believing in the love and joy of family. I did not give up the joy of celebration with my abandonment of the absurd. So to my religious and non-religious friends, I wish them all a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah or happy Diwali from the heart and I hope they take it with the true spirit with which I give it – that of the spirt of humanity - something we can all celebrate."

::

.

Our world is pointing toward an insistence on conformity

Our world is pointing toward an insistence on conformity, which is causing us enormous grief. It's what's at the heart of all of our religious battles, and religious battles are what are at the heart of all of our battles. In other words, all of our wars and global irritation with one another is over our determination to promote sameness. Our democracy insists that it's the only government that works. And every religion, (it's interesting to note) proclaims that it is the only one that works.

.

There will always be those who thrive

There are always those who thrive when masses are dying of sickness. There are always those who thrive economically when economic decline seems to be the order of our nation. There are always those who are clear-minded, in environments of confusion. You do not need everyone or anyone else to align with your desire—only you need to align with your desire.

It's interesting, how, when you know that you are the creator of your own experience, and that anything you ask for, Source immediately begins to answer, things start falling into place.

Through the millennia humanity has always grasped for something to lean on, a crutch, some external factor that can "save" them, get them to to a place of contentment or help them through a crisis or difficult times. People turn to drugs, smoking, drinking, religion, sedatives or many of the other external factors that can make one "feel good".

When you understand that you deliberately create your own reality through your focus and your exposure to contrast, when you really get it, that your desire is always answered and that it's just your work to get into a place of allowing it—then, standing in that unfulfilled place of a fresh, new desire is delicious.

All you have to do is to discover that you have within you a Guidance System that lets you know, in any moment, what you're doing with your vibration. You can literally feel, once you have listened for it a little bit, whether you are a vibrational match to your Core Energy or whether you are not.

None of the "crutches" are right or wrong. When you find something that works for you, stick to it. Have you ever known someone whose life was not based on what you thought was moral or appropriate behavior? And yet, they continued to win. You know why? They don't listen to the other side of the argument and mix up their vibration. They focus upon and hold themselves in alignment with what they want—and the Universe delivers to them what they want.

It doesn't matter how many others stand back and claim injustice, foul play, or inappropriate, the Universe always answers your vibration.

And it doesn't have anything to do with what anybody else is doing—or thinks about what you're doing—unless you change your vibration because of what they think about what you're doing. That's why a variety of medical remedies work differently on different people. That's why a variety of religious intentions work for different people.

How do you ever decide what is right or wrong for you, what is appropriate or inappropriate, when there are so many different opinions and voices trying to get your attention and trying to get you to follow?

If you have a very narrow experience, if you only have one or two choices, it is fairly easy to choose one and stick to it. But as you go through life, all these different options are offered to you, where people have different religious beliefs or different beliefs about what you should eat or the way you should dress, now you have greater contradiction within your experience. The variety is enormous. And so, many of us try to find the biggest group in order to please.

Begin to move through life more on a feeling basis than on an intellectual, thinking basis. You want to reach the point where you can just tell by the way you feel, “Am I vibrationally up to speed with who I am and what I want, or have I chosen — by influence of others or by some old habit of thought — have I chosen to focus somewhere that’s lower and slower in vibration?”

You can believe anything you want and have success with it. But in the moment you push against what another believes, you cut yourself off from your success.They must be allowed if I am to be allowed. All is allowed.

.

The habit of religion

Processionary caterpillars travel in long, undulating lines, one creature behind the other. Jean Hanri Fabre, the French entomologist, once lead a group of these caterpillars onto the rim of a large flowerpot so that the leader of the procession found himself nose to tail with the last caterpillar in the procession, forming a circle without end or beginning.

Through sheer force of habit and, of course, instinct, the ring of caterpillars circled the flowerpot for seven days and seven nights, until they died from exhaustion and starvation. An ample supply of food was close at hand and plainly visible, but it was outside the range of the circle, so the caterpillars continued along the beaten path.

People often behave in a similar way. Habit patterns and ways of thinking become deeply established, and it seems easier and more comforting to follow them than to cope with change, even when that change may represent freedom, achievement, and peace of mind.

If someone shouts, "Fire!" it is automatic to blindly follow the crowd, and many thousands have needlessly died because of it. How many stop to ask themselves: Is this really the best way out of here?

So many people "miss the boat" because it's easier and more comforting to follow - to follow without questioning the qualifications of the people just ahead - than to do some independent thinking and checking.

A hard thing for most people to fully understand is that people in such numbers can be so wrong, like the caterpillars going around and around the edge of the flowerpot, with life and food just a short distance away. If most people are living that way, it must be right, they think.

But a little checking will reveal that, throughout all recorded history, the majority of mankind has an unbroken record of being wrong about most things, especially important things. For a time we thought the Earth was flat and later we thought the Sun, Stars, and planets traveled around the Earth. Both ideas are now considered ridiculous, but at the time they were believed and defended by the vast majority of followers. In the hindsight of history we must have looked like those caterpillars blindly following the follower out of habit rather than stepping out of line to look for the truth.

It's difficult for people to come to the understanding that only a small minority of people ever really get the word about life, about living abundantly and in harmony with themselves. Peace and harmony in the important departments of life seldom comes naturally, no more naturally than success at anything - a musical instrument, sports, fly-fishing, tennis, golf, business, marriage, parenthood.

But for some reason, most people wait passively for change to come to them - like the caterpillars going around in circles, waiting for sustenance, following nose to tail - living as other people are living in the unspoken, tacit assumption that other people must know what is right.

It's a good idea to step out of the line every once in a while and look around to see if the line is going where we want it to go. If it is not, it might be time for a new direction, looking at relieving ourselves of old habits that don't serve us anymore.

The breaking of a long-time habit of religion can be traumatic and does seem like the end of the road at the time - the complete cessation of life as we know it. Suddenly dropping the habit so fills our minds with the desire for the old habitual way that, for a while, it seems there will no longer be any peace, any sort of law and order in our lives again. But that's not true. New habits form in a surprisingly short time, and a whole new world opens up to us when we realise that we are free from all restrictions, free from following the follower and that only joy and happiness can come from following our hearts instead.

.

"Smiling" and "Atheism"

The internet is so full of positive quotes, affirmations, inspiring articles and images and "good" information that it is easy to get positive feed-back in all areas and regularly raise the frequency of your vibration.

But the internet is just as full of negativity, full of ugly on-line fights, full of people pushing against one another and venting their anger for the world to see.

You know how, when you click on a link, and then you click on another and then another and eventually you're somewhere you never intended?

Well, that happened to me the other day. I was Googling "smiling", of all things, and through following links, I ended up at this FaceBook page link called "Fuck Jesus Christ and Fuck Christianity".  Seeing the title, I was intrigued and my curiosity got the better of me, so I popped over to have a look.

I have no problem with what religion someone follows, or whether they do or don't. Everybody is entitled to their opinion or beliefs. Even this page. And although there are many valid "truths" on the page, I do not understand why a viewpoint has to be put across with such anger and hatred. If you do not believe in a god, then you don't. It's your choice. It’s your right. But leave other people to have their choice, their belief, it's their right, it's their choice.

This page strikes me as the sort of thing that gives "atheists" a bad name, and probably one of the reasons why so many religious people find it difficult to "come out of the closet" and follow their own truth.

.

Thinking men cannot be ruled

"The good, say the mystics of spirit, is God, a being whose only definition is that he is beyond man's power to conceive - a definition that invalidates man's consciousness and nullifies his concepts of existence...

Man's mind, say the mystics of spirit, must be subordinated to the will of God... Man's standard of value, say the mystics of spirit, is the pleasure of God, whose standards are beyond man's power of comprehension and must be accepted on faith....

The purpose of man's life... is to become an abject zombie who serves a purpose he does not know, for reasons he is not to question?"
- Ayn Rand, For the New Intellectual

If more individuals today are religious sceptics than in centuries past, that is mainly because accumulated knowledge has inclined more people toward such doubt.

It would have been harder to be an atheist hundreds of years ago, when so many mysteries about the universe had not been answered. The scientific discoveries of the last few hundred years have filled in so many gaps that the idea of a Grand Designer with some kind of special affection for humans seems more implausible than ever to many.

Early childhood indoctrination by family, for example, is a key environmental factor that promotes religious beliefs. I mean, you might not have been a Christian if you were born into a Hindu or Buddhist family. And vice versa. If you had been born on an island where just your parents lived and they told you that a certain brick was god, you would have grown up believing that. Until your common sense kicked in.

But living in a close society as we humans do, prevailing social views that disapprove of open disbelief will often discourage serious exploration of secularity. In other words, the major environmental factor that promotes disbelief (and discourages belief) tends to be accumulated knowledge, whereas the most significant environmental factor in promoting belief (and discouraging disbelief) tends to be family and social indoctrination.

Religion, especially Christianity, has always been about control. Through the ages, the control the Church had over the people was total. Peasants worked for free on Church land. They paid 10% of what they earned in a year to the Church (a practice which still continues today). A failure to pay taxes, so the peasants were told by the Church, would lead to their souls going to Hell after they had died. You also had to pay for baptisms (if you were not baptised you could not go to Heaven when you died), marriages (there were no couples living together in Medieval times as the Church taught that this equaled sin) and burials - you had to be buried on holy land if your soul was to get to heaven. Whichever way you looked, the Church received money. The Church also did not have to pay taxes. This saved them a vast sum of money and the church just kept on getting wealthier and more powerful. Not something to be easily given up without a struggle.

Spirituality means something different to everyone. For some, it's about participating in organized religion: going to church, synagogue, a mosque, etc. For others, it's more personal: Some people get in touch with their spiritual side through private prayer, yoga, meditation, quiet reflection, or even long walks. Visiting Nature is as close to any god as you can get, her awesomeness is irrefutable and we could take many lessons on spirituality from her.

It seems that, once we believe in something, we will try to explain away anything that conflicts with it. Humans can't help but ask big questions—the instinct seems wired in our minds.

"If the explosion of knowledge in recent centuries has made the idea of disbelief more compelling, it would seem that the long-term trend toward secularity, even if slow, is likely to continue. In fact, it is remarkable that secularity has spread so impressively even though powerful forces have tried to shape the environment against it."

- Psychology today

 .

De-program yourself from mass brainwashing

Society has undergone a mass brainwashing and it is time for us to de-program ourselves in order to be completely immersed in the evolution of consciousness. Religion has been the longest running form of mind control on the planet and has served to not only keep us separated, but to depopulate the world through numerous wars, inquisitions and crusades in the name of "God".

What religion does not teach us is that we are powerful, spiritual beings without them.

The real truth is that the bible is just a story to keep you living in subservience, control and conformity, the same template as every government. Ask lots of questions and go within for answers. It is time to take control of your own life instead of giving your energy and power away to others.

When you find religion, you find money as these two tenets in life are married to one another. Within these two entities, you'll also find their bastard stepchild, government, as all 3 are perpetually tied to each other. Ask yourself, "If there was no such thing as money, then what would you be doing with your life?" This will give you an idea of what your life purpose should be if you were not influenced by the almighty dollar and religion.

While money can simply be viewed as another form of energy, neither positive or negative, it also takes us away from our true, natural selves along with what is truly important in our lives.

Along with religion, TV is one of the biggest mind control venues out there. How many times have you ever felt good after watching the news? Do you enjoy being (literally) programmed into what you should eat, wear, drink, etc... through the commercials?

From birth, virtually all of us have been brainwashed through various outlets that encourage materialism, ego, subservience, control and conformity. As children, the brainwashing begins in the church when we are baptized. Many parents do not question baptism or the origins of it and blindly have their children baptized as the church welcomes them into the community in the name of Jesus Christ. The Jesus story, alone, isn’t questioned by enough Christians who blindly believe anything they are told in the name of “faith”.

I’d like to believe there is a Santa Claus and an Easter Bunny, too. These holidays both have Pagan origins, yet Christians never question these either and celebrate them with abandon. It’s all part of the lie propagated to us by religion.

Many Christians will argue that their church does good things for others while the bible provides good morals and values. But the truth is, you don’t need a church to do good things for others or a bible to be a morally sound person.

Additionally, the bible also teaches hatred and fear such as when God allegedly kills everyone with the “Great Flood”, except Noah and his family. These are the horror stories our children learn in Sunday school and that we read to them at night. Not only that, but the messages are often convoluted and ambiguous. What kind of message are we sending our children?

While the bible provides nice parables to learn from, they are not necessary, especially with all of the other negative content provided by religion.
~ Some extracts from "How to deprogram yourself"

Why would a sensible, intelligent human being not question religion? We are a naturally inquisitive species; we query whether there are aliens or not, we question evolution, we investigate the Universe. Why on earth would we blindly follow a certain religion in such blind faith? It is purely through brainwashing. Tell somebody something for long enough and they surely will start to believe it.

.

I need no label, no sanction

It is totally amazing how many people cannot accept that there are some that don't have a religion, that don't embrace the idea of worshipping a creator god and are not scared of hell and brimfire. Therefore a label has to be attached to 'what you are', and who you are, for the unknown has always been a fearful thought to mankind.

When you have a naturalistic approach which simply accepts and reveres the universe and nature just as they are, and promote an ethic of respect for human and animal rights and for lifestyles that sustain rather than destroy the environment, then you must be a Pantheist. (Scientific or natural pantheism is a modern form of pantheism that deeply reveres the universe and nature and joyfully accepts and embraces life, the body and earth, but does not believe in any supernatural deities, entities or powers.)

If you should per chance quote something, a really lovely thought, from the Bible, because there are a few good ideas in there, then you are a Christian. If you practice meditation, then you must be a Buddhist. If you believe in magic, then you must be a Witch. If you don't believe in god, then you are an Atheist. Et al.

Surely, therefore, if you believe that the devil exists, then you must be a satanist...?

There are many labels mankind has chosen to hang around the necks of "non-believers", segregating humanity into pockets of good, bad and evil. Anyone who has new or valuable ideas to offer stands outside the intellectual status quo. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to agree with others. But the creator is the man who disagrees. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to swim with the current. But the creator is the man who goes against the current. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to stand together. But the creator is the man who stands alone.

To know one's own desires, their meaning and their costs requires the highest human virtue: Rationality.

“Because, you see, God—whatever anyone chooses to call God—is one's highest conception of the highest possible. And whoever places his highest conception above his own possibility thinks very little of himself and his life. It's a rare gift to feel reverence for your own life and to want the best, the greatest, the highest possible, here, now, for your very own. To imagine a heaven and then not to dream of it, but to demand it.”

 ― Ayn Rand, We the Living

Is it so difficult for anybody to believe that there are people who believe in themselves, trust in themselves, love themselves so much that they are quite at ease with the universe and nature just as they are and promote an ethic of respect for human and animal rights and for lifestyles that sustain rather than destroy the environment?

I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction. And I believe that everyone has the right to make his own decisions, but none has the right to force his decision on others.

::
 

Becoming and being everything

I don't complain often, because I always try and see the positive side of a story. And most of the time there IS a positive side. Life is full of positivity, even under the most dire circumstances. Even death can have a positive side to it if someone has been suffering horrific pain from an incurable disease for years and years.

But today I'm going to complain. In fact, I'm going to bitch. Bitch about people who can't stand it if you climb out of your box, dare to raise a different opinion than what they are used to hearing from you. They've put you in that box as "artist", "horse rider", "a nice person", a "christian", "a maths wiz" or whatever. And they can't believe that you dare climb out of that box and give up horse riding, are sometimes not as nice as you appear to be or that you've given up religion.

A while ago I met up with an old friend from my horse riding days about 20 years ago, and the first thing she did, after all the necessary pleasantries, was to ask after the horses. When I told her that I had sold them all about 15 years ago, she was absolutely stunned, replying, "Oh my gosh! So what do you do with your life NOW?!"

Are their minds so closed and one-tracked that they can't think outside the box? Even just consider a different opinion? Are they scared a "different opinion" might harm their own opinion, might even, heaven forbid! change their own opinion? Or don't they believe in growth, in change? That horse riding has been replaced by other, new and exciting activities?

Are they not even interested in hearing something different? Don't they want to know what the rest of the world thinks? When I hear or see something that I've never heard of before, or that might go against every grain in my being, like hunting wild animals for sport, I am actually extremely excited to hear what that person has to say about it. First of all, it's a learning curve and, secondly, it often gives a fresh perspective on the subject.

Even though hunting wild animals hurts my soul, I've come to understand, through listening to another's opinion, that it is often a necessary part of life in the modern world we live in. Progress and destruction of wild habitats has made it necessary to keep wild animals camped off in dedicated pieces of land and, once the population exceeds what the land can carry, culling often becomes necessary. And for many sports hunters, these are now the only hunting options still available, organized and managed.

In a recent blog post on one of my Afrikaans blogs, I complained about the fact that Googling certain words in Afrikaans, like 'inspiration', 'abundance' and 'universe' only led to pages and pages of bible verses and bible quotes. Nothing inspirational, so unimaginative, have Afrikaners got nothing to write about except religion? (Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike Afrikaners, I am Afrikaans myself!)

Now, I've been posting beautiful, positive thoughts on that blog for years, never really airing much of my closest thoughts, and the immediate response from one reader was that I was attacking (her) religion, that I had now climbed out of my box and veered off in a wrong direction. Why do some people constantly feel the need to protect their opinion, their religion, as if somebody is going to steal it away from them? Nobody can steal anything from you unless you allow it. Nobody can change your opinion unless you have a change of heart.

I still don't agree with hunting, but I do understand the other point of view. I don't agree with people feeling threatened and fearful when their point of view is challenged, but I do understand their small-mindedness. For many people it is the only choice in order that they may feel safe.

Hats off to all those wonderful people in the world who are tolerant, non-judgemental and open-minded, truly free souls! You ARE everything!

.