HCpaul:
Hmm... The whole thing about God is that he will not force you to serve him. If he should have, you would have been a pastor now.

johnydon22:
[b]I saw a thread by BRIGHTRIVERS https://www.nairaland.com/2545912/now-thinking-like-atheist where he voiced out he needs help because of the way his thoughts has been going lately and youngpol also identified to trail that line too and this shows that there are many like this who are afraid of their own questions, afraid of their own thoughts and remarkably afraid of their own self.

This thread is not an attack on any religion neither is it a form of argument about the existence of any God or deity. . This only is meant to address the idea of fear in the minds of people who see reason as something to be feared..

I laughed when i saw the post, not because it is really funny but because many of us passed through that and partly because the topic sounds funny..

"Help!!!" That word alone with exclamation marks depicts one fact and that is; "You are yelling for help" Ok so the thing is "Help on what?" or "from what?"

You must first identify why you are scared, why you think you need help and why you fear your own thoughts.
From the Op one can deduct that you are surprised at the conflict going on in your mind, you are witnessing what i mostly like to call "The emergence of reason" a severe conflict between reality and faith, reason and belief.

So tell me exactly, are you really afraid of your thoughts or you are afraid of your beliefs?
You are afraid of the said repercussions that your belief stipulates awaits unbelief? So first you need to determine what you are really afraid of ... Your thought or your beliefs?.

YOUR THOUGHT
Our thoughts are an extension of us, its a projection of what our inner self is and as your thought is you, are you really supposed to fear yourself?
I love maria curie words that said "Nothing in life is to be feared only understood, so now is the time to understand more so we can fear less"

Assuming from my deductions and you are afraid of your THOUGHTS (yourself) can you ever know yourself?

Your religions might frown on questions that stems from independent reason, but in you deny your reason, your thought, what exactly is left of you? A thoughtless robot that takes what ever he is told?

No, from my little knowledge of humans, it shouldn't be like that. We are capable of questions, reason, comparing and contrasting, weighing and even criticising objectively every idea that is not in coincide with our own reason..

So do not be afraid of your thoughts but rather embrace it, open up to yourself and let your questions play out, let your mind achieve independency of thought and reason and what ever your conclusion is, you will be sure is what you really wanted, you will be sure is what your reason agrees with.

Like Buddha said; Believe nothing, no matter where you heard or read it from unless it agrees with your own reason...

So take that chance of thinking for yourself, so much happiness, peace and fulfilment will come through it..


YOUR BELIEFS
This commonly is the most common factor that keeps people locked into their respective beliefs to the detriment of their own reasons.

I will be explicit here; An islamic scholar once stipulated that without murdering apostates, there would be no islam today... that is true but let us be even clearer here "Without the concept of hell, most religions won't boast of up to a 100million adherents. . Religions has derived so many means of subjecting their adherents to perpetual psychological fear therefore ensuring their continuation.

Nothing reveals the man made aspect of religions more than the sick minds that designed hell... And a God who operates under such sadistic premise is totally monstrous, evil and barbaric in nature not to talk of the egoistic and narcissistic idea of judgement.

Is a life time (perhaps 100years) worth an eternity of punishment? Is that in any sense justice? I think not, and this unjust idea has been fed to the public by various religions i always wonder if they don't really stop to wonder "How the attributes they fabricate for their different God concepts shows it off to be"

Your beliefs are still like i mentioned for thoughts nothing to be feared, only understood and the sooner you understand that people like you sat down to determine most of these things you believe now the better you will learn to fear it less and the better for your reason.

In all said and done the basis of religion is FEAR and not really Faith like they would have us think.

Even if you choose to believe by Faith which in itself is irrational because the strong convictions (faith) you have for something doesn't really make it true, it doesn't even make it probably true it only means you believe it whether it is true or not.

We either base our confidence on reason (evident probabilities, plausibilities, past experiences) or we base our beliefs in faith. which by definition is blind.

A dishonest position possible to have, because it is an assertion of stoic conviction that is assumed without reason and defended against all reason. If one needs to believe something by FAITH, their really is no reason to believe it at all.

It is not harmful to have faith but if someone genuinely believes it is right to believe things without reason or evidence then that person is open to every kind of dogma, whim, coercion or dangerous infectious idea that is around.

if someone is convinced that it is acceptable to base their beliefs in what is written in an ancient book or what some teachers tell them they must believe.

Then they will have no true freedom of thought, they will be trapped by their own faith into inconsistency and untruths because they will be unable to throw out false ideas when evidence against them comes along.


So what i am saying is, your thought or beliefs is not something to be feared but rather understood. understanding your own self is the first step there is to understanding the world.

So what ever thought your mind cultivates should be left to play out, your questions should be a stimulus for knowledge and a call for INDEPENDENT REASON. . Only then will you determine that which you will be sure you agree or believe...

Do not be afraid of your own thought which is in fact yourself or the questions you conceive because a subtle thought in error may yet give rise fruitful enquiry that can determine truth of great value
[/b]

Krystalzkris:
its not easy fighting an indoctrinated belief.. Really Having a hard time here

Krystalzkris:
its not easy fighting an indoctrinated belief.. Really Having a hard time here

johnydon22:
Yeah i know. . . But by realizing that these stoic beliefs and convictions are as a result of indoctrination, you have taken the first and most important step towards the emergence of independent reason.

My concern is for people to allow their own independent reason to run their lives instead, i am not really interested whether they choose to be atheistic or theistic . . the most important thing is to set your thoughts and reasons free..

It has never been easy, A little Help from others can be a huge thing.. You can reach out to me here or PMs if you have questions

johnydon22:
Actually i could still be a pastor now if i want to the only thing holding me is that i am empathic and compassionate towards others and i find it better to give to the masses than extort their hard earned money in the name of a God..


"[b]Believe me or burn in hell" that is abuse, [size=16]force[/size], sadistic and all round ludicrous... [/b]

Krystalzkris:
its not easy fighting an indoctrinated belief.. Really Having a hard time here