When i was a kid (or when i was in Nepal), i used to believe in God. I did however have reservations on religion but i still believed in God. Its been a year in US now and having met people from other cultures, the existence of a supreme being doesnt make sense anymore. 

I think that believeing in GOd instills in a person faith, confidence and positivity to get through good times and be appreciative of the bad ones. I want my children to have these qualities so i dont want to tell them that GOd doesnt exist. Moreover, i cant imagine what my parents/relatives will make of me when i talk to them about this. It isnt going to be pretty. 

It does give me great discomfort to think about all this. I must admit i feel less confident and more pessimistic these days. I want to believe in God but my logic doesnt give in anymore. In fact, i get irritated when i hear things like "God COMMANDED you to.." "GOd will PUNISH you if..", "We are SERVANTS in from of Him" "(on Christianity): "Jesus died on the cross for you"(THere are many who have made a similar magnitude of sacrifice). 

I think that God and religion are ancient theories that havent been discarded yet. And it hasnt due to the fear in people of what might happen if they didnt. One of my teachers once said "if there is no god and you believe in god, there is no harm but if there is god and you dont believe in god, there is harm". i feel this and cultural and social stigmas lead people to be religious and not question their beliefs. 

I wanna know what you guys make of this.

I will only agree with you if you start a new thread and re-post the above....okay?

 'navi' from planet pandora

@Chaurey: brother, I  have started another thread.

@BitterTruth: Exactly!

thank you and for that sir i even gave an upvote to your new thread and agreed with you there.

Chaurey,

This shows that you are more of a gentleman than I previously gave you credit for, sir.

and for that let me give you one Christian joke okay?....

2012 is coming:

LOL.

But Chaurey, 2012 is not the year of Noah. It is the year of the Hindu.

Visit Nepal in 2012 before the end of the world perhaps? god wanted it that way...

Chaurey

I like that. You and I, we should get all the smart guys on this thread and put our brains together in getting as many tourists to Nepal for 2012.

Let me know how I can help you with that, brother.

dumb and dumber II

My thanks to Chaurey, and others for sticking to the thread. Thanks to all for sharing your experiences and ideas. They have helped me quite a bit.

Homeyji,

Looking forward to reading your full story.

Pinpoint,

You said that this thread has helped you. I know that when you first started this thread you had some concerns. How do you feel now? Has your perspective changed? How? How do you see life now compared to before? Do you feel better? Worse?

What are the doubts you still have? Where do you feel unsure?

Please share.

  Homeyji,

Pinpoint,

Thank you for your mature reply. I think it shows that you are quite a mature person to be ok with confusion. For many this is a very scary place to be.

I feel that confusion and feeling lost is a necessary transition from one healthy state to another. But just make sure that it is not a permanent state. If it becomes a permanent state, then it results in an existential crisis. And that can lead to depression.
I don't want you to suffer through that.

But I just want to say, 'my respect to you.'

In your quest for truth, you are starting with self-honesty. I have done the same. I truly believe that the search for truth starts with self-honesty. Too many times people want to argue with others about what is truth and what is not. But few take the time to be honest with themselves and ask themselves why do they believe what they believe.
Why do they not believe some things?

I feel these are more important questions to ask ourselves than to argue with others.

Not everybody who is trying to prove that they are right...is necessarily looking for the truth. So many times, they argue to be right...but not to search for the truth. So they may even win the argument, but that doesn't mean that they have found the truth.

Sometimes, you can win the battle, without realizing that you have lost the bigger war.

I believe that you don't find the truth through argument. Only through introspection.

Reality is where truth meets self-honesty.

But the above are my conclusions based on my own search. Best of luck to you on your search.

Pinpoint,

I am glad you have embraced the logical path which is not always straightforward. I must admit that I was in your shoes quite a few years ago, and the more I have distanced myself from religion, the more satisfied I have become. The natural world and the universe coupled with  human ingenuity to conquer them is much more exciting to me than to fill every void that exists with one word "God">

Pinpoint,

I am glad you have embraced the logical path which is not always straightforward. I must admit that I was in your shoes quite a few years ago, and the more I have distanced myself from religion, the more satisfied I have become. The natural world and the universe coupled with  human ingenuity to conquer them is much more exciting to me than to fill every void that exists with one word "God">

I agree with Pulsar Beats. Definitely, don't sentimentally or out of fear choose your philosophy--whether it is Theism or Secular. Do it for the right reasons. That is the most important thing.

I wanted to re-iterate something that Pulsar Beats said more strongly.

I know that many of the people advocating for athiesm are doing it to be helpful. They want their brothers to invest in something concrete and stable. They don't want to see their brothers getting lost in a world of confusion.

The most important thing in your search for truth is to have a consistent sense of reference. In many ways, that is what your self-honesty is. But whatever it is, just make sure it is consistent, concrete and that no matter how much you change your other ideas, your beliefs or whatever. Never ever lose that consisten sense of reference, otherwise you will get super lost in life. 


 

I know that most of your lives are between these two extremes. But I want you to see these extremes to understand the nature of your own life. And from this point of view I will explain to you my story.

If someone came to you when you were 13 years old and gave you the choice of taking these two paths, for your life, which path would you take and why?

Path number 1:
In one path, you will have amazing experiences. You will have out of the world experiences. You will gain a lot of confidence from these experiences. You will feel ecstatic. You will have experiences that most people will not have in their lifetime. But in the course of going through this experience, there will times when you will be extremely lost. You will strain to have a consistent sense of self. You will strain to find yourself.
Since your identity is with many places, you will suffer from confusion. But you will have gained a lot of experience and have travelled to many people. You can talk about a lot of things as your point of reference. You understand the lives and ways of thinking of many people. You can relate to many different colorful experiences and can describe these vividly.

Path number 2:
And the other choice you have is to never leave the Kathmandu valley. To go to the same school from grade class 1 to class 12. To have the same schedule everyday. To then go to college. And have a wife and a kid and have a super stable life and you will die pretty much by doing the same thing every day. You know what time you will eat dal bhat in the morning. You know what time you will eat tiffin/khaja in the afternoon. And you know what time you will eat roti tarkari at night.
You will basically live a "normal" average Nepali life like most Nepalese who have been born and died in Nepal have lived. It will be a life with all the pleasures and difficulties of being born and dying in Nepal. It will be boring in it's own Nepali way. It will be exciting in it's own Nepali way. But you will never ever get lost.
But your life will be super-predictable. You will know what to expect in your life at every turn. You will have the same friends from grade school till you're an old man. You will know the ins and outs of Nepali culture because you never travelled outside of Nepal. Your only point of reference is this culture. This is your core identity.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So I know that most of you will not consciously choose Pathnumber1 or Pathnumber2.

Pathnumber1 is very scary because of so many unknowns. Few of you will consciously take that huge risk. The risk vs returns of this path is not proven. So few would jump into Pathnumber1 without making sure that there was enough return for your risk.

Pathnumber2 is very boring and stale life. Few of you will take that path also. The fact that most of you are in America means you are risk takers. You are trailblazers. If Pathnumber2 was so attractive, you would never have come to America.

So if I am correct, most of you in sajha have chosen the "middle path." The path between Pathnumber1 and Pathnumber2.