Has anyone ever made you feel guilty for not believing in god? I've had experiences where family members and friends have indirectly sent me guilt tripping for my lack of belief on the issue. Want to see if anyone else has had similar experiences.
many have tried..hehe Dont worry its afamily/peergroup thing..thats the way it works..U are being threatened in your family/peer situation because of your refusal to believe. And because u dont believe it..they take it as an insult to them. And they are not really talking about god. But their religion... And occam can see no connection between the two. And bluntly says so. Yet do you or occam take it as an insult if the religious believe differently to us...no. And they know it... This reveals a lot about the structure of such religious thought. Occam
i'm not saying that i don't believe, but when i told my "best friend" that i had questions, it seems like she just has a whole new opinion of me now...i guess she didn't really guilt trip me, but, she definately looked down on me a little bit...
It is strange and interesting at the same time how you people live and do with ur parents or family overall. I just curious that how can religion restrict everyone from their minds... from freedom, that they blame and make their loved ones guilty of this subject... too sad, but on the other side it would be interestinf for me , to live in such an enrironment for some time.
That's neither an accident nor a coincidence. Guilt is a powerful psychological tool of social-control, and is the designed purpose of the Judeo-Christian god-concept. Guilt begins with harsh toilet-training, and becomes a powerful life-long neurotic complex of internal conflict with our parents. The Judeo-Christian god-concept is successful, because it is the external projection of the ultimate parent. The Judeo-Christian god-concept allows our neurotic guilt preoccupations endless externalizing opportunities to beg forgiveness and renew obedience to this projected ultimate parent. A desire for greater social-control motivated the Hebrews to develop a guilt triggering parental god-concept. The greater a society's social insecurity, the greater will be that society's desire for social-control. A small, weak people in a very violent neighborhood, The Hebrews developed a genius for social-control by guilt, to the point that guilt has become the well-known comedy stereo-type of Jewish family dynamics. Moreover, it's neither an accident nor a coincidence that the Hebrew's powerful psychological tool of social-control should be adopted by Europeans as their own god-concept just when the security of Rome was collapsing all around them. [/QUOTE]
I was once made to stand with a piece of chalk placed between my head and the wall and whenever the chalk fell to the floor - the teacher kicked my ass. I mean actually kicked my butt. Just because I said that I didnt believe I should be forced to be a hypocrite and pray to a god I no longer believed in
I love this explanation of guilt. I wish someone would have explained guilt to me in a way such as this a few years ago, I used to have a giant problem with guilt. It was to an extreme where it ruled my life. I wouldn't be able to make simple decisions because of it. I'm not like this now, but it definitely used to be a problem.
You certainly should be 'feeling guilty' in cases where you really are guilty of something. It might be intellectual dishonesty, a slight against another human, etc. Interesting, we certainly do have this wild thing called a conscience and a physiology that corresponds with 'feelings' even ones that will change your physical body quite dramatically. Think about that wonder of the human being. But yeah, if you are guilty of something then normally you will feel it. Aha.. Of course the trick here is to make sure you actually are guilty for real. Is it a 'true' guilt or a false one. Lots of questions there for sure. Christianity is great because its central teachings are about solving the guilt question and putting it behind us.
“Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.” Steven Weinberg The ultimate sin of monotheism is the denial of our intuition and the manipulation of our perceptual lenses (beliefs). Our parents were programmed to look at the world as them and us. Competitive consumerism demands conformity and a winner…top dog. But there is a crack in the cosmic egg and some of us have been blessed/cursed with the vision of caring and sharing...togetherness. The truth is that we are all children of this earth. We can choose to share the wonder of it all OR we can fence it, possess it and own it. (What is your choice?) The human spirit truly reflects the profound cosmic resonance that gives the beat to our heart and the rhythm to our breath. Our nature is to be honest and trusting but our karma (cultural institutions) betrays us. We are taught to search for enlightenment in our intellect when in fact it is our intellect that betrays us. Monotheism is NOT passive. It demands conformity and in the process cultivates conflict. It isn’t so much the ONE GOD bull shit but the PUT NO OTHER GOD BEFORE ME crap. Look at the Jews, Christians and Muslims fighting it out…all from the same mold…my way or the highway. If we need a fundamental conceptual paradigm let it be Mother Nature. We don’t need to stick our heads in the sky looking for salvation. We need to firmly plant our feet on Mother Earth and to sow the seeds of sharing and caring, we need to pull the weeds of competition, exploitation and imperialism...we need to love and hug each other. Above all we need to celebrate who we are...NOT what we want to be! ...the nature in human nature is Mother Nature and the mother of nature is the garden!
My mother believes in God, and she always trys to make me feel guilty for not having saying I believe in God. I told her I was agnostic, and she said that I was Atheist. She seems to get the two confused. She says she KNOWS there is a God because she has "seen" things. Ugh. It doesn't necessarily make me feel guilty, but it makes me just want to give her a 10 page print-out information sheet on agnosticism!
Of course people have tried to make me feel guilty, and have criticized me... but they never succeeded. If you're comfortable in your (lack of) beliefs, then why bother letting them get to you? If you'd turn the argument around, at a christian, and try to guilt them upon their beliefs, do you think they'd think twice and feel guilty? Fuck no, so why should you? Are you possibly still questioning your beliefs? No offense, but if those sorts of things get to you, maybe you aren't feel comfortable, and stable enough in what you believe, or think you believe. Maybe you should take some time out to self-reflect. And, for further clarification, I'm not a christian, thats trying to get you to sway my way. I am an atheist, but I'd rather see people comfortable in what they believe and who they are, than not.
