Replying to Avatar Alan ₿

My story —

Grew up in a Catholic family. Went to mass every Sunday. Believed in God as it was portrayed by the Church.

As a teenager, I began questioning religious dogma, and came to the conclusion that it’s all nonsense. There is no God. There is no afterlife. Credulous people are simply engaging in wishful thinking, as a way of coping for their inevitable death. I became a staunch atheist, and scoffed at religious people all through University.

As an adult, I started exploring Eastern philosophy and religions, starting with the Bhagavad Gita. This led me to the works of Alan Watts. I realized I was missing half the picture. God needn’t be thought of as some external ruler pulling the strings from afar. God is better thought of as the divine essence that dwells within every being and non-being. In this sense, it’s true that you cannot die, because “you” are everywhere and everything. In the words of Alan Watts, “You are IT” aka “Tat Tvam Asi.”

At the same time as I was reading Alan Watts, I had a series of profound religious experiences of my own, wherein I experienced the oneness of being firsthand, which eviscerated any strains of atheism or alienation from existence itself altogether.

This search for the Truth continued, and is what has led me to #Bitcoin.

So if you are reading this, and are an atheist, all I can say is that you are on the right path — and that it’s good to question every assumption — but you are not there yet. Keep searching. nostr:note1kddrhz9hg25tzmyx6dz9903pv252ga83un8jqjl9xpqg6kkcqneskc84tq

Nice story. I’ve had some religious experiences, grew up in evangelistic churces. Turned to agnosticism when I realized my prayers were not being answered or acknowledged, and it’s not like I was praying for a lot of Bitcoin. More like that my ex wife would listen to me and stop abusing my son. Shit happens, and I learned that is there is a god, their character is not what I thought it is. That doesn’t prove that there is no “God” but if there is one, I’m not interested. If you are, more power to you.

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Discussion

Being a Christian does not protect you from suffering. Even Christ's apostles were not spared from violent martyrdom.

The character of God is such that he gave his only son, whom he loved, to die and pay for our sin. Sin is a cancer that afflicts us all. Don't think your experience is evidence that God is evil or callous. Just means there are people around you who have much to answer for..... who especially need Jesus for their sin is great.

Calloys or not all-powerful, one or the other. That this is all some sort of test is sadistic at best. Not my kind of way to live.

I say that is a false dichotomy. Didn't say it was all a test, just saying the world is fallen, evil still lingers and it devours us. Good news is that Jesus defeated it, that all broken things will be made right in the end.

If God were sadistic he would endorse evil and conflate it with good as Satan does.