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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am asking this question after reading a previous post about people being depressed because they don't have religion in their lives. I am an atheist in my 40s, although I considered myself Christian until my early 20's. However with life and experience I find it impossible to believe in a 'God' and especially anything written in the Bible. It all seems totally unbelievable to me and I hate the way it has given people reasons to discriminate against LGBTQ communities.

I struggle on and off with depression and sometimes I wished I did have a faith to comfort me. It is very easy for people to say you should turn to Jesus etc, but to me it is like believing in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.[/quote]

OP, have you ever found anything in your life?[/quote]

I went to a Catholic boarding school and was one of the few non catholic students (although baptized Christian). I was judged by some very uptight religious teachers and overheard them gossip about my 'unorthodox'family. I tried to make them like me more by attending all the optional evening prayer services and tried to talk to God but never felt heard. In my late teens and early 20's I struggled really badly with OCD and depression and pleaded to God to help me but I felt no comfort only suicidal. The only thing that helped me in the end was antidepressants and therapy.  I stopped believing in God after this bout of depression and it all seems a lot of hateful made up nonsense to me now. But I do often think it would be nice to believe, some of my good friends do, I just can't seem to make that stretch. Whatever happens I know Catholic Church is not for me or any religion who thinks that being in a same sex relationship is a sin. [/quote]

PP here that is a Catholic convert from atheism.  OP, i'm sorry about your experience as an outside at Catholic school.  Having not grown up Catholic, this is my fear of catholic schools and sometimes I almost wonder if it is better to keep my kids from Catholicism until they reach adulthood and can then approach it with fresh mature eyes rather than be tainted by Catholic culture as kids.  Anyways, I would caution writing off any religion.  To seek the truth, you must be open to wherever it leads you, because you must let God do the leading.  If you are writing something off, it means you don't want to be led and therefore you won't be.  Your faith, or relationship with the Divine, or whatever you want to call it, has to be the central compass of you life.  It is what will inform your other social and moral conviction (like the issue of same sex marriage), not the other way around. [/quote]

I don't believe I need God to give me a social or moral compass. I'm a good person that helps others in need, a good friend, I give to charity and volunteer my time. I think that is integral to being human, shaped my life experience. You don't have to have faith to make the right choices. And if same sex marriage is an example of something that God thinks is a wrong moral choice then the Catholic version of 'God' is absolutely not what I am looking for.[/quote]

How do you make sure that your moral compass is always showing North and not get derailed by magnetic field of mass media or public opinion?[/quote]

NP
The Golden Rule (You can find it in any great religion or moral philosophy)
Love, kindness and compassion.
The Buddha compared his teaching like a raft to cross over to the other side.

[/quote]

But where the Golden Rule came from? Can you cite the first source?[/quote]

Why can’t it be natural in origin?  Like other customs such as family and living in communities?[/quote]

Because humans don’t tend to do great left to their own devices. Slavery, child sacrifice, worshipping and believing the sun or gods and goddesses, and other gods represented by nature (sacrificing humans for a good harvest, chanting and dancing for rain to relieve drought, etc) is not a good way to live.

In America, Christianity was the driving force behind the abolition of slavery. Slavery still exists throughout the world. But not in America.

People will always try to make sense of and order their world. People will always seek a higher understanding and look for guidance from the world around them.

Christianity is the ultimate guide to helping humans live decent and loving lives.

Top 10 Countries with the Highest Prevalence of Modern Slavery (by total number of slaves) - Global Slavery Index 2018:

India - 7,989,000
China - 3,864,000
North Korea - 2,640,000
Nigeria - 1,386,000
Iran - 1,289,000
Indonesia - 1,220,000
Congo (Democratic Republic of) - 1,045,000
Russia - 794,000
Philippines - 784,000
Afghanistan - 749,000

So, leaving things up to community vote is not a good way to organize your community. The strong take control of and subjugate the weak-women, kids, the poor- are used and abused.

Christianity believes each of God’s creations are in their own right worthy of respect, fair treatment, and love.

I realize people like you who have this “community theory” and believe that some how humans pull together and make things work for the good of all have permanent rose colored glasses and a cushy life here in America. Please travel and don’t stay on a resort and see how it’s going for people not born into American privilege, you might not be so hot on your theory after a few visits to the 3rd world. 
[/quote]

Do you know they were a lot of “Christians” justified slavery using the Bible?
In fact the Bible doesn’t explicitly forbid slavery.
I know Quakers were  abolitionist.
If being Christian makes you a loving and kind person good but morality is not only Christian virtue.[/quote]

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