Anonymous wrote:My conservative evangelical upbringing instilled a fear of a God who judged me as such a horrible person that his son had to endure torture and death so that I wouldn't go to hell. But only if I said a prayer earnestly enough asking Jesus to be in my heart and save me. That God was quite scary. I consider it a form of spiritual abuse.

I am no longer afraid of God, but it's been a long road to get here. From rejecting the God of my youth, to losing faith altogether, through despair. Then finally experiencing grace, love that requires no moral perfection or special prayers said in just the right way, I can now say I am indeed saved by Jesus.

This is beautifully stated. I'm the OP and although I'm Hindu, I've gone through a very similar series of stages like you have. For me, it was the fear of difficult future incarnations, and the fear of incurring bad karma, that made me subconsciously worry about my actions. I went through some traumatic times and lost faith for a while, and wondered a lot about things. Now, for me, faith means unconditionally loving myself and surrendering to the present moment. When I'm in the present moment I don't worry about future incarnations or karma, and I don't worry that I have "be" something or "do" something in order to win God's approval.

One thing my experiences have taught me is that people tend to project their own insecurities, fears and conditioning onto God. Even if a scripture advocates self love, some insecure person will read that and misinterpret it through the filter of their own self-destructive urges. And then people like that create a culture of fearing God. That's just what I've observed though.

My conservative evangelical upbringing instilled a fear of a God who judged me as such a horrible person that his son had to endure torture and death so that I wouldn't go to hell. But only if I said a prayer earnestly enough asking Jesus to be in my heart and save me. That God was quite scary. I consider it a form of spiritual abuse.

I am no longer afraid of God, but it's been a long road to get here. From rejecting the God of my youth, to losing faith altogether, through despair. Then finally experiencing grace, love that requires no moral perfection or special prayers said in just the right way, I can now say I am indeed saved by Jesus.

Anonymous wrote:No. I'm Jewish. I was offended when a doctor tried to shut me up when asking questions about a procedure by saying "You seem like a good, god-fearing girl."

The term "God-fearing" actually almost ruined my ability to have faith in any God. Took me a while to learn to redefine religion according to my values, not what others tell me my values should be. I too really dislike how "God-fearing" is considered a sign of piety and devotion. Actually I think it's the opposite!

No, but I definitely worry that not following his guidance will only create problems of my own doing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interested to hear how people subconsciously feel about God. Responses from all religions welcome (I'm Hindu). Is your love and devotion to your Higher Power also affected by fear?

Examples:
- Do you think reverence and moral conduct should be motivated by fear of punishment?
- Do you think fear of God and love of God go together?

I have personally come to the conclusion that fear of God is extremely toxic. Even if I do wrong, the wrongdoing itself was motivated by my innate fears in the first place, (seriously, Yoda nailed it: "Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."), so if my crimes are motivated by my existing fears, then what good does it do to fear God?

I believe forgiveness for myself, and unconditionally loving myself, means there is no room to fear God. But I'm open-minded to hearing what other people think.

I am a Catholic and I was taught that the Bible says to fear god in the Old Testament. But when Jesus came, he "saved us" from our sins, and god became a loving god.

I am not debating if this is true or not or if Catholics are correct, I am just explaining what I was taught.

BTW, I don't fear god. I act morally because I like to act morally. It makes me feel good. Which is not exactly the best thing, it's not selfless. I tend to avoid good things that don't make me feel good.

So, you always operate your life based on your feelings? Frankly, most people would find that horrifying.

No. I'm Jewish. I was offended when a doctor tried to shut me up when asking questions about a procedure by saying "You seem like a good, god-fearing girl."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, there is NO god.

You seem to be very certain of this.

Let me ask you something since, statistically speaking at least, you are extremely likely to die one day.

When that day comes, do you hope you are right or do you hope you are wrong?

Right, obviously. If they are wrong and your god is the Christian god they go to hell, right?

PP who asked the question: Could you please explain why you answered this way? I'm a little confused by your follow-up question; who is "they?"

Anonymous wrote:Interested to hear how people subconsciously feel about God. Responses from all religions welcome (I'm Hindu). Is your love and devotion to your Higher Power also affected by fear?

Examples:
- Do you think reverence and moral conduct should be motivated by fear of punishment?
- Do you think fear of God and love of God go together?

I have personally come to the conclusion that fear of God is extremely toxic. Even if I do wrong, the wrongdoing itself was motivated by my innate fears in the first place, (seriously, Yoda nailed it: "Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."), so if my crimes are motivated by my existing fears, then what good does it do to fear God?

I believe forgiveness for myself, and unconditionally loving myself, means there is no room to fear God. But I'm open-minded to hearing what other people think.

I am a Catholic and I was taught that the Bible says to fear god in the Old Testament. But when Jesus came, he "saved us" from our sins, and god became a loving god.

I am not debating if this is true or not or if Catholics are correct, I am just explaining what I was taught.

BTW, I don't fear god. I act morally because I like to act morally. It makes me feel good. Which is not exactly the best thing, it's not selfless. I tend to avoid good things that don't make me feel good.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, there is NO god.

You seem to be very certain of this.

Let me ask you something since, statistically speaking at least, you are extremely likely to die one day.

When that day comes, do you hope you are right or do you hope you are wrong?

Right, obviously. If they are wrong and your god is the Christian god they go to hell, right?

No. wrong, with qualifications. Some Christians believe this but many don't.

That said, OP is right about not letting this recidivist derailer atheist derail this thread.