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.
Replies (37)
The greater part of the world's troubles are due to questions of grammar - Montaigne
I’m currently stuck somewhere in agnostic land.
Literalism and low IQ / mean Christians drove me away from Christianity.
“I like your Christ but not your Christians. Your Christian’s are so unlike your Christ.” -Ghandi
Buddhism made sense after many psychedelic voyages.
Am largely sympathetic to “life is a camping trip for god”
Pretty much believe in reincarnation.
Intelligent design is possible. I’m unclear on that though.
The eternal soul is likely real.
Tibetan book of the dead mirrors my drug experiences.
Still can’t really get to the place Christians do where they have a personal relationship with / talk to Jesus.
Sounds nice, but when I talk to god it’s silence on my end.
I guess I just don’t feel that mystical spirit thing other people do. Slightly jealous. It seems like a nice conscious experience lol
Déjà vu, very similar story and have stumbled across Alan watts this year. His work has resonated so much, that I’m about to buy his books!! Thanks for sharing your journey
You need to read about sikhism
- no heaven or hell or god
Only EK Onkar - the primal energy of the universe
The life force in everything. That is what we worship the one creator which has no shape.
Sikhi puts you on a path of destroying your ego so you can awaken and learn the truth. Sikh people are the one you see that have long beards and tie a turban. You are not supposed to alter your outward appearance and just live with the way it is naturally.
Yeah I don’t know much about Sikhism. What would you recommend reading for a westerner?
I had a very similar journey as you except after learning eastern spirituality and teachings, I went back to my Catholic faith.
Still finding my way, and my understanding of God and spirituality has evolved and matured since I was younger. My biggest issue with eastern spirituality is equating oneself to God. I think Christianity has it right that God/Jesus is an ideal to strive towards but to always recognize as external to oneself.
This view of us all being God leads to narcissistic behavior which I have certainly noticed in New age spirituality. Everything from chakras, astrology, crystals, meditation, all focus on us believe info we have some supernatural, god-like power to control or understand the world.
These are just my observations but I’d like to hear more about what you think too.
Much love, fellow bitcoiner 🧡
Interesting. Any introductory text that you’d recommend?
Thanks
Podcast form:
Apple Podcasts
Jap Ji Sahib English Translation, Meaning and Explanation - Nanak Naam - Satpal Singh
Spirituality Podcast · Updated Daily · English Katha (Sikh Lecture) by Satpal Singh - Jap Ji Sahib English Translation, Meaning and Explanation. ...
Music:
Apple Music - Web Player
Deh Shiva Bar - 1 With Commentary (feat. Sandhya, Manna Dey, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Nobina, Suhail, Gaurav, Savita, Dharna, Harinder, Davinder, Suresh Wadekar & Brij Bhushan) by Mohinderjit Singh on Apple Music
Album · 2020 · 12 Songs
Readings:
Basics Of Sikhi | Sikhi Videos, Blog, Q&As, Podcast and More
Learn about Sikhi through Videos, Podcasts, Blogs and Q&As. Join us on a journey to learn about the Basics of Sikhi including the Sikh Gurus, Sikh ...
Bookmarked this. Thanks for sharing 🙏
No problem, we just don’t know what’s out there in this world.
Lots of hidden knowledge and ideas out there and English being the common language is opening our minds to new ideas and helping us find Truth in our lives.
I contribute Bitcoin to me finding my families religious roots (sikhi) and that podcast was finally what I needed to increase my understanding of concepts my parents never properly explained to my siblings and I growing up.
In my opinion.. claiming that close personal relationship is just another virtue signal. Speaking/hearing from, even more so. Just seekers like the rest of us.
Interesting journey. Will do some research on Alan Watts, thanks for sharing!
I previously read Gita too, the one with commentary from S. Radhakrishnan. It is a great book, I think it is time to re-read that again...
It's a fair opinion, but super foolish to paint them with the same brush as if nobody could have a close relationship with God.
Some interesting quotes bitcoiners might like from the Sikh Gurus:
“When all has been tried, yet
Justice is not in sight,
It is then right to pick up the sword,
It is then right to fight”
“When there is incest, adultery, atheism, hatred of religion, no more dharma, and sin everywhere, the impossible Iron Age has come; in what way the world will be saved? For the helpless, the Lord Himself will manifest as the Supreme Purusha. He will be called the Kalki incarnation and will be glorious like a lion coming down from heaven.”
“If you are strong, torture not the weak, and thus lay not the axe to thy empire”
- Guru Gobind Singh
“Even Kings and emperors with heaps of wealth and vast dominion cannot compare with an ant filled with the love of God”
“There is but One God, His name is Truth, He is the Creator, He fears none, he is without hate, He never dies, He is beyond the cycle of births and death, He is self illuminated, He is realized by the kindness of the True Guru. He was True in the beginning, He was True when the ages commenced and has ever been True, He is also True now.”
“We are born of woman,
we are conceived in the womb of woman,
we are engaged and married to woman.
We make friendship with woman
and the lineage continued because of woman.
When one woman dies,
we take another one,
we are bound with the world through woman.
We grow up stronger and wiser having drunk milk from the breast of woman.
Why should we talk ill of her,
who gives birth to Kings?
The woman is born from woman;
there is none without her.
Only the One True Lord is without woman”
- Guru Nanak
Fair and foolish simultaneously! I’ll take it.
bota.org is what triggered my spiritual experiences. It's Christian mysticism but incorporates many teachings from the Gita. Check out "Spirit of the Upanishads," recommended in the coursework.
https://www.yogebooks.com/english/atkinson/1907-01upanishads.pdfNice 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.
I was an atheist until I met the Devil...
It was a fat nurse with an N95 mask chasing my kids with a syringe.
We are all sinners and have all been deceived.
For sure. "Close" is relative, anyway. Perhaps it's like a mathematical limit, there are many teachings that say God is unreachable. Yet it's a central concept of most religions is God's oneness with His creation.
TLDR;
I think God exists, but traditional Christian beliefs are looking at the universe through a keyhole. However, other Godless religions miss out on the relational side of a humble, divine creator.
I grew up a Southern Baptist preachers kid. And I have never seen everything the same way as my family or church people.
I’ve gone to non denominational as well as Pentecostal for awhile.
My wife got into essential oils, became a doula, and got into the body healing trapped emotions.
I have gone to counseling and learned about internal family systems. And most recently, I gotten into Silva Mind Control Method. Also, Dune has been very influential book shaping how I view reality.
There is definitely a way the universe and energy interconnects. It’s not simplified by any religion, but each religion picks up on pieces of it.
Healing is possible, telepathy is possible, manifesting is possible. But on the contrary, evil is present and affects people who search for it. It preys on fear and inadequacy.
Even if you don’t believe in God, there are ways in which the universe works and responds… even at a subatomic scale. And it is much more intelligent than we give it credit for.
Starting from a believing in God perspective, it’s hard for me to get to a place where I don’t believe. I’ve tested any theory, questioned everything… and what I’ve come away with is that because “perfect” isn’t how we want things to be doesnt mean there is a some bigger picture that we only get a fraction of.
I also subscribe to an all powerful God having nearly infinite universes of every kind you can and cant think of. Because… God.
TLDR;
I think God exists, but traditional Christian beliefs are looking at the universe through a keyhole. However, other Godless religions miss out on the relational side of a humble, divine creator.
I grew up a Southern Baptist preachers kid. And I have never seen everything the same way as my family or church people.
I’ve gone to non denominational as well as Pentecostal for awhile.
My wife got into essential oils, became a doula, and got into the body healing trapped emotions.
I have gone to counseling and learned about internal family systems. And most recently, I gotten into Silva Mind Control Method. Also, Dune has been very influential book shaping how I view reality.
There is definitely a way the universe and energy interconnects. It’s not simplified by any religion, but each religion picks up on pieces of it.
Healing is possible, telepathy is possible, manifesting is possible. But on the contrary, evil is present and affects people who search for it. It preys on fear and inadequacy.
Even if you don’t believe in God, there are ways in which the universe works and responds… even at a subatomic scale. And it is much more intelligent than we give it credit for.
Starting from a believing in God perspective, it’s hard for me to get to a place where I don’t believe. I’ve tested any theory, questioned everything… and what I’ve come away with is that because “perfect” isn’t how we want things to be doesnt mean there is a some bigger picture that we only get a fraction of.
I also subscribe to an all powerful God having nearly infinite universes of every kind you can and cant think of. Because… God.
Alan and Terrence McKenna have some divergent views on religion but are two of the most incredible, down to earth geniuses humanity has ever produced.. there are many paths to the big tree of true... enjoy walking whichever you find yourself traveling on, bc it is YOUR path, and it couldn't be any other way.
Had the experiences of oneness 3weeks ago, since then i felt much love for everything and have a light pressure in my third eye. Still figuring things out but i feel really good.
The thing that started my understanding was the law of one series on youtube by aaron abke:
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.
I know many intelligent Christians who debate theology and apologetics from first principals. Some of my favorites are some of the Lutheran guys involved in the 1517 project.
Being a Christian isn't about talking to Jesus and hearing voices in your head. It's about is the Bible true yes or no? Did this really happen? Did Christ really die and live again just to pay for my sin..... The Bible is a wonder, it's mere existence is a signal by itself.....
One does not have to believe in the infallibility of the Bible or that Jesus died just to pay for our sins to be a Christian.
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.
Well then you probably define Christianity differently than most would. What do you believe?
I believe that the Bible isn't infallible. All authorityi has been given to Jesus. Salvation is more about being saved from an old way of life into a new way of life than it is about the afterlife. Jesus didn't pay for our sins, he forgave our sins.
I agree that Jesus is the ultimate authority, but the Bible is how God reveals him will to us. The Gospel is the only way to discover who Jesus is and what he did. Are you worried that the Bible has been tampered with by humans to say something false? If so, there are intellectuals who study authenticity of the historical documents.
Yes our sins are forgiven by Jesus, but because Jesus died in our place and rose again.
My concern is not that the Bible has been tampered with, but rather the human limitations and interpretations that could affect its accuracy. The authors would have tried to understand God but they aren't perfect. The intellectuals who study the authenticity of the historical documents are fallible.
If you owe someone a debt, and that debt is paid by a third party, then that debt is never forgiven at all. God doesn't need someone to pay off debt to forgive. He can simply forgive. That's what true forgiveness is. There is no payment in forgiveness.
If Jesus died in our place, then he would have suffered the punishment that comes as a result of sin, which is death (Romans 6:23). So he either died physically or spiritually. If he died physically so that we would not die physically, then why do people still suffer physically death?
The other option is spiritual death which is likely the type of death Paul was talking about. Obviously Jesus didn't die spiritually. Therefore, he did not die in our place.
My path was nearly the same, minus being brought up Catholic. Alan Watts had a profound impact on me and helped me launch my own journey.
It sounds like we've had some similar mind expansion experiences. I found that faith only works when I lean into it. Any amount of resistance can get in the way of the connection. Alcohol also shuts off the spiritual wifi.
The whole process for me was about suddender. Ultimately Buddhist concepts (releasing attachment, integrating shadow) are what caused me to open to Christ (during a deep psychedelic experience).
It's been a wild ride, but I'm infinitely grateful. The primary key I had to start with was Christ ≠ Christianity 🙏
