What do you question in your religion?

I have no religion and I have no doubts.

As an agnostic, I often question whether I would be happier if I were a believer. I’ve got a friend who is very Christian, and he has this fabulous “go with the flow” attitude. He doesn’t worry what will happen because he truly believes that God always “has his back.” Whereas I feel that what happens to me is only a consequence of my actions and chance, which puts a lot of pressure on and gives me a vulnerable feeling that one who believes in a benevolent diety probably doesn’t feel. Sometimes I very much wish that I could believe.

When I was questioning my religion, the first thing was the disconnect between the preaching of “God loves you and wants you to be happy” and the near-constant update of the “mortal sin” list.

You’ll go to hell not only for breaking the commandments and catching the gay, you’ll also ea brimstone for such crimes as watching pokemon and playing Final Fantasy video games. Pretty much any non-church related entertaining activity became off limits as soon as the clergy noticed we were having fun.

after really starting to dig into Christianity as my religion of choice, the first major question I asked myself was “Why Christianity? Why should I choose this as my religion over any of the other currently worshipped gods/celestial objects/spiritual guides on the planet?”

When the only _real_answer I had was one of geography (I happened to grow up in a predominantly Christian country) the downfall of religion in my eyes began.

1. In my religion, people are asked to be vegetarian, yet many don’t follow it strictly.
One, it is not advisable to kill any animal; because it is called hinsa which means killing or violence. People are asked to follow ahimsa (a + hinsa) which means non violence.
Now, my doubt is if “killing” an organism to be avoided, then how can being a vegetarian is allowed and advised? A few items of vegetables too kill plants, e.g. in farms, plucking potatoes kills the plant.
Another reason is all right. Vegetarian helps get kind minds which is complimentary and desired; eating non vegetarian (includes eggs, fishes, or any meat) (honey in Jain religion) increases especially anger and it is believed that some bad qualities also come along with meat or any non-veg food (e.g sluggishness).

I wonder when God is going to move forward in an area, but I don’t have much anxiety about anything. Whenever I hear someone say something, I often ask “God, is this true?” I’ve learned that many things religious people say is simply not true or an outright lie.

@Seek_Kolinahr What you grew up with sounds simply awful, and I don’t blame you for feeling the way you do about Christianity and Christians. However, not all of us are as mean as those folks are, or were.

I had other doubts, but people I encountered so far helped me resolve them. I will mention two.

It is believed that our future has been destined, ready or fixed based on our actions in past lives. Yet, it is said that we are free, free to think, free to act, and what we do now decides our future. Then, how can we are said to be free to build our future when our futures are already made?
Answer is best understood with an analogy of (digital) racing games, like roadrash – a bike racing game, or NFS, etc. While our paths or what we are going to face or our track is already programmed or fixed, yet we are free to drive. Similar analogy holds true for our lives.

Don’t worry at all, God takes care of us. Yet, take care in whatever we do. Contrary, isn’t it?
Both sentences are true and we should try to do so. Sentences apply to different time frames or tenses in our lives. First one, “Don’t worry…” applies to our past and future. Second “Take care…” applies to present.
We should not worry over our past lives, it’s done and it’s gone, we cannot change it. So, it is no use worrying. But, we should learn from our mistakes, and mistakes from other people’s lives too. Also, we should not waste worrying about our future, why? It’s yet to come, and instead we should focus on present. Working on present shapes our future.

Having said all, I tend to forget the above message and worry in critical times.
Well, God could be thinking how many times have I need to make him remember the above message!

The validity of the text as it stands in its present form. Mostly I have no issues with religion itself, what I have issue with personally are people. Without their ignorance applied, they are only words on a page.

I can’t believe in Hell. I find it hard to believe in the personal God of Christianity and the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is incomprehensible to me. I believe there was a man called Jesus but not that he was divine. I don’t believe that being able to believe all this will save my soul and I don’t believe in a life after death. Essentially I am a heathen, but that doesn’t mean I am without morals or compassion.

I question plenty, but I don’t see any of that questioning as a “struggle”. Unlike the faith I was raised in, questioning is woven right into the fabric of Buddhism, Zen in particular. The whole institution of Buddhism is seen as just an expediency, a useful vehicle, not something unassailable or sacred. When, under various circumstances, the vehicle becomes an impediment rather than a help, it gets changed to make it more helpful and less obstructive.

Buddhism and Zen have accumulated a fair number of artifacts, both in doctrine and ritual, in their journey through the centuries and across the globe. Every culture has to look at the practice as it has been handed down and try to see what is useful and what is superfluous or obstructive according to their own circumstances.

That triage shouldn’t be undertaken lightly or hurriedly. If something has been found useful by others for a very long time, then it probably merits a long consideration rather than a rash dismissal. Some practices reveal their value in the doing of them, not in thinking about them. And just because something may not be of value to you doesn’t mean that it may not be of value to someone else; if you’ve taken it off the table altogether, it won’t be there when it’s needed.

Personally, I see no use in my practice for thoughts about rebirth/reincarnation. I just can’t see it making any difference, even if it is a fact. So I don’t worry about whether or not it’s true; I don’t waste energy trying to reconcile its conflicts with other Buddhist teachings, etc. I just leave it be. But I’m not going to go bad-mouthing it either, because some may get something from it.

There’s plenty of other stuff like this, but you get the idea.

@snowberry

Certainly not.

However, whenever I asked myself “Why do I believe in Biblegod instead of (an)other god(s)?” there’s never a really compelling reason why, except that Biblegod was the one I happened to be exposed to.

So, now when I’m speaking (in person) to theists who wish to proseltyze, that’s the first question I ask them. And apart from some very weak “I asked God to reveal himself to me and he did” stuff, I’ve gotten nothing. Which begs the question, why would you talk to a god you don’t believe in? So my question has never yet been satisfactorily answered.