Hello!! I made a similar post quite awhile ago and i thought I'd do another as new people + new information / beliefs of mine!

Graeco-Kemetism is the religion i follow, it blends the Ancient Egyptian and Ancient Greek beliefs together, mostly from the Ptolemaic Era Egypt, im more intact with my Egyptian side of my faith and worship Hathor, Anubis, Isis and Ma'at, but I'd like to worship the Syncretic form of Dionysus-Osiris and Isis-Aphrodite. Ask me anything!!

So I’ve left islam for about three years now, and I’ve literally stopped practicing.

I don’t pray . I don’t fast. I don’t keep the internal logic of eating halal food.

And I guess my biggest problem was I’ve been known to be practicing for relatively long time

I used to be surrounded by religious people all the time and I wanted to get this off my chest for years, (especially to my parents)

But I just don’t know if it’s worth it

I feel like there’s a lot of internal risk associated with it and finding out just scares the shit out of me .

For many, Nasiruddin Tusi is the celebrated Persian polymath who wrote extensively on architecture, mathematics, prose, astronomy, and numerous other fields, making significant contributions that left an enormous intellectual legacy in the medieval Muslim world. He is particularly known for his critique of Ptolemy’s geocentric model that ultimately became relevant to the development of Renaissance astronomy, and is also often credited with helping establish trigonometry as an independent mathematical discipline.

For me, however, ‘Sayyidna Tusi’ was first and foremost an Ismaili theologian and philosopher who represents the highest point of intellectual authorship during the highest point of religious history in the Nizari Ismaili cosmology: the Cycle of Resurrection (Dawr al-Qiyama). The Declaration of Qiyama by the 23rd Imam, Hasan II of Alamut, in 1164 was a decisive moment in Nizari Ismaili history, for it marked the movement from the outward form of the Law (Sharia) toward its spiritual reality (Haqiqa). Tusi, of course, wasn’t the person who made the declaration; that was the Imam himself, but he became its most important interpreter and author. His ‘Paradise of Submission’, written with another Ismaili missionary, Hasan-i Mahmud, represents the longest extant text on Ismaili theology, cosmology, and Imamology from the Alamut period.

Tusi was born into a Twelver Shiite family in Tus and grew up in Nishapur. In his autobiography, he describes studying scholastic theology (Kalam) and peripatetic philosophy (Falsafa) while remaining dissatisfied with the answers he encountered. What troubled him most was the enormous diversity of opinions regarding the most fundamental questions of existence and faith. He eventually encountered a copy of captivating teachings by Imam Hasan II of Alamut in the possession of someone who didn’t appreciate its value. He admits that he stole the copy and began reading it, and this led him to investigate Ismaili theology more deeply.

Tusi eventually became convinced by the argument formulated by the earlier Ismaili missionary, Hasan-i Sabbah, for the necessity of authoritative, divinely guided instruction through the Imam. He entered the Ismaili Dawah under the 26th Imam, Muhammad III of Alamut, and remained with the Ismailis for three decades, during which time he produced not only major philosophical and scientific but also some of the most important surviving works of Ismaili intellectual literature.

When the Mongols invaded Persia and attacked the Nizari Ismaili state, Tusi became part of the Ismaili negotiating effort and served as an adviser to the 27th Imam, Ruknuddin Khurshah. Following the surrender of Alamut and the destruction of the Nizari state, he survived the catastrophe and subsequently entered Mongol service by dissimulating as a Twelver: Hulegu patronised him and even built him an observatory. But recent evidence from his later works shows that he actually remained Ismaili in his conviction despite outwardly appearing as Twelver. He continued to hold and expound Ismaili views on the doctrines of Tawhid and Imamate instead of the Twelver positions. He even seems to have praised the Ismaili Imam in one of his letters to the Sufi thinker Sadruddin Qunawi, where he mysteriously refers to a person in an exceptionally high Imamological language as “the great Imam, the pole of God’s saints, the caliph of the prophets, the inviter to Truth, the guidance of creation,” which seems to be a reference to the 28th Imam, Shamsuddin Muhamamd, who was also dissimulating as a Sufi guide in Tabriz at the time.

I work at a BBQ restaurant. The beef and pork are cooked on the same smoker; with the juices intermingling as the smoker rotates during the cook cycle. Also, since the beef and pork are positioned next to one another on the assembly table, sometimes beef falls into the pork pan, and vice versa. So, I can not 100% guarantee that a beef dish will have no pork, nor that a pork dish will have no beef.

My question is how much either of these things matter, because I would like to inform the patrons of various faiths of these facts if it is that important; as I don't want them to sin (or whatever the correct term is) in the eyes of their faith if I can help them to not.

If someone asks for no pork products because of their faith, and so asks for brisket; or asks for no beef products due to their beliefs, and so asks for pork; if they're wearing a yarmulke and ask for brisket; if they're of obvious Indian heritage with Hindu adornments; or of obvious Middle-Eastern ethnicity; or if I know for whatever reason that they are Seventh-Day Adventists or Hebrew Catholics, etc.; is it right to inform them of the cross-contamination, or is it better for them to feast in ignorance?

I always ask if I suspect they might have dietary restrictions, and then inform them of our practices. But, I am aware that the transgression of eating certain foods falls mainly on personal intent; purposefully eating the wrong food. So, I don't know if my "service" is more damaging than good.

I'm grateful for any and all intricate insights.

Hello, I hope you’re having a good day. I was not raised around any particular religion, but I find the idea of believing in a higher power to be comforting even though I have no clue about anything.

Since it is a very new thing to me, how would I get into a certain faith, when I have doubts about its legitimacy and whether God(s) exist.

Im sorry if this comes off as insensitive.

This is an article I made, where I complied all the prayers composed by St. Isaac the Syrian, the great monastic of the 7th century. I sourced them from all his extent works. Enjoy.

He told me that he can't come over to my house and I can't come over to his house anymore because he reconnected with God. He broke up with me because God told him to. I am so upset. In what world is God an excuse to break up with someone who loved you so much.

So this question is particularly for people who have or still are facing loss, sickness (including mental), or disability (or any hard circumstances that was beyond them ). What is your reason for still following and having faith in God? My life is flawed yes but I certainly have a lot to be thankful for, however, I can't help but look at other peoples worse suffering and begin question/distance myself from God. How can I thank God for the very things other people are missing? How/why do you follow a God who could have essentially 'saved' you from or prevented your circumstance in its supposed sovereignty?

TikTok has been recommending a lot of videos about it to me recently, and I don't know much about the subject. The people in the videos bring up arguments that 'all religions are inherently misogynistic and racist' or that all of them just exist as a way to consolidate power, which, in my opinion, is not true. I am speaking from an ex-Catholic atheist perspective, so my view on other religions will always be skewed, but I truly don't believe that religion in itself is inherently bad and it can exist in an ideal society.

I'll gladly accept article or book recomendations.

Yes the reason so many names seem to be referring to the same Creator/Most High God, is that they were the same Living God. Whether you call Him  Baltic (Lithuanian and Latvin) Heavenly Father Dievas. Dyaus Pita  in Vedic (Sanskrit). Dyaoš- "God" in Old Avestan. Dios in Spanish, Deus in French, Dian in Gaellic etc. Di-ngr, Tae-ngr in ancient Sumerian and Monghol Turkic languages, all refer to the Heavenly Father God. In Chinese Shang Di (there is the Di again). The 'Di' /'Ti' are "Heavenly 帝. After the Tower of Babel the languages of the sons of Noah changed but you can still trace them back to Japheth (Indo-European mostly) Shem (Semitic) and Ham-itic languages. Japheth and Shem offspring carried on the Noahic faith and intermarried (ex. Persians, Vedic [Harappan? or Joktan [offspring of Shem]+ Indo-Ayran) Chinese (originally from Shinar ie Sumeria mixed with Tocharian). All these retained the faith for quite a while ( for example Brahmin, the Creator God created Manu (mankind) and later warned Manu to build a large boat to save himself and his family). The stories are the same the names are the same becasue THEY WERE THE SAME.

Religious deconstruction is the process of reexamining and questioning your previous beliefs and practices. It can lead someone to abandon their previous faith, but it can also lead to a renewed or transformed faith.

There doesn’t really have to be a set destination. Someone might become atheist or agnostic, convert to another religion, remain within the same religion but develop very different beliefs, or even come out of the process with essentially the same beliefs they had before just with a different understanding of why they hold them.

Online, I often see people who have gone through deconstruction becoming atheist or agnostic, but a person can end up in any belief system after deconstruction and I am especially curious about anyone who has gone through deconstruction and remained religious/believer. Post-deconstruction religious people, what's your story?

Hi everyone, I’m a practitioner of Kevala Advaita Vedanta, a major school of Hindu philosophy heavily shaped by Adi Shankaracharya. When Hinduism is discussed in Western or multi-faith spaces, it is often mischaracterized as either purely polytheistic or heavily dogmatic. In reality, my tradition teaches absolute non-dualism: the ultimate reality (Brahman) is formless, and our individual consciousness (Atman) is fundamentally identical to it. I’d love to have an open discussion about how Eastern non-dualism views God, the universe, consciousness, and reality. Thanks.

For people waiting for evidence, I'm afraid we won't have anything magically like God coming down from the sky but to interpret what we already have here as is. But would it help if the community showed more good will towards disbelievers and didn't threaten them with hellfire? Is there anybody out there not believing because they have mainstream religion fatigue and want something different? I proposed before that people can separate the god of the people from the True God if one exists. And I know that implication is heavy for a lot of people, but would it help if they treat him like gravity, that he's a primer causer and that's it, they can simply acknowledge he may exist without following him? What does believing mean for you? Does it mean opening a door you already closed a long time ago and it's daunting to having repurpose your life around your new findings? Forget religion. I'm trying to get people to get one foot through the door here, it doesn't hurt to try.

As you are all aware, historically, ideological differences have not been limited to violence, but have also led to murder and war. However, in a world where conflict is becoming increasingly unavoidable, I believe that we must at least share the same direction to live together. Therefore, I would like to ask: What are some realistic propositions that any religions may agree on without conflict?

Hello friends,

I saw the movie with my family yesterday. It's a nice storytelling and good movie making skill to create such a spellbound movie. Being a Hindu and an spiritual person, I loved it. It shows the miracles do happen and I am good at accepting it. Such people are sent by God and we should give appropriate respect to such. But if we start believing in such miracles in everyday life around us, we can easily become prey to frauds who use such beliefs to defraud others, mostly innocent/greedy folks. There is no simple way for a common man to distinguish between the two types of Godman. Also, there isn't much to learn from such movies that can push the society in a better direction.

Instead, I would request filmmakers to make more movies on real life heros, who make a difference to society and push it towards something creative and outcome based.

Comments welcome.

Okay, I already know this sounds absurd and I’m probably going to get roasted for this, but hear me out before you decide I’m crazy.

India has been the birthplace of multiple religions and philosophies. Hindu traditions, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others developed here over very different periods of history. Every religion that exists today was, at some point, a new idea. People sometimes forget that.

So why is it automatically considered ridiculous to imagine a new religion being created today?

I’m not saying we should erase existing religions or tell people to leave whatever they believe in. I’m just asking what would happen if a group of people who grew up in the modern world decided to build a completely new belief system from scratch.

Because honestly, I feel like there is a weird gap between being religious and being completely atheist.

For example, imagine you’re an atheist. You don’t believe in God, heaven, hell, or any particular religion. That’s completely fine.
But then life gets difficult. You have an important exam tomorrow. You’re scared about your future. Something goes wrong with your family. You’re alone at night and don’t know what you’re doing with your life. You might call a friend or family member for reassurance. But what if you don’t have anyone like that?
Sometimes people want to believe that there is *something* bigger than themselves. Not necessarily an old man sitting somewhere in the sky judging them. Just some kind of higher power, consciousness, energy, or presence that gives them hope.You could say that’s psychology or a placebo effect. Maybe it is.
But if believing in something helps someone get through a difficult time, does the label really matter?And that’s where I started thinking: what if there was a religion that didn’t require you to inherit a bunch of rules from thousands of years ago?I’m not saying I have the perfect answer. I haven’t even thought of a name for it.But if I were designing one, I’d want it to learn from basically every religion instead of claiming that one religion has all the answers.Study Hinduism. Study Buddhism. Study Jainism. Study Sikhism. Study Christianity. Study Islam. Study Judaism. Study other philosophies and belief systems too.

Take the things that encourage people to be Being kind, charitable, and showing self-discipline are important. Forgiveness, helping those in need, and respecting nature are also key. Taking responsibility for your actions and being honest are also important. Finally, trying to control your ego and leaving behind things that don’t fit into modern society are important.
This includes no religious wars, forced conversions, or claims of divine superiority. A caste system, treating women as inferior, and devaluing LGBTQ people are also unacceptable. Furthermore, there should be no unquestioned authority figures like priests, gurus, popes, imams, or other religious leaders. Perhaps even temples, churches, and mosques wouldn’t be necessary. Why does a new religion necessarily need a giant building? If this is supposed to be a religion created in the 21st century, why couldn’t people meet online?

Discord, some dedicated app, whatever. You could have discussions, meditation sessions, philosophical debates, community events, charity projects, etc. And there wouldn’t have to be a religious dress code either. Maybe there could be a new surname or title that people *could* use if they wanted to, kind of like how Sikh men traditionally use Singh and women use Kaur. But it wouldn’t be compulsory. If you don’t want one, don’t use one. Same with food.
No “you must be vegetarian.” No “you must eat meat.” No complicated list of foods that automatically makes you a good or bad person.
People eat differently for cultural, ethical, economic and personal reasons. Eat what you want, as long as you’re not harming someone unnecessarily. And the biggest thing for me would be equality.Men and women are equal.
Straight and LGBTQ people are equal.
Rich and poor are equal. People from different castes are equal. People from different religions are equal. And atheists should be welcome too. Actually, I’d want atheists to be welcome because this wouldn’t necessarily be about blindly believing in God. The “God” concept could be completely different.

Maybe God doesn’t have a gender. Maybe God doesn’t have a human form. Maybe God isn’t even a person. Maybe it’s just a symbol for consciousness, existence, the universe, or whatever you personally understand as something greater than yourself. Maybe God is a light. Maybe God is something inside every person. Maybe there is no God at all and the religion simply gives people a framework for finding meaning. I don’t know. That’s kind of the point of this post.I don’t have the answers.
I’m just wondering why we assume that every possible religion has already been invented.
Human civilization keeps changing. Our technology changed. Our politics changed. Our understanding of science changed. The way we communicate changed. So why couldn’t our ideas about spirituality change too?

And before someone says, “Just be an atheist,” I understand that argument. But not everyone wants atheism. Some people genuinely want spirituality without having to accept an entire package of ancient rules, rituals and institutions. And before someone says, “Just follow an existing religion,” that’s also a fair argument. But again, what if someone doesn’t feel completely represented by any existing religion?Maybe the answer isn’t creating another religion.Maybe the answer is simply creating a philosophy.Maybe it’s a community.
Maybe it’s a spiritual movement.Maybe calling it a religion is unnecessary.But I find the idea interesting.And no, I’m not trying to start a cult lol.I’m genuinely curious what Indian Gen Z thinks about this.If you think this is a terrible idea, tell me why.If you think it’s actually possible, what would you include?What would you absolutely NOT include?And if you had to create a new belief system for modern India, what would its core principles be?

Also, I’m not targeting Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism or any other religion here. I mentioned the religions I know about because they are part of India’s history and because I think there are things worth learning from many different traditions.

Feel free to call me out if I’ve misunderstood something or said something stupid. I’m posting this because I want to hear other people’s thoughts, not because I think I’ve figured everything out.

I left the Nation of Islam a few years ago. I am not going back.

I no longer believe that the black man is God. I don't believe that white people were created on accident by a scientist. I don't believe that God came in the person of Master Fard Muhammad. I don't believe Elijah Muhammad was a messenger of God. I definitely eat more than one meal a day.

I used to believe all of that though. I was THERE on Sundays.

Especially in the culture I come from, I feel like church wasn't enough. My family went to church every Sunday, but we really didn't practice much the rest of the week. I could see all my aunts and uncles getting drunk and misbehaving on Friday night. Then they'd be religious on Sunday. At one point, we also tried Seventh Day Adventism, but it was kind of the same "once a week" idea.

I think the NOI created a sense of belonging and structure that is hard to explain if you never experienced it. So far, I have not found that sense of community/belonging anywhere else. I understand now that it felt so intense because it was a cult lol. Obviously if a group of people is wrapped around your whole life, you're going to feel connected to it.

The men all wore suits and bowties. The women had the whole uniform. Everybody looked like they were on a mission. There was order, rules, discipline, and always something you were supposed to be doing.

I really, really felt like I had a reason to be there. I think a big part of that was other people expecting me to be there. Again, this is giving cult vibes.

There were many ex-cons, former drug dealers, former gang members, people who had been locked up, people who had done terrible things, etc. I later learned that not all of them had been completely reformed, but that's a conversation for another day.

Nobody cared that I used to drink or things I'd done at parties or whatever. I think that's a big difference with the NOI. It didn't really offend anyone what you used to do. In fact, we could openly talk about the things we used to do that we didn't do anymore. When I say "nobody there cared," maybe that's not true. If anything, they were really proud of how we used to do those things but didn't anymore.

I know every religion has some version of "come as you are" and "your past doesn't define you" and all that. But the NOI was one of the only places where I actually felt that in practice.

And there's a whole layer of racial pride which I'm not getting into in this post. I don't want to be typing all day. Yes, it was discriminatory, no question. But it also created a huge feeling of pride, especially for someone who grew up understanding that Black identity can mean different things.

You could show up with a record and people were still like: "You have a place here. Stand over there. Help with this. Read this. Learn that. Be here Sunday." There was something very powerful about that.

And I don't want to make all the rules sound cute because some of them were seriously problematic. Elijah Muhammad taught that the right age for a wife was half the man's age plus seven. Think about that one for a minute. There were ideas about women, marriage, obedience, dress, and gender roles that I look back at now and think, girl WHAT.

I quit when they started trying to "help me get married." First, the men that they were trying to set me up with were- forget it. Second, they were saying things like "you need a man to take care of you and support you financially so that you can take care of the kids." I was NOT having that. I don't need anyone telling me what my place as a woman is. That was the last straw for me.

I can wear shorts and flip flops now on a hot day and not feel guilty about it. And I don't need anyone (especially not a man) telling me how to dress. I think that's the difference between being in a cult and thinking for yourself. If I let the group think for me, I might still not see anything wrong with it, but I would trust their judgment over mine. Now that I'm not letting the group think for me, I do what makes sense to me.

After a lot of therapy, I have realized that I am allowed to feel conflicted. I am allowed to recognize that it was unhealthy for me. And I am still allowed to miss the sense of belonging and structure.

Hi, I’m not trying to be rude or anything. I’m an artist and I wanted to make a character with this religion origen. But as I start thinking more about it I thought that it will be truly disrespectful and that’s something I don’t wanna do.
I just want advice of people who practice this religion to tell me how could I talk about it or if I definitely don’t continue and start from 0.

Context of the idea:
My character would be form South Asia, I know they practice (mostly) Islam, but in this series there are mention of other goddesses, religions and mention of death.

how could I take this topic? Am I able to talk about this?
If I can’t please let me now, I’m asking before a I do something stupid and be disrespectful with others beliefs, thanks.

I'm 18 years old, bisexual cis man. I have autism and ADHD. Born in middle class family in Bashkortostan (Part of Russia for now) (Yes, this is important for later stuff). Bashkortostan by ancestry was a Muslim Sunni region but now most of the population are fairly liberal towards the question of religion unlike other Muslim regions like Chechnya or Dagestan. My dad of Bashkort ethnicity considers himself Progressive Muslim and eats pork sometimes, he never really taught me that much about Islam, I think I know about Islam more than him, not that I know a lot about Islam either. My mom of Mari ethnicity consider herself Mari pagan. Not neo-pagan, just pagan because line of tradition of that faith has been never cut off unlike Asatru or Hellenism.

Most of the childhood from the moment I started to kind of grasp the concept of religion I considered myself Muslim like my dad but I've never done any Muslim ritual, not even basic prayer with bowing on the mat. Then I dropped this idea and started to consider myself an Atheist.

Childhood and early teenhood (I'm in late teenhood since I'm 18 I guess) were fairly terrible. Even though I had a lot of food, roof under the head (even though 2020 covid almost stripped my family off of it lol), toys and even XBOX I've never really had any friends irl, I've experienced a lot of bullying and I overworked in school because at that time I was in cool smart ass school for math. I experienced friendship, love, fun and all other good things in devices and internet in it. I met people there and had good time most of the time with most of the people. Of course some bullying was even there I guess because I was autistic and even for some online people I seemed weird.

I met one dude online through Minecraft and I fell in love with him, that was the moment I realized I was bi. To get closer to him I started to study his faith which was Christianity. After that I started to study other religions but mostly Christianity. But I couldn't really bring myself into believing that Jesus Christ is God. I just didn't feel like it. Skepticism was added by the shit I was going through and that other people in news were going through (Palestine, Ukraine, Congo etc).

(I will refer to God either by he or they)

When I was ~16 at some nights I had revelations like conclusion that "Since solution of paradox about rock which God can't lift is that God can control logic itself and overrule its properties thus being able to lift the rock without the rock losing its properties [of not being able to be lift by God]. So that means that God can grant us eternal bliss and life full of hapiness like in Eden or Heaven without killing us and without removing our free will. So why didn't they do it already? If it has already happened through the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ or through the final revalation of Muhammed, why am I not in heaven already? Why do I still suffer?"

One night when I felt really bad and feared that there's some evil presence in my room I went to the other room and there I felt God. Not that I felt that they/he came to save me or something. They were just there and I felt him. Maybe it wasn't a God at all or some pretender or I just thought that it must be God even though why should it be exactly them. Nonetheless it was something supernatural and from this moment I just couldn't be atheist anymore.

I tried to find answer in gnostic religions but their followers (at least online) were too edgy and their sects were fractured and their theology demonized material world. By that time I started taking meds and stopped having thoughts of leaving this world. I started to have bond with this world. So I also didn't want to leave this world not by gnosis not by nirvana not by whatever is happening in Zoroastrianism.

Tengriism also miss because their line of traditions has been cut off and I would just end up larping dead religion. And it's really not in Gods favor since it got destroyed.

Maybe Mari? Idk...

I read more about problem with Aisha in Islam. How Muhammed had to marry her in such young age because he had to survive and he had to secure tribal alliances and how there were no mention of Muhammed and Aisha having intercourse-

Okay, I was just writing this and double-checked that I was thinking. I was thinking that consummation of marriage was just some formal stuff and not sex. Okay, whatever, rules of this sub don't let me fully express myself on that matter.

-So I thought Islam was much more deeper than this. But then I talked with some muslims, found out how no matter what my homosexuality is a sin. That if I would have relationships with a man that would be a sin by Muslim standarts. So no.

I believe in individuality and stuff, I'm a man from the city, not village, I depend on technology at some degree. For some religious people online I'm a lib sheep for that. But like, I don't believe in this modern west-coast interpretation of spiritualism (like reforming reality with you thoughts and universe revolving around you, I'm probably bullshitting right now and calling things wrong, I apologize in advance) and definitely not astrology (by that I mean all those Sagittarius, Cancer and other signs of birth stuff).

Again, I'm seeing things through the lens of devices. I barely read books, I'm still trying to read Plato's dialogues but usually I just don't read it. I still don't have friends IRL. Seeing world tensions and rise of LLMs and tech billioners bullshitting about "the future". I think soon something is going to happen and I really have to pick a side. Maybe I don't have to though? I'm writing all of this because of the pressure I saw online at some degree. What do y'all think?

So i’ve made it clear i don’t have the same beliefs as the rest of my family (I’m atheist) and the rest of my family is catholic and when i go to my grandma’s house to eat she forces me to pray before we eat and she tries to make me go to church and pushes it on my constantly despite knowing i don’t have the same beliefs (sorry if i overshared)

So today I went to church for the first time in my adult life, as an atheist. I didn't know what to expect. At first it was a bit overwhelming, because everyone was much older than me (I'm 32) and I felt people looking at me. The service started with singing. I just listened to the words, didn't sing along. Still felt a little awkward. After some prayers and more singing the sermon started. The theme was shame and making yourself small.

Funny enough I had dinner with some people yesterday in a restaurant and I was very ashamed by how quiet I was. It was a busy and noisy restaurant and I just couldn't keep up with the conversations. As the evening progressed it only got worse and worse. At the end I was totally zoned out and couldn't say a word. I felt weird and stupid and dumb. This happens to me more often. I'm not good at group settings. I tend to shut down and hide myself, because I just cannot cope with all the distractions around me, plus it always feels like I don't have anything interesting to say.

While the preacher was talking about this theme, I came to a deeper realization that - this almost sounds cringe and cliché - I'm okay the way I am. I don't need to be ashamed because I am quiet, or 'different' from most other people. In that chair I stopped attacking myself. I loved being surrounded by so many positive words and encouraging thoughts for an entire hour. I even got a little emotional during the song that followed after the sermon. All the negative thoughts I had about myself after yesterday, were gone after that hour.

As a child I only went to church during Christmas. I remember feeling warm and peaceful when the pastor spread his arms and blessed us. I think I experienced the same today. I don't believe in God necessarily, but words about how someone or something is watching over us was strangely comforting for me. I felt less alone. I also looked around and realized all the people in the room experience the same things and feelings that I experience. I often feel like I’m missing connection in my life. Like I'm all doing it by myself. I think I can now understand that faith - even if you don't believe in God or an entity or whatsoever - can provide a sense of grounding and connection.

Just wanted to share my experience. It's a very new thing to me to be interested in these kinds of things so I’d love to hear how other people experience faith or whatever it is that gives them a sense of connection.