How Does One "Make Themselves" Believe?

I might not get many responses or interest for this thread - but, I just don't understand what I am "supposed to do" to make myself "believe" stuff that I just don't believe.

I don't believe in the OT stories, or Adam and Eve, or Jonah and the Big Fish, or Noah, or Exodus, or the Virgin Birth, or The Resurrection, or Original Sin. I don't believe in Heaven or Hell, or Predestination, or any of it. I tried, I really did. And it just didn't stick the landing...from the time I was a little kid wondering what the heck they were all so sad and somber about in church.....

how it all seemed just absurd, even to me, a little kid.....

I don't believe in the Burning Bush, or Mohammed being contacted by Gabriel or whoever.......I don't believe ANY of it.

So - what happens in a person's mind when they have the switch "turned on" somehow? All I can tell you is how the switch "turned off" for me.

I don't want to be adversarial or condescending, but the other day I read a post by someone here who said they just couldn't "force" believing it. I can't either.

Can any of you help me understand how that's supposed to work? If I just really don't believe, what am I supposed to do?

All I really DO believe in is the Buddhist idea - that we can all reach Enlightenment. And I'm just an American Midwestern girl, born and bred.....
I just
don't
get it.

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

I think most of the stories in the holy books are fables to help keep us on the righteous path in life. You shouldn't feel bad because you don't believe a bunch stories that have been rewritten and tweaked over and over again for the past 1000 years. Our heart, mind, and intuition are more truthful and way more powerful than any religious book, in my opinion.

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

As a person slowly drifting away from Catholicism , I became more of a strong believer in the Force. More believable than an invisible man in the sky.

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

You sound like me 20 yrs ago, i began to question religion and then everything else and none of it measured up to reason. I used to ask the very same question about 'believing' and the only word i felt i could replace it with was 'trust'.

And well i didn't trust what i heard, and then finding out there were numerous 'christs' who also died on a cross and were ressurected on the third day. So, although some of our History is true most of it isn't. There is always an ounce of truth in everything to keep the lie going.

Don't believe in anything if you don't feel right about it. Personally i don't believe anything in this reality is real, it's like the maori say, Dream Time.

a reply to: starwarsisreal

As a person slowly drifting away from Catholicism , I became more of a strong believer in the Force. More believable than an invisible man in the sky.

Yeah! I realized many years ago that StarWars and "the force" are more plausible than any old-timey religious dogma.

Thanks for your response.

a reply to: Teeky

You shouldn't feel bad because you don't believe a bunch stories that have been rewritten and tweaked over and over again for the past 1000 years. Our heart, mind, and intuition are more truthful and way more powerful than any religious book, in my opinion.

Thanks.
I agree.
I just have this whole 'intuitive' feeling about what it is. That it is what it is, and it has nothing to do with a personal God-guy. It is, however, an amazing, beautiful, and inexplicable universe that we comprehend....

every day I watch the skies, the plants, the animals, etc. It's amazing.

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

I don't understand why you think you are "supposed to" do anything? It's up to you. That's why we have free will.

My only other comment would be another question to you: Have you investigated these things? Truly sought after the answers with all your heart? If you can answer "yes", then what else are you "supposed" to do?

Seek and ye shall find. If you feel there is nothing worth finding, stop seeking. Nobody is holding a gun to your head.

a reply to: awareness10

You sound like me 20 yrs ago,

Yes, it's been a long time since I came to this awareness that I just didn't believe it. It's been over 40 years now. Closer to 50. I just - don't believe.

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

I was once just like you. Then I was shown the path of enlightenment. It was tangible. It proved to me the stories in the Bible were metaphor ... and more. Unfortunately, you have to be shown. You cannot simply be told and see it (find it) for yourself.

Good luck!!

a reply to: DeadSeraph

Have you investigated these things? Truly sought after the answers with all your heart? If you can answer "yes", then what else are you "supposed" to do?

Seek and ye shall find. If you feel there is nothing worth finding, stop seeking.

I have sought - and yes, I have truly investigated these things. For about 35 years.
Yet I find it somehow fascinatingly addictive to watch humanity grappling with all these notions.

Nobody is holding a gun to your head.

Not yet, they're not.

Simple really, just suspend all logic & rationality in your thinking process then proceed to believe the religion of your choice.

K~

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

I have sought - and yes, I have truly investigated these things. For about 35 years.

Sounds like you have done your best. Why the thread, then?

Yet I find it somehow fascinatingly addictive to watch humanity grappling with all these notions.

Why? Because you feel you know more than humanity does, or because you are genuinely curious about how human beings are spiritual creatures?

Not yet, they're not.

I get the impression you won't have to worry about that for awhile. You could always try Syria though, if you find you work better under pressure.

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

Try asking God for evidence. The fact that you are willing to ask God for something shows that you have enough faith to acknowledge the possibility of His existence. That is step one. The next step would be to ask who and what God is.

Often times, the issue is not a lack of faith, but the lack of desire to build faith. Its the same principle as working out. You dont become a bodybuilder with one push-up, it takes time, patience, and humility.

a reply to: DeadSeraph

Because you feel you know more than humanity does, or because you are genuinely curious about how human beings are spiritual creatures?

The latter. I am genuinely curious.

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

I was a believer then I wasn't then I was again then wasn't and now I sort of have my own thing going which concerns the Universe being alive, I like to call myself a "Sentient Universalist", but to answer your question, you cant make yourself believe, no matter anyone says you have to sort of just feel it. I know it's almost as cryptic as some of the things you read in the bible, but you do, you just have to sit down and think, the way I did it during my many turns was, I sat down with a piece of paper and said to myself 'Okay, do the math. Nothing plus Nothing equals everything' I wrote that in big bold black letters and stared at it for ages, I wrote a few things around it but could never work out how it could be done and still have it up on the wall to this day because our current understanding of the universes life gives it a beginning and so there cant have been nothing before it which means it wasn't a true beginning (I think I'm babbling here) - What I'm saying is just do that -

Take a black felt pen, a piece of paper and write the maths equation on the paper right in the middle and just think about that, stare at it if you have to and try to imagine what could take nothing and nothing, smash them together and create everything that was, is and ever will be, and honestly you'll probably get your answer.

Side Note - You dont always have to follow mainstream religions, just follow what makes sense to you or do me and create your own. I'm not saying I created the theory that the universe was alive but I like to believe I've crafted my own little sort of well lets say faith.

originally posted by: BuzzyWigs
a reply to: DeadSeraph

Because you feel you know more than humanity does, or because you are genuinely curious about how human beings are spiritual creatures?

The latter. I am genuinely curious.

So then what is your thread really about?

You are obligated to do a number of things depending on which religion you fancy, or nothing at all if you don't fancy religion.

If you are genuinely curious about the human need for spirituality, why frame your OP in such terms? You clearly don't live in a country where you are being forced to convert to someone else's version of religion at the point of a gun?

You aren't "supposed" to do anything. You're supposed to pay taxes and die. That's it. As for analyzing why we as a species have the desire to draw closer to "divinity", that could be pinned on fear, desire to understand the unknown, or even on a genuine need we all have built into us to know our creator.

It's up to you. The only hoops you need to jump through are your own.

a reply to: BuzzyWigs
Belief is just conceptual, of the mind. It is limited and is always doubtable. Belief contracts the body-mind with pre-conceived mental notions and constricts the life energy.

Faith is of the heart - it is about trust and love. Feel from your heart the very Reality that you arise in and as, and there is no need for such beliefs.

Faith is your direct heart-connection to what is Truth, and when one persists in feeling this, there is an awakening to the trust, love, and intelligence that is inherent in and as one's heart.

a reply to: DeadSeraph

So then what is your thread really about?

Just like I said - what happens when the "switch" gets turned on?

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

Depends on which switch. What happens when the switch gets turned off, seems more relevant to your thread?

a reply to: DeadSeraph

What happens when the switch gets turned off, seems more relevant to your thread?

Okay, then, tell me how the switch got turned off in my case????? And yeah - what happens now that it is turned off?

When I was just a little kid it was switched off.