I look at the birds and wonder how nice it must be to just "be" and not have existential angst over your very core identity. I grew up in the west but from a religious muslim household , all my natural talents were aligned with promoting sin / immorality , I've never earned a proper "clean" dollar in my life (not to say it was illegal but lots to do with the liquor / sex sells types of industries and marketing) in hindsight. I was never one to accept things as fact without feeling for myself , well im on the other side of it, I have felt that the essence of monotheism is true and I actually understand the logic behind the restrictions, but I have a serious problem with religious institutions and in-group effects. I find most average believers of whatever tradition are just paying lip service and its their excuse to see their own race in the same building (Arabs). This isn't just theory either: Muslim-majority countries have the highest level of patriarchal values (Inglehart, 2021: 113; Norris, 2009; Price, 2016) and the lowest levels of acceptance of outsiders (Inglehart, 2021: 119). Conservative social beliefs and heightened religiosity extend to Muslim diaspora (Glas, 2023; Röder and Spierings, 2022). Religious (and sectarian) affiliation is also a predominant identity distinguishing group membership in Arab countries (Rørbæk, 2019).
>>41184429Despite it being the faith I grew up in , I've never felt accepted by these people even when I tried to blend in. They are like liberals in many ways - they will not rest until you have bought in completely - down to the beard, the sayings, and mastery of Quran etc etc - there will always be someone jeering at you for not knowing such and such ruling. The irony is most of them fell into the same materialism trap of the west - all the good lucking muslim rich dudes wIth white GFs , do all the sins and whatnot and they are happily accepted cause they are arabs and give lots of money. It's essentially Arab supremacy. Liberals do this from the inverse - they will not rest until you are drinking, partying, and playing all the power games they are and call you a square until you do.I'm just so tired of all of it , if I leave my birth religion, I've never been one to keep up lies / hiding. I want to believe in god, do good deeds, but I hate people and their tribalism fullstop. I want to/don't want to leave but can't leave so why bother? Does this make sense , WTF should I do?
>>41184448And then there's the element of never being that strong of a believer in the first place so why am I judging others??If I had the money , I probably would have done the same things they did. But I didn't , I just had videogames and nerd shit. I was never THAT religious. I rarely hit five full prayers and honestly was probably "agnostic" for a long time , just enjoying consumerism slop. My legacy is trash and half my life is gone (almost 30 in a few years) and men in my family only make it to their 60s/70s -- could I even make up for 30 years of sinning ? Probably not. I also don't feel like I can radically transform , when I was hitting prayers it was to prove to others I could do it - IE I was doing it for the wrong reasons, so did I ever really believe anything? Should I be honest about who I really was and just embrace that identity and pass a life ? Or should I try to be better?
real
>>41184482Intellectually you want to leave, emotionally you want to stay. Here’s what will happen, you’ll stay abrahamic until your subconscious tells you to leave. You’ll emotionally want to leave, that’s how people make decisions/form opinions, it’s emotional in basis, they’re subconscious makes them feel differently one day. If I had to make an educated guess, you’re subconsciously not ready to explore. You have too much going on to entertain other ways of living—it’s ok that’s most people
fax bro I'm literally a sheep getting sheperded around and I don't feel like a strong member of any one side -- I always feel like all sides just want to use me which makes me not want to give ANY of them any support? But turning away from God ain't it either.
>>41184517>>41184485forgot to link u kek
>>41184511>You have too much going on to entertain other ways of living—it’s ok that’s most peoplewhat would other ways of living entail?
>>41184517I'm not going to betray you. But trust me. It takes so much strength now a days. I will say it against the mimic but I won't do it. You are sharper than you know.
>>41184429In one post you have expressed all of the following:- envy for beasts which have no intellect- surviving through the promotion of vice- accusing others of insincerity, implying you can know their heartsThe fault seems to be with you.
>>41184534I actually agree with this , which is why I wonder, im not that good of a person, as written here >>41184482I'm trying to ease the stress in my mind, I'd rather be congruently aligned with "evil" if it forces me to pick a lane than to keep flip flopping back and forth , ive been doing that my whole life
>>41184531>I will say it against the mimic but I won't do it.What does this even mean?
>>41184528It’s not that you actually have to live under another way of life, but to entertain them. Basically, seek understanding of them, adopt pieces of them that work for you, judge them but not too hatefully etc. Seems straightforward but it’s a lot, the world keeps us busy on purpose to not do this. They want us to misunderstand and judge each other, they want us to feel superior over others. If you’re the OP, you’ve done it already, you’ve gone outside your religion to earn a living. Now dive into it. Do you judge yourself? Why did you do it? Should others judge you? If someone else did, will you judge them? A lot of the answers seem to do with our ego and feeling of superiority. Stay away from movies and music, you need to soften your ego to think objectively
>>41184550> flip flopping This happens when you are odds with yourself. There is something inside of you that you don't want, but can't release. My advice is to seek Christ and to ask for his help. Speak to a priest if you can get to one.
>>41184429>I find most average believers of whatever tradition are just paying lip service and its their excuse to see their own race in the same building (Arabs)Huh, so it's the same as conservative white Christians. TIL.
>>41184591i don't want to lose my family/be totally ostracized but its at the cost of my ability to explore/express my spirituality which has minimal prayers (1-2 a day) and focuses on being a good person going with the flow than doctrine over "sending blessings to Muhammad" or learning a bunch of 8th century baggage via hadiths like WTF , God is timeless and muslims just rehash the history of their leader and his interactions? If it walks like a cult, quacks like a cult, then its probably a mothereffin cult. I like Allah but there's elements that make me go this is clearly a human element from some power at the time but they had to make from Allah in order to justify it.
>>41184629pic I forgot for fun
>>41184429Hollywood and religion is fuel for the economy. They want you to be self centered, self focused, and self-superior. Heck, it’ll serve you well. >Be egotistic, and possibly be rich>Be with God, and be poorIt’s a heck of a choice :)
>>41184705>It’ll serve you wellI meant: it could serve you well. You’ll be miserable because you can’t afford a house and healthcare is expensive, but you won’t be poor. If ya go with kindness and godhood, you’ll be poor but supported
>>41184705>>Be egotistic, and possibly be richThis is a trap though , they stacked the deck and cheated a million ways to one long before you ever showed up. And they will still show up to spit on your grave or just to cause excess cruelty by claiming it was "your fault all along" , yes on a day to day choice level sure it comes down to the person. But who engineered these choices in the first place? And say you make it through with talent or luck, it's just enough to be a cog in the machine and to use you up for max profit and spit you right back out once you're useless. If anything being with god is the rebellion in this plane. And the real mark of courage. I think should strive for the "Light" Side considering how I can exhort all this . Question becomes which interpretation of light?
>>41184763this maneverything in this world tells me to be against God, to make myself God, to dominate, to perpetuate the cycle of violence, to stand at the top of the hill no matter what, love is a transactionyeah, nah, I'm gonna be rejectin' that
