When you've lost God, how do you fill the void?

[Jess42]

Well I guess I am a thietic athiest or athietic theist. I just really don't believe God has much to do with us and every little detail of 7 billion some odd lives. Even though I do believe in creation, I also believe in evolution. I believe that prayers that seem to be answered comes from our own minds and finding answers through concentration and not from a devine power. I don't believe that devine power cures illnesses but those "miraculous" cures that people see as devine is actually the miracle of the body to heal itself and the mind believing so strongly. I believe in Spirituality by way of consciousness and that when I die my body will rot, but possibly my consciousness may go on to wherever or whatever. Who or what God is, I haven't a clue but I do believe in some sort of devine power but uncomprehensible at this time. I just can't believe the old man in the sky god so many religions cling to. I haven't ever had my main prayer answered so I guess I am not heard but there are ways to go about it though so it is answered by me and my wishes.

How I fill the void if there is one, I don't, I just let it be because sometimes we need a great big void to make room for something else.

[Colleen M]

Again back to the original title topic.  I don't have a void to fill after removing god.  It is a superfluous concept to my being.

Indeed. For those of us who never saw any value in religion, the question has a surreal quality.  The only answer I could give would approximate "The fish" but it's interesting to see the answers of those who it's really directed at.   

[Marissa_K]

It's funny I had a moment at about the age of 10 when all my beliefs disappeared in a matter of seconds. My stepmother tried to get my brother and I infected with Christianity and succeeded for a bit (From the age of 6) but in all honesty I never really knew that other religions existed as well.... It actually happened in Sunday school. The issue of "false religions" came up which included pretty much everything other than Christianity. Or preacher pretty much said that humanity had about 5000 different religions before we matured enough to realize that only Christianity was a true religion.... The statistics got me thinking. If we had thousands of other religions then 2 options remained... They are either all wrong or only one of them is correct, but if so, why are we so sure only one is correct??? I was about 10 at the time so that was the starting point coupled with the creation story with which my problem was that we are the center of the universe and we are so important, then why bother making different galaxies? I thought it would be time consuming to manage all of them with all the stars. My older brother was shocked but told me he didn't buy any of it but didn't want to say anything to me or anyone else.

Didn't have the need to fill the void. I felt free and relieved when I realized big brother was not watching over my shoulders planning to punish me for my thoughts. At that age it's not hard to make people believe pretty much anything. Then another blow came when my step mother sent to a therapist in hopes it would bring us closer together and she happened to be Catholic too who believed that a 10 y/o having an imaginary friend is ill, but praying to a God at age 50 is cool. I was very pissed about it but of course decided to keep my mouth shut. 

[Zaria]

I have finally come to the conclusion that there is no god... years as a fund. Christian, was slowly loosing faith, thought of myself as a deist, now consider myself a full blown atheist.  Void? actually feel releaved. Perhaps filling it with science  

Hugs
Zaria

[Felix]

I feel like I've replied here before, or to something very similar, but it looks like I haven't.

I lost my faith when I was a young teenager, and I took it very hard. I started trying to scrabble my belief back together when I was ten and felt it slipping, and I sought out church leaders and I read the bible, and I prayed a lot. By the time I was 11 I was getting in trouble for asking questions at church. They were not smart-alecky gotcha questions like you hear from college philosophy majors, just earnest attempts to make sense of the logic of what we were being asked to believe. By the time I was 12 I didn't have any belief left in me, and I was very angry. I felt tricked. I hated my denomination for awhile, and I spent most of my teens feeling that all religion was evil and unfair and too powerful etc etc. I got over the grudge, but it took years.

I don't remember ever feeling that losing god and jesus left a "void" of any sort. The problem I had was that I had to start over manually on building an ethical framework that I could use as I went about the rest of my day-to-day life. The cool thing about religion is that it gives you all these rules and expectations, and I thrive on that kind of structure. I replaced that with an overly-uptight and rigid humanist ethical framework, but I'm still working on it.

[Umiko]

there were times i tried and  say there was a god just so i could find something to fill the void but every moment, it hurt even more because God was just a concept of mind to me thus i threw it all away and never looked back. people still say "you should thnx god, or god with be with you." i find these type of comments offensive actually o:

[Hermosa_Tabby]

Many atheists lead to a spiritual sense of being. Like a Wholeness of the energies of the universe. This makes sense as we are basically all the same star stuff. Check out Quantum Entanglement for a pretty neat concept to check out. Depending on an extraterrestrial being to be listening while simultaneously caring about prayers of every human on the planet seems a bit foolish.

I think people are afraid of being alone. Once god is gone, it's a bit lonely. It means you have to forge relationships where you can speak your mind, and be loved for the real you.
I mean, if something bad happened, I would cry on my wifes shoulder, if I was worried about something, I would share my concern with my Daddy and also will good energy towards the issue (simply saying it or thinking it is enough). People should be able to fill some of those roles for you and the rest you fill in yourself.

[Julia-Madrid]

Losing my faith came along with realising that I was transgender and attracted to men.  My community was traditional and a little conservative, and I couldn't see how any true deity could engender such criticism in people of me for simply being who I am. 

I don't think I had any need to replace God with anything. I find meaning elsewhere.

[Cloudchamber]

Do I believe in a god, have I "lost" one? Sort of. I certainly do not believe in an omnipotent, cosmic consciousness (as in line with traditional western theist conceptions). But if I slightly readjust the denotation of the word- "A supreme being" to "A Supremeness of being"- then I believe in many gods. I believe in the god of our collective invention, the god invoked by all the kindness and unity of humanity, and the god of my own individual creation- awoken in my deepest passions and joys. A quote to express it more concisely:

"Each man creates his own God, his own devil, his own heaven and his own hell."

Thus I do not see god as an inherent universal fixture, or as an independently sentient entity; I see god simply as an abstract concept to express the complexities and sublimities of being.

So if you've transcended the need for a physical, concretized god- simply make one, or find one inside yourself

[Rachel]

December 2013 I had to give up believing. A lifetime of praying to no avail. A lifetime of guilt and shame.

I came to the conclusion (I am slow) that I needed help and I had to help myself.

There is a void and I have been learning to fill it with personal growth. I have a lot to work on and I have been doing things I never would have dreamed could happen, becoming me.

[Xenguy]

Something very interesting happened when I lost my religion, I just gave up religion, but I couldn't give up god. I just, couldn't stop believing that in that perspective. I think it's the result of having Christianity BASHED into my head for 12 years, but who knows. I left religion because by that time it seemed more like a cult that preached peace while slitting a person's throat, I didn't agree. Now I just believe that there might be a god somewhere, but since I have no proof, I don't worry about it. I don't pray, It's just nice to think that there is something watching over us, real or not.

Ironically enough, even though my half-brother and I came from a highly religious family ((Not in the bad way though.)) I came out Deist ((belief in some kind of deity but not religion)) and my brother came out fully atheist. My brother completely left religion and god for the sake of science. He loves science a lot and thinks religion is humanity's main road block to advancing in science. Me? I left because I didn't want my life to be controlled by someone or something I hadn't met, or some fake code or a hateful book. I just wanted to be happy.

However, it did leave a void. I stopped believing in heaven, in the usefulness of praying. And while I'm glad I left, those were calming things to believe in. I was a very weak person, so it scared me to think that life after death would be nothing, just darkness. That's the reason I clung to religion for so long, because it calmed me to think that life would be eternal, I just wasn't willing to change my life for that. I filled in that void somewhat by telling myself that whether it exists or not..... 'afterlife' is eternal, but I only have one life. So I'm not going to waste that one life not doing things I don't agree with, whether it's things that others tell me to or some invisible deity tells me. I just live y'know, and do my best to be happy

[Olivia P]

This perspective of Neil DeGrasse Tyson helps you feel whole and interconected



I often come back to this video to remind myself of this fact...

[Jess42]

Wow Olivia. Thanx for that. It brings to mind to me the old saying out of death and destruction comes life. I think therefore I am and about a million other things. Just goes to show there is a much bigger picture than what most see or can even comprehend.

[dalebert]

[PoeticHeart]

(Trigger warning: sexual assault/ abuse)

My background is that I was raised in a cult of personality. The church I attended was run by one person and you never questioned his judgment. On anything. To my parents, he was some sanctified interpreter that had a direct line to god. Events took place in my life that opened my eyes, primarily, the sexual assault of my sister. In that moment, I decided that even if there was a god, I wanted nothing to do with this person. I would gladly face damnation.

Where do I find solace? In my work in the world. In my writing. In the relationships that I share with other beings on this planet, albeit for a short time. I'm not afraid of the void, because in a technical sense, I came from the void (in my opinion). I wasn't afraid before I was born, so why should I be afraid to die? I'm afraid of leaving people behind, but not of the actual event itself.

[Emmaline]

Tough break.  My wife studied cult psychology for years- she told me so many horror stories and worse, how easy it is to induce a cult mentality into people.  It is literally a five step process... I was stunned.  Kudos for breaking free.

The insidious nature of religion is to weave itself into the very fabric of your life through association.  Forgiveness through christ, marriage as a symbol of god and church, rainbows as gods covenant.  It seeps in everywhere.  Morality does not spring from god.  Quite the opposite, it seems.

Removing god is just peeling the labels off everything.  Glorious day- wow, praise god! is replaced with wow!

[BlonT]

For me it is simple you can't loose god.
But people loose there trust in religions and there stories,as the are nothing more than power groups that have there own interests. Using books that hold the (only) true story the say !
But books as we know are not that old ! Humans are on this world over 40.000 years.
What is in that books ? Stories with some truth in them ,and rules how to act like.
You must trust and honer your sister and brothers. Yep until the are born on a other place on this globe. You shall not kill your sister or brother. Yep until the are born on a other place on this globe. If your sister or brother is hungry you shall feed them. Yep until the are born on a other place on this globe. And the rule that can never be of god " obey your rulers "
So loose your religion yes, loosing god never.

Remember that in the name of god are more crimes committed then there are seconds in a year   

[Xenguy]

For me it is simple you can't loose god.
But people loose there trust in religions and there stories,as the are nothing more than power groups that have there own interests. Using books that hold the (only) true story the say !
But books as we know are not that old ! Humans are on this world over 40.000 years.
What is in that books ? Stories with some truth in them ,and rules how to act like.
You must trust and honer your sister and brothers. Yep until the are born on a other place on this globe. You shall not kill your sister or brother. Yep until the are born on a other place on this globe. If your sister or brother is hungry you shall feed them. Yep until the are born on a other place on this globe. And the rule that can never be of god " obey your rulers "
So loose your religion yes, loosing god never.

Remember that in the name of god are more crimes committed then there are seconds in a year   

A human does not need god to have morals. It's simple, don't do to others what you don't want done to yourself. You don't need god nor religion for that. People vary, saying a person can't loose god is like denying the existence of atheists.

[Oriah]

Even as a theist there was a void, but when I outgrew the false god thrust upon me as a child I was free to pursue many things that were prohibited before.


Family, exercise, martial arts, drugs and alcohol have filled my void pretty well

[dalebert]

A human does not need god to have morals. It's simple, don't do to others what you don't want done to yourself. You don't need god nor religion for that. People vary, saying a person can't loose god is like denying the existence of atheists.

Yep. I would posit that your moral system can actually be better because it's based on the real world and not falsities. I feel I have a deeper respect for life by virtue of understanding how precious it is. I acknowledge that this is the only life we have and my ethics reflect that. Belief in an eternal afterlife of total bliss could incline one to respect death more than life. In fact, I think that happens with a lot of people. Some folk's religious views seem like a kind of death cult.