“the reason why I have shied away from religion is not because something traumatic happened to me. I just got tired of pretending I believed in something I didn’t. I don’t feel drawn to religion in the sense that I don’t feel the need for guidance from an omnipotent force. Nor do I feel the need to believe in anything greater than myself to give me reassurance that everything will be ok. I no longer perform religious rituals because my friends do it.”
i’ve been searching for someone to articulate my religious thought and you’ve done this so beautifully. Now, i have something to share whenever someone asks me to articulate it for them. Thank you, Luisa.
i seriously want to thank you for how beautifully written and exceptionally put-together this piece was. i grew up in a south european contry so, very, very, catholic as well, though my closest family members never actively prayed or went to church - like you friends, they say they just like to believe in something. at 12 i became a science geek and figured out that all things couldn't have been concieved by god, just nature, at 13 i learnt about how the Christians basically burned down most of the intellectual property of the greek empire (i will never forgive them for that) and at 15 i realized i was bisexual. when I was depressed i listened to 1975's "if i believe you" and hoped to be able to have a god to turn to, to scream at, so he could save me. i tried spirituality, and meditation and tarot but nothing stuck. now i flow through the world and society freely, and, not only do i believe in humans like you mentioned, i believe in myself. that has been the biggest thing for me. i beliebe good things will come to me because I hold the power in my own life. and if it doesn't go to plan, then that was just what was supposed to happen. believing in oneself is such a powerful thing, so much so than God
As someone who’s feeling lost with regard to my spirituality/faith, this piece was very insightful and beautifully written 🤍 . I still believe in god i talk to him a lot but the religion ive grown up with seems to be practicing/promoting faith thru fear, oppression and it never sit right with me.
what is beautiful about faith is that it’s yours alone, you can choose what to believe and how you want to nurture your relationship with god, no one can tell you how to live but yourself
Hi, I know I come here late after this post was published, but I wanted to express my gratitude and admiration Luisa. When stumbling upon your page and seeing the name of the article, I've never related to a phrase so much in my entire life. I grew up as an atheist, but I've been growing more and more interest in religions, especially Islam. However, I was never really able to believe in a God and even more to build a connection with such entity. And the image of looking up at the sky and feeling nothing, is what I'm experimenting rn. So when seeing this article, and then reading it, it first gave me the impression to be seen. Secondly, it gave me the impulse I needed to start posting here on my thoughts on the subject (your article mentioned novels and prices linked to some ideas I had thought off so I can now enrich my writings), which I will do soon. Thus, I thank you deeply, and I'm looking forward to reading your other articles !
i loved reading this so much! i relate to a lot of parts of this. i grew up in christianity but i’ve always struggled to believe in any religion; i went through a phase where i tried to force myself to believe in a god and be part of a religion again, but i got tired of it too. i felt a sense of peace that i hadn’t before when i accepted that wasn’t who i could be.
i do find comfort in astrology and new-age spiritualism to a certain degree; i wouldn’t say we blame ourselves if we don’t manifest, or that we blame other people for bad things happening—at least that’s not the way i approach it. i don’t quite know how to explain, but it guides me with reflecting and creating goals for myself, and i feel more gratitude for being alive through my spirituality. it’s not something that guides my way of life completely though.
i take what works for me. i believe in my own power the most, and human connection too. it’s freeing that way.
"I want to finish by saying that the reason why I have shied away from religion is not because something traumatic happened to me. I just got tired of pretending I believed in something I didn’t. I don’t feel drawn to religion in the sense that I don’t feel the need for guidance from an omnipotent force. Nor do I feel the need to believe in anything greater than myself to give me reassurance that everything will be ok. I no longer perform religious rituals because my friends do it. I have grown and have learned to accept my skepticism towards life and its meaning."
This resonated with me, as someone who also came to terms with agnosticism in her teens.
Growing up in Colombia and not having a Confirmation did change the way some of my family members saw, but at the end it felt more real than doing so and having a constant ache in my back that marks me with the word sinner. In a way, it freed me from something I didn't know was choking me. My mom says I am too much of a philosopher to be religious. To this day I think she's wrong because most of my favourite philosophers were Catholic, yet somehow she is also right. (Loved the piece and loved the voice of your writing.)
yes yes I totally love this, tbh it's frustrating trying to explain this to believers or theist agnostics, for the record I'm an atheist, as u said I have never believed truly, if anything I believed that heaven and hell were metaphors I didn't expect ppl to actually believe they are real, and through my very short experience in this life and with ppl, I think that some of us are just born truth seekers while the rest aren't, I'm not mad about it on an individual level, I truly gathered too much compassion especially after embracing nihilism, but we can't ignore the way religions are rooted in oppressive systems, sorry for the rant it's just this topic comes to my mind often and it's confusing how to deal with an individual vs systems. ♡
pleaseee, dont apologize, i love when people leave me long comments with their insights.
and i agree, compassion can be acquired by many mediums, religion is just one of them, and i love how you said “some of us are just born truth seekers while the rest aren’t” brilliant
If you consider yourself a truth seeker and you’ve arrived at nihilism you haven’t been seeking truth you’ve just sought out the easiest dead end answer. Nihilism goes nowhere. It’s a rejection of reality. It’s like throwing your hands up and saying this shiz is too crazy so I’m just gonna believe that nothing matters and life isn’t real because nothing is.
Luisa, as a fellow latina (Venezuelan) your words resonate to my core. Thank you for bringing light to this topic, I always felt like a lot of people in my social circle would judge me for not believing in anything. You put into words exactly how I feel about it - gracias :)
What an incredibly beautiful piece. I've always battled with religious ideology and its structure because I grew up in a bi-religious household. Reclaiming the concept of faith has been one of the things that has healed that. And I agree with you, I think humans are a lot more powerful than they think. Thank you for this wonderful read! x
as a colombian who also has a mum who is sure i’ll go back to catholicism and a sister who also says “my faith will come back when the moment is right”, it’s comforting to see someone finally wording out my exact thoughts. we’re living in difficult times, and it’s only natural to grasp help for someone or something, voice it out even. growing up in a religious household can either make you question everything or follow it blindly (up to an extent), so thank you for writing a piece like this 🫶🏼
The closest I feel to religion is its usefulness in metaphors, literature and symbolism. How it can have beautiful and tragic meanings in the stories it tells
Belief in god is more than just a feeling. It’s an action. Praying is believing, talking to Him is believing. You don’t need to feel anything when you look up at the sky. I don’t think anybody does? It’s just the sky, why should you feel something… unless it’s a pretty sunset maybe it’s soothing. You don’t need to feel faith. I don’t know what that even means tbh. It’s like love. How often do we actually experience emotions of love? They are pretty rare. Love is more than a feeling, it also can be an action. Like making food for someone. Like for your kids or whatever.
“the reason why I have shied away from religion is not because something traumatic happened to me. I just got tired of pretending I believed in something I didn’t. I don’t feel drawn to religion in the sense that I don’t feel the need for guidance from an omnipotent force. Nor do I feel the need to believe in anything greater than myself to give me reassurance that everything will be ok. I no longer perform religious rituals because my friends do it.”
i’ve been searching for someone to articulate my religious thought and you’ve done this so beautifully. Now, i have something to share whenever someone asks me to articulate it for them. Thank you, Luisa.
aw, thanks, tobi. it means a lot 💕
i seriously want to thank you for how beautifully written and exceptionally put-together this piece was. i grew up in a south european contry so, very, very, catholic as well, though my closest family members never actively prayed or went to church - like you friends, they say they just like to believe in something. at 12 i became a science geek and figured out that all things couldn't have been concieved by god, just nature, at 13 i learnt about how the Christians basically burned down most of the intellectual property of the greek empire (i will never forgive them for that) and at 15 i realized i was bisexual. when I was depressed i listened to 1975's "if i believe you" and hoped to be able to have a god to turn to, to scream at, so he could save me. i tried spirituality, and meditation and tarot but nothing stuck. now i flow through the world and society freely, and, not only do i believe in humans like you mentioned, i believe in myself. that has been the biggest thing for me. i beliebe good things will come to me because I hold the power in my own life. and if it doesn't go to plan, then that was just what was supposed to happen. believing in oneself is such a powerful thing, so much so than God
believing in oneself is THE most powerful thing. and same with 'if i believe you' that was my song for yearssss, thanks for reading and commenting 💕
As someone who’s feeling lost with regard to my spirituality/faith, this piece was very insightful and beautifully written 🤍 . I still believe in god i talk to him a lot but the religion ive grown up with seems to be practicing/promoting faith thru fear, oppression and it never sit right with me.
what is beautiful about faith is that it’s yours alone, you can choose what to believe and how you want to nurture your relationship with god, no one can tell you how to live but yourself
Hi, I know I come here late after this post was published, but I wanted to express my gratitude and admiration Luisa. When stumbling upon your page and seeing the name of the article, I've never related to a phrase so much in my entire life. I grew up as an atheist, but I've been growing more and more interest in religions, especially Islam. However, I was never really able to believe in a God and even more to build a connection with such entity. And the image of looking up at the sky and feeling nothing, is what I'm experimenting rn. So when seeing this article, and then reading it, it first gave me the impression to be seen. Secondly, it gave me the impulse I needed to start posting here on my thoughts on the subject (your article mentioned novels and prices linked to some ideas I had thought off so I can now enrich my writings), which I will do soon. Thus, I thank you deeply, and I'm looking forward to reading your other articles !
i loved reading this so much! i relate to a lot of parts of this. i grew up in christianity but i’ve always struggled to believe in any religion; i went through a phase where i tried to force myself to believe in a god and be part of a religion again, but i got tired of it too. i felt a sense of peace that i hadn’t before when i accepted that wasn’t who i could be.
i do find comfort in astrology and new-age spiritualism to a certain degree; i wouldn’t say we blame ourselves if we don’t manifest, or that we blame other people for bad things happening—at least that’s not the way i approach it. i don’t quite know how to explain, but it guides me with reflecting and creating goals for myself, and i feel more gratitude for being alive through my spirituality. it’s not something that guides my way of life completely though.
i take what works for me. i believe in my own power the most, and human connection too. it’s freeing that way.
"I want to finish by saying that the reason why I have shied away from religion is not because something traumatic happened to me. I just got tired of pretending I believed in something I didn’t. I don’t feel drawn to religion in the sense that I don’t feel the need for guidance from an omnipotent force. Nor do I feel the need to believe in anything greater than myself to give me reassurance that everything will be ok. I no longer perform religious rituals because my friends do it. I have grown and have learned to accept my skepticism towards life and its meaning."
This resonated with me, as someone who also came to terms with agnosticism in her teens.
loved this piece
Growing up in Colombia and not having a Confirmation did change the way some of my family members saw, but at the end it felt more real than doing so and having a constant ache in my back that marks me with the word sinner. In a way, it freed me from something I didn't know was choking me. My mom says I am too much of a philosopher to be religious. To this day I think she's wrong because most of my favourite philosophers were Catholic, yet somehow she is also right. (Loved the piece and loved the voice of your writing.)
being too much of a philosopher to be religious is actually such a good compliment. thank u for reading <3
yes yes I totally love this, tbh it's frustrating trying to explain this to believers or theist agnostics, for the record I'm an atheist, as u said I have never believed truly, if anything I believed that heaven and hell were metaphors I didn't expect ppl to actually believe they are real, and through my very short experience in this life and with ppl, I think that some of us are just born truth seekers while the rest aren't, I'm not mad about it on an individual level, I truly gathered too much compassion especially after embracing nihilism, but we can't ignore the way religions are rooted in oppressive systems, sorry for the rant it's just this topic comes to my mind often and it's confusing how to deal with an individual vs systems. ♡
pleaseee, dont apologize, i love when people leave me long comments with their insights.
and i agree, compassion can be acquired by many mediums, religion is just one of them, and i love how you said “some of us are just born truth seekers while the rest aren’t” brilliant
thx omg I get a mini panic attack everytime I comment 😭
If you consider yourself a truth seeker and you’ve arrived at nihilism you haven’t been seeking truth you’ve just sought out the easiest dead end answer. Nihilism goes nowhere. It’s a rejection of reality. It’s like throwing your hands up and saying this shiz is too crazy so I’m just gonna believe that nothing matters and life isn’t real because nothing is.
so looks like you don't know what nihilism is maybe you should do your research:)
Nothing so perfectly articulates how I feel about religion as this article. Thank you Luisa 🫶
Luisa, as a fellow latina (Venezuelan) your words resonate to my core. Thank you for bringing light to this topic, I always felt like a lot of people in my social circle would judge me for not believing in anything. You put into words exactly how I feel about it - gracias :)
What an incredibly beautiful piece. I've always battled with religious ideology and its structure because I grew up in a bi-religious household. Reclaiming the concept of faith has been one of the things that has healed that. And I agree with you, I think humans are a lot more powerful than they think. Thank you for this wonderful read! x
So well researched and thoughtful. Just beautiful. Thank you for your words.
as a colombian who also has a mum who is sure i’ll go back to catholicism and a sister who also says “my faith will come back when the moment is right”, it’s comforting to see someone finally wording out my exact thoughts. we’re living in difficult times, and it’s only natural to grasp help for someone or something, voice it out even. growing up in a religious household can either make you question everything or follow it blindly (up to an extent), so thank you for writing a piece like this 🫶🏼
The closest I feel to religion is its usefulness in metaphors, literature and symbolism. How it can have beautiful and tragic meanings in the stories it tells
Belief in god is more than just a feeling. It’s an action. Praying is believing, talking to Him is believing. You don’t need to feel anything when you look up at the sky. I don’t think anybody does? It’s just the sky, why should you feel something… unless it’s a pretty sunset maybe it’s soothing. You don’t need to feel faith. I don’t know what that even means tbh. It’s like love. How often do we actually experience emotions of love? They are pretty rare. Love is more than a feeling, it also can be an action. Like making food for someone. Like for your kids or whatever.