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Feelings of Guilt After Religious Disaffiliation (leaving a religion)

User Thread
 42yrs • F •
Feelings of Guilt After Religious Disaffiliation (leaving a religion)
Are you someone who was indoctrinated as a child into a religious group and then as an adult realized that you didn't actually believe what was taught to you, so you stopped believing in/following that religion? If so, afterwards did you go through a period where you experienced feelings of guilt associated to no longer believing what you used to believe? Like if you were a Christian, did you ever feel like you were going to hell for not believing in the Christianity anymore, even through you no longer subscribe to hell?

I started ripping myself away from Hinduism about 7 years ago and one of the major steps for me was eating beef. I had never eaten beef in my life before as in Hinduism cow's are seen as sacred animals and to eat it's flesh is considered extremely sacrilegious. When I first started eating beef, I had to cope with feelings of guilt that were a result of years of conditioning. I got past it eventually but it was difficult for a while. And it's weird because I discovered I love eating a good steak and eventually my boyfriend used to cook it for me whenever I had a craving for it.

I think it's important for religiously indoctrinated people going through post-religion related guilt to realize that those feelings of guilt are not their own. Although you used to believe the religious ideas as though they were your own, the truth is if you were indoctrinated into a religion then you never had to freedom to truly choose those beliefs. And if you didn't choose it then you were forced into it, so the guilt is also a forced occurrence, not one that is natural to who you are and what you actually believe.

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"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
 25yrs • F •
A CTL of 1 means that ravenclaw is a contributing member of Captain Cynic.
I was born Christian I guess, I went to a Christian preschool but never anything after that, I listened to what I was told but I don't think I really believed in it. My parents didn't really force me to believe anything (my dad is muslim, as is the rest of his family) and eventually I decided I was an atheist, sometime in 4th grade I think.

I don't feel guilt about it, I guess I just respect religion even though I don't believe in it, which seems like the most neutral standpoint I can come up with, other than being agnostic, but I can't even convince myself of the possibility of god so I'm not going to force myself to do anything that doesn't feel right. I think we get conditioned to believe a lot of things, and you only see that when you are part of 2 cultures, and you see that they are really just doing the same thing, even though they look quite different and they are conditioning different ideas, they are all conditioning something into people.
By the way, The City & The City is a remarkable book by China Mieville and says a lot about cultural ideas and what people will do to keep them in place. It is a murder mystery as well as a kind of satirical commentary on the way culture works, taken to a more extreme level, reductio ad absurdum.

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 47yrs • F •
windy36 is new to Captain Cynic and has less than 15 posts. New members have certain restrictions and must fill in CAPTCHAs to use various parts of the site.
I grew up in Christianity, but I find I am thinking about being a agnostic because it matchs up my belief system more. I do feel a little bit guilty for some reason about this. I am not sure why. I think I wanted it to be true, but sad it might not be true. I also don't really know what is true, and I guess the guilt is what would happen if I am wrong.

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Feelings of Guilt After Religious Disaffiliation (leaving a religion)
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