[p0d]

I prayed at a party while sleeping on a friend's sofa in the 80s and said, "if you are out there Jesus, will you come into my life?" This was the beginning of a new life for me.

My understanding of life has been shaped over the decades by biblical teaching and personal encounters with the Holy Spirit.

Rather than hoping that life is good to me, I try to do good. I also have an eternal view on my actions. What the bible would refer to as storing up treasures in heaven.

I think I would feel lost like yourself if I was trying to understand life from inside my own head. I lean on the the wisdom of the bible and fellowship of other christians.

I would recommend you connect with a local church. Church websites give a good indication of what's going on on in your local church.

Good luck on your journey.

[swores]

A great (sometimes) solution if you believe in Jesus, or whatever beliefs are tied to the religion you choose - but to many of us, whether happy or not with life, becoming religious just isn't a realistic option.

And given how often we find out that even religious leaders such as priests, yet alone general believers, are terrible people - whether white nationalists or sex offenders or terrorists or... well, pretty much any crime that humans sometimes commit, I'm not convinced that joining a group of religious people has a higher chance of success than joining any community group. If the Christians in your life are all lovely people then that's awesome, but there's plenty of awesome atheists / people who believe in other religions, and, as with religious people, plenty of nasty atheists too - I'm not suggesting religious people should be avoided or are more likely to be evil, just that I don't think religion is ever a good indicator for whether or not a local community is one you do or don't want to be a part of.

But sure, community groups in general do seem to be a positive thing for a huge number of people, religious or not, and if you do believe (or have a religious group that doesn't mind if you don't really believe and are happy with people who just want to be a good member of their community) then great.

I don't believe personally, but having read the bible and gone to a huge number of religious services (albeit always as a non-believer), I thing the world would be a better place if more people followed the guidance of Jesus in the bible. But I haven't seen evidence that people who believe in Jesus actually do follow his teachings more (nor less) than the average atheist.

[nickd2001]

As a Christian I'd agree that religious leaders and congregations can often be disappointing in our behaviour, given what rules of life we claim to follow. There are also people of no faith at all who go to church and basically pretend to be Christian for other purposes such as making business contacts. But that's the point isn't it? We're flawed human beings, capable of good and of bad, and Jesus called us to follow him to sort ourselves out , with his help. When you go to a church most people (including the clergy!) are some way along the journey to being sufficiently influenced by God to be able to be capable of more good and less bad. And even people far along the journey have their "off days". What the OP's Q shouts to me is lack of community and lack of a place to find friends. Churches are far from perfect but they can be a place to find community and friendship, flawed though it is, that's sorely lacking elsewhere due to people always being too busy / insular / living in car-centric neighbourhoods etc which seems a particular problem in N America. My 2p anyway, disagreements welcome :)

[p0d]

As a younger man I used to apologise for other christians who let the show down, but now I don't. As you say there are many good and bad from all walks of life. The church is my family and we all know how families tend to play out.

I think as human beings we need to think seriously on the question, why are we here? And I also think that we need to have good relationships, be part of a community. I have realised this more as I have gotten older. Some will be surprised when they reach their work/money goals. You will find you will still be left with questions. I speak from experience. At 50 I am reading books written by 80 year olds looking back at life. It makes interesting reading.

[aristofun]

> becoming religious just isn't a realistic option

I was thinking exactly like that 10 years ago.

Until I finally realized that

1) people, be it enlightened priests or corrupted believers, have nothing to do with god nor with faith

2) faith is the most basic and fundamental feature of our human mind and the idea pf god is an ultimate pinpoint of this feature.

So being a reasonable man, i prefer to believe in something ideal and absolute, rather than any other limited ideas invented by specific people (sometimes with bad intentions).

[p0pcult]

>other limited ideas invented by specific people (sometimes with bad intentions)

So, like, religion?

[aristofun]

Yes, you don’t _believe_ in religion. Otherwise you’re nothing but a stupid and dangerous fanatic.

You believe in god and religion is just a tool that helps you organize your faith and connect it to your everyday life.