I know all these techniques. The issue is that I feel, on a deep level, that Christianity is true. I can’t explain it in normal terms, but I feel it. I have tried to live a life without it for several years, but have found this difficult.
The issue is that I feel, on a deep level, that Christianity is true.
In a kind of Disney movie/believe in yourself/do what you feel is right, kind of way? I’d just go right ahead and suppress that feeling. Seriously. Things don’t become more likely because you have a deep feeling that they’re true. Lots of people have deep level feelings about lots of things*.The great thing is that if you suppress those feelings, and God does turn out to exist, being rational about it will lead you to the correct beliefs anyway.
*I have a constant feeling that pacifism is always the right course, and that I should never use violence for anything. But I suppress this feeling because it isn’t actually correct.
I feel, on a deep level, that Christianity is true
I’d like to read more about that. What do you feel, think, and believe happened in Palestine circa 0-33 AD? What about the previous several thousand years of Israeli history ? What about the saints and miracles of the following ~1600 years or so?
And do you have any idea of why (I assume) you don’t feel the same about the events that built Islam, Asatro, or Hinduism?
Eliezer has written about at least one technique for such a situation: Leave a line of retreat
See also the Litany of Gendlin:
What is true is already so. Owning up to it doesn’t make it worse. …. People can stand what is true, for they are already enduring it.
I know all these techniques. The issue is that I feel, on a deep level, that Christianity is true. I can’t explain it in normal terms, but I feel it. I have tried to live a life without it for several years, but have found this difficult.
In a kind of Disney movie/believe in yourself/do what you feel is right, kind of way? I’d just go right ahead and suppress that feeling. Seriously. Things don’t become more likely because you have a deep feeling that they’re true. Lots of people have deep level feelings about lots of things*.The great thing is that if you suppress those feelings, and God does turn out to exist, being rational about it will lead you to the correct beliefs anyway.
*I have a constant feeling that pacifism is always the right course, and that I should never use violence for anything. But I suppress this feeling because it isn’t actually correct.
You feel that, but do you believe that?
Were you raised Christian? Were you originally convinced (not just emotionally) that it actually was true?
I’d like to read more about that. What do you feel, think, and believe happened in Palestine circa 0-33 AD? What about the previous several thousand years of Israeli history ? What about the saints and miracles of the following ~1600 years or so?
And do you have any idea of why (I assume) you don’t feel the same about the events that built Islam, Asatro, or Hinduism?
Could you expand on what the feeling is like?
Also, what would you be doing or thinking differently if you accepted Christianity as true?