[Help] How to get rid of guilt?

[Wise Owl]

I live in a country where Orthodox Christianity is a prime religion and not believing in God is like betraying the country in someone's eyes. I do not care what others think, of course, but what I do care is how to get rid of the guild I feel. Let me elaborate.

I used to believe in God but it was more of indoctrination than truly believing. I know or I feel there has to be something out there in the very fabric of space that created all of this but not in a way Christians see it. And when I gave up on those views and moved towards Paganism, there is this thought in my brain saying "What if you are wrong, you will end up in hell for not believing in God". And it is pretty annoying to be fair.
I need to push those thoughts out once and for all and be free to practice my own choice.

How would you suggest me resolve this issue?

 

[Vandheer]

How would you suggest me resolve this issue?

I had the same issue at first. My answer is going to be a little cop- out, but time was the solution.

I used to believe in God but it was more of indoctrination than truly believing.

This, right here. You were simply fed, you never chose Christianity on your own. This line of thought is going to make your day easier.

 

[Wise Owl]

You were simply fed, you never chose Christianity on your own. This line of thought is going to make your day easier.

When I was little, yes. But as a grown up person I did chose and I did pray and I believe in it. I went to church every Sunday, deeply inside me I thought this is it. But then I started rethinking as soon as I read new testament. I was not okay with the concept where people are initially born with sin and you must fight for your salvation. It makes no sense to me. Why is it my guilt because someone else sinned? But anyway, that's another topic not related to my question (OG one).

 

[Morell]

This seems to be quite psychological issue. Rituals may help but I suggest to study what is called "deprograming" or "overcoming religious programing"
I don't have personal experience with dealing with this, but many people do. A lot of people.

 

[HoldAll]

There is a method I call 'the Gnostic bypass' I'd like to recommend in this connection. The basic idea is to engender doubt in oneself regarding traditional Christianity by challenging its notion of an immanent God who scrupulously watches your every deed for possible sins. There are so many strains in Gnosticism and its ideas are so diverse that scholars have begun to doubt if the term is even useful but the common denominator seems to be that the world was created by a clumsy (or evil, depending) craftsman which is why suffering and strife is humanity's lot - to my mind, the old

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question has never been satisfactorily answered by mainstream Christianity. In this way, you might be able to separate the ineffable transcendent God (sometimes called 'The Father' or 'The Source') from the jealous bloodthirsty tyrant of the Old Testament. The Source doesn't intervene or judge, neither punishes nor rewards, doesn't get involved or send anyone to Heaven or Hell, it just IS.

Doubt is a killer for magic and this also holds true for faith to a certain extent - once you are starting to doubt and begin to study an enticing alternative to your childhood beliefs, your old religious edifice begins to crumble. Switching straight from Christianity to Paganism may be too radical a step but with Gnosticism, you kinda sorta remain within the confines of Christianity (even if Gnostic ideas are considered extremely heretical by the Church) for the time being while simultaneously questioning traditional Christianity's basic premises. Critical thinking is what broke Christianity's stranglehold over Western thought, so you might give the ancient Gnostics a chance and start becoming a doubting Thomas.

I've uploaded two books on Gnosticism right now, maybe you'll find appropriate answers there.

 

[Kepler]

Paganism as an expression of animistic natural philosophy is a good place to establish a foundation with reality and start investigating eternal nature. To see if you need a Realm of Perfect Forms to explain the variety of life, or if it even works with a modern understanding of natural selection, before including it as a quality of an imagined transcendent Architect in an imagined cosmos.

That examining these sorts of things from a practice of spiritual materialism doesn't negate the spiritual experiences of others that practice with unsubstantial modeling. The difference being the attributions of the former are based on reality.

For emotional reactions involving inner conflict the IFS program has been valuable.

Through personal rituals of blasphemy hidden religious reflexive responses can be identified and dealt with to gain self-assurance.

 

[Sabbatius]

Guilt is a byproduct.
According to the Early Church Fathers, the purpose of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus was not for "dying for your sins" but to conquer death, as we as humanity were meant to live eternally. Sin, like guilt, is just a byproduct- nothing more. According to Scripture and the Early Church Fathers, by living in Christ we eliminate Death and eventually we eliminate the byproducts as well.

Roman Catholicism, specifically Augustinian teaching, focused on the guilt and shame by creating the Original Sin teaching. No one is born with Sin, nor is sex a defilement unless done in a defiling manner.

I am surprised by the guilt being given from the Orthodox Christian community in your area. Sadly, many areas had Orthodox Priests influenced by Jesuit and Dominican schools.

 

[Butterfly Affect]

I live in a country where Orthodox Christianity is a prime religion and not believing in God is like betraying the country in someone's eyes.

Betray your country how? It's not as if you've committed some type of transgression against the state or even people. The Bible says to render Ceaser's unto Ceaser and God's unto God, etc etc.

Also, if it's a post soviet country, it's likely there would have been some type of church suppression relatively recently in history. If you match your beliefs to everything the state said, you would functionally believe in nothing.

I do not care what others think, of course, but what I do care is how to get rid of the guild I feel.

Really check where those feelings come from. Sometimes it does actually come from what other people say. If you don't believe in a Christian God, you wouldn't care what he would have to say.

 

[Faria]

How would you suggest me resolve this issue?

Are you a fugitive felon? Is there something you've done that you expect would send you to prison? If not, why would the all-seeing, all-knowing God of abundant mercies and infinite justice give the slightest crap about your supposed transgressions? You don't need to feel guilt when you haven't done anything wrong.

Examine your conscience. Maybe even match that up to the Ten Commandments or the Golden Rule. What have you done that is so hell-worthy? If it's just not taking the ridiculous paranoia about Hell shared by billions of people too seriously, maybe give yourself a break. There's a big difference between God and Religion.

Religion is a business that can't stand competition and demands total acceptance of its teachings. God, even the Orthodox version of God, is bigger than that.

Do you know someone who looks like a thug criminal who isn't? Do you know someone who looks bright and good but isn't? The majority of people can't distinguish appearances from reality. They see anything that isn't their brand of religion, and it scares them in the same way spiders and rats do to people who have never kept those creatures as pets. They don't have the mental space to manage actual philosophical questions, it's either you say and do what they want or you're on the other team. That's just the nature of mass market anything, it relies on dumbshits all getting spoon fed the same thing and refusing to even look at anything else. Religion falls apart once it starts to allow other religions a foot in their door, but God doesn't. Greeks and Romans prayed to the same heavenly father, God doesn't care nearly as much as people do about how religion looks.

So yeah, you might not be able to explain yourself to religious people. They will never get it. You could be a devout person of some other God-fearing sect and still get that same response. You'll never be able to explain it to them. But God? Whole different story. God is the only thing is all of existence that knows the real you, your real motives, your real transgressions. Those religious people don't own God or the pathways to God. You don't need to feel guilty for offending them.

 

[esque_ish]

a divine feminine somatic approach might be to anthropomorphize your guilt as a person, distance yourself from that person but let them speak to hear what they have to say, then compassionately respond from the heart:

"Oh, hello. You are the product of generations of lifetimes of conditioning, and you are trying to keep me safe because we live in a world where paganism is framed as a danger. Thank you for trying to keep me safe, but I am older and wiser than when I first encountered the conditioning or thoughts about paganism, so you don't have to work so hard right now. You can take a break now."

this works best in meditation, and when you can envision this voice, turn towards it and witness with compassion, then you can invite it in an embrace to reintegrate and ground back into your being.

 

[Wise Owl]

Okay, let me answer to everyone. So many detailed answers

Guilt is a byproduct.
According to the Early Church Fathers, the purpose of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus was not for "dying for your sins" but to conquer death, as we as humanity were meant to live eternally. Sin, like guilt, is just a byproduct- nothing more. According to Scripture and the Early Church Fathers, by living in Christ we eliminate Death and eventually we eliminate the byproducts as well.

Roman Catholicism, specifically Augustinian teaching, focused on the guilt and shame by creating the Original Sin teaching. No one is born with Sin, nor is sex a defilement unless done in a defiling manner.

I am surprised by the guilt being given from the Orthodox Christian community in your area. Sadly, many areas had Orthodox Priests influenced by Jesuit and Dominican schools.

Here they do teach that by living in Christ we conquer death. But they also teach that we inherited sin of Adam for his disobedience.

Betray your country how? It's not as if you've committed some type of transgression against the state or even people. The Bible says to render Ceaser's unto Ceaser and God's unto God, etc etc.

I am aware of it, however people here see traditional values of our people tightly tied to Christianity. They see it as something very close to our identity. Mostly true for all slavs.

Also, if it's a post soviet country, it's likely there would have been some type of church suppression relatively recently in history. If you match your beliefs to everything the state said, you would functionally believe in nothing.

I do not live in a post Soviet country.

Really check where those feelings come from. Sometimes it does actually come from what other people say. If you don't believe in a Christian God, you wouldn't care what he would have to say.

I really don't care. What bothers me is only that feeling of guilt. If I would care, I would be bothered when people around me point out I no longer believe.

Are you a fugitive felon? Is there something you've done that you expect would send you to prison? If not, why would the all-seeing, all-knowing God of abundant mercies and infinite justice give the slightest crap about your supposed transgressions? You don't need to feel guilt when you haven't done anything wrong.

Matters not. If you are not with Christ, you can not have God's mercy. No matter how good person you are. Irony.

-------------
I'll see what my path leads me but as one of you said, religion is a good business. What matters is what is left naked when you strip down all those dogmas.

 

[Sabbatius]

Matters not. If you are not with Christ, you can not have God's mercy. No matter how good person you are. Irony.

There's always Pelagianism.

 

[Butterfly Affect]

I really don't care. What bothers me is only that feeling of guilt. If I would care, I would be bothered when people around me point out I no longer believe.

Guilt only comes from caring. You either care, or you don't. Guilt from not believing in God, or guilt from what other people think of you, is still caring.

If it means anything, I think occult stuff should be secret irregardless if you live in a religious country or not. It's not anyone else's business and it's easy to attract the wrong type of attention.

 

[Wise Owl]

Guilt only comes from caring. You either care, or you don't. Guilt from not believing in God, or guilt from what other people think of you, is still caring.

If it means anything, I think occult stuff should be secret irregardless if you live in a religious country or not. It's not anyone else's business and it's easy to attract the wrong type of attention.

I just realized that the word I was looking for was not guilt, but rather fear. Yes, it is a fear of the possible outcome if I was wrong.

There's always Pelagianism.

This is a very interesting thing. Never heard of it before. You are really knowledgeable.

 

[MidnightProphet]

The ancient Greek philosophy on this was that it is a type of miasma which could (and should) be brought to katharsis through offering and purification by use of lustral waters.

 

[Wise Owl]

The ancient Greek philosophy on this was that it is a type of miasma which could (and should) be brought to katharsis through offering and purification by use of lustral waters.

I have no idea what you just said. xD