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How Do You Feel In This Age of Disbelief?

When all things otherworldly are now fodder for humiliation, how does that make you feel?

Does anyone else feel offended by the taunts hurled by nonbelievers if you express belief in a divine creator or an afterlife? If you tell some of them what you’ve seen, heard and/or felt, you’re labeled an hallucinating moron. I don’t like it at all.

Maybe it’s just me, but personally, I find it rather distressing.

Asked by Renirc

26 replies on “How Do You Feel In This Age of Disbelief?”

Hello Renirc,

I am sorry you are suffering in this way. I had my share of the same when I was growing up, but in the end I decided that people who didn’t believe in what I was experiencing – were missing out on something very interesting :-), and that was their bad luck .. so I more felt sorry for them, than allowed myself to be hurt by what they said to me, or about me.

I am not sure what you mean by this “When all things otherworldly are now fodder for humiliation, how does that make you feel?” Who’s humiliation? Words are swords, they can hurt like hell, but only when we let them .. its lack of belief, I think, that hurts more. When I first said I could see what others can’t, they told me I was insane, or would be (or possessed or go to hell), and would be locked up. That was frightening to me, more frightening than the faces in the dark, and the whispers etc .. Nowadays I think those people humiliated themselves, not me, with their cruelty and lack of belief.

I believe in angels, the fairy kingdom, demons, ghosts, spirits, and have had experiences with all of them. Some I wouldn’t wish on anyone, others .. I would love to be able to ‘send’ ghosts to haunt people (as long as the ghosts didn’t stay long) .. I know its childish and I shouldn’t .. but there are times … πŸ˜‰

Don’t take other people’s ignorance to heart! Perhaps they are simply safer in their empty worlds? It takes a lot more courage to have an open mind than it does to keep it tightly shut .. and it must be exhausting to keep it that way. πŸ™‚

Ok, so the wind is blowing from somewhere mischievious and I feel a bit wicked .. πŸ™‚

Remember … JC said “love your enemies”. You know what I say when folks say nasty things .. “thank you, I love you too”. People run like hell from that. LOL

Love & Peace
Ama

Thank you. I enjoy this forum so much, it feels…”nice” here (for lack of a more appropriate description).

Hi Renirc

I can’t say I’m offended by other people’s opinions nor their ridicules, mainly because I don’t worry about what others think. I know what I have seen, experienced and felt. To me, it really doesn’t matter if others don’t believe me or they call me names. I guess you could say I have a strong and somewhat stubbon streak! LOL!

I’ve had some great reviews and some brilliantly vile reviews of my book in equal measure. I love reading those that say it’s all made up or that I’m just an attention seeker – hahaha! Especially when they start getting really ‘personal’ (as personal as they can, considering they don’t know me). But do I find it offensive or distressing? No, not really. I know what happened and I know I wrote the book to tell the story as truthfully as humanly possible. But it’s up to them whether or not they want to believe all or some of it. I didn’t write it to convert anyone, after all. I wrote it for me.

I am sorry that you find others negative vibes distressing. Maybe you need to look at it from a different perspetive. For every person that taunts, there is another that believes your account of your experiences. Focus your energy on those that have a positive interest in what you have to say about beliefs, and just shrug off the comments made by those who don’t.

So long as you believe in yourself, it really doesn’t matter what others think on the subject.

And Ama …

Ama said: “.. I would love to be able to β€˜send’ ghosts to haunt people (as long as the ghosts didn’t stay long) .. I know its childish and I shouldn’t .. but there are times … ;-)”

Tut! Tut! Ama – lol! I can just imagine you saying “Vengance is mine – mine I tell you” (in a silly Monty-Python voice stylie) haha!

AJ
x

Not vengeance, AJ .. just a little wake up call? They can ‘not’ believe in ghosts if they want to, but the name callers .. might benefit from eating their words?

I think my halo needs a huge! polish today. LOL

Love & Peace
Ama

Hi Ama

Use Pledge … great for getting rid of stubborn halo-marks! LOL!

Do you think some folk pooh-pooh! the existance of ghosts etc as a safely mechanism? If they don’t beleive in them, then ‘they’ can’t harm them? If they don’t believe in them, then nasty things won’t happen to them?

I often find myself smiling at that dogmatic, closed minded kind of Christian who so openly beleive in the Bible stories filled with supernatural occurances yet, when it comes to their own lives and those around them in the here and now, they assume that kind of stuff no longer exists. God no longer speaks to us in the same way now, as He did back in the day.

I wonder why they are so ready to accept the concept of God, yet dismiss everything else that is linked to God energy or everything seperated from it?

AJ
x

Morning AJ,

I believe the other quotes are “if I can’t see it, it can’t get me” or “…, it doesn’t exist” (in a muffled voice from under the bedspread). I have one or two vague memories of knowing not to cover my face, no matter how much I wanted to, when I was a kid, because peeping out and finding a ghost looking straight at me (nose to nose) was more frightening than having them keep their distance a bit if they thought I was brave enough to have my face uncovered.

I wonder how many of those closed minded Christians actually realise that the events in the bible could be classed as supernatural? What I find is that they listen to the stories but don’t really think them through. The classic case for me is the focus on the villain ‘the witch of Endor’ who raised the ghost of the prophet Samuel for King Saul. All ghosts are demons, according to some Christian people, and so the ‘demon’ Samuel tells Saul all the nasty things that are going to happen to him, and they do happen. Now the question is ‘did they happen because Samuel was a demon’? Hmmm.. wait .. no .. the message was from God, via Samuel. And we are told it is God punishing Saul for various reasons. But if you say to them ‘God uses demons to pass messages to people and punish them’ .. they get very annoyed with you, and yet God sent an evil angel to send Saul insane, and it worked.

And then there were the spirits/saints/old prophets (dead people) roaming the streets after Jesus’ resurrection. And then, another favourite, is how Adam & Eve’s three sons, being the only humans on earth, had any children at all. Did they breed with demons too? Adam’s first wife was supposed to be demon .. maybe they bred with her kids? But who did she breed with as Adam was the only man (incest again .. shades of Lot). LOL

You might note I am keeping my story-telling short for a change. πŸ™‚

And then there’s Moses and the priests of other gods having a showdown and turning sticks into snakes etc. Oh, and the spaceship ..

Gotta love that book. LOL

Yes, I wonder why people don’t accept the greater reality of the world full of things they can’t see, or choose not to,too. Denial only works until something gets your attention, and usually frightens the heck out of you.

Love & Peace
Ama

I was mostly referring to the staunch evolutionists and their hateful comments. I just see it all over, every day. And of course the deists who holler “demon!” any time anything supernatural is mentioned. It all does bring me down, just because it’s so prevalent these days. People, in general, are shamed for their beliefs and if they don’t have a mind of their own, so to speak, they’re going to just go along with the crowd. Even my third-grader is ridiculed at school for professing belief in ghosts – she has seen, heard and felt things that defy explanation. She was also telling me when she was just beginning to speak that she had another mother and father and siblings and that they lived in a big, white house, and when I asked her what happened to them, she said that she was swinging and fell off and she didn’t remember anything after that. Just some of things that make you go “Hmm…”! Perhaps I’m too sensitive, but I dislike the closed-mindedness that is more or less the result of public education and peer pressure.

I do love staunch anything .. if one needs a good laugh. πŸ™‚

This three year old spoke French and another language we could never pin down (later thought to be Pheonician) .. and it wasn’t made-up sounds. I scared the heck out of my family with my past life memories. You would think .. 47 years later .. we could all be a little older and wiser? How about ‘spiritually more mature’ .. the answer is .. nope. It takes strength and courage to face our demons and learn to forgive! And we are still filling in the gaps in our lives with any bit of nonsense, as long as the person presents themselves well, or has lots of money for advertising.

Don’t I sound grumpy! LOL But I am. I spend a lot of time untangling people’s confusion created by the famous, or worse .. television programs! First it was the church creating fear for their own benefit, and now its the television producer/company, to line their pockets with advertisers money ..

SIGH!

So .. everything is evolution .. no problem. We should be able to take human DNA back to a single spark, and his wife .. hmm.. only my mind boggles on how they didn’t interbreed themselves into oblivion. πŸ™‚

Smile, Renirc .. remind your daughter that not everyone has been blessed the way she is, nor have they had her experiences so they can’t really comment .. although they do .. and what they believe is ok for them, she can believe whatever she wants too. I know its not fun when they are unkind, but the ‘I love you too’ comment generally shuts them up. We say it with kindness, and mean it .. but use it as a full-stop for their sentence. I let my kids grow up believing in whatever they wanted to, and helped them understand that they are both unique and beautiful individuals .. with minds of their own, just like you and your daughter.

Back to the fun of chasing the first tiger snake of the season away from the cat.

Love & Peace
Ama

Here’s another question from Renirc’s comment .. why are people ashamed of belieiving in God? After all, they believe the characters in Home and Away (or Bold & Beautiful) are real people too? Sigh.

What is wrong with a God that says ‘love everyone like I love you’? Oh I remember .. its the pedophile priests, the judgment and the ‘hate everyone unless they believe what you do’ .. what a lovely way to run a society .. any of them.

Will we ever grow up!

… In Love & Peace
Ama

Yes, I suppose it’s true that one bad apple spoils the bunch. πŸ™‚ I don’t force any beliefs on my child. I tell her what I believe, and that she has every right to make her own decisions. I don’t base my beliefs on anything I was taught at home or in church…just on my perspective of reality. I guess what I’m saying is that it would be so beautiful if everyone would let go of their hate, even just for a day.

I second that thought, Renirc. Just think .. everyone in the whole world, just for a day, gave up hating everything .. even themselves. Now that would be a world changing event!

Love & Peace
Ama

Someone’s lack of belief does not diminish what I know in my heart, or what I have seen or experienced. There is also a growing Scientific acceptance of the paranormal. There are 2 movies that know of one is ” The Secret” ant the other is ” what the bleep, going down the rabbit hole” these both have several people from the medical and scientific communities giving credence to what some of us have know all along.

I’ve not seen “The Secret” yet. Will check that one out. But “What the Bleep…” is fantastic!
I also recommend Amit Goswami (The Quantum Activist). His research/postulates regarding the creation (rather…”manifestation”) of matter in our reality, is quite interesting.
As always, I also recommend Candace Pert. Her work on the Opiate receptor, dramatically changes how we perceive “self” from the perspective of the subconscious body.

That is usually where I start when it comes to this topic. If we don’t yet have reality (or consciousness) figured out, how could anyone ever challenge you on something that happens within it? The answer? Skepticism. Skepticism doesn’t usually require much logic. It just requires disbelief in something you don’t yet have enough information about.

I find it to usually be a bluffing game.
If you can convince me of something, then you are “right” in some manner…..to disarm you and remove this as an option, I shall not believe anything you say until you can provide empirical proof (so personal experience is already booted). Many Physicists have challenged the concept of reality…. Do they have the proof so many seek? Possibly. Do general nay-sayers care about that? Usually, only if it supports their point and not yours.

Heck, sometimes it seems that folks forget the expansive abyss that exists between “proof” and “belief”. You can show me proof of a Ghost….still up to me to believe. So, most of the time, I think humans misuse the word “proof” anyway.

To answer the OP’s question: No. Not really. Some humans are truth seekers. And, some just want to be the source of truth so that others can think said humans are really clever.
Luckily I don’t have to be better than anyone in order to feel pity for a fellow human,though. πŸ™‚

Sad part is, your daughter would be the cat’s pajamas if when challenged about her beliefs, she simply said….”what?! You mean to tell me that you weren’t aware of the existence of ghosts? Wow!…..bwahahahaha!!! Live under a rock much (said in a pleasant but obviously sardonic way)?
πŸ™‚
Popularity is a weird thing. Quite incorrectly, I think most adults assume that to stop after school. It does not. It’s a human thing…not a childhood thing.

(not making light of your post at all, btw: I understand where you are coming from, Renirc. But I’ve long since stopped being pained by the non-ado of thoughtful scrutiny by our sentient brethren).

-Siddle

I go along with A.J. I dont really care what people think of my beliefs. I dont care for organized religion, they all say something different. I think a persons religion is inside them, and you dont need a bunch of other people to tell you how to think.

I always felt that if you follow the Ten Commandments and the teachings of Jesus (which I have been kind of trashy of doing) and do the best you can you will be fine. Over the years Ive had missionaries, door-to-door preachers try to convert me but it seemed what so many of them have said was, to put it bluntly, a bunch of baloney.

Most religions have a lot of good points, but it seems to me they come up with their own additions and interpetations and make it so confusing a person cant understand any of it. Religion shouldnt be so complicated, and it really isnt unless people make it so.

Someone once said that every religion says all the other religions are going to Hell so apparently nobody is going to heaven. If thats true at least Ill have a lot of company down there.

I agree Bofferbings, religion is too complicated. It’s full of human beliefs and fears. The puzzle to me is why anyone would believe it is ‘of God’. I guess I set my expectations of God very high .. I expect it not to confuse or contradict itself within its ‘own Book’ or any other piece of writing purportedly from God (whichever God).

As for us all going to hell, the Christian religion teaches that if we make one mistake, and die without the priests forgiveness, we will end up there. Given the behaviour of the majority of humanity these days, including those poor folk who have never heard of JC (very few on the ground, but they do exist, and according to Christian teachings they’ll end up there too just because they have never been converted by missionaries), we’ll all be there, or totally destroyed .. I read that somewhere just a day or so ago.

God help us. Whatever happened to unconditional love and the Jesus who was trying to reach everyone with his belief in that God? He obviously missed the guy who wrote Revelation …. and so much of the Christian belief in hell is based in that book.

Do you think Jesus is rolling in his grave? Or maybe gently laughing? Heaven seems to be a very happy place, according to all the spirits/ghosts I’ve had contact with over the years.

Love & Peace
Ama

haha! Nice! I believe Matt Stone and Trey Parker already addressed the “who’s going to Heaven” question in a Southpark episode titled “Probably” (Season four, episode 10).

Only the Mormons.

So, yes, you’ll have company should you end up in hell. πŸ™‚

-Siddle

Im far from being an expert on Bible readings, but it seems there are a lot of contradictions in it. I suppose that is because the Bible was written by people, and as people are far from perfect, they added some of their own ideas. Maybe not intentionally but enough to confuse later generations.

Worse .. they added them intentionally .. just look at all the different versions of the bible we can buy these days (and I have 13 on my shelves here). People deliberately choose to reinterpret, or invent, what they want other people to believe.

My favourite webpage on the subject of contradictions ..

skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/by_book.html they list at least 1001.

Love & Peace
Ama

Ive noticed that, too. I have Mormon and Catholic and Jehova Witness Bibles, and just checking on a few things have found they are different. I had JW’s coming here for a time, and I was using my mother’s Mormon Bible for their home visits because the one the witnesses gave me had too small of print for my old weak eyes to read. They came unglued at that, said it had all the wrong things in it, and on their next visit they brought me a large print JW bible. I guess they didnt want me to read about Mormon propaganda, Just JW propaganda.

They didnt come too many times. While some of their ideas made some sense, a lot of it I couldnt go along with.

Ill have to check out that website. It sounds interesting.

I do identify with the Christian faith, but I don’t care to consort with others that do. If only they followed the teachings of Christ, which is so, so hard to adhere to at all times, the world would be a nice place. :)I said this to someone who was bashing believers, and they took offense, saying I was being judgmental and blah, blah blah. No, that’s not what I meant. I was referring to loving one another, helping your fellow man, you know…the good stuff. πŸ™‚

haaaaa! been there, done that ;). Hello dear Renirc! though i havent(and hope i wont ever) had any ‘direct’ contacts with anything paranormal(except i am pretty prone to nightmares) i have had second hand experiences(mom,dad,relatives telling me stories)and i recently experienced second hand, some serious ‘black magic’ stuffs happened to someone v close to me. i tried telling it to my cousin sis, and we had a HUGE debate over this.she wouldnt believe at what i was saying AT ALL!!(ohh god, how frustrated i was, 2am in the morning and we r still debating! phewwwwww)
i sent the link of my posts i have in this very web site to my best friend and she mocked me,(i was a bit offended). now i dont know if these ‘non-believers’ somewhat ‘believe’ but r just trying to convince themselves about the non existence of the paranormal(in this ‘modern’ age, as it is apparently humiliating to ‘believe’ in such things) by debating head to head with us believers, or they simply do not believe at all.
however, my experience with my cousin and my best friend taught me this, “i m a believer,and i can understand u non-believers,can understand why u dont believe,& i respect that,i have no intentions to turn u into a believer and i expect the same from u,respect my views as well( m not a narrow minded stupid of 21st century),lets live by our own beliefs but try not to ruin or disrespect the other’s view and belief,that way, all of us will be happy”
and dont be sad dear, for those of us who cant share much of paranormal thoughts with others, we always have this site to turn to, dont we? be happy and stop thinking too much. not every one has to understand everyone..sometimes we misunderstand and sometimes we get misunderstood…so its okay…
:), Shreesa