I (32m) started seeing prostitutes when I was 20 and have done it on and off up to my current age. I find the lack of sexual and emotional connection lures me into to seeing them even when I say I’m going to stop. Whenever I am doing decent financially I end up going back to seeing them. I try to be a spiritual person and read the bible and not lust over women but it can be a struggle and mental battle. Does anyone else have this same bad habit?
Have you thought about getting a religion more conducive to your values?
If you think like this it makes me wonder if you’ve ever fully bought into a religion before. When I was growing up and still believed in God, I believed in my religion so I held its moral values. There was some wiggle room insofar as what type of Christian I could be (like which denomination) but the idea of just converting to a different religion because I liked their moral system better would be silly because I didn’t believe in that religion.
If you think like this it makes me wonder if you’ve ever fully bought into a religion before.
You’re close to the mark on that. When I was a very little kid I remember being creeped out by all churches. I went to Catholic kindergarten and my grandfather was an Episcopalian reverend. Around the age of 12 I realized nobody was answering my prayers so I became an Atheist by default. Now I’m somewhere between “Through science we can explain the nature of the universe” and “Tezcatlipoca has a claim on my soul and Tlatecuhtli thirsts for my fetid blood”.
Maybe the answer is learning. Helicopter parents don’t allow kids to learn the hard lessons.
Listen, if you didn’t want Tlatecuhtli thirsting for your blood you should’ve thought of that before getting tasty blood. Eat less sugar or something.
But on a more serious note I remember having a discussion towards the end of my faith/middle of my deconstruction with a coworker who was Hindu (though I don’t know how bought in he was). It was basically this same conversation. He was saying something about why don’t Christians just find a different religion. Almost like it’s going to a store to buy a shirt or something. But in reality it’s like “I believe I am morally obligated to buy and own red shirts. I think blue and green ones are neat, and there are designs from them that red shirt designers can learn from, but I am morally obligated to buy and own red shirts because it’s the right thing to do.”
I said my blood is fetid.
In my experience with living in Christian dominated Texas the Christians would steal from me directly or my paycheck. Then they would forgive themselves without ever compensating me for the theft. Afterwards they would claim moral superiority demanding I subjugate myself to them and it’s only right that I toil for them to enrich themselves.
The Teotl make more sense to me than the foreign gods despite myself not being aboriginal. Hence my blood is fetid.
It’s more like “Brahma (God) is One, the faces of Brahma are many.” He’s also triune, with Vishnu and Shiva.
Kind of like the 72 names of God.
I’m not talking about Hinduism.
That’s disgusting.
Matthew 7:21-23 ESV
[21] “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. [22] On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ [23] And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Hindus aren’t monotheists. Iirc, Hindus kind of believe most religions are real, a lot of them believe that Jesus is an image of God I think. They are more open to people picking and choosing a god. Christians only believe there is one true God.
Yes, but at the same time there are still some more dogmatic Hindus who don’t view the Christian God as some other deity.
Was he one of them?
a coworker who was Hindu (though I don’t know how bought in he was).
I’ve known a hindu who said he attended Church services when in the west as he believed it was valid worship. So they definitely exist ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I never said they didn’t exist.
