Faith was not part of our life, it was our life. Yet our unshakable faith in God did not ultimately prove unshakable. How is that possible?

Beliefs start to grind

One of the most important reasons for people abandoning their faith is that their own views no longer align with those of the Church.

The evangelical movement in particular is characterized by its emphasis on individual faith and your personal relationship with God. You are expected to believe in the Bible to be your hyper-individual opinion, while at the same time being absorbed into a very large conservative collective. ‘ So that will grind as soon as your own opinion of the collective starts to deviate’.

Extreme events strengthen faith

You can also fall from your faith if you experience something extreme that you cannot place. ‘You are very vulnerable in a real existential crisis,’ According to Van Saane. ‘You may think: if my faith doesn’t help now, when will it? Then all the relevance of it is gone, then it’s over. ‘

But beware: the other way around can also occur. Do you experience your religion as meaningful and healing during such a violent event? In that case, says Van Saane, such an event actually strengthens faith.

Whether you want to leave the church depends on your character
Some may have fallen from our faith, but billions of people in the world are very satisfied with the meaning and sense of community that their religion gives. At the same time, there are also people who have doubts, but hold on to their faith.

‘It depends on your character whether you want to give up your social network and start over,’ says Van Saane. According to her, the best off are the people who have joined a faith group where there is room for doubts and conversation. ‘Those people have a meaning system and a social environment where their doubts are accepted.’

For Roeliene, the identity crisis after she stepped down from her faith was quite fierce: ‘I had to reinvent myself on many fronts. It is especially difficult to be proud of my own achievements. That honor always went to God. And I can approve of all my standards and values ​​because I think they are good. Not because the Bible agrees or disagrees with me. It took time to get around. ‘

Only years later do apostates feel happy again
Then the key question: do you become happier when you say goodbye to faith? The answer to that is different for every ex-believer. Psychologist Darrel Ray founded the foundation Recovering from Religion .

Choices that suit you make you happier

We can answer the question whether we are happier now with a resounding ‘yes‘. We both feel more like ourselves and are behind our choices much more than when we still believed. ‘That’s not surprising,’ says Van Saane. In fact, you have done exactly what the Gospel teachings asked of you: to pursue standards and values ​​that are entirely yours. You are now making choices that suit your personality. That makes you happier. ‘

The only downside, of course, is that we go straight to hell after we die. But since we don’t believe in that anymore, we don’t worry too much about it.

Why does God want us to have faith?

Religions can positively shape societies and make a valuable contribution to the coexistence of people. It is therefore natural to conclude that the acts of violence committed by extremists have nothing to do with actual religion. However, this falls short: every religion has to deal with it when violence is carried out on its behalf. That applied to the Catholic Church, and that also applies to the Islamic communities.

Religions have the capacity to influence people. They shape people and their basic attitudes and convey values. It is not uncommon for religious convictions in particular to lead people to stand up for others in their need. In short: religions can positively shape societies and make a valuable contribution to the coexistence of people. It is therefore natural to conclude that the acts of violence committed by extremists have nothing to do with actual religion. However, this falls short: every religion has to deal with it when violence is carried out on its behalf.

Religious Rules Can Have Fatal Effects

Not only the currently problematic Islam, but also Christianity knows innumerable examples of violence, injustice and suffering in the name of the cross when people acted in the belief that they had to spread or defend the truth of a religious message by all means. What at first glance might be dismissed as medieval thinking reveals a special dynamic. Religious truths and rules that regulate human coexistence can develop fatal effects especially if they are understood and passed on in the sense of directly revealed laws. They are then not valid because their content is understandable, but exclusively because of divine authority. Religious laws understood in this way do not tolerate contradictions.

No Divine Instruction Can Justify Violence

Religions are subject to learning processes when there is space for reflection and discussion. This also includes dealing with violence that occurs in the name of a religious truth. It is obvious that this is not an easy undertaking. Nevertheless, it is necessary for the sake of the injustice that was and is being done to people under the religious guise .Even if it is done in the name of a greater reality, misery, deprivation, and inequality continue to exist as if they were pests. The fact that no divine instruction can justify violence is a realization that we in Christianity do not owe primarily to our own internal religious theological debate, but to the criticism of the Enlightenment. Even if today one has to be grateful for this reflection step from a religious point of view. The necessary impetus for this came from outside!

Each religions Proclaims The Truth.

A challenge for religions in plural societies is that other religious communities equally claim to preach the truth. Such cooperation requires tolerance. This shows the necessity of religious freedom as a right to live one’s own faith and not to be forced into a certain belief. Within Catholicism, this right only prevailed in the Second Vatican Council. If the Church previously asked states to protect the truth in the form of the Catholic faith and to tolerate other religions as much as possible for the sake of social peace, they now went other ways: It is not the truth that is to be protected, but the right of the human being based on human dignity Individuals to seek the truth.