Religious anxiety
Hi
I’ve been having some religious anxiety because there are concepts in my religion (Christianity) that I want to be possible e.g. reincarnation and infinite chances at life and I’m anxious and worried that they aren’t possible and I’m anxious and worried that they can’t happen
Comments
Hi there,
Although I am not a Christian, I follow Hinduism which also has such concepts as re-incarnation.
I get what you mean....I'm sorry you have to go through this internal conflict.
In my case I have this self doubt crisis everytime. I have this crisis on whether I'm doing the accepatble thing or not.
What's worse is that because Hindusim is such an ancient and divserse religion which is open to different methods of practice. There are people who become really superstitious about things and end up doing things that are made up and not in the scriptures....🙄 And so every single time I am thinking about whether I'm doing the right thing, I also have to think about the fact that what if I'm being infleunced by the superstitions ....
But thank you for sharing your story, it reminds me how I'm not alone facing such dilemnas 😆
Hey,
I come from a hindu background too, and I am also facing internal conflicts. It was worse last year. I am in my first year of uni at the moment, so hence I am busy in that and trying to get mental health help regarding something that had happened in highshcool - so I guess I don't really face the dilemma as much cause I am too caught up in this.
thank you for sharing @JonoG
I definitely agree with @WheresMySquishy as I was also raised within a Christian family. I thought that because you were raised a certain way, that you have to believe exactly the same thing as everyone did - and if you moved away from that, you were a bad person. But as I matured a little more, I started to form my own beliefs based on my own experience and I found that it lifted a weight off my shoulders.
Can I ask, did something specific happen to make you feel anxious about this? Have you maybe spoken to a leader or someone you trust within your church to ask about their opinion?
Hi @JonoG!
That sounds really tough. 
I was also raised as a Christian and struggled with a lot religious anxiety growing up too. I have learned that it is possible to develop your own beliefs and incorporate different aspects of your religion into your worldview. This can become easier as you experience new things and mature. I know a lot of Christians who believe in theories such as the big bang rather than literal creationism as depicted in the Bible, but are able to think about it in a way that can still fit in with their beliefs. For example, they can choose to believe that God created the particle that led to the big bang (sorry if my understanding of this theory is a bit rusty).
I think it would be really cool if reincarnation was possible. We don't know that it's definitely not a possibility. Nobody really knows what happens we die. Additionally, not all Christians believe in the concept of heaven or the afterlife. Some of my family members believe that my great uncle is 'sleeping' until he can eventually reunite with his loved ones in paradise after they have all lived out their lives, or at least this was how I remember them explaining it to me when he died. One of my other family members is a Christian and does not believe in the existence of heaven.
