<p>There are many times in our lives where fatigue, suffering, disease, and sorrow weigh down on us unrelentingly. We shake our heads and wonder if going on like this makes any real sense. Why not just throw our responsibilities to the wind and go out on a bender?</p>

There are many times in our lives where fatigue, suffering, disease, and sorrow weigh down on us unrelentingly. We shake our heads and wonder if going on like this makes any real sense. Why not just throw our responsibilities to the wind and go out on a bender?

What if I Just Want to Give Up?

If you’ve grown up with religion like I did, you’ve probably also felt from time to time that it just doesn’t add up.  Certain questions haunt you at two o’clock in the morning, questions that whatever group you practice your faith with tends to frown upon.  You don’t find the provincially acceptable answers at all acceptable.  But however much these questions prove to be forbidden, your mind remains unsettled.  You keep coming back to them—hesitant, worried, and sometimes even angry.  I’ve spent my life tossing away the shackles of fear and facing these forbidden questions directly.  I cannot understand why religious people should fear the truth, if the truth is supposed to set us free!  So, let it out, I say.  And I offer you here the fruits of my lifetime of labors, both in the hopes that you can profit from my struggles but also in the expectation that you might add something to inspire our other travelers still facing those anxious nights.

Society & Culture

Religion & Spirituality

Christianity

Philosophy

If you’ve grown up with religion like I did, you’ve probably also felt from time to time that it just doesn’t add up. Certain questions haunt you at two o’clock in the morning, questions that whatever group you practice your faith with tends to frown upon. You don’t find the provincially acceptable answers at all acceptable. But however much these questions prove to be forbidden, your mind remains unsettled. You keep coming back to them—hesitant, worried, and sometimes even angry. I’ve spent my life tossing away the shackles of fear and facing these forbidden questions directly. I cannot understand why religious people should fear the truth, if the truth is supposed to set us free! So, let it out, I say. And I offer you here the fruits of my lifetime of labors, both in the hopes that you can profit from my struggles but also in the expectation that you might add something to inspire our other travelers still facing those anxious nights.

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What if I Just Want to Give Up?

What if I Just Want to Give Up?