[alchemy63]

To find our way out of darkness, we must be willing to consider that all we've been taught, may not be real. We must think for ourselves. We should know that what is around us was created by previous generations of people. We must recognize as people, we too, have the power to create. We must be willing to cast aside the truths others have lain out for us and decide for ourselves what truth is.

To free ourselves from darkness we must be brave. We must be willing to first search, and then reach, for the light that is around us. We must be willing to untether ourselves from the deception that we are intrinsically bad and can do no good. We must unshackle ourselves from the false dillemma that we are to ignorant to understand.

To be free from darkness, we must take the first step towards understanding that all of us are human, that we each have a heart, no matter how buried or confused it may be. To be free from darkness we must understand that each of us is searching for love and connection, that, in our very own hands we have that power, to give and to share, without help from above.

To free ourselves from this darkness, we must empower ourselves. We must see that we are each souls with spirit and strength, that we each have enough strength to lend others a helping hand, to rise above, over, and out of the darkness.

To be free from darkness is to know that we are beings of light, that no darkness can conquer us, that we have an inner will of our own. Being free of darkness is to understand that we have the power to create the world and that divine assistance is not needed.

[freaka]

perfect! thank you for this encouraging and empowering post.

[alchemy63]

Thank you for your kind words Freaka. I recently commented to someone in a PM how as a beginning student in all things spiritual, I often felt on my own to find my way. I read many books, studied all things philosophical, adventured into a variety of religions. I met people in real life, had brief encounters where some nugget of wisdom was passed along, spent time in contemplation, and slowly, over time, began to build a foundation of beliefs that stood in spite of the downpour of energy draining daily events in life.

Each step I took lead me to another turn and each turn brought me to another intersection. I spent many years in a heartache of disconnection from my own feelings and an inability to connect to people around me in a real way. I loved my mother and father very much and I was so confused at why, at times, I felt so much annoyance with them. It has taken me some time to truly love them as I do now and even though they are both deceased recently, I am glad that before they passed I was able to convey my true love to them.

It is love that slowly began to close the gap between myself and myself, and myself and other people. It was the discovery that what had gone missing in my life was the ability to feel true love that began to change so much for me. Bit by bit, slowly over time, my love for people, for being alive, for this beautiful but sometimes ugly world, began to re-awaken.

What I have learned may be common knowledge for many people, for those fortunate people who never lost thier connection to love, what I've learned is very simple, basic, and elementary, but it took me many years to understand that of all things I tried to heal myself, every mis-step I took, was when I failed to love.

I have come this far now. I have worked on the meaning of God in my mind, my heart, and spirit. I have come to a place where the idea of God worries me because I have seen the atrocities that are committed by people against people in the name of God. I have come to the place where I can no longer use the term God because of how it is mis-used in so many ways.

I could never come to call myself an atheist. I know spirituality and the spirit of love are real and so it was confusing to answer in a direct way how to describe my spiritual orientation. Today two words came together for me that don't really appear to connect. I decided to do a google search, just to see what came up. I was surprised and relieved to find that that Spiritual Atheism is something that already exists. This is the new step and the new turn in which I find myself.

[Fuzzybear]

[Werewoman]

I went on a similar journey when I was young, and came to many of the same conclusions you have.

I was searching for an explanation as to why the loving God and the Living Christ I was raised to believe in would allow such horrible things to happen to me.

I finally came to the conclusion that life isn't fair, and that really bad things can happen to good people, and that really good things can happen to really bad people.

God doesn't work the way I was raised to believe. He doesn't control what happens, but in my search for answers, I found great wisdom from the minds of great people, and sometimes, though briefly, I find myself free from the darkness.

That's as good as it gets for me.

WW