Religious issues

[AvoidingRealWork]

Since discovering I'm agnostic, I've found it impossible to write any erotic fiction.

Help please, preferably from other agnostics. Thanks.

 

[Iamcanadian28]

Since discovering I'm agnostic, I've found it impossible to write any erotic fiction.

Help please, preferably from other agnostics. Thanks.

I guess Agnostic would be the closest description of my views on religion but I'm not sure that I can be of much help. I've never even thought about my religious views even for a second when writing erotica.

I honestly believe they have little if anything to do with eachother. Much like religion, sex, and writing about it, is a personal thing and as long I'm not violating anybody else's rights, is my business alone. I suppose as an Agnostic their is not the level of taboo in discussing sex as their would be for a more religious person. Perhaps that's part of the issue?

 

[rgraham666]

I'm an agnostic and it doesn't seem to have hurt me any.

 

[Guest]

I'm an agnostic and it doesn't seem to have hurt me any.

That's 'cause you're a pervert, too.

 

[Stella_Omega]

What did you think you were before?

That's a serious question, honest-- It would help to know which way your journey is going...

 

[rgraham666]

That's 'cause you're a pervert, too.

Well, yes, there is that.

 

[Carnevil9]

I could see agnosticism taking the wind out of one's sails, eroticism-wise. If you don't believe in something "good" and "proper," it makes it tough to believe in something being "naughty" either.

 

[3113]

Since discovering I'm agnostic, I've found it impossible to write any erotic fiction.

I've become much more erotic since becoming an atheist. Anything religious institutions/"holy" men/women told me that god said was bad and wrong about sex and that I should not do (or must do), no longer needs to be taken as a given, as I no longer believe there is a god to have said such things...hence all sorts of interesting vistas and opportunities have opened up

 

[Guest]

Since discovering I'm agnostic, I've found it impossible to write any erotic fiction.

Help please, preferably from other agnostics. Thanks.

Not agnostic but definitely not mainstream either.

Quick question: are you okay about discovering you're agnostic? Some people--not necessarily you--go through a mourning period when releasing their religious beliefs.

Just a thought.

 

[AvoidingRealWork]

What did you think you were before?

I thought maybe i was a Christian... though people talking religious jargon and spiritual lingo and about prayer and all that always made me feel very uncomfortable, and i never really could figure out why.

I pretended to be a Christian because it got me friends, and I was sort of going along with the crowd.

Quick question: are you okay about discovering you're agnostic?

No, i'm not ok. I'm in constant fear of going to Hell. Fear of hell was the only thing that was (still is, i don't know) making me want to stick around and try to believe.

I have horrible nightmares about all the bad things that will happen to me, like being eaten alive by maggots or being trapped in a tiny space for all eternity.

I just want to be me.

 

[rgraham666]

I regard Hell as an idea totally out of sync with the idea of a loving God. If God, Allah to Zeus, is that sadistic I'd rather be in Hell than spend one second worshipping them.

I'm an existentialist. It's actions that define you, not beliefs. I believe God is an existentialist as well.

 

[Iamcanadian28]

I regard Hell as an idea totally out of sync with the idea of a loving God. If God, Allah to Zeus, is that sadistic I'd rather be in Hell than spend one second worshipping them.

I'm an existentialist. It's actions that define you, not beliefs. I believe God is an existentialist as well.

Who suggests god is loving? That idea is all shot to crap in the book of Job, where he comes across as incredibly self-serving and petty. Personally I don't believe in a divine being as much as a unifying force that keeps some level of order in the universe. Their is certainly more to the world than what we see in front of us, but I don't think heaven and hell is a reasonable explaination at all.

 

[AvoidingRealWork]

I'm an existentialist. It's actions that define you, not beliefs. I believe God is an existentialist as well.

Sorry, I will always believe that being precedes action. Actions are an outgrowth of our internal nature (which, yes, is malleable, but is there nonetheless).

I can tell you all I know, the where to go the what to do
You can try to run but you can't hide from what's inside of you.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I thought maybe i was a Christian... though people talking religious jargon and spiritual lingo and about prayer and all that always made me feel very uncomfortable, and i never really could figure out why.

I pretended to be a Christian because it got me friends, and I was sort of going along with the crowd.



No, i'm not ok. I'm in constant fear of going to Hell. Fear of hell was the only thing that was (still is, i don't know) making me want to stick around and try to believe.

I have horrible nightmares about all the bad things that will happen to me, like being eaten alive by maggots or being trapped in a tiny space for all eternity.

I just want to be me.

Um.

It seems to me that your brain has some pretty serious shit to work its way through. It isn't too surprising to me that it has no time for sex thoughts!

You do realise, I hope, that you're wasting a lot of emotional energy worrying about something that doesn't exist? Not that any phobia ever can be dealt with rationally.

You can believe in god and not be a Christian, you know. You might want to look into Unitarian Universalist churches in your area. You might get the support you need there, seriously.

 

[fifty5]

Since discovering I'm agnostic, I've found it impossible to write any erotic fiction.

Help please, preferably from other agnostics. Thanks.

I'm fairly sure I'm an atheist, but...

Can you describe your link between agnosticism and erotic block? Is it just coincidence in time, or is it some moral (with a very low case 'm') connection? Like Stella asked, is this a move from atheism or from theism?

In the former case, I can see some reason for your problem: if you start off believing that there is no god (so that Morals are generated by humans), then lose that conviction (so that you start to entertain the possibility that Morals might come from an outside, omnipresent, omniscient being), I can see the problem: you become aware that you face the issue that erotic writing, instead of catering to 'the selfish gene', might just possibly be 'a sin against god'.

Actually, I can see some reason in the other case. If your writing derived strength from the concept of sex being inherently 'dirty' (there are lots of similar words, ranging from 'bad' to 'sinful' via 'naughty' that could have been used there), then you start to entertain the possibility that there might not be any outside agency that defines sex in this way, then that too might act as an intellectual castration.

My own POV is that sex is good, because it not only (sometimes, as a choice) contributes to the continuation of the human race, but is also (within limits) simply an enjoyable activity. In consequence, I find that 'dirty' thing incomprehensible. Some forms of sex have health issues, but then so does mountain climbing - and in both cases rational precautions reduce the risks below the threshold of the thrills, so it makes sense to 'go for it'. Reduced to the minimum, orgasms and the activities that lead to them are very nice indeed.

Maybe you need to examine your attitudes to sex in the same light as you've looked at your theological ones: there may well be an ethos that reconciles your theological position with writing porn (er, sorry, "writing erotic fiction").

To provide specific help, we need more than just: "Since discovering I'm agnostic" to work with; we need more details of your dilemma!

 

[SweetWitch]

Since discovering I'm agnostic, I've found it impossible to write any erotic fiction.

Help please, preferably from other agnostics. Thanks.

I would suggest, ARW, that your nightmares stem from your lack of faith. Everyone needs faith. It doesn't have to be a faith in God, good or bad, or even a higher power. Faith can be as simple as believing that every day the sun will rise and fall and night will come and go. You can have faith in yourself, your views, your way of life. Your faith can be in someone you love and believe in.

There are so many things for each of us to have faith in, but the key is in the having. Perhaps your lack of inspiration is because you don't have a direction, a path to follow. As long as you were pretending, you were following that path.

I suggest that you have your own path -- your lifestyle and your desire for freedom. Forge ahead and your inspiration will come back. In the meantime, there's nothing written in stone about all your work being erotic. And erotic doesn't mean fucking. Just write. Write about your life, your beliefs, your desires. Start a journal to keep track of your journey to self-discovery. The main thing is to just write.

 

[cloudy]

No, i'm not ok. I'm in constant fear of going to Hell. Fear of hell was the only thing that was (still is, i don't know) making me want to stick around and try to believe.

I have horrible nightmares about all the bad things that will happen to me, like being eaten alive by maggots or being trapped in a tiny space for all eternity.

I just want to be me.

Hell is a man-made concept, just so that you know. Look it up for yourself: there's absolutely no mention of hell or Satan in the Old Testament. There's also not really any word in Hebrew for the concept of "the devil," either.

I guess when they put together the New Testament, they figured if they couldn't talk you into behaving as they wished, they could scare you into it.

 

[AvoidingRealWork]

Actually, I can see some reason in the other case. If your writing derived strength from the concept of sex being inherently 'dirty' (there are lots of similar words, ranging from 'bad' to 'sinful' via 'naughty' that could have been used there), then you start to entertain the possibility that there might not be any outside agency that defines sex in this way, then that too might act as an intellectual castration.

ding ding ding ding ding....

When I get like this I can't even come. I can screw, but it's... boring. We'll, it's nice to be able to give my wife pleasure, which gives me the warm fuzzies, but I can't get over the erotic barrier.

 

[AvoidingRealWork]

Hell is a man-made concept, just so that you know. Look it up for yourself: there's absolutely no mention of hell or Satan in the Old Testament. There's also not really any word in Hebrew for the concept of "the devil," either.

It's more of a divine District Attorney in the case of the Old Testament.

 

[cloudy]

It's more of a divine District Attorney in the case of the Old Testament.

Indeed. I think the word is closer to "advocate" in Hebrew.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I regard Hell as an idea totally out of sync with the idea of a loving God. If God, Allah to Zeus, is that sadistic I'd rather be in Hell than spend one second worshipping them.

I'm an existentialist. It's actions that define you, not beliefs. I believe God is an existentialist as well.

Whose to say that what we experience here on Earth is not Hell?

Who suggests god is loving? That idea is all shot to crap in the book of Job, where he comes across as incredibly self-serving and petty. Personally I don't believe in a divine being as much as a unifying force that keeps some level of order in the universe. Their is certainly more to the world than what we see in front of us, but I don't think heaven and hell is a reasonable explaination at all.

There is no order in the universe, it is a chaotic and unordered place. There are, however, some rules by which the chaos does come about. But whose to say that those rules are constant throughout the universe. Whose to say they don't change in other parts of the universe.

 

[Iamcanadian28]

Whose to say that what we experience here on Earth is not Hell?



There is no order in the universe, it is a chaotic and unordered place. There are, however, some rules by which the chaos does come about. But whose to say that those rules are constant throughout the universe. Whose to say they don't change in other parts of the universe.

But could it not be organized chaos? Or that it's a random order that is yet to be understood. I don't their is anything constant about it, simply that their is some unfying force that keeps things from spiralling completely out of control.

 

[AvoidingRealWork]

Indeed. I think the word is closer to "advocate" in Hebrew.

Advocate or adversary?

 

[Zeb_Carter]

But could it not be organized chaos? Or that it's a random order that is yet to be understood. I don't their is anything constant about it, simply that their is some unfying force that keeps things from spiralling completely out of control.

What makes you think it isn't?

 

[Guest]

ARW, not to minimize in the slightest the spiritual aspects of what you're struggling with, but I've got a niggling suspicion that you're significantly (i.e., clinically) depressed.

If you think that might be correct (and there are any number of reasonably good depression checklists online, so I won't bother you with a symptom list), I'd suggest you see someone professionally first. It's nearly impossible, in my experience, to resolve religious, spiritual, or existential crises if the brain chemistry is out of balance.

And, if I'm wrong and you wind up with a clean bill of health, that's one less thing to concern you.