During praying, I’m questioning myself:
Do I really pray or is it for the show?
Am I praying fro my own sake of for someone else?
These questions can also raise during other activities.
My questions are:
How is it possible to doubt your own acts? And with “who or what” are you doubting? Is there something as a conversation with the mind?
Stories of self experience would be appreciated.
I think of Hegel’s dialectics as a very useful tool to clarify oppositivites thoughts.
Praying is thesis, doubting you’re praying is the anti-thesis, and the synthesis is knowing why you pray.
I have a lot of conversations in my mind like that. Thinking of one thing, doubting it and take a look at the opposite, and make conclusions, which can be doubted also. Isn’t this intellectual growth against dogmatism?
I am in a constant state of self-doubt, and i do not think this is a bad thing
As humans it is our nature to question, doubt and reason. This self-doubt is a part of logical, anylitical thinking. By doubting our own ideas and practices we are allowing ourselves to be open to recieve new ideas and judge them objectively and compare them against our own ideas and values. By being open and objective we can more easily interact with each other and resolve conflict.
When people do not doubt themselves and their ideas their minds become rigid and they lose sight of reason and reality. This is best observed in religious fundementalists. I don’t think I need to get into the dangers of fundementalism.
So I say doubt yourself, doubt all things, then use reason, logic, emotion and ethics to decide what you want to accept. If you find that you can overcome your doubts through reason then continue your path. If you find that your doubts are winning out, then re-think your practices, values and ideas.
Doubt begets belief
When everything is doubted, you eventually come to the rockbottom of all; yourself. What is yourself? There are some topics about it on this forum (for example solipism, identity, knowledge), but is it imaginary or is it something real? If it was something real, you can call it belief. Because how can you know for sure it’s real? No answer tot that IMO, it’s just belief. So believing, questioning your beliefs, and believing again. There is something circulair in it. And to the rockbottom, doubting makes life hard, find something where you can believe in. Questioning your beliefs, can make your belief firmer, and yourself stronger.
But aren’t we made to think ‘on the fly’. I know we are no machines but how can we doubt our actions if you’re doing it?
It seems that a human being has one of the three functions:
What are the findings?
Hadj, such is the burden which accompanies being alive and sentient. Homo sapiens - thinking man. Non-sentient animals do not have this problem.
Sometimes, I envy my fellow creatures. LOL
Quite the opposite to my experience. I have found knowledge to be a formidable enemy of faith. How can you reconcile evolution with a literal reading of the Bible? Impossible, in my experience.
“How can one reconcile creationism with the hard evidence of evolution? With copious helpings of fancy.”
Yes, and isn’t this grossly incompatible with holding fast to any one faith or religion? (just asking for sake of discussion ;))
Religion is an excuse not to think for ourselves about the most fudamental questions we can ask ourselves. Religion tells us that to doubt these beliefs we have been told to have from a young age is also bad. Unquestioning faith is what is taught. Might be OK for some (see fundamentalists) but not for me. Ever-questioning and re-questioning is more healthy and more likely to give one a better view of the world, or maybe not better but more ‘true’? Who knows, but unquestioning faith is surely just dogmatic ignorance?
Actually, I’m not sure. Maybe I’ll have to rethink my views 
.
Damn, don’t stumble. I admire your forthrightness and conviction. In my part of the world Christianity is an unspoken religion of the state. The Biblical God is uttered everywhere; His name invoked in state institutions and ceremonies nationwide. (You can bet they’re not invoking Allah. lol)
It can take courage to think for oneself and honor intellectual integrity.
My life is about as mysterious as everything else around me. But by ‘attempting’ to put some kind of meaning to my life, it could make me feel betta but i know i’d only be lying to myself. I think as humans we’r intelligent enough to create god, not the other way around.
I have many reasons for disbelieving in god, i will not go into detail but here’s one, assume your mother has died, she was a beautiful, kind, loving and generous woman…sadly she died in a car crash. A religious person may say that she died in the car crash as some kind of reward from god because he wanted her company in heavan or whatever it may be. But if an ‘evil’ serial killer died in a car crash then a religious person would say that it was part of gods punishment towards that serial killer in order for him to burn in hell.
…I can’t understand how one person’s reward can be another persons punishment?
And which religion does says that?
Maybe i wasn’t being clear enough. No religion says that but what would u say? If a serial killer was killed in an accident car crash, you would say it was God’s way of punishing him right? But what if a kind and generous woman died in exactly the same kind of incident, you would also probably say that it too was an act of God, but a reward instead of a punishment. But i would say that it was an act of nature. I personally think we are part of nature’s cycle, their is no meaning to our lives, but we can create that ourselfs.
How can this ‘‘God’’ ever obtain an accurate judgement of humans if he is only judging us on our actions that reflect our fear of Hell. ‘‘God’’ says follow my laws and you will live in enternal paradise, if not you will burn in hell. But why would he tell us? Surely if he knows by now that the only judgement of people he is getting is of those living in fear of hell. How can u judge somebody like that? God cannot ever get a clear accurate judgement of people because people who believe in god also fear hell, therefore they will live in anyway to avoid hell.
…God is a fairy tale like myth, thats my own personal opinions.
Feel free to reply.
Pick one!
Rami is simply pointing out the subjective interpretation of life events by religionists in general.
I whole-heatedly agree. In fact, I wish I had said it first. But I’ve always thought so; there’s nothing more important than questioning.
Everything you do should be able to stand up to questioning. After all your questioning, if you find it isn’t right, or something’s off, than don’t do it.
That’s true with religion, too. I can’t stand people who don’t probe into their religions and ask questions of their faith. How do you know it’s right if you never even tried to prove it wrong?!
So yes, doubt everything! just don’t freak out your spouse with it, heh.
I question myself, therefore I am.
If you were not questioning, that would be reason for alarm - and/or, says the angel on my right shoulder, for prayers to be answered.
That’s all the mind is, a conversation with itself.
When the mind is still, when it is not disagreeing with itself, there is no(-)mind. Doubt embodies the mind - and unless you want to withdraw from this world, which is a school of probability, doubt is your home. It should be a mobile home, a vehicle; mind is the dynamic ground of your persona.
Usually a bit of critical thinking may do the job.
Yes I agree with this, three simple ways of actually analysing your doubt.
I am sure your able to talk to yourself mentally and think things through, that is the way I do it and it has served me well 