Lived Experience Forum

[Bismuth]

@justanotherguy  My name is Miriam, I was named after Moses’ sister, who also led the Israelites. It isn’t a terribly happy story, but I think it would help if you tried reading the whole story. 
There are a few things Christians have always taught about this. One is that the world is an unfolding story. It started with a garden, then things got bad fast, then the rest of the story which is still happening is about how we get back, or more accurately, how God acts to get us back. The second thing, which is a key difference in Islam to Christianity, is that although we believe the bible is the word of God, we also believe it was written by humans. Which makes it the truth, but not the whole truth. It is bits of the truth as seen by the writers at the time and filtered through their personalities. We say, it is “sufficient” but not complete.

[justanotherguy]

Hi Miriam,

@Bismuth 

I'm not saying my name yet as I have been quite open on Facebook about a lot of things and just need a break for a while. I initially came on here as I needed to connect with people who understand mental illness. I am not here for some kind of trick. As mentioned I have struggled with religious ideation at times.

But anyway, since so much happens in the Bible, both Old & New Testaments, that it's really hard to distill it into anything meaningful to be rapidly digested by society. Any attempts to do this misses all the subtleties within it. Before the advent of mass communication and modern society, the Bible was a book to absorb over many years, perhaps even a lifetime. It can say whatever you want it to say, but if you treat it as a guide book to life then it becomes a lot easier to deal with. As you say it aims to reveal God's 'truth' about our lives, but as you said it is not complete. Like all books, it ends, and then we are left wondering 'what next?' Assuming humanity has learned enough over the past several thousand years, I guess God wants us to take charge of our own lives. But then you can go further, and look at all the other religions, who basically had the same idea, and you realise the same sorts of desires are common to all people. This is not to push some 'one world religion' but it's obvious we all want mostly the same things out of life. I'm not scared to acknowledge other religions as I think in the future we are going to need all the helpful information we can get.

[Bismuth]

@justanotherguy  This has been an enjoyable discussion, but just one thing. “All religions have the same basic idea” - did you consult many people of faith before deciding that? I have friends who are Muslim and Hindu. We get along quite well. Maybe it would be instructive to ask people if they think their faith has the same basic idea, first?

Take care.

[justanotherguy]

Hi again @Bismuth ,

I wasn't trying to be rude, I have taken the time to study other religions to try to understand them better. Where I live it's hard to connect with people of other faiths. I think it will be a while before we are all dancing around under apple trees again, a few things have to happen first. Thanks for the chat.

[Sione]

@justanotherguy 

Are you hearing voices in your head non-stop 24/7 as well?

[justanotherguy]

@Sione 

No. Never have. Only once when I was overseas and it scared the heck out of me.

[justanotherguy]

@Sione,

r u ok today? I have endless thoughts in my head but they are all my own, it's not overthinking right now, I can keep it under control, but in the past my thoughts have become too much and caused me to end up in hospital again. But I feel the thoughts are important to have and don't want them to stop. It's just managing them was hard in the past. I think this forum has calmed them a bit as I can see others with MH issues so I don't feel so alone.

[justanotherguy]

@Shaz51

Thanks for the support. I think voices in the head can be very disturbing for people.