Opinion of the "fake it til you make it" approach to faith?

[Cassandra]

I have been applying this strategy to Christianity as of late, and I feel like I have hit a wall. I thought that I might as well cast a line out to the forum community and see if anyone here has any insight.

Briefly about me, I was raised a Christian but lost my faith as a young teen. As an adolescent, I transferred my old faith in Christ into the secular faith in "Revolution." While I still hold to the same basic political worldview, I have come to realize that political philosophy is no substitute for my spiritual needs. And so, I find myself straining towards the Faith of my youth.

I want to believe that Christ died on the cross for our sins and was resurrected so that we might know eternal life, but try as I might that phrase does not mean anything to me. And when I pray, or the read the bible, or go to church, I cannot honestly say that I feel anything. Instead, I find myself as lonely and adrift as ever.

[RI]

There is nothing "fake" about choosing to believe. Faith is an action, not a feeling.

[John Dule]

So... faith?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Freedom approach. Everyone chooses whether or not to believe things about which their feelings and instincts could go one way or the other, every day of their lives.

[Mopsus]

I would ask what it is that draws you to faith in spite of the fact that it doesn’t make you feel what you want. What is it exactly that you’re trying to feel?

[afleitch]

I have been applying this strategy to Christianity as of late, and I feel like I have hit a wall. I thought that I might as well cast a line out to the forum community and see if anyone here has any insight.

Briefly about me, I was raised a Christian but lost my faith as a young teen. As an adolescent, I transferred my old faith in Christ into the secular faith in "Revolution." While I still hold to the same basic political worldview, I have come to realize that political philosophy is no substitute for my spiritual needs. And so, I find myself straining towards the Faith of my youth.

I want to believe that Christ died on the cross for our sins and was resurrected so that we might know eternal life, but try as I might that phrase does not mean anything to me. And when I pray, or the read the bible, or go to church, I cannot honestly say that I feel anything. Instead, I find myself as lonely and adrift as ever.

It's not uncommon.

To be slightly 'edgy' here, faith because of a need for personal fulfillment is 'selfish'. That doesn't make it either bad or suspect, but if you want to feel something, because you want personal benefit from that feeling then that's why you want to 'feel faith'. For some, that can overlap with treating people or situations differently than you otherwise would in order to maintain a certain...purity in that feeling. Even if it's conflicting.

What's harder is sustaining the personal or communal aesthetics and practice of faith when there's nothing in it, or trying to trick yourself that there is. I know because that's pretty much what I did until there was a point I thought 'no, this is nothing'. It got too tiring, too conflicting and too psychologically straining to pretend in my early twenties what I pretended after communion when I was seven.

Now it could be that there's an pull to 'try on' something familiar, but maybe you could find fulfillment from a different faith or spirituality?

[LabourJersey]

There is nothing "fake" about choosing to believe. Faith is an action, not a feeling.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     The practice of Christianity is founded in ascesis, or training oneself to meet the challenges of living as a Christian; among those challenges is fear and doubt about your most fundamental life choices. I definitely know that I wanted Christianity to be true prior to being internally convinced that it was true, and the process by which I came to that was a long one. Simply committing to believing something and doing it immediately is a very tall ask in the modern world, where society has ingrained skepticism into us. I wasn't able to make it that easily, and you shouldn't feel like there is something wrong with you if you are struggling to do that as well.

[RINO Tom]

Your "faith" or "religious beliefs" or whatever are not cheapened by the presence of doubt, ambiguity or non-orthodox beliefs ... and don't let any fundamentalist tell you otherwise.

[Cokeland Saxton]

This was pretty much me growing up

[Del Tachi]

Your "faith" or "religious beliefs" or whatever are not cheapened by the presence of doubt, ambiguity or non-orthodox beliefs ... and don't let any fundamentalist tell you otherwise.

"Fundamentalists" do not say/believe any of this per se, and certainly not anymore than your median low-brow Mainliner.

The theological gulf between American Evangelicals and the typical Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, etc. is way less pronounced than you imagine, Tom. 

[RINO Tom]

Your "faith" or "religious beliefs" or whatever are not cheapened by the presence of doubt, ambiguity or non-orthodox beliefs ... and don't let any fundamentalist tell you otherwise.

"Fundamentalists" do not say/believe any of this per se, and certainly not anymore than your median low-brow Mainliner.

The theological gulf between American Evangelicals and the typical Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, etc. is way less pronounced than you imagine, Tom. 

“Fundamentalist” in attitude, not denomination.  The type of person who tells you what type of brand of faith you “should” have, be they Lutheran or Baptist.

[Alcibiades]

I actually think I know the feeling you’re talking about, albeit I experienced it when I was very young. I went to a Church of England state primary school; I was brought up in a nonreligious household and went to the school simply because it was the closest to my house, but, nonetheless, hearing the Christian message almost every day from authority figures at such a young age predictably made a big impression. (I should also add this was not some freaky evangelical place; it was a well-regarded state school which embraced a tolerant, moderate form of Anglicanism and certainly did not unduly harass the 50% of pupils from non-Christian families; it’s just that at that age it’s very hard not to be majorly influenced by repeatedly hearing a message from trusted adults.)

I really, genuinely wanted to believe, both because I thought it was the right, socially proper thing to do and because the message of Jesus’ love, a God always looking out for you, and an eternal afterlife where I would be reunited with those I had lost, sounded very attractive. Like you, I strained and strained; I took moments of collective worship and silent reflection at school seriously, trying my best to imagine what Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross meant, and in my own time I prayed at home for ill loved ones.

But deep down, I think I always knew the whole premise of Christianity was deeply implausible. I was trying to hope against all hope that the above things I wanted to be true were actually true, but even at my most faithful, it was always much more of a feeling of thinking there was a small chance it might be real, but that it most likely wasn’t.

Anyway, by the time I left primary school aged 11 my ‘faith’ was already decisively wearing off, and the final blow was given by me going on to a nonreligious secondary school; by the time I was 12, I was a convinced atheist, as I have been ever since.

So yeah, I really empathise with where you’re coming from, and you seem to be motivated by all the right reasons. All I can say is that in my personal experience, embracing my lack of belief and being true to myself was liberating.