Religious/Worldview Techniques

Less reassurringly, Yog-Sothoth.

For a short period in high school, I used to offer an evening prayer to Athena Oxyderkes ("sharp-sighted").

Oh, I don't mind questions, but I may not have very fullsome answers.

Do you hold beliefs about the "divine" in addition to participating in religion?

I find some religious ideas more attractive than others. I've found that as I get older I tend to have fewer and vaguer beliefs. To take another example, I'm interested in US politics and have been for a long time but I no longer have any strong opinion on which of the two parties is better. This sometimes bothers me - I'd rather not wake up one day finding that I no longer care about anything.

Would a strong argument against the "divine" change your behavior?

If you convinced me that I would get more utility with different behavior then I assume my behavior would change. I've read a whole lot of atheist literature, though, if that's what you mean.

What attracts you to religion?

I don't know exactly but my views are roughly similar to those described by this person.

What form?

I find most religions at least moderately attractive. I dislike Christianity less as I get older, though I still have an aversion to the Lutheranism which I was raised with and converted out of in my teen years.

I mostly worship privately and perhaps somewhat idiosyncratically but I sometimes attend the public rituals of a local pagan group.

I'm not sure what the difference is.

I think what's going on is that feelings of thankfulness happen naturally, just as a part of ordinary life, and if your first instinct is to give them a religious outlet it takes a deliberate choice to think a different thought.

Because it strikes me as a fundamental question and I'm exposed to it constantly?

Now this is something different from the impression the post left me with. It is one thing to have emotional response to something, and another thing to have a judgment about that emotional response. From your post, I understood that you have emotional attachment to religious beliefs, but you don't approve of that attachment, it's not part of yourself, you don't actually think those beliefs are true, and so you asked about strategies for cutting that unwelcome not-part-of-yourself off. But for the question itself to be deemed "fundamental", you need to believe it has any merit, in this case hold religious beliefs as not obviously false.

(Whatever the case, stating your situation more clearly would be a first step.)

and I'm exposed to it constantly

Have you noticed which specific situations make you think about Christianity and cause the discomfort? Is it any reference to the religion, or something more specific, like during discussions of morality?

Attempting to refine this a bit more.

I feel, on a deep level, that Christianity is true

Is it Christianity specifically that you feel is true, (original sin, virgin birth, son of God, walking on water miracle, Holy Spirit, baptism, sad ending involving a cross ...) or is it that you have a sense of the spiritual nature of the universe that you can't shake.

As Vladimir_Nesov says above:

stating your situation more clearly would be a first step

As this sounds a bit like me, reading the Bible might lead you towards atheism.

I'd also consider asking why (Christians you disagree with) followed such a different path, if you feel inclined to believe any form of 2 Corinthians 5:17 and you can find anyone whose views you definitively consider wrong.

(I was going to say, 'LaHaye and Jenkins to the rescue!' But perhaps you'd better start with Fred Phelps.)

The issue is that I feel, on a deep level, that Christianity is true.

In a kind of Disney movie/believe in yourself/do what you feel is right, kind of way? I'd just go right ahead and suppress that feeling. Seriously. Things don't become more likely because you have a deep feeling that they're true. Lots of people have deep level feelings about lots of things*.The great thing is that if you suppress those feelings, and God does turn out to exist, being rational about it will lead you to the correct beliefs anyway.

*I have a constant feeling that pacifism is always the right course, and that I should never use violence for anything. But I suppress this feeling because it isn't actually correct.

The issue is that I feel, on a deep level, that Christianity is true.

You feel that, but do you believe that?

Were you raised Christian? Were you originally convinced (not just emotionally) that it actually was true?

I feel, on a deep level, that Christianity is true

I'd like to read more about that. What do you feel, think, and believe happened in Palestine circa 0-33 AD? What about the previous several thousand years of Israeli history ? What about the saints and miracles of the following ~1600 years or so?

And do you have any idea of why (I assume) you don't feel the same about the events that built Islam, Asatro, or Hinduism?

Could you expand on what the feeling is like?

Also, what would you be doing or thinking differently if you accepted Christianity as true?