I am one of those strange "agnostic atheists." I don't really believe in god or gods. However, I recognize that we have no way of knowing whether this is true or not, and I feel that despite my disbelief, I would be lying in saying that I actually know for certain that no gods exist, or even or that matter, do exist. My specific lack of belief is towards most man-made concepts of god, particularly the Abrahamic faiths. That said, regardless of my beliefs, I often question to whether it could be possible that there is some kind of higher power in the universe, in whatever capacity that might be. I often wonder if there is something more to existence than what we know or can comprehend.

That said, also, I'm curious; has anyone here left religion, gone to atheism, and then came to agnosticism? When I left my faith in Christianity about 8 months ago, I quickly came to the agnostic position, and found it was a very good, happy medium. But the more and more time went by, I realized that I didn't believe, so I guess by default, that made me an atheist. I do realize that agnostic and atheist are two different things. I feel they are often grouped together a lot as people seem to use them interchangeably. I am certain that there are some out there who don't like the atheist title, who prefer to use agnostic instead. Me and my wife are both (secular) humanists, so I generally just prefer to use that. It would also seem there are some agnostics out there that are still searching for answers, and for good reasons for both sides of the god question spectrum. I think my position in the fact that we have no way of knowing whether god(s) exist or don't exist, that it isn't possible to know, is pretty solid for me and what I mean when I consider myself an "agnostic."

Earth: 4.543 billion years old Sun: 4.603 billion years old Moon: 4.53 billion years old Milky Way: 13.61 billion years old Mars: 4.603 billion years old Solar System: 4.571 billion years old. Enough proof to show that God never spoke all things into existence at the same time as stated in Genisis. "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." - Mark Twain.

If you subscribe to the concept of a creator, what could possibly be the reason for the creation of sentient beings beyond entertainment for "higher beings"?

In 2023 I had a psychotic break due to ptsd. The entire time I thought god was angry at me, that the bad things that had happened were my fault because I didn't pray hard enough, and that if I could just figure out why god was mad at me I could fix it and prevent things from happening again. Thanks to the wonder of modern medicine, I am doing much better today and can think more clearly.

I had been raise religious. For some reason, that psychotic experience led me to no believe in a specific god. I think something beyond us exists, but I just don't have the belief in a structured religion anymore.

I think it was freeing to realize nothing I did was causing a god to be angry with me and that praying wasn't controlling anything. I can't control things, but how I respond to them.

I feel free, but at the same time it feels odd having a such a change in belief. I feel calm about it. Sometimes I wonder if I'm wrong, but at the end of the day I can't know things from certian.

This is my first time posting here. Really I'm just looking for others thoughts on this situation.

I'm officially somewhere between an Agnostic and Atheist and just wanted somewhere to share this. This is my second time coming away from the Christian faith and I feel like my last now that I'm more solid in my decision and beliefs.

With Priests that are accused of Sexual Abuse, 1/4th are actually convicted

Why if they were so high on preaching the way of god, would they do that?

My opinion is that they know that what they are spreading is complete bullshit and they know that they’re aren’t any consequences once you die.

Also, I don’t know if your church near your is like this, but with mine the priest gets a free house without having to pay rent, or taxes on the property since the house is on the church the church has to pay taxes.

I've been seeing this a lot on the atheism subreddit.....was wondering if that was true or not.....

I have three kids aged 5, 7, and 9. We recently had a family move into the neighborhood with kids about the same age. They all play together well, but I know that the family is extremely conservative baptists. They home schooled for a while and now their kids attend a Christian school. Their faith is intertwined in everything they do.

I was a little anxious about the interaction because my husband and I are both agnostics. I was raised as a Christian, and I have no desire for my kids to be raised that way. It really bothers me to teach young children that they are inherently bad and sinful amongst the many other things that might be taught with that religion.

We have tried explaining our beliefs (or lack of) to our kids, but we really just want them to explore and find their own path. We haven't spent a lot of time discussing religion as they are still fairly young, and it's difficult to discuss when they still believe in things like Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.

In any case, the neighbor kid apparently asked my son if there were any "non-believers" in our house, and my oldest quickly ratted us out haha. The other little girl said she was worried about them going to hell so she found some kids books about the Bible and started reading them to my kids. They each ended up going home with their own book and have now all professed that they believe in God and Jesus.

What do I do?! They are all so young and easily believe almost anything they are told. I really don't want some of those beliefs taking hold before they've developed much of an ability for critical thinking. If they one day choose to explore Christianity as teenagers, I'm totally OK with it, but I am not ok with my 5 year old being told that she is a bad person who needs saved and that her mommy and daddy are going to end up in hell. That's nightmare fuel.

I'm trying to figure out the best way to approach a discussion about religion. Are there any good YouTube videos that explain the many different types of religions and beliefs that exist and would be geared towards young kids? I think it might be helpful to see all the different things that humans have believed instead of just assuming that Christianity is the truth.

What are some good age appropriate things to say to my kids who apparently all now believe in this?! Should I not let them play with the other kids if they keep bringing religion into their playtime?

Thanks!

I have been questioning religion for over 4 years now and I have been considering myself an agnostic for over 2 years.

For context I am born into a muslim family. They don't practice the religion actively. They just believe in god and consider themselves muslim.

For me, a lot of things did not make any sense at all in islam. I drifted away questioning more and more. Never really felt connected truly. Searched other religions and beliefs but they all seemed extremely flawed that I could not bring myself to believe any of them. Then I questioned if I need a religion at all? I believe it's enough to be a good person overall. No matter what you are or who you are.

My view is, I cannot deny or accept god until I see a proof of gods existance or non-exiatance. Could there be a big power that we are not capable of understanding? Yes. Could there be no god and just events that are beyond our understanding? Again yes. But I don't have the craving or the need to include a god in my life. I feel fine by myself. I've never sought after god and just dealt with everything fine by myself with logic.

So what does that make me? An agnostic or atheist?

Thank you for reading and your insights!

So I have always been raised christian and I strayed away for a bit, but I am trying to get back into it. I don't feel anything like I used to, I feel nothing when I try to pray to God and I feel like I am just talking to myself and nothing else. My grandma always told me that I was put here for a reason and that I wouldn't have survived through my medical complications as a baby and be here today if it wasn't for God. I was born 4 months early and I wasn't supposed to see, but now I do. I have kept this as the main reason for my belief in God, but I'm finding it hard to keep these beliefs.

I found a horrible group of church friends and their branch of Christianity is so bad it made me want to rethink Christianity as a whole. They believe that women should only be in the house and not have to work and the man controls everything in the relationship. They also go to abortion rallies and fight with the people there.

I feel that Christianity is slowly drifting out of my life and I am thinking more agnostically, but I'm afraid that if I move over to this my whole life will flip upside down. My grandma wouldn't think of me the same, my mom wouldn't think of me the same, my girlfriend might not love me anymore.

All of these thoughts are haunting me and I don't know what to think. I need help on how to think about this I don't know what to do. I do think that I believe in agnosticism, but what if I go to hell in 80 years? I do think that people should be able to control their own destiny and not rely on this figure who might not be here, but what if he is and what if he does help people ho believe in him? Can someone please help contrain these thoughts and help me get clarity. I don't know what to think anymore.

That's a thought i've been having a lot lately, that we as people seem to care a lot (or mistakenly care a lot) about some sort of higher meaning, objective meaning. Some people despair over the fact that they can't answer what their life means for the universe. They fall into that depressive nihilism over a question that really, has no meaning either. And in the nihilism sub some people ofc say that this question has no meaning either, but still there's many people caring about it. Also, an argument for god is that if I'm just an organism, my life doesn't matter. And ofc that ain't an argument at all, it's *wanting* to believe that ur life matters, so u say i won't believe that my life doesn't matter. People don't like the idea that they are organisms based on meat and electrical signals. I suppose the last one is because humans have some "feeling" that living things, not necessarily humans are of more value than non-living things. And by "reducing" the human to an "object" because his conciousness is not a diving thing but a product of his brain, u reduce his value. About the first idk, maybe humans just bond relative size with importance. Imo we just trip ourselves in questions as necessary as "why does my cigarette cares if i find this book interesting". It's a question we have no reason to ask, but somehow we find meaning to it, we ask it and we get disapointed.

For many years I had a business. It started out small, but over time it grew to employ about 1300 people in multiple states.

My education and training were highly technical and scientific. I did not have any education in business management. I am an expert in my field, but as my business grew I found myself at the helm of a large organzization. I had one partner and fortunately he is a business savant.

The reason I tell you this is because I learned so much leading a business.

Good, honest people who would never steal a penny lie about important things every day. They genuinely want to make me happy, so they try to present good news.

Here is the thing. Good news is fun, but if it isn’t accurate and I use happy but flawed information to make important decisions, I can do things that could be devastating to the company. Pleasant fiction can be dangerous.

The tendency for good otherwise honest people to overstate good news and minimize bad news can’t be overstated.

I tried to convince my top people that there was no such thing as good or bad news. There was just news. But this is a concept only a tiny fraction of people understand. I promoted the hell out of those people.

If I was making a critical decision I found that before I sought answers from my team, I had to verify who on my team was capable of delivering unpleasant news or simply saying “I do not know, but I will attempt to find out more and get back to you by noon tomorrow. “

I often asked my team members simple unimportant questions I had researched fully. If they confabulated an answer, then unfortunately I knew I could not trust them to give accurate info on big mission critical projects.

I can’t emphasize enough how these are people who are generous, kind, hard working, intelligent and totally trustworthy in most circumstances, but when faced with not knowing an answer they wanted to know or felt like they should know 9 out of 10 would make up a pleasant answer rather than admit they don’t know.

As an agnostic I am owning the fact that I do not know what happens after death. I am highly optimistic, but that does not mean I know.

In my business I had to work very hard to root out fake knowledge. It is hard to create a culture that embraces our inability to know some things.

Knowing things is pleasant. Knowing that I don’t know is a source of great freedom.

Thanks for reading my thoughts,

Sincerely,

The optimistic agnostic.

I’m a former Christian (childhood, teens) and by early adulthood I kind of fell away from really having faith in Christianity except for just a “smidgen” that I held onto that was a thread.

I’ve even more recently in the last few years still attended church services, I am not against going to a church and sitting down or reflecting on it, I just don’t really think in very many ways that it’s for me. And I would call myself an atheist, except sometimes I get a sort of “pain” in my heart, idk how else to explain, but a need to have a connection to God/direct prayer to God, etc. Except that I don’t want to be specifically a Christian.

Sometimes I have become depressed because I want this connection and I feel that I need this connection, and sometimes I don’t even think about this connection.

I don’t really want to be “religious” but I’m not against the idea of there being a God and me praying to God.

In a lot of ways I think I do believe in God, but just not in the Christian way.

Maybe I just need to vent a lot.

Hi. I'm New here on this Channel. Can you guys recomended me some good books about Agnosticism. Because i'm Very interrested in this Topic, and I wanna become one of you guys. I want some easy books that I want to read on my Kindle during my free time. What are some books that you recomended to me?

Can’t believe I’m going to Reddit about this. Anyways. Since I was a kid I’ve always had that anxiety about death. It went away for a while but still lingering every now and then and about a couple of months ago I had a panic attack because of it and I couldn’t stop thinking about it ever since. I’ve read people’s opinions on death and it just makes me even more scared of it. I don’t want anyone to tell me why they aren’t scared of death, I want someone to tell me that death won’t happen. Which is delusional, I know, but I’m terrified. I’m an agnostic, but deep down I feel like there if nothing else out there. Which is so scary. Has anyone else had this problem? How do I fix it? What did you do to calm yourself down?

Edit: I don’t want to live forever, reincarnation would be awesome but reincarnation would be like unicorns to me. Yes, it would be a good thing but it’s not real.

Someone will probably want a narrower definition. I guess I would describe the particular "flavor" that I'm after could be described by this statement:

"I personally don't know anything one way or another, but I choose to believe that our stream of consciousness & personal identity can exist in an intact state while being independent from this physical reality. I have no particular beliefs or opinions w.r.t supernatural entities such as gods."

Do any names or resources bearing decent similarity to such a statement come to mind?

I mean think about it, humans being the only intelligent life and Earth having the only life currently discovered makes us kinda significant. Like almost supernaturally significant.

My parents became born-again Christians before starting a family. They have an extensive amount of experiences in the secular world, which they believe are justification for their religious attitude. My mother gave up her occupation to become a full-time minister. Growing up I was happy and fulfilled, yet most of my desires were and still are very much suppressed. Not even outlandish pleasures, just simple activities. My teenage years were rough as most people's were, but somehow it was due to religious apathy and backsliding. I am not exactly the most rebellious person. I do not really consider myself religious anymore. I want to have a better relationship with my parents as far as transparency is concerned, but I know they will not be happy with what I currently believe. You really cannot please religious parents.

Are there any simliarities to your personal experiences with the leaving religion stories in this documentary?

https://tubitv.com/movies/100018684/witness-underground

I have participated in the evangelical church since I can remember, I was never baptized but I always accompanied my parents, from adolescence to now (I'm 24 years old) I went back and forth but at the beginning of the year I decided that I would get baptized The baptism will now take place in May, the problem is that in the last few weeks I have been in doubt as to whether this is what I really want I have questioned and disagreed with doctrines such as eternal damnation and salvation exclusively in the Christian church. In addition to the fact that I dislike and disapprove of the prejudice caused by Christians today,And throughout the history of the church. I don't like the divisions of Christianity and its wartime past, and I have a lot of problems with the God of the Old Testament and how different he is from Jesus. Unfortunately, I see myself lost if I don't follow the Christian faith, all my family and few friends are part of this culture and this faith, I feel that I will be alone and excluded if I don't get baptized, but I'm afraid of getting baptized just for fear of hell or of being alone and repenting, and perhaps ending up losing my supposed salvation in Jesus. The only religion I see myself participating in is Buddhism or some oriental religion, atheism I find very pessimistic. Finally, I apologize for the long text and spelling errors, I'm from Brazil and my written English is very weak. Hope I get some useful advice

I was born muslim.But after researching religion I started to question religion which made me altogether left the religion and than choice christianity still got problem of how much stoning is mentioned and slavery and genocide in bible which was problamatic for me and I ended up being non religious with no religion right now.But right now I am having a problem.I sweats a lot, I am afraid of life more and death even more, I cannot do any work good and normally my hand feels weak and I feel weak due to that I do not have any religion amd I feel so hopeless in my life right now.Sometimes I just feel that I want to convert to my previous religion or christianity but I cant do due to veiling of woman of muslim and past muslim history of having their thousands of concubines and so on.But I cannot stay non religious either due to having so much problem I do not know how do I get rid of this problem can you suggest me any idea?

I’m not entirely sure (hahaha..) if this is the right sub to post this on, but I will continue to do so.

To start off, I never grew up around Christianity although my mother and grandma was. I remember questioning god to my grandma from a very young age, it just seemed like I couldn’t grasp a lot of things that he preached. As I grow older now, my questions are answered.. but should they be? do we really need an answer to everything regarding spiritual practice? The Bible is a handwritten book of rules and principles to follow, if it were without jesus and god, it would be nothing but a philosophical standpoint.

In my opinion, I think there is a god, I would like to believe. Just not the one we know/is written. God is too compelling to be written in a book with words, it shouldn’t be for humans or animals to understand. When I think of god it’s never what is written or whats been deliberated because it’s too far from ink and paper and too far from establishment.

If omniscient surely he understands all the minute nuances and intentions, and surely understanding on such a level must make empathy. To be all knowing, is to be all understanding. Which as we all know, god (the bible) is not. Especially, we see in his OT.

They written him off as a vengeful and selfish god, and then made him…. Better? Logically, if two statements are contradictory, at least one of them is false.

That’s just my interpretation of everything. I have been fixated on religion for awhile so im still gathering my thoughts and ideas. Feel free to share anything else.

For context: I was raised in a strict protestant home that left me with many deep seeded issues and one might say "religious trauma". I was indoctrinated and my "church" was a closed feedback loop and echo chamber for the pompous, self righteous and judgemental type Christians. My parents never broke free of this, amd continue their self righteous religious behaviour to this day. It has negatively impacted our family, driven siblings apart and I want no part in that aspect of that area of their lives. Ive forgiven them for my childhood and understand that in their way, they thought they were doing the right thing.

Im married now with a young daughter. My wife can claim Jewish birthright but her mom stopped practicing after moving out, so my wife grew up in an agnostic home and is agnostic, as an I. When we are at my parents, we are respectful of their home and say nothing when they pray over meals. After all, their house, their rules.

However, if we invite them over, they always pray over the meal here too, and it makes me uncomfortable. It's not an observed practice under our roof, and not something I want my daughter to be influenced by at a young age. In fact, part of me thinks they may be doing this to get to her and "save" her down the road.

My wife and I intend to expose our daughter to as many of the world's religions as possible when she is old enough to understand what's going on around her and ASK QUESTIONS. But for now, we want ZERO religious influence apart from perhaps the cultural Jewish things at extended family gatherings so the heritage isn't lost.

Would I be justified in demanding that if my parents wish to pray over dinner, they do so silently while in my house instead of forcing it to be a public display? Or an I just being over protective and over sensitive and should just let them do their thing....

Interested to hear everyone's opinion.

The idea of life and sentient beings makes no sense in any situation. If God is real what gives? Where are you, what are you, and why do you allow so many interpretations of you many being super violent! And if God isn’t there then where did everything come from? What was at the beginning and what began the beginning. Everything has a beginning but that’s a paradox it’s self. If everything needs a beginning then what began the beginning and before that? So many questions but no answers!

So I’m 21F and grew up in the baptist church. I have questioned religion since I was 11, however, I am seriously considering leaving the religion now as a 21 year old. Here’s why:

Logically and scientifically, I don’t really have an opinion on it yet. I can see how one can conclude there is natural design same as evolution. The only way to truly prove the theory is by getting into a Time Machine and travelling back in time. I think there is proof for evolution just like there is proof for intelligent design. It’s hard though because, with Christianity, you can fill in the gaps with “that’s how God designed it.” So I guess that is part of the reason it’s hard to argue it.

However, morally, I just can’t see it. I battled cancer for 3 years from ages 17-20 and so much pain and heartache came from it. I’ve been abandoned and the feeling of being totally alone is actually the most horrible feeling. I know there are people who have it far worse than me, but that’s what makes it so hard. An all powerful God and an all good God cannot be within the same entity. Because an all powerful God could stop the pain and misery, and an all Good God would not let this pain and misery happen. I have other reasons but that’s the main one.

I would leaving religion all together, however, I find it hard to leave. I’ve been taught since I was born that God is real. I’m truly terrified of hell, and I still find myself praying even though I’m trying to leave. So the point of this post is, 1) How do I get over this fear, and also 2) what are some good sources/arguments against Christianity/God/religion (I’m a fairly logical human so that might be helpful). Thanks

I'm still learning about Agnosticism, so I have some questions. (serious answers only!)

1. Have you ever told someone you're Agnostic and they say, "You mean Atheist?"

2. What is the difference between Agnosticism and Atheism?

3. How young is too young to know you're Agnostic?

I'm 16 and my mom tells me I'm too young to know I support Agnosticism, or that I'm actually an Atheist and I don't know what I'm talking about. Thank you for answering!

I moved across country with my mom a couple years ago. I’m 25 f, and at the time had not seen my mom in over 10 years. We reconnected and I decided to move with her, my stepdad, and little brother to Georgia. I live in the mother-in-law sweet of our house. They have helped me out in many ways and have been a good support system for the most part. My mom was raised by a narcissist, so sometimes she has toxic habits, but is overall a loving mom (I do know for a fact she is NOT a narcissist). One of the few major arguments we’ve had has been triggered by one thing: religion.

I was raised Christian but now identifies as agnostic. I disclosed this to my mom, which then triggered MANY arguments down the road. She was point blank belligerent sometimes, even calling me selfish for saying it’s wrong to force Christian beliefs on people. First, she demanded that one Sunday a month I had to go to church. Let me tell you, I was PISSED. Then, it was church and Bible study. This church is a stereotypical southern Baptist. Anti-gay, anti-trans, anti-abortion, etc. A belief system that I am against to my very bones. Overall the people are nice. They are not the “burn the gays” type but the “love the sinner, not the sin 🥰” kind.

My stepdad, just out of the blue one day, said it had to be every Sunday. I literally begged him to not force me to do that, and he kept saying no and then ignoring me. My mom told me the next day “wElL iF yOu hADn’T tHRoWn a fIT”. I didn’t…

I sat my step dad down a week or two later after the incident. I explained to him I’m an adult. I was not told that there would be mandated church attendance if I moved to Georgia. I also told him that to change the demand without any sort of discussion was completely unfair. We came to an agreement that I only had to attend Bible study. I do get guilt tripped sometimes when I don’t attend certain services, but they haven’t gone back on their word yet. I have considered many times just refusing to go to church, but I decided to continue to just avoid the issue. I have asked if maybe I could find my own church too, but my mom knows my beliefs. She told me she worries I wouldn’t pick a truthful church.

I do wake up every Sunday angry. I settle down but some days it’s really hard to not resent my parents and resent the church. I want to move out, but I also enjoy my little apartment and I’m not stable enough financially to move out.

I will be appreciative of advice, though is mostly a vent than advice seeking post. If you gotten this far, thanks for the read. Also, I just got a church notification on my phone as I was about to post this 😂

Hey everyone

Recently, I've been doing some deep thinking about the concept of God and what it means to me personally. As someone who was an atheist not too long ago, this has been quite a journey for me.

While I can't say for certain whether or not God exists, I've found myself leaning towards the idea of hope as a small aspect of what I believe in.

Hope, to me, serves as a source of determination and mental strength. It's what keeps me working towards something, even when proof of God's existence eludes me. But beyond traditional religious interpretations, I've also considered the notion that our unconscious mind could be our own version of a deity.

Imagine worshipping and working towards a better environment for your unconscious mind—a mental church, temple, or mosque, if you will.

However, I want to be clear about what I don't believe in: organized religions. I find it challenging to trust doctrines written by fallible humans, passed down through generations with varying interpretations influenced by greed for money and power.

Over time, religions have become entangled with politics, losing sight of their original purpose of fostering communication or connection with the divine. Instead, they've often become arenas for power struggles and manipulation.

As humans, we're inherently curious and skeptical beings. We're scientists at heart, constantly exploring possibilities and learning not to take everything at face value. So, I encourage you to embark on your own journey of exploration. It's a thrilling adventure for my curious mind, and I hope you find it just as intriguing.

Let's engage in some thoughtful discussion—what are your thoughts on the concept of God and organized religion? Let's share our perspectives and learn from each other.

I likely plan to post this to other subreddits because it's affecting me more than I'd like to admit (kind of embarrassingly so) and I really do want any advice I can get. I wanted to start here because a big part of my difficulty accepting this is, I'm sure, related to my absolute lack of spirituality and my slight difficulty seeing this as something other than puritanical brainwashing, as anything other than part of the whole Christian guilt agenda. That said, I do love my boyfriend and want to support and respect his choices - I think I'm just struggling with it for several reasons, including my lack of spirituality, my mental illnesses (whatever they may be, about twelve years ago I was diagnosed with severe social anxiety, anxiety, and severe depression) and our history surrounding sex. On April 11th, my boyfriend of close to 9 years told me (after a few months of suddenly starting to take interest in the Bible as well as take its texts very literally, questioning whether he's still a Catholic or considers himself a Christian fundamentalist, something I don't necessarily mind though I have made clear since our relationship started that I'm personally uninterested in religion) that he wants to practice celibacy until marriage now. My lack of spirituality is getting in the way because I have to constantly remind myself that these things he's reading aren't just stories to him, that they're real in his mind; my mental illnesses are getting in the way because I am constantly fighting the absolute stupidest thoughts off (i.e. we wake up in the morning and my thoughts immediately are "remember when he used to want you in the morning? boy, what you took for granted" before reminding myself that this is his decision and I'm being kind of fucking gross and need to respect him - especially because, understandably, he's been kind of upset that I'm so upset about this change, expecting me to think better of him than this, which I would like to) and struggling with the thought that, despite him telling me that "practice doesn't have to be perfect and I (he) can repent for my sins if I slip up", there's potential that I could never look at sex the same because I'm suddenly the sinner he has to repent over, because I'm suddenly a cause of guilt. Finally, I think our history surrounding sex is potentially throwing things off for me the most. My self-esteem has never been wonderful. He's always, always wanted me regardless of situation and would grab my butt and hold me and kiss me all the time and it's just super different-feeling now. A few years ago, we struggled with sex because he wanted me so often and because I felt as though I was a bit emotionally neglected and as though we should be more emotionally intimate before being sexually intimate. Over the past few years, he's slowly but surely improved himself a bunch, and he's become a really good, caring man, and in turn I've become more and more comfortable with him emotionally and sexually. I thought that things had been going particularly well in that regard just before this, and that makes this difficult, too. He reminds me all the time that he loves me and he's told me again and again that he's very committed to me and that he does still want me, but I'm just really, really sad over the whole thing, and I'm honestly mad at myself for being sad about it, too, if that makes sense. Does anyone have any advice? Coping skills? Anything, really?

Tl;dr boyfriend of almost nine years goes celibate until marriage for religious reasons, I'm unreasonably sad about it and haven't stopped crying on and off for days and can barely sleep but I really want to respect his decision and come to terms with it and would love advice on doing so.