Get a grasp of reality.

Where can one come to calm waters with regards to our origins or our meaning for being? For me it was as easy as an examining my beliefs realistically, and I would suggest for any person finding themselves full of questions their religion can’t answer, to do the same. You may find that once the dust is settled you are actually closer to atheism than you though. But maybe you are still a Christian, Agnostic, or even just that you believe in “your” god and not the bible. But after that process is over it is imperative that you NEVER STOP ASKING QUESTIONS. Ask questions of yourself and your motives. What sociological or psychological contributors brought you to this process of thought, and what are the facts and your real ethical beliefs on the subject. To put what I am saying more simply, clean out the cupboards of your mind. The second step for me was to find my feet again, if I wasn’t going with “god did it” then how did I get here? Evolution seemed to be something. As Richard Dawkins once said, ‘if god just did earth, who just did god?’(Paraphrased) so I began to look into what other people were saying. My revolution started on youtube, what I was looking for was atheists that were not bad people or Christian haters; I found this on the big think channel, in the form of Penn Jillette. If I had to credit one person who I have never met for having helped me through all of this, it would be Penn Jillette. His videos of how he became an atheist helped me think of not being a Christian in a more positive way, and slowly video after video my stomach un-turned itself. Penn Jillette spoke of being a respectful atheist while at the same time being honest about your opinion, because tolerance is condescending. He talked about how to raise an atheist family and I often agreed with what he said (though, his political opinion I could not be more opposed to). Penn talked also of how sometimes just reading the bible alone will make you an atheist. I think that there is some truth to that. For me if the lack of realistic numbers didn’t get me, the cruelty did. I found that my thoughts didn’t line up with the thoughts that the bible imposed in many areas, but for me, it was the bible’s opinions of other people that bothered me. I had absolutely no doubt that I didn’t hate gay people, agree with slavery, or believe in the Abrahamic separation of tribes. I also believed that if your going to say you believe in what the bible said it had better be the whole thing. Christians like separating this from that, using strange logic, I had friends that spent a great deal of their time debating LGBT people but had absolutely no qualms with saying “I sin everyday and am forgiven, everyday.” An extremely flawed worldview, but I found it to be very common among Christians, I guess they reckoned that they had a speck in their eye compared to the horrible sin of homosexuality. So how does one find calm waters? My answer is to find "spirituality" in the mystery. I find such a peace in knowing I can never know everything, and that I will always have a mystery unraveling in my mind. So when I say never stop asking questions I mean that of every aspect of your life, never be complacent or happy with “god did it” or “evolution did it,” ask yourself how and spend the time to find the right answer. If your ever unsure of something research it using the resources our world has to offer, if you'd like you can start with the information your religion has to offer but never end there.