When I first decided to look at other alternatives to faith groups after deciding that I really wasn’t the Christian I tried to be, I had a very hard time even picking up a book from another faith, let alone actually reading it with an open mind. It was really hard thinking without that bias that had been spoon fed into me since early childhood. It was pounded into our heads as kindergartners and even to high school that it was evil if it wasn’t the right religion, even then, or the right denomination. It took practice over the next year, but eventually I could read a text without commenting in my head or criticizing it without understanding what it was that I was being critical about. Sometimes it took reading the book over and over again until I could really start to grasp an understanding of what the author was trying to tell me without running it through that filter.

If you’re newly out from under the umbrella of your church society, what you have to do is find others, like in this Reddit (great job on finding us by the way), to start to build some kind of support structure to help you when your having issues with things that you normally went to for support with your family and friends and, because of your newfound (as they see it) faith, that item is no longer on the table.

For every issue that you’re going through right now, for the first time, someone here has faced that same issue before, and probably more than once, and may have successfully maneuvered through it before and willing to help guide you as well to the same destination of understanding.

Use that to your advantage. Use our knowledge to make your walk along the same path a little easier to take than it was for us older folks. It doesn’t matter how ridiculous you think your question may seem to you, if it is a legitimate question, if you honestly want to know the answer, ask the fucking question and don’t worry about what anyone thinks. They aren’t you so don’t worry about what they would do if they were you.

If someone gives you shit about it being a stupid question they shouldn’t have been answering you to begin with any attitude. Even if they’ve answered the question a thousand times it’s the first time for you to ask so don’t take any shit. Keep trying to learn and never give up that curiosity for knowledge, especially when it comes to your own understanding of the nature of the universe and your place in it.

Please use this resource to your benefit. Everyone here who has enough knowledge to guide, those who have tried and failed over and over and tried again and failed again, have a combined experience of hundreds of years right at your fingertips. Use it! But use it wisely.