Saved from what?
I saved myself by having an epiphany moment. Epiphany moments are how we progress as people. My epiphany moments lead me to the conclusion that we derive meaning from life by way of and through our meaningful relationships with others. By “meaningful”, I mean by taking responsibility and being reliable to our others despite whether or not there is reciprocation.
If we constantly live our lives with our own selves as our priority, the only meaning we derive is “me”.
I didn’t need an imagined, omniscient being to lead me to my epiphany moments. All I required was sobriety, and an environment that allowed me to reflect in a meaningful way. That is, in a way that is contemplative, and not simply reminiscing and imagining. That is proactive. Getting on your knees, accepting Jesus (or any other diety) as your lord and savior, with the faith that They will forgive your past and future sins is as inactive and passive as you can get. You need to do the work for yourself and your others. And in that work you will realize, everyone is your other.
Too bad none of that is reflected in your speech and conduct. It's all hypocrisy. For example, you knew this is a Christian thread yet decided to stroll in to interject your incoherent, uneducated beliefs to disparage and dismiss Christianity (which you know absolutely nothing about). You didn't post it because of shared interest but to offend those who know more than you.
The thing is you operate like a stoned navigator. The first thing people gain from education is learning how to learn. Since you are uneducated, you don't have the ability to logically reason or methodically formulate ideas. All of your beliefs are gleaned off the surface of various things you hear, brief observations, and worldly precepts. You never dug down deep, sacrificed yourself, poured through thousands of pages, consulted hundreds of experts, or spent years pursuing truth and knowledge. You judge things by your own shallow, mundane observations, misguided ideals, and then settle on various beliefs as if somehow you figured it all out without any effort to validate them. Don't try to refute this because if you had an educated mind, it would reflect on what you do and how you do it.
There's so much pollution in what you said that it would take pages upon pages to instruct you in the error of your ways. However, you should first at least understand the very simple concept that no one can save themselves - as you just claimed you are able to do.
You did not create yourself, nor did you create the order of the universe that facilitates your coming into being. You are mortal and will surely die. You can't stop death, slow it down, or determine the time and manner in which it comes. You could be stricken with disease or calamity, and you have no control whatsoever of time and chance. Therefore, you have no power to save yourself. You cannot know what happens after death but you still live life as if it doesn't matter. You cannot control life, death, or even know what will become of your soul when you die. Thus, you've become comforted by your own contrived delusion.
You say your beliefs are based on various "epiphany moments," but that's like trying to find your way out of the wilderness just because you recognized a bush you passed by an hour ago. Without understanding where you are and how to get out, your 'epiphanies' amount to no more than recognizing you've already made the same mistake but never taking the logical steps necessary to resolve the condition that keeps you repeating your mistakes. That's why you can only modify your mistakes to essentially a version 2, version 3, etc. of the same mistakes.
You talk about sobriety as an end goal rather than the means to an end. People like you think, "If I can just get sober then everything will be OK." Either you never actually considered the purpose of sobriety or forgot about it as soon as you started. The purpose of sobriety is to be able to think and see clearly, and not make involuntary errors. Sobriety allows you to make better decisions, be more productive and capable, and not harm yourself or others needlessly. Yet look at yourself? You may have achieved sobriety but you never used it to develop your mind and reasoning. It's like, "Oh well I'm sober now so I'm good."
You say, "I don't need an imagined, omniscient being to lead me to epiphany moments." Well your intention in saying that is absurd but ironically you are right. An "omniscient being" wouldn't lead you back to your same mistakes, rather, would lead you through the way out. Your thought is so underdeveloped that it's like an impenetrable wall keeping you from seeing what's on the other side.
You don't even consider what you're saying. If GOD is imaginary then you're also saying that billions of people for thousands of years are stupider than you are; that they believe in fiction and somehow you're more sober-minded than anyone else. Ha! That's just crazy man. Based on what evidence do you assert GOD is an "imagined" being? You never studied archeology, history, geology, anthropology, biology, physics, genetics, etc., so how on earth do you think you can it's all imaginary? That's walking across an immense dinosaur graveyard with fossils and complete skeletal remains poking out of the ground everywhere but still saying, "There's no such thing as dinosaurs. It's imaginary, and everyone who believes in dinosaurs are stupider than I am."
Ironically, you've never seen a dinosaur but still believe they existed based on your minuscule exposure to archeological evidence and because the world tells you that. Yet, you've never even bothered to look at all the archeological, atomic, biological, geological evidence of GOD but somehow say it's all imaginary. Your beliefs don't even add up. Your reasoning doesn't hold water. The crazy thing is you babble as if you have some kind of sensible, sage knowledge to share with everyone.
Perhaps your most absurd belief is thinking you have the capacity to understand GOD. You even think you know better than GOD. If you didn't think that, then you wouldn't spew the nonsense you do. When you jut forth questions like, "Well if GOD is so perfect then why does He allow evil?" You see, in your little mind, that's a valid question. However, in the scope of universal reasoning, it's ridiculous. You know nothing about GOD because you blindly reject Him, but think somehow that you - a mere mortal who can't spare himself from death or chance - even know what questions to ask about GOD. More than that, you think somehow you could understand the answer if He gave it to you! Ha!
Well, I really don't care how you react to this or what you will say but I do hope that you'll at least absorb it secretly and try to develop some essential logic and reasoning.
