Introduction

In a world where atheism, lack of faith, wrong philosophy, etc. reigns, there seems to be no need for analyzing phenomenologically our religious experiences. There is rather a lack of religious experience or rather a denial of it. But we are not here to evangelize. We've shifted axis since reflecting phenomenologically on my career or your career did not result in any insights.

Well, the godless world turns to sins when they can't get what they want. Ah wait, they don't name it sin anyway.😆They would do anything just to earn or get ahead, even showing outside that they are sheeps but are just wolves in sheep's clothing. So if you don't believe in God and just want to giggle being curious about theist's outmoded religious experiences, then welcome! Read on.

We theists, believe in God in the first place. If you've come reading this far, then I don't need to explain things since I already explained from the previous pages. There is a Supreme Being out there that revealed himself in Jesus Christ with rule of life for a follower of Christ handed on faithfully and fully by his founded church, the Catholic Church. Well for theists, of course your faith maybe is different from mine. This is my religious experiences though and I can't use any description of my experience other than mine. Without further ado, let's dive in.

For historical record before even God revealed himself during Old Testament period at 2,000 BC, man was found to be a natural worshipper of nature, celestial bodies, ancestors, and deities. The oldest proof was 50,000-30,000 BC during the Upper Paleolithic period. (reference: Copilot, Quick response, 18 April 2025)

Of course I can't see God. Who will have no difficulty with such a set up? As sinners we don't have access to mystical experiences. Well, even with religious experiences only at our disposal, sinners do still find problem that we still need to reference the saints, what they tell us about talking to God. But let me tell about St. Therese's own words about it, nicknamed the greatest saint of modern times.

"I (pray) like children who do not know how to read, I say very simply to God what I wish to say, without composing beautiful sentences, and He always understands me."

With such powerful words, I think this write up is now finished. They capture in simplicity what I can just describe about my own religious experiences and its conclusion.

We are additionally interested though with how our religious experiences can shed light on our career. But I think its not in the magical sphere where if we speak to God about our dying career or dwindling livelihood, we will magically become who we want to be in our working life. Like I talked to God for 27 years and I can't find if I even have a career, not even mentioning me having no decent wage capable of being a good father provider, which until now is just a dream. Then I'm hearing you say God is useless.

I think you're right, God is a Persona, not an object. We use things but we love people. For atheists they love people serving their purposes, at least there is some liking if not love. They're given social housing but I can't even help my poor neighbor. What's the difference? And we are thus both sinners. Atheists just don't call it sin. Yet, I haven't experienced hunger even once in my lifetime, never experienced having no roof to sleep peacefully most of the nights. Therefore you're saying God is useless since he can't give you what you want. While the Bible says a father won't give his son a stone if he asks for a bread, it seems God has given me livelihood, something to sustain my life, but not my wants for now maybe. So you're right again that God is useless since he doesn't give me what I want.

The anonymous groups though had this second of the famous 12 Step:

Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

And addictions of every kind became rampant. Yup, even the theist themselves resorted to opium literally and not just opium for the masses.😅 It's as if one of the famous womanizer saint have found out too:

You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.

Modern man no longer worship nature or deities but still resort to tranquilizers for abuse or for withdrawal. You got the idea, I think so. While atheists (and also theists indirectly) will have to kill the masses in turmoil that no longer serve their purposes, since they don't believe in religion or opium for the masses. You might think I'm suggesting that it's better for the atheists and even theists alike to just use religion for tranquilizing purposes.😆 Not exactly though.

It's in the heart of man where sin starts though, not in groups but in individuals. Yup, the most powerful man has his own heart too. It's just that his decisions are more powerful than an ordinary man. And they form groups too, but with individual hearts yet in cahoots. Don't tell me that our justice system don't punish the accomplices willing or not so willing. So even human justice system knows and implements that human beings are accountable or not so accountable.

Let me just clarify before I continue that we are not evangelizing nor are we moralizing here. 

Socratic self-examination is ethical and existential, asking "How should I live?"

Phenomenology is descriptive and methodological, asking "What is the nature of my experience?"-Copilot, Quick response, 18 April 2025.

The problem is that I'm a theist and a Catholic and I have no other experience to phenomenologize with. So let's continue. For both theist and atheist, I'm the perpetrator of my own act, or whatever you want to call it, not anybody else or anything else. The source of the cause is within me. Are you saying then that the cause of your career conundrum is one's self? That's a far reaching pitch already, yet I think we still need to clarify some things. Atheism was first associated with the materialist who favors reason and empirical evidence over faith. If they are logical and evidence based, then atheist causality would explain why identical twins are two different sources of causes why one committed this and the other committed something else. You're right again that the source of my career conundrum is myself. Well, that's just self-evident... and stupid.😆 Not quite.

I should have blamed myself as a theist for being the cause of my career conundrum. But I didn't, and even resorted to phenomenologizing the whole thing.😅 So I think both atheist and theist tendency is to blame anybody or anything exept one's self.

For now I need you to ask an AI, "Teach me about Brené Brown's teaching."

It's Maundy Thurday while I'm writing this. And if you haven't heard about Jesus, a simple watching of his life in Youtube can start you up fast. Yes, I hear you, that it's just a made-up story. Well, if you are rich you can go on an adventure to explain by evidence the miracles in the Catholic church still out there today, the eucharistic miracles, incorruptible bodies of saints, and many more--just to stir you at least even temporarily to believe there is a God, just for you to understand what I'm saying here without you having a headache.😇

So what about Brené Brown? Well, Jesus told us that sin is bad. But if atheist would believe themselves as the cause of error, they would need to kill themselves. The fact that Jesus did not told us to kill ourselves but to repent and believe in the gospel perfects Brené Brown's insights into oneself though it's psychological, not phenomenological. We are not fine. And only theists can accept that, since they have a Merciful God to lean on. It's my fault why I don't even have a career. I even blame God for that, which is why I refered us to Brené Brown owning our failures and rather asking God for help. In our previous analysis, it's the makasalanan ako phrase I told in our introduction that upended everything right from the start.

But it seems my career conundrum is pointing me towards God not yet helping me until now as the atheist would point to me. What then should I be doing correctly if now I am brave enough to accept myself as the cause of my own career conundrum? Well, not yet still, since on the other hand, I'm blaming the past via hindsight or my imperfect being for not being able to have an engineering college degree. Brene Brown's writing about the phenomena or psychology of shame and guilt is from the perspective of a social work scientists, on the systematic and relational aspects of human well-being. Perhaps it is to draw parallelism to St. John Paul II's phenomenological concept of being-for-others. Social work science might be more humane compared to atheism, but the former is nonetheless logical and evidence based, not faith based. It's as if atheist need to see that he need not kill himself or others just to get or accomplish what he wants. In fact scientific evidences points towards a more efficient working human beings, the more his well being is taken care of. Have I been sabotaging my career then or inflicting harm to myself? Well I think both a theist like me and the practicing atheist did not both faired well.😔😆 Shall I dare the atheist to be more scientifically based like the social worker, and shall I be more looking out for my own welfare to more efficiently work at my career objectives? We've changed axis right? But it seems to show that God loves us more than we love ourselves.

« Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter »