u/undiscloseduser99

Hi all! I am a 27 year old female from Melbourne, Australia of Greek ethnicity. I was raised Greek Orthodox and my yiayia taught me all about our religion from a very young age. Growing up in Australia, we didn’t attend church often and as I’ve gotten older I’ve begun to question a lot more about religion in general, not necessarily just about the Greek Orthodox Church.

I’m a very traditional and conservative person in terms of my values and political beliefs. I feel drawn to my roots in terms of religion, however I struggle to connect with it at the same time.

My real struggle comes from the fact that throughout my education (I’m a lawyer) I’ve been exposed to the idea that religion is a cult and was created as a means to control the masses. This really offended me when I was first introduced to the idea, but as the years have gone on I can’t help but see that in every aspect of religion.

I’m looking for input from a highly educated perspective (I mean that in the most respectful way in terms of I don’t want to just be told to have faith and be quoted scripture). I find it difficult to understand how I can connect with faith when science and other aspects of education shed light on where religion falls short and how it’s just a way to control the masses.

I get very frustrated when religion is used to explain things away and I often find more people who are uneducated are more religious and that’s what further pushes me away. Again, I don’t mean this in a disrespectful way, I’m just trying to be honest so that I can be properly understood and if anyone has or is experiencing the same can shed light on their experience?

I think I feel as though if I do start to delve into faith that I’m contradicting my intelligence which is something I pride myself on. The idea that (and not going into any specifics just a general proposition) there is a higher power that requires prayer and responds if you just have faith and all the cultural practices surrounding the icons such as praying to a certain saint if you are having say fertility issues, etc just seems like it can so easily be explained by logic. It feels like pseudo science and the people who really push it then are usually the type of people who believe in astrology and who then fall for ridiculous conspiracy theories and don’t seem to use much critical thinking. Certainly doesn’t apply to everyone but in my experience that’s been the majority. I don’t want to be lumped in with them

I’m sure this title will come as no surprise. I’m a 27 year old female from Melbourne, Australia and I work in law. The lay of the land here in Melbourne is very left leaning, but even more so where I work (government). I really struggle to connect with my colleagues outside of work because of my conservative views. I don’t believe in just being friends with those agree with you - dissent is vital to all relationships, but our goals and the way we live our lives are fundamentally different so I struggle to connect and feel like a social pariah.

For example: my workplace is predominantly female and I was recently at the lunch table. We all get along great and generally always have a laugh and always help one another. But other than that I’m ostracised. During lunch one of my older female colleagues was on the phone to her teenage daughter telling her to stop pestering their dog. We all had a giggle as she rolled her eyes and made faces like “see what I have to deal with?” But then the girls my age started talking about how that’s why they don’t want kids and what a nightmare it seems like. To me, getting married and having kids is a non negotiable. That’s what you’re supposed to and I’ve been dreaming about it since childhood. They then all started to chime in about how kids are so expensive and that money could go to travelling and how exhausting the responsibility would be. I said I can’t wait to have kids. I might as well have said I killed someone. They asked me why and I was shocked. I said I actually want 5 children and you would think I shot someone. I felt so out of place and honestly disgusted that as women in their late 20’s and early 30’s they could detest having a family like that.

I have this problem overall with friendships and my best friend and I are starting to drift for these reasons because where I’m thinking of marriage (my boyfriend will soon be proposing) and kids she is wanting to go out for drinks every Friday night with colleagues and not at all interested in that. That’s not to say I can’t or don’t go out, but I would rather go to the gym or spend time with my boyfriend, and what happens when I have kids? Then I see a group of my colleagues (my best friend and I work together so she’s in that group) all go out together on the weekends and such and I feel so left out and I know it’s because I don’t fit in with them.

I have other close friends who are married with children but it’s still hard not to be ostracised at my workplace even when they are all nice in the office because I know they don’t want to hang out with me due to my conservative views and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t sting.

I’m struggling to find high achieving traditional values female friends that I can really bond with who understand and have the same values

Hi all. First post here, just discovered this subreddit and it’s such a breath of fresh air. I’m a 27 year old female from Melbourne, Australia (pray for me) of Greek ethnicity. I’m quite conservative politically and my boyfriend is the same but is more of a libertarian. Over the years we’ve been together we’ve had lots of great discussions about our life goals together and how we would want to raise kids, etc.

Lately, I’ve noticed I’ve been feeling a big self contradiction in my identity relating to both politics as well as overall personal identity as a conservative and I’m wondering if any other women have experienced similar and how they navigated it. I want to add a disclaimer that I don’t base my life and decisions around identities because at the end of the day you are not bound by this and you should do what is right for you, I’m just trying to understand how I can have strong contradictory standpoints.

I very much value traditionalism. I believe in getting married and then having children. I believe in home-making and I have no issue with the male being the primary breadwinner. At the same time, I’m a lawyer (a Prosecutor). I am very career driven and very ambitious. I recently discussed this my boyfriend and we were saying that it’s interesting how I want to have 5 children and be this super hands on mum and run a well oiled machine for our household but I also want to have a phenomenal career. There are obviously only 24 hours in a day but that has never held me back. I am ambitious in every aspect of life. I work out 5x a week and am passionate about health and fitness, but I’m also very girly and believe in the southern belle lifestyle of never leaving the house without your hair and makeup done and always looking immaculate (I don’t own sweatpants lol).

I look up to women like Candace Owens who seem to have it all and I genuinely believe that I can do the same. I guess what I’m getting at is how can I have such strong views on both lifestyles I.e. being a mother and homemaker but also being a successful career woman? They seem contradictory so how is it that I am so passionate about and believe in both?