Road to Atheism
Posted on August 22, 2007
Filed Under Atheism |
I have to admit that for the last couple of years, I have been seriously thinking of declaring myself an atheist. I was born into a Christian family and for the longest time, I identified myself as a follower of the Christian faith. While a child, I followed my parent’s instructions and went to church every Sunday and whenever our faith called for it. I attended Sunday school and memorized big parts of the Bible.
When I grew older, I slowly distanced myself from most religious activities but I did occasionally pray and asked God for guidance. Considering that said prayers were never answered in any way imaginable, as time passed, I managed to get out of this praying habit. When I took the time to consider what religion is and what brings to the table for me, I quickly realized that it wasn’t much. In fact, I have come to understand that religion was prohibiting my personal growth. It turned my life into a pointless journey towards an end that was basically next to impossible to achieve. Religion promised me entry to this magical and wonderful place called Heaven; but to get there, I had to follow a large number of rules that were often contradicting with each other.
Religion considers just about anything we do on a daily basis a sin. But religious groups that are supposed to be here to guide us, are breaking these rules all the time. The Church tells us that we should not accumulate wealth and help our neighbors in need. But then why do churches accumulate so much wealth and why is it that they spend so little of it to help those in need? Why does the Pope live his life like a Roman emperor when there are children dying all over the world every day? Why so many priests have been found guilty of abusing children and where do churches find the money to pay huge settlements to get out of trouble? Why do so many religious fanatics consider killing those with opposing views as doing God’s wish? Why can’t I walk around the block without some religious group trying to convince me that I should be one of them?
I don’t need to follow the advice of a book that has devout followers committing so many heinous crimes. I do not need a book that will provide me with the same meaningless answer to all of life’s questions, “God did it.” I don’t need to live my life according to a book that was written 2,000 years ago and does not reflect today’s reality by any stretch of the imagination. I do not require the belief in an all powerful supernatural being to explain the natural world; science does a much better job at it. I do not need an ancient book to give me morals.
I want to be free to think for myself and make my own choices as a rational individual. I want to experience and enjoy life. I don’t want to grow old regretting all those wonderful things I missed out on because I followed the out of date writings of some long dead people from the Middle East. I want to find real answers to important questions such as why am I here and where am I going?
But I am not ready to call myself an atheist yet. Even though I will no longer call myself a Christian, I cannot refer to myself as an atheist because I really don’t know what it means to be atheist. I get the feeling that there is more to it than just declaring a lack of belief in a God. Or maybe not. I don’t know and I won’t label myself anything until I know for sure.
As time goes by, I will be discussing my progress on this blog. Most importantly, I will write about the irrationality surrounding many religious beliefs and expose the ignorance of religious leaders. The biggest reason why I can no longer attach myself to a certain religion is the absurdity of their claims and overall uselessness to human society and our well being. I don’t want to convert devout Christians into atheists; in fact, it is my personal belief that everyone is free to be the person they want to be and believe what they want to believe. If you are a Christian who wishes to bring forth their own point of view in a comment or even a guest post, I would be more than happy to allow it. Just keep it polite as will I.
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“But I am not ready to call myself an atheist yet.” [..] “I get the feeling that there is more to it than just declaring a lack of belief in a God.”
There really is nothing more to it (unless you care about unimportant subtleties like atheism vs. agnosticism vs. antitheism vs. tooth-fairy-atheism). Atheism doesn’t come with any obligatory philosophies or principles one has to adopt. You can be a humanist atheist, a nihilist atheist, a fascist atheist, a liberal atheist, whatever.
Since you’ve already declared your lack of belief, you are by definition an atheist whether you feel you’re “ready” to call yourself one or not :-). To say “I don’t believe in a God” is to say “I’m an atheist”.
That said, I congratulate you on breaking free from the supersticious dogma you were spoonfed as a child!
Eelis, thanks for your comment.
I was thinking about it the way you described atheism but I wasn’t sure about it yet. I am not really interested in leaving one “cult” to join another. I am not really interested in getting together with other atheists to perform rituals or talk about world domination and such. Maybe true atheism is as simple as you put it: No belief in a god.
Here here. Organising atheists is like herding cats. It’s means that we’ll never have an effective political lobby - but hey, who cares. I have friends who are violent anti-theist, but I couldn’t care less about the views of religious folks. Doesn’t make me less of an atheist.
Short answer: If you think you are, you are.
My sentiments exactly.
I didn’t know there were atheist cults/rituals/domination plans! Where do I get in on that.
But really a-theism (not - a belief in a supreme being or beings) is really a definition of a negative. Atheism is about what you aren’t and not what you are. My dog is an atheist (I’m pretty sure), but like me, she has no book or leader to follow about it.
Being an atheist is about discarding something. It isn’t a label as much as a lack of label. Atheist is more a state of being than a statement of belief.
Atheists do have clubs though. We mostly just eat
babiespizza and laugh.You really don’t know much about atheism to make the mistakes made in this comment. You don’t ‘join’ atheism. There is no central organization for atheism. It’s nothing like that at all. Atheism is a description of yourself. It means you lack belief in god, for whatever reason you want. Calling atheism a ‘cult’ shows betrays ignorance of the meaning of ‘cult.’
I’ve been an atheist for a little more than a year, and I’ve never heard of ‘atheistic rituals’ or world domination. The fact that you even say something like that tells me you aren’t ready to become an atheist.
Atheists tend to be independent thinkers, with a love for evidence. I don’t know if you’re there yet anyway.
@Josh Charles
Indeed, I do not know much about atheism as I have just started looking into it since I am rather dissapointed with religious beliefs.
In terms of my comment on “atheist cults/rituals”, I was being rather sarcastic but I don’t think this came through in my writing. I am actually very pleased that no such things exist in atheism; I am trying to get away from such systems. Thank you for your comment.
“Atheists do have clubs though. We mostly just eat
babiespizza and laugh.”Just to be clear: I’m pretty sure the percentage of atheists participating in such activities is below 1%.
Religion is NOT about the hereafter. Religion is about the here and now. There is a “god” however one should not fall into the trap of envisioning “god” to be like man. Read the works of carlos casteneda (note, don’t believe everything he says(The man may have been a charlatan), however he introduces concepts that will make you re-evaluate how you interpret what your sense present to your awareness). Read about kaballah (not the kmart kaballah espoused by madonna or other celebrities, but the real “kaballah”, (the one with the red ribbons and stuff is fluff and bullshit). Read the gospel of thomas which purports to be the word of jesus (of which I cannot attest to it’s veracity obviously but there is wisdom to be found there: (20. The disciples said to Jesus, “Tell us what Heaven’s kingdom is like.”
He said to them, “It’s like a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds, but when it falls on prepared soil, it produces a large plant and becomes a shelter for birds of the sky.” ).
I believe that atheism is part of a process. One must reject the flawed interpretations to pass onwards to a new understanding of the way things are.
Most atheist are motivated to become atheists by morality: you are fed up with the lies by those men who profess to be the mouthpieces of their interpretation of god or disgusted by the horror committed over the centuries in the name of religion. Or you come to the realization that the holy book of you particular culture was written by men and may not be the actual word of “god”. The truth is that when the books of the bible were written they were meant for the then here and now, not for us. Each holy book contains one essential truth, the origin of the universe is supernatural in origin. Everything else is interpretation and meant to deal with the issues that faced the generation of that day. Most atheists (i’m assuming this here) are not nihilist, but they do make the mistake of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Which maybe a necesary step before one moves on to the next stage of understanding that we are all part of one process, and if you understand that you are part of the whole you recognize that others are part of the whole as well, (ie yourself) and you treat them accordingly.
The above probably will come across as rambling but maybe you will find some wisdom in my words.
To whom it may concern,
I can relate to his feelings, but when I look back now when I was praying as a child I asked for materialistic items instead of ways to help other people or improve my life. I was unsure of Jesus because I had not noticed anyone like that in my life, but that has changed.
The reason I found God is because I asked for his help, and he gave it to me in more ways than I even asked. I realize now that there were many times I overlooked Him, and I am glad that he continued to have faith in me.
I am a Christian, but I am not part of any church. I can see his disdain for organized religion, but I do not throw out the baby (or Bible) with the bathwater.
My personal concern with the Catholic faith is that it does not allow any flexibility, but I do see that there are a good majority of Catholics do Good while using the book they have been handed.
I am fortunate enough to know of Martin Luther and the indulgences that spawned the Protestant churches. In my opinion they may each have their own merit, and I can appreciate that the Bible I use notes general differences so that I can make my own choices.
I am paraphrasing, but my father told me that by mandating a way of living, you are not allowing people free will or the ability to make informed choices. In other words you are building a box and saying do not step out of it or I will harm you, without letting them see why. That type of religion or view of the world will not be accepted by some, and in most cases pushes them even farther away.
Sincerely, Yours Truly,
Cory LaBelle
Come see my page on www.Facebook.com : )
Another thing: Atheism is not a belief system, it is merely recognition of what is not true. As such, it cannot be preached. Because of the way Religion conditions the minds of it’s adherents, atheism can come across as nothing but the word of “satan” or other obligatory source of evil. Ironically, you have to be “called” to atheism. you can’t be “pulled” The nature of peoples beliefs suit their mental development. Atheist should recognize this essential value of religion: Considering the horror that mankind has done in the name of his religion, can you imagine the horror that would have unfolded if there were no religion at all? People wake up from their illusions when they are ready. just like you did
Consider the following:
You have gone as far as waking up to the fact that God’s existence is so negligibly improbable you might as well consider non-existence for all practical purposes.
Therefore: There is no Heaven, Hell, Afterlife, Soul. Once you die, that’s it. Your heart stops beating. The electric impulses in your brain stop. Your carcass rots into the depths of oblivion.
You only have one life. In geological terms, your average 70 years of living are a blimp in existence, a flicker, a scintillation. But think about how lucky you are. Think that, of all the combinations of people that could have been born, you are the incredibly unlikely product of complex social and biological interactions. You’ve been given only 70, you’ve got as many as 70 years.
Once I took this stream of thought, I looked out of the window to the garden and simply basked in its complexity. I felt awe at the powers of natural forces that led up this point. During the course of every day you’re clocking up your 70 years that you have to experience the immense wonders of the Universe: that they are the product of a long and difficult road of evolution makes it far more awe-inspiring than any belittling story of Creation.
I do not need to worry about my moral behaviour. I could, of course, become a serial murderer to no ultimate consequence after death. But the beauty of life and my inherent humanism prevents me from wishing innately harm to others. I don’t need a Stone Age book to tell me not to kill.
Atheism is the acceptance that there is no supernatural governing force. It’s a huge step for those born into a religious background, but it’s a logical and scientific conclusion most intelligent people make, whether they are aware of it or not.
Despite the apparent transcendence of accepting one is an atheist (we are all born atheist, after all, since religion is something we are taught depending on the accident of birthplace), atheism is only scratching the surface of the immense wonders a natural Universe has in store for you.
Don’t be afraid to accept your atheism. See where it takes you: so far, it has taken me to become a far better person than I would have been as a devout Orthodox Christian, I can assure you. I have found and made relationships with incredible people I would probably not have made otherwise. I am a man of science, and as a result, for the past two years, a scientific atheist and a moral humanist.
Atheism is not about being negative towards religion. Atheism is the door behind which lies a truly positive, realistic, optimistic and moral lifestyle, inextricably linked to science and natural forces. You seem to have taken the first step towards the door handle - don’t be afraid to pull it wide open.
@ gnosticdude:
“[C]an you imagine the horror that would have unfolded if there were no religion at all?”
Yeah…it’s called Star Trek.
Echoing Josh, Aaron and Eelis and the other non-believers, I would like to say this: an atheist has as much conviction that God exists as much as his conviction in a giant four-headed turtle orbiting the earth. It doesnt mean that there isnt one, just that theres no evidence to make such a bizarre claim (yes, God is as bizarre a claim as a giant four-headed turtle in my opinion).
There are different distinctions of atheism of course, but as soon as you say you dont believe in something unless its been validated you are stepping into the realm of atheism.
Wish more people would sit down and rationalize as you did. Isnt it funny, how after all these decades of progress, mankind still fights logic when it comes to religion?
The reason I’m an atheist is because I can’t stand kissing ass. I don’t care what any religion says, they all suck and god can kiss MY ass.
You have to get the idea of religion out of your mind, if you were to truly follow Jesus it would be by having a relationship with god. In the garden of eden God didn’t want Adam and Eve to be religious towards him, he wanted companionship with mankind. Any who, to not believe in God is saying you don’t believe in creation and rather you believe in evolution (the only two ways we could have got here) in which case I would recommend reading a few articles on www.drdino.com
He is a scientist that talks about the lies of evolution and also talks about supposed bible contradictions. Hope this helps.
You really should become an atheist. I grew up super christian (church, school, youth groups, the whole nine) also, and threw in the towel recently (two years ago) when reading a series of books.
I am finally happy.
This happiness came as quite a surprise, because it is what was promised me my whole life by christians. Only in giving up the god principle was I able to realize …I am in control of my life. I am able to live without guilt now. You want happiness? Accept that you become dirt when you die, give up trying to please a book, and start living your life while you have a chance.
I hope your life goes better now that you realize the truth. You are on the precipice of a whole new world!!
Glad you made the jump.
Consider this as an analogy for atheism:
To call atheism a ‘religion’ is akin to calling health a particular type of disease.
The real trick is to free your mind. Atheism frees your mind from the narrowness of religion. There are many other forces that will tell you what to think without giving you good reasons for it. Religion says ‘think in this way or you are evil and will go to hell.’ Political parties, however, often say ‘think in this way or you are morally reprehensible.’ Artistic movements claim to have the only story on beauty, &c &c.
Here is my atheist’s credo: accept no statement without thinking it through first. If it doesn’t make sense, if there is evidence to its contrary, or if it cannot be tested, it is probably a load of nonsense.
Enjoy opening your eyes to this incredible, fascinating, and beautiful world.
I found the things you described so recognizable, e.g. being free to think for yourself and being a rational individual.
I don’t believe in any god what-so-ever, my parents raised me without any religion, I only believe in being good for your fellow human. That is the idea my parents raised me with, that is the idea I’m raising my own daughter with.
If that is being an atheist, so be it.
I consider it naive that, from our minute knowledge of this universe through our 5 (or so) limiting, and often deceiving, senses, we feel we can predict what is beyond the edges of our universe.
I’d put “this universe is all there is” in the same dustbin as “the Earth is flat”.
Creating theories that fit the few facts that you have is fine, as long as you recognise them as theories, and don’t ignore the holes left behind, and when a better theory comes along you must be open to the change.
I don’t believe in a God, per se. Then again, even limiting ourselves to this universe, what are the chances of an all-knowing, all-caring, all-powerful being living on a planet somewhere? It’s a big universe.
This post is mainly in response to Eltower’s: “There is no Heaven, Hell, Afterlife, Soul. Once you die, that’s it.” and was actually about atheism when I started writing it, honest
As far as I’m concerned, agnosticism is the height of open-mindedness, and as much “spiritual” contentment can be drawn from the unexplained as from evidence or faith.
What evidence is there that evidence gathered during life means squat after death?
To summarise what most people have apparently been saying: Welcome, you are now an Atheist for as long as you want to be.
There are organisations. Most of them are fun for a while, but when you realise that you don’t care about god or religeon then they get pretty boring. Also some people in them are scary.
There aren’t any rituals or anything. There is no welcoming commitee (Other than the internet). Looks to me like you aren’t looking to replace religeon, so I think you’ll be fine. Just realise that you will probably get worried or scared occasionally, that’s ok, it’s a big lifestyle change, but relax, the worries will go away after a while, the nervousness will become less frequent, then you’ll find you have more time for living your life.
Joining most religeons has some sort of initiation ceremony (Baptism, Bar Mitzvah, whatever), leaving them doesn’t have any.
Basically, you aren’t “Joining Atheism” you are “Leaving religeon”.
Welcome
Cheers
I found this post linked off of reddit, and I have sort of a mixed reaction to it. On one hand, I am disheartened a bit, but on the other hand I still have empathy for you. I am a Christian, I have been re-born since the summer of 1999. I would have to urge you to step back from your preconceived notions and see if you can find faith in your own right. I know that there is good reason for people to be skeptical, and even as a person of Faith, I temper it with a certain skepticism, its something I have to beat up on, to make sure I can trust it. Faith is essentially believing when you cannot see, so in a sense seeing destroys faith. I would say however, that you can go out and find pieces of the puzzle that imply the larger truth there.
I would urge you most of all to pray. Prayer, at its essence, is the audacity to open your mouth and speak to something you cannot see. The audacity is the key, it is the faith, it is the chutzpah, to be fool enough to do something contradictory to our natural human fig-leaf defensive, standoff with the almighty. God kind of likes that spunk, you see it in the motifs of the Bible.
Our ancestors did not have access to the revelations we have had as modern people, so it is only fitting that God revealed himself in ways that they could understand, it would not have made sense to them if he would have talked about amino acids and cells and atoms and molecules, they had no way of knowing.
Seriously, don’t be afraid to be a bit of a mystic, step out of your comfort zone. Consider that if you are wrong in atheism, that you will be missing out. with that in mind, Pray and ask God to reveal himself to you, don’t just bow your head and rattle it off, scrape around inside your soul and pour out your heart, don’t be afraid to be vulnerable. If you don’t find anything your unbelief will always be there for you when you are done. Its a risk, and taking that risk is important.
I love the Church, and I love being with them, but at the same time, the personal connection I have with God is jsut as important. Don’t worry so much about what leaders say and do, instead concern yourself with the scriptures, and prayer, leaders are men like you, they just went to school and studies theology and became preachers. Not all preachers preach to me, but I cannot be so selfish as to expect that they will. I would recommend focusing your reading on the New Testament. The Old Testament is harder to deal with right from the beginning. And don’t have the expectation that absolutely everything will fall in place overnight, it takes a lifetime to learn, and it is a journey.
When you pray, I recommend that you just pour yourself out, like a heart to heart. I prayed the psalms through a really dark part of my life like every night, it taught me so much. We all want to pray for the sick, and the healing, and for the problems we see, and indeed we should, but this should be balanced with the understanding that our expectations are not always consistent with Gods will, and that ultimately we want His desires to trump our own. Everyone is going to die, and death comes by sickness, there is suffering, true, and bad things happen, but there are things things that are bigger than death, and sickness, and suffering, like character, and relationships, and especially, being reconciled to God.
All of you posted some great comments and it is too bad that I had to work and I couldn’t respond to all of them during the day. However, I think that NZ_guy certainly summarized the atheist point of view really well. I checked out the site intothelight suggested (drdino) but it scared me a bit as it reminded me of the same closed mindedness inherent in religion; we are right but if you want scientific proof of our beliefs then here is a whole lot of circumstantial evidence to help you feel good about yourself. All the comments have generated lots of food for thought for me, so thanks to all of you for taking the time to share them with me.
Once you acknowledge that you don’t believe in fairy stories, you can begin to tackle the really interesting questions. How does this incredibly old, incredibly vast, incredibly silent, incredibly complex self-organizing beast that we call the universe actually work? And what about these talking primates?
Be happy that you have a mind that can contemplate such things for a while. Have fun, and pass it on.
I think there is a common theme among atheists, and it’s becoming somewhat clear in the replies here.
Atheists, as a whole, tend to be self-reliant, interested in understanding the reasons and causes for things and — except politically, maybe — seeing things for what they are. They tend to be independent thinkers by nature, which is why organizing atheists can be as hard as herding cats. On the other hand, they tend not to be all that dogmatic, and so a room full of atheists can have a fine discussion even when they are deeply divided on a subject.
Atheists tend to have questioning minds, and I think you exhibited that even before you began to consider calling yourself an atheist. You looked at expectations, and results — at prayer, and what you did, or didn’t get from it, and at the provisions of your religion as a whole — and you questioned it.
I think that questioning intellect is one of the most fundamental aspects of atheism.
So, yes, there is more to atheism than simply not believing the existence of a deity; there is the way in which you questioned that belief. I would not call you an atheist, because that’s up to you to decide, for yourself. However, I would say that you’ve already experienced all of the “more” that there is to atheism.
(A P.S. for religious followers: the world is no less beautiful in the eyes of an atheist. Just sayin’.)
@intothelight
(to everyone else, I’m sorry for the long comment, but science is important to me, and I feel that I have to defend it)
Your claim that the “only two ways we could have got here” are the biblical creation or evolution is obvious nonsense. I am sorry if that sounds harsh, but for anyone with an open mind it should be obvious.
First of all, even if you do disprove evolution, what makes you so sure that it is the biblical story of creation that is the only alternative? If you feel that there has to be a “hand of god” involved, why the biblical god? Why not the old nordic gods, Hindu gods, or any other gods you can read about in old texts? Why would disproving evolution prove that Jesus is the savior of mankind? The two are not in any obvious way connected.
Secondly, why would creation of any kind be needed to explain the world even if you can pick enough holes in evolution? In science we do not assume that something is true just because some other thing is not. If we find evidence against one theory we throw it out and start over. We collect all the evidence we have, including the new, and see if we can see where it all points to. Maybe it implies some other explanation not previously thought of.
In science there are often surprises like that. When we gather enough evidence and facts we might suddenly realize “Oh how stupid we were, looking at the world like that. Now that we know more we suddenly realize that it is actually like this.” This is not a weakness of science, it is it’s biggest strength. It is always analyzing itself, and when scientists find something wrong with their earlier conceptions they rectify it.
When we don’t look at the world with the notion that everything has to fit in with the biblical stories, we are free to regard everything with an open mind. When we do that we are free to find new things, like new medicine to combat newly evolved strings of TBC, for instance. If we would look at everything from just one point of view; closing our minds and just trying to get it to fit with the biblical stories we would find nothing new. We would just find the biblical stories in everything, like creationists generally do. It is easy if you really want to believe, but not useful.
So, going back to evolution. There are holes in the theory of evolution, a few of them correctly identified by the website you mentioned. But, as I said even if there were enough holes to disprove the entire theory, that would not imply creation. Furthermore, the holes in the theory of evolution are small. Almost the whole process can be explained and proven. Parts of it can even be observed, evolution occurs everywhere, from the breeding of dogs and cattle, to the evolution of diseases such as the previously mentioned tuberculosis, and so on. And evidence of a larger scale of evolution exists in countless fossils, and so on.
So, the evidence we do have points towards evolution. Some parts of the theory of evolution might be implied by other parts of it, and doesn’t have any evidence of it’s own yet, if you understand how I men. But that doesn’t mean that the whole theory is untrue, it just says that we haven’t found the evidence yet. Science is always seeking for more answers and new information, we never claim that we have a complete understanding of everything.
And even if we found out that there is no evidence to support those few, small parts of evolution, would that prove creation? No, it would prove that there is something very similar to evolution, with something different in just those “holes”.
Look at this example, paraphrased from a webcomic I sadly can’t find right now. If you were playing a word game and the letters e_oluti_n came up, and you were to make a word out of that, would you then say “It can’t be ‘evolution’, there are to many gaps! The answer must be ‘creation’”?
Of course you wouldn’t. Anyone can see that “creation” doesn’t fit with the letters you do have. Evolution on the other hand would. So would for instance “elolution”.
It is the same thing with evolution and creation in the real world. There are gaps in the theory of evolution, but there are tons and tons of evidence that are not compatible with creation science, but is compatible with evolution. So the answers might be evolution, or we might find evidence to support a different, but highly similar, theory. But we can’t find evidence to support creation science, since the “letters” we already have doesn’t fit with it.
And, regarding that website you recommended. There are countless of them out there, all basically the same. They are all very good at rhetoric. They can speak their opinion with conviction and make it all sound plausible to those without a scientific background. But good speeches and good science isn’t the same thing. People are easy to convince if you have the gift of good words. But people can come up with good words and statistics proving that the decline of pirates causes global warming, but that still doesn’t make it true.
So, try and look at the world with an open mind. Examine the claims people make, especially if the would have a profound impact on your life. Be a little skeptical to everything. You have nothing to lose, and you can gain a lot of knowledge about the world around you. It is a beautiful, wonderful world, and it is much easier to see it if your eyes aren’t clouded by pre-conceived notions about how it should be.
And again, I apologize to everyone, this didn’t really fit the subject at hand, but I did feel the need to respond to intothelight.
Alpha, I stumbled on this site and I am not sure if you are even checking comments anymore but I decided I had to leave some comments. I guess I am at the point you are in many ways. Growing up, I didn’t really attend church that often but was told by my mom that Jesus Loves you and he lives inside of you. “I remember saying, “How can he fit in here?” Of course I was only 7 but questioned God at an early age. I later did the youth group things, church camp and stuff hoping to find some connections with others I never had. I was adopted and found out when I was 8. I felt all alone and turned to God since only an adoptee knows the feeling. I met a wonderful Christian girl in High School and enjoyed being with her family. I thought, this is a very family oriented mother and father she has and they made me feel great. A couple of years later, I denounced the faith after developing Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia. I prayed night after night for God to take it away. I then turned to alcohol and heavy metal music for relief. Later went to counseling, majored in Psychology and so on.That was 20 years ago and I still have Panic Disorder and always will. I never stepped foot in a church for six years due to the pain and torture a mental illness can create. I was later born again and was a dedicated servant for 11 years playing in the church band, social groups, singles groups, outings, picnics and so on. I prayed to meet the right woman for me all those years and thought “Who would want to be with a guy with Panic Disorder?” I prayed from the mountain tops of Colorado and Washington as well as the shores of the Pacific Ocean for God to answer my prayers. I surrendered many years of my life to Christianity and God’s promises but they seem to have fallen on deaf ears. I have had a good time and met some great people along the way but in the end, I have to deal with the Panic Disorder alone. I am not that bad looking of a guy so I don’t understand it. Now, I feel like many of the scriptures are lies. The Bible says God saw man alone and it wasn’t good so he created Eve. I have seen so many men and young men dying of loneliness who are hanging on by a thread. What kind of torture is this? Why even say that in the Bible if some men are going to be lonely all their lives? I am tired of hearing “It’s a test,” or “God has a plan for you.” “What is the waiting period??” Another verse is “Seek and Ye Will Find, Knock and the Door will be opened.” Hahaha….I have been seeking for many many years and still haven’t found, and still haven’t found the doors to open. Believe me, I have done everything I know possible to do as well as pray day after day and night after night with no response.
I now feel the Bible is full of false hopes AGAIN. I could go on and on but I will wrap it up here. I don’t understand why millions are dying/died because of religion, don’t understand why millions are dying of starvation and pestilence, why true heroes never get recognized but people like Britney Spears are on TV every other day, why kids get molested by perverts causing them lifelong scars just to name a few, How do you get the 50,000+ species of animals on a 400 foot ark and so on.
Again, I am sorry to ramble on but I am at the point of going back to science. I have found my religion to be terrorism in it’s own twisted way and have to painfully accept I am just gonna end up a pile of bones. Just a little twisted humor there. Thanks for reading…..:wink:
This has been a fascinating discussion, but it’s dwindling. Let’s keep it going.
I am an agnostic: I do not believe we are the highest intelligence our universe has produced, and I can call “God” any being which is sufficiently superior to myself. I think the probability that we are being watched is fairly high.
However I will make the most of this life without speculating on how to please any imaginary or hypothetical entity; this puts me solidly in the camp of the atheists who have posted above.
Let’s hear more.
edward
nice..yes knowledge is power.
I agree that traditional religions, especially Christian and Muslim are more confining than I believe God intended. The majority of rules set down are man made, not made by God. For myself, investigating other religions and philosophies that lead me to meditation and being aware of the workings of my own mind and my own ability to create has brought me back to a “supreme power” or “energy” concept. Whether people call this God, Cosmic energy, personal energy or all three is purely ones choice. So for me its take what is truth, test it to be certain, and leave the rest.