If you've moved from being religious to Athiest, how did that go?

[lord_carbo]

Re: If you've moved from being religious to Athiest, how did that go?

2) God made the Earth? In six days? It's a pretty sweet thing to just suddenly make, especially with all the impossibly intricate details it has on it. Including fossils that pre-date its own existance. And stars even older than it.

Or, you know, it could of been a way to explain things easier because people couldn't fathom millions of years of creation back then. The story of creation is roughly in the order of what evolution says and for people to be correct back then about that kind of stuff is quite a feat.[/Christian perspective]

After learning about European history and reading a few passages from the Bible (witchcraft??), I'm not even really agnostic anymore, I'm bordering on being a full-fledged athiest. But like Squeek says, I'd just rather go by the term "non-religious".

I've been non-religious for awhile. About 2 years.

The hardest thing I'll probably ever have to do will be at the end of confirmation class admitting that I don't believe in God because I have a slot reserved for the mission trip (which is after confirmation) and I've been pretty involved with the church (forcefully, more or less).

As a non-religous person, though, I must say I hate those stupid Athiests that say people who are religious need religion to go through life. Religion isn't all that bad of a thing; after going on mission trips I can say that there are plenty of people that could use it, but most people who are already religious really don't need religion. All it does is promote optimism. Q puts it in better words than me.

The money that they give away to the needy? The money that goes to paying meager salaries?

Mind you, I'm not considering televangelists or anything like that, here.

Plus, most people's problem isn't with the money so much as how the Church is exacting some sort of mind control over the people.

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

Religion, or at least Catholicism, was used as a way for people to make money, (e.g. indulgences). Although Jesus in the Bible said to only give what you can, the Bible said a lot of things that got ignored. If people were truly as religious as they made themselves out to be, there wouldn't be so many wars between Catholics and Protestants (hell, Protestantism wouldn't even exist):

1Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. 2You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. 3Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit. 4There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.
7Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,[a] and to still another the interpretation of tongues.[b] 11All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.
12The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
14Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
21The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" 22On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
27Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. 29Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues[d]? Do all interpret? 31But eagerly desire[e] the greater gifts.
And now I will show you the most excellent way.

A few corrupt, politicial leaders back then took advantage of people's devout faith and bended it and twisted it to their liking. A priest could say to a crows that ripping your left arm off made God happy and in a few minutes there'd be dozens of limbs on the ground.

It didn't help that the Bible was mostly only written in Latin and hard to get before the printing press.

Although, things have obviously changed these days: people donate to the church because they want to and the church needs the donations, they don't just want them.

[studmuffin51306]

Re: If you've moved from being religious to Athiest, how did that go?

Can I give the opposite answer or will I get flamed out of here?

[FictionJunction]

Re: If you've moved from being religious to Athiest, how did that go?

My question for you is, if you have moved, or know someone that did, from being a member of an organized traditional religion (Catholic, Jew, etc.), to Atheism, how did that happen?

He clearly wants a specific answer given by a specific group of people.

Can I give the opposite answer or will I get flamed out of here?

If you aren't part of this specific group of people, you wouldn't be qualified to answer his question.

[iggymatrixcounter]

Re: If you've moved from being religious to Athiest, how did that go?

I'm seeing a pattern of Catholic faith -> atheism.

My story is similiar but I found something else and therefore I can't count myself in the question.

Here's another question I'd like to ask people who've posted so far:

Are you forever closed to the idea of religion, or if you could find something that answered your questions, would you do another soul searching like you did from religiousness (that a word?) to atheism?

[Squeek]

Re: If you've moved from being religious to Athiest, how did that go?

Any religion that doesn't ask for money, doesn't have a book loaded with fallacies and horrible, HORRIBLE messages (beat your wife! kill your children!), and only seeks to bring the individual toward themselves, I might consider. Anything where I have to dedicate time to doing anything any day / time of the week / day is out of the question. I refuse to attend a group meeting of any kind.

It's looking slim at this point. FSMism seems the most logical religion. What should I do?

My choice in life was based on my choices in life. I constantly look over my choices in life and revise them.

My decision to be non-religious won't change anytime soon. I'd have to overcome a lot of things I've already proven to myself about religion so far, and so far, I haven't changed a single viewpoint out of at least fifty.

[FictionJunction]

Re: If you've moved from being religious to Athiest, how did that go?

Are you forever closed to the idea of religion, or if you could find something that answered your questions, would you do another soul searching like you did from religiousness (that a word?) to atheism?

I'm agnostic, so I'm not closed to the idea of following a designated religion. I certainly would not return to Catholicism. That much I can say.

[staticwolf]

Re: If you've moved from being religious to Athiest, how did that go?

It's looking slim at this point. FSMism seems the most logical religion. What should I do?

Things may look slim, but I wouldn't suggest you give up on religion just yet. How many religions have you honestly considered? How many clerics of different religions have you truly consulted (i.e assaulted with criticism) to find out if they can offer you a religion promising a satisfactory and confident meaning to life? Don't shrug and say that such types don't exist without trying to find them. You need to make an effort to find the truth.

Many times, when I come across a particularly good show of nature like a sunset or something, I think to myself: could this have been created all by itself? Basically, when you look around, you get the feeling that things have always been 'created'. Planting and watering seeds creates crops. The blowing of wind gradually creates mountains. The sun creates clouds through evaporation. This pattern of an action resulting in creation makes me want to believe that this universe was indeed 'created'. And don't tell me the big bang created the universe. The big bang too, was a result of an action. This action in turn was probably the result of another action... just like a domino effect. So, for me, the question boils down not to 'if' someone started it... but rather, 'who' started it.

My belief in a divine creator doesn't seem to waning. Whether this symmetrical creator created good or evil, light or dark, happiness or sorrow in balance according to some design, these things were nonetheless created. I'd safely say atheism is a little far off for me just yet.

[Squeek]

Re: If you've moved from being religious to Athiest, how did that go?

Uh.

It's not like I actually want to be part of a religion. I don't "seek" the "truth". I don't "seek" a path of "enlightenment" brought upon me by some higher being. I "seek" only improving myself. The best way to do that is to take MY OWN views on things, put them against what I know to be true, and see if they line up.

Creationism seemed like an incredibly stupid idea. You look at things and go "There's no way this formed on its own." I look at things and go "There's no way one 'thing' made this in six days."

Things happen in the Universe all the time. Sorry if you believe some higher being is causing them. I like to believe this is quite the standard occurance, and it is spontaneous.

[Anticrombie0909]

Re: If you've moved from being religious to Athiest, how did that go?

Athiest by simple logic. It's far more rational to believe that everything around us is simply a by-product of billions of years of chemical equations than it is to assume that there is some magical great being floating above the clouds who stuck everything here for no apparent purpose and has hence completely disappeared.

[Reach]

Re: If you've moved from being religious to Athiest, how did that go?

And don't tell me the big bang created the universe. The big bang too, was a result of an action. This action in turn was probably the result of another action... just like a domino effect. So, for me, the question boils down not to 'if' someone started it... but rather, 'who' started it.

Yea but you're contradicting yourself.

And this god would also have to be the result of an action.

If God created the universe than something created God and thus something even greater than God must exist.




My own personal thoughts on this issue:




I think an interesting thing to ponder is; can action happen without cause?

And I think the answer is yes, and it lays right within the foundation of quantum mechanics.

With no real cause things happen at an increasingly random rate as the distance between two points in space gets smaller.

Now take a look at thermodynamics. Energy can't be created or destroyed. Amazing!

Give quantum physics ample time to produce a proper fluctuation in vaccuum energy, and there's your bang. Let entropy do the rest of the work.


I've never bought the idea of this magical god that can simply exist without cause and contradict everything we know is true when there are other means of explaining the universe.

It personally seems like a very human way of saying 'We arn't smart enough to understand why we exist'.

Of course we see cause and relations. It's called evolution. Humans are really good at seeing things that arn't there and really good at finding answers to problems they don't know the answer to. We see order and creation because of how our brain works; it puts things together and gives reason where there is none. Take our vision for example. Your brain can fill in information even when your eyes do not see it (there are ample illusions to prove this).

I mean, because a watch is complex and we built it, if a leaf is complex it must also have been built by a designer. This is one huge assumption.

This is another reason why I do not believe in any God entities. I figure one day we will either figure out the reason why the universe and everything in it was never created and cannot be destroyed, or our lives will forever remain a mystery.

[FictionJunction]

Re: If you've moved from being religious to Athiest, how did that go?

And this god would also have to be the result of an action.

If God created the universe than something created God and thus something even greater than God must exist.

This is true.
You may have entirely slanted my position on all this.

[banditcom]

Re: If you've moved from being religious to Athiest, how did that go?

Atheist*

You need to make an effort to find the truth.

He did find the truth and that is doing what he wants. The meaning of life is what you make it out to be.

Many times, when I come across a particularly good show of nature like a sunset or something, I think to myself: could this have been created all by itself? Basically, when you look around, you get the feeling that things have always been 'created'. Planting and watering seeds creates crops. The blowing of wind gradually creates mountains. The sun creates clouds through evaporation. This pattern of an action resulting in creation makes me want to believe that this universe was indeed 'created'.

Exact opposite for me. I look at these things and say to myself "there is no way these can be created by anyone."


I went to church mostly every week when I was younger... Probably between ages 5-8. I very quickly started to think of what was being said and believing how absurd it was. When we moved, we stopped going to church. My grandma, whenever I visited, would mention going to church with her on Sunday. I went a few times when I was young just to please her, but have denied it every time since. She's told me "it'd be good for you" basically every time I've told her no.

So early on, I became agnostic. Then I didn't know there was a definition for it, but that's what I was. It wasn't until a year and a half ago that I labeled myself as atheist. When I laid down, there were a number of times I'd think to myself all these questions about whether or not there is a God. It took a bit to answer that with a no.

Also, all those preachers on TV have made me disgusted with religion. I can't stand hearing it. I remember one time I was up at my uncle's cabin when we were all hunting (though, I just hung out because I found hunting very boring) and there was a preacher on TV. I stood there, watching it, laughing at all the bs nonsense coming out of his mouth. This was while I was agnostic. I couldn't believe just how much stuff he was pulling out of his ass. It was quite unbelievable how he could do that, and how people were sitting there and sitting at home watching it, taking in everything what he says as truth.... It made me angry. :/

[Reach]

Re: If you've moved from being religious to Athiest, how did that go?

Exact opposite for me. I look at these things and say to myself "there is no way these can be created by anyone."

http://www.pparc.ac.uk/Ps/aac/images/full.jpg

no words.

(those are all galaxies. Keep in mind that is a small portion of the sky. Each one contains billions of stars).

[banditcom]

Re: If you've moved from being religious to Athiest, how did that go?

Don't lie. That is glitter sprinkled onto black construction paper.

[lord_carbo]

Re: If you've moved from being religious to Athiest, how did that go?

I'm seeing a pattern of Catholic faith -> atheism.

Actually, I am (was) Protestant.