I just became an atheist

Myksyk

I'm always a little sceptical about such sudden shifts of perception and belief about the world. In my experience people who are agnostic/atheist have most often arrived there through a slow, cumulative process of reflection usually wrought out of quite a bit of reading and deliberation. There is usually some sort of time period when the amount or type of information gathered seems mutually exclusive from retaining a belief in God or in the precepts of organised religion. There then seems to be another process of internal debate and negotiation where the person determines that continued belief is untenable; but this usually takes time.

Perhaps this IS the process by which KK arrived at his conclusion but his own use of the word 'epiphany' is troublesome in some way, as it seems to rely on an unstable admixture of thought and emotion. I say unstable because it seems to have a fairly 'newly poured' foundation to rest on.

I acknowledge that it was already mentioned that the OP's posts here on Boards do not constitute his entire thought process on the subject and may indeed be the endpoint of a comprehensive and long-standing enquiry in the area ... but then why the epiphany? I recall some piece by Julia Sweeney where she asked whether it is necessarily a good sign if someone is prepared to drop their entire worldview overnight.

Perhaps I am wrong and merely assuming my own experiences of the intellectual and emotional journey toward atheism are somehow the norm. I'd be interested in people's thoughts on the matter.

Rebel021

Well Done OP,

Happened to me a few years ago I stopped looking up and started looking around.

If you look at the history of the church they have a really bad record and have done more harm than good.
Interesting facts about Jesus and Horus
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcpa5.htm

I myself don't encourage anybody to be an atheist as I am tolerant of religious beliefs
but hate it when religious people tell me "I'm wrong and of course I believe in god" but offer no proof when I ask for it only to be told it is a faith.
Faith yeah right and blind faith at that no questions no answers just believe,sorry but I
need more than that and you offer nothing.

If you are interested Zeitgeist is very good a worth a watch.

5uspect

Rebel021 wrote: »

Happened to me a few years ago I stopped looking up and started looking around.

Reminded me of a Josh Ritter Song:

I wondered what it was I�d been looking for up above
Heaven is so big there ain�t no need to look up
So I stopped looking for royal cities in the air
Only a full house gonna have a prayer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx1TwZt1OmM

Rebel021

5uspect wrote: »

Reminded me of a Josh Ritter Song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx1TwZt1OmM

Never heard of that 1 but then again I don't think I've actually heard any of his music.:)

Dades

5uspect wrote: »

Reminded me of a Josh Ritter Song:

Great song, great album, 5uspect!

Handsome Bob

DeVore wrote: »

"You already know how this will end"

But you dont know. No one knows. No one can know. How could they know

I congratulate you on following your free thought process without fear. Seriously, good for you.

But you are, in my humble opinion, not done yet.

You've swapped a certainty of religion for a certainty of nothing. It sounds quite desperate in fact when you talk about your family. You have killed your hope and declared it self-defence.

Forget certainty.

Take the next step and realise that you, like every other scared poster on this thread myself included, actually havent got a blind bull's notion what happens next. Take a deep breath and let the fear in... its ok to be afraid but dont let it own you. Then realise that there is nothing any of us can do about it and its a total waste of the precious time you have with your family. Realise that everyone who is trying to pawn off their world vision on you is simply trying to reassure themselves that they are right and there is some sort of certainty even if thats a nihilistic certainty.

Its the most arrogant thing for anyone to say "I know what happens next". No you dont. Shut up. I'm afraid too.

DeV,

It's about time someone with some authoritah has come onto this board and articulate so brilliantly how I feel about the whole subject.:D:D

Goduznt Xzst

I was going to reply to Suki, but like The Mad Hatter said we shouldn't feed the troll. I'm more interested in the opinions of the OP

Myksyk wrote: »

Perhaps this IS the process by which KK arrived at his conclusion but his own use of the word 'epiphany' is troublesome in some way, as it seems to rely on an unstable admixture of thought and emotion. I say unstable because it seems to have a fairly 'newly poured' foundation to rest on.

Have you ever had an epiphany? I mean a moment where it felt like something suddenly made sense? Imagine it like turning a corner and having the sun shine in your face, the turning of the corner seems sudden, but you still had to get to it first, and your relative speed of progression has not changed.

Have you ever been working on a mathematical derivation and got bogged down, then left the room and when you came back merely looking at the page suddenly solved the problem for you. This is how I'd describe the epiphany I had about religion and God. For years I'd been reading about the various different ideas for creation and evolution, or "proofs" of Gods existence, but my mind was constantly at odds with some of the ideas that wanted to believe my God existed, I couldn't resolve myself to accept either opinion.

After not thinking about it for a while and settling back into my religious routines, it felt like my mind suddenly organized all the information I had into an idea that made perfect sense. The moment the last piece fell into place (i.e. for me it was prayer) felt like a moment of clarity.

ChocolateSauce

I'm happy for you OP. The hard part is over, now you should spend time developing yourself, so that you are able to fully articulate why you don't believe. Having "just a feeling" is the spark, but without the fire it amounts to little.

Goduznt Xzst wrote: »

Have you ever had an epiphany? I mean a moment where it felt like something suddenly made sense? Imagine it like turning a corner and having the sun shine in your face, the turning of the corner seems sudden, but you still had to get to it first, and your relative speed of progression has not changed.

Have you ever been working on a mathematical derivation and got bogged down, then left the room and when you came back merely looking at the page suddenly solved the problem for you. This is how I'd describe the epiphany I had about religion and God. For years I'd been reading about the various different ideas for creation and evolution, or "proofs" of Gods existence, but my mind was constantly at odds with some of the ideas that wanted to believe my God existed, I couldn't resolve myself to accept either opinion.

After not thinking about it for a while and settling back into my religious routines, it felt like my mind suddenly organized all the information I had into an idea that made perfect sense. The moment the last piece fell into place (i.e. for me it was prayer) felt like a moment of clarity.

I've had a few...like when I finally understood exactly how the electro-magnetic spectrum, the outer electron shell of atoms, and our eyes worked together to provide us with a colour image of the world. It took me ages to get it, but it suddenly clicked and BAM!

I guess you could say it finally shed some light on the issue?

mjg

Congrats to the OP. And enjoy it.

When you consider that everything from a nebula on the other side of the universe to a snowflake are the results of natural processes, (most of which we can't begin to understand of course) and not the whim of a mysterious supernatural being, the true magnificence of existence really hits home.

ChocolateSauce

mjg wrote: »

Congrats to the OP. And enjoy it.

When you consider that everything from a nebula on the other side of the universe to a snowflake are the results of natural processes, (most of which we can't begin to understand of course) and not the whim of a mysterious supernatural being, the true magnificence of existence really hits home.

Hate to nit-pick, but we know a great deal about snow, and a good deal about nebulae on the other side of the universe.

Flamed Diving

Welcome to the real world.

Kieran, I must warn you: once you become an atheist, you start to get unusual, indeed evil, urges. You mustn't fight these... You have to give in. You belong to Satan and his minions now...



I find that babies go quite well with mayonaise, but, you'll have to discover your own cannibalistic preferences with time.

mjg

ChocolateSauce wrote: »

Hate to nit-pick, but we know a great deal about snow, and a good deal about nebulae on the other side of the universe.

No problem ChocolateSauce, my nit-check must be off line. Thanks for the heads-up.;)

Myksyk

Goduznt Xzst wrote: »

For years I'd been reading about the various different ideas for creation and evolution, or "proofs" of Gods existence, but my mind was constantly at odds with some of the ideas that wanted to believe my God existed, I couldn't resolve myself to accept either opinion.

Yes, I can accept this idea of an epiphany. But this relates to a clarifying position arising 'suddenly' from "years ... reading the various different ideas". I'm not that convinced that is where KK is coming from but hope that it is.

Myksyk

-JammyDodger- wrote: »

Kieran, I must warn you: once you become an atheist, you start to get unusual, indeed evil, urges. You mustn't fight these... You have to give in. You belong to Satan and his minions now...



I find that babies go quite well with mayonaise, but, you'll have to discover your own cannibalistic preferences with time.

Yum ... This would be the perfect solution to regular 'friday night with the lads' end-of-night argument over whether we get Chinese or Supermacs!!

Ps ... Can I get fries with that?

Húrin

-JammyDodger- wrote: »

Kieran, I must warn you: once you become an atheist, you start to get unusual, indeed evil, urges.

Yes, Kieran, you will get the urge to condemn acts that you previously knew were wrong. Cannibalism and paedophilia for instance. However, you now know that there is no objective morality - it's all just a social construct determined by evolution. However, you should resist these urges towards inconsistency.

MrPudding

sukikettle wrote: »

Sink He doesn't send sad and lonely people to hell.When you stand before Him you will be in full revelation and when He asks you sadly 'what did you do with my Son?'

There could be some awkward moments for the Catholic priests.

MrP

jill_valentine

Yeah, the rest of us were trying to take the high road on that one, Pudding.

MrPudding

jill_valentine wrote: »

Yeah, the rest of us were trying to take the high road on that one, Pudding.

Well, you can always count on me.

MrP

AtomicHorror

-JammyDodger- wrote: »

Kieran, I must warn you: once you become an atheist, you start to get unusual, indeed evil, urges. You mustn't fight these... You have to give in. You belong to Satan and his minions now...



I find that babies go quite well with mayonaise, but, you'll have to discover your own cannibalistic preferences with time.

Awesome. We laugh, but then there's stuff like this:

http://tfnblog.wordpress.com/garners-dahmer-e-mail/

Which I took a shot at:

http://thebiologista.blogspot.com/2009/02/accept-evolution-eat-people.html

But ultimately we have to accept that:

Evolution --> Atheism --> Murder/Cannibalism

The path is clear. We have no choice but to follow it to it's logical conclusion. Omnomnomnomnom.

Overblood

Húrin wrote: »

Yes, Kieran, you will get the urge to condemn acts that you previously knew were wrong. Cannibalism and paedophilia for instance.

Was that a serious statement or are you joking? I really can't tell. Is he joking?

AtomicHorror

sukikettle wrote: »

Dudess no believers are going to hell their reward will reflect their lives lived and I haven't said a single contradictory thing to the bible. It sounds offensive because it's all new to you because you haven't read the bible

You're telling a message board full of Irish people that they don't get Christianity because they never read the bible? Really?

Come off it suki. We've read the bible. It's... garbage.

Flamed Diving

AtomicHorror wrote: »

You're telling a message board full of Irish people that they don't get Christianity because they never read the bible? Really?

Come off it suki. We've read the bible. It's... garbage.

I'm all for stoning children to death.

Rebel021

or selling my daughter into slavery

Flamed Diving

Rebel021 wrote: »

or selling my daughter into slavery

or to her rapist...

Rebel021

Flamed Diving wrote: »

or to her rapist...

Yeah only saw an online lecture the other week where that was brought up
not very Christian:mad:

Flamed Diving

Rebel021 wrote: »

Yeah only saw an online lecture the other week where that was brought up
not very Christian:mad:

Very little of the bible is...

Overblood

A beautiful passage from the bible:

(Numbers 31:7-18 NLT)
They attacked Midian just as the LORD had commanded Moses, and they killed all the men. All five of the Midianite kings – Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba – died in the battle. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword. Then the Israelite army captured the Midianite women and children and seized their cattle and flocks and all their wealth as plunder. They burned all the towns and villages where the Midianites had lived. After they had gathered the plunder and captives, both people and animals, they brought them all to Moses and Eleazar the priest, and to the whole community of Israel, which was camped on the plains of Moab beside the Jordan River, across from Jericho.

Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the people went to meet them outside the camp. But Moses was furious with all the military commanders who had returned from the battle. "Why have you let all the women live?" he demanded. "These are the very ones who followed Balaam's advice and caused the people of Israel to rebel against the LORD at Mount Peor. They are the ones who caused the plague to strike the LORD's people. Now kill all the boys and all the women who have slept with a man. Only the young girls who are virgins may live; you may keep them for yourselves.

Rebel021

Nice of Moses that


off topic
any of you see
Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on Trial
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/id/

unfortunately I can't post the rapidshare links as they would be against the rules

Overblood

Wow, just searching around google brings forth a DELUGE of evil biblestories, all approved by the ever loving Himself.

http://www.evilbible.com/

http://lukeprog.com/religion/evil_bible_stories.html


Rebel021, is that documentary biased in any way towards Intelligent Design?