How atheism affects your life (if at all)?

GirlInterrupted

I was raised atheist by atheist parents, and I gave religions no more thought growing up than I gave Greek mythology.

I never once suffered bullying, feeling left out, or discrimination. Until I started working.

My non-belief is an issue every day in my working life, and what I'm required to teach, as opposed to what I personally believe, is a source of constant internal conflict.

I do my job as required, but I don't always feel too good about it

Mickeroo

GirlInterrupted wrote: »

I was raised atheist by atheist parents, and I gave religions no more thought growing up than I gave Greek mythology.

I never once suffered bullying, feeling left out, or discrimination. Until I started working.

My non-belief is an issue every day in my working life, and what I'm required to teach, as opposed to what I personally believe, is a source of constant internal conflict.

I do my job as required, but I don't always feel too good about it

national school teacher?

Surgefilter

I'm still atheist but believe in an afterlife. I used to have no time for anything in regard to the afterlife, and my life was much worse because of that, which honestly contributed to most of my failings (and there are/were many! :pac:), and I basically gave up on everything for a couple of years....

Either way, I read this book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/There-Afterlife-Comprehensive-Overview-Evidence/dp/1903816904

As far as I am concerned it is the best book written on afterlife research EVER, supremely comprehensive and everything is referenced. It looks at all possible forms of afterlife existance, and examines them all in great detail; looks at both the evidence for and against it in every case and concludes with the most reasonable explanation at the end of each section. The end of the book is the authors personal opinion on an afterlife existing.

I'm not going to attempt to condense the ~500 pages in the book into a forum post, but seriously, if you are interested in learning about the possibility of an afterlife then please buy the book, it changed my life, could do the same to yours. It's a must read, it is completely unbiased and hugely definitive. If you are open about things then do buy it.

:cool:

dvpower

Surgefilter wrote: »

I'm not going to attempt to condense the ~500 pages in the book into a forum post, but seriously, if you are interested in learning about the possibility of an afterlife then please buy the book, it changed my life, could do the same to yours. It's a must read, it is completely unbiased and hugely definitive. If you are open about things then do buy it.

:cool:

Here's a better 500 pages on the topic.

Galvasean

Doesn't affect me too much. When I was 'Catholic' I only went to mass twice a year. Now it's never.
(excluding the occasional funeral)

grames_bond

for me it allows me to stop worrying about "what will happen after if i do this now" i can just relax and enjoy life!

like galvasean though even when i "was religious" mass was an after thaught.

thebouldwhacker

I get to enjoy life, nature, people, animals, trees, sand, water, air, drink, food, clothes, society, love, hate, work, TV, the internet, music, chairs, relationships etc etc for what it is and what they are, not the creation of some great all knowing 'whatever', but truly a mystery... an accident of the combination of the sciences. I feel ownership, control and powerful. I feel at one, not just one.

Other than that no difference really... Bit like after I found out santa aint what I was lead to believe he was:rolleyes:

dvpower

GirlInterrupted wrote: »

I was raised atheist by atheist parents, and I gave religions no more thought growing up than I gave Greek mythology.

I never once suffered bullying, feeling left out, or discrimination. Until I started working.

My non-belief is an issue every day in my working life, and what I'm required to teach, as opposed to what I personally believe, is a source of constant internal conflict.

I do my job as required, but I don't always feel too good about it

Mickeroo wrote: »

national school teacher?

Nun?

toiletduck

Just have to be careful about certain topics around the Mammy when I'm home. A lot of tongue biting

Hurry,Reboot

grames_bond wrote: »

for me it allows me to stop worrying about "what will happen after if i do this now" i can just relax and enjoy life!
.

What had you been doing that you thought would incurr God's wrath?
Maybe you shouldnt have been doing it whether you believe in God or not?

Galvasean

Hurry,Reboot wrote: »

What had you been doing that you thought would incurr God's wrath?
Maybe you shouldnt have been doing it whether you believe in God or not?

Wearing clothes of more than one kind of fabric.
Collecting sticks on the Sabbath day.
Eating a rasher sambo.
Masturbating to relieve stress.
etc.

Hurry,Reboot

Galvasean wrote: »

Wearing clothes of more than one kind of fabric.
Collecting sticks on the Sabbath day.
Eating a rasher sambo.
Masturbating to relieve stress.
etc.

So what did you think God was going to do with you then?
Why do you think He would care?

grames_bond

Hurry,Reboot wrote: »

So what did you think God was going to do with you then?
Why do you think He would care?

7 deadly sins...ever heard of them?!

the word "deadly" can mean punishable i believe. so yes he would have cared.....if he existed!

Galvasean

Hurry,Reboot wrote: »

So what did you think God was going to do with you then?
Why do you think He would care?

I don't think he's going to do anything because I don't think he's real. However if he is real he would be quite unhappy about people doing such things (says so in the Bible).

Hurry,Reboot

Galvasean wrote: »

I don't think he's going to do anything because I don't think he's real. However if he is real he would be quite unhappy about people doing such things (says so in the Bible).

I used the past tense, "did" - "what did you think?"

You said that, before you became an atheist, you were unable to "relax and enjoy life" because you didnt have to worry about what God would do to you for doing various deeds.

You have obviously since decided that God doesnt exist; so you have thought about it and come to a decision. You have engaged your brain on the issue.

But what I dont understand is, as you do have a brain, why did you believe everything that is in the Bible or everything the Christian Bros told you in school. Why didnt you engage your brain on that particular issue?

Galvasean

Hurry,Reboot wrote: »

I used the past tense, "did" - "what did you think?"

You said that, before you became an atheist, you were unable to "relax and enjoy life" because you didnt have to worry about what God would do to you for doing various deeds.

Well for starters you are confusing me with another poster now. It was grames_bond who made the 'relax and enjoy life!' comment. You'll have to take it up with him.

You have obviously since decided that God doesnt exist; so you have thought about it and come to a decision. You have engaged your brain on the issue.

But what I dont understand is, as you do have a brain, why did you believe everything that is in the Bible or everything the Christian Bros told you in school. Why didnt you engage your brain on that particular issue?

I was an obedient child so just took what my superiors (parents, teachers etc.) said for granted. As I got older I started thinking for myself and decided none of the religious stuff I was told really made sense. Such was the beginning of my personal road to atheism.
And for the record, I have had no direct contact with the organization known as the Christian Brothers (lucky me).

grames_bond

Hurry,Reboot wrote: »

I used the past tense, "did" - "what did you think?"

You said that, before you became an atheist, you were unable to "relax and enjoy life" because you didnt have to worry about what God would do to you for doing various deeds.

You have obviously since decided that God doesnt exist; so you have thought about it and come to a decision. You have engaged your brain on the issue.

But what I dont understand is, as you do have a brain, why did you believe everything that is in the Bible or everything the Christian Bros told you in school. Why didnt you engage your brain on that particular issue?

seeing as this was supposed to be directed at me i better reply.

yes i believed when i was a child, its called "blind faith" i believe its what god requires.....so by that logic every religious person doesnt "engage their brain"

and also when i was a child i also believed in santa but i grew out of that....just like religion,

Hurry,Reboot

Galvasean wrote: »

Well for starters you are confusing me with another poster now. It was grames_bond who made the 'relax and enjoy life!' comment. You'll have to take it up with him.

Fair point!

Galvasean wrote: »

I was an obedient child so just took what my superiors (parents, teachers etc.) said for granted. As I got older I started thinking for myself and decided none of the religious stuff I was told really made sense. Such was the beginning of my personal road to atheism.
And for the record, I have had no direct contact with the organization known as the Christian Brothers (lucky me).

So you had a direct "transfer" from absolute believer to atheist?
No intermediate steps?
No point where it dawned on you that the Bibical/Church thought "rules" were a little dubious but continued to "believe" or at least became agnostic?

I rarely find it credible that those who had sufficient introspection to ultimately end up as an atheist did not, as a first step, withdraw from the artificial rules of religon. It seems to me to be a very unusual state of affairs to go from believing that God will punish you for eating a rasher sambo to a point where do you not believe in God altogether.

Galvasean

Hurry,Reboot wrote: »

So you had a direct "transfer" from absolute believer to atheist?
No intermediate steps?
No point where it dawned on you that the Bibical/Church thought "rules" were a little dubious but continued to "believe" or at least became agnostic?

Oh yes, for me it was a gradual transition. I didn't wake up one day thinking, "from this day forth I shall be an atheist" or have a 'moment of clarity' (a phrase some people use on this forum). I was agnostic for a while before becoming atheist. In fact for a good while i was 'agnostic' because I didn't want to put up with the hassle of the negative stigma often associated with atheism. I didn't 'come out of the closet' regarding my atheism until I left secndary school and started college, even though privately I had been an atheist for a few years.

I rarely find it credible that those who had sufficient introspection to ultimately end up as an atheist did not, as a first step, withdraw from the artificial rules of religon. It seems to me to be a very unusual state of affairs to go from believing that God will punish you for eating a rasher sambo to a point where do you not believe in God altogether.

as I alluded to earlier some say they had a 'momeny of clarity' where suddenly everytghing just made sense. I never experienced it myself so can't really comment further on it. Although I do think most atheists came to be so gradually rather than suddenly.

Zombrex

The critical thinking that lead me to atheism introduced me to a whole range of critical and sceptical thinking on a number of subjects, which I'm very pleased about.

The Mad Hatter

Galvasean wrote: »

as I alluded to earlier some say they had a 'momeny of clarity' where suddenly everytghing just made sense.

More to the point, realised everything we'd been told made no sense. (I was one of those people btw, though I did have serious questions in my mind about confirmation before that.)

Húrin

ChocolateSauce wrote: »

I also have a love affair with science, and I find that science and atheism are natural allies. They complement each other and in doing so become very influential in my life.

It's being constantly said on this forum that atheism has no inherent characteristics besides disbelief in God. Usually as a refutation to some Christian with a wide tarring brush.

So how can it be the natural ally of science? Are you sure you don't mean naturalism or even humanism?

Sam Vimes

Húrin wrote: »

It's being constantly said on this forum that atheism has no inherent characteristics besides disbelief in God. Usually as a refutation to some Christian with a wide tarring brush.

So how can it be the natural ally of science? Are you sure you don't mean naturalism or even humanism?

I suppose you could say they're allies because atheism can be backed up by science and the scientific method, ie it allows people to justify their lack of belief

antiskeptic

Sam Vimes wrote: »

I suppose you could say they're allies because atheism can be backed up by science and the scientific method, ie it allows people to justify their lack of belief

Verrrdy interestink!!

Why would you need to justify a lack of belief in this way. Surely a lack of belief is fully justified by the lack of evidence which would otherwise be required to support a belief.

So long as evidence is lacking your unbelief is justified.

Sam Vimes

antiskeptic wrote: »

Verrrdy interestink!!

Why would you need to justify a lack of belief in this way. Surely a lack of belief is fully justified by the lack of evidence which would otherwise be required to support a belief.

So long as evidence is lacking your unbelief is justified.

That's what I meant. That you can show through the scientific method that there is a lack of evidence and if someone claims there is evidence you can apply the scientific method to it and see if the evidence is sound.

It's not enough to just say "that not evidence, it's crap". You have to show that it's crap and the scientific method allows you to do that

Zombrex

antiskeptic wrote: »

Why would you need to justify a lack of belief in this way. Surely a lack of belief is fully justified by the lack of evidence which would otherwise be required to support a belief.

You answered your own question.

Helix

tech77 wrote: »

Hi.
What are the implications of your atheistic belief for your life?

its made me far more curious, and in general more interested in popular physics (tho not so much actual hardcore stuff coz im rubbish at maths unfortunately)

The Mad Hatter

Húrin wrote: »

It's being constantly said on this forum that atheism has no inherent characteristics besides disbelief in God. Usually as a refutation to some Christian with a wide tarring brush.

So how can it be the natural ally of science? Are you sure you don't mean naturalism or even humanism?

They are natural allies, but they're not mutual requirements. Most of the atheists I know are scientists and vice versa, but I'm an atheist and not a scientist.

enniscorthy

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

It affects me as much as not believeing in unicorns. Apart from I don'r get laughs out of crazy fundamentalist unicorn believers.

D. E. F. O. :P

Húrin

The Mad Hatter wrote: »

They are natural allies, but they're not mutual requirements. Most of the atheists I know are scientists and vice versa, but I'm an atheist and not a scientist.

Most people of all professions I know are atheists.