How did you feel after leaving your religion and becoming atheist?

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Permalink Reply by Tom Sarbeck on September 6, 2012 at 1:40pm

A two-part question: "How did you FEEL [emphasis added] after leaving your religion..." and "...after becoming atheist?"

For an instant (maybe two or three instants) I FELT rebellious, then frightened, then confident enough in my ability to get the information I would need to make a decision, and finally FREE and AWED. After fifty years of happy agnosticism, I pitched it for atheism.

I recently wrote a memoir, which I titled "Evolving to Atheism." I won't lay it on you.

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Permalink Reply by damian on September 7, 2012 at 8:43am

I felt like i could walk on water.  When i realized that none of what i was taught was true, i started questioning everything, and life seemed much simpler/explainable. I started to look at what people believed and had the urge to debate them, but i know that southerners wouldn't take it so well. 

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Permalink Reply by James M. Martin on September 7, 2012 at 5:29pm

Did you try it, as did an American politician recently on a visit to the "Holy" Land.

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Permalink Reply by Beth KZ on September 8, 2012 at 8:58pm

Hey! I can walk on water too!

...So long as it's frozen solid.

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Permalink Reply by Mordekhai ben-Yosef on September 8, 2012 at 9:21pm

I can do it in summer. My feet sweat.

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Permalink Reply by James M. Martin on September 7, 2012 at 5:28pm

I took elements of my religion with me.  There were many things in my religious training that apply to atheist behavior as much as a Christian, Jew, or Muslim.  I do not have to believe in God in order to appreciate the human wisdom (as well as folly) of the believers who set their faith down in writings, but one must distinguish between the thoughts of an intelligent, compassionate mind and hallucinations about pork, beards, and shellfish.

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Permalink Reply by John Remington on September 8, 2012 at 1:00am

For some reason the biggest thing I took away from religion was a sense of purposelessness. I suppose that is understandable when someone grows up being told that this life is temporary, difficult, painful, etc... and all we have to do is work towards the kingdom - where it will all go away. This life is something to get past, nothing more. In fact it is a terrible thing to have to suffer through it without a relationship with Jesus.

It would be unfair to say that this is all Christianity has to offer or teach, but it is the natural conclusion of its teachings. This was particularly hard for me early on - I had a 20 year handicap in the search for meaning.

I'd say that I'm over it now, but such thoughts still creep up into my consciousness and it takes constant effort to keep them at bay.

blog

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Permalink Reply by The Doctor on September 8, 2012 at 3:47pm

yeah, I pretty much agree with everyone here, it was as if the perverbial 'blinders' were taken away and I could see the world for what/how it actually is. I can also say I learned alot more about science and history than as a theist. Rationality I reccomend it lol.

-cheers

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Permalink Reply by Prog Rock Girl on September 10, 2012 at 9:41am

The first thing I felt was a feeling like a blindfold was removed. I had just been shunned by my Wiccan "friends" and decided to read "The Demon Haunted World". That book was what did it. In fact I had put off reading that book, maybe for that reason. I realized all the "unexplained supernatural phenomena" had a simple explanation. I hadn't really believed witchcraft worked...I just wanted to be proved wrong, and wanted to fit in.

I felt a little vindictive. Atheism was part of that. Paganism is still a "trigger" for me. I'm uncomfortable with how a lot of pagans, when at parties of people in overlapping cultures, assume that everyone there is pagan or wants to be pagan, and proselytizes just as much as any Bible thumper.

In my experience coming out, sometimes people have the most energy and enthusiasm at that point. I was a lot more excited about atheism. Now I'm still glad I am who I am, but I've chilled out a little. I know that there are irrational people and jerks and people who treat things like religion in any group.

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Permalink Reply by Regina M on September 25, 2012 at 1:23pm

For me it was being released from a life of fear. No more wondering if the moon was turning to blood, thus harboring the beginning of the apocalypse; no more feeling watched over when I had sex outside of marriage; no more trying to imagine the fiery hell furnace that I was sure awaited me; no more guilt about not going to church; no more images of demons under my bed; no more fear of ghosts; no more fear of death; no more fear of not measuring up to a demanding god; no more worry about "what people at church would say"; no more wondering if I was getting it right; no more wondering if I was praying to the right god.

It is such a relief to be able to say "I don't believe in that. It has no control over me." It has given me more self-confidence than any Tony Robbins (*cough*asshole*cough*) seminar could ever give. I think because of my realization that the ultimate authority figure has no hold on me, I am able to question all authority figures. I question my doctor, my accountant, books, anything in written form, stupid emails, facts that sound weird and facts that seem sound. There is nothing sacred anymore, as far as I'm concerned.

And I enjoy life so much more.

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Permalink Reply by Stormi C. on September 27, 2012 at 5:06pm

The feeling I got was freedom. I didn't fear burning in hell anymore because I'd lied about a bad grade, secretly hated church, and started developing crushes not only on boys but on girls as well. Just the fear of hell for "ungodly" actions in general disappeared and it felt like a million pounds were lifted from my shoulders. I was also no longer scared of punishment in life by a higher being because I thought the wrong thing or used cuss words when I wasn't around my parents. And although I do still have monopolar, I now know that the depressive moods from it aren't punishment by God but are actually a mood disorder that can be fixed with medical help instead of endlessly talking to an imaginary being who always seems to ignore everybody.

Basically, becoming an Atheist felt like I'd been set free from tons and tons of opression and control.

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Permalink Reply by michele ricketts on October 2, 2012 at 8:18am

For my mother it taught self-reliance which is a basis for free thinking. Her turning point after raised as Catholic and convent school was that belief in no way gaurentees compassion as Christians like to promote as a reason. She was orphaned and went to live with an aunt who was forced by her family not to take Belief that far by becoming a nun so she opted to become a teacher in a convent school. A certain resentment made her a cold person. It is so meaningless she never had an opinion on the subject.

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