Coming Out Godless: What's Your Story?

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Comment by Sarah Trachtenberg on September 8, 2009 at 2:04pm

Coming out Godless is my "sister site" to my blog, Not My God, which also collects the personal stories of atheists. COG is indeed an important site. Mine, Not My God, www.sarahtrachtenberg.com, focuses on the persecution and hatred people have for atheists in the US.
To Aaron and anyone else, please visit my site and share your story if you'd like.

Comment by MAC on February 26, 2009 at 6:06am

i am new here in A/N and i want to share my story.i grew in up in a very religious country,the Philippines.Majority of Filipinos are Catholics.And, by that it is really hard to speak out about atheism.Being Atheist and Devil worshiper is synonymous with religious people,lol.It's is like, IF you are not one of us then you must be a work of devil.Until now, I usually avoid discussion about my belief unless provoked.I can respect them if having a god make them feel wonderful,as long as they will leave it right there and don't try to convince me.I hope many people will learn to use reason and understand Atheism.That Atheism is not a curse but a gift to enjoy life here on earth and not in a some sort of garden after we die.

Comment by LaRae Meadows on September 1, 2008 at 9:49pm

Lets work together to contact all our southern members to make sure they are ok and to see if we can do anything for them. Send a notice to all your friends asking the to do the same.

Look in your friends and see if any of them are in the southern states. If they are offer to help any way you can. If you are in a position to offer a room to a family so they don't have to stay in a shelter, offer.

If you are a southerner, please post here so we know you are ok. Please let me know if you've checked in with your friends.

Please ask your friends to check on their friends.

Sorry if you've gotten this message more than once.

Comment by Aspentroll on August 6, 2008 at 5:43pm

I have been an atheist all of my 73 years and because of that I do not worry about all the things
that can not be proven at his time. I think that only people who have been indoctrinated and brainwashed into religion have these worries. It seems really simple for me to decide which of the two sides to believe. I really cringe when I hear what the religious people believe about how everything happened and other supposed facts of the bible. Common sense dictates that the scientific view is the easiest to swallow, at least for me.
The definition of atheism is simple, no belief in any god(s) or supernatural entities.
Since I have never seen any god(s) or anything supernatural, I naturally believe they don’t exist. All religious people pray about just about everything, if they were truthful they would all say that it doesn’t work. I will be a believer when “God” suddenly decides to show up for work and actually does something credible. My proof would be: all amputees with their limbs regrown, all cancer
gone forever, all human problems corrected, etc. Until then I am content to
go on as I am, being a good living person without regrets or worrying about an imaginary Hell or Heaven. I put it all down to
freethinking.

Comment by Rikk on August 5, 2008 at 3:51pm

my apologies for not understanding how this website works.

However there is nothing I can see that indicates

that by using the add a comment feature that

what you write will be automatically e mailed to

everyone in the group,i did nothing else here

so I can't explain that.

I do appreciate the email clarifying how to use this

site.

THanks!!!!

RIKK

Comment by Rikk on August 4, 2008 at 1:19am

My family was never real active in church,I remember

we went to a Methodist church for a while with some

friends from down the street.

That lasted until the Preacher told my dad he had to

fork over 10% of his paycheck if we were going to

keep showing up.

My father was supporting four boys and a wife and

making a house payment on top of that,we ate beans

'taters and greens at least 5 times a week.

Dad cussed that greedy S.O.B. up one side and

down the other.I was 4 at the time.

Years went by and I made it thru high school.

I explored Religion on my own for a few years

and some times it was fun but in the end I

decided It was A waste of time.

The bad part about it all is that over the years,

I'm 52, I've been badly treated by the Xtian jerks

in this Town I live in,to the point that I had to file a

Report with the FBI.

I had no buisness living in THIER Town, after all

my Father cussed out a Preacher 48 years ago!

Well, me,my family and friends are all still here

and we are happy,the xtian jerks don't bother me

and I don't bother them.

All's well that ends well.

Comment by Random Cat on August 1, 2008 at 2:21pm

This is long. Apologies in advance.

I was raised Anglican. My mum took us to church every Sunday. I thought it was really boring and my brother and I got in trouble almost every Sunday for making really bad jokes and making fun of the artwork . My dad really didn't care - he would come on xmas and easter, but that's it. My mum was, and still is, involved with the church - she has bible studies 2 or 3 nights a week and still goes on sunday mornings. I never questioned religion because I thought that whatever my parents told me was right because they knew best. They're incredibly smart people and are very worldly. But what kept me in religion so long was that I was terrified of going to hell.

I went to a fundamentalist christian school from age 6 to 13. But while I saw people all around me who, by all appearances, where firm believers, I couldn't do it. I found memorising bible verses indescribably useless and boring. I couldn't sit still during prayer time and always felt silly talking to myself. But the biggest problem I had was that we were told if the bible and science disagree, the bible is automatically right. We were fed "evidence" that carbon dating is flawed, the earth is only 6000 years old, etc. I took it in and regurgitated it out, but never really believed it.

Although I never believed, I always really wanted to, out of fear mostly. I still went to church every Sunday until I was 20 or so, but it was less and less inspiring every time. Halfway through university I stopped going, because it was just not worth it. I was also trying to reconcile what I believed (religion) with what I knew (science) and I found the two irreconcilable. I studied the historiography of the bible and found it full of anthropological/sociological phenomena, politicised edits, contradictions, and plain old made-up shit.

But I still held on... I dated an arrogant atheist who insulted my mother for being religious. I was so offended because I think being a christian in name was part of my identity. I broke up with him (not because he was atheist - because he was arrogant ).

After university I went to live in Japan (2x) and New Zealand (2x). I have had to rethink a lot of what I was raised with. The Japanese have their own 'religious' traditions, but they're more like cultural guidelines. I really liked that, and had to rethink what I believed and why. Inexplicably, I was still clinging on.

I dated another guy (my current partner) later who is also an atheist, but is not arrogant about it. I could talk to him about how I felt without him jumping down my throat for being "religious". I told him I thought it was all silly, and that I didn't think I had any faith at all. He didn't try to convert me - he just advised me to read a book by Christopher Alexander. I read it and loved it, and realised I didn't have to defend my nonexistent faith anymore. It was so freeing.

I told my mum just a few months ago that I was agnostic, and she was disappointed. I will not apologise for it. I said that I can be a good person without believing in god, and that I can love and appreciate the earth and its creatures without resorting to the supernatural. She understood but was still "disappointed" and kept sending me books in the mail about coming back to christianity. It pisses me off.

So just yesterday, I told her I was atheist. She was so upset. Her first words were "[my partner]'s influence no doubt". How insulting. I have been mulling the question over for years and she treats it like a snap decision. I told her how offensive it is that she won't respect my belief or lack thereof. Her reply, strangely enough, was "I'm offended that you say you're atheist". (um, what?)

I'm NOT afraid of coming "out" as an atheist. I'm happy to explain to anyone why I am. And most of all, I'm happy to talk to people who, like me, have "hereditary" faith from their upbringing and parents and cannot let go of it because of the fear instilled in them. It makes me so happy that there is a community online where we can share our stories and take action to reduce the stigma against atheism!

Comment by Matt Stith on July 23, 2008 at 2:52am

Ive been an atheist for a couple years now, I'm 17 now and I think I started actually using the word 'atheist' about 5 years ago. I'm not actually sure who all in my family knows I'm an atheist, except my cousin (she identifies as pagan, but she just seems like the 'I wanna be a minority' kind of person), and my Dad, who after finding out we had a little talk about beliefs and such.

After talking with him for awhile, I realized that he is actually pretty confused. His default "I have no rebuttal for that remark" phrase seemed to be "There's a power of good and a power of evil." He leans towards agnostic but I never really got a clear picture of what he believed.

Anyways.. I was raised a little catholic, even went to a catholic school for about 2 years I think. I say "a little" catholic, because even though I went to catholic school, the issue was never really brought up at home. God was never mentioned, we didn't pray before dinner, I guess it was just kind of implied.

Then one day I actually thought about it. The idea of an all knowing God who can hear millions of whispers at the same time just didn't make sense to me.

I don't have problems with religious people, it's just the ones that push their beliefs on me, like the Jehovah's Witness that came to my door a couple weeks ago and almost got chewed out that I have problems with. :-/

Comment by Jessica on July 19, 2008 at 11:25am

I've been an atheist since I was about 14. I can't honestly say I was a good little religious girl, but I didn't identify as atheist. I was raised Mormon, but not strictly. We went to church, because that was what Sundays were for, but I didn't "get it". I never felt like I fully understood, or that I missed the first day when the rules and regulations were handed out, if that makes sense. What drove me away from the church originally was that it offended my little feminist heart at age 13, so I stopped going. Being away from all that made me think about religion more. I never had an "aha!" moment, atheism just came upon me gradually. I stopped saying "under god" during the pledge at school, and it just went from there. I could never go back, it simply doesn't work for me now. Like somebody earlier said; it's quite comparable to Greek mythology. My husband is an atheist too, and we're raising a little heathen with another on the way. His family is a problem, they keep sending my son illustrated Bibles and what not. If he grows up and accepts religion, I'll accept that. It's got to be HIS choice though. We just want to make him a critical thinker, not a sheep.