crownboy

From the Onion

I know this is supposed to be a funny story, but I think it does kind of bring out a valid point. Do you think that a great deal of believers believe, not necessarily for intellectual reasons, but because of the "good feeling" they get from being at a religious service? Were you that type of believer, and did that possibly make it easier for you to "succomb" to atheism as opposed to a more "intellectual" christain?

For me, I was more of the "intellectual" type christain, and IMO that made me more open to unbelief, because I actually thought about what I believed.

Amie

I don't get that good feeling you are talking about from attending a service, I do like the people I've gone to mass with but really church is rather boring...

Evangelion

Absolutely. This is verifiable.

The answer is "No" to both questions.

I consider myself more of the "intellectual" type Christian. It has certainly led me to question my faith on quite a number of occasions.

But OTOH, we're encouraged to do that in my community.

Magus55

Nope, i don't go to religious service, so thats not the reason i believe.

emotional

Definitely so. All the time I was a theist I tried to force myself to believe all the nonsense in the Bible, but I couldn't do it. I remember doing a heavy Bible study, stumbling in Genesis, saying to myself strenuously, "Arphaxad was a REAL PERSON!", and then, "who are you trying to kid?" But despite not believing, I stayed in the congregation for a long time, because I liked the community, the liturgy, the devotion. I became fully free of the grasp of theistic religion only when I reworked atheism into a religious system.

Veni Domine ad corda nostra
Purge Domine corda nostra
Ut vivamus, ne moriamur
Domine in te salus est

mike_decock

Absolutely. I rarely had that "good feeling" and that was one of the main reasons it didn't stick to me even though I was indoctrinated from the day I was born. I could get the same "good feeling" listening to secular music. I was even able to orchestrate that "good feeling" when I was on the "worship team" so I knew it there was nothing "spiritual" about it.

"Intellectual Christian"? Isn't that an oxymoron? It's because I was intellectually motivated rather than a slave to my emotions that I dared to challenge my beliefs, not as an act of rebellion, but out of a desire to find the truth, regardless of the "cost".

Amazingly enough, unbelief provided me with greater emotional freedom and peace, something "belief" had always promised me.

-Mike...

beth

I'm heading in that direction.

Bree

When you first were "saved" did you go or were you a part of a church or congregation?

Very few of the Christians I've met were "saved" on their own. Most, in my opinion, needed a little big of fellowship (or spiritual help) when they first headed down the path of theism.