mjbeam

Kurt,

Don't try to prove to yourself that there is a god and don't try to prove that there isn't. Start out knowing that you don't know. Maybe one can't know. Just gather the information. Try as hard as you can not to let your preconcieved notions steer you.

The order of the universe may point to a creator or it may have been caused by a big bang. Does any of it point to a creator that doesn't want you to wear clothes made of two different fabrics or needs you to worship him?

Just keep your mind open and fill your head with as much info as possible. Even the bible. You won't be sorry.

I honestly don't know why there are so many religious people. The only thing that comes to mind is the human need to feel as if there is a greater purpose and that when we die that it's not the end. Also to have some one to talk to and ask for help when things are going bad. When my family members and people I meet find out that I don't believe in their god these are always the things that come up. For some reason my desire for truth is greater than my desire for comfort.


-Mike

ashe

Does it bother you that you can't shoot lasers from your eyes? Or foretell the future by reading a piece of ham?

Calzaer

Yes, actually. I was promised eye lasers.

abe smith

"you don't miss what you've never had." and there's what Henry (Thoreau) said of his Concord neighbors :... people who long for eternal life, who don't know how to endure a rainy Sunday afternoon....

Ellis14

I'll tell you my deconversion journey but I haven't finished writing it yet; I'm typing it up for someone.

Perhaps deconversion stories are not the best to help you, everyone has their own path and some people realise things in life different ways.

As mjbeam said, don't try and prove anything either way. Take the approach of skepticism: that we start off with the assumption that we know nothing, and then proceed to prove what we know or not. Always question. But question everything. Evolution is a scientific fact for instance, but don't talk my word for it: www.talkorigins.com. Other great websites for general critical thinking are www.skepdic.com and here at www.infidels.org/news/atheism/logic.html. Check out ebonmusing's website too: www.ebonmusings.org.

Once you learn to think based on logic and reason instead of faith, you'll see a whole new world, the real world!

Jamie_L

Interesting piece of personal trivia:

It was while reading through www.skepdic.com that I finally accepted that I was an atheist. This was my "revelation" moment. My "ah-ha", when I accepted about myself what I had always expected. When I accepted it, everything seemed to make much more sense.

Oddly enough, I had come to www.skepdic.com to look up entries on UFOs to counter outlandish claims from someone I knew. Also, oddly enough, this was shortly after I had decided to give one more go at pious Christianity, and read the gospels in the New Testament all the way through for the first time. The Skeptic's Dictionary made much more sense than the gospels. The rest, as they say, is history.

Jamie

Yahzi

Thank you!

I love these stories when they pinpoint the moment everything changed.

Just wanted you to know your story was read and appreciated.

Ellis14

That's quite uncanny Jamie because I was reading articles on hypnosis and neuro-linguistic programming, searching the web etc and saw a link to www.skepdic.com and went there. It was a real refreshing fascinating read and as you know, it's not an atheist website, even though Bob Carroll is an atheist. When you read an honest critical assessment of nonsense like the paranormal, supernaturalism, junk science etc, you cut through all the nonsense and start seeing the world how it is.

Reading his essays on the Argument from Design and Creationism, which I still believed, (this is summer last year) started to knock what was left of that wall of faith down. I wasn't a practicing Christian anyway and didn't attend my religion's meetings anymore and hadn't in ages, but deep down I held some of it as truth. That got me started in critical thinking and examining things whether you want them to be true or not. The rest, as they say, is history.

Ebonmuse

You're welcome. Glad you appreciated it.