Paul2

I read the bible, realized it is a nice book with some nice ideas, but not the word of god. I realized that Jesus was a man, not the son of god. I also realized that the only reason I went to church was because it was tradition in my family. I suppose i'm more of an agnostic than an atheist though, as i accept that it is possible that there is a god. I highly doubt that said god is anything like we have currently described in any religion.

Stephen T-B

What happens when you stop believing in something which doesn’t exist?
Suppose you had been brought up to believe an ogre lived under your bed, and that unless you threw a current bun on the floor to appease it before putting on your slippers, it’d grab your ankles and gobble you up?
The current buns, you’d notice after a while, never actually disappeared. In fact once a week you’d need to go around and pick them all up or eventually you’d be knee deep in them.
“Why doesn’t the ogre under my bed eat the buns?” you ask your mom.
“He does,” she says, “but only metaphysically. It’s your throwing the bun on the floor for him which is important. It is your generosity which nourishes him and stops him grabbing your ankles and gobbling you up.”
One day, while collecting up the old current buns, you accidentally lift the valance and before you know what you’ve done, you’ve looked right under the bed. And where’s the ogre? For a moment you thought you could see its gleaming eye, but looking more closely you realise you were seeing the crystal glass earring you’d lost a couple of years back.
“Mom,” you say at breakfast,” I looked under my bed this morning and there wasn’t any ogre there.”
“You did WHAT?” she screams.
“I looked under the bed.”
“You must never look under your bed,”
“But I did, and I didn’t see the ogre.”
“That’s because you are a wicked, wilful child and didn’t want to see it. The ogre knows you don’t believe in it and made himself invisible.”
After this, you carry on as though there is no ogre under your bed, and the question is, what difference does this make to your life?
Well, for a start is saves you a lot of current buns. And it saves you going around picking them up - but chiefly it saves you anxiety because you find out that that the ogre never does grab your ankles and gobble you up.
Not believing in something which isn’t there is like not walking five miles round a hole in the ground which isn’t there: you miss the sense of having something to do, but it soon goes away because you quickly find out there’s something much better to do.
....
I was brought up to attribute everything to god (if an occurrence seemed bad, it was because we didn’t understand his purpose) and to refer every decision to him.
This was an impossibility, there being no god to tell us what to do, but we dutifully went through the motions: we’d discuss what we thought he’d want and reach a consensus.
Eventually, for me, the sham became impossible to live with, and when I threw it off, I had a wonderful sense of liberation. At that moment I took control of my own life - full responsibility for how things turned out - I’d have no one to blame if everything went horribly wrong, and only myself to thank if they went OK. That was 40 years ago, and they’ve gone OK (I was wrong, as it happens, about having no-one to thank but myself for that. Most of it is down to my wife, who happens to be a non-practising Hindu.)

Shake

HA HA! Stephen T-B, I love the ogre story! I really have nothing else to add to this, but I see that I've been beaten (many times in fact) to posting the Atheist's Testimony link.

openeyes

blondegoddess: the best to you on your journey of questioning! Many have given good suggestions to help you on your way. If you are in a large enough community to have options for non-religious gatherings, check them out. Subscribe to some humanist/atheist newsletters or magazines. (They'll either come in a "plain" wrapper or you can ask to have them sent that way if it's a problem.)

One piece of advice: Don't try to make too much sense of what Amos writes. I think most of the rest of us on this forum have given up on that!

cartman

Ditto, Steven! Well done!


Welcome, blondegoddess! As others have mentioned, the SecWeb Library is a good place to start. Good luck!

BTW, I know a thing or two about blonde goddesses; I've been married to one for 25 years.

Celsus

Very true. One of the Christians in BC&A called him insane recently.

blondegodess: Whatever happens, many of us have been exactly where you are. But don't take it from us, ultimately. Investigate it for yourself. If you have any specific questions though, I'm sure plenty of people will be pleased to help out. There are some very knowledgeable people around on whatever subject you care to talk about.

Joel

Amos

It's OK blondgoddess and I like your name. It suits you well as a person who tried to convince herself that she had unshakable faith that now is shaken. No, you are not alone in this as all "so called Christians" must convince themselves daily that they are Christian. In case you wonder, that is what the "soaring witch" image is all about wherein the the broom is their sola scriptura recipe that was brewed up down below on which they now sore through midheaven while burning scriptures to stay aloft.

You crashed and now have to deal with the lofty image you have created for yourself. If there is books written on how to deal with this that should tell you that you are not the only one and that many have crashed before you. Let's just pray that you do not land in a lake of fire in which case the books you burn there will add to the fire you are trying to quench.

Amos

What I don't understand is that when I write that the self righteous Christinanity claimed by blondegoddess is like a protestant plague you tell everybody here that I don't make much sense. Are you defending Chrisitianity now?

Does the "plain wrapper" not suggest an oppressive majority?

Amos

What can I say except that "too much common sense" is dangerous.

Amos

35 here.