How Did You Become An Atheist?

by NewChapter 81 Replies latest jw friends

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  Mall Cop

  I'm about fifty-fifty on believing in God. For most of my life, I've felt that there must be more to our existence than meets the eye. I might be overestimating the odds 50/50 out of a desire to believe in an afterlife, I like to believe, think that something survives after you die. It's strange to think that you accumulate all this experience, and maybe a little wisdom, and it just goes away. So I really want to believe that something survives, that maybe your consciousness endures. But, on the other hand perhaps it's like an on and off switch click! and your gone. Steve Jobs.

  I feel the same way as Steve Jobs. Yet I'm not ready to accept that I'm an Atheist. I am ready to accept that I'm an Agnostic because I really don't know either way. There are many known unknowns that we can knowingly know that we just don't know. And we may never come to know these unknowns in our short life span.

  Blueblades/MallCop Three weeks since my openheart surgery, A aortic valve replcement. I'm doing well.
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  MrFreeze

  I know it is sort of an atheist cliche to say this but it is the same reason I don't believe in tooth fairies. There isn't any proof of them. Kind of odd that in the modern age when explanations abound for the natural world and the universe that god decided to stop interacting with humans. Unless you count faces on a grilled-cheese sandwich.
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  The Oracle

  @ Troubled Mind and Rebel8
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  caliber

  It's okay if you find it interesting that I spend time here. Obviously I get something from it, and it may not be what you think. We each spend our energy doing what makes sense to us. Perhaps I like being a sane voice for the new ones coming here with questions. Perhaps I like to let them know that if they question God's existence, they are not alone and they are not defective. In that way, I repay what I got from this board.

  I will not question your reasons for coming here.. for any of us to judge intent and motive is guess work at best.

  But what hurts me is the strong condemnation of believers who are accused of preaching( I am speaking in general not attacking you as a person )... not all but many of which I am sure

  feel just as you do , that they are seeking to liberate people from false understanding and disbelief. I feel there is an effort being made to drive all would be believers from JWN.. ..this I feel is a very divisive force . I don't feel that JWN must make one definitive stand

  What is the difference between liberating and preaching ? How realistic is it to beleive that people leaving the WT will come here and want to go directly to atheism ?

  P.S. I am off topic... but then again how many of these type threads have been on topic these days ?
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  NewChapter

  I think your question is slightly wrong NC. But this is because I have work to do so am in a bored and pedantic mood. The question should not be "why did you become an atheist?" but rather "why did you return to being an atheist?"

  I was born without belief. I became a believer because that is what I was taught to believe. I then relinquished that belief to return to my original state when I learned how to think like a child and ask questions again.

  So true. I was definitely born an atheist. The idea of a god was not introduced to me until Kindergarten when a neighbor tried to teach me that God was the father and Jesus was the son, and I kept mixing them up. Even then it didn't click that these were supposed to be real people. That didn't come until I went to church for the first time in second grade----another neighbor took me. I remember that fist Sunday school---they gave us a little worksheet to fill out and I didn't know any of the answers. The girl next to me had to help, and the answers were things like, God, Heaven, Angel, Jesus. I REALLY had no idea what they were talking about! LOL

  My father was an athesit, and my mother was agnostic and never really talked about it. She did study with JWs when I was young, but she never talked about it until I was much older. I had not thought about this or put it together until someone insisted that belief in god was instinctive---hard wired. So I started to remember when I first learned about God. I asked my brothers if that was how they remembered it. Both said yes. One learned about god when a program on Noah's Ark came on TV. The other heard about God (when he was 8) and asked my father. My father said to him, "Do you se God?" "No" "Then he's not there." That brother has always been an atheist.

  I did have some very religious family members---but either I didn't understand what they were talking about and it didn't register, or they never talked to me about it. My grandparents and aunts and uncles were not religious.

  NC
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  NewChapter

  feel just as you do , that they are seeking to liberate people from false understanding and disbelief. I feel there is an effort being made to drive all would be believers from JWN.. ..this I feel is a very divisive force . I don't feel that JWN must make one definitive stand

  That is interesting. Let me ask you---do you feel that preaching by believers is equally devisive---an effort to drive all atheists from the board? Are you prepared to say the same thing to believers---some have called me evil, damaged, and a whole host of things that gets me into trouble if I mention because I'm supposed to pretend it did not happen.

  Would it go easier for you if believers were free to preach and atheists just remained silent? How would you like to handle that? Should both sides now agree to never discuss this---to never debate---to never challenge? Or should just one side agree to this?

  Do you know what nearly drove me from this board? The double standard. People jump on me because they don't like my approach--whatever, I don't like theirs. But when I am called names, I am told I must forgive and forget. Good enough. But when I was called damaged, from a poor persecuted believer, I was told I was damaged and such comment was made out of Christian love.

  Tell me how this strikes you: When certain posters refer to faith as mind rot, they are saying it out of atheistic love, because they no longer want you to be deceived. You really shouldn't be offended by such a statement. It's meant in the best spirit to help you grow.

  Just think about it. This tension is not one sided.

  NC
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  jamesmahon

  I think the fact that belief is learned rather than innate behaviour is profound - although I did see a programme that suggested that genetically we may be predisposed to belief due to our need for pattern recognition and linking cause and effect. At least I seem to remember that was the conclusion. It is why we have to be so careful what we teach our children.
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  scotoma

  Religion is like watching a really bad carnival show. Imagine a weight guesser that gets everyone's weight wrong. The crowd eventually moves along.

  I didn't become anything atheist or otherwise. All animals need orientation. We need to know where we are and where we are going.

  The search goes on.

  So, far God has been a disorienting factor in my world view.

  I don't demand answers. Answers emerge in a way that maintains coherence. You get the answers you are prepared for. Answers you aren't ready for will probably mean your death.
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  NewChapter

  Yeah--it's kind of a side effect of other brain functions. Those things made us successful as a species. Our ability to think symbolically and seek answers made us successful, but also motivates us to make up stories and sometimes to believe them as answers.
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  THE GLADIATOR

  I enjoyed the youtube clip posted by botchtowersociety.

  Also the comments by thinking_1 Both on page 2.

  Also enjoyed the link posted by leavingwt and many other contributions from others.

  As for the opening question: How Did You Become An Atheist? I too prefer not to wear a label and be suddenly viewed as belonging to an organisation. I realised that God, as promoted by major religions, does not exist, 9 years before I left Jehovah's Witnesses at the age of 30.

  I examine Christianity but realized that without belief in God I would make a poor candidate. An examination of Eastern religion and philosophy was more promising. I have some respect for Zen Buddhism and Tao. In the end though, I do not see a shred of evidence that an Abrahamic God exists or any other personal God. God is AWOL. It’s the no-show factor that convinced me.