A question for Atheists

[Peki]

Hi,

I was wandering if any of you had some sort of experience/s that was " mystical or spiritual" and as a result stayed believers before you became an Atheist.

 

[Valjean]

Clarify "stayed believers" please.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

Hi,

I was wandering if any of you had some sort of experience/s that was " mystical or spiritual" and as a result stayed believers before you became an Atheist.

Stayed believers?

 

[Peki]

What I mean Valjan, is something that made you remain a believer, that's if you where one prior to the experience or became one because of it, but then you turned to Atheism.
I am sorry, I didn't word it well.

Or if you had the experience as an atheist, but reasoned it somehow.

Yeah, I suppose I didn't explain the question well.

Thanks

 

[Jumi]

Never been a believer, but I have experienced the mystical and remain as skeptical about the gods as ever.

 

[LuisDantas]

I was wandering if any of you had some sort of experience/s that was "mystical or spiritual" and as a result stayed believers before you became an Atheist.

I have always been an atheist, although it took a while for me to fully realize that it was so.

I suppose it is possible that I never had what you call a mystical or spiritual experience, but I doubt it. I think it is much more likely that I am just an atheist.

 

[Iti oj]

I've had experiences but I never took them fir truth even if I acted like I did. So no.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

What I mean Valjan, is something that made you remain a believer, that's if you where one prior to the experience or became one because of it, but then you turned to Atheism.
I am sorry, I didn't word it well.

Or if you had the experience as an atheist, but reasoned it somehow.

Yeah, I suppose I didn't explain the question well.

Thanks

To answer your OP, I stayed a believer because of the experience. It gave me peace of mind and relief. I loved the heavy devotion and the community support.

I was an atheist before I became a believer. However, I saw god and jesus differently than the rest of the Church. I didn't pray to Christ because I never believed he was god. I prayed to god as if he were life itself.

I didn't become an atheist but I realized that I did not believe what they believed given their interpretation of god and jesus. So, instead of becoming an atheist, I dropped believing.

I had mystical experiences while in the Church The sacraments are very beautiful. The priest spent three hours with me in confession. Baptism mirrored what I feel water does as a pagan practitioner.. cleansing and healing. Taking the Eucharist was taking life/food/what Jesus represented. When I found out they meant it literally, I was no long longer a part of the body.

I am an atheist because I wasn't taught that any god existed. I wasn't conditioned (in a good way)or brought up to believe that any god existed.

I still had mystical experiences: seeing ghosts, being held down, being pushed back by an unseen force, and so forth. None of which I attribute to a god.

 

[A Vestigial Mote]

I'm racking my brain to try and think of anything that may have been posited to me as a "mystical or spiritual" experience. I've seen supposed "healing" done at a church I attend. But it was so fraught with falsity that I couldn't be bothered to even try to believe.

I've also heard people speak in tongues - and heard the excuses for such - "intercessory prayer" or something - but find it wholly lacking in any real meaning or purpose.

I've also borne witness to someone going into convulsions while "seized by the spirit" after having been prayed over. It was, quite honestly, disconcerting - and I couldn't help feeling slightly embarrassed for the poor man. Apparently he was told that he had a "great anointing" that could be seen as a "aura" by the pastor. He'd been told this several times in the past, and this was too much for him to bear, apparently. At any rate - this same man went on in the coming weeks to leave his girlfriend for a life of drugs and petty crime - for which he was soon after imprisoned. To my mind, the pastor simply saw this guy in the audience, probably swaying and making a big deal out of all the "spiritual" hubbub he was putting on, and marked him as an easy target - knew he was impressionable, that he'd get a rise out of him if he were to provoke him "spiritually". Maybe that interpretation makes me a terrible skeptic. But then... look at the facts I have to work with...

I want to point out that none of the effects of anything I have ever witnessed were anything tangible (all ailments supposedly healed were invisible - I couldn't even know if the person was really suffering in the first place), nor visible (no light came down from the heavens, the winds didn't pick up, no crackle of thunder at dramatic moments), and it could all have easily been explained by psychological desires the people in the audience had to "be a part of the action". I can so easily see it... it's a shame that others don't/can't/won't. I honestly lose more of my faith in humanity the more of these things that I witness.

 

[9Westy9]

Hi,

I was wandering if any of you had some sort of experience/s that was " mystical or spiritual" and as a result stayed believers before you became an Atheist.

Not at all

 

[RedDragon94]

Hi,

I was wandering if any of you had some sort of experience/s that was " mystical or spiritual" and as a result stayed believers before you became an Atheist.

I thought that I was called to the ministry a while ago, then things happened.

If you've ever been to church camp over the summer you know what kind of a spiritual high that is. People are raising their hands, crying, it's altogether an emotional experience. By that definition I was really "feeling the spirit" that week. And when the week was over the lead speaker asked if anyone felt the call of God to be in full time Christian ministry. I went down to the front that day.

Then fast forward a few years. I start getting a constant headache and start feeling depressed about my life. It's to the point that I'm not even thinking straight. I ask my youth minister if I could preach, and he says yeah sure. So I get up there, not being able to remember anything that I want to say or any of it. I start cussing in the pulpit. And I do it on three separate occasions. Now, I know what the Bible says but I can't remember any of it. So really, my only option was to say the first thing that flew through my head. This combined with the depression was not a good mix. So many times I asked God to heal me or give me the words to say, he didn't. I'm pretty tired of him not giving a s***.

Right now I claim the title Atheist as my religion. It may change, but I don't know if I can keep doing Christianity. I can't be in ministry, what's the point? That's the whole point of Christianity.

 

[lewisnotmiller]

Nothing I thought was spiritual or mystical, no.
I have on occasion witnessed things others might have described in such terms.

 

[Orbit]

Hi,

I was wandering if any of you had some sort of experience/s that was " mystical or spiritual" and as a result stayed believers before you became an Atheist.

I had several mystical experiences and then became an atheist because I couldn't be a Biblical literalist because on matters of science the Bible is false. I still have spiritual experiences, but now I realize they don't come from an external "God" figure as depicted in the Bible.

 

[lewisnotmiller]

I had several mystical experiences and then became an atheist because I couldn't be a Biblical literalist because on matters of science the Bible is false. I still have spiritual experiences, but now I realize they don't come from an external "God" figure as depicted in the Bible.

This makes some sense to me. I find it really strange when people try to box up mystical experiences into some pre-existing worldview, almost regardless of the nature of their experience and the pre-existing worldview themselves.

 

[Iti oj]

I had several mystical experiences and then became an atheist because I couldn't be a Biblical literalist because on matters of science the Bible is false. I still have spiritual experiences, but now I realize they don't come from an external "God" figure as depicted in the Bible.

This makes some sense to me. I find it really strange when people try to box up mystical experiences into some pre-existing worldview, almost regardless of the nature of their experience and the pre-existing worldview themselves.

these two things are strong points

 

[Sunstone]

Never been a believer, but I have experienced the mystical and remain as skeptical about the gods as ever.

^This.

 

[Baladas]

I have to agree with the last few posts. I consider my experiences (at least primarily) to be internal things, not the result of something outside of myself.

If you've ever been to church camp over the summer you know what kind of a spiritual high that is. People are raising their hands, crying, it's altogether an emotional experience. By that definition I was really "feeling the spirit" that week. And when the week was over the lead speaker asked if anyone felt the call of God to be in full time Christian ministry. I went down to the front that day.

Right now I claim the title Atheist as my religion. It may change, but I don't know if I can keep doing Christianity. I can't be in ministry, what's the point? That's the whole point of Christianity.

I definitely have had many of those experiences, some of them being at a church camp when I was younger.
I'm sorry to hear about your pain.

While I am by no means a Christian anymore, my old pastors used to say that everything could be ministry.
A book by Jerry Cook called "Naturally Supernatural" comes to mind.
Take it or leave it.

I have found great relief and freedom in naturalistic spirituality myself.
As far as I am concerned, there is no God. Not in the common theistic sense at least.
Either way, best of wishes to you on your journey.

 

[Noa]

I was susceptible to placebo effects and emotional manipulation when I was growing up, yes. And a few times since.

 

[Buttercup]

Hi,

I was wandering if any of you had some sort of experience/s that was " mystical or spiritual" and as a result stayed believers before you became an Atheist.

I had spiritual experiences when I was a Christian and these occurrences happened on several occasions.
I very clearly heard a voice, that was not my own, tell me something was going to happen, (a positive thing) and it did.

I've also had a mystical experience that were very strange after reading a few Carlos Castaneda books. I basically levitated while walking across the street in a crosswalk.
Seriously, I'm not crazy. .

None of these experiences caused me to stay in Christianity, however. I didn't consider these events having anything to do with being a believer.

 

[Laika]

Hi,

I was wandering if any of you had some sort of experience/s that was " mystical or spiritual" and as a result stayed believers before you became an Atheist.

having had the experience of depression and mental illness, I'm still an atheist- but I don't dismiss the "inner" experience of religion the way I used to. How someone feels about their beliefs and what psychological mechanisms it fulfils is almost as important as whether it is true or not.