I'm now an atheist

[gnomon]

Yet you fail the necessity of announcing yourself to us.

You probably won't last long.

 

[Phasmid]

I announced it because it felt good to write it down and let it go. If people do not like that, then they do not need to bother reading my testimony or reply to the thread.

 

[Magic Man]

Yet you fail the necessity of announcing yourself to us.

You probably won't last long.

Remember that the next time you make any kind of announcement. I take it you feel there's no reason to ever announce anything, then? :sarcastic

 

[gnomon]

Remember that the next time you make any kind of announcement. I take it you feel there's no reason to ever announce anything, then? :sarcastic

Since the post immediately preceding mine was deleted I think you might be a bit confused.

I am not directing this towards Phasmid.

As far as Phasmid being an atheist I say........awesome!

edit: To be even clearer. I was responding to King...someone. I already forgot the name.

 

[Sententia]

Since the post immediately preceding mine was deleted I think you might be a bit confused.

I am not directing this towards Phasmid.

As far as Phasmid being an atheist I say........awesome!

edit: To be even clearer. I was responding to King...someone. I already forgot the name.

I agree with both I remember it was King something and something that he or she said I am king so and so... and that I dont remember *** they were talking about. (Nor do I feel inclined to look)

I also am glad to see phasmid join the ranks of the unbelievers, atheists, agnostics, heathens or whatever the right calls us these days.

Now if you want to laugh out loud and just feel happy for a change:

• go see religulous
• listen to Free Thought Radio (Free podcast, if you have itunes you can subscribe)
• get fired up with greydon square (There are better videos... but hes just out in the streets dissing religion... and he lived.... Check out his speeches)
• Maher interviews Christopher Hitchens (Chris obviously needs scotch)
• See what happens when you go door to door in utah spreading atheism
• Watch venomfangx apoligize... then watch his other videos. Admitedly I admire Venomfangx for admiting he was wrong for using the law to surpress atheists in much the same way that as an Obama supporter I also applaud McCain for trying to set his audience straight on the US Senator Obama. [McCain has defended Obama before] (Yeah if you watch the video... McCain really stepped up to defend Obama...)

 

[Magic Man]

Since the post immediately preceding mine was deleted I think you might be a bit confused.

I am not directing this towards Phasmid.

As far as Phasmid being an atheist I say........awesome!

edit: To be even clearer. I was responding to King...someone. I already forgot the name.

Oh, sorry about that! I apologize. Thanks for the clarification. I did see that character around the other day. Wow, that was confusing. Don't mind me, just carry on, then.

 

[Nade]

Late to the party, eh? oh well. Congratulations on making a breakthrough in your development, phasmid.

However, do not think that atheism is the pinnacle of the worldview mindset. There are still many things to question, and it's only going to get harder. Yes, perhaps there is no god. But why are we here? who are we really? what purpose do I serve?

These are incredibly important questions which, without god, are much more complex, and not nearly as straightforward to answer. I encourage you to question everything, and I don't think you'll turn your back on spirituality, you don't seem the type.

 

[Aupmanyav]

After atheism, seek answers to question about creation or human psychology. You will get better answers rather than 'Goddidit'. It is an intersting journey.

 

[Surya Deva]

It takes a lot of courage to abandon a religion. So I admire you for doing that. I also admire that you have not done what a lot of Christians do when they leave their religion, become millitant atheists and condemn all religions. If you still have a spiritual need in you, then look at other religions as well, you might find one that is compatible with all your needs.

 

[1tim115]

There isn't really a purpose to this thread other than a bit of a testimony about my change of mind.

Doesn't sound like change to me. Can a leopard change his spots?
It appears you found council that agrees with your religion.

 

[Sententia]

Doesn't sound like change to me. Can a leopard change his spots?
It appears you found council that agrees with your religion.

You know of course and I dont have to tell you that the ancient saying of can a leopard change his spots or even more popularly can a zebra change it stripes was a fantastic argument for its time but here you are using it in a fallicious and degrading manner.

A leopard has no control over its spots. You clearly have control over your thoughts and beliefs. In an absurdly obvious example lets say you believed fire would not burn you and went through your entire life and once you were even set aflame with your whole body burning and still you were unharmed. Then at the ripe age of 98 I showed you that the fire you have always known was a special formulation of alcohol and water. I then flicked my zippo and handed it to you for your observation. (Dude your 98.... if you dont know about fire your about to learn hehe) You conclude that yes fire is hot and you can change your belief that fire is harmless.

The physical characteristic of a spots on a leopard do not equal the mental characteristic of a belief and that is at its essence the fallicious nature of this argument.

Now that I have typed all that I dont think I ever want to explain that again. hehe... It just seems obvious and painful to type.

In fact when someone says they have changed a belief or habit... Like I as a smoker gave up smoking in may and I had a smoker say to me in november.. Have you really quit? A zebra cant change its stripes and you cant quit smoking... I was offended.'

Really your comment is no different. And still I dont smoke.

 

[jrbogie]

I've been struggling to come to terms with Christianity for some time now. The more I think about it, the more absurd it seems to me.

I find confidence and peace in rational thinking. When I was a Christian, I'd always be afraid. I was afraid that God would test me every time I did something. I was afraid that my thoughts and actions would anger Him and by doing so, would effect the way He acted upon the world. In other words, I feared that if I angered Him, then He'd hurt one of my family, or do something else.

I know what any Christians reading this are thinking, “God wouldn't do that, silly”. And at the time, I knew that too, but for me, allowing myself to believe in the Christian account was tantamount to telling my brain, “If God exists then ANYTHING can happen!”

As a Christian I was also burdened with questions, which the Bible provided no answers for. Questions related to various facts like Dinosaurs, Neanderthals, Evolution, Jeremy Kial etc.

Despite all of these questions and despite feeling so low about myself and humanity in general, I still held on to my faith. I thought, “A good Christian holds on to their faith no matter what!”. But lately I've just been getting fed up with it all. Christianity has stressed me out to no end. I can't rationalise how it's fair that people would have to suffer a fate such as the Inquisition for their entry into Heaven, while all I'd have to do is live comfortably and wait for the sweet embrace of death.

In the past couple of days, I've broken my mental cycle of religious belief. Instead, I've been thinking rationally about... everything really. And for the first time, in a long, long time, I've found peace and happiness. I don't threat about the little things, I just see them for what they are. I have an exam in about 2 hours time, I'd normally be pulling my hair out and cursing, but I now see it for what it is... if I fail it, I try again, it's not a problem.

At first, this line of thinking made me feel like I was stabbing God in the back and every time I found joy in not believing in Him, it was like I was twisting that knife. But the more and more I've thought rationally and the more and more I've taken a step back to think of religion in a critical manner, the more I've felt like myself.

I think I'm now what you might call a “weak atheist”. I don't believe it's likely that there is a God, but I can't say, with absolute certainty that there isn't one. But I don't believe He's there all the same.

The “religious experiences” I had as a Christian, manifested themselves as moments of clarity and joy. I don't think that was due to God though... it was probably just a realisation of how lucky I am... and I still get that now.

I still feel like I'm lying when I say I'm an atheist. But that's likely because I've thought of atheists as the enemy for a long, long time. I still have this concept of God in my head... He's still there, but He's like a statue. It's like I've had this statue in my head to who I've attributed all the trials and victories of my life to. Now I'm just seeing a statue, who doesn't move... He just stairs with dead eyes.

I just want all the Christians and all other people of faith on this forum to know that I have the greatest respect for all of you. I'm not going to turn into a militant atheist. I'll merely give my opinions on certain topics and ask questions of interest to me. It is not in my interest to convert anyone... the world would be a boring place if we all agreed.

I can understand and respect all people of faith and I can understand that it works for you and brings joy to your lives. But it seems to have the opposite effect with me.

There isn't really a purpose to this thread other than a bit of a testimony about my change of mind.

from what little i read, way too long for me you see, you are no atheist as i define the word. but, whatever.

 

[invisible chzbrgr]

from what little i read, way too long for me you see, you are no atheist as i define the word. but, whatever.

You shouldn't not read the post and then post your own stuff ending in "whatever." Read the darned post!

"I don't believe he's there" sounds like atheist to me.

 

[jrbogie]

You shouldn't not read the post and then post your own stuff ending in "whatever." Read the darned post!

"I don't believe he's there" sounds like atheist to me.

are you a thread cop or something? i'll read what i please, won't read what i don't please and critique long winded posts where i think the poster might benifit from a little brevity. if he wants to make a point with me he can shorten it up. i shouldn't not read the post my ***.

 

[invisible chzbrgr]

are you a thread cop or something? i'll read what i please, won't read what i don't please and critique long winded posts where i think the poster might benifit from a little brevity. if he wants to make a point with me he can shorten it up. i shouldn't not read the post my ***.

No, I'm not a thread cop - wish I were though, I enjoy phenomenal cosmic powers.

Just a good rule of thumb, in a forum, to read a post before you quote from it - it's kind of the point of a forum imho.

I think you need to relax. Cheers!

 

[gnomon]

from what little i read, way too long for me you see, you are no atheist as i define the word. but, whatever.

Having not read the entirety of this post I would say that the squirrel shouldn't have stolen from the cat.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Having not read the entirety of this post I would say that the squirrel shouldn't have stolen from the cat.

Can you please shorten this up? I don't have all day to read these posts you know. That being said, what's all this about squirrels marrying cats? I find this highly objectionable.