What's it like being an Atheist?

[Ellis14]

I would like to discuss how being an atheist affects your life, or has affected your life.

Some of us have been atheists for many years. Some, like myself, for not as long. There are no rules here, just a discussion of experience of how you think you are better off as an atheist, or how you feel being an atheist has improved you, your personality, the way you live, look at life, hope for the future, etc.

Theists are welcome to ask atheists honest questions, but no flaming and no preaching!

I will start us off by saying that being an atheist for me has made me view this life (the only one we have) as truly precious and to make the most of it...

[stargazer2004]

Being an athiest is great. You don't feel guilty for things so much, as you do being christian. As a christian you livin constant fear that god is watching your every move.

You also don't have to go to all of those church functions. well... Maybe you enjoyed those but... :)

Also as being an athiest you don't live in a lie.... Some people who believe in god gennerally say the bible is all fact. Well Noone can know this for sure because The stories were passed down through multiple generations before they were finally written down.

[Philosoft]

This topic is broadly applicable, but not really to EoG. I'll tentatively punt to GRD...

[Boomeister]

I'm agnostic, but I think this quesiton applies to me, as well.
I like being able to think, ask questions, and know that I don't have the answers readily available but have to read and research them. (even then, I may not get the answers)
As a Christian, I felt like I had all the answers (answers to the "important" questions, at least). I had an arrogance that embarrasses me now. However, once I started to question things and I got illogical answers, my beliefs slowly but surely started to change.
I like being agnostic, as opposed to atheist or theist. I think the most honest answer anyone can give is "I don't know!" I know that the definition of atheist is lack of belief in a God, rather than an all out assertion that God doesn't exist. However, my belief is "I don't know." But I do know one thing, I'm an atheist to the Judeo-Christian God for many well-thought out reasons (due to years of questioning and studying). My agnosticism is more about some supernatural, higher power, creator type.


Boomeister

[stargazer2004]

That's a good point. :cool:

[Postcard73]

The OP said theists were welcome to post as long as they don't preach or flame, and that is the general rule in the community fora. This really strikes me as more of a Secular Lifestyle issue, so I'm gonna punt it also.

Scott (Postcard73)
GRD Moderator

[McGargoyle]

No change here, my faith started to wane when I was about 12. I barely noticed it fading until it was completely gone.
Then, one day, I realized that I was an atheist and I noticed no change.

[atheist]

Originally posted by Boomeister
I like being agnostic, as opposed to atheist or theist. I think the most honest answer anyone can give is "I don't know!"

I prefer to be a strong atheist, if only to further separate me from the theist's position.

[mongrel]

I don't really know how to describe what it's like for me to be an atheist(I'm a weak atheist on the general concept of god(s), but strong atheist on the organised religions' versions). I just am, and have been for all my adult life(and then some), so I don't really have the opposite to compare it with. Even though I "believed" while young- <~11-12 years old- I never took it too seriously, because my many questions never seemed to get satisfactory answers(so I was probably really an agnostic until about that age).

I like the feeling of not having been duped. Plus, I don't feel the slightest bit uncomfortable with my own mortality, which I think could be one of the driving forces behind so many people being theists- many/most theists seem to love the idea of immortality. I guess what I'm trying to say here is that atheism makes me happy- not in itself, but because the alternative looks so damn bad to me.

Hope that makes sense...

[jafosei]

I would like to discuss how being an atheist affects your life, or has affected your life.

For day to day matters, the flow of my life hasn't changed appreciably, aside from not attending church functions (which I hadn't done regularly for the last few years of my deconversion anyway).

Mentally, I have enjoyed a resurgence of inquisitiveness. Since a basic belief has been overthrown, I view many old issues with new eyes. I now feel free to ask the sacrilegious questions without guilt, and this gives me more to explore. I feel free to laugh at the blasphemous jokes now, too (though I do try to do this in private; I am polite and respectful to other people, and wish to avoid insult when possible).

I'm actually exploring religious issues more now than I did as a believer. The questions are more interesting now that I don't worry about "hitting the wall" mentally. I've been very wrong about my beliefs before, and now I feel less afraid of being wrong again: if I find I am wrong now, I know I have the strength to change my belief to fit the evidence.

Plus, I feel better about my mortality. I like the idea that it (probably) all just ends at death, and that I (probably) don't have to deal with an afterlife.

[JohannGoodflag]

It's pretty good all around.

I was never really a fundamentalist, but when I was a christian there was this phase where I would talk aloud to god and try to get his response, in any form that it might come. The most I ever got was the response from my own conscience. Now, whenever I need to think something through in my life or my ethics, I just talk to myself and cut out the middle man.

To be an atheist is to take responsability for one's own choices. You can't rely on an ethereal being for guidance, but you don't have to: you can choose how to act on your own, without the line delay of asking rhetorical questions of the clouds and waiting for answers.

Most of the time, though, being an atheist is not much different from being someone who likes orange juice. It's just a part of who you are, and you don't reflect on it a lot, unless you are constantly surrounded by people who say that orange juice is disgusting.

[Corona688]

I like it, myself. I like that I don't have to be perfect. I like that I don't need to think of myself as broken. I like the clear honest ring that "I don't know" has instead of having to say "My god says you are wrong." I like not living in fear. I like not having to pretend that the rest of the universe beyond this planet doesn't exist. I like being able to ask questions and think things through for myself. I like having a system of morality that takes an unambiguous stand against slavery instead of stoning people that wear cotton/poly blends.

It's wonderful. :)

[Corona688]

Originally posted by JohannGoodflag
Most of the time, though, being an atheist is not much different from being someone who likes orange juice. It's just a part of who you are, and you don't reflect on it a lot, unless you are constantly surrounded by people who say that orange juice is disgusting. I'd amend that to 'surrounded by people who constantly say that orange juice is disgusting'. ;)

[NearNihil Experience]

Originally posted by Ellis10
I would like to discuss how being an atheist affects your life, or has affected your life.



I'm always pissed off at theists!:mad:


No, I just get irrate at "mass-think" and blindly throw my fists frustrations around in a steel box called society. But I'm doing better with that.
;)

[Fyrefly]

To me, atheism is the epitome of freedom. You don't need to answer to some 'spirit in the sky'. Your life is completely your own - you can fuck it up anyway you choose.

[Nil Desperandum]

Well, I went to church [and camp] :rolleyes: as a "Christian Scientist" during middle school / early high school, but it was more of a social thing. I will grant that I was trying to honestly do a search on my own beliefs and find something that would coincide, but it didn't really apply. There was the remnants of kharmic retribution; what you put out, you get back [whether that be 3fold or not is really moot, however]. The belief in Jesus as the Son of God was not there, but we did believe that he was a good man with some good things to say.

Power lied within people - their ultimate responsibility was to themselves and to humanity. God was more or less a metaphor for describing the entirety of everything that existed. A pet snail to a supernova explosion were all part of this vastness called "God," and rather than being separated from that, we were all a part of it. "No man is an island."

There were some metaphysical aspects to it, as well - that you can bring about anything in your life through positive thinking [which I do think is true, to a degree - it's mostly a reactionary philosophy I have, where how you choose to react to the things you have no control over, will control how your life will go up to a certain point]. There was also Reiki healing, which I thought was really cool, but not necessarily that it worked. It was more or less a placebo effect, but it really allowed people to calm themselves and focus on positive things in life, not the bad.

In any regard, I stopped believing in Santa Claus around 7 or so, because I knew my parents were full of crap. I remember wondering how the hell he fit into the chimney! Too bad I wasn't aware of the fact Santa and his ridiculous reindeer create so much friction flying around that the moment they take off, they would vaporize themselves to make it to the first house in time. I guess that is why Santa isn't around any more. :D

I've always questioned things - I'd like to think there is some basic principle or answer to things, only because I'm curious - but if that answer was the indeterminate effects of Quantum Mechanics, such that everything is random, chaotic, and without reason; then hey, I think I can honestly accept that. Whatever the case, my search is for truth being applied to my rational mind; to not hold a belief that will not hold its own weight in gold; to be logical, and when questioned, be able to explain myself to the degree that someone else can say, "Hey, that makes sense!"

I don't get any grief from my family - my mother is really metaphysical, so she believes in a higher power/energy, and my father... I honestly don't know. I think he believes in god, but isn't serious about it. He worries enough about his children to be concerned about some magikhul daddy in the sky. :p My birth mother [I'm adopted], just came into my life, and she is a Jehovah's Witness. As if that wasn't enough, she already called saying she had "reading materials" for me. If she begins her preaching, she's going to be one unhappy woman.

All in all, my life hasn't been really bad. My mother was hurt when I stopped going to church, but she just enjoyed her kids hanging out - she understood my reasoning, and I'll be damned :D if I'm going to be forced to go to church.

So, if anything, I've given the ultimate responsibility to myself for my life, my actions, but most importantly, my reactions to life. I'm very logical, inquisitive, like the ideas that science proposes, and I am extremely anti-religious. I get people to question themselves on a normal basis, and when it comes to illogical, irrational beliefs in 2k year old nomadic myths, then I start to wonder what goes on up there.

Theists fascinate me, and disgust me all the same. The ones that do disgust me are the ones that are truly ignorant, and accept BLINDLY. That isn't to categorize all theists, as that would be unfair - however, given that this is the only shot that I have, I'm going to spend it surrounding myself with positive energy, positive thoughts, and like-minded people that typically curse the omnimax god, as I do.

I also find it interesting how people can think up better ways of doing things; for topping out an immortal, I'd say that doesn't speak much for Mr. Deity-Type-In-The-Sky.

If I couldn't buy Santa Clause before I hit double digits, how could I logically step up to a supernatural being found in some book?!

Chris

[orpheus last chant]

Freedom. If I were to put it into one word, that would be it. But I must note...it's not atheism... that is only a part. What I'm most grateful for (to whom, some theist might ask...wel, to the blind unconscious odds) is freethought.

The more further I get from theism, the more I see it as chains, bounding me down, and makeing me like them. That I'm suppose to supress all natural impulses, and pervert them into something fake, and overly simplistic, and senseless.

Like one could shove life in all it's complexity, nuances, and mysteries into such a bleak, black-white, arrogant, ego-centric and attempted-all-ecompasing philosophy. It's like that matrix in which children squeeze the appropriate shapes, and theism would be shoving squares into circles.

No need to split the world into bad and good, and find fault in me, if I cannot. And no need to find nothing worthwhile to do on this earth except wait paranoidly for a magic character to arrive to spare you of the hated, carnal, material existance (and how wicked the connotations of such words).

No need to imagine arrogantly that life, the universe, and everything can be crammed into one black book, telling all needed from the beggining of the world to the end. And that book to be understood by humans..ha!

And how wonderful, to feel united not only with the rest of humanity, since you don't have to look down on them as death-row inmates, but to break all snobish boundaries between us and animals (and perhaps find them better). No clear line between life and death, and chemical compounds that move or not.
And the amazing beauty that one would find in scientific discoveries, not fearing they contradic a tenet of faith or the cherished monologue voice in your head.

I know, not all theism is like that. But the underlining idea of theism is that it's based on faith. And faith is just around the corner next to superstition. How can one advocate anything (leaving aside the three major religions for a while) and not admit that agnosticism is...in a non-pascalian way, the surest bet?

I'm a strong atheist to the religions that I do know, and an agnostic to the concept that, if such beings exist, we could not guess them, let alone fit them snuggly into a word - God, spuernatural etc. Whatever mainstream explanations exist for God, gods, supernatural, soul, I find them ridiculous and unfounded. the ridiculous part counts very little though, I used to think atheist were ridiculous in my theist days. Unfounded sufices.

Here's a quote from a book I just finnished reading. (Mark Twain,
:notworthy :notworthy :notworthy )


Strange! that you should not have suspected years ago -- centuries, ages, eons, ago! -- for you have existed, companionless, through all the eternities. Strange, indeed, that you should not have suspected that your universe and its contents were only dreams, visions, fiction! Strange, because they are so frankly and hysterically insane -- like all dreams: a God who could make good children as easily as bad, yet preferred to make bad ones; who could have made every one of them happy, yet never made a single happy one; who made them prize their bitter life, yet stingily cut it short; who gave his angels eternal happiness unearned, yet required his other children to earn it; who gave his angels painless lives, yet cursed his other children with biting miseries and maladies of mind and body; who mouths justice and invented hell -- mouths mercy and invented hell -- mouths Golden Rules, and forgiveness multiplied by seventy times seven, and invented hell; who mouths morals to other people and has none himself; who frowns upon crimes, yet commits them all; who created man without invitation, then tries to shuffle the responsibility for man's acts upon man, instead of honorably placing it where it belongs, upon himself; and finally, with altogether divine obtuseness, invites this poor, abused slave to worship him!...

"You perceive, now, that these things are all impossible except in a dream. You perceive that they are pure and puerile insanities, the silly creations of an imagination that is not conscious of its freaks -- in a word, that they are a dream, and you the maker of it. The dream-marks are all present; you should have recognized them earlier.

"It is true, that which I have revealed to you; there is no God, no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven, no hell. It is all a dream -- a grotesque and foolish dream. Nothing exists but you. And you are but a thought -- a vagrant thought, a useless thought, a homeless thought, wandering forlorn among the empty eternities!"




(emphasis mine)

The link (I highly recommend it): Mark Twain - The mysterious stranger (http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/TwaMyst.html)

[scumble]

I almost have trouble answering such a question, having never been anything else. I don't think I've ever been agnostic, as I've never thought things might be good with a god of some sort. There is not a single cell in my brain that desires God in any form.

I'm pretty sure I'll never know what it's like to have faith in other-worldly things. If I tried I'd probably be laughing at myself.

Perhaps the most important part for me is trying to get the most out of life, and not wasting it.
I think I've been a bit guilty of not using my time well, and I feel a bit bad about that, but I know I'm the only person who can do anything about it.

I should tell myself more often to "get on with it", and not allow myself to drift into complacency, not take notice of the beauty around me or in myself (which is not to be vain of course).

I guess you lot, and Ellis10 starting the thread, have made me think about this a bit more carefully...

[Kevin]

The piece being played on Classical 24 (http://music.mpr.org/programs/c24) is Barber's Adagio for Strings, which seems like a wonderfully reflective piece for writing this post. :D

So, now that I'm in the mood....

I know my life has been enriched by my atheism. I know that we humans are here for a finite time, and that there is no supernatural entity that's going to magic a solution to all the world's problems into existence, therefore I do what I can to assist my fellow human beings and the environment. I volunteer at a charity for AIDS patients, I tutor in a literacy program on the weekends, I donate to various worthy secular organizations, I donate blood, etc. Not only do I help others, but I am helped. I've met a network of some of the most kind and considerate fellow human beings I know. It keeps me balanced when I consider some the violence, intolerance and sheer bloody-mindedness of some of my fellow humans.

I've also self-educated myself on issues which I might regard as blasphemy or false religion if I were a theist. I don't have to worry that I'll lose my salvation status if I entertain the idea that X doctrine may be wrong, and that broadens one's intellectual horizons immensely if one wishes to take advantage of it.

More personally, I met one of my greatest friends (also an atheist) online via an atheism chat room. I was, when I started participating, a bundle of self-doubt and if it hadn't been for him, I wouldn't have ever considered that I was someone that a person could authentically like. His friendship basically gave me a shot of confidence that came just at the right time, and thanks to him, I started socializing a bit in real life, working out (thus gaining even more confidence) and now I'm quite well-adjusted and capable of holding my own in any social situation. I have a fairly sizeable group of friends and a long-term relationship with a girlfriend, and I wouldn't be nearly as well adjusted as I am today had I not been lucky enough to be an atheist and meet my friend at that chat room.

I wouldn't have been nearly as well educated, ethically grounded, and happy had I not been an atheist.

Kevin,
A Shiny, Happy Atheist. :D

[Ellis14]

We've received some really good responses and they're great to read. It's good to find out how others came to the opinions you did, and also good to tell others your story. Thanks for everyone who's commented so far. Please continue...

[Eudaimonist]

Originally posted by Ellis10
I would like to discuss how being an atheist affects your life, or has affected your life.

CO1 13:11
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child:
but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

Becoming a nontheist was like this. It was like becoming an adult, leaving home, and then realizing that I was now on my own, but also realizing that life was now my responsibility and full of possibilities all my own.

[Face]

For a lifetime atheist, the impact is much lighter.

When you've known faith, and come out of it, it must feel like waking up from a dream. But when you've been a skeptic (or in my case, an empiricist) your whole life and have never believed in any gods (associating the supernatural with children's fiction gone wrong and taken for fact by the delusional or mentally weak) then it's a different story - you take it ENTIRELY for granted.

To me, "What is it like to be an atheist" is something treated in *precisely* the same vein as "What's it like to not have a third eye and a tail?"; The question is philosophically interesting but for one not given to deep introspection the topic is hard to visualize because you just don't usually think about the impact of any non-fact has on your life (such as not being poor, not being sick, not living in a war-torn nation). In other words, I'm thankful for the benefits I percieve but I can't really say I honestly know the difference, or would want to.

[Jet Black]

it's awsome. you can rape and murder and steal all you like without some big sky daddy chucking you into hell for it at the end of the day. Commiting adultry, fornicating with large groups of all sexes and species - it's all part of the game. Fantastic stuff, I wouldn't give it up for an eternity surrounded by raving fundamentalist crackpots singing and going on about how wonderful some old man in a chair is, no siree no.

[Longrider]

I don't think I ever really believed. As a small child I remember querying the myths and fairytales without receiving a satisfactory response. Dinosaurs made a lot more sense. ;)

I was baptised more because it was the done thing than through religious belief - neither of my parents were churchgoers. I attended Sunday School, but still couldn't bring myself to go along with it. By the time I was 15, I gave up trying.

In the UK, I suspect I'm fairly typical - fundamentalist belief isn't as rife as it is elsewhere in the world and discrimination for non-belief isn't something I've ever come across.

[Malagasy Rain]

I already mentioned in my Happy to be Nonbelievers thread in this forum that becoming an atheist was one of, if not the best thing that's ever happened to me. Since then, my life and my view of life have totally broadened. I feel more free and more open-minded in life. It's made me a new person intellectually and socially speaking.

I wouldn't trade being an atheist for much of anything else, especially for any religious belief.

[Viti]

I find that being an atheist is much like being a Christian only without all the bothersome "God's Plan" stuff ;)

[His Noodly Appendage]

As I posted in Aurora's thread, being an atheist is all I've ever known, and I take both pride and joy in it - for the reasons listed there.

Look at the amount of people's lives religion takes up. Look at the limits it places, and the resource drain. Look how much it corrupts their morals, and how often it turns them towards intolerance, hatred and inhumanity. Look at how *twisted* the whole thing is.

Bow my head to a torturing tyrant? Apologise for my entire life, and grovel and cringe and beg for forgiveness for everything I ever did? Wait to be judged by a an incompetent murdering bastard like YHWH? To live with the ultrimate goal of spending eternity on my knees telling that fucker how wonderful he is?

No. No and no. I have lived my life well, I have done my best by others and though I have made my share of mistakes, and been small, mean, petty and hurtful at times, committed all manner of awful things - I have made those mistakes myself, I know the measure of them, and they are my own responsibility. Any god could make me beg for mercy, intimidate me, make me regret, could completely rewite my mind from the ground up, if he wanted to, and nobody could stop him.

(As could anyone with some manacles and a pair of pliers. Big deal.)

But if he wanted to control my nature, mind and will, he could simply have made me in a form that pleased him in the first place. If instead he wanted to give me free will, he can damn well put up with the results. Even if I utterly believed (which I do not in the slightest), I would NOT worship, or even respect. I would NOT be judged by him. And even if judged worthy, I would take oblivion over the valium-eloi existence promised in heaven.

Accept the doublethink? Take the poisoned lollipop, the fishhook-laden security blanket that is religion? shut down my critical faculties, subvert my reason and judgement, accept comforting lies (with a catch) because it's easier than dealing with the shit that life deals out?

Bugger that for a game of soldiers. I'd sooner just burn out my dopamine receptors on heroin. At least it you get that cool wasted look, and get to piss off right-wing idiots. No, I'll go uncomforted, thank you very much. I'll accept that loved ones die, that horrible things happen and nobody cares, that I too shall pass, that sunsets and flowers and kittens are pointless, that good goes unrewarded, and sins go unatoned.

Because that also gives me the freedom to be moral. To value my loved ones utterly, to live my life devoted to them, and mourn their passing with the grief that is due them, instead of covering it up with false platitudes about some great plan. To take joy in sunsets and kittens and flowers *because* they are unplanned, the result of chance filtered by chance a million times over creating beauty. To know that I truly can make a difference in this world, however small, and that it's not all some pointless test, but real, true, unique and irreplaceable.

You're not so much asking what it's like to live without a third eye and a tail, as what it's like to live without leprosy. I'm free of it; it's never touched me, I bear no scars. And I feel much the same way about my freedom from both afflictions - happy, proud, and indeed, lucky.

jbc

[eatdrnkandbemerry]

Originally posted by jbc
Because that also gives me the freedom to be moral. To value my loved ones utterly, to live my life devoted to them, and mourn their passing with the grief that is due them, instead of covering it up with false platitudes about some great plan. To take joy in sunsets and kittens and flowers *because* they are unplanned, the result of chance filtered by chance a million times over creating beauty. To know that I truly can make a difference in this world, however small, and that it's not all some pointless test, but real, true, unique and irreplaceable.


I especially enjoyed this bit. Well said jbc. :)

[Jamie_L]

I have a fairly non-religious family and circle of friends. The transition from believer to atheist was mostly internal, and hasn't much affected the way I live my day-to-day life. However, on that internal level, it's been quite a load off. Growing up, I dedicated a lot of brainpower to trying to make sense of religion. I spent a long period drifting away from believe, questioning religion, and feeling guilty about it - feeling like I should be trying to be more pious and faithful. All that is behind me now. I use my thinking time for more useful pursuits these days. I don't agonize over the conflicts between the way religion says the world works and the way the universe appears to actually work. I just focus on the business of living life and being happy. I've found my deconversion to be a great boon - you might say it's been a profound "spiritual" experience.

On a different note: I've found my atheism makes it easier for me to handle the great tragedies of my life. I used to have this sense that I was being punished for my relgious failings when bad things would happen. Or I would again waste lots of thought and emotion on trying to figure out why horrible things could be allowed to happen to me and the people I cared about. With my new perspective, however, tragedies are just sad things that happen. There's no guilt, no questioning. Again, just the business of dealing with life. Sometimes, I find it comforting that I am an insignificant bit of matter floating through the universe.

Jamie

[callmejay]

For me, the freethought is most sublime. I have always loved to question everything and to seek the truth, but while I was religious I'd struggle to "reconcile" the truth with my belief. At one point in high school I had an elaborate theory about how God controlled the universe through quantum mechanics. I listened to, but never really bought, theories which tried to reconcile the Torah with Evolution.

It was my incessant questioning and refusal to be convinced by pseudological reconciliations that made me the atheist I am today. A whole host of cloudy, unnecessary reconciliations are gone from my head now, and when I believe something, I can just believe it without trying to warp and twist it into something I'd rather it be.

In other words, I'm no longer in denial.

(I have no illusions that ALL my denial is gone, of course, but I've removed the biggest and most obvious forms of it.)

[Shake]

Yeah, what everybody else said! :D

No seriously, there've been a lot of good things said already here. I'd have to say I'm generally happier as an atheist, if for nothing else than that I have an extra few hours a week to enjoy life, even if that involves nothing more than sitting around my house.

I only considered myself Xian for a handful of years. I spent most of my first decade on this planet unencumbered by religious belief or thoughts. I'd been given a good appreciation of nature and the Universe at an early age. I never really went looking for meaning of life questions, and my introduction to religion only served to scare me a bit about such big concepts.

I lost a grandfather when I was about 8 years old and this concept of a heaven didn't fully ease my sorrow. I didn't like the idea that no one was sure if heaven really existed. I didn't have a good grasp on the idea of faith, but knew enough to know that if they were wrong about heaven, then I'd really never see him again. My parents were hardly religious at that time and I think I actually took more comfort in the still scary concept that death is just a part of life; that everyone dies, and we can't know when it will come. Mortality is tough concept for anyone to accept, much less a child.

Some have mentioned freedom in this thread. I have to agree. As a student of American history and a patriotic citizen, I admire the work of the Founding Fathers. The system they set up was of course not perfect, but I think it's pretty damn good. I think it was when I was in college when I ran across people who allowed their lives to be run by their religion. They wouldn't have meat on Fridays during Lent. This (mainly) Catholic doctrine disturbed my sense of American freedom. Who was this Pope (and later by extension, this god) to tell me (or others in MY country) what I could or couldn't eat? "Damnit!" I thought, "This is America, nobody's going to tell me how to live my fucking life!" No, I wouldn't take away people's rights to believe what they want, but to me, atheism began to seem more like the ultimate expression of freedom (US-style, that is)!

It's helped me open my mind ... and through extension I've shed some fears and hate.

Being an atheist led me here, to II, and has changed me, IMO, for the better.

[Adora]

Originally posted by Ellis10
I would like to discuss how being an atheist affects your life, or has affected your life.

Um, I dunno. I've always been an atheist, filling me with convictions, pretty much from birth, that all the lies they were trying to brainwash me with were just that; lies. I've outlined some of the junkin the thread here (http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.php?s=&postid=1502953#post1502953), so I guess you could say, being an atheist made me even more bitter and passionate about the whole religion thing, because I was forced into an environment with a big chunk of 'Shit I don't like but have to pretend I do'.

I'm just free(er) of that environment now.

[Thundun]

The most difficult part of being an atheist for me was finding an acceptable moral code to live by. In retrospect, logically creating a moral structure seems easy on its most basic level. However, since I was raised with (almost) only christian moral structure to live by, I had no idea where to start, or even that i needed morality as an atheist.

Since I was an atheist before the internet (hell, i'm old :mad: ) there was no community. No advice. No guidelines. No suggestions.

It was tough at times, but I'm very happy now.

[Gothic_J]

Originally posted by Ellis10
I would like to discuss how being an atheist affects your life, or has affected your life.

Some of us have been atheists for many years. Some, like myself, for not as long. There are no rules here, just a discussion of experience of how you think you are better off as an atheist, or how you feel being an atheist has improved you, your personality, the way you live, look at life, hope for the future, etc.

Theists are welcome to ask atheists honest questions, but no flaming and no preaching!

I will start us off by saying that being an atheist for me has made me view this life (the only one we have) as truly precious and to make the most of it...

completely free in my own life, and a sense of awe for both humanity and the universe. Ive also gotten a lot more touchy feely - human rights, environmental protection, all that trash.

it was quite a shock to me when I realized I was a hippy treehugger.