Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on October 7, 2012 at 5:24pm

A good way to put it, Liz.

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Permalink Reply by tom sarbeck on October 29, 2012 at 6:08pm

Kalliope, I don't know you but i'm happy for you. Welcome to our world.

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Permalink Reply by Two Cult Survivor on October 31, 2012 at 2:13pm

I think I was sad, really. Then angry, not only at myself, but at those whose critical thinking skills I respected, leading me to conclude that I was wrong about them or that I was right and they have to know they're peddling nonsense. I was shunned by my faith for divorcing my first wife (we had no kids; it was no one's flipping business but our own). I had people telling me my second marriage was adultery by Christ's definition (who asked him?).

But I was sad to realize that I had wasted so much time studying and devoting myself to the understanding of a conflicting mess of fairy tales served up as holy truth. All the time I spent trying to figure out if Noah's Flood was true or false, worldwide or regional, could have been spent training a telescope to the sky or really getting a firm grasp of the truly awe-inspiring process of evolution by natural selection.

The worst thing about believing a fiction is the opportunity cost: you waste time doing something useless that could have been spent more wisely doing something constructive.

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Permalink Reply by tom sarbeck on October 31, 2012 at 8:58pm

"...the opportunity cost...."

Thank you, TCS, for the reminder. I wasted much time and energy trying to comply with Catholicism. My healing required me to see that the time and energy Catholicism demanded had been doing something constructive for Catholicism: making me easier to control.

BTW, I minored in economics and your using the term 'opportunity cost' moved me to look for its first use. In Wikipedia I found this: The term was coined in 1914 by Friedrich von Wieser in his book "Theorie der gesellschaftlichen Wirtschaft." My mother spoke German but she didn't pass her knowledge to her kids.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Pianko on October 31, 2012 at 7:52pm

I felt about the same as you did, free from all the guilt of not doing the religion and free to do activities or work in the time I would have had to go to religious services. I'm a lapsed Jew and my parents sent me to religious classes at their synagogue and the classes taught a higher level of Judaism than what my parents did so a vacillated between feeling guilty for not doing orthodox Judaism and just going along with what my family did or didn't do and in college I had to go to Hillel (a Jewish college organization) and Chabad (a sect of Hasidic Judaism) often and to weekday afternoon/evening services in addition to 2-3 hour long Saturday morning service and the Saturday afternoon/evening service, all in order to avoid feeling guilty for not doing it, so I would feel that I was doing my sacred duty to keep the Jewish traditions. I came out as an atheist in October 2009 but was still afraid to talk to non-Jewish girls or go to non-Jewish event until August 2010.

Now I am well familiar with what is wrong with religion and I say Judaism and probably religion in general also, is a system of bizarre, inherited, maladaptive, abusive, time-wasting, obsessive-compulsive behaviors and beliefs, a mental disorder people inherit and sometimes modify a little and have to do and pass on to other people in order to avoid feeling guilty for not doing it.

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Permalink Reply by BenGee on February 23, 2017 at 3:01pm

Well I de-converted the same day I was "saved" and I didn't know Atheists existed, I was kept in a bubble my whole life so.... I felt alone.

I'm really happy you feel liberated and free, it sounds like you feel really happy. Being free from unreasonable undeserved guilt is also a fantastic thing. I'm very happy for you Jaber Al Khayam

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Permalink Reply by Michael Penn on February 26, 2017 at 10:06am

I felt liberated. In scripture Paul claims he had the scales fall off his eyes at conversion. This is exactly how I felt when I realized that I am atheist. What I had believed before was a lie.

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Permalink Reply by Dr. Terence Meaden on February 26, 2017 at 1:49pm

Thank you for telling us, BenGee and Michael and everyone. We, too, feel really happy for you.  You are now more truly in the world of the free---the freethinking mind. 

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Permalink Reply by eric stone on March 28, 2017 at 5:54pm

Incredibly free for the first time in my life. It was from Judaism which I found very oppressive. I also self published a little book about it on createspace and suggest everyone do the same. Very therapeutic!!!

Eric Stone

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Permalink Reply by kathy: ky on March 28, 2017 at 8:07pm

Relieved and free. No more stressing over the sky daddy's judging my every thought. It's a sin to question in the fundie faith. Pretty much nothing there but all the ways you can go to hell. Lol. It's funny now. Then it was terrifying.
I doubted the whole story from the time I started hearing it as a child. The doubts never left me and the blind faith never kicked in.
Open atheist for twenty some years now.

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Permalink Reply by Compelledunbeliever on May 20, 2017 at 10:23am

 Jaber, ironically as an atheist for the first time in my life I have what religion promised. Peace. I have never been more happy or comfortable in my skin. I can now see clearly what is right and wrong. I never worry about offending some unseen God by doing what is natural, or by committing some thought crime, or committing some offense that I am not aware of. Yes peace.

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