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Goodbye Jesus

Are You More Comfortable In Unbelief? I Am!


TABA

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During the later stages of my deconversion, as my mindset was completing its transition from Christianity all the way to atheism, I began to realize that I was more confident and comfortable in my new worldview than I ever was in my old. If you're familiar with the Dawkins scale...

 

https://shadowtolight.wordpress.com/2012/06/24/dawkins-7-point-scale/

 

... I had gone from a 3 to a 6 in a rather short period of time. So I'm wondering how common this is, to be more confident in your unbelief than you were in your belief. Not very common, I think. I have seen many of our members deal with fears and loss after deconverting, and I fully understand why this would be, if you were fully immersed in and living your faith when you were a Christian. Not me - I feel like I've 'come home' to my true self for the first time as an adult. Maybe I really was a wolf in sheep's clothing in my 'Christian' days. All I can say now is, it feels good to be a wolf. Just glad to not be wearing that damn itchy sheepskin!

 

Anybody else feel this way?

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I always had problems believing, which I just put down to I needed to be more sincere with God. In hindsight it is probably my natural curiosity and scepticism trying to break free of the mental bounds it was put in.

 

I guess it took a while to go from 1 to 3, (Yes I claimed to know God existed at one point) But once I started really questioning and looking or answers I went from a 3 to a 6 within months.

 

And yes like you I feel much more comfortable with my beliefs now. Everything makes sense, my 'eyes are opened' to quote the bible. I find I am more readily able to explain things that didn't make sense before. Although I have my share of fears, they centre around losing relationships not going to hell. There was the initial gut wrenching feeling of your life being ripped away, but was replaced in a short time by acceptance. Certainly I haven't spent years deconverting (Although doubts and questions were there years ago, I was still very much a believer in God) Anyone that has followed me since I got here a few months ago would see that I pretty much went straight into refuting the Bible without umming and ahhing.

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It seems I was fortunate, after much study & research I reached the point that I knew for certain the Bible wasn't true & I was done with Christianity at that point. No regrets & no looking back since then.

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I am totally a 7.  Quite happy and satisfied.  At a 7 everything each individual does around me now has an explanation that makes sense.  I am totally confident and secure (but not fully public yet, cause, just not worth the hassle dealing with the lower numbers in my life).  In fact, even my church/fundy acquaintances have come up to me over the last five plus year, and have noticed that "something has changed" with me, and note how much more confident and happy I am. Clearly they like me much better than they used to.   Makes me laugh so hard inside.  

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Took me a long while to really be able to say this, but yes, comfortable is the right word. No fear of misinterpreting god's word and signs, no fear of not fulfilling god's plan, no fear of punishments etc.

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Depends on what you mean by god.  Monotheism os obviously false, other kinds of gods i would be more agnostic towards.

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Super comfortable and during my deconversion process I was really skeptical I could be happy - post belief. Now, I'm a lot happier than I ever was as a Christian. I think it really comes down to life just making a lot more sense. Christianity is confusion... It really is... People who you think should be reaping massive rewards are hit with tragedy or just live in a perpetual state of need... I always wondered why - especially when you read what the bible says about believers doing more than Jesus did and having their needs met... Turns out, it was all bullshit. No fucking wonder it didn't make sense. Shit. 

 

Oh yeah, and I cuss a lot now... And that makes me happy. Fucking hell, goddammit. 

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Everything makes sense, my 'eyes are opened' to quote the bible. I find I am more readily able to explain things that didn't make sense before.

I think it really comes down to life just making a lot more sense. Christianity is confusion... It really is...

 

I think my deconversion was assured when I was reading an atheist writer one day. He made a statement along the lines of "The way the world works is exactly as we would expect if there were no God intervening and directing events." It suddenly became clear to me: all the explanations that Christians had come up with to explain why things happened were just desperate efforts to explain this away. Realizing that there was nobody behind the curtain, that God was busted, allowed me to let go, to stop twisting myself into a pretzel to make it all fit. No wonder we're more comfortable when we give that up!

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I like to say "the constant invisible war of angels and demons went silent". All the crap that my imagination had to create: all of the fear, all of the monitoring for sin, the excuses for unanswered prayers despite written promises to the contrary, the endless church meetings, the next "in-crowd" pastor/teacher/missionary/miracle-worker, the many thousands of dollars spent chasing the presence of a god who wasn't there - gone. So yes, I'm far more comfortable now than then. But believers will always tell you that they've really got it good and can't imagine being without Jesus, even though they are without him.

 

Thanksgiving this year showed me that part of my family, though brilliantly gifted, are caught in a mind-trap and have not yet encountered anything that will cause them to see through the trap of fear that keeps them inside the box. I hope to help, so I haven't come out to them yet. That is done solely out of love for them.

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Oh yeah, same here! I never took things too seriously to begin with, anyway. I am pretty darn comfy with my unbelief!

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De facto atheist. Very low probability, but short of zero. “I don’t know for certain but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption that he is not there.”

 

Strong atheist. “I know there is no God, with the same conviction as Jung knows there is one.”

 

There's got to be something between 6-7. I don't make a positive claim that there is no god, but I most certainly don't believe in god/s. I don't even think there is a probability there is a god, I simply understand it's a logical fallacy to make a positive negative claim. 

 

Dawkins has always had trouble with his atheist definition. It just means lack of belief and he tries to make it a positive claim. 

 

Anyway, I'm very much more comfortable. When I still believed, I was constantly made to feel guilty simply for being a human. Who can feel comfortable in that? It's a built in dissonance mechanism placed there as a form of emotional control. 

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I am totally a 7.  Quite happy and satisfied.  At a 7 everything each individual does around me now has an explanation that makes sense.  I am totally confident and secure (but not fully public yet, cause, just not worth the hassle dealing with the lower numbers in my life).  In fact, even my church/fundy acquaintances have come up to me over the last five plus year, and have noticed that "something has changed" with me, and note how much more confident and happy I am. Clearly they like me much better than they used to.   Makes me laugh so hard inside.  

 

Hopefully I don't kick up a storm here, but a 7 is you KNOW there is no god. That's a positive claim and requires evidence. I'm not sure how anyone can 'know' about a great many things. Even with science we don't know.

 

Just interested in your reasoning there. Obviously you are very comfortable, and have no doubts about their being no god, but do you really know?

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Christianity doesn't make any sense, but nothing human really makes sense. As Vigile said, the worst aspect of Christianity is enforcing a sense of guilt and shame merely for being human -- the "god" hates you because you cannot live up to his expectations. It's such a soul-destroying, depressing world view. But then, atheism can be deeply depressing for different reasons. 

 

I don't think it's crazy to think that a supreme being somehow "instantiated" the universe (as physicists say) billions of years ago. But I'm 100% confident that the "god" of the Bible is a literary character invented by the J.K. Rowling of the ancient world. 

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I am totally a 7.  Quite happy and satisfied.  At a 7 everything each individual does around me now has an explanation that makes sense.  I am totally confident and secure (but not fully public yet, cause, just not worth the hassle dealing with the lower numbers in my life).  In fact, even my church/fundy acquaintances have come up to me over the last five plus year, and have noticed that "something has changed" with me, and note how much more confident and happy I am. Clearly they like me much better than they used to.   Makes me laugh so hard inside.  

 

Hopefully I don't kick up a storm here, but a 7 is you KNOW there is no god. That's a positive claim and requires evidence. I'm not sure how anyone can 'know' about a great many things. Even with science we don't know.

 

Just interested in your reasoning there. Obviously you are very comfortable, and have no doubts about their being no god, but do you really know?

 

Hi Logic,

 

Yes, technically you are most definitely correct, it is not "possible" to be a 7.  But, I have only one life and I choose to not waste time on the highly unlikely.  For example, I don't spend time and effort wondering if there is a purple 17 legged centipede hiding inside the cantaloupe I see on the produce shelf.  There might be a purple 17 legged centipede inside the cantaloupe, but, it is so highly unlikely that I see little reason to even take the effort to cut open the fruit to see.  You see, I "KNOW" there is no purple 17 legged centipede inside the cantaloupe.  Hence why I do not give the possibility one thought; nor do I have any interest in opening it up to see what is inside.

 

So, yeah, I could do the mental gymnastics and say I am really a 6.9, and not a 7.  But, what is the point? At a 7 everything each individual does around me now has an explanation that make sense.  But, at a 6.9, I am opening myself up to all sort of mental "what if" games....games that seem to have no point given that the everything makes sense as a 7.  Being a 7 is quite wonderful.  No cognitive dissonance what so ever.  None.  Instead, I get to use my mental capacity thoroughly enjoying this world and those I care about. 

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I am totally a 7.  Quite happy and satisfied.  At a 7 everything each individual does around me now has an explanation that makes sense.  I am totally confident and secure (but not fully public yet, cause, just not worth the hassle dealing with the lower numbers in my life).  In fact, even my church/fundy acquaintances have come up to me over the last five plus year, and have noticed that "something has changed" with me, and note how much more confident and happy I am. Clearly they like me much better than they used to.   Makes me laugh so hard inside.  

 

Hopefully I don't kick up a storm here, but a 7 is you KNOW there is no god. That's a positive claim and requires evidence. I'm not sure how anyone can 'know' about a great many things. Even with science we don't know.

 

Just interested in your reasoning there. Obviously you are very comfortable, and have no doubts about their being no god, but do you really know?

 

Hi Logic,

 

Yes, technically you are most definitely correct, it is not "possible" to be a 7.  But, I have only one life and I choose to not waste time on the highly unlikely.  For example, I don't spend time and effort wondering if there is a purple 17 legged centipede hiding inside the cantaloupe I see on the produce shelf.  There might be a purple 17 legged centipede inside the cantaloupe, but, it is so highly unlikely that I see little reason to even take the effort to cut open the fruit to see.  You see, I "KNOW" there is no purple 17 legged centipede inside the cantaloupe.  Hence why I do not give the possibility one thought; nor do I have any interest in opening it up to see what is inside.

 

So, yeah, I could do the mental gymnastics and say I am really a 6.9, and not a 7.  But, what is the point? At a 7 everything each individual does around me now has an explanation that make sense.  But, at a 6.9, I am opening myself up to all sort of mental "what if" games....games that seem to have no point given that the everything makes sense as a 7.  Being a 7 is quite wonderful.  No cognitive dissonance what so ever.  None.  Instead, I get to use my mental capacity thoroughly enjoying this world and those I care about. 

 

Hi consider

 

Totally understand your position now, and I suppose unlike certain religious people what we 'know' would change if evidence came to light that could support it.

 

I think one of the areas I have made it harder for myself in regards to family is that I tried explaining the idea that I didn't know 100% that there was no God, therefore I was open to the idea that there 'could' be one. Just we have no evidence for one. Well since then the family has been bringing forth 'evidence' because they said if I said there was the possibility of god then there was hope. *Sigh* in hindsight just saying there is no God and that';s what I've decided might have been easier on me... not for them, but for me.

 

You are right, and I guess my your explanation most of us here would be a 7. For example we also 'know' there is no flying teapot or Zeus. 

 

Thanks for explaining.

 

LF

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I would currently place myself at a 6 with regard to any deity existing, but a 7 with regard to the specific "God" of the Bible.

 

I went from being 100% convinced that "God" exists and Christianity is true to being 99% convinced that there is no god and 100% convinced that Christianity is not true. In a sense, I'm even more convinced that Christianity is not true than I used to be convinced that it was true. That may not make sense mathematically, since I've put 100% on both sides, but my conviction that it was true was based entirely on misinformation I had been fed by others, things which I now know to be false. My conviction that it is not true came from my own sincere and serious digging into issues in the Bible and finding that things are extremely different from what Christians claim. So, my disbelief is based on my own honest appraisal rather than just swallowing what I had been indoctrinated with, so in that sense I'm more convinced in my disbelief, even though I was previously fully convinced on the other side.

 

As far as comfort goes, I was pretty comfortable as a Christian, but I would be miserable if I tried to wear those shoes now that I know better. I am now completely comfortable with my disbelief, in and of itself, but there are discomforts in dealing with Christian relatives who simply cannot understand where I'm coming from. In other words, any discomfort I have comes not from my disbelief, but from the misconceptions of believers.

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