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Do you follow a different faith now that you're no longer Christian?


Deidre

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When I came to this site initially, I wasn't following anything, really...became indifferent to faith. I identified as an atheist, then. But, during that time, I explored Deism, Buddhism and Islam. But, then felt like atheism made sense to me, it seemed to be a natural conclusion at that time. But, I've noticed a pattern after people leave one of the Abrahamic faiths, they tend to immediately identify as an atheist. So, just wondering if you'd consider yourself now, an atheist, or if you've started following a different faith/religion after your deconversion from Christianity?

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Hi Deidre

 

Thanks for starting this topic - its an interesting one, and everyone has a different tale. A few comments in general.

 

The human longs to belong to a community. Upon leaving one community the initial response is to identify with another.

 

I don't define myself as an atheist as an "identity" any more than I do an aunicornist. I don't believe in God, and I don't believe in unicorns. If I tell you I am atheist the only thing that tells you about me is I don't believe in any theistic Gods. It doesn't tell you about my beliefs or lack of them in a deistic god, or any other form of belief. For a Christian to assume because I use the term atheist to describe my lack of belief in god, that they then know what my entire worldview consists of (and there are Christians who have stated this to my face), is presumptuous and arrogant beyond reason. I don't know what my worldview is, so how would anyone else know?

 

I haven't started on a different religion, and I don't see myself doing so. I don't seem to have high spiritual needs, and very much ground my existence in reality and logic. Whether or not this is correct is open to interpretation but its the way I find best suits me.

 

Deidre, possibly one of the reasons people seem to 'immediately' identify as atheist upon leaving a religion is that they have already searched out the evidence of other religions and found them also lacking. Thus it hasn't been an 'immediate' decision, but rather a journey of discovery and belief, that by the time they officially leave the religion, they already know that they are atheist. This is what happened with me.

 

As a side note, when I am communicating with others I tend to avoid the term atheist because of the baggage that is hard to get past in a conversation. So I say "I don' believe in any gods". If I am told "oh you are atheist" we then start a conversation as to what they mean by 'atheist'. If by atheist you mean I simply don't believe in gods, then you are correct. If by atheist you mean I'm a godless commie who wants to butcher Christians cause that's what atheists do, then no you seriously misrepresent the term and how it relates to me.

 

Don't assume my atheism yo! :D

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I might have a tiny touch of pantheistic woo, but I've been identifying more and more openly as an atheist, though I don't feel that I'm really a part of any atheist groups.  I might feel better labelled a none, though I really hate to be labelled based on my disbelief in a popular idea of a god.  Thankfully I have believing friends who believe that I'm a good person even though I've told them that I'm an atheist.

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1 hour ago, Deidre said:

When I came to this site initially, I wasn't following anything, really...became indifferent to faith. I identified as an atheist, then. But, during that time, I explored Deism, Buddhism and Islam. But, then felt like atheism made sense to me, it seemed to be a natural conclusion at that time. But, I've noticed a pattern after people leave one of the Abrahamic faiths, they tend to immediately identify as an atheist. So, just wondering if you'd consider yourself now, an atheist, or if you've started following a different faith/religion after your deconversion from Christianity?

 

Hi Deidre! So good to hear from you hon. I have to say (as TrueFreedom did) that I have a touch of pantheistic woo in me also. I like to think that we are all part of the universe and our planet. When I came out of the closet here on Ex-c, I was so incredibly angry when I decided for myself (after reading hundreds of posts and investigating) that there was no personal god. Even though I tried not to show that anger outwardly, it seethed inside of me. I definitely called myself an atheist for awhile but now I just call myself a 'non-believer'. It's much softer for me. My greatest project right now is to play a game with myself to see how positive I can stay throughout the day, so I love to read a lot of positive memes and articles. 

 

I will always admit till the day I die, that there are certain aspects of the church that I miss. But I could never go back and listen to the 'devil verses god' or any of the other sermons that are taught out of that book which completely screwed up my life......

 

Keep well sweeetie....

 

(hug)

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3 hours ago, LogicalFallacy said:

Hi Deidre

 

Thanks for starting this topic - its an interesting one, and everyone has a different tale. A few comments in general.

 

The human longs to belong to a community. Upon leaving one community the initial response is to identify with another.

 

I don't define myself as an atheist as an "identity" any more than I do an aunicornist. I don't believe in God, and I don't believe in unicorns. If I tell you I am atheist the only thing that tells you about me is I don't believe in any theistic Gods. It doesn't tell you about my beliefs or lack of them in a deistic god, or any other form of belief. For a Christian to assume because I use the term atheist to describe my lack of belief in god, that they then know what my entire worldview consists of (and there are Christians who have stated this to my face), is presumptuous and arrogant beyond reason. I don't know what my worldview is, so how would anyone else know?

 

I haven't started on a different religion, and I don't see myself doing so. I don't seem to have high spiritual needs, and very much ground my existence in reality and logic. Whether or not this is correct is open to interpretation but its the way I find best suits me.

 

Deidre, possibly one of the reasons people seem to 'immediately' identify as atheist upon leaving a religion is that they have already searched out the evidence of other religions and found them also lacking. Thus it hasn't been an 'immediate' decision, but rather a journey of discovery and belief, that by the time they officially leave the religion, they already know that they are atheist. This is what happened with me.

 

As a side note, when I am communicating with others I tend to avoid the term atheist because of the baggage that is hard to get past in a conversation. So I say "I don' believe in any gods". If I am told "oh you are atheist" we then start a conversation as to what they mean by 'atheist'. If by atheist you mean I simply don't believe in gods, then you are correct. If by atheist you mean I'm a godless commie who wants to butcher Christians cause that's what atheists do, then no you seriously misrepresent the term and how it relates to me.

 

Don't assume my atheism yo! :D

I like how you write, your words have a nice flow. :) 

I agree. Maybe even when I identified as an atheist, there was always this part of me that kept searching for a god. lol Idk. I think that if you never come to another belief system, as long as you are grounded and happy, that's what matters. I'm finally grounded and happy...but this Christianity isn't what I followed before. What I followed before, was my parents' doing...thrust upon me. Catholicism, to be exact. Now, I feel returning to faith after all this time of being away from it, gave me room to breathe and find my way to what makes sense for me, as a believer. 

 

I was told by a few atheists ''you were never a true atheist.'' Oh my, are they stealing this from Christians? ''You were never a true Christian.'' Sigh. lol 

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Even as a Christian, I was not very spiritual.  I was always uncomfortable with emotion at church services, and I never quite felt the personal relationship with Jesus that I was supposed to feel.  It was really almost like an intellectual acknowledgement that God exists, like acknowledging that Argentina exists.  So it is not surprising that my former Christianity has not been replaced by any other kind of religious belief (I do still believe in Argentina, though).

 

I think I was always inclined toward an atheistic world view, and I think that in my twenties I really could have as easily rejected faith as embraced it.  I feel like my true self was suppressed for a couple of decades.  I remember, when I first heard about Dawkins and Hitchens, being repelled by their outspoken atheism, but once I started to read them and others, it was like I was awakening from a trance.  I am still a bit shocked at how much more confident I am in my rejection of Christianity than I ever was in my acceptance of it.  I feel like I have come home to my true self.   So I didn't just accept atheism, I embraced it like a long-lost friend.  

 

I'm not completely unspiritual of course: I am a flesh and blood man.  But for me, to the extent that I have spiritual needs, they are met by my relationship with my wife (not least through sex), by gazing at the night sky, or by being out alone in the woods...

 

 

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I don't believe in any personal gods, and life really is less heavy that way, but it seems I can't entirely rid myself of a bit of woo. Something's here that's difficult to measure. Not anything with a personality but... telepathy type phenomena, for lack of a better word. I don't actively seek it out but it seems to happen again and again.

 

I didn't go to full atheism upon deconversion, I was agnostic for the longest time because I had had such strong religious experiences that I couldn't just right out deny all of it. Later I realised that my mind is able to do all kinds of things that my sensible side don't understand (funny as it is, my own mind outsmarts me, how does that work? Lol). There went my need to explain those things with a personal god - I'd been interacting with my own head the whole time.

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7 hours ago, Deidre said:

I like how you write, your words have a nice flow. :) 

I agree. Maybe even when I identified as an atheist, there was always this part of me that kept searching for a god. lol Idk. I think that if you never come to another belief system, as long as you are grounded and happy, that's what matters. I'm finally grounded and happy...but this Christianity isn't what I followed before. What I followed before, was my parents' doing...thrust upon me. Catholicism, to be exact. Now, I feel returning to faith after all this time of being away from it, gave me room to breathe and find my way to what makes sense for me, as a believer. 

 

I was told by a few atheists ''you were never a true atheist.'' Oh my, are they stealing this from Christians? ''You were never a true Christian.'' Sigh. lol 

 

Thanks Deidre. I try and write how I talk, but a bit more formal for clarity... as long as my meaning is communicated clearly :)

 

I'd be interested in hearing why you went back to Christianity... was there some moment, an experience, you came across solid evidence etc?

 

Haha, I have found you can get fundamentalists in ANYTHING including in an atheist community. Never a true atheist eh? lol. No true Scotsman fallacy that.

 

If someone tells you that, tell them to define "true".

 

You didn't believe in god, then you did. True doesn't come into it except what you believe is true. I do sympathize with you in this regard, my own family has basically said I was never a true christian, or (since that is pointed) "Oh you don't really not believe in God, you're just confused".... right... cause I'm an easily confused person lol (not)

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14 hours ago, Deidre said:

When I came to this site initially, I wasn't following anything, really...became indifferent to faith. I identified as an atheist, then. But, during that time, I explored Deism, Buddhism and Islam. But, then felt like atheism made sense to me, it seemed to be a natural conclusion at that time. But, I've noticed a pattern after people leave one of the Abrahamic faiths, they tend to immediately identify as an atheist. So, just wondering if you'd consider yourself now, an atheist, or if you've started following a different faith/religion after your deconversion from Christianity?

 

What about this? 

People have mentioned panthestic woo a few times already. That's spiritual atheism. 

 

I think that a lot of people after deconverting revisit the idea of god. And you're right, the trend seems to be going from full belief straight to lack of belief, which is what atheism means. I did that. But it can seem like somethings missing. That's when I revisited the idea of god. It came from thinking on cosmology and wondering about what happened before big bang, and what exists out beyond the observable universe. I felt that god feeling lurking behind those questions. So I took another look into it. I had this idea that maybe genesis is symbolic for how the universe has really evolved over time. And I went into the bible looking for possible evidence to back this up. But instead of finding support for this idea, by paying close attention I started reading and acknowledging all of the contradiction and folly in the bible starting with genesis. I turned to the NT and found the same. So I didn't find any good answers by returning to the bible. But it peaked my interest in academic analysis of the bible, which has been a hobby every since. I eventually poured over the topics biblical criticism (Bart Ehrman) and minimalist archaeology (Israel Finkelstein). And went on to read on comparative world mythology via Joseph Campbell, Alan Watts, and even comparative esoteric literature through Manly P Hall. All good sources for critical thinking and gaining an overview of what other people believe, including the secret societies and Theosophists. 

 

I was interested in Campbell's discourse on eastern and western religion and how the two contrast and compare. It was then that I started looking into pantheism both ancient and modern and liking the modern approach to scientific pantheism I was reading about. I joined with the world pantheism movement (WPM) and became an outspoken proponent of naturalistic pantheist philosophy online and abroad. During this time I never felt compelled to join any world religions though. I took a lot of positive information from Buddhism and Hinduism but never felt compelled to convert to either. Again, I was more interested in the academic dynamic than the belief and membership dynamic. I knew and understood the discourse of not taking mythology or religion based on mythology literally. And I understood the many problems with Judaism and Christianity through all of this reading and personal research. But the eastern ideas of unity, wholeness and interconnection are things that struck me as if I'd somehow known all along, even though I grew up with western Christianity and the separation of man and god concepts and fallen man concepts that go along with Christianity. Nevertheless, it's like I'd always known that duality is illusory, that the idea of a battle between light and darkness dissolves upon what are regarded as enlightened ideas such as wholeness, unity and interconnection. 

 

I wound up remaining atheist to a certain extent, but a spiritual naturalist type of atheist. I found out first hand, through deep thought and experience, that neither the hard right of religion nor the hard left of atheism suited me very well. And I found my way to the middle ground between the two. And coincidentally that eventually translated to politics as well - I found myself more interested in libertarian views than democrat or republican. I suppose what happened is that while reading through comparative world mythology and understanding eastern philosophy, I found that middle ground mindset. And it can piss people off and seem too vague. But it is what it is.  

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17 hours ago, TrueFreedom said:

I might have a tiny touch of pantheistic woo, but I've been identifying more and more openly as an atheist, though I don't feel that I'm really a part of any atheist groups.  I might feel better labelled a none, though I really hate to be labelled based on my disbelief in a popular idea of a god.  Thankfully I have believing friends who believe that I'm a good person even though I've told them that I'm an atheist.

I can relate to so much of what you wrote here TrueFreedom. I have struggled a lot too with what to call myself. In a way I don't like having to identify with any labels because I feel pinned down to a certain way of thinking when I do that. In some moods I will call myself an atheist but I have mixed feelings about it. Sometimes it feels liberating to say it and sometimes it feels like a stranger talking. I also don't like the baggage that seems to come with a lot of the labels for nonbelievers.  Concerning the pantheistic woo, even though I'm not convinced of a personal god, there is a part of me that still wonders sometimes if there might be some type of connecting force. It's probably just wishful thinking on my part, but even if it isn't literally true, I think there is something to be said for the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

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16 hours ago, Margee said:

 

 I definitely called myself an atheist for awhile but now I just call myself a 'non-believer'. It's much softer for me. My greatest project right now is to play a game with myself to see how positive I can stay throughout the day, so I love to read a lot of positive memes and articles. 

 

I will always admit till the day I die, that there are certain aspects of the church that I miss. But I could never go back and listen to the 'devil verses god' or any of the other sermons that are taught out of that book which completely screwed up my life......

 

Keep well sweeetie....

 

(hug)

A lot of the time I will just say that I'm not religious. I live and work in a very religious environment, so it's the best way I've come up with to be true to myself without making those around me feel attacked. I have always been attracted to positivity too and I try to practice it in my life too. I also meditate every day. I started doing it about 6 or 7 months before I deconverted and it has been a help and comfort to me. 

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15 hours ago, Deidre said:

I like how you write, your words have a nice flow. :) 

I agree. Maybe even when I identified as an atheist, there was always this part of me that kept searching for a god. lol Idk. I think that if you never come to another belief system, as long as you are grounded and happy, that's what matters. I'm finally grounded and happy...but this Christianity isn't what I followed before. What I followed before, was my parents' doing...thrust upon me. Catholicism, to be exact. Now, I feel returning to faith after all this time of being away from it, gave me room to breathe and find my way to what makes sense for me, as a believer. 

 

I was told by a few atheists ''you were never a true atheist.'' Oh my, are they stealing this from Christians? ''You were never a true Christian.'' Sigh. lol 

I really appreciate your accepting attitude toward atheists. I wish more Christians were like that. :-) 

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15 hours ago, LogicalFallacy said:

 

Thanks Deidre. I try and write how I talk, but a bit more formal for clarity... as long as my meaning is communicated clearly :)

 

I'd be interested in hearing why you went back to Christianity... was there some moment, an experience, you came across solid evidence etc?

 

Haha, I have found you can get fundamentalists in ANYTHING including in an atheist community. Never a true atheist eh? lol. No true Scotsman fallacy that.

 

If someone tells you that, tell them to define "true".

 

You didn't believe in god, then you did. True doesn't come into it except what you believe is true. I do sympathize with you in this regard, my own family has basically said I was never a true christian, or (since that is pointed) "Oh you don't really not believe in God, you're just confused".... right... cause I'm an easily confused person lol (not)

 

After work I went out on the lake bass fishing this afternoon. And for some reason this exchange was on my mind out on the water. I get the no true Scotsman fallacy aspect. They may have meant it that way, but I suspect that it's more the case of suggesting that she wasn't intellectually atheist. There's a bit of a difference. Many christians have an "I used to be atheism" claim. But more often than not they were never Richard Dawkins atheist, that is, intellectually atheist. They may have been confused about god, wavering or wondering, but an intellectual atheist is just immune from doing something like taking up positive belief in christianity.  

 

I realize that I wasn't an intellectual atheist until I re-read the bible cover to cover and took up critical biblical reading and acquired the knowledge. I know that I was susceptible to returning under certain conditions previous to doing that. It's the intellectual foundation of atheism - knowing in great detail what's wrong with not only the bible, but all religious writings in terms of believing in them literally - that curbs the idea that maybe it's correct after all. That's probably all that people have meant by suggesting that she wasn't a real atheist or something to that effect. It's not that it wasn't real, she likely stopped believing for a while as she says. It's just that it was probably emotional based or rebellious more so than deeply intellectual.

 

 

 

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I identify myself as not religious, mostly because the word atheist invites negative responses. I tried progressive Xianity & Deism after officially leaving Xianity, but I couldn't make a connection.

 

I no longer feel a need to have any God's in my life. Panendeism is a spiritual option I suppose, but I could not honestly say that I'm interested in that either. I like being godless it's far less stressful. 

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19 hours ago, LogicalFallacy said:

 

Thanks Deidre. I try and write how I talk, but a bit more formal for clarity... as long as my meaning is communicated clearly :)

 

I'd be interested in hearing why you went back to Christianity... was there some moment, an experience, you came across solid evidence etc?

 

Haha, I have found you can get fundamentalists in ANYTHING including in an atheist community. Never a true atheist eh? lol. No true Scotsman fallacy that.

 

If someone tells you that, tell them to define "true".

 

You didn't believe in god, then you did. True doesn't come into it except what you believe is true. I do sympathize with you in this regard, my own family has basically said I was never a true christian, or (since that is pointed) "Oh you don't really not believe in God, you're just confused".... right... cause I'm an easily confused person lol (not)

 

I never had a holy spirit ''experience'' before deconverting. I had left Christianity for a few years, so it wasn't a sudden change back. Although, I will admit...atheism left me feeling empty at times, especially when my grandmother died two years ago. I was an atheist when she died. That said, I never really owned my faith before deconverting. It was a faith ''given'' to me by my parents, and my childhood. So, I had this holy spirit experience, that is the only way I can describe it. I went to look up online if others have had similar experiences, and their experiences and feelings were nearly identical from an emotional and physical standpoint, and I compared it for the first time to what the BIble says about it...when people encountered the holy spirit. It might sound crazy from an objective view, but that's what happened over a year ago that led me back. The difference is...I'd say now, I own my faith. I don't believe the entire Bible as literal (well, I never did) and I follow Jesus' teachings, and have a very different opinion of Jesus than I once did. It's all very new and refreshing, as to what I once followed. I think that faith should be experienced...whatever the faith or beliefs are. I think that Christianity or any faith, can't be confined in a book or a set of stories from long ago. That's the best way I can describe ''why'' I came back. 

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24 minutes ago, Geezer said:

I identify myself as not religious, mostly because the word atheist invites negative responses. I tried progressive Xianity & Deism after officially leaving Xianity, but I couldn't make a connection.

 

I no longer feel a need to have any God's in my life. Panendeism is a spiritual option I suppose, but I could not honestly say that I'm interested in that either. I like being godless it's far less stressful. 

That's interesting what you say about deism...I explored that briefly, and agree...it's like God is an absentee landlord or something? lol 

It's funny, when I was ''godless'' ...I felt stressed. Maybe some people make better atheists than others. lol Thank you for sharing, Geezer. :)

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10 hours ago, SkepticalHumanist1980 said:

I really appreciate your accepting attitude toward atheists. I wish more Christians were like that. :-) 

That's nice of you to say. Identifying as an atheist was probably the best thing that happened in my faith journey, because I respect atheists, whereas before...it's not that I didn't respect them, but I just didn't understand atheism. I do, now...and it's quite misunderstood by many believers.

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12 hours ago, Joshpantera said:

 

After work I went out on the lake bass fishing this afternoon. And for some reason this exchange was on my mind out on the water. I get the no true Scotsman fallacy aspect. They may have meant it that way, but I suspect that it's more the case of suggesting that she wasn't intellectually atheist. There's a bit of a difference. Many christians have an "I used to be atheism" claim. But more often than not they were never Richard Dawkins atheist, that is, intellectually atheist. They may have been confused about god, wavering or wondering, but an intellectual atheist is just immune from doing something like taking up positive belief in christianity.  

 

I realize that I wasn't an intellectual atheist until I re-read the bible cover to cover and took up critical biblical reading and acquired the knowledge. I know that I was susceptible to returning under certain conditions previous to doing that. It's the intellectual foundation of atheism - knowing in great detail what's wrong with not only the bible, but all religious writings in terms of believing in them literally - that curbs the idea that maybe it's correct after all. That's probably all that people have meant by suggesting that she wasn't a real atheist or something to that effect. It's not that it wasn't real, she likely stopped believing for a while as she says. It's just that it was probably emotional based or rebellious more so than deeply intellectual.

 

 

 

 

Josh, many members of this community have described the feeling that their minds have been reprogramming themselves during and after their deconversion.  I certainly have experienced this feeling:  I am often amazed at some of the things I once believed, and some of the attitudes I once endorsed.  At some point, relatively recently, I think I reached the point where I became basically immune to belief in any form of theism.  I have struggled to describe this state, but I think it is more or less the “intellectual atheism” that you describe.  I might have called my state “psychological atheism”, which sounds less robust than  your version (and I am certainly less well-read than you are), but I think in both our cases it has involved a critical mass of knowledge combined with a shift in mindset away from a faith-based to a reason-based outlook.

 

The various writers of scripture surely knew a thing or two about human nature, and I believe the writer of Hebrews had you and me in mind when he wrote that  It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance…” (Hebrews 6:4-6, NIV).  This state that a Christian might view with horror, I (and presumably you) regard with satisfaction.

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My observation is that most who eventually abandon Christianity initially seek other religions because, "Christianity is demonstrably incorrect, but there simply MUST be a God out there somewhere!" Only after exhaustive spiritual investigation and subsequent failure to find anything must some conclude they are atheist.

 

Atheism is nothing more than lack of belief in any gods. It says nothing about spiritual perspective.

 

Personally I find the views of Alan Watts to make some sense and don't run counter to observable reality. That everything is interconnected seems incontrovertible. There is, of course, no proof for his hybrid Buddhist/Hindu views. Unless one injects an actual external deity into the philosophy, it seems quite reasonable. If you want to insist there is a "god," then we, collectively, are it. 

 

 

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I discovered Alan Watts because of this site, florduh...I like him, too.

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On March 1, 2017 at 8:43 PM, Deidre said:

I like how you write, your words have a nice flow. :) 

I agree. Maybe even when I identified as an atheist, there was always this part of me that kept searching for a god. lol Idk. I think that if you never come to another belief system, as long as you are grounded and happy, that's what matters. I'm finally grounded and happy...but this Christianity isn't what I followed before. What I followed before, was my parents' doing...thrust upon me. Catholicism, to be exact. Now, I feel returning to faith after all this time of being away from it, gave me room to breathe and find my way to what makes sense for me, as a believer. 

 

I was told by a few atheists ''you were never a true atheist.'' Oh my, are they stealing this from Christians? ''You were never a true Christian.'' Sigh. lol 

Yikes! You mean atheists have a litmus test too? I didn' know that. What if I'm not a true atheist? Are there any other options or is it basically all over for me?  Are there atheist books I have to study, will there be a test? Oh dear I was never told there would be tests. I've never been good at tests. And I don't think the Xians will take me back. I may end up homeless. 

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19 hours ago, Deidre said:

 

I never had a holy spirit ''experience'' before deconverting. I had left Christianity for a few years, so it wasn't a sudden change back. Although, I will admit...atheism left me feeling empty at times, especially when my grandmother died two years ago. I was an atheist when she died. That said, I never really owned my faith before deconverting. It was a faith ''given'' to me by my parents, and my childhood. So, I had this holy spirit experience, that is the only way I can describe it. I went to look up online if others have had similar experiences, and their experiences and feelings were nearly identical from an emotional and physical standpoint, and I compared it for the first time to what the BIble says about it...when people encountered the holy spirit. It might sound crazy from an objective view, but that's what happened over a year ago that led me back. The difference is...I'd say now, I own my faith. I don't believe the entire Bible as literal (well, I never did) and I follow Jesus' teachings, and have a very different opinion of Jesus than I once did. It's all very new and refreshing, as to what I once followed. I think that faith should be experienced...whatever the faith or beliefs are. I think that Christianity or any faith, can't be confined in a book or a set of stories from long ago. That's the best way I can describe ''why'' I came back. 

 

I think we're all interested in you expanding on this experience of the holy spirit. Obviously this is something you came here wanting to discuss, so let's do it. 

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1 hour ago, Joshpantera said:

 

I think we're all interested in you expanding on this experience of the holy spirit. Obviously this is something you came here wanting to discuss, so let's do it. 

I've been a member here for a few years lol I'm not here for any reason other than I've made friendships here when I was an ex-Christian. Someone asked me on here why i came back to faith, and I shared what led me back. That's not me here wanting to discuss it, you seem to infer that I have some kind of agenda or something. Please leave me be if you have an agenda simply because I'm no longer an ex-christian. I don't need your approval to be here. 

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1 hour ago, Geezer said:

Yikes! You mean atheists have a litmus test too? I didn' know that. What if I'm not a true atheist? Are there any other options or is it basically all over for me?  Are there atheist books I have to study, will there be a test? Oh dear I was never told there would be tests. I've never been good at tests. And I don't think the Xians will take me back. I may end up homeless. 

lol Yea, apparently there are some atheists who believe that all atheists must think exactly like they do, or they are not atheists. I don't understand why people care so much about what other people believe. If people ask me, I share, but other than that...why people feel the need to attack people for their beliefs, or non-beliefs, is beyond me. I can see if a believer is witnessing to others, that would be intrusive. But, just because someone believes something that you don't...why do people feel the need to attack them, or bait them? Idk...it makes me sad sometimes, Geezer. :(

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11 hours ago, Deidre said:

I've been a member here for a few years lol I'm not here for any reason other than I've made friendships here when I was an ex-Christian. Someone asked me on here why i came back to faith, and I shared what led me back. That's not me here wanting to discuss it, you seem to infer that I have some kind of agenda or something. Please leave me be if you have an agenda simply because I'm no longer an ex-christian. I don't need your approval to be here. 

 

Here, to the spirituality section, wanting to let people know your experience of the holy spirit. Are you sure that that doesn't include any type of agenda? It doesn't really matter if you do have a christian agenda for being here. I'm welcoming the agenda and asking you to expand upon it.

 

As for me and this website in general, obviously there's an agenda. It's written and expressed all over the website. And the agenda is to help christians and ex-christians who may be struggling along. Nearly every member here is on board with that agenda. But you must already know that having been here for several years. I suspect that your journey is far from over and your starting this thread and asking about ex-christians beliefs has to do with the fact that you're still searching for answers and your journey is far from concluded. There's no need to get defensive with me unless you're insecure about your re-conversion, about going from catholic, to atheist, and then protestant. Perhaps you're interested in what your peers around here think about it. I'm asking questions. 

 

I'll invite you once again to discuss your experience of the holy spirit, as a concerned ex-christian adhering to the purpose of this website.  

 

 

 

 

 

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