ElrondHubbard Posted February 28, 2010 Share Posted February 28, 2010 I think my own de-conversion process was pretty moderate, but I'm a little curious about everyone else. When you left "The Church," did you start start flaunting dogma at every opportunity, or did your life stay more or less the same? I'm still pretty new, so I'm sorry if this is something that has been discussed at length earlier. I'm just interested to hear all of your experiences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The-Captain Posted February 28, 2010 Share Posted February 28, 2010 More or less the same. I am after all the continuation of the person I was while in the faith and while leaving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shyone Posted February 28, 2010 Share Posted February 28, 2010 I think my own de-conversion process was pretty moderate, but I'm a little curious about everyone else. When you left "The Church," did you start start flaunting dogma at every opportunity, or did your life stay more or less the same? I'm still pretty new, so I'm sorry if this is something that has been discussed at length earlier. I'm just interested to hear all of your experiences. The only thing that changed for me was that I had Sunday Mornings free. Well, that and the lack of belief thingy, but my life did not change, and I had no reason to "proselytize" my lack of belief. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dB-Paradox Posted February 28, 2010 Share Posted February 28, 2010 I was a pent-up Christian much of my life. My life was WAY too deep in fundamentalism. I have always been the kind of person to make fun of everything...I find humor in all aspects of life. Except as a Christian, I revered god and Jesus and the holy spirit FAR too much! Now that I'm free, EVERYTHING is open to satire! It feels good, but it has been an adjusting period. I swung from one end of the pendulum to the other. I hope I'll find a middle ground soon! But it's fun being on the opposite side! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MultifariousBirdLady Posted February 28, 2010 Share Posted February 28, 2010 I think my own de-conversion process was pretty moderate, but I'm a little curious about everyone else. When you left "The Church," did you start start flaunting dogma at every opportunity, or did your life stay more or less the same? Yeah, I went crazy for a while. Mind you, getting out was not easy or quick for me. I flip-flopped for a long time and the backlash from fears of hell, demons, etc. were intense and caused all kinds of trouble. Fighting back by arguing with Xtians over dogma, history, etc. was a helpful part of extracting my mind and emotions from that mess. You could say it was a kind of therapy. At this point I don't need to do any of that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YellowJacket Posted February 28, 2010 Share Posted February 28, 2010 The only crazy I've done is the amount of reading I'm doing that is pro-science/atheism. I wouldn't have touched that stuff before, now I'm devouring it like a starved person. Other than that, I've always acted like a heathen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
★ Citsonga ★ Posted February 28, 2010 Share Posted February 28, 2010 I'm still mostly the same person. As another has already mentioned, I have Sunday mornings free now. I also don't feel the need to study the Bible (although I want to take the time to read it through again now that I have skeptical eyes) or pray or whatever. And I don't feel the need to avoid harmless lingo that people get all in a tizzy about. I still don't drink, don't smoke, don't live a wild life, and I don't make out with anyone other than my wife. I work hard to provide for my family. And I don't make it a point to flaunt my disbelief, although when asked about it I don't lie about my beliefs. So, I wouldn't say that I went crazy when I lost my faith. Actually, I'd say that I finally went sane, dumping the superstitious nonsense that I used to believe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunaticheathen Posted March 1, 2010 Share Posted March 1, 2010 I didn't change much, but keep in mind that I was always leaning towards hippie/heathen/gothy rock styles, attitudes, and ways. I was the weird kid at the fundy school that thought for myself and didn't reject science out of hand. The only thing that changed when I dumped christianity was I stopped trying to get the fake veneer to stick. Never stayed very well put anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Objet_trouve24 Posted March 1, 2010 Share Posted March 1, 2010 I think my own de-conversion process was pretty moderate, but I'm a little curious about everyone else. When you left "The Church," did you start start flaunting dogma at every opportunity, or did your life stay more or less the same? I'm still pretty new, so I'm sorry if this is something that has been discussed at length earlier. I'm just interested to hear all of your experiences. I was pretty bitter for a while. Since I'm from a smallish town, I had to be around a lot of the people who I went to church with, went on mission trips with, etc. I was also struggling with bipolar and PTSD (I was refusing to see a shrink because of a previous bad experience), and was self medicating with alcohol, caffeine pills and coke... I was pretty crazy. I don't remember doing it, but my friend tells me the first thing I said to him was "I heard you're a christian. So long as you don't bug me with it, I don't care, just don't ever tell me about it", which was totally out of nowhere and unprovoked. I passed out maybe 5 minutes later, might be why I don't remember it too well. He was really great about it though, helped me get myself cleaned up, and never said word one about Jesus until I brought it up several months later. I was kind of a douche for a while there. I think he (and a philosophy professor I had a while back, and a particular ska band) are the reason I came around and came to respect some non-fundie christians, or at least learned to leave them alone when they aren't trying to pitch it to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Posted March 1, 2010 Share Posted March 1, 2010 I was very quiet about my deconversion. I haven't really told many people that I'm an atheist, though they could figure it out based on my opinions, it they choose to do so. (They generally don't!) Like some others here, I've done a lot of reading (go Bart Ehrman!), and I've taken up swearing with wreckless abandon, but not much else has changed. (God damn, I love swearing!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Non-Redneck Posted March 1, 2010 Share Posted March 1, 2010 After seeing how Christians treat those who leave Christianity, I remained silent for fear of persecution by the Church. I tried to avoid my ex-Church (and fortunately, they avoided me). I also was a full in-your-face fundie. After finally deconverting, I became put off on "evangelizing" or declaring my non-Christianity because I saw how pointless and annoying the stuff I did as a Christian was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nightflight Posted March 1, 2010 Share Posted March 1, 2010 For me, going crazy meant reading books that contained ideas that were non-Christian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeHoya Posted March 1, 2010 Share Posted March 1, 2010 I'm not all that different after my official de-conversion - I hadn't been paying Christianity much more than lip service for a while. I guess the biggest difference is my general intolerance (at least on the inside) for religious people being religious. Because I had what was more or less an intellectually driven de-conversion rather than an emotional one, I don't feel like theists have a different opinion; I feel like they're just wrong. And it irks me, just like it would if they spelled a word incorrectly or used "your" instead of "you're". I want, more than anything else, just to correct them, say "Oh no, you've got it all wrong, there's absolutely no evidence for a god," so on, and so forth, giving the arguments that are now so obviously convincing to me. It's, frankly, a difficult urge to keep in check. Ironic. I have a hundred times the urge to "spread the good news" about atheism as I ever did about Christianity. I've found my calling: devangelism! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahgrace Posted March 1, 2010 Share Posted March 1, 2010 I started swearing more, drinking more, and having more fun... also, eventually I came out and began living openly as a lesbian and I started smoking weed occasionally. Nothing too crazy, really. Nothing that hadn't already been brewing for a while. Personality-wise, I really didn't change much; because of that, I still maintain several close friendships with christians I met in Bible college. They're exceedingly cool though. I'm lucky that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HRDWarrior Posted March 1, 2010 Share Posted March 1, 2010 I haven't changed all that much. Without the crazy fundy beliefs shaping my entire world, my outlook and attitude towards some things has shifted, but other than those who knew me really well (aka parents) or others who I've said things to, the random other christians I've known haven't figured it out as far as I can tell anyways. I don't hide my atheism, but I don't where it on my sleeve, either. The best thing since then is I have my Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, Wednesday nights, and whatever other day of the week I maybe had a bible study on, free from obligation! Since I was already married, and especially since my deconversion was fairly long (took place over a good 7 years start to finish), there was never a drastic paradigm shift for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElrondHubbard Posted March 3, 2010 Author Share Posted March 3, 2010 Ironic. I have a hundred times the urge to "spread the good news" about atheism as I ever did about Christianity. I've found my calling: devangelism! Haha, me too! Thanks for all of the excellent responses, everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vixentrox Posted March 3, 2010 Share Posted March 3, 2010 Other than becoming a better person I was low key about it. This site here allows me to vent though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShallowByThyGame Posted March 3, 2010 Share Posted March 3, 2010 I didn't change at all...I never really enjoyed church anyways, much more peaceful to sleep in and play video games. Spent many years not thinking about religion at all, since not a one of my college friends went to church or had any public spiritual inclinations (all were amazing and good people fyi), before reading about cults got me more interested in helping people learn to think critically. Internally I was the same...externally I struggled with how honest I should be with my family about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OpheliaGinger Posted March 4, 2010 Share Posted March 4, 2010 I would say I went from crazy to sane upon deconverting. When I was a believer, I was dogmatic about my beliefs and that Conservative Republicanism was the way to go, but upon deconversion, I pretty much let people believe whatever they want to believe (unless I think their beliefs will entail problems for them and others) and I have become quite apathetic about politics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hungrydingo Posted March 4, 2010 Share Posted March 4, 2010 I changed quite a bit. I am more understanding of other people, opened myself to more extreme styles of music that would have been off limits before, started reading anti religious, specifically anti-christian literature from the likes of Russel, Dawkins, and Hitchens, and I started drinking a lot more, experimenting with drugs, and became more open to sex. Mind you I did drink some when I was a christian and had pre-marital sex before I deconverted, but those things became less taboo for me. Some of my politics changed too, I stopped being a moral majority style douchebags (even though in some respects I was a hypocrite there) and became very socially liberal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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