I Finally Did It!

[RedStar]

I'd been wanting to change my religious views on Facebook to agnostic for a while but was worried about what my Christian friends would say, but I don't care anymore. The thing that annoys me about it is that even just thinking about changing it caused me to get fairly stressed, as soon as I thought about it the muscles in my chest tightened, that only happens when something seriously stresses me.I'm angry that it made me feel that way, why should I have to be worried about what the Christians will think? I shouldn't have to feel worried about what they'll think or say, I'm just as entitled to have my views as they are to have theirs!

 

I stopped going to church almost 2 years ago, but I didn't stop believing until earlier this year. There had been many things that bothered me about Christianity, things didn't logically make sense and so many of the expectations people in church and the god of the bible had were so unfair and unrealistic. What they wanted and what reality is could not be reconciled. Even so, a year after I left church I still stopped myself from questioning the existence of god, but I'd been angry at him for a good 7 years.

 

There came a time when I couldn't resist anymore, I'm very curious and I love to carefully research things that interest me. I went onto Google and started looking for arguments against Christianity, and found this site:

 

http://godisimaginary.com/

 

I read through all 50 proofs and agreed with it. After that I started looking for evidence that debunked Christianity, and finally I looked for a forum where I could find ex Christians. At that point I wasn't comfortable calling myself agnostic but I couldn't bring myself to say I was a Christian either. I left school after I finished year 10 and hadn't been that interested in anything I'd been learning at school anyway. It's only been the last 3 years that I've grown much more curious than I was before about everything and started doing research on things that interested me. I've learned a lot, and I discovered that I have a talent for writing and debating. My Mother and Brother both love hearing things I've written, this is a skill I didn't really know I had until the last few years. There was one thing that started it all, but it's complicated and is somewhat personal to me. What I will say is that it's about a person that I decided to carefully research, everything was very different to what I'd been told and I was shocked. The whole thing taught me to be extremely careful about what I believe and why, and to make sure I have plenty of evidence to support what my position.

 

My research taught me about logical fallacies and how many people use them without even knowing what they're doing, and it also taught me just how gullible and ignorant people can be. Now when I hear something that interests me I do my own homework, and have found many times things are different to how many people think they are, intellectual laziness seems to be a big problem among many. When I learned to think carefully and logically about this one topic, I started to apply the new logic to everything, it took a while for me to get the courage, but when I did I finally broke and pointed my weapon of reason at my faith. I'd been too frightened to do this for a long time, I was worried about god getting angry at me and I worried about dying. I would pray before I went out on my motorcycle and apologise for questioning, but eventually from reading so many things about Christianity and having the blinder taken off it was like I could see the Christian god through the eyes of someone who had never had anything to do with it, and saw it as abusive and horrible, not at all like what I was told at church. There are plenty of bible verses where god was being horrible, and I was not like other people who could bury their heads in the sand and go into denial just because I didn't like what I was reading.

 

Reading things from atheist websites and reading what science had to say about various bible claims killed and blind faith I had and woke me up the abusive and manipulative nature of the religion. I finally decided that I was no longer going to continue with the praying or anything else to do with the religion. My mind has been much calmer and I don't haver to try to justify everything I do, I can watch as many horror movies as I like, I can think about anything I like without having to be paranoid that god will get pissed at me, and I can do what I want when I want. Even now I still have remnants of the Christian mindset creep back in, but Immediately remind myself that I don't have to worry about any of that anymore, I can now enjoy my life. I met some fellow unbelievers on a large motorcycle ride I went on some months ago, and we're now great friends. My motorcycle is my best friend and I've experienced a lot of fun and excitement because of it, which isn't something I had much of in my life before that. I love going for rides on the bike, it's great fun and gives me a happy and peaceful feeling, I always come home feeling much better.

 

The ride I went on was to bring more awareness to depression, it was called that Black Dog Ride. There were 271 bikes on this ride, and we got a little black toy dog named Winston that we could put on our bikes as our mascot. The ride was about 118 kilometres (73miles). It started 58 kilometres (36 miles) from my home town. I ended up riding 357 kilometres (221 miles) that day. I'd never gone that far without my family before, and if you'd told my family that I was one day going to ride a motorcycle that far with people I'd never met they wouldn't have believed you. My bike has given me a level of confidence I'd never had, and I get to see places and meet people,and best of all be FREE. My bike and that ride I went on were the beginning of my new life, and I love it! Here's some pics from the day:

 

Here's a pic of my bike with Winston on the tank before the ride. He survived the whole journey and I still have him

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My bike:

 

 

 

My new friends:

 

 

 

 

 

I fondly look back and remember this as one of the best days of my life

[Eleandrus]

Congrats Redstar,

The other day when i deconverted i changed my relgious views from Southern Baptist to Atheist, but i Hid it from everybody. then i was like okay ill put ? but ended up hiding it and had it like that for a couple of days. After this past monday i said if they dont like it oh well and i changed it to Atheist and made it public, and the thing is nobody has said anything, and i have many of my aunts uncles and cousins on fb who are all Catholic. i guess if they were not on when i changed it then they wouldnt have seen the update and it got swept down the wall.

 

I stopped praying as well long time ago, i felt that it was a waste of my time since god has a divine plan for us but oh wait we have free will to make our own decisions or do we...? that part always got me why pray if X-ians are taught to believe both are true.

 

You have great bike always wanted one, still might someday. also i love Australia, i went to Perth/Freemantle and Hobarth Tazmania when i was in Navy in 2000

[♦ ficino ♦]

 

when I did I finally broke and pointed my weapon of reason at my faith. I'd been too frightened to do this for a long time, I was worried about god getting angry at me and I worried about dying. I would pray before I went out on my motorcycle and apologise for questioning, but eventually from reading so many things about Christianity and having the blinder taken off it was like I could see the Christian god through the eyes of someone who had never had anything to do with it, and saw it as abusive and horrible, not at all like what I was told at church. There are plenty of bible verses where god was being horrible, and I was not like other people who could bury their heads in the sand and go into denial just because I didn't like what I was reading.

 

 

Yay, you go, Redstar! I agree that looking at Christianity as though it's just been presented to us for the first time, without all the slack that tradition and history lead us to cut it, really makes it stand out for what it is!

[LaughingMan]

Oddly, enough when I changed my status a few asked me about it. I explained it to them and they claimed to understand. I know most of them really didn't, but it is mostly in how you explain it. Describe your experiences, the realization from those experiences, the doubt of its sincerity, and most importantly do not show anger towards them. Most people sense anger and will automatically become defensive if they feel THEY are under attack. Criticize the mythology and the organizations.

[LifeCycle]

Not to that point yet. The potential fall-out is more than I want to deal with at this point. I did however remove "Christian" from my religious views but didn't replace it with anything. Maybe at some point.

[roadrunner]

Not to that point yet. The potential fall-out is more than I want to deal with at this point. I did however remove "Christian" from my religious views but didn't replace it with anything. Maybe at some point.

me too. i even deleted the "changed his religious views" post that pops up so i can quietly slip out of the crowd". last thing i want is to screw up my out plan.

[silentknight]

I recently changed my religious views of facebook to "Pastafari"... it's not as confrontational as Atheism or Agnosticism, but anyone who looks it up will get the idea.

[norton65ca]

"Pastafarianism, see Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster for more. but seriously? ex Christian apostate, atheist & agnostic." I updated about three months ago. I don't live in the bible belt however and I have nowhere near as much to lose as some here.

[Eleandrus]

His Noodliness would love for you to partake of his pasta. I been FSM for a long while now even as a Xian as a joke but now that i deconverted. i find it just as believable that FSM is just a real as any other Deity, seems legit.

[pox]

My religious views are listed as "Musician". Nobody's ever noticed, as far as I know, certainly never mentioned it. Maybe it's not inflammatory enough, or maybe those that might be bothered just think it's a joke, but I think it's not. Occasionally, when I'm doing it right, I do experience playing music as a kind of disciplined mindfulness meditative practice, and that's as close as I get to a religion. It's a way to define my current religious views unshackled from my former religious views. I'm actually a something, not just a non-something. Maybe there's something like that for you - maybe "Biker", or whatever term you prefer.