RE: I have a few questions to atheists, before I become one.
March 13, 2014 at 11:12 am
(This post was last modified: March 13, 2014 at 11:14 am by Alex K.)
(March 13, 2014 at 10:54 am)Clueless Morgan Wrote:(March 12, 2014 at 8:15 pm)whateverist Wrote: Why are you so anxious to leave that behind? Weren't you happy as a believer?
From his OP:
(March 12, 2014 at 10:21 am)IntelligentPlanet Wrote: You see, untill my 15th year of my life I was just a normal believer, thinking that God really existed, and nothing more. I was not following the Bible word by word and was living a happy life. Then, for some reason, I decided to start praying before I go to bed. The strange thing was that I got psycho, I tried to do my best to perform the pray perfectly, so I don't end up wondering if the things I have prayed for will happen if I haven't performed it correctly. I started making silly rituals, which had nothing to do with religion, but I thought that God would love me and care for me if i did them.
He thinks his OCD is grounded in his god belief and that if he manages to dump the god beliefs his OCD will go away, too.
The question is, though, were there sympotms of OCD present before the praying started and the OCD just got worse after you found a way to ritualize your life? In which case, god belief might not have anything to do with it. You seemed to be a somewhat apathetic believer until you decided to start praying and if you had literally no OCD symptoms prior to that then there might not be grounds to think that the OCD is caused by a god belief, but more brought on by the adherence of religious ritual.
I have no experience with OCD so I have no idea whether OCD is a sudden onset condition or if you display symptoms of it your whole life but in either case, it seems more tied to the ritual aspect of the god belief than the god belief itself.
OCD can appear after puberty, and never quite go away entirely. IANAD, but it probably isn't grounded in God belief, but as described by user JesusLover1 not so long ago, if you have intense fear of hell and of being watched by god, this is just the stuff that makes the condition worse because it provides fodder for your anxiety (you can feel compelled to perform rituals because you want to avoid going to hell, rather than other more unspecific fears). I am not at all convinced that shedding religion rids you of OCD, but it might mitigate some symptoms.
