Newbie
June 25, 2012 at 8:20 am
(This post was last modified: June 25, 2012 at 8:28 am by downeygirl.)
I am recently Atheist. Long story short - grew up in a Christian family that never really was dedicated to the religion, so I grew up believing in God but never had deep roots in Christianity.
I've always struggled with beliefs. I always was fascinated with religion and god. In High School I switched to New Age Spiritual Paganism crap to then just being "spiritual"... Now I'm 30 and I no longer believe in god.
Does anyone struggle with the after effects of not believing? I mean, trying to get your mind to stop veering off into places where it shouldn't be. For instance - when something bad happens my first instinct is to pray for it to be better. Or one that I used to say a lot "I'm putting it on god's hands". And do I still believe in Ghosts? I know that atheism isn't really about ghosts, but how could I still believe in ghosts and not believe in a god? I've always believed in ghosts! And the same thing for fate and miracles. Do I not believe in them either? But they're all so warm and fuzzy... it's hard to let go of stuff like that and it's hard to even know if it's important enough to let it go.
I also met a really nice man the other day and we were hitting it off great, until he asked me if I was a Christian. When I said no, the awkwardness was heavy. That's the first time that it hit me that this could be a real problem in the dating area. Would I want to date a Christian? Would a Christian want to date me? And even more so, what is the percentage of single atheist guys out there anyway?
Anyway... all these thoughts... and I haven't even broken the news to my mom or family yet. They know that I don't like religion.. but they still think that I at least believe in god. And I'm not sure what they'll say when I tell them.
It's confusing and a bit scary, so I wanted to join an atheist forum.. and I've been looking for an atheist group in my area through meetup.com, but there doesn't seem to be many nearby... Not sure what to do to meet new like-minded people.
I've always struggled with beliefs. I always was fascinated with religion and god. In High School I switched to New Age Spiritual Paganism crap to then just being "spiritual"... Now I'm 30 and I no longer believe in god.
Does anyone struggle with the after effects of not believing? I mean, trying to get your mind to stop veering off into places where it shouldn't be. For instance - when something bad happens my first instinct is to pray for it to be better. Or one that I used to say a lot "I'm putting it on god's hands". And do I still believe in Ghosts? I know that atheism isn't really about ghosts, but how could I still believe in ghosts and not believe in a god? I've always believed in ghosts! And the same thing for fate and miracles. Do I not believe in them either? But they're all so warm and fuzzy... it's hard to let go of stuff like that and it's hard to even know if it's important enough to let it go.
I also met a really nice man the other day and we were hitting it off great, until he asked me if I was a Christian. When I said no, the awkwardness was heavy. That's the first time that it hit me that this could be a real problem in the dating area. Would I want to date a Christian? Would a Christian want to date me? And even more so, what is the percentage of single atheist guys out there anyway?
Anyway... all these thoughts... and I haven't even broken the news to my mom or family yet. They know that I don't like religion.. but they still think that I at least believe in god. And I'm not sure what they'll say when I tell them.
It's confusing and a bit scary, so I wanted to join an atheist forum.. and I've been looking for an atheist group in my area through meetup.com, but there doesn't seem to be many nearby... Not sure what to do to meet new like-minded people.
