Hello everyone, this is a spin off of this thread: http://atheistforums.org/thread-35404.html ...posted by Shuffle. 

While it is a a very difficult question to answer, I thought it was interesting to think about, and wanted to ask the rest of you and hear answers from the other side.  

Anyone can answer, of course, but I am most interested in hearing from those who have been atheist their whole lives, or at least, who have never been a devout/practicing theist. 

If you were a theist tomorrow, how would you change the rest of your life? Personality, morals, etc.

Thanks!

EDIT TO ADD: Any of the Abrahamic religions.

You'll have to pick a religion, cause they're all too different.

I can't answer except to say I can't answer.

The only difference I can see is that i'd live exactly as I live now except I'd constantly have to grapple with the cognitive dissonance of believing in a (presumably Abrahamic) religion which actively condemns some of the things I think is ok (eg. Homosexuality).

Well that depends a great deal on the God I believed in, and also a great deal on whether or not Theism comes with the belief in an afterlife. Theism itself is way too broad of a subject to be able to really comment on, considering the wide myriad of Gods that have been believed in and still are.

I'd go back to doing the same thing I always did. Go to church once or twice a week. Pray to Jesus. Be as good a person as possible. Try to avoid debating about the bible, because it's hard to defend a lot of this stuff. After all, that's why my faith broke down so fast after I reached adulthood.

Nothing about my life would necessarily have to change. The details depend on the minutiae of the faith in question.

What Alex said. I can't imagine my personality and so forth altering all that much.

If I ever do get religion, I sort of hope it's one of the nice, sedate ones. Not that I'm shy, but I really don't see meself dancing round a pentacle in the nuddy.

Boru

(August 27, 2015 at 5:49 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote: Hello everyone, this is a spin off of this thread: http://atheistforums.org/thread-35404.html ...posted by Shuffle. 

While it is a a very difficult question to answer, I thought it was interesting to think about, and wanted to ask the rest of you and hear answers from the other side.  

Anyone can answer, of course, but I am most interested in hearing from those who have been atheist their whole lives, or at least, who have never been a devout/practicing theist. 

If you were a theist tomorrow, how would you change the rest of your life? Personality, morals, etc.

Thanks!

I would become a conceited moron who thinks I can pass myself off as humble.   I would believe I can have the most important knowledge without the least facts.   I would think that, knowing no facts, I can nonetheless call any actual fact that I dislike bullshit.   I would think I can waste the life I have because I will Be rewarded in another life that I won't actually be having.   I would feel I can be truly happy with myself for all of those things because I can rely on people even dumber or more unscrupulous then me when they tell me a holy book of known falsity and uncertainty provinence said I can be.

(August 27, 2015 at 5:51 pm)Jenny A Wrote: You'll have to pick a religion, cause they're all too different.

Without getting too specific, would it be ok if I said any of the Abrahamic religions, since they are the most common? Or do I have to pick a particular one?

I'm assuming you mean believing in a specific religious doctrine?

My life would probably be a lot different. I wouldn't have had kids when I did, might not have them at all because religion makes sex sound like something evil. I'd probably have begged my ex-husband to stay with me when he left me, and thought that I had done something wrong because I would have believed in the churches teachings. I'd never speak up, because the bible teaches women not to speak up. I'd have disowned my bi-daughter who's planning on getting married to her girlfriend. I'd attend church every Sunday instead of sleeping in. I'd be a lot less fucking awesome than I am.