Strange that most christians come from christian families, most muslims come from muslim families etc. Very few look at the evidence and think for themselves. Most spend more time thinking about which shirt to wear than which god to worship

(November 22, 2019 at 6:44 pm)zebo-the-fat Wrote: Strange that most christians come from christian families, most muslims come from muslim families etc. Very few look at the evidence and think for themselves. Most spend more time thinking about which shirt to wear than which god to worship

There are surely similar sociocultural qualifiers that increase your chances of being an atheist; we're all embedded in societies and influenced to some extent by them.

I'm unconcerned with where you might go or be going with your line of questions. I only hope that you can one day appreciate where you went, with your answers.

Faced with the reality of your evil god, you didn't cease to believe in it - you aligned yourself with that evil, and reimagined it as potential virtue. Even when it required complete 180's from post to post. Ultimately, you attempted to memory hole the entire notion..in real time, and it was impressive to watch.

This is likely to be what a deconvert does faced with the same, until they run out of energy for excuses and self deception. Your own thoughts and comments in these moments was the answer to the question you posed.

Now, what I find ironic, is that if this sort of effect leads to atheism, it's probably only on account of other bits of christian indoctrination. When the christian god is weighed and found wanting, there's no shortage of other gods to choose from, but none of those gods will seem like credible alternatives to a person who's been raised to worship christ. The only god they can genuinely conceive of is found to be a sham, and that leaves them in a godless universe. We actually have a whole pile of these stories, in a section called converts corner. Maybe you should check it out sometime. Sad stuff.

(November 22, 2019 at 10:33 pm)Gae Bolga Wrote: I'm unconcerned with where you might go or be going with your line of questions. I only hope that you can one day appreciate where you went, with your answers.

Faced with the reality of your evil god, you didn't cease to believe in it - you aligned yourself with that evil, and reimagined it as potential virtue. This is likely to be what a deconvert does faced with the same, until they run out of energy for excuses and self deception.

Three things were established by me in this exchange. First, that it is illogical to cease believing in the existence of God on account of him being evil. Secondly, that not aligning yourself with an evil God is consistent with Christianity. Thirdly, that people differ on what constitutes an evil act for subjective reasons.

You'd have to talk to someone else about subjectivism, I'm not a subjectivist, lol. I see excuse making and dissonance, and I call it excuse making and dissonance. Even if you're a subjectivist, the excuse making and dissonance is still there.

It's there right now. This, also, from many accounts, is how people feel and what they do in the situation you find yourself in. The situation you asked about. The initial realization of evil (subjectively or objectively apprehended) does not cause any loss of faith - but a massive and convoluted redirection of ones own values, a loss of faith in ones own self and appraisals - rather than god, or god's.

The things you are describing seem to be missing from our exchange.

Missing from our exchange? No. Memory holed, yes. That's what we do in these instances. What you're doing now, is an analog process to what people falling away from faith often do, at least initially.

They convince themselves that they are wrong. They invoke mysterious ways. They reassert their previous thoughts and dogma. They just give up. Etc.

I'll just have to take your word for it then.

Not at all, but that's another example of the same. Externalizing your own thoughts, confusion, and acts. This is how we protect valued ideas from others, but also from ourselves, and from the ideas themselves, no less. That, if you read deconversion stories, is very common.

I do hope you're correct; I would love to be an atheist by New Years.