Being An Atheist Is Humbling

[abaris]

Well, my mom always said, "The Lord helps those who help themselves" -- it was the preachers I listened to who urged me to prayer instead of labor. Mom is a practical woman, always has been.

The preachers are a different matter entirely. But I kicked the habit of listening to them when they told us kids, god would take what's most dear to us if we sin. For a while I was scared shitless, but after that another feeling took over. I didn't want anything to do with a god behaving that way. It was my first step towards atheism - as a 7 year old, since I didn't want to believe in or pray to such a creature.

[Jackalope]

A casual stroll through the woods or one look at a mountain massif and I realize how tiny I am, and I feel limitless awe.

I can recall a time, some twenty years ago, I was backpacking in the Oregon Cascade range, in the shadow of two 10K ft (3K m) mountain peaks. I rounded a bed in the trail, and came out in to a clearing, and from this vantage point, looking north, I could see snow-capped peaks neatly lined up in a row, to the south, more of the same.

How insignficant am I. What hubris it is to think this was all placed here for us.

[Minimalist]

I dispute that religious fucktards are "humble" at all.  I see them as arrogant pricks who think they have a special friend in the sky.

[Thumpalumpacus]

My mother says if you think about something enough, it'll happen.

Can we trade? -_-

I'd happily share mine, Vic -- she's got enough love that she touches everyone -- but you'd have to move to Texas to enjoy her great cooking and warm heart ... she doesn't Internet much.

But to be honest, your mom's advice isn't bad, it's just incomplete, I think.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Well, my mom always said, "The Lord helps those who help themselves" -- it was the preachers I listened to who urged me to prayer instead of labor. Mom is a practical woman, always has been.

The preachers are a different matter entirely. But I kicked the habit of listening to them when they told us kids, god would take what's most dear to us if we sin. For a while I was scared shitless, but after that another feeling took over. I didn't want anything to do with a god behaving that way. It was my first step towards atheism - as a 7 year old, since I didn't want to believe in or pray to such a creature.

I wish I'd had your insight at that age; I was a potato back then, full of preprogrammed thoughts, incapable of thinking for myself. My journey to reason started later and lasted longer, I think.

[Thumpalumpacus]

A casual stroll through the woods or one look at a mountain massif and I realize how tiny I am, and I feel limitless awe.

I can recall a time, some twenty years ago, I was backpacking in the Oregon Cascade range, in the shadow of two 10K ft (3K m) mountain peaks. I rounded a bed in the trail, and came out in to a clearing, and from this vantage point, looking north, I could see snow-capped peaks neatly lined up in a row, to the south, more of the same.

How insignficant am I. What hubris it is to think this was all placed here for us.

I get that same feeling at work, in terms of time rather than distance, knowing the 270 million year history of my Preserve. I feel very small in a good way, and young as a newborn... at least, that's what the rocks tell me.

[abaris]

I wish I'd had your insight at that age; I was a potato back then, full of preprogrammed thoughts, incapable of thinking for myself. My journey to reason started later and lasted longer, I think.

Well, don't wish for it. For a while, as I said in a different thread, I virtually lay awake, worrying for my parents and brother. It was child abuse, plain and simple. But I managed to reason it out. If, as they claimed, there was a good god, he wouldn't do anything like that. But that didn't fit with their narrative of punishing others for what I have done. So something had to be off.

I also remember, since it was at the time when I took my first communion, that they played that old song - I think it's called holy, holy, holy in english. There's that passage about god never having any beginning and being eternal in the lyrics. Can't be arsed to look that up, but in German it reads "Er, der nie begonnen, er, der immer war, ewig ist und waltet, sein wird immerdar". It roughly translates into: He, who never started, he, who always was, he, who is eternal, he, who will always be. Now, I was always a child spending a lot of time in his own head. Always pondering, always reflecting. And that just didn't add up for me.