Is atheism a liberating and good experience?

[naimless]

Hello, you voluptuous ragamuffins,

I was watching a lot of Richard Dawkins videos on YouTube recently. He says many things that I find impossible to disagree with. I'm sure you all have had similar experiences, perhaps with Hitchens, maybe even Hicks, Carlin...

Nevertheless, one thing Dawkins mentions is receiving messages from people thanking him for liberating them. Indeed, it baffles me how he sees atheism as a good thing for somebody who had faith to discover.

I am an atheist because it is the most harsh and universal truth I've found, not because it is a good or liberating experience. Indeed, my most euphoric and liberating experience came from believing in karma and Buddhist philosophy utilising things like meditation and lucid dreams (around the age of 15-17).

Even up to around the age of 10 I was raised Christian and happy that I had a higher power in stages 1-2 of Dawkins' scale. As I am now nearing stage 7, quite frankly I can't sleep at night, I don't eat properly, I don't exercise enough any more, I have panic attacks, pains in my neck, migraines, flashing vision etc. and I have little self-esteem or genuine feeling of empathy or compassion for others.

Honestly the main thoughts that go through my head now are, "if I had a gun, I could blow my head off".

[Aractus]

When I was your age I too used to think I "knew everything". There is still much to be discovered my friend, despite what you may believe. Having found the "one true universal truth" may be a delusion ya know. After all, somebody has to be wrong - right? Sorry to hear about your problems reminds me a bit more of being 19-20 myself!

[Gilgamesh]

I can't sleep at night, I don't eat properly, I don't exercise enough any more, I have panic attacks, pains in my neck, migraines, flashing vision etc. and I have little self-esteem or genuine feeling of empathy or compassion for others.

And what does this have to do with atheism? Nothing.

Maybe you were more happy before atheism because you belonged to a social circle with the main focus being on religious beliefs? Humans are social creatures and when one isn't socialising, one can become depressed.

Having found the "one true universal truth" may be a delusion ya know. After all, somebody has to be wrong - right?

This, too, has nothing to do with atheism.

[Annik]

I've found that it forces you to come to terms with certain things, but that you are a more enriched person for having done so. It comes easier to some than others.

[thesummerqueen]

Hey dude....

First, I'd recommend a therapist. That sounds like something that ought to be treated with some seriousness.

Second, I personally find it an absolutely liberating experience. I could probably make it a tl;dr sort of post, but the short answer is that reality - harsh, beautiful, austere, uncompromising, unaccommodating but also interconnected, brings me to tears of wonder and joy in a way that religion and faith never did. Somehow to me everything is more amazing and more worth my curiosity when I consider that a divine being had no hand in it.

Dawkins does it a bit, but really it's Neil deGrasse Tyson and Carl Sagan who taught me not to fear that overwhelming blanket of the coldness of reality. And perhaps Walt Whitman, who had a rather mixed bag of spiritual notions but whose view of the universe is staggeringly close to what both of those men describe. "A Song of Myself" was one of the things that made me lose my faith in a personal god.

May I ask why you feel like blowing your head off?

[naimless]

When I was your age I too used to think I "knew everything". There is still much to be discovered my friend, despite what you may believe. Having found the "one true universal truth" may be a delusion ya know. After all, somebody has to be wrong - right? Sorry to hear about your problems reminds me a bit more of being 19-20 myself!

I realise it isn't the "one true universal truth"; it is just the most harsh and probable one I've found considering there are over 2000 documented gods. I realise I will experience new things from this moment to my death - But I know I'll not experience the over 2000 gods and the over 7 billion perceptions of them in that time.

I can't sleep at night, I don't eat properly, I don't exercise enough any more, I have panic attacks, pains in my neck, migraines, flashing vision etc. and I have little self-esteem or genuine feeling of empathy or compassion for others.

And what does this have to do with atheism? Nothing.

Maybe you were more happy before atheism because you belonged to a social circle with the main focus being on religious beliefs? Humans are social creatures and when one isn't socialising, one can become depressed.

I became agnostic-atheist at 10 when I realised my best friend wasn't of the same religious belief and was then depressed for 5 years. I went to kill myself one night when I thought, fuckit, I've never even lived - so tried believing in "the universe" being made for my wishes as a last stab in the dark. Essentially it gave me the confidence to make new friends, experiment with drugs, get a girlfriend, have sex, go to festivals, and have a really good time. Then I realised the universe wasn't actually made for my wishes and it was all bullshit.

The point of this thread isn't to focus on my issues. It is to see if anyone else didn't find atheism the liberating and good experience Dawkins believes it is.

[thesummerqueen]

Then I realised the universe wasn't actually made for my wishes and it was all bullshit.

Is that what bothers you the most? That it's not all about you?

[Annik]

You are made for yourself. Don't see yourself as something small. However, Summer's suggestion of Tyson was a good one. So was her suggestion of a therapist.

[Voltron]

It is liberating in the sense that I don't have to worry about living my life in sin, where I'm going after I expire, it opened my mind a bit, etc. etc. But it didn't really change any of my habits or my mental state the ways you described. Sound like you're trying too hard to establish a link between how you're turning out and various belief structures or lack of.

[naimless]

Then I realised the universe wasn't actually made for my wishes and it was all bullshit.

Is that what bothers you the most? That it's not all about you?

No, I think I could deal with that if I found someone that had a similar experience to me.

---

It is liberating in the sense that I don't have to worry about living my life in sin, where I'm going after I expire, etc. etc. But it didn't really change any of my habits or my mental state the ways you described. Sound like you're trying too hard to establish a link between how you're turning out and various belief structures.

I've never seen a religious person worried about themselves going to hell. They are all going to heaven in their view - if they sin, they just ask for forgiveness or change the rules a little. It's everyone else who sins that is going to hell.

I'm not trying to establish the link. I've monitored my mental health for a while and I have been baffled as to the changes in it. It's actually incredibly simple for me now to make the link between believing in a higher power and achieving more happiness given that I was on and off with the higher power shit and on and off with my depression and the spread was years with the trend mutually exclusive.