(August 14, 2015 at 2:47 pm)alpha male Wrote:(August 14, 2015 at 1:48 pm)Pyrrho Wrote: I can easily understand why you would not read the Bible or pray. But why would you be less forgiving? Do you think you would improve your life by being less forgiving?
There are times when I feel justified in my anger toward someone, but then I remember that we're to forgive as we've been forgiven, and so I forgive. Without Christianity, I wouldn't have that reason to forgive.
I think my life would be worse by forgiving less. I find that forgiving is very good for me, but nevertheless it's not in my nature to be forgiving.
I can only speak for myself. If you define forgiveness as letting go of anger that might hurts you then yes, I still forgive. My mother would be a good example of 'forgiveness' on my part. For years, as a Christian, I prayed for the ability to forgive her. I continued forcing a relationship with her much longer than I should have. It would have made my life more peaceful to have broken ties with her much earlier in my life but I wanted to honor her. Once I lost faith, it was easier to see her as a complex but faulty person. I felt a combination of empathy, pity, love and anger toward her in a way that I couldn't when I tried to force myself to forgive her. My emotions toward her now are not forgiveness but more of an understanding even though I still wouldn't want her to be in my life.
My guess is that as an atheist, you too would learn to let go of negative things that you can't control because it is exhausting to be angry all the time.
