If You Were An Atheist

[Rhondazvous]

Well, it's been 10 years. I felt very angry at having been lied to for 25 years. Angry at the ignorance that kept people believing stuff I knew was not true.

But My father was a mental health counselor and he taught me to see the irony of life and of my own thoughts. So after a few years I was able to acknowledge that I was once a believer and could not very well be angry at those who believed what I once had.

Some moral issues took time to work through. I had to do inventory to determine which moral standards were mine and which had been programmed into me by the Church.

At first I looked into other spiritual systems. The results were both frightening and comical. While I realized I was free to do stuff, I realized that I was also free not to do stuff and I balked at the idea of putting my mind in fetters again.

Mostly though, the change is in what I believe and what I think I need in order to be happy. I stopped believing that god would be angry and punish me if anything besides himself was making me happy. I stopped believing that it's wrong to feel good about myself and take credit for my accomplishments.