If You Were An Atheist

[Rhondazvous]

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.

True, Nope. forgiveness does not necessarily mean dealing with anger in a healthy way. And letting go of anger doesn't mean putting yourself in a position where people can continue to do things to you that require forgiveness.

Even when I was a Christian, I questioned the length to which forgiveness was to be extended. I saw people in my family abuse it so much. It was like when they wanted to do something they would plan before-hand, "Oh she's a Christian. She'll forgive me." So Is it really god that requires me to be stupid? Is it god that requires me to be an enabler for people who want to be devious?

It's stupid. My sister is bipolar. One day she did something really ugly to me and I decided I'd best give her some space. When I ran into her at church, I told her she need to go back on that Zantex or whatever it was the doctor had given her because one day she's going to go off on the wrong person and they will hurt her. She said. "Oh, I don't go oof on everyone." Wow, thanks for putting me on your list of people it's okay to go off on. I didn't say that out loud, but I learned something.