Is atheism a liberating and good experience?

[LastPoet]

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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".

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Being an atheist in itself, provides no help in personal happiness, so its rather pointless to ascribe to it a reason for your own personal unhappiness.

You should seek a good technician for a proper diagnosis on that lack of appetite, panic attacks, etc, because to be honest, self diagnosis or seeking it online isn't really a way that will solve anything, it may perhaps even make it worse.

At any rate, I would recommend you to read Carlo Strenger's "Fear of insignificance", a good book that makes a compelling thesis on the problems that affect the post-modern human being. Do note however, that this won't substitute a proper technician therapy.