RE: Atheists ONLY - Are you less happy now that you are an atheist?
November 20, 2013 at 9:32 am
I was born atheist - as was everybody - and I'm luckily for me nothing ever happened to change that.
In fact I think I'd like to - not "object", that's too strong, but certainly express concern at the phrasing of the question.
The assumption that all atheists were religious once before undergoing some sort of deconversion plays into the notion that god-belief is the DEFAULT, that normal people believe and that it's only discontented freaks like us - to whom, obviously, something BAD must have happened - who don't believe.
The very expression "loss of faith" implies LOSS, that we had something important which we've managed to "lose ", that there's something missing from our lives, when the reality is we've managed to rid ourselves (or in the case of the truly lucky ones like me, were never burdened with) something pernicious and entirely superfluous.
In fact I think I'd like to - not "object", that's too strong, but certainly express concern at the phrasing of the question.
The assumption that all atheists were religious once before undergoing some sort of deconversion plays into the notion that god-belief is the DEFAULT, that normal people believe and that it's only discontented freaks like us - to whom, obviously, something BAD must have happened - who don't believe.
The very expression "loss of faith" implies LOSS, that we had something important which we've managed to "lose ", that there's something missing from our lives, when the reality is we've managed to rid ourselves (or in the case of the truly lucky ones like me, were never burdened with) something pernicious and entirely superfluous.
