RE: Atheists ONLY - Are you less happy now that you are an atheist?
November 20, 2013 at 1:20 pm
I'm happier. More relaxed.
Yes, I remember a few times long ago when I was having fun in a Christian group belting out some favorite hymns and that sort of thing.
However, the deeper I got into it the more cognitive dissonance built up, and by that time I was a pastor. It was very difficult to get out. It was my fucking livelihood after all. However, I could not stand the thought of spending 2 or 3 more decades pretending enthusiasm about something I no longer believed.
I remember when I was out and I definitively stopped believing that I had a feeling of great relief that I would no longer have to do intellectual headstands to deny evolution or to pretend the bible is anything but deeply flawed.
There was a price to pay. There was no great job market for ex-clergy, so with several years of post-secondary education, I had to earn my living by manual labor, at various times construction worker, truck driver, fork lift operator, gasfitter. It was far better than the alternative of staying in the ministry.
Now I'm retired, and I'm OK, thank you very much.
Yes, I remember a few times long ago when I was having fun in a Christian group belting out some favorite hymns and that sort of thing.
However, the deeper I got into it the more cognitive dissonance built up, and by that time I was a pastor. It was very difficult to get out. It was my fucking livelihood after all. However, I could not stand the thought of spending 2 or 3 more decades pretending enthusiasm about something I no longer believed.
I remember when I was out and I definitively stopped believing that I had a feeling of great relief that I would no longer have to do intellectual headstands to deny evolution or to pretend the bible is anything but deeply flawed.
There was a price to pay. There was no great job market for ex-clergy, so with several years of post-secondary education, I had to earn my living by manual labor, at various times construction worker, truck driver, fork lift operator, gasfitter. It was far better than the alternative of staying in the ministry.
Now I'm retired, and I'm OK, thank you very much.
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people — House
