To those who were once believers and are now atheists, some advice?

[*Deidre*]

I've read through your replies, they have all been really helpful, thank you! I have a saying, 'stay true to you.' And if that means losing 'friends,' so be it. Of course, within reason.

But, I haven't changed. I'm still the same exact person, the same good friend. Maybe someday, they'll come back. I don't know.

I can't help but wondered what glued us all together. Almost at times like the friendships just never happened at all.

---

I had lost a couple of friends but I got them back later after convincing them that I wasn't a bad bogey man in cahoots with Satan, I just saw many logical issues with the christian story.

I suggest that you address the "lost" friends in a humble way, telling them that you are struggling to understand the truth and you don't want to be mislead by anything that isn't actually true. Tell them that an atheist is simply someone who is not yet convinced of the god stories, nothing else. Then ask them why they believe in spite of A, B, C, etc..

You sometimes can break one away from the delusion. I've had success more than a couple of times.

This really touched me, I had to do a double take...Brakeman posted this? lol jk! This would be the kind thing to do I suppose, and I just may follow this advice.

@ summer queen, the range of emotions you mention, yes! I'm sort of angry about it all. You are right, what u say. And I have gained some fabulous new friendships during this whole thing, so that's true too!