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

[thesummerqueen]

I can understand both of those without much added context -

I had some friends who seemed to hinge their concepts of "right and good" on stupid shit - like whether or not someone else's relationship lasted. When my ex and I split, there were several people who said things like "If you guys couldn't make it, who could?!" and got into weirdly depressed conversations with me about how the world sucks and they always thought we had an inspiring relationship...and I'm like, "who the fuck are you people?"

But when people do shit like that, they prove they don't know you very well to begin with - it's a superficial knowledge based on what THEY want to see in you, not what you actually are. I would hazard the guess that your friend never cared to look deeper, just as I would hazard a guess that Cin's friend only took what superficial things he needed to get by in his own life.

I've gotten rid of a lot of those people as I've grown up too - not because they were bad or thought ill of me, but because I don't have much time for people who aren't willing to fix themselves instead of using other people as models for how life should be lived. You know? You can be inspired by someone, but you can't live your life assuming they're the guiding light, or they're just going to let you down.