(March 20, 2014 at 7:11 pm)llwynog Wrote: This really does depend on who the person is. I myself "deconverted" (if you can count believing in 2000-year-old bedtime stories until I grew a brain even a religious belief at all) from Christianity at six years of age. And you know what, I find myself happier than I'd be able to imagine myself if I was religious.
The happiness comes from that weight and worry being lifted off my shoulders, doing whatever I want without worrying about the big guy upstairs. Sins don't exist, neither do worries of heaven or hell. You rot in the ground, the worms crawl in, the worms crawl out. Supporting things like stem-cell research and any sort of scientific, technological or cultural progression is great.
Tonus Wrote:When I was a believer, one of the more common beliefs about atheists is that they did so in order to live immoral lives without guilt. (https://atheistforums.org/thread-20055.html)
Leading your life with your own morals is always neat, too.
Beliefs change depending on how stubborn we are, and whether we find one way of believing (or, in many of our cases, lacking any belief at all) better than another. I find it desirable, and in my opinion simply better. Of course, I'm talking about my own lack of/opposition to belief.
Thank you for being one of the Christians this anti-theist can respect, unlike those bible-thumpers that simply scream verses and scurry away.
This is honestly the most respectable and pleasurable discussion I've had about belief. And I thank you all for this! Sometimes discussion like this in the company of other religious folk tend to make me face-palm, or get frustrating for obvious reasons. So if anyone is to thank, its you!