(December 9, 2014 at 11:12 am)Nope Wrote: When I was religious, I was taught to fear myself. Like everyone, I had moments of anger or negative thoughts about others that I never acted upon but my upbringing taught me that without god, I would go crazy and act on those thoughts.
My problem was not so much that I thought god made me good(although I sort of thought he did). What terrified me was the idea that what is moral might just be our opinion. That meant that not raping someone or forcing them into slavery was wrong just because we humans said so and there wasn't a higher power that made our actions absolutely right or wrong. It also meant that if I used the bible as my authority, I had to justify a lot of evil things that the bible god did.
Luckily, there were several atheists on the forum for Catholic Answers who patiently answered similar questions repeatedly. Fear of myself was the reason that I clung to religion even when it made no sense. It is also why I tend to be gentle with religious people. I can sympathize with how strong and heavy that fear is.
Did any of you have similar feelings before you deconverted? Did any person help you overcome that fear? What did they say?
Ideas and thoughts do not just spontaneously pop into existence and cavort round the Universe looking for a home. Human behaviours and strategies are born of the natural imperatives that drive us. Base strategies are subsumed into more complex strategies, e.g. it would seem the biological imperative is to procreate with as many females as possible (a behaviour we see in some animals) but as we are toothless, clawless soggy bags of lion food we have evolved to survive in groups, tribes, social groups so you don't take advantage of individuals (males or females) within that structure otherwise you destroy trust and the tribe falls apart, putting individuals at risk.
Morality is born of who and what we are and the imperatives that drive us, there is no need to be afraid of your own humanity.
MM
"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions" - Leonardo da Vinci
"I think I use the term “radical” rather loosely, just for emphasis. If you describe yourself as “atheist,” some people will say, “Don’t you mean ‘agnostic’?” I have to reply that I really do mean atheist, I really do not believe that there is a god; in fact, I am convinced that there is not a god (a subtle difference). I see not a shred of evidence to suggest that there is one ... etc., etc. It’s easier to say that I am a radical atheist, just to signal that I really mean it, have thought about it a great deal, and that it’s an opinion I hold seriously." - Douglas Adams (and I echo the sentiment)
"I think I use the term “radical” rather loosely, just for emphasis. If you describe yourself as “atheist,” some people will say, “Don’t you mean ‘agnostic’?” I have to reply that I really do mean atheist, I really do not believe that there is a god; in fact, I am convinced that there is not a god (a subtle difference). I see not a shred of evidence to suggest that there is one ... etc., etc. It’s easier to say that I am a radical atheist, just to signal that I really mean it, have thought about it a great deal, and that it’s an opinion I hold seriously." - Douglas Adams (and I echo the sentiment)
