Leaving indoctrination behind

[Joel]

Well, I've 'not believed' for about two months or so, now. I was raised Christian for 17 years - the kind that's taught not to look/hear/listen to/at anything that may contradict christianity. Evolution was evilution and all that kind of stuff.

I'd say that I'm now an atheist - secular humanist, if you want specifics, but I can't help feeling that I miss what I used to have, every now and again.
I now understand why de-converted people turn back to their former religion - but I simply don't believe it's true, nor do I believe it's a morally correct system.

Does anyone have any advice for leaving this childhood indoctrination behind? It's becoming quite a heavy burden.

[FallentoReason]

Surround yourself with like-minded people. The mistake I committed was that I took to long in "coming out of the closet". I went for a year still pretending to be a Christian and carrying on with my week as a Christian i.e. going to church 4 times a week for Bible study, worship practice, youth group and Sunday morning church. As soon as I made it public that my beliefs had changed, I was able to be true to myself and live/act like a non-religious person with people other than Christians and I didn't feel guilty at all.

[KichigaiNeko]

Welcome to the REAL world honey. Burden?? WHY?

You have left your childish things behind. Yes you will remember them with fondness, a time when you had NO responsibility whatsoever. You WILL revisit and stumble and fall and the best part is that you WILL get up again and carry on questioning EVERYTHING!! Especially your own prejudices.

This makes for a good individual. Congratulations my dear.... you got OUT!

Now, have a look around and what do you see? Check out orogenicman his pics are awe-inspiring as to just how big this out is and how beautiful.

You see the thing is, atheism isn't indoctrinated, it can't be. Liken to Zen, it is something that you just have to come to understand and use as a tool.

[Cato]

Start participating in other social activities, particularly if they align with an interest or hobby such as music, astronomy, chess, sport, etc.

I was young when I could no longer believe; however, I have known people going through the loss of community and established relationships that result from admission of his/her non-belief. There are 7 billion people alive and with today's technology it isn't difficult to make new friends with shared interests in order to build a much more satisfying fellowhip.

[Tonus]

Surround yourself with like-minded people.

This. If you were active in a particular religion, you found many ways to reinforce what you believed. You studied the religion, you read the books, you listened to the sermons, you meditated on it all, you discussed it with others who believed the same. This creates and reinforces the subconscious belief system. That's the bad thing about our subconscious: it'll "believe" any stupid shit that winds up in there. Even when we consciously know better, the subconscious drags us down.

My de-conversion was really very mild, because I drifted away from my religion and slowly lost contact with others involved in it, and I never had that moment where it all just fell apart at once. Even so, for some time after I'd accepted that I was an atheist, I'd wonder "what if they were right?" or "what if there was something I was missing?" But that's the subconscious, clinging to the garbage that I'd spent decades stuffing into it. The fact that my 'new' beliefs were so easily able to replace such deeply embedded beliefs made it easier to realize that the latter was garbage.

[Simon Moon]

I can't help feeling that I miss what I used to have, every now and again.
I now understand why de-converted people turn back to their former religion - but I simply don't believe it's true, nor do I believe it's a morally correct system.

I can't personally relate to this, but I'm sure it is the toughest part.

I'm not sure if the following applies to you, but this put it into perspective for me.

As Teresa McBain, a Pastor that has become an atheist put it over the loss of all her previous friends, parishioners, and some of her family (I'm paraphrasing), "it was almost as if all these people were killed at once in a plane crash. I have to grieve for the loss of so many people at the same time.".

[Neo-Scholastic]

Does anyone have any advice for leaving this childhood indoctrination behind? It's becoming quite a heavy burden.

It's easy to get disillusioned. I've been there. I asked myself, can a reasonable man believe in Christ? I didn't find the answer, the Answer found me.

[Tea Earl Grey Hot]

Does anyone have any advice for leaving this childhood indoctrination behind? It's becoming quite a heavy burden.

It's easy to get disillusioned. I've been there. I asked myself, can a reasonable man believe in Christ? I didn't find the answer, the Answer found me.

In looney Christendom, Answer finds YOU.

[FallentoReason]

Does anyone have any advice for leaving this childhood indoctrination behind? It's becoming quite a heavy burden.

It's easy to get disillusioned. I've been there. I asked myself, can a reasonable man believe in Christ? I didn't find the answer, the Answer found me.

I still can't get over the fact of how convenient "the truth" is! Forget about every other competing religion to have ever existed, because obviously the true god is the one of your culture! Obviously this isn't relative to the culture, because Islam is false and so is Hinduism, therefore the statement only applies to the Western World, who worship the true god. Clearly!

[Minimalist]

Does anyone have any advice for leaving this childhood indoctrination behind? It's becoming quite a heavy burden.

You used to believe in Santa Claus too. How heavy a burden was that to give up? Unlike jesus, at least Santa was supposed to bring you stuff.