I have a few questions to atheists, before I become one.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

Welcome aboard!

Your posted religious view. 'Not sure for now' is a perfectly viable position to have. Most atheists do not claim to know, with absolute certainty, that a god does not exist.

And as others have said, you can't really plan to be an atheist. Either you accept the proposition that a god exists to be true, or you don't.

If you "accept the proposition that a god exists to be true, or you don't" that seems to come with a very high degree of certainty. The statement is an either/or proposition and there doesn't seem to be enough room to be a fence-sitter.

[The Valkyrie]

Apart from biology and other obvious similarities the only things atheists truly have in common is that we don't believe in gods.

[Whateverist]

To the OP: if you worry about whether you should really abandon God, maybe you shouldn't.

I have no advice though. Our situations are worlds apart. I never think about God or any other gods. I just don't, no effort required. That is because I have no active belief in them. But it sounds like you do. Why are you so anxious to leave that behind? Weren't you happy as a believer? You can't go getting too excited about what a couple of folks say on youtube.

Good luck.

[KichigaiNeko]

Can not add anything more than what is already posted here.

And yes that pic bothers me too.... Must. Resist. Straightening. It!

[Clueless Morgan]

Why are you so anxious to leave that behind? Weren't you happy as a believer?

From his OP:

You see, untill my 15th year of my life I was just a normal believer, thinking that God really existed, and nothing more. I was not following the Bible word by word and was living a happy life. Then, for some reason, I decided to start praying before I go to bed. The strange thing was that I got psycho, I tried to do my best to perform the pray perfectly, so I don't end up wondering if the things I have prayed for will happen if I haven't performed it correctly. I started making silly rituals, which had nothing to do with religion, but I thought that God would love me and care for me if i did them.

He thinks his OCD is grounded in his god belief and that if he manages to dump the god beliefs his OCD will go away, too.

The question is, though, were there sympotms of OCD present before the praying started and the OCD just got worse after you found a way to ritualize your life? In which case, god belief might not have anything to do with it. You seemed to be a somewhat apathetic believer until you decided to start praying and if you had literally no OCD symptoms prior to that then there might not be grounds to think that the OCD is caused by a god belief, but more brought on by the adherence of religious ritual.

I have no experience with OCD so I have no idea whether OCD is a sudden onset condition or if you display symptoms of it your whole life but in either case, it seems more tied to the ritual aspect of the god belief than the god belief itself.

[Silver]

it's that I am sure that it is created by the question-"Does God exist?" and the inability to answer it.

I believe the ability to answer the question is quite possible. As an intelligent species, we simply do not believe in a great many things for which there is no evidence to support their existences. It would be silly to ponder endlessly over the question Do leprechauns exist?, and the concept of a deity is no different. Sure, a concoction of fear mixed with the comfort of good behavior being rewarded in an afterlife is thrown in there to keep one tethered to the belief, but once one realizes that those ingredients are merely there to keep one prisoner it becomes much easier to dismiss all that is based on Faith.

[Alex K]

Why are you so anxious to leave that behind? Weren't you happy as a believer?

From his OP:

You see, untill my 15th year of my life I was just a normal believer, thinking that God really existed, and nothing more. I was not following the Bible word by word and was living a happy life. Then, for some reason, I decided to start praying before I go to bed. The strange thing was that I got psycho, I tried to do my best to perform the pray perfectly, so I don't end up wondering if the things I have prayed for will happen if I haven't performed it correctly. I started making silly rituals, which had nothing to do with religion, but I thought that God would love me and care for me if i did them.

He thinks his OCD is grounded in his god belief and that if he manages to dump the god beliefs his OCD will go away, too.

The question is, though, were there sympotms of OCD present before the praying started and the OCD just got worse after you found a way to ritualize your life? In which case, god belief might not have anything to do with it. You seemed to be a somewhat apathetic believer until you decided to start praying and if you had literally no OCD symptoms prior to that then there might not be grounds to think that the OCD is caused by a god belief, but more brought on by the adherence of religious ritual.

I have no experience with OCD so I have no idea whether OCD is a sudden onset condition or if you display symptoms of it your whole life but in either case, it seems more tied to the ritual aspect of the god belief than the god belief itself.

OCD can appear after puberty, and never quite go away entirely. IANAD, but it probably isn't grounded in God belief, but as described by user JesusLover1 not so long ago, if you have intense fear of hell and of being watched by god, this is just the stuff that makes the condition worse because it provides fodder for your anxiety (you can feel compelled to perform rituals because you want to avoid going to hell, rather than other more unspecific fears). I am not at all convinced that shedding religion rids you of OCD, but it might mitigate some symptoms.

[IntelligentPlanet]

Thanks a lot for the other replies guys. I would want to make some things clear from them:

He thinks his OCD is grounded in his god belief and that if he manages to dump the god beliefs his OCD will go away, too.

The question is, though, were there sympotms of OCD present before the praying started and the OCD just got worse after you found a way to ritualize your life? In which case, god belief might not have anything to do with it. You seemed to be a somewhat apathetic believer until you decided to start praying and if you had literally no OCD symptoms prior to that then there might not be grounds to think that the OCD is caused by a god belief, but more brought on by the adherence of religious ritual.

As for this, I am quite sure that the whole OCD thing was born from the rituals started by my beliefs. What I mean is that I started praying, then continued inventing all those kinds of rituals only because I was scared if God would punish me by various ways.

To the OP: if you worry about whether you should really abandon God, maybe you shouldn't.

I have no advice though. Our situations are worlds apart. I never think about God or any other gods. I just don't, no effort required. That is because I have no active belief in them. But it sounds like you do. Why are you so anxious to leave that behind? Weren't you happy as a believer? You can't go getting too excited about what a couple of folks say on youtube.

Good luck.

Well I can't stand believing in God. I can't stand wondering if I will go to hell if I don't do this, or do that. I want to live a God-free life, without worrying for my afterlife or all those kinds of things. Problem is is that I am so obsessed with the "God watching me every single moment", that I am forcing myself to do all those kinds of rituals to please him. Whenever I read something about atheism, and I start seeing that all the religions are only a delusion, I somehow start thinking that even though there are facts, confirming the hypotheses that gods are made by humans, there still must be a God. There still must be a higher being which hides itself from us, throwing facts, which can cloud our belief so he can test us. I know it is stupid and I am ignoring the facts, that's just how I am thinking right now.

So that's basically it, I just can't accept the facts, and continue to believe that there is a higher being which tests our beliefs, and after we die we either go to a better place, or a not so pleasant place.

Anyways, thank you all for the warm welcome hehe.

[IntelligentPlanet]

Again posted a double reply, sorry, for some reason I can't delete it lol.

[*Deidre*]

I don't look at Atheism as a "club" you "become" a member of, as much as it is a logical point one comes to, after a lot of reflection. OP, I was formerly Christian and my path that led me to turning away from faith was a gradual culmination of steps that sort of always kept leading back to the same place.

To me, you will know you have made the right decision when you no longer struggle, when you have a sense of peace about it all.

Let go a little and just allow yourself to find a path that seems like a natural flow of who you are, and not who you think you should be, or who you think others wish you to be, and therein will lie your answer.

I hope you find joy in whatever you choose. :-)