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RE: How do I get over that "feeling" that god exists?
April 15, 2015 at 4:16 am
(This post was last modified: April 15, 2015 at 4:17 am by robvalue.)
That's a good point paulpablo.
If there is "a god" that really doesn't matter at all. There's no reason to think it has the slightest interest in anything going on our tiny, insignificant planet. And even if it does, there's absolutely no reason to think it has any correlation with the ridiculous character in the bible or any other book.
If it was the kind of evil monster described in the bible, it wouldn't be waiting around for us to die in order to do stuff to us. It would be fucking with us all the time, like the god in a video game like Populous. He's be ripping people's guts out, blowing their heads up, throwing meteors at us constantly...
But what we get is radio silence, and idle threats about what will happen after we're not here anymore.
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RE: How do I get over that "feeling" that god exists?
April 15, 2015 at 4:21 am
If you still live among believers, this can have a strong effect, too. Even I started to feel strangely nervous when I was among fundies 24/7. That quickly went away with a change of scenery.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition
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RE: How do I get over that "feeling" that god exists?
April 15, 2015 at 10:40 am
step 1. Be happy
step 2. play video game
step 3. go outside
step 4. raise your middle finger to the sky.
Atheism is a non-prophet organization join today.
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RE: How do I get over that "feeling" that god exists?
April 15, 2015 at 10:57 am
(This post was last modified: April 15, 2015 at 10:58 am by henryp.)
It's human nature. To shake the afterlife threat, you have to accept the alternative that what you do has no ultimate meaning, and that when you die, you stop existing.
Both of those seem to be contrary to what we are inclined to think both from our nature and nurture, so we are predisposed to cling a bit to things like Gods.
I find the way to do it, is to go over the reasons why you are no longer religious. Make that ironclad list of problems that make God an impossibility. Then realize that your impulse to believe or be afraid is just biological/upbringing and not based in reality. And if it persists, take some comfort in your list, in that you could show it to a God if there were one, and say "Look, you put me in a situation where it didn't add up. Look at my list. I couldn't come to a different conclusion if I wanted to." and a benevolent God would have to be like "Yup, my bad. No eternal damnation for a screwup on my end. Enjoy your everlasting happiness!"
In the end, it's the same as being scared of Thunder. I assume we have an evolutionary fear of loud noises for practical purposes. But we can overcome that. Or at least realize that it's silly, and know that the fear we feel is just a reflex not a rational thought.
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RE: How do I get over that "feeling" that god exists?
April 15, 2015 at 11:05 am
On my local PBS station they had a documentary on the Holocaust last night, completely unfiltered and graphic. How anyone can watch piles of dead bodies, many of them naked with the eyes open when they died, bony and mangled, drug to the pits to be thrown in, and assert an all loving god sat for a decade and watched as 6 million Jews were slaughtered and have me believe that this deadbeat of a character is real, or even loving, is sick and absurd.
Do not ask me to even consider such a monster moral, even if I pretended for argument's sake only it was real. Such a being would deserve every condemnation and would be worthy of the very pits Jews did not deserve to be thrown in.
The God of Abraham is a monster as a character. There is no sane way to rationally paint that character as moral, much less scientifically real.
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RE: How do I get over that "feeling" that god exists?
April 15, 2015 at 3:04 pm
Ridiculing Christianity helps some people deconvert.
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RE: How do I get over that "feeling" that god exists?
April 15, 2015 at 3:45 pm
The best antidote to (insert religious book here) is reading (insert religious book here). When I started reading the Quran it made me more determined to be an Atheist. Before picking up an old translation of Quran (so it's no muddied by new scientific discoveries by biased translators) from Ebay, I was of the mindset that one religion should be true and used to watch lots of inter-religious debates.
I came to the realization that only infidels could see the flaws in (inset religious book here) because believers have one standard for their own religious texts and different standard for those of the infidels. Skeptics, who happen to be Atheists, are consistent in with the skepticism and hold everything to the same standard. I'm now at the stage where I'm not even going to bother reading the Gitas, the Gathas or the Book of Mormon because I know I'll be disappointed.
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RE: How do I get over that "feeling" that god exists?
April 15, 2015 at 9:27 pm
What you're feeling is natural. You've been in an environment where certain innocuous actions and even thoughts have the threat of heavy punishment attached to them.
The best advice I can give is to just think it through. When you start feeling that sort of anxiety, stop and examine it. Do you really think what you're doing is wrong? Do you think it's so bad that you need to repent, lest you get tortured for eternity for it? Do you think that, in the vastness of the universe, some god would actually give a shit about what you do on this microscopic speck of a mud ball? Or that Bronze-to-Iron Age camel fuckers actually had any real wisdom to give to us? Or that a fair god would dole out eternal punishment for finite crimes? Or that the 'crimes' are really crimes? Etc.
That's what I do. I've been a confirmed (meaning, finally admitting it to myself) atheist for just under 14 years, and I still get those rare pangs of anxiety that I'm doing something wrong when I'm really not. And I don't come from a particularly religious family. It's just something woven into the background of society, and it's hard to escape. And when I feel that way, I go through the kinds of questions I wrote above, and I always feel better and more secure in what I do and don't believe. Because superstition cannot survive the light of logic and reason. It preys on the unsure and fearful, exploiting what lies in the shadows of our minds. So, shine your light and remove those shadows.
"I was thirsty for everything, but blood wasn't my style" - Live, "Voodoo Lady"
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RE: How do I get over that "feeling" that god exists?
April 18, 2015 at 12:09 pm
(April 15, 2015 at 3:58 am)Chuck Wrote: (April 14, 2015 at 9:29 pm)Brian37 Wrote: Funny how whales and dolphins don't have that problem.
Really? Diagram of cetacean respiratory system suggest their respiratory and digestive tracks also merge at larynx, suggesting they too would choke if they try to draw breath while eating or drinking.
Not as easily considering their moth is in the front and their breathing hole is at the top. Our noses and mouths are closer together.
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RE: How do I get over that "feeling" that god exists?
April 18, 2015 at 12:57 pm
Give it time.
To help the process, think about this.
Do you have the same fear for all the other made up gods and their hells that you do not believe in?
How much time did you ever waste fearing the Zoroastrian hell?
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
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