How do I get over that "feeling" that god exists?

[Spooky]

Change is a process, not an event. Events tend to be traumatic.

Let things happen at their own pace and you'll be fine.

[MattB]

Every time I offer amputation up as a solution everyone looks at me like I have a third eye. They do the same thing when I ask them if they want to invest in stringless parachutes.

I had the same lingering feeling even years after I gave up on religion, but got fed up with silence when 9/11 happened. Sought my first online atheists shortly after 9/11 because of an atheist nurse AP opinion column out of Chicago that went national including my local paper. After reading her concern about all the God talk in the wake of the event, it motivated me to seek out other atheists. I remember searching the word "atheist" and wondering if I was going to be clicking on a hate group or cult site. It took me less than a week to realize how silly that fear was.

Now as far as thinking there is a God, do cockroaches and bacteria have gods? Do their gods threaten you with a cockroach or bacteria hell because you didn't pick their gods? Do you mourn when a tree dies? Think about what it felt like before you were born, it will feel exactly the same after you die.

The good news is that there is no cosmic dictator using bribes and threats to control you, anymore than Thor is the cause of lightening. Your feelings are natural, but an unfortunate result of your conditioning. You can get over it simply by thinking about all the gods you already reject rightfully, and simply add one more to that list.

I like Thor I'll be going to the theater to see him soon.  

[Salacious B. Crumb]

I had the lingering jesus in the back of mind for about 2 weeks. I thought I was doing something horrible abandoning him, and saw him in my mind vividly all sad. It's crazy what religion does. I had god in my mind for about 4-6 months after completely deconverting. I had a few relapses to agnostic and even ietsism for maybe a period of 2 weeks total.

If you know it's man made, like myself now, you have to almost "brainwash" yourself in the opposite direction. I listened to people completely obliterate religion and god in debates and rants. You have to get yourself to a point where you laugh every time you think of god and religion. Not everyone has to, but everyone is different.

Relax! There is no evidence, and absolutely no reason to believe. It's man made. You have me and many others here you can pm that have had
insane religious upbringings, that can hopefully put you at ease.

[Brian37]

Being afraid of a god is really no different than when some when they were kids can be afraid of the shadows on the wall at night in the dark. Once you know the shadows are just that you lose your fear. Like others have said, religion and god claims, ALL OF THEM in human history are merely invented because of human's flawed perceptions. There are lots you already rightfully reject and hold no fear over, just add one more to that list, the one you just left.

[Jericho]

Also, I recommend blasphemy. Go somewhere private, or with like minded friends, and just hurl abuse, threats and taunts at God. Dare him to strike you down where you stand. Call him a fuck-bunion. Ask him if he's going to do anything about you thinking he doesn't even exist. Tell him to stick his hell up his arse. Nothing will happen (that wasn't going to happen anyway) so hopefully you'll become more convinced no one is listening. This will probably be scary at first, but the more you do it, the easier it will get I think.

It's odd to think that I had not come to this conclusion myself. I too am a recent deconvert. It took me years of skepticism and doubt to finally come to the conclusion that I was an atheist, and that development was just reached within this last year.

So, I took this advice just now in private and actually found it to be quite soothing. I definitely agree that there is a bit of underlying fear when you do something blasphemous (due to your background and experiences), but I am glad that I read your post and followed through with it.

Thanks!

[robvalue]

Wonderful! Thanks, you're welcome

I do it too for kicks sometimes! It's just funny. And it's a victimless crime

[Jericho]

True enough. It's funny because I was in my room today and was taking a shower before going to work. As I was standing there, I began spouting blasphemous statements just because. What's funny about this is that I didn't hear one of the Barracks Inspectors open my door and do a room inspection as I was saying, rather loudly, that god doesn't exist. It wasn't until after I got out of the shower that I saw the slip of paper that said I was inspected.

What is even funnier is that there was a comment at the bottom that said, 'I agree'.

[robvalue]

Nice work You're hardcore now!

I always recommend finding fellow atheists, and that has to be the greatest method so far

[Jericho]

It definitely does help, no matter what same may think.

[IanHulett]

I'm still technically a recent deconvert, only becoming an atheist in mid january of this year, but I still have this persistent "feeling" that God exists even though I know it's a lie, but it's also followed by a fear that everything I do will lead to me burning in hell, even though I know it's all fake, and it's been 3 months. I have been around so many conservative religious people who kept telling me I'm going to burn in hell, over and over again, throughout my childhood, and add to that the whole concept of hell in Christianity, also all the bad stuff that's been done in the name of religion, basically, I cannot get over this "feeling" or fear and I don't know what else to do. I'm not going back to religion... well... not without evidence, and I don't want this fear or "feeling" to run my life.

Is it possible that the reason this is still happening is because my former religion has been traumatic for me? Or is this normal because it's only been 3 months? How do I get rid of this "feeling" and fear? Will it disappear with time? Thanks a bunch.

Don't try so hard. Follow the evidence wherever you believe it leads, and like the physicist Julian Barbour's father told him as a young boy, "Never believe anything anyone ever tells you without checking again and again." If you feel like you need to believe in something like a deity, whether it just creates and then lets the clock tick, or sits and waits for a little cesspool to spawn ungrateful bipeds so that it can be worshipped and judge its little toys on the basis of their natures and environments, go for it. You might find yourself embarrassed to admit as much when you're asked to give a rational account, but if you're sincerely struggling without the higher power concept, that's more important. You'll find better and worse reasons to believe on different days, and so long as you're not a disingenuous douchebag spouting some hateful dogma that you believe on the basis of private, infallible attestation to the One True Creed, I think people can respect that. 

I appreciate the permission, but I'm not going back to religion. When I was religious(before I started hanging out with the YouTube atheist community, and fighting for my faith), I was slowly becoming an extremist. I'm not going anywhere near religion. I suppose if evidence comes up proving gods existence true, I may become a deist. But that's about it.