If You Were An Atheist

[Kingpin]

I am sorry that you would slip into a depression.   One of the reasons that I don't try to deconvert people is that I don't know how loss of faith would influence their emotional state. Some people need a religion and god.

Do you wonder why atheists aren't all depressed?

I seriously doubt he would be depressed for long.  He would find that his life was pretty nearly the same as before in most respects.  The birds and trees are all still there, his family and friends are all still there, and etc.  His concept of the universe would simply have a few less things in it, and likely lose "magic," but that is a good thing rather than a bad thing.

Everyone I know in real life who is a former theist was unhappy at first, but eventually became more happy than when they were believers.  Obviously, I cannot say that my experience with people must be representative of people generally, but from discussing things online with others, it certainly seems like it is.

And, for what it is worth, when I was a believer, I probably would have answered the question more or less as lkingpinl did.  But I am now much, much happier than I ever was as a believer.  I think the same is likely to be the case with him.

In other words, I totally believe he is being honest.  But I believe he is mistaken.

I have posted about my experience before:

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Life is simpler and easier.  I do not believe in any new objects that I did not previously believe in; I just stopped believing in some objects.  The sun is still there, as are trees and rivers and other such things.  But there are no magical beings anymore.  So the world is more intelligible.  It is cleaner and less cluttered.

Also, I became a nicer person than I was before.  Less judgmental (some of you, go ahead and laugh!) and more inclined to live and let live, rather than feeling it my duty to bother other people.  (Theists who come to atheist sites are asking to be bothered, and typically go out of their way to explicitly ask to be bothered.  Also, by posting online in a thread at all, one is not keeping to oneself, and so one is asking for interaction with others.  Those who do not want their ridiculous beliefs ridiculed should keep them to themselves.  If one asks for trouble, one ought not complain if one gets trouble.)

I no longer worry about death.  (I was raised to believe in hellfire and damnation, and if such a place existed, there would always be the possibility that one would make a mistake and end up there.)

I am happier and more content with life.  Oh, wait, most of that is attributable to getting married (though I know more than one person for whom marriage was a terrible mistake, in my case, I chose well and am personally suited for it).  Still, becoming an atheist first, I was happier and more content with life than I had been as a Christian.  That was a surprising fringe benefit, as the deconversion process was extremely unpleasant.


In short, every change has been for the better.  I did not expect that when I was deconverting, and would not deconvert (or reconvert) just for that.  What matters is whether something is true or not, not whether it is comforting or not.  I stopped believing in Christianity not because I wanted to stop, but because it is too ridiculous to be believed by any thinking person who properly examines it.  And I could not believe that the truth required protection from examination; only false religions need that sort of protection to survive.

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I can certainly understand that Pyrrho.  That's why I put my caveat at the end, that it's really a difficult to answer how things actually would be unless I'm in that situation.  I can only say how I think it would be, not what would happen.

[Shuffle]

I don't think this is a simple question, but maybe I could rephrase it.

1.  If it were proven beyond all doubt that there is no God(s) of any religion and naturalism is the answer, how would your life change?

I think I would slip in to depression.  Life would have little meaning, there would be no hope for anything outside of this world.  But its difficult to say what would happen in all honesty.  No one can truly answer these types of questions accurately until put in that situation.

That is just so sad to me. People need to believe in things that make them happy to function normally. I know that you said after that that it is hard to say before being in that situation, however it is pretty shocking that depression is the first and only thing you can think of.

[Pyrrho]

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I seriously doubt he would be depressed for long.  He would find that his life was pretty nearly the same as before in most respects.  The birds and trees are all still there, his family and friends are all still there, and etc.  His concept of the universe would simply have a few less things in it, and likely lose "magic," but that is a good thing rather than a bad thing.

Everyone I know in real life who is a former theist was unhappy at first, but eventually became more happy than when they were believers.  Obviously, I cannot say that my experience with people must be representative of people generally, but from discussing things online with others, it certainly seems like it is.

And, for what it is worth, when I was a believer, I probably would have answered the question more or less as lkingpinl did.  But I am now much, much happier than I ever was as a believer.  I think the same is likely to be the case with him.

In other words, I totally believe he is being honest.  But I believe he is mistaken.

I have posted about my experience before:

---

I can certainly understand that Pyrrho.  That's why I put my caveat at the end, that it's really a difficult to answer how things actually would be unless I'm in that situation.  I can only say how I think it would be, not what would happen.

Yes, I appreciated your caveat.  And I also recognize your position as one that is familiar to me, as a distant memory.  Your post seems honest, candid, direct, and thoughtful.  It is a model of good posting.  Even though I believe your prediction is mistaken.

[John V]

I can easily understand why you would not read the Bible or pray.  But why would you be less forgiving?  Do you think you would improve your life by being less forgiving?

There are times when I feel justified in my anger toward someone, but then I remember that we're to forgive as we've been forgiven, and so I forgive. Without Christianity, I wouldn't have that reason to forgive.

I think my life would be worse by forgiving less. I find that forgiving is very good for me, but nevertheless it's not in my nature to be forgiving.

[Salacious B. Crumb]

I can easily understand why you would not read the Bible or pray.  But why would you be less forgiving?  Do you think you would improve your life by being less forgiving?

There are times when I feel justified in my anger toward someone, but then I remember that we're to forgive as we've been forgiven, and so I forgive. Without Christianity, I wouldn't have that reason to forgive.

I think my life would be worse by forgiving less. I find that forgiving is very good for me, but nevertheless it's not in my nature to be forgiving.

Oh, so christianity forces you to forgive? And, you need to be reminded to forgive. Nice morals.

You know you can forgive people as an atheist right? It's not only exclusive to christianity.

[John V]

Oh, so christianity forces you to forgive? And, you need to be reminded to forgive. Nice morals.

You know you can forgive people as an atheist right? It's not only exclusive to christianity.

Of course atheists can forgive people...but those on here don't seem to be very forgiving. It's interesting that you say that in your second line just after the tone of the first. A number of you go out of your way to find news accounts of theists doing wrong, and I don't see a lot of forgiveness in those threads.

[Shuffle]

There are times when I feel justified in my anger toward someone, but then I remember that we're to forgive as we've been forgiven, and so I forgive. Without Christianity, I wouldn't have that reason to forgive.

I think my life would be worse by forgiving less. I find that forgiving is very good for me, but nevertheless it's not in my nature to be forgiving.

So why wouldn't you forgive to make your life better?

[John V]

There are times when I feel justified in my anger toward someone, but then I remember that we're to forgive as we've been forgiven, and so I forgive. Without Christianity, I wouldn't have that reason to forgive.

I think my life would be worse by forgiving less. I find that forgiving is very good for me, but nevertheless it's not in my nature to be forgiving.

So why wouldn't you forgive to make your life better?

[Shuffle]

Listen, if you need to believe in the supernatural, superstition, and myths to be a good person, you are not a good person.

[Salacious B. Crumb]

Oh, so christianity forces you to forgive? And, you need to be reminded to forgive. Nice morals.

You know you can forgive people as an atheist right? It's not only exclusive to christianity.

Of course atheists can forgive people...but those on here don't seem to be very forgiving. It's interesting that you say that in your second line just after the tone of the first. A number of you go out of your way to find news accounts of theists doing wrong, and I don't see a lot of forgiveness in those threads.

Many of these articles of which you speak, are theists, committing highly immoral acts because their book of garbage tells them to. They're not seeking forgiveness for anything. As long as they have a book, that they can pick and choose whatever morality suits them best in a certain situation, they are justified in whatever action they carry out.

Some of these things aren't in church doctrine. For example, the priest pedophile scenario.. They get away with it over and over again, and their church covers up what they've done. That's not moral, in my opinion anyway. Here's the thing about christianity: You get to do whatever the hell you want, and say, "I'm sorry jesus", and everything magically disappears. In the world I live in, I don't see it that way. If that happened to my child, to me, that's unforgivable. In fairy tale land, you get to go fly on clouds with jesus, but in real life, people's lives are destroyed from an event like that. That's something that I may never be able to forgive someone for, even if I was a christian.