Open to explore possibility

[zwanzig]

One thing that is still a bit scary to me as a fairy new atheist, is accepting "I don't know" and leaving myself open to new arguments, new evidence, etc. I think as a Christian, I was lazy about my religion and took a lot of things for granted. I didn't push or dig, or experiment, I just believed because that was what I was told was true. I mean, I had my own experiences and I studied the scriptures and doctrine, but lazy in the sense that I never questioned or followed my doubts. I never fully researched or tested a belief in a God.

So, for about 30 years of my life, I've been operating on this system of accepting "this is the truth about the world and existence" and moving on with my day. In some ways, I'm still trying to get there, to find something solid to accept so that I can move on with my day and not think about it. But that's not the way I want to live. I don't want to feel secure in something and ever get the rug swept out from under me ever again, simply because I was ignorant or wasn't paying close enough attention.

However, even though this is still something I've only explored for about 4 or 5 months, I do find myself occasionally consumed by the pursuit of arguments and questions. Probably 80% of my waking hours are involved with thoughts about the weight of reality and the flaws in Biblical morality, the nature of God(exploring a "if it were true" thought process), the flaws in the history or literal aspects of the Bible, etc. I can feel myself trying to hammer it all down to make sure the world makes definitive sense.

Have you guys also struggled with "I don't know"? Was it ever scary or painful to reach that place? I recognize it's still new for me and the likelihood that healing from religious trauma will eventually happen.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

One thing that is still a bit scary to me as a fairy new atheist, is accepting "I don't know" and leaving myself open to new arguments, new evidence, etc. I think as a Christian, I was lazy about my religion and took a lot of things for granted. I didn't push or dig, or experiment, I just believed because that was what I was told was true. I mean, I had my own experiences and I studied the scriptures and doctrine, but lazy in the sense that I never questioned or followed my doubts. I never fully researched or tested a belief in a God.

So, for about 30 years of my life, I've been operating on this system of accepting "this is the truth about the world and existence" and moving on with my day. In some ways, I'm still trying to get there, to find something solid to accept so that I can move on with my day and not think about it. But that's not the way I want to live. I don't want to feel secure in something and ever get the rug swept out from under me ever again, simply because I was ignorant or wasn't paying close enough attention.

However, even though this is still something I've only explored for about 4 or 5 months, I do find myself occasionally consumed by the pursuit of arguments and questions. Probably 80% of my waking hours are involved with thoughts about the weight of reality and the flaws in Biblical morality, the nature of God(exploring a "if it were true" thought process), the flaws in the history or literal aspects of the Bible, etc. I can feel myself trying to hammer it all down to make sure the world makes definitive sense.

Have you guys also struggled with "I don't know"? Was it ever scary or painful to reach that place? I recognize it's still new for me and the likelihood that healing from religious trauma will eventually happen.

‘I don’t know’ should never be scary or painful, about religion or anything else. It should be an impetus to find out.

Boru

[zebo-the-fat]

"I don't know" is a reasonable position to be in, it means you can try to find out, "god did it" means not even thinking about it or trying to find out anything

[Fireball]

I didn't think that I was ignorant until I graduated university. My eyes were opened to a vast range of new ignorance. Don't feel the least bit bad about not knowing.

[Angrboda]

[brewer]

I'm comfortable with I/we don't know or don't know yet.

What argument/evidence do you think you're lacking? My guess is philosophical.

https://plato.stanford.edu/

Beware the rabbit hole.

[Ranjr]

Someone here, don't remember who, is fond of saying "you can't argue god into existence."  Trust your observations and experiences.

[Peebothuhlu]

At work.

"I don't know." Has pretty much been my life long default.

I buy and read magazine's such as 'New Scientist' almost every week and have lots of Youtube links such as 'Kurzgesagt', 'Scott Manly', 'Sci Show' along with Phil Plait of 'Bad Astronomy' to name a few that I incrementally decrease my "I don't know. " day by day.



Cheers.

[The Grand Nudger]

Never had that issue with gods. Gods are characters in stories that people tell. The idea that we don't know, or can't know, about gods is just something that the religious say as they negotiate their hold on society. I know less about whether my chickens will survive this weekend than I know about gods - so that's the kind of thing that consumes most of my "worry about the unknown" time, personally.

[HappySkeptic]

Have you guys also struggled with "I don't know"? Was it ever scary or painful to reach that place? I recognize it's still new for me and the likelihood that healing from religious trauma will eventually happen.

Fear of "going to hell" is real for many who try to throw off religion.  It takes time.  For me, realizing there was no hell or heaven was a liberating event.

Scientists are perfectly okay with "I don't know".  However, their uncertainty is with respect to improvements in our understanding, not usually overthrowing our groundwork of being. 

There can be different degrees of uncertainty.   Science is a set of tested stories that provide clear predictive ability.  They can be overturned tomorrow by something better, but the original theories were still valuable.  The new theory just has more value.

Not knowing everything about the self and the universe is part of the human condition.  There might be some higher power out there I have no knowledge of.  No biggie -- if I don't know about it, it probably isn't something I can interact with.  Given that a "higher power" is so ill-defined as to be meaningless, there is really no point in worrying about all the possibilities.  This sinks Pascal's Wager.

Logic and science tells me that an afterlife makes no sense.  The chance of that being wrong is very low, but if there is an afterlife, then everyone will experience it regardless of which private deity or non-deity they claim as their own.

In our uncertainty, we still have lots of useful knowledge, if we keep questioning and learning.  The question is - do we turn our ignorance into deity worship?