If a believer became an atheist would he/she be too ashamed to admit it?

Answer 1

Heck no. I was a Catholic for close to 17 years. I now admit to anyone who'd like to know that I'm an atheist.

Answer 2

I was raised Christian and I am now agnostic. If I feel any shame it is because I believed in something for which there is no credible proof, no viable explanation. Actually, when I saw what I believe to be the light I went through a faze when I couldn't get through a day without listening to Hollow Life by Korn (I was about 15 at the time). One specific part really hit me.

"Is there ever any wonder why we look to the sky
Search in vain, asking why
All alone, where is God?
Looking down? We don't know."

I still listen to it from time to time. I believe that we are fools to take the word of a book to heart when it has clearly been edited so many times that it's original message is long gone.
I also think that it's too easy. If there is a God, I doubt that we would have a strict set of rules readily etched out for us.
I have found in my experience that people use God as a crutch or an excuse for something terrible. They've made God sound scary and very bad tempered; as if we are constantly walking on eggshells from birth til death. I can't live like that.

Answer 3

Absolutely, the opposite is true also.

I used to be a Christian and I used to say I still believed in god even though I didn't believe in him anymore. I was ashamed and confused because no one else in my family was Atheist, but I finally got my beliefs straight and settled on Atheism. That doesn't mean I won't become a Theist sometime in the future.

Now I admit it proudly, Im an Atheist and proudly on my way to becoming a Satanist.

Hail Satan.

Answer 4

It is absolutely impossible to happen. Everyone of these people who said they were once a Christian and/or believer, was in no way a true believer. It just doesn't happen.

I thought so also once. Went to church when I was 8 to 12 very regularly, everytime the doors were open, we were there and I loved it. A tragedy happened and I never went back until church camp at 15 where I thought I had surrendered my life to the Lord, then I never went to church again, lived a life of alcohol, drugs, and everything else that goes along with that and I believed in my 20's with all my heart I was an atheist and hell was right there on earth.

When I was 34 years old I was on my knees surrendering my life and it had nothing to do with alcoholism, I was 4 years sober with an excellent job as Corporate Meeting & Special Events Planner traveling all around North America doing site inspections at first class resort properties and being wined & dined by them (took the bottles of wine back to my secretary). I even coordinated a very fancy dinner on the 50-yard line of the Tampa Stadium for top-level executives of major corporations, white tablecloths, tuxedo waiters, and the Buccaneers' cheerleaders to do a finale, but even with all that I knew I needed Jesus in my life.

It took seven months before I started making Him Lord in my life and then I gained this unbelievable hunger to know Him and I could not get enough of His word in me fast enough.

There is just no way someone gives up Truth for lies and deception? Would you? Seriously, think about it, if you truly knew you had TRUTH, why would you give it up for what you knew would be untrue, it just won't happen.

You cannot teach someone that 2 + 2 = 4 and then a few years later try to teach them that it really is 5. What proof could you offer?

Answer 5

What would be the shame?

Do you mean ashamed to admit previous religiosity?

I don't think so. Many of the atheists with whom I've had correspondance here and elsewhere are not at all ashamed to say that they were once religious.

Answer 6

There is incredible pressure with any conversion if it goes against family tradition or the network of people you associate with. Greeks who leave the orthodox church to become Christians are virtually removed from the family tree as I found out so there is caution in who you tell. I would not say it makes the person ashamed of their choice just uncomfortable with the social backlash. If you are the only one with faith among your friends and you drop out they want a party and it is the easy road to take. Whatever you decide - you need to be proud of your decision or you have made the wrong one.

Answer 7

There is no reason for anyone to be ashamed of being an atheist. He/she wouldn't have a God telling him/her to hate or kill people, and would no longer need a book or Top Ten List to know how to behave or treat people. Those are very GOOD, peaceful things.

Answer 8

I'm not. I was raised religious untill I was 14, then my eyes were opened to the light of science and evolution.

I am not, in any way, ashamed to admit it. I only wish I could bring more people to the light of science.

Answer 9

Most atheists and agnostics, I suspect, started out as believers. That's the way most of us were raised. We aren't necessarily ashamed of it - we are just careful of who we tell because we don't want to be stoned or burned on a cross.

Answer 10

Believer -> Atheist

Quite proud.

In fact, I'm willing to tell you actually reading the bible(I'm talking the whole thing, cover to cover, not just verses) I nearly tweaked to know THAT was what I had believed in.

Tossed it aside, it's been dust farming ever since. I'm a better person now than I was then.

Atheist self conversion, and proud.