Atheists, if you were religious before, did you used to "sense god" in your presence?

Question

what i mean is, if you used to be christian or whatever. did you used to get emotional over god? did you feel him in your heart, and that he was watching over you, like many Christians say they do,? but then realized that it was all self induced and that you were deluding yourself? Or was the whole idea completely foreign to you from the start?

Answer 1

I felt the same warm, fuzzy, happy feelings as everybody else when at church...you know, you're in a huge group of like-minded people, you sing some inspirational song all together, and you feel this emotion welling up in your...
The church leaders tell you that what you're feeling is the "presence of god." And it's easy to think, "wow, I DID feel that!" But if you have a mind that follows reason, you start to wonder...
How come I can feel that exact same feeling when I see a heartwarming scene in a movie made by godless people to make money?
How come I can feel that exact same feeling when I'm having lustful thoughts (or doing lustful things) with a girl? Is it possible that the feeling is just me reacting to what's going on around me, and not "the spirit of god?"
Then you start looking at things more critically, start asking for evidence of outrageous claims that fly in the face of reality...
And you finally learn to use your brain instead of accept whatever an old book or a charismatic church leader tells you.
All of the contradictions become obvious. All of the lies are exposed. All of the ancient superstitious basis of this stuff becomes clear.
And the wonderful realization comes to you through reason and your mind that it's all just made up, a way to control and manipulate people.
And you're free of their control -- what a wonderful feeling! :)

Answer 2

Church was my whole life when I was a kid, so of course I used to interpret certain strong emotions as the presence of god. You're in this big group of people all praising god and it can be VERY emotional. I remember crying during one particularly moving Good Friday service. I have a certain amount of natural skepticism about most things, but I had no skepticism regarding religion until my 20s. Now I'm an atheist.

Answer 3

I'm more of an agnostic, but maybe you'd like to hear my answer anyway. I used to feel what I thought was a presence, but now that I look back, I think it was just guilt because I thought God was always watching. I guess I also used to feel like He would protect me. But then I realized how many contradictions Christianity (more specifically, Catholicism) had. Then in college, I had a religion seminar as one of my classes, and I realized there were so many religions, how could I possibly go around claiming that I knew the real truth, and that people who didn't agree with me were wrong? So at this point there may be a God, who knows, but I think reigion was pushed on people by government in order to keep them in line and provide a sense of comfort. BTW, this is the only conspiracy I believe in, so I'm not one of those crazy conspiracy believers. So, in the end, I think I deluded myself into believing that I felt His presence. (I still capitalize God's name out of respect to my family's beliefs)

Answer 4

I was religious when I was uneducated. The whole idea was not foreign to me, it seemed genuine and real; but the more I studied in school the more I realized the Bible stories don't add up.
Go through the whole Bible and you will encounter hundreds of stories that don't add up; how about Adam and Eve and their talking snake, as an example?
Or the time Jesus got up after being dead three days, and two weeks later he rose into the sky.

Seeing the absurdity of the Bible doesn't make you an atheist necessarily -- but it could make you say: "If there's a god, that ain't the one!"

Answer 5

I remember attending church as a child, and looking around all the hoopin' and hollerin' around me as people were "feeling the spirit", and thinking that something was wrong with me, because I had no idea what these people were going bananas about. I didn't realize, at that time, that there were such a thing as "atheists". The way I was brought up is that you were either a Christian, or you went to hell. No grey area, just black or white, take your pick.

When I went to college, and began to study more about religion, and surrounded myself with others who questioned the existence of any god, it felt right. I felt like I belonged among non-believers far, far more than I did believers. As a last-ditch effort to convince myself, around the age of 20, I read the Bible cover to cover. Took me about a year. After that, I was convinced there was no God. I've somewhat waffled between agnosticism and atheism ever since, but I am certain that the Christian interpretation of God does not exist.

Answer 6

I would feel a 'tug in my heart' or comforted-I'm a sensitive, emotional-type person and would attribute it to God. Even when it was getting more difficult to stay 'faithful' since reason was getting in the way those pesky emotions would act up. Thankfully, pregnancy brought emotional surges which were identical but brought on by something as stupid as 'Mickey's Xmas Carol' so I started having more significant doubts. Now, I understand that there is a lot more to the body, emotions and hormones other than estrogen and testosterone.

Answer 7

I was a very devout Catholic 7 year old...lol. I actually worked myself up to the point of hallucination on a few occasions, memorably after my First Communion.

By the time I was Confirmed, I'd realized that the whole thing was a load of crap. I tend to think of very "religious" adults as people stalled at the 7 year old mentality.

This is NOT to say I'm not "spiritual" (for want of a better, less unfortunately loaded term). Organized religion is anathema to true spiritual experience. It's quite possible to be a "spiritual" atheist/pantheist along "Gnostic" lines...to further confuse the issue I'll throw in the term "Scientific Illuminism." "The Method of Science, the Aim of Religion."

Answer 8

Actually I was extremely religious for a period in my life, going from Catholic to Pentacostal back to Catholic and finally realized that I didnt believe any of it. I really wanted God to be real. I tried very hard. I did have my emotions played with. There is something very powerful about the music, the crowd manipulation and the desire to be accepted and loved, even if its by someone who you never see or hear. I am very comfortable in my atheism now. I can look back and see how that all happened to me. Now I get my sense of acceptance and love from Yahoo Q/As! ;-)

Answer 9

Of course.
Like many things, before you have a deeper understanding, you can get caught up in emotions evoked by dogma and ritual.
When I was a child, there was no doubt in my mind that Santa was real.
When I found out he wasn't, that didn't invalidate those wonderful feelings that the whole myth invoked, I just gained a different understanding on those feelings.
The same is true when I learned that god isn't real.
.

Answer 10

I remember feeling lucky... or some would call blessed. I have not lost this feeling, however it has taken on another meaning for me. I am lucky and thankful that I have my family and friends. I am thankful I always seem to fall on my feet. And I generally feel like everything, no matter what happens, will be ok. But I realized, it isn't because of God. It's because of the love and support of those around me... and because of my actions and decisions.