Please,I'm serious. For example,when I was a kid I loved church picnics. I even loved vacation Bible school. Later on when I was in high school I went through kind of an agnostic phase but I was still capable of enjoying fond memories of my Christian childhood. Now in my case I returned - not to organized religion,just within my heart - but even if I hadn't I would still have some very nice memories of a Christian childhood. Do any of you really committed atheists ever feel that way? Or were all your experiences with religion negative?
2007-05-03 13:14:04 · 11 answers · asked by Brynn 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I guess I should clarify - I am a Christian,I just never went back to organanized Christianity.
2007-05-03 13:28:30 · update #1
I guess I should clarify - I am a Christian,I just never went back to organised Christianity.
2007-05-03 13:29:06 · update #2
Yes. I never swallowed everything the church had to teach--not hook, line, and sinker--so in a way I was always an outsider to a certain degree, always a seeker who felt a little lost. I respected the moral lessons of the Bible, but I never could make myself accept that the stories should be taken literally. I just couldn't. And some of the stances Christians took on social issues were completely opposite to what I felt was moral and civilized. I was frankly embarrassed to be associated with such narrow-mindedness and selfishness. That's not to say that all Christians are narrow-minded and selfish. They're not. And, as Eleventy put it so well, I still miss the fellowship of those lovely people of faith that I'd come to love. For a while there I was very depressed because I felt like I didn't belong anywhere. I knew I wasn't a god-believer, but the atheists in my area were too militant for my taste. It felt like I was all alone. Then I discovered Unitarian Universalism and, through that denomination, a positive community of Humanists. Through UUism I could still have contact with people of faith, which I've always enjoyed, but I didn't have to pretend to believe unbelievable things. And Humanism fit me like a glove, or vice versa. Anyway, I've been happy ever since.
Outstanding question.
2007-05-03 13:26:18 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Most of my experiences with religion were good. Sure, there are things that I miss. I also had a lot of fun at Church picnics and suppers. I was in the youth organization at my church, and we did ski trips and camping trips. I sort of miss the childish acceptance that there is a wonderful world up in the clouds somewhere, where everyone is always happy, and you are always with the people that you love forever and ever. However, thinking that such a place would be nice, and actually believing there IS such a place are two different things.
2007-05-03 13:21:29 · answer #2 · answered by Jess H 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
You're referring to the fact that church communities are social communities, right? I don't recall thinking that any church-related social activities were particularly fun as compared to other social activities from my childhood. But the truth is that I am just enough introverted that I prefer small social groups to large ones. My favorite memories from childhood are mostly ones where there were less than 10 people involved in the activity. Church-related activities always had at least 10.
2007-05-03 13:23:49 · answer #3 · answered by Jim L 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
To an extent, yes. Absolutely. Losing my faith was hard on me. I wanted to believe in god. I wanted to have that certainty that someone was looking down on me, taking care of me, and making sure that everything was going to be alright. Realizing that's not true was pretty terrifying. But I look at it as being nostalgic for my childhood -- being unaware of many things and being sheltered, and having no cares in the world except playing "make believe" with my friends. We've all got to grow up sometime.
2007-05-03 13:20:52 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
No, the church has some great aspects as far as a real sense of community goes. I feel the same as you, but realised that the preaching and fear is not for me (and in my opinion not good for anyone)
2007-05-03 13:26:17 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I went to church for a year. I miss the sense of community, but I found it can be fulfilled other places. They also bought me breakfast, but I got a job since then.
2007-05-03 13:18:07 · answer #6 · answered by Eleventy 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
You must be a very nice person. Because most athiests I know are too hateful to feel nostalgic for their ex-religion. I'm neither Christian or Athiest, so maybe I'm unbiased and maybe I just don't know what I'm talking about. But I have known quite a few, and they're just very angry people for the most part.
2007-05-03 13:19:50 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
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2017-01-09 10:40:49 · answer #8 · answered by chottu 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no. I always found most church people to be very superficial, and the dogma part just never rang true to me.
as an adult, I do appreciate European Christian art of centuries ago, but that's more on a cultural basis, and one with no connection to my protestant upbringing.
2007-05-03 13:19:20 · answer #9 · answered by kent_shakespear 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Nah, I like the old music (Mozart, Bach) but I didn't listen to it any more when I was religious than now. I don't miss the giving up my money part, the Sunday morning part, or the total frontal lobotomy part.
2007-05-03 13:18:20 · answer #10 · answered by eri 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋