How has atheism changed your life? How has your de-conversion from faith changed your life?

Question

Same question, different wording.

It has not changed my one bit. But if you were a religious fundamentalist I imagine the change had a profound effect on your life. Has it made a difference in any way?

Answer 1

I was brought up to be a Southern Baptist. I was heavy into it until I read the Bible the first time at an age where I could understand more of it. I then began having serious doubts about the Christian religion, but was still a believer of some sorts. I stayed in this transition period for about 2 years. I just tried to forget about religion, but I still believed in some sort of god just because at that point, unbelief was an unknown to me.

I had always done really well in school, and have always considered myself slightly above average in intelligence, but when I got to a problem that stumped me, my mind was more than willing to accept "god did it" as an answer. I then listened to a Dan Barker debate about 6 years ago and the rest is history. I am now an autodidact who is literally addicted to obtaining knowledge. The "god did it" roadblock hindered my intellectual progress for all those years. I hate to think of what this "god did it" roadblock has done to society over the ages.

Robert Ingersoll also answered your question years ago:

"When I became convinced that the Universe is natural-that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood, the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell, the dungeon was flooded with light and all the bolts, and bars, and manacles became dust. I was no longer a servant, a serf, or a slave. There was for me no master in all the wide world-not even in infinite space. I was free.
-free to think, to express my thoughts
-free to live to my own ideal
-free to live for myself and those I loved
-free to use all my faculties, all my senses
-free to spread imagination's wings
-free to investigate, to guess and dream and hope
-free to judge and determine for myself
-free to reject all ignorant and cruel creeds, all the "inspired" books that savages have produced, and all the barbarous legends of the past
-free from popes and priests
-free from all the "called" and "set apart"
-free from sanctified mistakes and holy lies
-free from the fear of eternal pain
-free from the winged monsters of night
-free from devils, ghosts, and gods For the first time I was free. There were no prohibited places in all the realms of my thought-no air, no space, where fancy could not spread her painted wings
-no chains for my limbs
-no lashes for my back
-no fires for my flesh
-no master's frown or threat
-no following another's steps
-no need to bow, or cringe, or crawl, or utter lying words. I was free. I stood erect and fearlessly, joyously, faced all worlds. And then my heart was filled with gratitude, with thankfulness, and went out in love to all the heroes, the thinkers who gave their lives for the liberty of hand and brain
-for the freedom of labor and thought
-to those who fell on the fierce fields of war, to those who died in dungeons bound with chains
-to those who proudly mounted scaffold's stairs
-to those whose bones were crushed, whose flesh was scarred and torn
-to those by fire consumed
-to all the wise, the good, the brave of every land, whose thoughts and deeds have given freedom to the sons of men. And I vowed to grasp the torch that they had held, and hold it high, that light might conquer darkness still." -
Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899)

Answer 2

I'm obsessed with learning how things work. My whole life if I was interested in something I would get consumed by it, live and breath it until I figured it out or gave up in frustration. Religion fascinated me and took me a long time to figure out, but when I finally did... Wow it was like a weight lifted off my shoulders. Once you realize that Humans made god up.... it opens a lot of new doors to walk through, it frees your mind.

Hmmmm...... I sound like a hippy... ;0)

Answer 3

I don't know that "de-conversion" would be the right term, since most christians are forced into it from an early age. So because those individuals who choose to walk in the real knowledge and truth that god does not exist come to those terms on their own, they have not gone through a conversion..or "de-conversion" process. To answer your question, Being an atheist is only slightly different (for me) than being a christian. Now instead of waiting on some unseen non existent force to guide my life, I am my own guide.

Answer 4

I am much more relaxed now, and I am not afraid of the 'Devil' popping up in my room now, to ''get me'.
When religion tells you that everything you do, that does not follow tenets of your church,and that you are going to hell to pay for your ''sins.
Now, I use my own code of ethics,about my behavior, and it works just fine, for me.
And I feel, about 2000 years lighter, without carrying around, a lot of extra baggage.
Now,all I want to understand why I let myself be ''fooled'' so many years.

Answer 5

When I stopped going to church and worrying about "sinning or going to hell" I became a better friend,family member and father. I got a better paying job and not only can I sleep in on sundays now but I also have a great deal of faith in myself and I can accomplish a hell of alot more than when I spent time praying. Tisk tisk on the stragglers who have yet to take this path. Happy holidays

Answer 6

For me, it has changed my entire outlook on life. I'm much more libertarian in all respects, much more 'live and let live' and tolerant of other people.

....and I also have developed a much finer sense of 'scam' than I used to have.

Answer 7

I stepped away abruptly and disastrously

my Mom claimed to have known from god thanks to prayer about a serious accident / roadside event and I lost it

she was not aware nor came to help my wife while I was overseas and when she heard, she said "you and your family was put on my mind and I said a simple prayer, thank God"

I began an info control game

I showed her that I was the one revealing things to her, not a god

I told her "new" stuff and let her claim she knew, then told her it happened 6 months ago

dumb looks

the rest of my family said

"about time you dumb looser"

Answer 8

Since becoming an atheist at a very young age, I think I have become less naive, and more skeptical about schemes, and explanations.

I have not been a victim to any fraud.

Answer 9

I just never really believed. Maybe when I was 4? Then I decided that it all sounds like bs to me.

Answer 10

Instead of living for death, I now live for LIFE.