The Making of an Atheist

[GSOgymrat]

^ This

For much of my so called Christian life, I believed most everyone took the Bible with a grain of salt, and certainly EVERYONE took at least parts of the Bible with a grain of salt.  I believed everyone was pretty much like me in that regard (a classic psychological projection on my part).  I was well out of my teens when I realized my perceptions about the skepticism of others was totally wrong.  Many people actually did believe religious myth completely.  This knocked me off balance when I realized it. 

I distinctly remember the moment I had that realization. I was in sophomore English class and something we were reading referenced hell. I raised my hand and in my comment said that hell wasn't real, not for a moment thinking what I was saying was controversial. The teacher, who happened to also be a pastor, said hell was very real. I replied that hell was not an actual place, that it was at best a metaphor. Then I realized he was clearly offended and other students were looking at me like I had said the f-word. Students after class were asking me if I was really an atheist. I really didn't consider myself an atheist at the time because I thought that there might be some kind of creator of the universe or something but I didn't believe the Biblical God was real. Several people wrote, half-joking, "HELL IS REAL!" in my yearbook.

[Baruch]

I distinctly remember the moment I had that realization. I was in sophomore English class and something we were reading referenced hell. I raised my hand and in my comment said that hell wasn't real, not for a moment thinking what I was saying was controversial. The teacher, who happened to also be a pastor, said hell was very real. I replied that hell was not an actual place, that it was at best a metaphor. Then I realized he was clearly offended and other students were looking at me like I had said the f-word. Students after class were asking me if I was really an atheist. I really didn't consider myself an atheist at the time because I thought that there might be some kind of creator of the universe or something but I didn't believe the Biblical God was real. Several people wrote, half-joking, "HELL IS REAL!" in my yearbook.

Metaphors are hate speech ;-)

[Gregory]

"...God didn't really speak to people..." - GSOgymrat

The phenomenon is real. - What explains it? Put simply, psychosis

[Baruch]

"...God didn't really speak to people..." - GSOgymrat

The phenomenon is real. - What explains it? Put simply, psychosis

What is consciousness?  Pragmatic psychosis.  You have been in "primal scream" since you came out of your birth mother.

Sophisticates?  Virtue signalling psychotics ;-)

[Jagella]

The people I went to church with were nice people.

I had a very different experience with religious people in general although I have known some exceptions to the rule. The "nice" religious people I've known have been very few.

I really felt what I was learning in church was like Aesop's Fables, it was an allegory. Jesus didn't actually come back to life, God didn't really speak to people-- that wasn't real life.

I eventually concluded that Christian stories are allegory, but as a Christian I did believe they really happened. I think the reason I ended up an atheist is that I took what I was taught as a Christian very seriously and very literally. If Moses had a magical staff, then he had a magical staff, and I could have one too! But when I actually tried my own "magical staff," I found it didn't work. I tried prayer, and it didn't work. The same failures resulted from faith and Bible study. I simply had to conclude that it didn't work and wasn't true. Unlike most Christians, I didn't ignore these failures or come up with elaborate rationalizations to explain them away. I honestly and logically concluded that Christian claims are all a lot of baloney.

I believed early as a child that people had a public persona that didn't always reflect who they really were because I very deliberately created a persona. As a child, I thought most people said they believed in God and the Bible because they were trying to appear like a good person and not because they truly believed it was real because that is what I was doing.

Maybe being a phony like that works for some people. One of my sisters is a Christian and a HUGE phony. She literally lives her lies.

[Gregory]

What is consciousness?  Pragmatic psychosis.  You have been in "primal scream" since you came out of your birth mother.

Sophisticates?  Virtue signalling psychotics ;-)

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, so said Leonardo Dà Vinci.

[Baruch]

  Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, so said Leonardo Dà Vinci.

Da Vinci didn't have an iPhone, so he had nothing ;-)

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. - Einstein

[Gregory]

What can be simpler than atheism?

[Baruch]

What can be simpler than atheism?

Nihilism.  Not only is theism wrong, everything is wrong ;-)