HuffPost article: Atheism and religious yearning

Started by Sandra Craft, January 03, 2012, 04:36:55 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Sandra Craft

I found this article interesting even tho I couldn't relate to it personally:  Losing my religion: if I'm so done with faith, why do I still feel it's loss?

I guess just as there's no one way of being religious, there's also no one way of being atheist.  While I enjoyed going to church, and sometimes still go to UU church services, I can't recall ever feeling any particular sense of loss after realizing that I was an atheist.  I expect it's because I never had any real faith to lose -- the experience of becoming an atheist must be very different, and wrenching, for someone who once truly believed.

Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

The Magic Pudding

I tried to read the article
Quotenew myths: that we can do more than one thing at a time, that it will only take twenty minutes to get there, that sleep is for the weak and the dead, that we'll pay it off next month, that it doesn't get any better than this.

They aren't new and as presented they aren't old enough to be myths.

I was trying to say something nice.

Sweetdeath

Sometimes I feel like the only person who has felt no loss because I was never religious. I guess I was born atheist and just stayed that way.. :/
Sadly though, until I knew other people felt the same as I, I felt very outcasted by those who had faith and went to church.
Law 35- "You got to go with what works." - Robin Lefler

Wiggum:"You have that much faith in me, Homer?"
Homer:"No! Faith is what you have in things that don't exist. Your awesomeness is real."

"I was thinking that perhaps this thing called God does not exist. Because He cannot save any one of us. No matter how we pray, He doesn't mend our wounds.

Traveler

Quote from: Sweetdeath on January 03, 2012, 10:32:34 PM
Sometimes I feel like the only person who has felt no loss because I was never religious. I guess I was born atheist and just stayed that way.. :/
Sadly though, until I knew other people felt the same as I, I felt very outcasted by those who had faith and went to church.

Me. I have never believed in god, never gotten anything out of church, and feel no loss whatsoever. In fact, I'm completely baffled at what anyone gets out of church. Some days I feel like an alien, but I think I'm in good company. :)
If we ever travel thousands of light years to a planet inhabited by intelligent life, let's just make patterns in their crops and leave.

The Magic Pudding

Quote from: The Magic Pudding on January 03, 2012, 05:46:43 PM
They aren't new and as presented they aren't old enough to be myths.

That sentence seems contradictory Pudding, I have no idea what you're talking about.

Sandra Craft

Quote from: The Magic Pudding on January 03, 2012, 05:46:43 PM
I tried to read the article
Quotenew myths: that we can do more than one thing at a time, that it will only take twenty minutes to get there, that sleep is for the weak and the dead, that we'll pay it off next month, that it doesn't get any better than this.

They aren't new and as presented they aren't old enough to be myths.

I was trying to say something nice.

And the effort is appreciated!  Even if they were old, I don't think they'd qualify as myths -- silliness of a certain decade, maybe.  That "we can do more than one thing at a time" business is just another version of "having it all" and I remember the first time I heard that I thought whoever was behind it was insane or stupid or both.
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Sweetdeath

Quote from: Traveler on January 03, 2012, 10:36:57 PM
Quote from: Sweetdeath on January 03, 2012, 10:32:34 PM
Sometimes I feel like the only person who has felt no loss because I was never religious. I guess I was born atheist and just stayed that way.. :/
Sadly though, until I knew other people felt the same as I, I felt very outcasted by those who had faith and went to church.

Me. I have never believed in god, never gotten anything out of church, and feel no loss whatsoever. In fact, I'm completely baffled at what anyone gets out of church. Some days I feel like an alien, but I think I'm in good company. :)


Yes, you are. *hugs*
Law 35- "You got to go with what works." - Robin Lefler

Wiggum:"You have that much faith in me, Homer?"
Homer:"No! Faith is what you have in things that don't exist. Your awesomeness is real."

"I was thinking that perhaps this thing called God does not exist. Because He cannot save any one of us. No matter how we pray, He doesn't mend our wounds.