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Your conversion to atheism

Started by xXxWashburnxXx, January 26, 2012, 11:58:22 PM

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xXxWashburnxXx

I don't think I have the right to forgive myself. I opposed the progression of our species and the happiness of others. I promoted hate and ignorance.
I want to help the groups I once blindly hated. I know it will never make up for what I did or said, but maybe then they can forgive me.   
Evolution is JUST a theory. Ya know, like gravity!

Ali

I agree with BCE.  I think you should give yourself a break and just strive to "do better" now that you know better.

As Kilgore Trout would say "You were sick but now you're well, and there's work to do."

xXxWashburnxXx

That is probably a better way to look at it.
Evolution is JUST a theory. Ya know, like gravity!

Sandra Craft

Quote from: Ali on January 29, 2012, 02:07:25 AM
As Kilgore Trout would say "You were sick but now you're well, and there's work to do."

I love that -- where is it from?

Sandy

  

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

Tank

Quote from: BooksCatsEtc on January 29, 2012, 12:43:58 AM
Quote from: xXxWashburnxXx on January 28, 2012, 11:39:38 PM
There is no justification for the terrible things I said and the awful messages I spread while a christian. I know what I did was just terrible and if I could take it back I would, but I can't. I hate the ignorant, stupid person I once was and the mistakes I made as him.

I generally don't go in much for forgiveness (I go in for it some, just not much) and self-forgiveness often seems to me like issuing yourself a "get out of jail free" card but in cases like yours I think you're entitled.  You did what you did (you'll forgive the expression) in good faith and you honestly didn't know any better.  Once you did, you stopped and that could have been no easy thing -- upending everything you'd believed to that point.  So I say good on you and give yourself a break, at least on this one.


Very well put BCE.

Washburn, you were conned into you're beliefs and exploited by the churches you attended. The fact that you discovered this and did something about it is a great credit to you.
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

Tank

Quote from: xXxWashburnxXx on January 29, 2012, 01:35:34 AM
I don't think I have the right to forgive myself. I opposed the progression of our species and the happiness of others. I promoted hate and ignorance.
I want to help the groups I once blindly hated. I know it will never make up for what I did or said, but maybe then they can forgive me.   
With all due respect. Bullshit!  ;D

If you saw sombody who had been brainwashed behaving in a brainwashed fashion would you blame them for their actions? Of course not. So don't blame yourself! Institutionalised superstitions have had millenium to perfect their conditioning techniques it's not a surprise they work. Kids and youngsters are evolved to believe adults so if the adults feed kids the same memes they learned those memes are perpetuated until somebody breaks the chain of infection. You have broken that chain of infection. As did my father for himself and thus me, my children and grandchildren. Be proud of yourself, you've earned it!
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

pytheas

Quote from: xXxWashburnxXx
I don't think I have the right to forgive myself. , but maybe they can forgive me.   

Like love, if you cannot love yourself there is slim chance others will love you

We carry suitcases of bullshit from the past in our present mind.

if you found the earth on which we all stand, as you sound you have, drop the fucking suitcases and face the rising human sun

if you have killed people, a particular ritual is needed for your sanity, but I am not professional in that field

otherwise anything else you may have done and said is worth forgeting as we daily forget about our waste and rubbish
"Not what we have But what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance."
"Freedom is the greatest fruit of self-sufficiency"
"Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little."
by EPICURUS 4th century BCE

Ali

Quote from: BooksCatsEtc on January 29, 2012, 02:33:22 AM
Quote from: Ali on January 29, 2012, 02:07:25 AM
As Kilgore Trout would say "You were sick but now you're well, and there's work to do."

I love that -- where is it from?



Timequake.  Wonderful Kurt Vonnegut book. 

Firebird

Quote from: xXxWashburnxXx on January 29, 2012, 01:35:34 AM
I don't think I have the right to forgive myself. I opposed the progression of our species and the happiness of others. I promoted hate and ignorance.
I want to help the groups I once blindly hated. I know it will never make up for what I did or said, but maybe then they can forgive me.   

I also applaud you for choosing to stand on your principles and choose to think for yourself rather than what other people have told you to think. I am sorry that you are also struggling with some emotional baggage over this; I hope this forum helps in some way.
If you don't mind me asking, is this forum still the only place where you have expressed your newfound atheism, or have you still not told anyone in real life? It would be good to have another outlet to talk, but I don't know if that's possible in your situation.
"Great, replace one book about an abusive, needy asshole with another." - Will (moderator) on replacing hotel Bibles with "Fifty Shades of Grey"

xXxWashburnxXx

Quote from: Firebird on January 29, 2012, 09:03:03 PM
Quote from: xXxWashburnxXx on January 29, 2012, 01:35:34 AM
I don't think I have the right to forgive myself. I opposed the progression of our species and the happiness of others. I promoted hate and ignorance.
I want to help the groups I once blindly hated. I know it will never make up for what I did or said, but maybe then they can forgive me.   

I also applaud you for choosing to stand on your principles and choose to think for yourself rather than what other people have told you to think. I am sorry that you are also struggling with some emotional baggage over this; I hope this forum helps in some way.
If you don't mind me asking, is this forum still the only place where you have expressed your newfound atheism, or have you still not told anyone in real life? It would be good to have another outlet to talk, but I don't know if that's possible in your situation.
I still haven't told anyone irl.
With that said, I really appreciate the help and support.
Evolution is JUST a theory. Ya know, like gravity!

xSilverPhinx

I never had to deconvert since I never had any faith in any so called "living god". Up until my tweens, I accepted the god of the gaps out of explanatory convenience (was young and didn't know better) but that was about it. I'm another who gradually just realised that I was an atheist.
I am what survives if it's slain - Zack Hemsey


Ali

Quote from: xXxWashburnxXx on January 30, 2012, 12:36:46 AM
Quote from: Firebird on January 29, 2012, 09:03:03 PM
Quote from: xXxWashburnxXx on January 29, 2012, 01:35:34 AM
I don't think I have the right to forgive myself. I opposed the progression of our species and the happiness of others. I promoted hate and ignorance.
I want to help the groups I once blindly hated. I know it will never make up for what I did or said, but maybe then they can forgive me.   

I also applaud you for choosing to stand on your principles and choose to think for yourself rather than what other people have told you to think. I am sorry that you are also struggling with some emotional baggage over this; I hope this forum helps in some way.
If you don't mind me asking, is this forum still the only place where you have expressed your newfound atheism, or have you still not told anyone in real life? It would be good to have another outlet to talk, but I don't know if that's possible in your situation.
I still haven't told anyone irl.
With that said, I really appreciate the help and support.

It will get easier.  I still remember the day it hit me that "Oh wow, I'm an adult and I can live my life any way I choose; no one's approval is necessary."

pytheas

[quote ]
I want to hear how some of you came to atheism.
[/quote]

I saw Nietzsche kill god and joined the party with the rest of us mortals
"Not what we have But what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance."
"Freedom is the greatest fruit of self-sufficiency"
"Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little."
by EPICURUS 4th century BCE

Melmoth

Quote from: xXxWashburnxXxI don't think I have the right to forgive myself. I opposed the progression of our species and the happiness of others. I promoted hate and ignorance.
I want to help the groups I once blindly hated. I know it will never make up for what I did or said, but maybe then they can forgive me.   

No one is proud of the views they held in the past. That's why they no longer hold them. I'm embarrassed about opinions I had yesterday, even more so for the day before. I sometimes read my old posts on here and think, "What the hell was I talking about? How could I have been so blind?"

In consolation though, you have no responsibility to be right all the time. That you were wrong does not make you a bad person or an idiot. That you can admit you were wrong, in my opinion, makes you both good and wise.
"That life has no meaning is a reason to live - moreover, the only one." - Emil Cioran.

Asmodean

Quote from: Melmoth on February 02, 2012, 06:21:10 PM
No one is proud of the views they held in the past. That's why they no longer hold them. I'm embarrassed about opinions I had yesterday, even more so for the day before. I sometimes read my old posts on here and think, "What the hell was I talking about? How could I have been so blind?"

In consolation though, you have no responsibility to be right all the time. That you were wrong does not make you a bad person or an idiot. That you can admit you were wrong, in my opinion, makes you both good and wise.
Good comment. Something The Asmo could have said on a nicer day.
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on July 25, 2013, 08:18:52 PM
In Asmo's grey lump,
wrath and dark clouds gather force.
Luxembourg trembles.