When I joined this site, I was a stupid theistic, confused and impressionable teenaged boy. Now I'm a slightly less stupid, atheist, not-confused, but still somewhat impressionable teenaged boy. Put simply I have said some stupid and very embarrassing shit on this website. But now I want to have people take me seriously to some extent or another. Myckob4 probably still sees me as a complete idiot. Anywau, at should I do? Start another account without my post records?
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You can do that if you like. I think it is fine to have your history, to be able to say: "hey I was once theist and now atheist," is something in my opinion, something to be proud of. But if you feel it holds you back from being better accepted, that is the beauty of forums and anonymity. You can start over fresh.
If you want people to take you seriously, my only suggestion is take some time and effort to proofread and spellcheck your postings, especially if it is the initial post. If you use chrome, there is a free built in spell checker and basic grammar checker.
I am not into grammar/spelling policing, this is a pretty casual place to chat, but without facial expressions and knowing your background, people have little to judge off other than your spelling/grammar skills. Beyond of course: the thoughts you share with everyone.
Harry Truman
I also have some stupid embarrassing shit on this sight but I'm more interested in how you changed your mind about religion. Did you already explain in some other post?
It was a process. I started a Christian, but became an atheist in 3 stages:
1. I realised that Jesus did not fulfil the messianic prophecies of the OT
2. I realised that the OT was full of contradictions and that there was no way it could be the word of God.
3. I realised that the arguments for the existence of God required a leap if faith and made too many assumptions on limited information to be taken seriously.
I became a Karaite Jew after the first, a Deist after the Second, and an Atheist after the third.
That makes total sense. Glad u figured it out logically that way. Is your family religious?
I don't regard you are stupid. Sure some of the shit you posted was stupid, but we have all done that. There is no need to start another account. As you grow older you will want to take back a great deal of what you have done, but life just moves on. Embrace your mistakes, take ownership of them, learn from them. that is all and the best thing that we all can do. Don't apologize for who you are only for what you have done. When we accept our faults, acknowledge them and change our behavior we have grown. I didn't change anything about you. You did it yourself. You should respect yourself for YOUR change. Not for becoming an atheist, but for having the courage to make a change. I don't care if you are atheist or not. I don't care how old you are. I respect you for your courage, honesty, and the ability to make changes that you see you need to make. That takes courage. That takes maturity. Accept your accomplishments as well you deserve it.
The path we travel is a long one. With many kinks and bumps in the road. You'll have to fight hard: I've only been an atheist for about a year longer than you, and it's already been....how might I say...an "adventure" if you will.
Take pride in the fact that you have chosen to not take the easy way out. That you refused to throw all your trust into faith and instead into yourself, and your own cognitive capabilities as a human being. Run long. Think well. Fight hard.
Tieler! By the way, nice to have you back!
It's good to be back, chimp. Thanks for the re-welcome.
You're fighting against a decade or more of brainwashing and indoctrination. Many theists lash out when their favorite beliefs are challenged.
Harry Truman, I recommend that you keep your current identity. Your epiphanies and efforts to shed error and embrace reason are a compliment to your intellectual honesty. Many of us have struggled to free ourselves of past delusions and errors in judgement. Your posts chronicle your own struggle and they do you credit.
And Harry, as long as I'm recommending things, drop Fox News from your list of trusted sources. Most of the anchors and go-to analysts on their staff are deluded christians and/or tribal nationalists.
I don't trust any mainstream news. I mainly trust RT, the Thomm Hartman Show, and the Ron Paul Liberty Report. It seems a contradiction, but I like Ron Paul despite disagreeing with him on many things.
Hey man welcome back from vacation lol
Being wrong so many times, it has made me more open to changing my beliefs if given facts. Most times I actually change my views on the spot. It gets easier each time, discovering that Jesus wasn the messiah was the first revelation and thus the hardest to accept. It took a while to get used to it and I was very confused afterward, discovering the Bible was false was easier than that, but still hard nonetheless. Becoming an atheist was relatively very easy by then, but still a bit hard.
I've experienced something similar to your experience. When I came to terms with the fact that there is no God (late Summer '15) I immediately recognized that much of my life's meaning, value, priorities, outlook, judgements and entire world view were based on and built on the words and teachings of a being that doesn't exist. So I intentionally considered every major position, priority, political concern, and every moral and ethic of mine. My positions on abortion, gay marriage, assisted suicide, the death penalty, political party affiliation, animal rights and animal welfare and advocacy for their well being, and more changed.
I, like you, took forever to finally recognize I was wrong about god. Once I accepted that I'd been incorrect about something so profoundly important, I was completely willing to examine myself and jetison everything that was erroneous. It was akin to a dam break surge that scours the earth down to the bedrock; many of my beliefs and positions survived the analysis, but a great many did not.
So I understand what you mean when you say "it gets easier". It does. Like you, I want to be correct in my beliefs and positions and will change if I recognize an error. It's good that you are willing and able to follow the facts and defer to reality. Good stuff, Harry. Keep it up...
A Truett sighting! GREAT. Glad you're back buddy! You have an insight that most of us don't have. You have fully lived the evangelical life and made the hard change to reality. Because of that and your ability for knowledge, you are immensely helpful with people that struggle with this very personal decision. You know the real struggle that they go through, PLUS you know the aloneness that all atheists experience. You also know the comfort in living in the reality instead of continually feeding the myth with your obedience. Harry Truman is now going through this. We have witnessed his struggle for both identity and truth. I think that YOU are one of the few people that have the experience and knowledge to guide him, ...if you so choose.
I agree with u Mykcob4 about Truetts insight. I know this may sound strange but sometimes I imagine this group of atheists like a little church or commune. Not in the scary awful ways but as every person here has something different to give and learn from. Truett would be The pastor in my imaginary world:) glad to hear your wise words again.
More like a support group.
Yes support group is better term Harry. The steps Mykcob4 laid out were shockingly close to my process of change to atheist, but everyone is so unique. So my Truett pastor analogy wasn't complete without:
I envisioned him giving a sermon in an old cathedral, then shockingly he begins breaking some sacred holy treasures, for lack of better word, and begins repurposing things to have impact and meaning. Im imagining a slightly demented music video that shows the stupidity of some of these ancient practices. It then gives way to creating new progressive use of our time and money wasted. I guess I just like the idea of tearing down the importance of religion however it can be done.
What would he guide me through? How to make crème brulé?
No Harry. There is much more to come that I don't think that you are aware of. It's like recovering from alcoholism in a way. There is losing friends that you thought would always be there but were just shallow people. There is fear. There is aloneness. There is anger that will come out of you that you never saw before. There is arrogance or superiority which you will realize is just an attitude. There is emptiness. That never goes away. There is being a minority which you will see cause all sorts of prejudice against you (unwarranted). You will create substitution to replace religion until you realize that the substitutes are just nonsense as well. Truett has gone through all these things and a lot more.
"No Harry. There is much more to come that I don't think that you are aware of. It's like recovering from alcoholism in a way.
There is losing friends that you thought would always be there but were just shallow people."
I don't have many freinds to begin with save family, I was always more of an introvert.
"There is fear."
Of what?
"There is aloneness."
With theists, God is essentially their best friend who is supposed to follow them around everywhere. Realising this might make them feel alone seeing as though they were always alone to begin with. However, I don't dislike being alone very much.
"There is anger that will come out of you that you never saw before."
Against people I assume? I have seen this.
"There is arrogance or superiority which you will realize is just an attitude."
Me being arrogant? That was always a bit of a problem.
"There is emptiness. That never goes away."
For those who essentially see god as part of them, they may feel empty after realising he doesn't exist. I haven't felt with this myself though.
"There is being a minority which you will see cause all sorts of prejudice against you (unwarranted)."
That is going to be a problem when I'm an adult more than now.
"You will create substitution to replace religion until you realize that the substitutes are just nonsense as well."
Like deism?
"Truett has gone through all these things and a lot more."
I would assume- I'm not a very emotional person, and a few of these things being emotional issues, I haven't delt with.
Justification Harry, not clarification. You might be flippant and dismiss what I am trying to tell you but it's real. Believe me.
I'm not being fillipiant- I know this is real, but I went through most of the trauma after realising Jesus wasn't the Messiah. My first step to atheism that is- like I said before it gets easier each time.
HarryTruman! Be bold being your bad self! Don't sweat the small stuff and don't smell the sweaty stuff! You are welcome here.
So, perhaps Phoenix soots your new fine self?
How's that go? Those who care don't matter and those who matter don't care. Dust yourself off if you need to but don't get too gooey about it. I might have to outwardly care in some manner and get some on me.