I was in religion for some time and it took me long time to process and even notice religious indoctrination methods. It hurts to realize that I got brainwashed.
My question is: Does pain or regret of going through religious brainwashing heals over time? If some of you managed to cure your mind, what helped you to do so?
I found that sport has good benefits in terms of overall health and mental health. Can anyone share their results with sport benefits.
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Education is the bane of religion. When you have a religious idea crop into your mind, allow yourself to question it. Ask; is it true and then find out. The more you know about religion and religious ideas, the further away from belief based on faith you will find yourself. Knowledge kills religion.
The pain goes away, sometimes taking years to do so. Just remember as an Atheist your free of the guilt of sin and fear of Hell.
I learned that by taking on a more critical thought process and not being so gullible was the first step of my journey. One does not need to become cynical or bitter, just challenge every assertion.
I do not place any blame on my parents who put me through religious indoctrination, they did not know any better.
Yes, sport can play a big part on improving one's mental health and pushing past the barriers religion erect. I can cite many examples, but in any sport, when you realize a deficit, you practice and improve. In baseball I realized I was not that good at throwing. So I spent the entire winter re-doing all the mechanics of throwing, and practiced hard each day. In the end, I was a much better thrower, and the best part .. I did it all myself, no god was there to steal my thunder and take credit.
I have always loved science and was curious on how things work. For me watching you tube atheist videos, joining forums like this, and reading science literature freed my mind of religious garbage.
I was very depressed for about a year when I lost heaven but now I can hardly keep the laughter in just my head when I hear religious comments from my family.
Many people are smart enough, but just simply not brave enough to accept their religion is false, there’s just too much comfort and conformity in it.
Giving up a religious view is a major life change. It can be related to Culture Shock, Divorce or even the death of a pet or loved one. It makes perfect sense to go through a period of grief, uncertainty, confusion or depression. It's also fantastic that you come out the other side with a new and more useful world view. I think we call that maturing and growing wiser!!! Good for you.
Sure. Eventually you stop recognizing yourself in the victim you once were. It takes time. I think it's probably easier if you're young and relatively healthy.
And you can always find comfort in the fact that a lot, and I mean A LOT of people have it much worse :D They will never see the light lol
At this point I'm actually glad I used to be religious because I understand the religious way of thinking first hand. And I didn't have it as easy as atheists since birth, I had to work it out myself. My only regret is that my family are still ultrareligious and there are tensions because of that.
Yeah, sport helps. Heavy lifting is gold. Finding a community of atheists/ critical thinkers to help you shed the remains of stupidity. Also, for me, studying. Natural sciences are really comforting because they're descriptive rather than normative and teach you ways of thinking that actually work irl.
Mostly time tho.
I was surprised at how people treated me for just leaving the church. Some wouldn't even say hello when I would meet them in public. I was able to internally admit to being an atheist after reading several books, such as God is Not Great. The importance there was I had already discovered most of what was in the book. This helped confirm my sanity. The other thing that I did to help myself was to turn back to art. It helped provide some and a way to express my feeling about religion.
Welcome DesolateProphet.
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Come right on in and have some fun. We can always use new insights and opinions.
rmfr
Hi there! New member here, just seeing this post.
When I came out of the delusion, it was a very natural process of learning and investigation, that took place over quite a long time. Once I realized that I knew the truth, I wasn't upset...I was sad.
Not sad for myself but sad for the people in my life who live under the delusion.
Since then, I have had to simply put that away. I can't focus my energy on their beliefs, nor can I blame them for trying to "save my soul" according to their beliefs. They were doing what they thought was right and since I came to no lasting harm from that, I can't look down upon them for it.
It usually does. About 1.5 years ago, I shed the last vestiges of my indoctrination, and now I no longer hesitate and feel subconsciously guilty when criticizing my former religion as much as I used to, and I no longer view antitheism as being inherently negative, and for the past year, I have grown more confident in telling others about my having deconverted, despite my parents' repeated attempts to scare me out of it- first by poisoning the well and literally equating atheist sites like this one with Al-Quaeda (because you know, opposing Islamism makes you an Islamist), then by trying to redefine "hatred" as "atheists criticizing and/or poking fun at religion and therefore non sequitur: personally attacking every last believer on the planet", and once even going so far as to insist that my not censoring myself to hide from cyber bullies and hiding my atheism as if it were a shameful thing is somehow going to put myself in mortal peril (all this despite the fact that they could never seem to agree on how).
Now, I understand that my grandparents on my dad's side (who don't even use social media and therefore are unaware that I no longer believe) are very religious and in their 80s, so I don't really think that my telling them would do them any good at all and needlessly raise their blood pressure over the possibility that I may spend the rest of eternity burning in an underground fire lake- and that is one case in which I'm willing to not tell people.