I don't believe in God as of this afternoon.

[elshiva]

[Spinzonner]

1. What happened to God this afternoon ?

[elshiva]

4. Just realized that there is no god after a whole life of being an

Episcopalian. This is painful right now and scared to tell anyone about it around here because I was a regular church goer.

[Az]

7. It is never an easy realization

For so many belief has always been a part of their life. But people change and beliefs do too. The moment of epiphany when you realise you have shifted on a major issue can leave you feeling alone and defenseless. But you are not alone. And there are many there willing to catch you should you stumble.

:hug:

[elshiva]

8. Thank you, Az!

This will be tough. Religion has been my whole life. I have been a member of the Episcopal Church all my life. I just became a lay Eucharistic minister. And I was a Religious Studies major at a Catholic College. So this means I will be shunned by the members of my church, my family, my former professors, and classmates.

[tjwmason]

34. I sincerely doubt that you will be shunned

from what I know of the Episcopal Church (I'm a member of the Church of England, so sort of the same), those who regarded you as a friend before will still regard you as a friend.

[BurtWorm]

39. It's a shame that people would shun you for a loss of faith.

I hope you're wrong about that.

[NAO]

33. The hardest part for me was realizing mortality.

I grew up a fundamentalist Baptist and I really believed everything the church taught. They taught that everyone would live forever - the few who had accepted Christ would live forever in Heaven; and most of humankind would burn and be tormented forever and ever in Hell.

When I realized that there was no god, and it dawned on me that the world was a natural thing, and that life was a natural thing - I also realized that it had a beginning and an end, and that I was going to end someday. That really hit me hard as I had gone my whole life believing that I would go on forever.

[Az]

37. Kind of makes the things you do more important

Gotta make them count.

[applegrove]

25. Hey - God is as good an explanation as any. Even Bill Maher says

there must be something out there. And he doesn't believe in organized religion.

These are tough times. If you are not getting what you need from your church you can go online and find some wonderful sermons from real ministers in England and the like. Also forums and chat sites.

Do not give up.

There has to be something out there - afterall.

Don't let anyone take away the things you love just because Bush is a creep and so are all his friends.

You hold on to all the great things in your life and all your relationships.

You can find great sermons on poverty & equality & God's love in other countries. Or you can find the right minister in your own.

Don't let anybody take away the things you love. Those belong to you.

[Warren DeMontague]

47. There's plenty out there

And plenty of people manage to do perfectly well finding meaning in life on this bright blue ball, in this universe of mysteries dark and vast, without belief in any anthropomorphized, supernatural beings.

Just FYI.

[BurtWorm]

38. I'm sorry for your pain.

All I can say to counter it is welcome to freedom. :toast:

You can share with us on DU.

[GOPFighter]

44. Finally accepting that there is no God...

...was the most liberating moment of my life. Most of my life I had been troubled by the contradictions and inconsistencies of Christianity, and also by why God let competing religions, both purportedly worshiping the same God, kill each other in his name without giving us any guidance for 2,000 years. Once I faced the fact that God didn't exist, everything started making sense!

[Sabriel]

2. Well, what happened?

(This isn't a joke, like "how do you keep an atheist in suspense?," is it?)

[elshiva]

5. This is very serious. There is no God.

[JuniperLea]

10. Can you elaborate?

[elshiva]

11. On what point?

[JuniperLea]

20. on how you determined

after all these years of thinking otherwise, that there is no god.

[Spinzonner]

23. Not believing in God

is not the same as whether God exists or not

[pilgrimm]

3. which one?

[elshiva]

6. all gods

[pilgrimm]

13. Really, so it just happened in a snap?

It took me a while before I got God out of my head. I Had this idea of God as depicted in paintings (you know old man in the clouds) and as taught to me in CCD. eventually he became invisible as I got older and realized there wasn't anybody in the sky. Then I just thought about him less and less until he disappeared. Now I only think of him in the abstract.

[elshiva]

14. Yep, just snapped. Started reading Spong's book

and realized he is right there is no god/s.

[shrike]

31. I assume you're not talking about Bishop Spong

I just googled the name and found a list of his books. They all sounded Christian in nature, but maybe he's had a loss of faith since then.

[Az]

32. Bishop Spong is an interesting individual

Despite is lack of faith he has remained a Christian minister (I forget off the top of my head which denom). He has written many books and it considered a good read in liberal circles and an abomination in conservative circles.

[shrike]

36. Hmmm

I looked him up on Amazon and saw a listing of books about Christianity. I assume he finds a purpose in following the teachings of Christ w/out the faith?

The bio I read mentions his faith in God -- perhaps it's an old one or the writer just got it wrong. I'd never heard of Spong, so I'm completely unfamiliar with him.

Is Spong of the school that rejects "the old man in the sky" notion. or rejects the idea of a God completely? Lots of folks are in the former camp, including myself. Believe that the true nature of God is mysterious and beyond human understanding, and that all religions are man's attempt to understand, and connect with, the unknowable.

Even those who believe only in nature and natural law are, I'm sure, in awe at times of the power and mystery of the universe.

On edit: Read a little more about Spong and he certainly is on the right side of things. We need more liberal clergy like him.

[Az]

40. Difficult individual to pin down

Here are some notes taken from www.celebatheists.com . We have him placed in the ambiguous category.

Mr. Spong is a retired Episcopal Bishop. He has written books on religion such as Rescuing the Bible From Fundamentalism, Born of a Woman, The Resurrection: Myth or Reality, Why Christianity Must Change or Die, and A New Christianity For A New World.

Mr. Spong may be an odd choice to add to your website because he still calls himself a Christian and still claims to believe in God.

However, when you read Why Christianity Must Change or Die and A New Christianity For A New World, he really is an atheist.

He doesn't believe God is a supernatural or transcendental being. He doesn't believe in a personal God. He rejects theism. He calls himself a nontheist. However, he says nontheism is not atheism.

Here is his definition of theism which he rejects: "I define the theistic God as a 'being supernatural in power, dwelling outside this world and invading the world periodically to accomplish the divine will" (p. 61 A New...World).

"The evidence that God, understood theistically is dying or is perhaps already dead is overwhelming" (p. 21 A New...World).

[shrike]

42. My

I hope I can find time to read him. Sounds like he truly transcends categories.

[StellaBlue]

45. Spong ROCKS

I totally agree with him.

-an atheist

[stopbush]

9. Good for you. You've thrown off the shackles of religion.

There is only one big downside to going atheist: you end up thinking more about god and life-n-death issues than you ever did as a believer.

[elshiva]

12. Thanks!

[noahmijo]

17. I sorta know how you feel I left the Catholic Church a while ago

My own mother doesn't even know about it and it would crush her if I told her that her boy (I am 23) no longer holds the same faith as he used to (she's a liberal Catholic by the way which makes it tougher to just spring it on her because she is well meaning and has no issues with gays being married or women having the right to choose)

I've been delving into Buddhism being that I privately agreed with much of the philosophy for a very long time another fact I kept to myself.

All I can say is no matter if you go full blown atheist or agnostic or any belief or philosophy that doesn't depend on the rule of a God or a holy book, it is incredible how you actually feel closer to the teachings of Jesus Christ and other philosophers which preached peace and at the same time you take off the shackles of truly free thought......now your problem will be in a way a real blessing you're going to experience the feeling of having a truly free and open mind and you're going to burn yourself out in a newfound pursuit of knowledge about virtually everything that so much as taps your attention.

It will happen if it hasn't already trust me :)

Best of luck to you.

[bonito]

21. That was a great reply

Peace

[Kailassa]

15. hey God? Anyone listening up there?

Elshiva, there is nothing wrong with being an atheist but have a think about it. Is it really god that has let you down,or is it religion? Because god and religion are 2 different things. God may be an invention of humanity, religion definitely is. If you feel let down by god, also have a rethink, there may be a god who just happens to be different from what you have been led to expect.

My religion is to keep an open mind on all thngs and to follow my conscience. I figure that is there is a God that I'd give the time of day to, that will be enough for him/her too.

[elshiva]

16. Religion has been great to me and my family.

My church is the only place that accepts me for being a human being. I love the liturgy and the music. I can't stand never seeing them again.

[JuniperLea]

22. Good call

I love spiritual people, but religious people scare the hell out of me.

If religion is wearing too much makeup and begging poor people to send you money... if religion is telling poor people who cannot afford to keep their children in oatmeal and shoes that God hates birth control... if religion is blaming homosexuals for a hurricane that destroyed many religious believers... then religion is the new enemy and should be avoided at all cost. I suspect they distribute Kool-Aid in those alleged "places of worship".

[Birthmark]

18. Great!

Now you can begin pillaging and raping and murdering and worshipping Satan and being a Communist.

(I have heard all of the above from people over the years regarding my atheism. :) )

[iamahaingttta]

19. Hey, welcome to the club!

Now that you don't believe in God anymore, you'll start seeing him/her/it/them in everything!

[Kailassa]

24. my god is a great comfort to me,

as he snuggles purring, against my chest, whiskery face peeping out from the neck of my t-shirt. He loves me constantly, except for when I put him outside for upchucking fur-balls, and knows everything, except why I sometimes have to do things other than stroke him.

[applegrove]

26. Like Al Sharpton said: "Those are the wrong kind of Christians".

There is more than one kind.

[applegrove]

27. Here is a good article. I hope it helps. There is power in your deep

and loving beliefs.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deepak-chopra/consciousness-as-new-civi_b_7413.html

[Berry Cool]

28. Gosh, if you really thought there was an old man in the sky

no wonder you think there is no God.

Don't confuse your disbelief that there is an old man in the sky with disbelief in God.

Not saying you have to change your mind or anything...but think about it.

[onager]

29. The non-believers are glad to have you.

:hi:

Come on over to the Atheists group when you get a chance.

Other posters are right--this is not an easy decision, and I really resent people who pretend it is.

Like yourself, church was an integral part of my life, since I was raised in the South.

My first clue came when I was quite young, and asked questions about our beliefs. I was told, and not very politely, that I wasn't even supposed to ask those questions.

IIRC, this came about because my father--a deacon in our church--found George Seldes' book of great quotations at one of his jobs, and gave it to me.

Seldes was a left-winger and agnostic. His book was full of quotes by our Founders that I had never heard before, like Jefferson and Paine. As well as people like Robert Ingersoll, Voltaire, Emma Goldman, and that whole crowd.

A real eye-opener, to put it mildly...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

30. I doubt that your church will reject you, elshiva

if they're as accepting as you say.

I'll bet that half of them, if not more, have gone through a "there is no God" crisis and come out of it with an even stronger faith.

Talk to your priest about it. You may be pleasantly surprised at what you hear.

[trotsky]

35. It's never an easy process, for those of us who once believed.

Be prepared for lots of people to tell you that you're just angry at god, that you'll come around, that you were just at the wrong church, etc., etc.

They need to believe that you just had a bad experience and will get over it and come back into the flock.

All I can say is, think for yourself and question everything. Where that leads you is where you belong.

[Zhade]

41. Welcome to the club.

It's a growing club, so there are lots of new members. Stop by the registration desk, and we'll get you a rubber chicken right away.

[Disturbed]

43. The concept of God.

If a person believes that God is a person that interacts with people and the natural forces on this planet and the Universe they are bound to be troubled. I have actually heard people refer to God as a person. Many people pray to a God or Jesus or other gods for things or a change of their situtation or their loved ones. They believe that a god can interact. I believe that is major mistake in thinking.

[onager]

46. Let me ask this here...

...since the "liberal" (chortle) Xians have started their own smug little atheist-dissing thread over in THEIR group about elshiva's 30 seconds of being a non-believer.

In that thread, one poster said they would like to elaborate on the subject, but the thread might get locked.

I very respectfully asked that poster to go right ahead and elaborate, since I was one of the atheists who responded to elshiva in here. I was just personally curious as to what that poster might have to say about atheists.

My post was deleted.

Well, here's your second chance to elaborate. Have at it.

Oh, and to the poster who flamed me for editing my post: I didn't. Somebody, presumably in your little clique, alerted and got it deleted.

I can't imagine anything that was inflammatory or disrespectful about my post or its wording. So I'll assume they saw my name, recognized it as one of the atheists, and alerted immediately without reading my post.

[beam me up scottie]

49. How tolerant.

WWBBD?

What would Betty Bowers do?

[Modem Butterfly]

50. The same thing happened to me when I made a very polite suggestion...

...to petition to change the group's statement.

[Warren DeMontague]

48. If you want an incredible, inexplicable, magical entity

with amazing powers, who has the potential to answer your deep, existential riddles of being...

I suggest you look in the mirror.

(At least with that one, you know where to find it!)

[trotsky]

51. Nice trick you played, there.

Does Jesus approve of you baiting people who believe differently than you and then mocking them?

Well, thinking about it, I suppose he probably does. You must be one of those True Christians™.

[Modem Butterfly]

52. I don't think it dawns on many people that atheism can mean a lot...

...to the atheist. But that's still no excuse for fucking with people like that.

[onager]

53. MB, I think your conversion thread just got deleted...

More favoritism?

:grr:

I don't really know for sure. But one moment it was there, the next it was gone.

[beam me up scottie]

54. What a shock.

:eyes:

[Modem Butterfly]

55. Heh. Just like my conversion!

[beam me up scottie]

56. Gee, and what were you told again, MB, when

you filed a complaint about intolerance?

Wasn't it "suck it up" or something like that?

[Modem Butterfly]

57. "You know what he meant"

Yeah, that's the problem.

Some folks don't know that atheism can have a lot of meaning to an atheist. Others just don't care.

[beam me up scottie]

58. Have we been told that we

shouldn't be in this forum yet today?
I lost track of how many times the believers told us that yesterday.

[Modem Butterfly]

59. Any minute now

[onager]

60. Curses! Another prophecy foiled!

:hi:

Whoops. I guess we should let this embarassing thread die a natural death.

Every time I post it gets kicked back to the top.

Clean forgot about that.

exit, whistling innocently...

[beam me up scottie]

61. Yup.

You really should stop kicking this, O.

:spank:

[Modem Butterfly]

62. I agree with BMUS

Just let it go, Onager.

[onager]

63. OK, you two have convinced me.

I'll stop kicking it now.

[Modem Butterfly]

64. Good

Because, at some point, it has to end.

[onager]

65. But have we reached that point yet?

I guess not...

[beam me up scottie]

66. Might as well put on the coffee.

Fresh roasted Guatemalan beans okay?

[onager]

67. Great, thanks!

I'll go outside to have a Lucky Strike with that coffee.

Unless I quit smoking as of this afternoon. Or something.

No, dammit, I started again. That was a long 10 minutes!

[CarbonDate]

68. Hey, what's that under my foot?

Oops, didn't mean to kick that thread, there....

[FM Arouet666]

69. Good for you, he didn't believe in you as of the big bang. n/t

[DerekG]

70. Elshiva: It isn't ethical to manipulate people like this

You posted a similar thread in the Lounge. Don't you think it's a tad insensitive to arouse pity and distress from theists and empathy from atheists...all for the sake of some ruse? Yes, I've said things I came to regret, but damn it, they were borne out of sincerity.

This was wrong.

[Old Mouse]

71. Thank you!

I think this baiting is out of hand.

[Josephine]

72. This was a prank?

That is low.

[Moderator]

73. Locking

This thread has run its course.