Here’a first, I’ve just been tagged by the Atheist Blogger with a new meme. I haven’t done any of these in the past (other than taking it upon myself that is). So let’s see…
Can You Remember The Day That You Officially Became An Atheist?
Well, Officially is a weird word that doesn’t apply very well since there’s no organised Atheist Religion. Nevertheless, I can’t really say that I remember the day I became an atheist. I know that I considered myself an Atheist for a while mostly because I could not consider myself a good Christian but I never expressed it. Truth be told, I wasn’t really an atheist but rather an agnostic at that point.
What I do distinctly remember is being in a church for a reason or other (I think because of Easter) with my aunt and for some reason I ended up telling a priest that I was an Atheist, which of course promted him to tell me that I’m just angry at God that I lost my mother. Highly presumtious of him I’d say.
Yes my memory is incedibly crappy.
In actuallity, I became a full-fledged Atheist in my current (and only correct) form only in recent years but it was a gradual process.
Do you remember the day you officially became an agnostic?
Again not really. I was really an agnostic while calling myself an atheist in my teens so I guess you could say that.
How about the last time you spoke or prayed to God with actual thought that someone was listening?
I remember occasionally, when in a difficult or sad situation, asking inside my head for help but I never explicitly prayed. Perhaps I was defending my self mentally or perhaps it was a leftover from school&church brainwashing.
I’ve since conditioned myself to stop doing this ridiculous mental trick and just get on with the problem at hand.
I never actually truly prayed, as in, “get down on my knees” kind of thing. I was seeing my classmates devoutly bending down their head and closing their eyes in the school’s morning mandatory prayer and I remember I tried it once (simply saying the Πατερ Ημόν prayer internally) but I thought it was all too silly.
Did anger towards God or religion help cause you to be an atheist or agnostic?
Nah, although people were inclined to believe that because of my mother’s death, that wasn’t the case. I never really felt enough about them to feel anger. I am currently opposed to organised religion and their actions occasionally get me angry but this does not drive my irreligion.
Here is a good one: Were you agnostic towards ghosts, even after you became an atheist?
By the time I consider myself to have become a proper Atheist I had managed to achieve scepticism as well. By the time I first called myself an Atheist when I should have been saying agnostic or even agnostic Christian I still believed in various woo-woo like Energies, Auras, Magic etc
But fortunately not Ghosts. I think Holywood ruined it for me 🙂
Do you want to be wrong?
I would not like to be wrong (I mean, who does?) as it would mean that I was living my life wrongly, based on false beliefs and knowledge. Having said that, If I did turn out to be wrong, I wouldn’t mind, unless the Christian God is, indeed such a bastard as the Old Testament makes him out to be, in which case I would summarily be going to hell anyway.
I would like to be wrong about other stuff however. I would very much love to be wrong about Global Warming, Aliens, Ghosts, Auras and the like. If those things existed, the world would be so much more interesting.
Unfortunately just because I’d like those to exist, I can’t bring myself to willful delusion.
So, that’s that. Time to spread the mind virus.
What if there is no being right or wrong about something? What if there is just "being" about something? If you decide for yourself what is right or wrong, you can as much decide for yourself what part of reality you wish. 😛 Every Moment is constructed.. illusion, delusion, .. you know what? It all is. Life, rules, oppinions.. and that's good – if it wouldn't be the whole universe would collapse in the blink of an eye. The gods are dead. Long live the gods. I don't know about aliens yet though. 😉
But I do not decide for myself what is right or wrong. I can only be proven wrong in the same way everything else is proven, the scientific method. Nobody cannot will away reality.
"But I do not decide for myself what is right or wrong" – what I consider as an mistake. If not you, who will? The scientific method? Still going by the not-perfect-but-best-what-have possibility? I still have problems with understanding how to apply that to a non-coldrationalised world view as you know.
"Nobody cannot will away reality" – It's not about willing away. It's about choice. Reality is as relative as taste, for man is not chained to one omnipersistent truth and never will be. Unless he wishes. Applying the politics of error ("Everyone who does not see it this way sees it the wrong way") will not change it, anyway, I guess.
Atheists and agnostics are right in most of their thinking
It has been common among religious believers to look with misgiving to atheists and Gnostics, and to think that they are mistaken; however, in many instances the opposite is the truth; some religious beliefs are not just irrelevant, but baseless. The “God” of main line traditions simply does not exist. I accepted the challenge of finding the One who may be recognized even by agnostics and atheists: the Existence itself, “All-That-Is.” If something is there, that is God. Look at the book “Christianity Reformed From ist Roots – A life centered in God” (Amazon.com). I am confident that some of your friends will be relieved of the illusion, as I did myself.
Jairo Mejia, M. Psych., Santa Clara University
Episcopal Priest, Retired
Carmel Valley, California
http://www.mbay.net/~jmejia/Grudzen.htm
http://www.mbay.net/~jmejia/Churcher.htm