Leaving My Religion Was Nothing Like Entering It

[Warren Stupidity]

People love to say that atheism is a religion. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the smug assertion “I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist.” I know good and well what they’re trying to say, but I always want to ask them, “Does that mean faith is a bad thing now, or is something you can have too much of?” It seems to me they are using a definition of faith here which means “drawing conclusions before collecting enough information to do so.” I wonder if they’re willing to follow that definition through to its logical conclusion? Most likely it’s meant to be a snarky sound bite, although it’s one which they clearly haven’t thought through well enough. I also hasten to add that this is yet another case of Christians projecting their own issues onto the rest of us.

(Read "Ten Things Christians Accidently Tell Me About Themselves" to see more examples of what I mean.)
I could spend a lot of time explaining the fundamental differences between evidence-based reasoning versus predicating truth claims on the religious authority of ancient texts. I could also explain that most atheists aren’t making positive claims about the nonexistence of all conceivable gods, which means there aren’t actually any claims that require testing in the first place (See my “Agnostic or Atheist? What’s the Difference?” for more on that). But I’d much rather use my own story to explain how utterly different the trip into religion is from the trip out of it. I think that gets at the same issue from a different angle.

Call it a sociological or psychological look at the difference between Christianity and atheism. Whatever you call it, the point is that becoming an atheist was for me a process fundamentally different from becoming a Christian. Here are six obvious differences that occur to me upon first reflection (I originally said five but I miscounted!):

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/godlessindixie/2015/08/15/leaving-my-religion-was-nothing-like-entering-it/

[trotsky]

2. ???

Warren didn't write the material in his OP. He linked to someone else's blog post. I am not sure why you think this apology is necessary or even appropriate. It actually comes across as condescending and sarcastic, FYI.

[TygrBright]

3. I'm sorry it comes across that way, it's certainly not meant thus.

I followed the link and read the whole post at Patheos.

I read the "Godless in Dixie" blog fairly regularly.

I was just struck by the sense of alone-ness that came through in his description of the process, and it reminded me how much injustice is done by those who profess religious belief, to atheists.

I'll butt out, now, and I apologize.

meekly,
Bright

[rug]

4. It's trotsky who should apologize.

[trotsky]

6. No problem, just seemed kind of odd. n/t

[Warren Stupidity]

7. Some people are expert at apologetics.

Although mostly what we see here is deflection and diversion, which is just sort of lame.

[Silent3]

5. Great article, and the linked-to article "Ten Things Christians Accidently Tell Me...

...About Themselves" is a good read too.

There's a lot I can identify with experiencing in both articles, although, fortunately, I was never part of such a deeply religious culture, and leaving religion behind caused me no major social stresses either.