any religious people coming to terms with new found atheism?

Yep, been through it and came out the other side stronger in my faith.  Took about 20 years.

I miss Hitchens.

lmfao, well done, I am seriously rolling on the floor.

Way too much to really detail, but I had the whole 9 yards, from grade school to an all girls Catholic HS.  But I remember in HS being skeptical about Catholicism.  

Am now Buddhist, 3 years.  I'm not nearly articulate enough to espouse why belief in "God" is just not logical - the Dalai Lama does it much better. I should just memorize his succinct quote I love but has to do with cause and result and how everything in this world is dependent on everything else.

I have to say, I did go through a "mourning" process.  It was hard to let go of the idea that "someone else" was in charge of all my defects, past, present, future. This is where Catholics, etc. will jump in and bring up 'free will.' But in the tradition I was raised, there was much about fate and predestination.   I am not in any way diminishing anyone else's spiritual path.  Following any spiritual path, like the DL will say, I believe, is good.  Another reason why I love Buddhism-anyone else can blv anything they want.  We aren't going to run around telling you, you're going to hell b/c you're not Catholic, or try to kill you b/c you don't blv in our "god."

Why I love Buddhism is because it's all on ME. There's no "God" will fix it. 

Hitchens also disses (sp?) Buddhism as well, but truly, if you really begin to study it, one of the first lines you learn, is Hey, Buddha said, "Try it out for yourself, test it, if you don't like it, if it doesn't work for you, then move on.  Don't do it just b/c *I* said so."  

Unlike what i'd been brainwashed for so many years.
 

He was such a wonderful intellectual and writer, although I think he got religion very wrong.

My walk in the desert started when I was in my teens, so I didn't even think of it as leaving the Church.  I just thought I knew better than she and started down the road that eventually led me to atheism.

All through the walk though, both toward atheism and then back out finally to Catholicism again, I always was on a search for Truth. Capital "T" truth.

You are a sincere man. So if you're having doubts, in a way you're compelled by the faith you were raised in to authentically form your conscience and so need to grapple with it.  Keep wrestling with the doubts. Scrutinize everything.  It can truly be a desert, but it's necessary to walk through it.

I looked for God in the art world for a long time, I looked for God in sex, in booze, in politics.  We can make false gods out of many things, even things that are good. 

Of course He was always there waiting for me. I didn't really need to go looking, but I wasn't the first to do that so I guess He was use to it.

In the end, it became clear that coming back home to the Church was the only road that would lead to Truth, that truth being Christ.  The problem is that this didn't conform to the way I wanted things to be.  It became clear that in my twenty year search I was trying to make God in my image rather than the other way around.  It's a humbling experience.  

A mix of the Holy Spirit hitting me upside the head a few times, joined with serious study of the reasons why the Church proposes what she does is what did it for me. Faith illuminated reason, while reason informed faith.

I wish you well and will pray for you. It can be a tremendous, if often painful, adventure. If you're still praying these days, please pray for me.

Truly, thank you for sharing that.

I read an interesting book once... forget the name... but basically it was sort on what all religions have in common. Anyway... he basically said where Christianity fails is that it is all on God.... and where Buddhism fails is that it is all on the person... he felt there was a balance somewhere between the two.

Not a criticism... just thought it was interesting to where I was at at the time.

Hmmm...interesting.  I had the opposite "course".  I was raised as "nothing" and came to Catholicism later in life.  I really and truly believe in the tenets of Catholicism.  But at the SAME time I really truly believe that God presents Himself to people in many ways.  Every person on earth experiences God as God intends to show Himself to them.  I don't think anyone is wrong.  Personally (for me) God has chosen to manifest Himself in the Catholic faith.  I really think all religions are the same God translating Himself differently based on how each individual can best relate to Him.

But I'm weird. :D

Oh, and abortion IS wrong...for reals, yo!

Wow... I learned the same thing... and believe the same thing... and you know who turned me on to that.... A Catholic Priest. And no, I'm definitely not Catholic. It's a strange trip ain't it?

I figured out religion was just politics when i was 13.  Priest class ruling over the gullible.

I recommend reading the first paragraph of Immanuel Kant's article What is Enlightenment?  It is quite empowering.

Learning to think for yourself requires courage.

No reason to stop being loving or kind though. 

Catholicism gets a bad rap....it's a lot more forgiving and open than people think....

Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the
inability to use one's own understanding without another's guidance. This nonage
is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of understanding but in indecision
and lack of courage to use one's own mind without another's guidance. Dare to
know! (Sapere aude.) "Have the courage to use your own
understanding," is therefore the motto of the enlightenment.

thanks.

Problem with this line of thought is that we have learned everything we know from someone. I.e. how to read, how to feed yourself, how to walk. Without that, you and Mr. Kant would've died as infants. You cannot say you can just have courage and thereby use your own knowledge because your knowledge had to be shaped by someone, it had to come from somewhere. The first human who spoke intelligently in your model could've used his courage to not believe but he was too busy trying to survive to worry about courage.

Atheism is still a belief system. Neither you nor I have hard evidence of the existence or lack of a deity that would stand up to a court test. I believe the odds are in my favor as an infinite number of factors would have to occur for us to even have this conversation. You as an atheist believe it's all a coincidence. But that too is a belief system.

A few of those factors are:

a planet that is live able due to: a large moon to aide in tidal flows, a planet with an atmosphere that can support liquid water and a gas air, Jupiter in our solar system that sucks in comets and meandering asteroids to keep our planet from getting destroyed over and over as we try to rise to this level of life but at the same time, that doesn't pull us away from the sun and make our planet unliveable.

Ancestors with a spark of wisdom that kept them from getting eaten by much tougher alpha predators (lions, wolves, hyenas) when were blessed with neither the ability to outrun, nor the ability to outfight those animals except with the wisdom of having weapons. Some ability to discern edible from non edible plants along the way without wiping out our ancestors, some ability to fight off disease that would've wiped us out, etc etc etc. Being an atheist is believing 100,000,000,000 coincidences have led us to where there could be a human and another 100,000,000,000 have led us to reach this point of still existing to have this discussion. That's a bigger house of cards than to believe in the spaghetti monster god thing.

Faith is a choice. Just as Atheism is a choice.

I choose to have faith that God created all things, when I see him, I'll ask him how he did it.

well, I suppose it's how you define "god."  A Flash of Lightening in the Dark of Night:  A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, The Dalai Lama:

Buddhism teaches that everything arises from causes and conditions and that therefore there is no such thing as an uncaused cause.  If there were such a thing, then everything could be said to arise from nothing!  Alternatively, the primal substance would have to be constantly giving rise to (causing) something.  But as we can see, phenomena sometimes manifest and at other times do not.  This is because the causes and conditions on which they depend sometimes come together and at other times do not.

If the cause were independent and able to create constantly, then of course its results would have to be constant.  Since the results are not constant, we can argue that their cause also is not constant:  it is impermanent.  

If there is such a thing as an independent creator, which in consequence is alone and all-pervading, all its manifestations or results should be permanent. Belief in such a creator is simply not logical.

However... just like Buddhisim... you are taught to see things for what they are, not what you, or someone else thinks. If all you see in Christianity is hate, then you are not looking hard enough. The relationship between you and god is just that, yours. And if you believe in Jesus, then that is what it is. Religion has nothing to do with God, and what a group of people do, has nothing to do with your spirituality. I was raised Baptist and spend a large portion of my life saying all the same things.... but eventually, I stop blaming God for what men do. I'm not saying you should not be Buddhist, but I am saying you should seek to find the real truth... and it isn't how someone else interprets Christian teachings.

I was raised Catholic, but had no real interest in it.  As soon as I left home for college I only went on holidays with my mom or whenever she asked.  The irony is that I am my niece's Godmother.  I explained to my sister that I don't go to church and wasn't going to help lead her spiritual life in that way.  She didn't back down, so I did it.  One the many silly thing about the church:  I guess this is okay because I was confirmed.  My husband, her Godfather, is Presbyterian (non practicing).  We love that kid and go to First Communion, etc, and never say a bad word.  I will definitely support her spiritual path in the sense of letting her explore her own way and whatever she decides, just can't really endorse it.

I couldn't stay with the Catholic church no matter what, too many problems reconciling the basics. 

Separate from that, I just am not into deities.   Although it's hard to break my habit of using phrases like "God willing, I will do this."  Stuff like that.   

I know a big problem that believers have with non-believers is understanding how we can be good people without a god to follow or a worry about hell, basically.  Maybe I am special, but I just can.   Here's the real rub:  I make my choices based on this "Do to others as you would have them do to you."  That is Luke 6:31 apparently, I honestly didn't know it was a bible passage until I looked it up to get the words right.  I do not object to the bible as a book, written by man, and having some good stories.   Just like any book I read, I don't feel obliged to take every single word as gospel.  It's funny how those phrases seep in.

I chose to not make a big deal of it.  I hope my Mom never asks me about religion.  She's said she wishes I went to church, even though it (mass and THE Church) annoys her. I am sure she'd be surprised to learn I don't believe in a god at all.

It finally came up with my husband and he was surprised.  He asked me the "how do you know how to have morals?" and "what point is there in living" questions.     The inability to understand my ability to carry on makes ME incredulous, but as the minority and not very good at explaining myself, I say nothing other than "I just do."

It took me a while to really be able to say I was atheist.  Fortunately I live in a liberal community, and have many friends who think similarly.   I am sure it would be a more difficult road elsewhere (i.e. the South).

Yes of course I was taught things from others.

It is the step from immaturity to maturity that requires thinking for oneself.

That is Kant's idea. It requires the passion of courage to make such an intellectual leap.

Some people are immature and need to be aided in their thinking until they can think for themselves.

BikerGrrrl - 2013-03-02 2:25 PM I suspect the largest number of Christians turned Atheist come from a Catholic background

As a denomination, I think they win just by shear numbers.

Baptist-> atheist-> agnostic. Not so much into the single omnipotent supreme being thing... but other than that, I have no clue.

That blows me away too how that can be so hard to understand. We are social animals. We have been for 10s of thousands of years. You can't just do what you want without repercussions... has nothing to do with the after life... it has to do with the immediate arse beating, imprisonment, or death. I mean seriously, there are consequences for every action. We learned that long ago... and those that get along well with others are who's genes get carried forward... and those that don't, well, they don't.

But to me, I don't have a clue about "God", but I have no problem with spirituality. In the end, it is all about how we get along with each other. When I act out in selfishness and ego... the very things every single religion/philosophy points out as bad... I don't feel so good. When I act in spiritual principles... those very things every single religion has and holds up... and work on getting along with the world I live in... things go better. They have been teaching this stuff since kindergarten.

If we all lived alone on a deserted island... none of this would matter.

Is there any among you who would take door #2?

Yes or no and then you can expound if you want.