This is a guest post from Skeptic Mom, a wife, mother, atheist, naturalist, and humanist who endeavours to think critically. At this time she prefers to remain anonymous. Check out her website here to read her posts and participate in discussions. If you would like to be a guest blogger on Godlessmom.com, please, contact me.
Upon hearing that I left Christianity and have become an atheist, many of my friends and acquaintances show pity for me. They seem to assume that my life is not as happy or full without a god belief. This reaction always amazes me because I view my life as much more than when I was a Christian. Below are five of the ways my life has become better without belief in a god:
1. My life is more my own
At church, we were taught stories about biblical characters, such as Jonah, who were punished for putting their own desires over God’s. Stories such as Jonah and the whale (or great fish or sea monster) were told to remind us that God had a plan for each of us and that we must follow his plan. Our job was to discover God’s plan and to follow the path he had chosen for us. We were told to trust that God knew best.
Now that I am an atheist, I no longer have to try to determine what God wants for me. I feel free to determine what I want out of life. I can set my own goals and make my own decisions. The realization that we create our own purpose in life has been a very freeing experience for me.
2. Intellectual Growth
When I was a Christian, I did not often think deeply about religious issues. One reason for this was because I didn’t view religion as complex. I thought it was a matter of finding the true religion and the right answers. Often, I simply looked to an authority, such as a trusted minister or the Bible to find answers. The other reason I rarely thought deeply about religion was because my beliefs were rarely challenged. Almost everyone I knew was religious, and those who were not did not challenge my beliefs. It was a subject that was rarely discussed on anything more than a superficial level.
Now that I have become an atheist, I think more deeply about religious issues. Because the majority of people I interact with are people who do not share my perspective on these issues, I am forced to confront another point of view. Even when my beliefs are not directly challenged, I often hear people stating an opinion that differs from my own. This forces me to think about my position on issues to determine what I really think and to determine if I have a good reason for holding my position. Even when I am speaking with another atheist about issues that we agree on, I find the conversations tend to be deeper because we often look at the issues from other points of view to determine if our opinions and assumptions are correct. I think that the reason we can more easily look at different perspectives and possibilities is that neither of us believes that there is a right answer given to us by a deity.
3. The World Makes More Sense
When I was a Christian, there would be times I would learn something that did not fit with my Christian worldview. Often, I would have a brief moment of thinking, “if this is correct, Christianity is not.” Instead of revising my worldview, I would find a way to rationalize my beliefs, decide the information must be incorrect or ignore that piece of information. For example, I used to believe that our personality was contained within our soul. When we went to the afterlife, our personality would be intact. When I learned how after Phineas Gage suffered a severe head injury his personality changed so drastically that his friends said he no longer seemed to be the same person, I began to see personality as a function of the brain and not the soul. For a moment, I questioned my religious teachings about the soul, but I quickly dismissed this thought and tucked it away in a corner of my mind.
Once I allowed myself to truly consider that my Christian beliefs might be wrong, thoughts I had dismissed came flooding back to my mind. Once I looked at the information without my lens of Christianity, it made more sense. It is very freeing to know that now as I come across new information, I can accept it without trying to make it fit into a preconceived worldview.
4. Morality that Makes Sense
I used to assume that whatever God said was right was good. And, anything God said was wrong was a sin. However, there were several Bible stories that I learned in Sunday school where it seemed that God was wrong. For example, I thought it was wrong for God to test Abraham to see if he would sacrifice his beloved son. Even though God did not make Abraham go through with the sacrifice, I thought that the experience had to have been horrifying for both Abraham and Isaac. I also thought it was wrong for God to demand that his subjects be so loyal that they would even be willing to sacrifice their own children. I would not have wanted my parents to be willing to sacrifice me to God and I knew I would never be willing to sacrifice children I might have one day. I struggled to understand how God was right in this and other Bible stories. My Sunday school teachers taught us that when we could not understand God’s ways it was simply because human beings were not smart enough to understand. Assuming that must be the case, I tried not to think too deeply about those stories. Later in life, I also began to question if everything I was taught was a sin was really a sin. Some things that I was taught was a sin, such as premarital sex, did not seem really wrong, at least not all of the time. I had a tough time reconciling how certain things could really be sins worthy of eternal hellfire. Yet, somehow, I assumed they must still be sins if god said they were.
Now that I am an atheist, I no longer believe in the concept of sin. I am not concerned with what the Bible says is right or wrong. I decide for myself whether something is right and wrong based on whether the action is harmful or whether it promotes human flourishing. My judgments are now based on my values. And, when I learn of immoral acts that are by the Bible, I condemn them.
5. Focus on Life
When I was a Christian, I spent a great deal of time trying to make it to heaven and avoid being sent to Hell. I spent time trying to avoid activities that would bring the condemnation of God, feeling guilty over being a sinful human being, and begging for forgiveness from God for displeasing him. Instead of trying to make this life the best one it could be, I spent a lot of time worrying about the next life.
Losing my belief in God allowed me to focus on my current life, instead of worrying about what happens after I die. I no longer have to worry about how my actions will affect the destination of my eternal soul. Now, my concern is focused on how my actions will affect my life and the lives of others here on earth. I have also become more concerned about how I can make this world a better place for others. I used to think that God had a plan for everyone and that there would be ultimate justice after this life. So, if a person was in a bad situation in this life, I believed the person either deserved it or it was part of a divine plan. Now that I realize that that much of what happens to people in this life is through chance circumstances, I see that we need to work together to make this life better for everyone.
Now that I am no longer a Christian and do not believe in any gods, I feel my life is better. I can now create my own purpose instead of following for someone else’s plan for my life; I am much more fulfilled intellectually; I am able to take in facts and adjust my worldview to meet those facts, instead of forcing facts to fit into my preconceived Christian worldview; I am able to make moral judgments based on my own values, not values expressed in an ancient book; and I am able to focus on making the one life that I know I have better instead of using this life as a way to try to get into the afterlife that I want. Life as an atheist feels more authentic and happy to me.
This was a guest post from Skeptic Mom, a wife, mother, atheist, naturalist, and humanist who endeavors to think critically. At this time she prefers to remain anonymous. Check out her website here to read her posts and participate in discussions. If you would like to be a guest blogger on Godlessmom.com, please, contact me.
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